LP 11 Rescue and Liberation

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1 LP 11 Rescue and Liberation Tolerance and Inhumanity Jeff McDonald "I may have to disobey my government, but if I don't I would be disobeying God." Chiune Sugihara on his decision to go against the orders of the Japanese government and assist in the rescue of 6,000 Lithuanian Jews. Rescue Despite the apathy (and in some cases collaboration with the Nazis) of most people in Europe and America about the murder of the Jews, there were many people in every European country and from all religious backgrounds who risked their lives to help Jews. These rescue efforts ranged from the isolated actions of individuals to organized actions of whole towns, and even entire nations. 1

2 Rescue Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust was difficult for several reasons: The Allies believed that "winning the war" was the top priority and the best way to rescue the Jews. Individuals who were willing to help Jews in danger faced severe consequences if they were caught. Anti-Semitism and hostility towards Jews among non- Jewish populations, especially in eastern Europe, was another obstacle to rescue. When did the World Know About the Holocaust? Information regarding mass murders of Jews began to reach the free world soon after these actions began in the Soviet Union in late June. During 1942, reports of a Nazi plan to murder all the Jews including details on methods, numbers, and locations reached Allied and neutral leaders from many sources, including the eyewitness account of Polish underground courier Jan Karski in November. When did the World Know About the Holocaust? On December 17, 1942, the Allies issued a proclamation condemning the "extermination" of the Jewish people in Europe and declared that the perpetrators would be held responsible. However, influenced by anti-semitism and fear of a massive influx of refugees, neither the United States or Great Britain modified their refugee policies. 2

3 The Bermuda Conference On March 23, 1943 the archbishop of Canterbury stood up in front of the House of Lords in London and pleaded with the British government to help the Jews of Europe. The British government responded by proposing to the U.S. State Department that the Allied countries hold a conference in Bermuda to discuss what to do with the growing need of Jewish refugees for safe havens. The Bermuda Conference But the Bermuda Conference (April 19-29, 1943) was organized in a way that prevented it from producing results. Both the British and American governments carefully restricted what their delegates could promise before the meeting even opened. The United States had one fear: a plan might be developed to rescue Jews that would be too successful, and that large numbers of Jews might actually immigrate to the US. The Bermuda Conference The Jews of America met the news from Bermuda with outrage. Inspired by the failure of the Bermuda Conference, on January 13, 1944, Henry Morgenthau (Secretary of the Treasury) presented Roosevelt with an 18-page indictment of the government s failure to help the Jews of Europe, entitled Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of This Government in the Murder of Jews. Morgenthau urged Roosevelt to create a rescue agency. 3

The War Refugee Board Aware of growing political pressure for action on the refugee issue, Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board on January 22, 1944.

4 The War Refugee Board Aware of growing political pressure for action on the refugee issue, Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board on January 22, The War Refugee Board has been credited with direct and indirect participation in the rescue of approximately 200,000 European Jews. lang=en&moduleid= Question to Consider How do you feel about the actions of the United States during the Holocaust? Did they do enough? Not enough? Why? Why didn t the US bomb Auschwitz? The first detailed information about Auschwitz reached the Allies in June 1944, in a report from two escaped prisoners. The information included a request to bomb the camp and the rail lines leading to it from Hungary, as masses of Hungarian Jews were then being deported to the camp. The Allies had command of the skies by that time, and air bases in Italy brought the Allied forces in the West within range of parts of Poland. 4

Why didn t the US bomb Auschwitz? From the spring to the autumn of 1944, Allied aircraft flew over the camp several times on a mission to photograph German industrial plants a few kilometers away.

5 Why didn t the US bomb Auschwitz? From the spring to the autumn of 1944, Allied aircraft flew over the camp several times on a mission to photograph German industrial plants a few kilometers away. In the late summer these plants were bombed, but the extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau was never bombed. In one instance, the bombs accidently hit Birkenau and killed several Jewish prisoners and SS guards. Reasons? Lack of certainty regarding the final solution. The attack would have diverted needed resources away from mission of winning the war. It was not technically feasible. It would not have saved any lives. Anti-Semitism and Middle East oil. 5

6 "We should have bombed it," George Bush said at a visit to Yad Vashem in Israel (January 11, 2008). Tom Segev, a leading Israeli scholar of the Holocaust, said the Bush comment, which appeared spontaneous, marked the first time an American president had made this acknowledgment. Question to consider Why didn t the US and the Allies bomb the death camp at Auschwitz? Rescuers Denmark The Village of Le Chambon Varian Fry Jan Karski Raoul Wallenberg 6

Danish Rescue Germany occupied Denmark in 1940.

jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/holocaust/denmark.html Danish Rescue The rescue operation included participation by the Danish resistance, the police, and the government.

