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The Early Origins of the Nazi Holocaust

Holocaust

Spring 2003

General Comments

� The murder of European Jewry had its origins in the anti-Jewish policies that started in the early history of Europe.

� The Nazis could point to these policies as a justification for their own behavior.

� All of which contributed to the road to extermination.

� Combined with the prevailing racialist world view that found its way into science and medicine the Holocaust was nearly a foregone conclusion.

Purpose

� The objective is to look at the early Christian precedents and the role played in the tragedy.

� We should remember that Jews for centuries have been victims of Christian persecution.

� We should ask, what was the purpose of those persecutions?

� What were the aims of those who pressed for conversion?

� We should remember that Jews have been victims of horrible persecutions.

The Early Persecutions

� The first serious anti-Jewish policies started in the fourth century A.D.

� At a time when the Christian Church gained control over Rome.

� From that time, the State followed the dictates of the Church in relation to Jewish affairs.

The Official Policies

� The first was to force Jews to convert.

� The purpose was to rescue or to save non-believers.

� It was thought that non-believers would experience the pits of hellfire.

� It was the duty of believers everywhere from keeping that from happening.

� The early Christians believed that they were the one, true religion.

Why Did Jews Did Not Accept Christianity?

� Initially many Jews saw Christianity as a sect of Judaism.

� All they did was have a few different views.

� This was evident that early Christians followed Jewish law, but had a few different practices.

� Like baptism.

� But that changed when the Christians turned Christ into Godhood.

� To Jews, Christ was not God, and God was not he.

Conversion

� If a Jew accept Christ, he lost his/her identity.

� Abandoning Judaism was not an easy matter.

� The standard method was to use patience and persistence.

� Jews were not convinced and moved towards force.

� The early Papacy did not permit pressure against individual Jews, instead, they used pressure on the Jewish community.

� Forceful conversion was not permitted.

� The Clergy did use pressure on the Jews collectively.

The Church�s Defensive Measures

� If conversion failed, the Church would adopt more repressive measures.

� The Church felt the flock had to be protected from the dangerous Jews.

� Laws were introduced to prohibit intermarriage.

� Often the Talmud was burned.

� Jews were kept from holding political office.

� If if a Jew converted, there were grades of new Christians � Half New Christian, Quarter New Christian, One-Eighth New Christian.

The Church Sees No Other Option

� The Church feels that they have no other option.

� To many, the Jews were too dangerous to have around.

� Some, event he Protestant Martin Luther, felt that the Jews were blind.

� The Church had invested to much over the last 1,200 years.

� Between 1100 to 1600 the Jews of England, France, Germany, Spain, Bohemia, and Italy were given the choice of expulsion and conversion.

� Expulsion became the second Anti-Jewish policy in history.

Map of Expulsion of Jews in Regions of Europe

The Nazi Connection

The Background for Nazi Persecution

� When the Church said that the Jews do not have the right to live among us.

� The Nazis said the Jews have no right to live.

� The medieval Church used forced conversions to drive Jews into exile.

� The Nazis wanted to complete the process.

Elements that Aided Nazi Persecution

� The Administration Process.

� The Germans were more efficient than other persecutors.

� The industrial component made this possible.

� Especially during World War I.

� It made the persecutors desensitized to the rouge violence of the period.

� Two other issues dramatize the link between the Church and Nazi persecutions � the Yellow Star and Ghettoization.

A Practical Model: The Rome Ghetto

� The Pope ran a Ghetto in Rome until 1870, when the Italian Army occupied the city.

� **Jews could not rent property outside of Ghetto with the approval of the Cardinal Vicar.**

� Acquisition of property within the Ghetto was prohibited.

� Higher education was prohibited.

� Entry into the fields of law, pharmacy, notary, design, and painting was closed to Jews.

� Doctors could only administer to Jews.

� Jews could not hold political office.

Jews and Taxes within the Rome Ghetto

� Besides the other discriminatory practices of the Roman Catholic Church in 1870, the Jews had to pay taxes and other fees/fines.

