Holocaust Literature and Film

1
Holocaust Literature and Film

• Day 2-4 The History of Anti-Semitism and
  Hitlers Rise to Power.

2
Why the Jews?

• The history of anti-Semitism explains why
• Traditionally the scapegoats
• Hitler conveniently blamed them for everything
• Why did people believe him?
• Tradition of blaming the Jews

3
Who are the Jews?

• Confusing concept
• J.P. Sartre, French philosopher, said
• Anyone is a Jew who thinks he is one, or who is
  regarded by others as one.
• Important comment because it shows the arbitrary
  criteria on which hatred can be founded.

4
Jews, the Semitic tribe

• Historically, they occupied the territory near
  the Dead Sea and the river Jordan.
• Area became a Roman protectorate shortly after
  the time of Christ
• 70 AD rebellion against Rome
• The temple of Jerusalem destroyed, the Diaspora
  begins,
• The dispersal of the Jews throughout the Roman
  empire.

5
The Term Anti-Semitism

• First used as a term in Germany in the 1870s by
  Wilhelm Marr
• Not accurate.
• Anti-Judaism would be more accurate

6
When does Anti-Semitism/Judaism begin?

• Begins in Rome, during the Roman Empire.
• Ca. A.D. 70
• Why?
• Romans disliked the Jews because they did not
  swear allegiance to the Roman gods.

7
Christians and Jews

• Anti-Judaism came from the Christian church too.
• Saw Judaism as a rival form of the same religion.
• Self-definition became a reason to separate Jews
  and Christians.

8
11th Century

• First real massacre of Jews in Europe
• Marks beginning of blind unreasoning prejudice
  against the Jews.
• First crusade, 1096
• Targeting non-believers

9
Anti-Judaisms Fantasy accusations

• Stole Christian children
• Poisoned wells
• Caused the plague
• Desecrated the communion wafer
• Engaged in a world wide conspiracy to destroy
  Christianity
• There is not one documented case that the Jews
  did any of this. Confessions achieved through
  torture.

10
Medieval Anti-Judaism/Semitism

• Religious, not racial in nature.
• Conversion assured acceptance in the community.
• Jews resisted.
• Same accusations resurfaced
• Pogroms begin, especially in eastern Europe and
  Russia

11
Restrictions on Jews in Middle Ages

• Not allowed to own land, they could not farm
• Most professions off limits
• Not allowed to join guilds, barred from
  manufacturing activities
• Not allowed to practice law or medicine
• Could not hold office
• Since Christians were prohibited from usury
  (lending money) Jews took over banking functions.
• Jews prohibited from living in certain parts of
  town Ghettos in all major cities.

12
German Anti-Semitism/Judaism

• 1297 first big massacre in Germany 34 Jews
  burned in Fulda
• Religiously founded Anti-Judaism in Middle Ages
• Martin Luther (ca. 1550) issued many anti-Semitic
  pamphlets.
• His writings later exploited by the Nazis
• But his dislike for Jews is much different, based
  on religion, not race.

13
Between 16th and 18th Centuries

• Changes in attitudes
• Economic expansion for all, including the Jews
• Jews gained full citizenship rights in western
  Europe
• France, Austria and Prussia were among the first
  to grant Jews civil freedoms and rights of
  citizenship

14
Jews in Germany in the 1800s

• Very well assimilated into German society
• 1871 national laws made Jews equal
• Jews emerged from Ghettos
• Jews regarded Germany as a country where merit
  counted above all
• They converted, dropped Jewish names
• Jews thought of themselves as Germans of Jewish
  decent

15
Anti-Semitism still present

• As Jews became successful, old anti-Semitic
  hatreds resurfaced
• They were associated with capitalism
• With the massive changes in society from the 18th
  century on, capitalism became vilified.
• Anti-Semitism was everywhere

16
Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism

• 1882-1886 The beginning of racial anti-Semitism.
• Emerged out of an emphasis on Nationalism
• Germany unified under Bismark in 1871
• An identity declared through exclusivity and the
  creation of a common enemy

17
Before WWI

• Germany still very prosperous
• Things are not bad, but when things go bad, the
  Jews are blamed
• But society is changing, change is frightening
• Industrialization, displacement, impoverishment
  of workers, insecurity
• People wanted an answer, a simple answer.
• Racial anti-Semitism grew in these conditions.

18
Racial Anti-Semitism

• Late 19th century, ancient prejudices are recast
  in racial form
• Use of modern science for racial theories
• But really a pseudo-science, not legitimate
• Helped to legitimize anti-Semitism
• Proliferated throughout Germany and all of
  Europe, even in the USA.