7 Danish Rescue Germany occupied Denmark in When the Germans decided to deport Jews from Denmark in August 1943, Danes organized a rescue operation and helped Jews reach the coast as fishermen ferried them to neutral Sweden. Danish Rescue The rescue operation included participation by the Danish resistance, the police, and the government. In little more than three weeks, the Danes ferried more than 7,000 Jews to Sweden, which accepted the Danish refugees. In the end, fewer than 60 of Denmark s Jews perished in the Holocaust. Rescue in France When Germany defeated France in June 1940, there were approximately 350,000 Jews in the country. More than half of them were refugees from Germany who had arrived during the 1930s. France signed an armistice with Germany in June 1940, and under the terms of the armistice, northern France came under direct German occupation 7

The Vichy Government The southern part of France remained unoccupied, and fell under the control of Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, a French official and collaborator with the Nazis, who operated his

8 The Vichy Government The southern part of France remained unoccupied, and fell under the control of Marshal Henri Philippe Petain, a French official and collaborator with the Nazis, who operated his regime from the town of Vichy. The Vichy government sent thousands of Jews to internment camps and deported 77,000 of their Jews to the death camps, 8,000 of which were children under the age of Village of Le Chambon Le Chambon-sur-Lignon is a Protestant (Huguenots) village in southern France. These people had a history of persecution as a religious minority in Catholic France, as well as empathy for Jews as the people of the Old Testament. Under the leadership and example of their pastor and his wife, Andre and Magda Trocmé, the people of Le Chambon helped rescue between 3,000 and 5,000 Jews. Pastor Andre Trocmé Raoul Wallenberg Having studied in the United States in the 1930s and having had a business Sweden, he was recruited by the War Refugee Board (WRB) in June 1944 to travel to Hungary. Given status as a diplomat by the Swedish legation, Wallenberg's task was to do what he could to help save the Jews of Hungary. 8

After being arrested by Russian authorities, he reportedly died in a Soviet prison on July 17, 1947.

9 Raoul Wallenberg Despite a complete lack of experience in diplomacy, he led one of the most successful rescue efforts during the Holocaust. When Soviet forces liberated Budapest in February 1945, more than 100,000 Jews remained, mostly because of the efforts of Wallenberg. After being arrested by Russian authorities, he reportedly died in a Soviet prison on July 17, Oskar Schindler A Czech (Sudetenland) industrialist, he established an enamel works outside the Krakow ghetto and protected Jewish workers employed in the enamel works from deportation. Oskar Schindler In October 1944 Schindler was granted permission to relocate his defunct enamelworks factory to Czechoslovakia, this time as an armaments factory, and to take his Jewish workers with him. He succeeded in transferring to Bruennlitz approximately 800 Jewish men and 300 Jewish women, ultimately saving their lives. 9

Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara In March 1939, Japanese Consul- General Chiune Sugihara and his wife Yukiko were sent to Kaunas, Lithuania to open a consulate.

10 Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara In March 1939, Japanese Consul- General Chiune Sugihara and his wife Yukiko were sent to Kaunas, Lithuania to open a consulate. Shortly after their arrival, Nazi armies invaded Poland and a wave of Jewish refugees streamed into Lithuania, bringing with them tales of German atrocities against the Jews Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara To get to freedom in the Dutch islands located in the Caribbean, these Polish Jews would have to get Japanese transit visas. Chiune Sugihara wired his government three times for permission to issue visas to the Jewish refugees. Three times he was denied permission. He knew that if he defied the orders of his superiors, he might be fired and disgraced, and would probably never work for the Japanese government again. Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara For 29 days, from July 31 to August 28, 1940, Mr. and Mrs. Sugihara sat for endless hours writing and signing visas by hand. Hour after hour, day after day, for these three weeks, they wrote and signed visas. Because of his disobedience, the Japanese government dismissed Chiune Sugihara from the diplomatic service in By the time Sugihara left Lithuania he had issued visas to 2,140 people, but there may be more than 40,000 people who owe their lives to the Sugiharas. 10

