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21 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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In the early phases of the War, how aware were the Jews of the Nazi plan to exterminate them?
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The Jews were largely ignorant to the Nazis plan. In the ghettos they were forced to surrender their radios and the news papers were under Nazi control. When they heard stories of the death camps, many thought they were exaggerated or were only rumors.
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Name one of the choiceness choices described in Lecture 7
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The choices were to flee or stay. The other choice was to separate one's family to save the children, knowing full well that they may never been seen or heard from again.
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Describe Spiegelman's "Maus"
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Graphic novel, Maus, created by Spiegelman in which Jews are mice and Germans are cats, polls as pigs Spiegelman conveys the narrative history provided by his father, Vladik
Vladik and his wife send their son to live with relatives in a small Polish town because they and their relatives regarded this town as safe. Instead of the Germans arrived to clear the town of Jews. Knowing what is in store the relatives, kill Vladik’s son and their own children. The father and his wife are sent to Auschwitz but both survived the war. Would their son have survived if they had not given him to their relatives? Probably not but possibly depending on contingencies. Maus depicts these choices. |
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Describe Jakub's World by Jack Terry
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Jack Terry as a 10-year-old along with his little sister were sent to live with a Catholic farmer. The children are safe there at least for the moment but they miss their parents finally they run away from the farm to return to them in the end. Jack Grabow survived the war after enduring several death camps but his entire immediate family including his sister parish in Jakub's world.
These three stories are intended to illustrate not only how choices were made but how faithful they could be. And also the human dimension and choice making Jack Terry and his sister miss the parents so they make the decision to go with them despite the facts that's they know that much of Poland in her hometown is occupied by Germans may not have been a wise choice but it is certainly understandable but we should remember that these were young children. |
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Describe the Story of Kahn, the Lithuanian Jew:
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Family of Kahn a Lithuanian Jew after Germans seize Lithuania. Khan's family decide they're going to escape, and his sister agreed to go but cannot convince the mother who said that her own mother was too old to survive. For four days the husband and children plead with the mother to come with them but she told him to go ahead without her. She and her mother wind up dying in the gas chamber. His father survived. Kahn survives and settled in Vancouver and wrote a famous memoir but would always feel guilty that he could not persuade his mother to join him. Kahn’s mother lost her life and lost it to stay with her own mother she this as her ultimate duty and given that, her choices are again understandable.
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Who were among those likely to be killed and killed quickly in the death camps?
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Among those likely to be killed and killed quickly in the camps were young children. To the extent that there was any rationale for targeting young children a quote by Hoess "children of tender years were verbally exterminated since by reason of their youth when they were unable to work."
The other groups as well who were targeted for a quick death were women who entered the camps with small children. They were sent to the gas chambers with small children in order to keep them quiet. Children and their mothers, the elderly, and the infirm had a very low chance of survival and death camps they were likely to be killed within a few hours of their arrival. The Nazi rationale was that they could not work even among prisoners given a brief reprieve the slope or for work and malnutrition would likely break them down within a year often much less than it would be killed. |
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Why were some camps "better" or had a higher chance of survival than other camps?
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Assignments also played, determination of who was delivered by there was no good camp staying on the Source of differentiation Auschwitz was a complex of camps. Jews might be sent to labor here rather than to the gas chamber. At other camps there was no better space for Jews they were sent there to direct usually within a few hours of their arrival most survivors came from Auschwitz,
Chelmno the deadliest of the camps few survivors |
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What were some of the reasons that a Jews might be killed in the concentration camps?
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A Jewish prisoner might encounter a camp guard officer who would kill him on a whim were simply because he was in a bad mood even the slightest provocation could bring death to a Jew to one or many.
1944 string local Hungarian Jews arrived in Auschwitz thousands of prisoners were gassed to make room for them in addition Nazis sometimes just determined to bring certain facet. of the campaign to an end. |
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Describe the facility of Terezin (Czech) Thersienstadt (Germans)
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Called a ghetto but was really a concentration camp. Used as a showcase to demonstrate how well they Jews were treated. Allowed the Red Cross to visit.
in 1944 they even had the prisoners should make a film to show how good life was there after was completed the director and all those who appeared in it were deported to Auschwitz. Crowding in the camps was typical. Most of the prisoners in this camp were Czech or German. About 85% were deported to Auschwitz. Of 140,000 people at Terezin, only 20,000 survived, only 132 were children. |
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How did Jews react to their circumstances in the ghettos and in the concentration camps?
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Many cooperated and were willing to do almost anything and everything required for survival.
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Describe the Jews attitude toward the Jewish Police in the Ghettos.
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In almost every ghetto they were Jewish police. Of all groups found in the ghetto, these men were probably the most hated. Not only did they cooperate with the Nazis, but they often seemed to be anxious to enforce their policies on fellow Jews; possibly hoping to show that they were useful. The Jewish police were turning in their own people.