19
Extermination

• The notion came into its own before WWI
• Part of public discourse, though a minority view.
• Not taken seriously by most people
• Calls for the genocide or for the removal of the
  Jews to a distant land (Madagascar!)
• Just about all that the Nazis thought about the
  Jews was already a part of public discourse
  before they came to power.

20
Austria

• Where Hitler was from
• Hotbed of anti-Semitism
• Very large numbers of Jews lived in Austria and
  Vienna
• Jews assumed leading positions in cultural fields

21
Political Anti-Semitism

• In Austria especially strong
• Anti-Semitism becomes part of political platform
  of different parties
• The mayor of Vienna, Lueger, used anti-Semitism
  as part of his campaign
• Helped to legitimize racial prejudice
• Anti-Semitism as a political tool
• Also in France, the Dreyfus Affair
• In Germany, Anti-Semitism did not become part of
  political programs of parties until the Nazis

22
How did Hitler Come to Power?

• Looking at Nazi propaganda to see how he did it.
• Early propaganda and Nazi party advertisements
  show how he appealed to the German public.
• Look for anti-Semitism as a political tool

23
Historical Background

• WWI (1914-1918) Very crippling defeat for
  Germany
• The Weimar Republic was established after the
  monarchy came to an end after WWI
• What was the Weimar Republic?

24
Nazi Propaganda

• What is propaganda?
• --some sort of communication to large groups of
  people for the purpose of manipulating their
  thoughts.
• --we are concentrating on visual propaganda
• --propaganda posters and films

25
Joseph Goebbels giving a speech

• Minister of Propaganda
• Ensured a one-sided exposure of the public to
  Nazi ideology
• What did Hitler want art (movies, posters,
  paintings, etc.) to do?

26
Pre-1933 Posters

• What colors do you see?
• What symbols?
• What kind of people?
• Why are there soldiers in this poster?
• What do you think the message is?

27
The workers have awakened!

• Note the colors used.
• What kind of people are shown?
• What do they represent?
• What kind of symbolism is there?
• Message(s)?

28
Only Hitler

• Note colors
• What else do you notice?
• What do you think the message is?

29
Work and Bread

• What is this poster saying?
• Why does it say that the Nazis will bring work
  and bread?
• What was the situation in Germany like at this
  time?

30
Bad Economic Times

• Germans had to pay money (reparations) to the
  winners of WWI
• 1929 the stock market crashed in the U.S.
• The economy bad in Germany
• With bad economic times came good times for the
  Nazis. Why?
• In 1930 the Nazis gain ground in elections

31
Our last hope Hitler

• What do you think of this one?
• Why would it claim that Hitler is our last
  hope?
• This is the kind of message he used to gain power.

32
We have had enough! Elect Hitler

• What do you think the man represents?
• Why would the idea of breaking free of
  enslavement speak to the German people at that
  time?
• Versailles Treaty signed in 1919

33
We have had enough of the corruption. Elect the
Nazis.

• Symbolism?
• Closer to the truth than the public knew.
• The Nazis committed violence against other
  parties.

34
Hitlers head

• Very famous poster.
• What is the message of this poster?
• What do you think the effect was of just showing
  his name as the caption?

35
Triumph of the Will

• Director and Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl
• 1935
• Famous Nazi filmmaker

36
Questions

• Do you see much about Jews in these early posters
  and in the film clip?
• Why do you think this is the case?

37
Anti-Semitism in Der Stuermer

• The caption here reads With the Stuermer
  against Judea
• The Stuermer was a Newspaper. It was a Nazi
  party publication for party members primarily.
• Small circulation

38
Anti-Semitic propaganda in Der Stuermer.

• The title of this is Retaliation
• What is the message here?
• Retaliation for what?
• What do the two figures represent?

39
The year is over. The struggle continues.

• This has a similar message as the last caricature.

40
Sucked dry

• What does this caricature suggest?

41
The worm

• Where something is rotten, the Jew is the
  cause.
• What do you think of this one?
• The worm is named Jewish scandals
• The apple is named the German economy

42
Hitler came to power in 1933

• He quickly consolidated power.
• He had no powerful connections.
• He never even graduated from high school.
• People in powerful positions misjudged him.
• Internationally he was also misjudged.

43
Nazi Propaganda Posters after Hitler comes into
Power
44
One people, one empire, one leader

• This copies an old poster for another German
  politician of the pastOtto von Bismarck.
• The underlined ein Fuehrer replaces ein Gott
  in the old slogan.

45
Germany is free!

• Message?

46
The youth serves the Fuehrer

• The poster encourages all ten year olds to join
  the Hitler youth.
• Why is that important to the Nazis?