Question to Consider How does this quote relate to the actions of these people: All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

11 Question to Consider How does this quote relate to the actions of these people: All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke, 1791 Ordinariness of Goodness Text, page 316 Rochat and Modigliani in their article The Ordinary Quality of Resistance: From Milgram s Laboratory to the Village of Le Chambon (1995) talk about the ordinariness of goodness whereby people act out of basic decency toward others in need. In many ways, this is the parallel argument to the banality of evil and what Milgram s obedience studies found, as evidenced by this quote from one of the people in Le Chambon: We didn't protect the Jews because we were moral or heroic people. We helped them because it was the human thing to do.. Power of the Situation Text, page 302 Helping a person in distress is strongly influenced by the situation that the potential helper finds him or herself in. Zimbardo Prison Studies Sadistic Guards Heroic Resistors Relation to dispositional and situational factors for rescue 11

Death Marches Fearing the liberation of the Jews by the advancing Soviet army, in the summer of 1944 Himmler orders the evacuation of the camp prisoners towards the interior of Germany.

12 Death Marches Fearing the liberation of the Jews by the advancing Soviet army, in the summer of 1944 Himmler orders the evacuation of the camp prisoners towards the interior of Germany. Initially carried out by train, as winter approached, the evacuation was carried out on foot Death Marches The SS guards had strict orders to kill prisoners who could no longer walk or travel. Following their orders, the SS shot hundreds of prisoners who collapsed or could not keep pace on the march. Thousands of prisoners died of exposure, starvation, and exhaustion. Death of Hitler In April of 1945, Hitler moved into the Führerbunker, located 50 feet below the Chancellery buildings in Berlin. Just before midnight on April 28 th, he married Eva Braun in a brief civil ceremony. At 3:30 p.m. on April 30th, Hitler died from a gunshot to his right temple. Eva Braun had died from swallowing poison. 12

Death of Hitler As Soviet shells exploded nearby, the bodies were carried up to the Chancellery garden, doused with gasoline and burned.

htm Liberation of the Camps "The things I saw beggar description I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand

Eisenhower Liberation of the Camps The Allied liberators entered the camps, they were not prepared for what they found.

13 Death of Hitler As Soviet shells exploded nearby, the bodies were carried up to the Chancellery garden, doused with gasoline and burned. Germany surrenders on May 8, Liberation of the Camps "The things I saw beggar description I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda'". Dwight D. Eisenhower Liberation of the Camps The Allied liberators entered the camps, they were not prepared for what they found. What they saw were huge piles of corpses, mass graves, warehouses piled high with clothing, personal belongings and cut human hair. The emaciated and starving camp inmates looked like walking skeletons. 13

Liberation of the Camps The horror of camp life, compounded by the torture of the death marches, left survivors in such a terrible state that thousands died in the weeks just before liberation and

14 Liberation of the Camps The horror of camp life, compounded by the torture of the death marches, left survivors in such a terrible state that thousands died in the weeks just before liberation and immediately following it. Liberation of the Camps At Bergen-Belsen alone, Jews died after the camp was liberated, despite the attention of the British medical team there. In many camps, Allied troops gave food to starving survivors, unaware that troop rations were too rich for their weakened digestive systems. Thousands of people died as a result of eating foods like chocolate, meat and sugar, too soon. Liberation films Nightmare's End: The Liberation of the Camps Documentary on the Allied liberation of Nazi concentration camps after World War II, presenting testimony from Allied servicemen who discovered the camps. Raw footage of Liberation films Band of Brothers 14

The Immigration Debate: Historical and Current Issues of Immigration 2003, Constitutional Rights Foundation

The Immigration Debate: Historical and Current Issues of Immigration 2003, Constitutional Rights Foundation Lesson 5: U.S. Immigration Policy and Hitler s Holocaust OBJECTIVES Students will be able to: Describe the policy of the Roosevelt administration toward Jewish refugees and the reasons behind this policy.