� The Jews had to pay a yearly stipend for the upkeep of the Catholic Church that maintained the Ghetto.

� A yearly sum, 5,250 Lira, had to be paid to the Roman Catholic Church to finance the missionary work among the Jews in Rome.

� Likewise, additional funds had to be provided for those Jews who had already converted.

Anti Jewish Violence

Raul Hilberg�s Position

� He argued that when Hitler raised the �Jew� as a threat, many Germans were already programmed to accept that view.

� When Hitler went further and proclaimed that the Jews should be punished, the German public would agree.

� This is getting close to Goldhagen�s argument of �eliminationist Anti-Semitism.�

� The key was Martin Luther.

Germans and Martin Luther

� Many knew about his writings including The Jews and their Lies.

� Here Luther outlined his case against the Jews.

� They wanted to rule the world.

� They were arch-criminals.

� They were both a plague and a misfortune.

� The seeds were sown for what would follow.

The Nazi Hierarchy Toward the Jews

� **Julius Streicher, the editor of Der Sturmer, a very racist paper, claimed that the Jews were criminals.**

� He further said: �A chosen people does not go into the world to make others work for them, to suck [their] blood.�

Heinrich Himmler and the Jews

� Himmler was in charge of the SS, all facets of internal security.

� He agreed with Hans Frank, the Governor-General of Poland (he was hanged as a war criminal).

� That the Jews were the lowest form of life, a vermin.

Background

� The Jews had developed a clear pattern to external persecution throughout history that have lasted for 2,000 years.

� **Often the term �Jews� refers to those who experienced the Diaspora, the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine, long before the creation of the modern state of Israel.**

� The Jews are a rebellious lot.

� When the Jews of Palestine were revolting against the Romans, the Jews of Alexandria were doing the same.

� **How did Jews of the Diaspora respond to persecution?**

How did Diaspora Jews Respond to Persecution Prior to the Holocaust?

� Resistance

� Alleviation

� Evasion

� Paralysis

� Compliance

Examples of Historical Alleviation to Persecution

� A Standard course was ransom, petitions, and protection payments.

� In 1942, Bulgarian Jews petitioned the authorities not to be removed from their apartments.

� In the Middle Ages, the Jews of Nurnberg paid 80,000 Guilders to stop a pogrom (Duke received 15,000 and his agent 4,000).

� The same would happen in Slovakia and Hungary to stop the transports east.

� Sometimes the victims, seeing no avenue of escape, complied with the wishes of the persecutors.

Other Forms of Alleviation

� Rescue and Relief were other approaches to the same effort to end the persecutions.

� Often this was lead by �Prominent� Jews.

� They raised money from the outside to encourage immigration.

� In the 1860s, German Jews raised money to protect and help Russian Jews.

� Following the persecution, there would be Reconstruction to restore the damaged or destroyed Jewish community.

The Evasion Reaction

� This was not as marked as alleviation.

� Jews rarely fled in the wake of a pogrom.

� Instead they lived through it.

� They survived and this too shall pass.

Paralysis

� This happens when there is no avenue of escape or all else fails.

� Likewise, the persecutor finds strength from the inability of the victim to flee.

� This happened to World Jewry between 1941-42, when the decisions were being made for the Final Solution.

� The final action was compliance � best seen with the establishment of the Judenrat or Jewish Councils that worked with the Germans in the Ghettos.

Albrech Durer�s
Night, Death, and the Devil

The Early Origins of the Nazi Holocaust

Holocaust

Spring 2003

General Comments

� The murder of European Jewry had its origins in the anti-Jewish policies that started in the early history of Europe.

� The Nazis could point to these policies as a justification for their own behavior.

� All of which contributed to the road to extermination.

� Combined with the prevailing racialist world view that found its way into science and medicine the Holocaust was nearly a foregone conclusion.

Purpose

� The objective is to look at the early Christian precedents and the role played in the tragedy.

� We should remember that Jews for centuries have been victims of Christian persecution.

� We should ask, what was the purpose of those persecutions?

� What were the aims of those who pressed for conversion?

� We should remember that Jews have been victims of horrible persecutions.

