HST 230    Life in Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe

I. Living in Fear
  A. The Boycott and Antisemitic Legislation 
        1. setting the stage in 1933
		a. Hitler becomes chancellor
		b. Reichstag fire
		c. Enabling Act
		d. state-sponsored antisemitism begins
	2. the boycott
		a. antisemitic signs 
		b. Nazis intimidated Jewish customers
		c. Marta Appel of Dortmund
			1. no more non-Jewish friends
			2. constant worrying
			3. children ostracized
	3. antisemitic legislation
		a. Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
		b. restrictions on Jewish students
		c. tax consultants, civilian workers in the military
		d. Nuremberg Laws [Goering video]
			1. Reich Citizenship Law
			2. Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor
	4. floodgates open; Jews disadvantaged everywhere
	5. Aryanization of the German economy
	6. Berlin Olympics in 1936 - a brief reprieve
		- Hitler at the opening ceremony
	7. identity cards and passports
	8. most Jews did not leave Germany
  B. Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938)
        1. propaganda
		a. a Jewish teen killed a German foreign service officer
		b. Goebbels made it seem like the German people rose up because of this
	2. reality
		a. plainclothes SS and SA officers given hammers, axes, bombs
		b. sent out to attack Jewish houses, businesses, synagogues, etc.
	3. e.g., Leipzig
	4. wake up call for those Jews who had not left Germany and Austria
II. Trying to Flee 
  A. The Difficulties 
        1. limited travel across borders due to World War I
	2. other refugees
		a. eastern Europe
		b. Spanish Civil War
		c. Great Depression
  B. Zionism/Palestine 
        1. the British occupied Palestine after World War I
	2. rampant antisemitism in Europe led to discussions about 
		setting up a Jewish national home there
	3. Zionist leaders would not let all Jewish refugees come at once
	4. the economy was weak and life was grim on the kibbutz
	5. they allowed about 20,000 refugees per year between 1933-37
	6. the British then lowered that to 10,000 per year
	7. they were thinking about building an economically sustainable state,
		not the immediate rescue of Jews
  C. Help from the US?
        1. Roosevelt organized a conference in France in 1938
	2. just trying to save face
	3. the US had closed its doors to most Jews in the 1930s
  D. The St. Louis (May-June 1939)
        1. German ship sailing from Hamburg to Havana 
	2. over 900 Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis
	3. they wanted to immigrate to the US; had applied for visas
	4. they wanted to stay in Cuba until their visas came through
	5. the Cuban President refused them entry
	6. Jewish organizations tried to negotiate; to no avail
	7. the ship was ordered to leave
	8. Roosevelt refused to intervene
	9. the German/Austrian immigrant quota for 1939 was already filled
	10. the ship returned to Europe
	11. England, France, Belgium, Netherlands took in the passengers
  E. Kindertransports
        1. trains took Jewish children from Germany, Austria, etc. to Belgium/Netherlands
	2. then sailed to England
	3. about 10,000 children saved
  F. Creative Escapes
        1. Wallach family of Cologne
	2. bicycled at night across the German border with the Netherlands
III. Life in the East 
  A. Poland
        1. Nazis took the west and the Russians took the east
	2. the Nazis divided up their section into three parts
		a. the west became part of an enlarged Germany
		b. the center was for Poles
		c. the east was for Jews
	3. SS leader Heinrich Himmler and his Einsatzgruppen
		a. removed Poles and Jews from the western part
		b. you could stay if you had Aryan characteristics
		c. also brought about 500,000 Germans from the east
		d. and took about 200,000 Polish children from their parents
			if they had Aryan characteristics
		e. made life miserable in the central and eastern sections
	4. genocide coined in 1942
	5. total war
  B. Russia
        1. genocide by famine
	2. potential Lebensraum
IV. Forced Labor 
  A. punishment
        1. non-Aryans and undesirables
	2. pointless tasks: digging ditches, breaking rocks
  B. war effort
        1. camps near stone quarries and coal mines
	2. also near munitions and aircraft factories [Siemens factory]
  C. annihilation through work
        1. collaboration between Himmler and Ministry of Justice
	2. prisoners sent to certain camps and purposefully worked to death
V. Discussion: Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls
	Topics
	1. What was the main goal of the Hitler Youth?
	2. What were the main differences between the Hitler Youth 
		and past youth organizations?
	3. What were the main differences between the Hitler Youth 
		and the League of German Girls?
	4. What was the main focus of the Youth Service Regulation 
		and what does this tell us about the Nazi Party?
	5. How effective do you think the Youth Service Regulation was 
		in forcing parents to register their children with the appropriate 
		Hitler Youth group?
	6. Why did Melita Maschmann and other German children WANT to 
		join the Hitler Youth?
	7. Describe the various rebellious aspects of the Swing Youth movement.
	8. How effective do you think Swing Youth was as a resistance movement?
		[Video: just in case you are wondering what 1940s Swing Dancing is]