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Describe the attitudes toward the Jewish Council or the Judenrat:
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Although not generally detested as were the police the members and leaders of the Jewish Council or Judenrat. They proportioned limited supplies among the Jews in the ghetto and they were resented for dealing with the Nazi authorities and abiding by the orders which included orders for Jewish deportation. To their critics both of the time and since, these men appear to have cooperated just to save themselves for at least a little while. Some were also thought to be power-hungry.
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Name the most controversial member of the Judenrat:
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Mordecai Chaim Rumkowski Chairman of the Judenrat, Lodz common conception is that he was gassed at Auschwitz in 1944. But he was so unpopular that there is a second story namely that he was murdered on the train going to Auschwitz by other Jews from Lodz. He required a reputation for being far too willing to cooperate with the Nazis and being in love with power he does appear to have been authoritarian in a letter to a friend it seems that he took the hard decisions ought upon himself so that nobody also have to do it.
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What were some of the coping skills used by Jews in the Concentration camps?
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Maintain dignity
Cleanliness and self discipline - small hygienic practices in a place where bathing was unknown. Self-Discipline by hard work was often countered by the need to conserve calories due to lack of food. Friendship Circles and Associations - Friends might share rations with someone who was ill, hold up a prisoner who was too weak to stand Singing anti-German songs |
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What were some of the survival strategies employed by the Jews in concentration camps?
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Mostly to do with food. -Not to consume it all at once. To try to get a job in the kitchen so that one can get an extra potato or even a bit of meat.
Learned to conserve calories Learned to avoid angering those with authority over them who might prove helpful in some way. Humor to avoid depression Tried to conceive of their position in some comprehensible way that would help give their minds some mode of control. |
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What were some of the ways in which Jews were able to fight back?
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Some Jews enlisted in the armed forces. Like Hank Greenberg - hall of fame baseman of Detriot Tigers
Resistance forces: General resistance -broad-based multiethnic resistance examples of this type include the Yugoslavian resistance led by Tito and the walnut French resistance in both of these groups choose served far beyond their proportion to the population 15 to 20% of French resistance fighters were Jewish. Jews also served in many guerrilla bands known as partisan bands Jews also organize their own partisan groups they tended to be based in the forest, which were numerous. |
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Describe some uprisings in the ghettos and camps:
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Warsaw and Sobibor:
The most famous and successful effort for escape was in Sobibor on October 14, 1943. The majority of the 600 Jews in the camp, except those in Lager III escaped or were killed. They Killed over two dozen SS and Ukrainian guards. About 300 Jews escaped and most of them went on to fight with the Soviet partisans. The most famous uprising was in June 1943 in Warsaw Jews held out against the strong German force. The Germans too on heavy casualties before the Germans eventually destroyed the ghetto in May 1943. Most of the fighters were captured and killed. By large the women who joined the resistance in the ghettos and camps did not do so with the delusion that they could defeat the Germans because they refused to sell their lives quietly. Partisans stated if I have to die I shall die like a man and not like a sheep in a flock." |
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Talk about Hannah Szenes born in 1921. Describe her actions in 1944
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Hannah Szenes 1921 born in Budapest. 1944 immigrated to Palestine and could've passed the war there in safety but instead she volunteered to work and not the occupied Europe as part of the campaign to save the Jews in Hungary after undertaking a series of dangerous missions she was captured by Hungarian police in June 1944 during five months in captivity which ended in her execution she was repeatedly tortured yet never revealed information about her network or contacts.
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Why were so many Jews reluctant to fight?
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In traditional Judaism there was "reverence for the sanctification of the name of God. A Jew would rather die a martyr than to renounce Judaism.
To orthodox Jews, resistance meant defending Judaism. |
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Name a common way to resist Nazi desire to destroy Judaism as a way of life:
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Education
One common way to resist was by education every ghetto had schools and the larger ones typically had several schools. The communities of Jews saw education as the means that would allow children to live most fully as Jews and that was all that this community had control over. Education also meant books. As a group Jews were avid readers. Every ghetto had its library and surviving records indicate that the books circulated widely.Many scholars and intellectuals were among prisoners and many donated their collections to ghetto libraries the size and quality of the libraries were a sense of pride for the Jews. Plays, Concerts, Lectures Jews were lovers of the arts were performed plays in the ghettos and played on instruments. In addition, communities were reinforced by public lectures. The case that we know most about is Terezin where 300 lectures were given during the ghettos existence. The lectures had to be cleared by the Nazi regime, however, some were given in private and were not cleared by the Nazis. The lectures were mostly scholarly in nature and most had Jewish themes. Mostly they were on science and mathematics history and stuff. |
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What was the highest priority among Jews?
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That Judaism survived
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