Inasmuch as each of the Jewish communities in Europe was almost completely isolated, there was a limited number of places with available information. Thus, there is no doubt that many European Jews were not aware of the "Final Solution," a fact that has been corroborated by German documents and the testimonies of survivors.
How many Jews were able to escape from Europe prior to the Holocaust? It is difficult to arrive at an exact figure for the number of Jews who were able to escape from Europe prior to World War II, since the available statistics are incomplete. From , , German and Austrian Jews left their homes. Some immigrated to countries later overrun by the Nazis. During the years , approximately 35, emigrated from Bohemia and Moravia Czechoslovakia. Shanghai, the only place in the world for which one did not need an entry visa, received approximately 20, European Jews mostly of German origin who fled their homelands.
Immigration figures for countries of refuge during this period are not available. In addition, many countries did not provide a breakdown of immigration statistics according to ethnic groups.
It is impossible, therefore, to ascertain. Various organizations attempted to facilitate the emigration of the Jews and non-Jews persecuted as Jews from Germany. Among the programs launched were the "Transfer Agreement" between the Jewish Agency and the German government whereby immigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer their funds to that country in conjunction with the import of German goods to Palestine.
Other efforts focused on retraining prospective emigrants in order to increase the number of those eligible for visas, since some countries barred the entry of members of certain professions. Other groups attempted to help in various phases of refugee work: selection of candidates for emigration, transportation of refugees, aid in immigrant absorption, etc.
Some groups attempted to facilitate increased emigration by enlisting the aid of governments and international organizations in seeking refugee havens. The League of Nations established an agency to aid refugees but its success was extremely limited due to a lack of political power and adequate funding. The United States and Great Britain convened a conference in at Evian, France, seeking a solution to the refugee problem. With the exception of the Dominican Republic, the nations assembled refused to change their stringent immigration regulations, which were instrumental in preventing large-scale immigration.
In , the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, which had been established at the Evian Conference, initiated negotiations with leading German officials in an attempt to arrange for the relocation of a significant portion of German Jewry. However, these talks failed.
Efforts were made for the illegal entry of Jewish immigrants to Palestine as early as July , but were later halted until July Large-scale efforts were resumed under the Mosad le-Aliya Bet, Revisionist Zionists, and private parties.
Attempts were also made, with some success, to facilitate the illegal entry of refugees to various countries in Latin America. The key reason for the relatively low number of refugees leaving Europe prior to World War II was the stringent immigration policies adopted by the prospective host countries. In the United States, for example, the number of immigrants was limited to , per year, divided by country of origin.
Moreover, the entry requirements were so stringent that available quotas were often not filled. Schemes to facilitate immigration outside the quotas never materialized as the majority of the American public consistently opposed the entry of additional refugees. Other countries, particularly those in Latin America, adopted immigration policies that were similar or even more restrictive, thus closing the doors to prospective immigrants from the Third Reich. Great Britain, while somewhat more liberal than the United States on the entry of immigrants, took measures to severely limit Jewish immigration to Palestine.
In May , the British issued a "White Paper" stipulating that only 75, Jewish immigrants would be allowed to enter Palestine over the course of the next five years 10, a year, plus an additional 25, This decision prevented hundreds of thousands of Jews from escaping Europe. The countries most able to accept large numbers of refugees consistently refused to open their gates. Although a solution to the refugee problem was the agenda of the Evian Conference, only the Dominican Republic was willing to approve large-scale immigration.
The United States and Great Britain proposed resettlement havens in under-developed areas e. Guyana, formerly British Guiana, and the Philippines , but these were not suitable alternatives. Two important factors should be noted. At that time, there were no operative plans to kill the Jews.
The goal was to induce them to leave, if necessary, by the use of force. It is also important to recognize the attitude of German Jewry. While many German Jews were initially reluctant to emigrate, the majority sought to do so following Kristallnacht The Night of Broken Glass , November , Had havens been available, more people would certainly have emigrated. He considered this area the natural territory of the German people, an area to which they were entitled by right, the Lebensraum living space that Germany needed so badly for its farmers to have enough soil.
Hitler maintained that these areas were needed for the Aryan race to preserve itself and assure its dominance. There is no question that Hitler knew that, by launching the war in the East, the Nazis would be forced to deal with serious racial problems in view of the composition of the population in the Eastern areas.