47
Art during the 3rd Reich

• The Flagbearer by Hubert Lanzinger, Nazi artist
• What do you think the message of this artwork is?
• Hitler as Teutonic Knight in full medieval armor
  to the rescue.
• Note association with arch-romantic, the medieval.

48
Germany on the Cross

• Example of religious Christian symbolism used for
  Nazi propaganda
• Anti-Semitic
• Germany being crucified like Christ

49
What kind of art did the Nazis like?

• Neo-classical association of the Nazis with the
  Romans
• Celebrated macho heroism
• Lots of nudity idea that beauty was moral in its
  essence
• Shows the perfect human form
• Seems to have little substance, shallow,
  unproblematic, especially for the 20th century

50
How successful was this kind of art?

• A fair degree of popularity achieved
• Some cultural productions had powerful mass
  appeal
• Example The staging of the Olympiad in 1936.
  The world was impressed.
• Made into a film Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl
• Also celebrates the human body

51
Aesthetic issues and health issues become one

• All this emphasis on the body
• Inspired by a return to earlier Roman and Greek
  ideals
• But was mixed with racial pseudo-science
• So that beauty was equated with racial purity and
  with the health of the German Volk
• This meant for the German people to be healthy
  and beautiful, they had to be pure (i.e. no
  racial mixing)

52
What kind of art did the Nazis not like?

• Degenerate Art
• Art exhibit poster
• The art of European modernism
• Dadaism and cubism were associated with
  Bolshevism
• Artists like Franz Marc, George Grosz, Pablo
  Picasso, Max Beckmann, etc.

53
Degenerate Artist

• George Grosz

54
Degenerate Artist

• Ernst Kirchner

55
Degenerate Artist

• Franz Marc

56
What does art have to do with the Holocaust?

• As aesthetic issues and health issues became one,
  it set the stage for murder
• Not German, not pure, and hence not beautiful,
  was associated with degenerate, sick and evil
• Murder became a form of therapy for the body of
  the Volk

57
First kind of therapy was euthanasia.

• In the 1930s they began to murder the mentally
  handicapped and the physically handicapped
• T4 program of euthanasia, euphemism for murder of
  social outcasts
• Hidden from the public, deception made easier by
  the confusion caused by the WWII (begins 1939)

58
Another therapy the Holocaust

• When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 WWII began
• Now the Nazis had 3 million Jews in Poland to
  deal with
• They applied what they had learned from their
  euthanasia program to the problem there
• Einsatzgruppen were inefficient
• Gassing experience applied on a grand scale
• Making the Volk healthy and beautiful
  translates into mass murder.

59
Nazi ideal of beauty

• Very important because it prepared the way for
  the Holocaust
• The death camps became the instruments to
  beautify the world
• The trappings of state, moral, and medical
  authority made things appear legitimate

60
The Cultural war against the Jews

• After the Nazis came to power and during the
  Holocaust

61
Anti-Semitic propaganda goes mainstream

• Begins to appear in all sorts of cultural arenas
• Its purpose was to project powerful images of
  internal and external foes
• This helped to maintain the illusion of national
  unity
• Helped to keep the people committed to the war
  effort

62
Devils plan

• What do you notice about this poster?
• What does it represent?

63
The idea of the conspiracy of the Jews

• Symbolically represents many arguments against
  the Jews
• What symbols do you see?

64
The Jew War instigator and war lengthener

• Particularly nasty poster
• Blames Jews for WWII

65
Propaganda for Children

• This is a childrens book
• Called the poison mushroom
• What does this picture imply?

66
Giftpilz illustration

• What is this illustration teaching children?

67
Giftpilz illustration for children

• What stereotype is this reinforcing?

68
Giftpilz illustration for children

• Shows a Jewish couple coming out of church

69
The eternal Jew

• Movie poster
• For the worst of the anti-Semitic films

70
A scene in the film

• It equates Jews to rats
• Shows rats
• Too much for the German audience
• People left the theatre
• But the less blatant propaganda was successful

71
Conclusion

• Why did the Germans accept the Nazis?
• It was a time of crisis.
• The party propaganda gave them easy answers to
  the turmoil they saw around them
• Eventually this propaganda made it easier for the
  Nazis to implement the Holocaust
• We had the moral right to annihilate the people
  who wanted to annihilate us.

72
Lessons for us

• Look at cultural output with a critical eye
• We are influenced by what we see in the media
• Is the perspective given always fair?
• It is easy to trust, but not always wise.

