unit 10: perpetrators and victims in the post-war world

Unit 10: Perpetrators and Victims in the Post-War World

Children in the Holocaust

1.7 million European Jews under 16 in 1939Only 11% survived the Holocaust1 ½ million children died

Thereseinstadt ghetto: 15,000 Jewish children passed through

Only 100 survivedChild smugglers of Warsaw ghetto

Could squeeze through cracks in the walls

Child couriers of Minsk who led a total of 10,000 out to partisans in the forestsSome children fought in the war


Some children in Auschwitz lied about their age and survived, such as Elie Wiesel

Many went to the gas if they were not tall enough to touch the bar set out by the SS

Many children were unborn, aborted by Jewish doctors in the camps because birth would have condemned both child and mother

Twins in Auschwitz collected by Josef Mengele for experiments on increasing the Aryan birthrate


Polish children (the little boy on the far right was Jewish) deemed “Germanizable”, who were released from Auschwitz to be sent to the Reich


Children, some of them twins, at the liberation of Auschwitz I


Hidden children – Anne Frank the most famous

Decision to go into hidingOften meant separation of familySome children were saved in this way

Hiding in private homesIf discovered in the East, all involved would die

Punishments were less severe in West


Cases in which children were exploited

Hiding in institutionsMonasteries, nunneries, orphanages, etc.

Often placed there by rescue networks

Jewish children who had been hidden in convents


Rescue networks

Zegota in Poland saved between 4,000 and 6,000 JewsOrganization led by Catholic laity

Organization to Help Children, FranceSimilar organizations in other countries


Hiding in plain sightAryan featuresCute, endearing to adultsCould be out, go to school, etc.

Some had to remain invisible

Sisters Eva and Liane Münzer in hiding


Hiding on the runObtain false papersWent from house to houseTransferred by network workers

This photograph shows two hidden Jewish children, Beatrix Westheimer and her cousin Henri Hurwitz, with Catholic priest Adelin Vaes, on the occasion of Beatrix's First Communion. Ottignies, Belgium, May 1943


Hide in forestsSometimes family camps maintained by the undergroundEven some kids hidden in slave-labor camps

May 1944:

Members of the Bielski Family Camp in the Naliboki Forest


Reasons for survival

Luck

Adaptability

Looks (Aryan)

Resourcefulness

Assistance from righteous Christians


Problems and difficulties of hidden children –

Constant fear of discoveryBoy hiding in seminary refused to take showers with other boys for fear they’d see he was circumcisedOnly the Father Superior knew he was Jewish

To be constantly vigilant, alert

Could never relax or be comfortable


Difficulties of confinementCould never go out or even go to a windowSome children were isolated or aloneThey had to develop mental and psychological toughness in order to survive

Forced maturityHad to “grow up” much too soon

Lost innocence


DissimilationForced to pretend; be what you weren’t

Identity confusion

Coping with a variety of situations

Incomprehension of what was happening

Survival skills

Keep hope alive


Nuremberg Trials –


Oct. ’44: US and Great Britain established UN War Crimes Tribunal in London

Nov., ‘44: with USSR, Big Three issued Moscow DeclarationLondon Agreement (Aug. ’45): established International Military Tribunal to try Nazi war criminals

3 major principles to accomplish:1. Express moral outrage of the world2. Resort to rule of law and punish3. Set a precedent of deterrence for

future criminals


Revenge killings after war –

15,000 Fascists in Italy

That many or more collaborators in France

Churchill urged that war criminals be lined up and shot against a wall...

US major proponent of IMT


Accused of 4 crimes:

Crimes against the peacePlanning of or carrying out plots of aggression in violation of international treaties

War crimes (can only be committed during war...)

Violations of customs of warMurder or ill-treatment of civilians, POW’sUse of slave laborRandom, wreckless destruction of cities


Crimes against humanity (before, during, or after the war)

Murder, enslavement, deportationPersecution on racial or religious lines

ConspiracyAny cooperator in carrying out the above plans (as long as they were carried out)

21 major Nazis on trialMartin Ohrmann, Hitler’s “shadow”, was accused but never tried


Justice Robert Jackson

US Supreme Court Justice who took leave to become Chief Prosecutor


Criticisms of the trials –

Trial by the victorsVoiced by conservative Ohio Senator Robert Taft

Trial couldn’t in any way be impartial

Allied war crimes, particularly USSRUS and Great Britain had barred immigration

Terror bombings in EuropeUS atomic bombs

“Who did not have dirty hands? -- a matter of degree...