Thus, the Nazis had detailed plans for the subjugation of the Slavs, who would be reduced to serfdom status and whose primary function would be to serve as a source of cheap labor for Aryan farmers. Those elements of the local population, who were of higher racial stock, would be taken to Germany where they would be raised as Aryans. In Hitler's mind, the solution of the Jewish problem was also linked to the conquest of the eastern territories. These areas had large Jewish populations and they would have to be dealt with accordingly.
While at this point there was still no operative plan for mass annihilation, it was clear to Hitler that some sort of comprehensive solution would have to be found. There was also talk of establishing a Jewish reservation either in Madagascar or near Lublin, Poland. When he made the decisive decision to invade the Soviet Union, Hitler also gave instructions to embark upon the "Final Solution," the systematic murder of European Jewry.
Was there any opposition to the Nazis within Germany? Throughout the course of the Third Reich, there were different groups who opposed the Nazi regime and certain Nazi policies. They engaged in resistance at different times and with various methods, aims, and scope. From the beginning, leftist political groups and a number of disappointed conservatives were in opposition; at a later date, church groups, government officials, students and businessmen also joined.
After the tide of the war was reversed, elements within the military played an active role in opposing Hitler. At no point, however, was there a unified resistance movement within Germany.
Despite the difficult conditions to which Jews were subjected in Nazi-occupied Europe, many engaged in armed resistance against the Nazis. This resistance can be divided into three basic types of armed activities: ghetto revolts, resistance in concentration and death camps, and partisan warfare.
The Warsaw Ghetto revolt, which lasted for about five weeks beginning on April 19, , is probably the best-known example of armed Jewish resistance, but there were many ghetto revolts in which Jews fought against the Nazis. Jewish partisan units were active in many areas, including Baranovichi, Minsk, Naliboki forest, and Vilna. While the sum total of armed resistance efforts by Jews was not militarily overwhelming and did not play a significant role in the defeat of Nazi Germany, these acts of resistance did lead to the rescue of an undetermined number of Jews, Nazi casualties, and untold damage to German property and self-esteem.
What was the Judenrat? The Judenrat was the council of Jews, appointed by the Nazis in each Jewish community or ghetto. According to the directive from Reinhard Heydrich of the SS on September 21, , a Judenrat was to be established in every concentration of Jews in the occupied areas of Poland.
They were led by noted community leaders. Enforcement of Nazi decrees affecting Jews and administration of the affairs of the Jewish community were the responsibilities of the Judenrat.
These functions placed the Judenrat in a highly responsible, but controversial position, and many of their actions continue to be the subject of debate among historians. While the intentions of the heads of councils were rarely challenged, their tactics and methods have been questioned. Among the most controversial were Mordechai Rumkowski in Lodz and Jacob Gens in Vilna, both of whom justified the sacrifice of some Jews in order to save others. Leaders and members of the Judenrat were guided, for the most part, by a sense of communal responsibility, but lacked the power and the means to successfully thwart Nazi plans for annihilation of all Jews.
Its activities can basically be divided into three periods: 1. September, - June 22, The IRC confined its activities to sending food packages to those in distress in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Packages were distributed in accordance with the directives of the German Red Cross. Throughout this time, the IRC complied with the German contention that those in ghettos and camps constituted a threat to the security of the Reich and, therefore, were not allowed to receive aid from the IRC.
June 22, - Summer Despite numerous requests by Jewish organizations, the IRC refused to publicly protest the mass annihilation of Jews and non-Jews in the camps, or to intervene on their behalf. It maintained that any public action on behalf of those under Nazi rule would ultimately prove detrimental to their welfare. At the same time, the IRC attempted to send food parcels to those individuals whose addresses it possessed. The IRC did insist that it be allowed to visit concentration camps, and a delegation did visit the "model ghetto" of Terezin Theresienstadt.
The IRC request came following the receipt of information about the harsh living conditions in the camp. The IRC requested permission to investigate the situation, but the Germans only agreed to allow the visit nine months after submission of the request. This delay provided time for the Nazis to complete a "beautification" program, designed to fool the delegation into thinking that conditions at Terezin were quite good and that inmates were allowed to live out their lives in relative tranquility.
The visit, which took place on July 23, , was followed by a favorable report on Terezin to the members of the IRC which Jewish organizations protested vigorously, demanding that another delegation visit the camp.
