Holocaust Midterm Study Guide 11th November 1918 - Armistice - Ended WW1 - Kicked off a revolution 1919 – 1933 - Weimar Republic - Democratic government with liberal constitution - Detested by the political Right – believed it was controlled by Jews - Great Depression, political reaction to the war- Shift towards authoritarian power – ruling by presidential emergencydecrees Shared Goals 1) Revitalize economy 2) Restore order 3) Revision of WW1 results – regain territory, restore German pride June 1919 – Treaty of Versailles - Stab in the Back Treaty - Germany had to pay war reparations and received the blame for the war - Demilitarization 9th November 1923 – Munich Putsch - Hitler and SS try to arrest members of government - Failure – resulted in his arrest - Failed attempt to seize power 30th January 1933 – Hitler rises to power - Hitler became chancellor - Forms coalition government of Nazi Party and Right Wing Conservatives 27th February 1933 – Reichstag fire in Berlin - Attack on the parliamentary system – seen as an attack on Germany - Possible Nazi conspiracy? - Reichstag Fire Decree - 28th February – Order of the Reich President for the Protection of Peopleand State - Suspended civil liberties in Germany- Provided Hitler with emergency powers – means to persecute communistsand other leftist powers 24th March 1933 – Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation - Laws of the Reich – can be enacted by the government - Laws may deviate from the constitution – unconstitutional1st April 1933 – Boycott of Jewish businesses and shops (lawyers &doctors) - Different effects around Germany – random - Had government support 7th April 1933 – Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service(Civil Service Law) - Definition for non-Aryans (April 11th) Law with restrictions for Jewish lawyers - Nazification of the German Education System – limit access for JewsJune / July 1934 – Night of the Long Knives - SA getting too powerful - Purged by the SS - Moved against Rohm – seen as a threat to Hitler’s power 15th September 1935 – Nuremburg Laws - 1) Law for the protection of German blood and honor - 2) The Reich Citizenship Law 27th October 1938 – Deportation of Polish Jews - Order of arrest and expulsion - 17,000 Jews ordered to leave - Transported to Polish border – ended in the land between Germany andPoland March 1938 – Anchluss with Austria - Aimed to unify all Germans – through the expansion of territory November 1938 – Kristallnacht / November Progrom - 1st violent attack against the Jews – series of coordinated attacks - Culminated from the annexation of Austria - Destruction of synagogues - License to kill Jews and destroy their buildings, looted their shops - Forced emigration 9th December 1948 – Adoption of UN Genocide Convention - Defined genocide - Crime under international lawHolocaust - Derived from the Greek word – burnt offering to God - Also known as the Shoah - 1941-1945 - Systematic extermination of the Jews – Final Solution - 1939-1945 - War, deportation and murder - 1933-1945 - Persecution, expulsion and systematic killing Anti-Judaism - Religion based - Able to transfer to Christianity - Much older – dates back – prominent in history Anti-Semitism - Race based - Can’t convert - In your blood – passed down by generations towards Jews - Started in the late 1800s - Social Darwinism – weaker races die off - Coined by Wilhelm Marr Genocide - Term coined by Raphael Lemkin - Genos – Greek for race / tribe - Cide – Latin for killing - Destruction of an ethnic group or nation; disintegration of institutions,culture, social and economic basis - Often find new definitions of genocide – not an employable term for allcases - Focuses on the killing action – broad terms Genocide vs. Massacre - Genocide - The deliberate extermination of a racial, religious and ethnic group - Massacre - Mass killings without an intent to kill all members of a group Different Interpretations Martin Broszat - German historian - Issued a ‘plea for the historicization of national socialism’ - Historians should not presuppose that the Third Reich took decisions and formulated polices different from other governments- Suggested that Nazis did not set out from the beginning to do evil for evil’ssakeIntentionalist - Anti-Jewish measures were carefully calculated in advance - Facilitated the ultimate goal of total murder - Hitler laid the clear path - Flawless plan - Social marginalization, political disenfranchisement, economic ruin todeath Functionalists - When Nazis came to power there was no clear plan - No set way in which they would act towards the Jews - Idea of systematic mass murder – evolved gradually - Due to the failure of leaders to find a less brutal way to control the ‘Jewishthreat’ - Mass killings – process of ‘cumulative radicalization’ - Hitler’s role – confined to setting guidelines – leaders never told how theyshould reach their goal - ‘twisted road to Auschwitz’ Hitler constantly changed his view on the Jews - 1919 – wrote about ‘the elimination of the Jews altogether’ - 1935 – told party leaders he sought ‘a tolerable relationship with the Jewsliving in Germany’ - Very inconsistent view - ‘final aim’ – suggested / gave proof of his master plan to annihilate allJews Functionalists - Think the ‘final aim’ – referred to the ‘Jewish reservation’ - Thought Heydrich developing 2 plans – to create reservations - 1) Polish city of Lublin - 2) Island of Madagascar Step by step process? - ‘Destruction process’ – Raul Hilberg 1961 - 4 stages – definition, expropriation, concentration and annihilation - Definition - Began in April 1933- Law for the Resoration of the Professional Civil Service - ‘a person is to be considered non-Aryan if he is descended from non-Aryan, and especially from Jewish parents or grandparents.’ - Expropriation - Stripped Jews of their livelihoods, property and financial reserves - Dismissal of Jews from positions in academic and cultural institutions - Business owners pressured - Concentration- Visibly separating Jews from non Jews - 1935 Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor – forbademarriage or sexual relations - Began in 1938 - Felt that the decision to begin systematic mass killing was not taken