Responsibility for the Holocaust e:\history\six\holo\respon.1dp

Responsibility for the Holocaust e:\history\six\holo\respon.1dp 1. Hitler on Race. Any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level produces ...
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Responsibility for the Holocaust e:\history\six\holo\respon.1dp

1. Hitler on Race. Any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level produces a medium between the level of the two parents. This means: the offspring will probably stand higher than the racially lower parent, but not as high as the higher one. Such mating is contrary to the will of nature for a higher breeding of all life. The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness. The consequence is racial purity. To mix blood and lower the level of the higher race is to sin against the will of the eternal creator. Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf, (1943), 372-3. If we were to divide mankind into three groups, the founders of culture, the bearers of culture, the destroyers of culture, only the Aryan could be considered as the representative of the first group. Adolph Hitler, 373. In judging the Jewish people's attitude on the question of human culture, the most essential characteristic we must always bear in mind is that there has never been a Jewish art and accordingly there is none today. The two queens of all the arts, architecture and music, owe nothing original to the Jews. What they do accomplish in the field of art is either patchwork or intellectual theft. Adolph Hitler, 377.

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2. Hitler's Propaganda. After my joining the German Worker's Party, I immediately took over the management of propaganda. The psyche of the great masses is not receptive to half measures or weakness. They are far more satisfied by a doctrine, which tolerates no rival than by the grant of liberal freedom. They often feel at a loss with what to do with freedom. Adolph Hitler, 373. All propaganda has to be popular and has to adapt its spiritual level to the perception of the least intelligent of those towards whom it intends to direct itself. The great masses of people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. Adolph Hitler, 373. Propaganda has absolutely nothing to do with the truth,

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said Nazi minister of Propaganda, Paul Josef Goebbels. Propaganda is organized carefully designed lying. Seymour Rossel, The Holocaust: the World and the Jews, 1933-1945 (West Orange, New Jersey: Behrman House Inc., 1992), 82. Goebbels added, "Any lie, frequently repeated, will gradually gain acceptance. Seymour Rossel, 82. 4. Nazi Propaganda. Frau Mathilde Mundt was a schoolteacher. The thieves were the Poles. They did everything. In 1938 the Germans had been so tormented by the Czechs. The Czechs killed half a million Germans. Horrendous. I saw it on television once. I cried and prayed to God, no? Alison Owings, Frauen: German Women Recall the Third Reich (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Ruter's University Press, 1993), 93.

Since 1935, the Poles had published a map reaching to the Elbe River, everything with Polish names. (The famous and phony map, meant to convince Germans that Poland planned an invasion, has been acknowledged as the work of Nazi propaganda). They forced a very large number of Germans during a heat wave to make a long march to the other side of Warsaw. Those who couldn't keep going got shot. They killed sixty thousand Germans. We wanted to avoid war at all costs. But the Poles were so hateful to all the Germans there and those who lived along the border. The Poles went to Schneider- Muhl daily and killed the workers who were on their way to work. Alison Owings, 93. Frau Irene Burchert was a Catholic farm girl living in East Prussia during the war. In 1939 the Poles came in the night and looted. Our men chased them away with clubs. Those were not German soldiers. Those were Poles who came over the border and looted houses everywhere. (Most historians agree that the men were not Poles but Germans in Polish uniforms. This incident was staged to prompt German civilians to support retaliation against Poland). Alison Owings, 142. Frau Margarete Sasowski was a schoolteacher's wife. The English fighter planes dropped poisonous candy and explosive dolls and pen holders, all to attract and harm German children. The daughter of a woman she knew lost three fingers opening one pen holder. Alison Owings, 226.