Ex post facto argumentCrimes were defined after the war!War crimes are offenses in the laws of many nations

Following ordersParticular problem in a totalitarian stateThis defense was countered with the fact that their highest allegiance is to their conscience and higher moral law

No one was executed for failing to carry out orders to kill Jews


Refusal to entertain ignorance or step-by-step approach

von Ribbentrop: “we didn’t know; we were just following bureaucratic orders”

Like living with a murderer and staying out of the cellar where the bodies are

Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was captured while attempting to parachute into England to negotiate his own peace treaty


Trials were meant to show the world the Nazis’ crimes

21 were tried18 convictedOf those, 11 were sentenced to death

3 to life imprisonment4 to long prison terms3 were acquitted (including von Papen, who helped bring Hitler to power)

Also tried were several Nazi organizationsGestapo, SS, SD (intelligence arm of SS), and High Leadership of Nazi Party were all termed criminal organizations


Implications of Nuremberg:

Cut down on revenge killings

Need for international tribunal and laws

Obedience to superior orders is no excuse

Amassed a treasure trove of Nazi war crimesDampened Nazi revival through showing their crimes

Contributed to the growth of a democratic Germany


1948: Genocide Convention on the rules of war

1948: Human Rights Declaration1968: abolition of statute of limitations for war crimes1949, 1979: Geneva Convention on the rules of war

“Without justice, there can be no real peace.”

Rafael Lemkin, attorney who coined the modern use of the term “genocide”


Other trials –Sept 17-Nov 17, 1945: Bergen-Belsen trials

British tried 45 camp officials

Oct 8-15, 1945: Euthanasia (T-4 Program) trial

US sentenced all defendants to death

Thousands of Nazis escaped through the “Odessa Network”

Established by party officials and industrialistsMost went to South America (Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia)

Jobs were set up for them so they could live a peaceful life


The trial of Adolf Eichmann –Head of Section 4b4 of Gestapo

In charge of round-up and deportation of Jews

Regularized arrests, seizures of property, movements of thousands

Used Thereseinstadt as a dummied-up “model camp”, showcased to the Red Cross

Only killed 1 Jew, a boy who had picked fruit from a tree in front of Eichmann’s home in Budapest...


Spring ’44: arranged deportation of 430,000 Hungarian Jews

Fall ’44: arranged death march out of Hungary

Intercepted Raoul Wallenberg, a man who had saved thousands...

After the war, went to ArgentinaAided by ultra-conservative elements in VaticanKidnapped by Israeli Secret Security agents and taken to Israel in May, 1960


Portrait of Adolf Eichmann (left) in his SS Death’s Head Uniform, and (above) while in the captivity of the Israeli Secret Service


April, 1961: trial before District Court in Jerusalem

1st time Holocaust was systematically laid-out in front of a judicial body

Witnesses from all phases carefully chosen to testify

Huge international media coverageIncreased Holocaust awareness

Young Israelis were forced to revise their ideas of “like sheep to the slaughter”

Nazi deceit, collective responsibility exposed


Exposed the motivations of the perpetrators

Eichmann exposed as a “desk murderer”, immersed in paperwork, following orders

Charged with crimes against Jews, humanity; war crimes; membership in illegal organizations (SS, SD, Gestapo)

Dec 16, 1961: sentenced to deathAppealed and lost

May 31/June 1, 1962: hanged, crematedAshes were scattered in Mediterranean Sea beyond Israeli waters


Survivors –

Exhibit resiliency, strength, courage

Flexibility, assertiveness, tenacity, street smarts, moral courage

Live with tremendous lossRelatives, culture, livelihood, children, childhood, etc.

In many cases, could retain some elements of humanity, but live with the memories of the inhumane


Many cannot, or will not, talk about it...Those who can have the sense that someone is trying to listen, trying to empathize

But can never understand...“Why’d you survive?”

“I was lucky...”This is invariably at least part of the answer...


Live with guilt about their survivalWhy me, and not my (brother, sister, mother, etc.)?Perpetrators don’t live with this guiltOften tell of “choiceless choices”Convinced of the educational value of what they have to impart

unit 10: perpetrators and victims in the post-war world

Documents

postwar world children

postwar worldsome children

hidden jewish children

forestssome children

postwar world polish

postwar worldhiding

postwar worldreasons

postwar worldproblems