 Victims

There were 11-12 million victims of the

Holocaust, including Jews, Roma, political
prisoners, Jehovah Witnesses, and
homosexuals, soviet p.o.w.s, those with
disabilities and more.

“Not every victim was Jewish, but every Jew

was a victim.” – Elie Wiesel
 Anti-Jewish attitudes deeply rooted in
European Christian culture and society.
 They were easy to scapegoat
 Jews historically charged with the crime of
deicide (murder of God).
 All measures taken by the Nazis against
the Jews had precursors in European
history (badges, ghettos, restrictive laws,
etc).
 Only a modern state could carry out murder
on such a scale
 bureaucratic organization, mass
communication/propaganda, and modern
technology (e.g. railroads, mass communications)
 To carry out the transport and murder of millions
took significant organization and involved many
government agencies and tens of thousands of
workers
 The Nazis came to power in January 1933. The
systematic, industrial slaughter of Jews didn’t
begin until 1941.
 The Holocaust includes government policies
designed to isolate the Jews and condition
the population to accept anti-Jewish policies.
 Anti-Jewish Legislation (1933-1935)

• Boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany (April 1,

1933)
• Nuremberg Laws (1935) stripped Jews of rights of
citizenship and forbid marriage with non-Jews
• barred Jews from education, professions, and public spaces
(parks, pools, theatres, etc).
• Jews disappeared from German public life.
 Persecution (1938-39)
 Kristallnacht night of broken glass (9 November 1938)
Anti-Jewish pogrom orchestrated by Nazis
▪ Though much of the violence committed by neighbours
 Throughout Germany synagogues set on fire, books and
valuables confiscated
 91 Jews killed, many beaten and 20 000-30 000
imprisoned in concentration camps

 Expulsion: Germany attempted to expel many Jews

from the Reich. Few nations would accept Jewish
refugees.
 Ghettoization
The German invasion of Poland in
September 1939 brought millions of Jews
under German control

 Jews were segregated in ghettos were they

were systematically starved and exploited
as slave labour.
 The Final Solution
• began with the invasion of Russia in June 1941
• Nearly 2 million Jews murdered by Einsatzgruppen
(“special action” units)
• Method of killing (mass shooting) deemed too
slow and difficult on the killers
 Wannsee Conference (Jan 1942) SS leaders
(under Heydrich and Eichmann) met in Berlin
to confirm plans for “final solution” to the
Jewish question.

 Extermination camps (1941-1945) Millions of

Jews killed at Auschwitz (I, II, III), Belzec,
Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.
Some have asked: How come the
Jews didn’t resist?
 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943)
 Revolt of the Sonderkommando at
Auschwitz (1944)
 Sobibor Uprising (1943)
During Passover
1943, the surviving
Jews in the
Warsaw Ghetto
revolted. They
held off the Nazis
for nearly three
weeks before they
were subdued.
 There was little support in the larger
community.
 Jews were deceived about their fate.
 Nazi retaliation threatened the entire
community.
 Dehumanization of victims diminished
capacity to resist.
 The Jewish experience with persecution
conditioned Jews to accept their fate
 Think in terms of learned helplessness
 The concept of the total annihilation of
the Jewish communities of Europe was
inconceivable to the victims.
How was it possible for the
world to stand by without
stopping this destruction?
 From 1935 until the outbreak of war, many
Jews tried to leave the Reich (Germany and
Austria), but found few nations willing to take
them.
 Why? Economies suffering by depression had
little capacity to absorb refugees. Anti-Jewish
attitudes pervasive among world leaders and
among larger populations
 Of all the nations of the western world,
Canada’s response was the most dismal.
 Between 1933 and 1946, Canada admitted
only 5,000 Jewish refugees, fewer than Cuba,
Paraguay and the Dominican Republic.
 Is evil in the individual?

 Is evil in the situation?

 What is responsible for the Holocaust?

 Perpetrators
▪ Where they monsters or ordinary people? The sad truth is
that few individuals resisted orders to kill Jews.
▪ Stanley Milgram – Obedience

 Bystanders
▪ By far the largest group in Europe were bystanders. To
varying degrees they knew what was taking place, but did
nothing.

 Rescuers
▪ Despite grave risk to themselves and their families, some
individuals and communities rescued Jews.
• Foot-in-the-door-phenomenon- the tendency
for those who have first agreed to a smaller
request to comply later with larger request.
• “Start small and build”.
• Nuremberg laws before Kristallnacht
• Ghettoization before the Final Solution
• Group Polarization – the enhancement of a
group’s prevailing attitude’s through discussion
within the group.
 Cognitive Dissonance Theory- the theory that
we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance)
we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions)
are inconsistent.
 For example: when our awareness of our attitudes
and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting
dissonance by changing our attitudes.
 Just world phenomenon - the tendency of
people to believe the world is just and that
people therefore deserve what they get and get
what they deserve.
 Conformity and Obedience
Behavior is contagious
Giggles, coughs, yawns, laughter, and sickness are all
contagious
 Conformity- adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to
coincide with a group standard.
 Conformity and Obedience
 Normative Social Influence- influence resulting from a
person’s desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval.
 Informational Social Influence- influence resulting from one’s
willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality.
 Conditions that strengthen obedience:
-one is made to feel insecure
-the group has at least three people
-one admires the group’s status and attractiveness
-one’s culture strongly encourages respect for social
standards
 Conformity and Obedience – Milgram Expt.
 Results: Out of men aged 20-50…
-63% complied fully
-Women responded similarly

Obedience was highest when

-the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived
to be a legitimate authority figure
-the authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution
 Demonstrated the impact that the situation can
have on our behaviour
 Demonstrated the impact that social roles can have
on our behaviour
 Evil is in the situation and facilitates individual
brutality
 Auschwitz is decaying and there are
questions as to whether or not it should be
maintained/preserved

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7842671.stm

 What is the value in preserving these sites?

 What is our responsibility?