73
Major Historical Events Leading up to the
Holocaust
74
Hitler becomes Chancellor

• January 30, 1933
• The Nazis begin to assume total control of the
  German state.
• In the coming weeks the federalist structure of
  the Weimar Republic and its democratic government
  is abolished.
• President Hindenburg dies in August 1934, Hitler
  declares himself Führer.

75
First Concentration Camp

• Dachau concentration camp set up on 20th of March
  1933
• First inmates include communists, socialists,
  homosexuals and Jews.

76
March 23, 1933. The enabling act

• Reichstag (parliament) had been burned down.
• The Nazis claimed extreme measures were needed.
  An excuse to seize power.
• Most historians believe that the Reichstag fire
  was orchestrated by Hitler. Hitler was given the
  power to rule in an unlimited, unchecked fashion
  for 4 years.
• Hitler could rule by decree. His word was law/
  his actions all legal.
• The single most important piece of legislation in
  the Nazi era.

77
The Civil Service Law

• April 1933 Any government employee could be
  dismissed for any reason at all. Hitler got rid
  of people in the Government who objected.
• Suddenly the bureaucracy was compliant
• Until this point Nazi anti-Semitism was more
  rhetoric than action.
• Now Hitler could fire the Jews who worked for the
  government
• Other laws banning Jews from schools, other
  professions and from owning land soon follow

78
Night of the Long Knives

• The murder of Ernst Roehm and other SA leaders on
  June 30, 1934.
• SA stands for Sturmabteilung or storm troopers,
  also known as Brownshirts. Shock troops of the
  Nazi Party founded in 1921.
• After Night of long knives SA replaced by SS

79
The SS or Schutzstaffeln

• Schutzstaffeln means protection squad
• Also known as Black shirts.
• A paramilitary body created in 1925 to protect
  the Nazi Party and Hitler.
• After Nazis seized absolute power, became the
  most powerful organization within the state.
• Controlled the concentration and death camp
  system.

80
Nuremberg (Nuernberg) Laws of 1935

• Nuremberg is where the Nazis had their party
  rallies.
• These laws withdrew citizenship from Jews. Now
  they were only subjects.
• Forbade marriage and sexual relations between
  Jews and Germans.
• Jews could not employ German women under 45 in
  their household.
• Identified who was Jewish by Jewish blood.
• Organized persecution of Jews began in earnest.

81
November 9, 1938 Kristallnacht

• Night of shattered glass
• A Jew had killed a German official in Paris in
  response to the expulsion of his parents.
• Used as an excuse.
• Goebbels orchestrated a pogrom. Synagogues were
  burned etc...

82
Kristallnacht

• 25,000 Jews taken to concentration camps.
• Broken windows on the street looked like crystal
  in the moonlight
• Night-long campaign of violence leaves 91 dead
• Jews were blamed for Kristallnacht and made to
  pay a fine.

83
August 1939 Lebensraum

• Literally living space
• Idea that the German people needed more room to
  colonize in the east
• Hitler gives speech to generals and urges
  liquidation of the Poles in forthcoming war in
  order to gain Lebensraum for Germany

84
Sept 1, 1939 Nazis invade Poland

• Soviet Union gives approval in August 1939 in a
  non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin
  which includes secret conditions for the division
  of eastern Europe
• Beginning of WWII
• Einsatzgruppen (special mobile units to get rid
  of Nazi enemies in territories occupied by Nazis)
  begin execution of Poles and Jews in Poland

85
The Fate of more Jews in the Hands of the Nazis

• Poland had 3 million Jews
• Germany only 500,000
• Suddenly the Nazis had more Jews to deal with.
• At one point they thought of a plan to send the
  Jews to Madagascar
• British sea power curtailed this plan
• First Jews were resettled in ghettos
• When the USSR attacked in 1941, the Jews were
  seen as a particular problem
• The Nazis began to think of a "solution

86
The Unforeseen Danger for the Jews

• Especially the Jews outside of Germany did not
  see the danger
• They thought the Nazis were a passing phase to
  deal with and to survive
• They could not anticipate what was coming.
• After the war began, it was difficult for anyone
  to emigrate.
• Jews ordered to wear the Star of David in
  November 1939, now they were easily identified

87
The Holocaust spread all over Europe

• As the Nazis occupy different countries, the
  persecution and deportation of Jews and other
  undesireable groups spreads

88
Fall 1941-Winter 1942 Decision for the Final
Solution

• There was no written order for this.
• Hitler spoke out his orders.
• Decision made to exterminate the Jews under Nazi
  control in first in mobile vans then in death
  camps.
• December 11. Following bombing of Pearl Harbor,
  Germany declares war on the U.S.
• January 1942 The Wannsee Conference.
  Coordination of the Final Solution.