The Early Persecutions

� The first serious anti-Jewish policies started in the fourth century A.D.

� At a time when the Christian Church gained control over Rome.

� From that time, the State followed the dictates of the Church in relation to Jewish affairs.

The Official Policies

� The first was to force Jews to convert.

� The purpose was to rescue or to save non-believers.

� It was thought that non-believers would experience the pits of hellfire.

� It was the duty of believers everywhere from keeping that from happening.

� The early Christians believed that they were the one, true religion.

Why Did Jews Did Not Accept Christianity?

� Initially many Jews saw Christianity as a sect of Judaism.

� All they did was have a few different views.

� This was evident that early Christians followed Jewish law, but had a few different practices.

� Like baptism.

� But that changed when the Christians turned Christ into Godhood.

� To Jews, Christ was not God, and God was not he.

Conversion

� If a Jew accept Christ, he lost his/her identity.

� Abandoning Judaism was not an easy matter.

� The standard method was to use patience and persistence.

� Jews were not convinced and moved towards force.

� The early Papacy did not permit pressure against individual Jews, instead, they used pressure on the Jewish community.

� Forceful conversion was not permitted.

� The Clergy did use pressure on the Jews collectively.

The Church�s Defensive Measures

� If conversion failed, the Church would adopt more repressive measures.

� The Church felt the flock had to be protected from the dangerous Jews.

� Laws were introduced to prohibit intermarriage.

� Often the Talmud was burned.

� Jews were kept from holding political office.

� If if a Jew converted, there were grades of new Christians � Half New Christian, Quarter New Christian, One-Eighth New Christian.

The Church Sees No Other Option

� The Church feels that they have no other option.

� To many, the Jews were too dangerous to have around.

� Some, event he Protestant Martin Luther, felt that the Jews were blind.

� The Church had invested to much over the last 1,200 years.

� Between 1100 to 1600 the Jews of England, France, Germany, Spain, Bohemia, and Italy were given the choice of expulsion and conversion.

� Expulsion became the second Anti-Jewish policy in history.

Map of Expulsion of Jews in Regions of Europe

The Nazi Connection

The Background for Nazi Persecution

� When the Church said that the Jews do not have the right to live among us.

� The Nazis said the Jews have no right to live.

� The medieval Church used forced conversions to drive Jews into exile.

� The Nazis wanted to complete the process.

Elements that Aided Nazi Persecution

� The Administration Process.

� The Germans were more efficient than other persecutors.

� The industrial component made this possible.

� Especially during World War I.

� It made the persecutors desensitized to the rouge violence of the period.

� Two other issues dramatize the link between the Church and Nazi persecutions � the Yellow Star and Ghettoization.

A Practical Model: The Rome Ghetto

� The Pope ran a Ghetto in Rome until 1870, when the Italian Army occupied the city.

� Jews could not rent property outside of Ghetto with the approval of the Cardinal Vicar.

� Acquisition of property within the Ghetto was prohibited.

� Higher education was prohibited.

� Entry into the fields of law, pharmacy, notary, design, and painting was closed to Jews.

� Doctors could only administer to Jews.

� Jews could not hold political office.

Jews and Taxes within the Rome Ghetto

� Besides the other discriminatory practices of the Roman Catholic Church in 1870, the Jews had to pay taxes and other fees/fines.

� The Jews had to pay a yearly stipend for the upkeep of the Catholic Church that maintained the Ghetto.

� A yearly sum, 5,250 Lira, had to be paid to the Roman Catholic Church to finance the missionary work among the Jews in Rome.

� Likewise, additional funds had to be provided for those Jews who had already converted.

� **Jews could not rent property outside of Ghetto with the approval of the Cardinal Vicar.**

� **Julius Streicher, the editor of Der Sturmer, a very racist paper, claimed that the Jews were criminals.**

� **Often the term �Jews� refers to those who experienced the Diaspora, the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine, long before the creation of the modern state of Israel.**

� **How did Jews of the Diaspora respond to persecution?**

Albrech Durer�s
Night, Death, and the Devil