Such a visit was not permitted until shortly before the end of the war. In reality, the majority were subsequently deported to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Moreover, in their occupied areas of France, Greece, and Yugoslavia, the Italians protected the Jews and did not allow them to be deported.
However, when the Germans overthrew the Badoglio government in , the Jews of Italy, as well as those under Italian protection in occupied areas, were subject to the "Final Solution. Despite pressure by their German allies urging them to take stringent measures against Jews, the Japanese refused to do so. Refugees were allowed to enter Japan until the spring of , and Jews in Japanese-occupied China were treated well.
In the summer and fall of , refugees in Japan were transferred to Shanghai but no measures were taken against them until early , when they were forced to move into the Hongkew Ghetto.
While conditions were hardly satisfactory, they were far superior to those in the ghettos under German control. Although he stated that the myths of "race" and "blood" were contrary to Christian teaching in a papal encyclical, March , he neither mentioned nor criticized antisemitism. Although as early as the Vatican received detailed information on the murder of Jews in concentration camps, the Pope confined his public statements to expressions of sympathy for the victims of injustice and to calls for a more humane conduct of the war.
Despite the lack of response by Pope Pius XII, several papal nuncios played an important role in rescue efforts, particularly the nuncios in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Turkey. It is not clear to what, if any, extent they operated upon instructions from the Vatican. In Germany, the Catholic Church did not oppose the Nazis' antisemitic campaign. Church records were supplied to state authorities which assisted in the detection of people of Jewish origin, and efforts to aid the persecuted were confined to Catholic non-Aryans.
While Catholic clergymen protested the Nazi euthanasia program, few, with the exception of Bernhard Lichtenberg, spoke out against the murder of the Jews. But France in particular did not want them broadcast to avoid alarming people with relatives who were missing after being deported, captured or conscripted. A turning point came on April 6, , with the discovery of Ohrdruf, an annex of the Buchenwald camp in Germany. When American forces — accompanied by US war correspondent Meyer Levin and AFP photographer Eric Schwab — entered Ohrdruf, they came across a still-blazing inferno and skeletal prisoners executed with a bullet to the head.
The Allied leadership decided immediately that all censorship should be lifted so the world could see evidence of the Nazi atrocities. In Streetwise Hebrew for the Times of Israel Community, each month we learn several colloquial Hebrew phrases around a common theme.
These are bite-size audio Hebrew classes that we think you'll really enjoy. This month, we're learning phrases on the topic of strength and power.
Ready to get tough with us? Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz—the largest killing center and concentration camp complex—in January British forces liberated concentration camps in northern Germany, including Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen. The first major Nazi camp to be liberated was Majdanek , located in Lublin, Poland. It was liberated in the summer of as Soviet forces advanced westward.
The previous spring, the SS had evacuated most of the Majdanek prisoners and camp personnel. The evacuated prisoners were sent to concentration camps further west, such as Gross-Rosen , Auschwitz , and Mauthausen. As the Soviet troops approached Majdanek at the end of July, the remaining camp personnel hastily abandoned the Majdanek concentration camp without fully dismantling it.
Soviet troops first arrived at Majdanek during the night of July 22—23 and captured Lublin on July Majdanek was captured virtually intact. At Majdanek, the Soviet troops encountered a number of prisoners who had not been evacuated in the spring, mostly Soviet prisoners of war. They also encountered substantial evidence of the mass murder committed at Majdanek by Nazi Germans.
Soviet officials invited journalists to inspect the camp and evidence of the horrors that had occurred there. Six months later, on January 27, , Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz. Auschwitz was the largest Nazi killing center and concentration camp complex. In the weeks preceding the arrival of Soviet units, Auschwitz camp personnel had forced the majority of Auschwitz prisoners to march westward in what would become known as " death marches. These prisoners greeted the soldiers as their liberators.
As at Majdanek, there was abundant evidence of mass murder in Auschwitz. The retreating Germans had destroyed most of the warehouses in the camp. But in those warehouses that remained, Soviet soldiers found personal belongings of the victims.
In the following months, Soviet units liberated additional camps in the Baltic states and Poland. Thus, as Allied troops launched offensives within Germany, they encountered tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners. Most of these prisoners were suffering from starvation and disease.
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