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Main Ideas: 5. No Knowledge. Frau Mathilde Mundt was a school Key Words: teacher. How one suddenly can say, You gassed six Analysis: million Jews. Where does the six million number come from? They guessed. But there weren't six million in Europe. Barely two million. And of them, there's still a long line alive today. I killed no one. Alison Owings, 98. Frau Verena Groth was a half Jewish gardener during the war. Somebody did say once. They're making soap out of Jews. Or Lampshades are made from human skin or something like that. But it was so far beyond the ability of comprehension, closer to cannibalism sort of, that one simply did not want to believe it. Alison Owings, 110. Frau Ellen Frey. We knew nothing about the concentration camps. And if they want the Jews out, why don't they do it in a nicer way. That's what we always said, in a normal manner. But they were such boors, such rowdies . . . What is written about the holocaust is manure. It is all greatly biased. Alison Owings, 176, 182. There are so many people in Germany and we're in such a narrow space, the Jews can give something up for us, no? That Hitler somehow managed to get room, but in a proper manner one had thought. Alison Owings, 184. Main Ideas: 7. Knowledge of the Holocaust. Frau Martha Brixius was a 17-year-old housewife during the war. Anyone who Key Words: Analysis: read a newspaper could tell what was going on. Some did not have the time, money nor inclination to read a newspaper. However, I never suspected there were so many concentration camps. I'd have thought two or three. Alison Owings, 211. Frau Lieb was a farmer's wife. We knew about Dachau through newspapers and black radio (radios turned to foreign stations). Alison Owings, 236. Frau Christine Weihs was a Catholic schoolgirl. One knew that people in the camps were being gassed. That had seeped through. It was named Theresienstadt and it was called gassing. Alison Owings, 430. 206,000 worked at the Dachau labor camp. There were 31,900 deaths. From the center of camp it is seven miles to City Hall. One a bright day you can see City Hall. It is completely unbelievable that the German people did not know about the Holocaust. The smoke from the crematoria could be seen and smelled. Saul Rosenthal, a Jewish member of the Anti Defamation League, assembly,

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East High School, 4/16/96. Main Ideas: 8. German Responsibility. Efforts to blame the Key Words: slaughter on a mere handful of deranged Nazi leaders are Analysis: indefensible: approximately 50,000 people were directly involved in Hitler's "Final Solution." Few of them were ever held accountable for their crimes. John Louis Beatty, Oliver A. Johnson, Heritage of Western Civilizations, Select Readings, Second Edition (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1958), 925. In all, probably less than 10,000 German were employed directly in mass shootings or in the guarding and running of the killing centers. Some of these were racist fanatics, a few were psychopaths. Most obeyed orders and consoled themselves by the safety and comfort compared with front line combat. The distinctive feature of the Third Reich was not that Germans were specially murderous, but that they obeyed a government that was. RAC Parker, Struggle for Survival: The History of the Second World War (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1989), 271. Dr. William McConahey was an American surgeon and medical officer at Flossenburg. It was those concentration camps that made us realize what we were fighting for. We really felt this was a holy crusade to wipe out this diabolical regime. We have sadistic bums and misfits and psychopaths in this country who could do what the SS did in Germany, but Hitler gave them a rank, a uniform, a purpose and a mission, and encouraged them. Rhonda G. Lewin, Witness to the Holocaust, An Oral History (Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers, 1990), 203. Frau Margarete Sasowski was a schoolteacher's wife. My husband always said, "Keep your mouth closed and be quiet. Let the Nazi do what they want. We can't change anything anyway." Alison Owings, 219. Main Ideas: 11. Holocaust Survivors on Propaganda. Sam Bankhatler, Lodz, Poland, was a 14-year-old Jew who was Key Words: Analysis: sent to Auschwitz. When I sit in a place, I see 65% of the people will pick up the sports page of the newspaper. They don't care what is on the front page! This is where the danger lies. All you need is the economy to turn a little sour and have on person give out the propaganda. With 65% of the population the propaganda works. Then the other 35% is powerless to do anything about it. Rhoda

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G. Lewin, 8. Henry Harvey fought against the Germans as a member of the Polish Army in exile. The Holocaust did not start as a Holocaust. It started with insensitivity of the German population toward scapegoating. Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for the economic ills of Germany in the 1930s and for defeat of the German armies in World War I. He said, We didn't lose in battle, the Jews and the Communists stabbed us in the back. The average German didn't really believe it, but he was indifferent. That led to the Holocaust. Rhonda G. Lewin, 139. Fred Wildaur was a Jewish mechanic in Riga, Latvia. Stutthof was a big camp, 45,000 people. The barracks for Jews were designed for 300 people, but they took in 1,500. The whole German population from the town walked by us they went every day to the railroad station. If there's anybody there that says they didn't know there was a concentration camp, they are liars. Rhonda G. Lewin, 90.

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