History 347

Virtual Chalkboard
History 347
1939
1940
1945
1942
1936
1933
Hans Frank,
Governor, General Government of Poland


RSHA

Einsatzgruppen Commanders

T-4 Personnel

Dr. Victor Brack

Otto Rasch

Arthur Nebe

Walter Stahlecker

Otto Ohlendorf

Dr. Philip Bouhler

Hermann
Göring

Reinhard Heydrich

Dr. Karl Brandt

Heinrich Himmler

Adolf Hitler

The decision-makers?

Adolf Eichmann

Local Initiative?
Documents on Creating a Racial State
Roma & Sinti
Facts 1
3
8
9
12
17
18
19
"Life Unworthy of Living"
1
2
5
7
10
11
13
14
15
16
Homosexuals
4
6
8
Wilhelm Frick,
Min of Interior
Claim

Evidence that supports:
primary
secondary

Evidence that refutes:
primary
secondary

Resistance
Raul Hilberg, "Two Thousand Years of Jewish Appeasement"
Yehuda Bauer, "Forms of Jewish Resistance"
"no rescue action was taken because no one, anywhere, had anything genuinely practical or effective to suggest, apart from winning the war even more quickly." (Rubinstein, 247)
0 - Completely disagree
Completely agree - 100
What are the facts that can be teased out of the speculation that rescue was possible or that the US did all it could?
ransom?
shipping/transportation to safe havens?
bombing Auschwitz?
authors' working assumptions?
indifferent
unhappiness
Joel Brand
Rudy Kasztner
Gisi/Gizi Fleishman
Saly Mayer
Adolf Eichmann
or aided
Wyman accuses State Department of obstructing; ignoring evidence of systematic murders because of how long it took to establish WRB; Media not informing people; antisemitism in the US; FDR did not want to be associated with the "jew deal"; other refugee rescues did occur and transportation arranged; main goal of FDR admin is to win the war, not save/rescue/help Jews. Safe havens for other groups, but not the Jews.
Switzerland and Vatican could have taken in more Jews
Food and Medical Aid
Red Cross should have done more.
Railroads could have been bombed
Wyman fails to place events into context; e.g. the bombing of Auschwitz. Logistical challenges of precision or carpet bombing; kill more Jews than who would be saved. There was no precision bombing. Limited fulfillment of quotas assumes that Jews could get out of danger, let alone get to the US.
If the threat of punishments for crimes were made by the US then lower orders would have been reluctant.
Switzerland and Vatican is surrounded by Nazi Europe
How to get food and medical aid supplies was a challenge; Red Cross not allowed in to the concentration camps

Bauer points out that ransom could have been used to rescue Jews;
Ransoms did stop Slovakian Jews' deportation

Bauer: alot of Jewish groups opposed to ransom, that is "buying" Jews
Nazis setting and manipulating the terms of the ransom e.g. 2 million for Hungarian Jews is evidence that they would ask for more money
Not a priority to ransom Jews because of Military necessity
What are their definitions?
How plausible are their interpretations?
How well does each historian contextualize?
How well does each historian apply his definition of resistance?
How is defiance different from resistance?