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Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 11:05:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Holocaust and Homosexuals [x Voice of America gopher]
From: "Daniel E. Rogers" <drogers%jaguar1.usouthal.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
The following is a report lifted from the Voice of America gopher (available via gopher at gopher.voa.gov). I have posed a question after the report.
DATE=5/30/94
TITLE=HOLOCAUST / HOMOSEXUALS (L-ONLY)
BYLINE=ART CHIMES
DATELINE=JERUSALEM
INTRO: Israel's gay community gathered Monday to honor the victims of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals. VOA correspondent Art Chimes reports from Jerusalem on the controversial observance, which was repeatedly interrupted by protesters.
TEXT: Some 150 homosexuals and lesbians gathered at the cavernous memorial hall of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to pay tribute to the Nazi's homosexual victims. But the ceremony was repeatedly interrupted by right-wing and religious Jews who objected to the what they called the desecration of a holy place.
// Act -- protest ("get out from here," "AIDS," etc. ... Fade //
A few minutes before the ceremony, Yephim Maidanik, an Israeli who emigrated from Russia, said it is "absolutely not" possible to be gay and Jewish, any more than it is possible to be Jewish if you convert to another faith.
// Maidanik act //
They said, we don't want to be Jewish. Like those Jews
that take Christianity, like those Jews who take Islam.
They first deserted God. They don't belong to [the]
Jewish community. That's it.
// End act //
The commemoration of the homosexual victims of the Holocaust was held at Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial site. But Yad Vashem officials distanced themselves from the event, emphasizing that they were not sponsoring the observance.
The chairwoman of the society for the protection of personal rights, Israel's leading gay rights organization, said the only problem she had with Yad Vashem was with security after guards failed to stop the repeated interruptions of the ceremonies.
// Act -- protest in Hebrew ("you're desecrating this
holy [place], you sexual deviants") ... Fade //
The first hint of controversy came last Friday, when a group of American rabbis placed an advertisement in the Jerusalem Post (daily) newspaper, denouncing the observance. It described homosexuality as an "abomination" and a "cardinal crime in Judaism."
But another view came from Jack Gilbert, a gay rights activist from London, who said the commemoration of the Nazis' homosexual victims does not detract from the other victims of the Holocaust.
// Gilbert act //
We don't diminish that experience by also mentioning
that there were other victims. Because the only way we
can be sure that it doesn't happen again is to be sure
that other people who are persecuted are also free and
unpersecuted.
// End act //
Hundreds of thousands of homosexuals -- perhaps as many as a half-million
Source: Voice of America
Question: If memory serves me correctly, Yehuda Bauer has put the number of homosexuals imprisoned by Nazi Germany _for being homosexual_ at around 20,000 (all Germans). Thus while the numbers above may be correct given the proportion of homosexuals in the population at large, isn't it misleading to make the statement as above, implying that hundreds of thousands of homosexuals were killed for their sexual orientation rather than for being Jews?
Dan Rogers
From: dsc%st-andrews.ac.uk@uicvm.uic.edu (David Claridge)
I am working on a chapter on Hitler, Stalin and totalitarianism as part of my PhD on state terrorism. I am having a few problems with the historical details regarding the development of the security apparat and legal system under Hitler. More specifically the relationship between the Nazi party and the state, particularly the role of the SS as a sort of 'symbiosis' of the two sources of authority. I am surprised at how limited the literature appears to be on this area. Can anyone provide any suggestions regarding books and articles, or any other advice?
David Claridge Email: dsc@st-and.ac.uk Department of International Relations dsc@gn.apc.org University of St Andrews Fife, KY16 9AL, UK Tel: (0334) 62935
Date: Wed, 1 Jun 1994 17:17:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Need help determining fate of family members
From: Brynda Watkins <watkins%GIBBS.OIT.UNC.EDU@uicvm.uic.edu>
I received this from a forwarded listserv which concerns holocaust survivors. I felt it was of value for members of the holocaust list. Sharon Smith sksmith@nuacvm.acns.nwu.edu Northwestern Univ. Library Evanston, IL 60208
From: Stephen Caldwell <scaldwell@BIX.COM> To: Multiple recipients of list UUS-L <UUS-L@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu> Subject: shoah (fwd)
Hi,
this lovely lady asked me to forward this to you all.
From:FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU
To: Multiple recipients of list BRIDGE-L
<BRIDGE-L%UCSBVM.BITNET@cmsa.Berkeley.EDU> Subject: shoah
>From Ingrid (facshafer@mercur.usao.edu):
I am sending this to all my lists. Please excuse the duplication if you and I happen to share Internet interests. I spent the afternoon interviewing Leo, a Holocaust survivor who has only recently begun to talk about his experiences. In fact, he had not spoken about several aspects of his past until today. Remembering is agony for him--all of us ended up in tears, Leo, his wife, and I-- but he says he wants to help write the book because he feels so strongly that his story is one of human goodness and generosity as well as unspeakable cruelty. In addition, I suspect part of him realizes that he won't heal until he allows himself to face the horror. To my surprise, I learned that Leo had given up trying to determine the fate of family members in the late forties while he was in the U.S. army. Several attempts had proven futile, and he decided to accept that he was the only one left. When I suggested I give the Internet a try, he agreed.
I am hoping that someone on one of my lists has access to a Holocaust list or some other appropriate resource. Supposedly, there are some relatives in Argentina. These are the names and approximate dates of birth (spellings of first names are phonetic) of his immediate family:
Father: Abraham Polenzweig
Mother: Rifka Polenzweig
Sisters: Esther, born 1926
Sesil (pronounced "Cecil"), born 1933
Zosha, born 1936
Brother: Huna, born 1930
Leo, my friend, was born around 1928 or 1929. His family lived at the outskirts of Warsaw where his father and mother owned and operated a general store with goods ranging from soft coal and clothing to flour and salami. He went to public school and Hebrew school, visited with his grandparents in the country, and spent summers in a two-story white vacation house. There was a live-in maid/nannie (his mother worked). They had Catholic friends and employees (his father also owned several teams of horses and a taxi). Then the Germans marched in. For a while, the family hid behind false walls and took to the sewers. Then they were caught. >From Warsaw, they were first sent to Lublin, and then to Auschwitz. He last saw his mother and two younger sisters walking toward the gas chambers. He last saw his father being marched toward an area where prisoners were shot. He had lost all contact with his brother Huna and older sister Esther when he first arrived in Auschwitz but he never forgot his father's final words: "You will survive."
Please, help me distribute this request.
Never again!
Thank you, and shalom,
Ingrid
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 10:40:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Vatican and Final Solution
From: 6492PHAYERM%VMS.CSD.MU.EDU@uicvm.uic.edu
After reading the article in the NY Times, which even spoke of Vatican "collaboration" in the Holocaust, I read the next day in another newspaper that the Vatican had distanced itself from the earlier statement. If the Vatican is engaged in some sort of a statement for the purpose of opposing antisemitism, fine, but I found myself asking what other motives it might have for this course of action. One might be that it would reduce pressure on the Vatican to release all of its WWII Holocaust related documents. It is becoming increasingly clear that there are some gaping holes in the multi-volume Actes et Documents series.
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 15:31:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Re: Holocaust and Homosexuals [x Voice of America gopher]
From: Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@compuserve.com>
Dear Professor Rogers,
You obviously are not terribly familiar with Germany's former Paragraph 175 - which even existed until recently - that provided for the wholesale slaughter of both foreign and German Jews.
Of course, the irony here is that the SA was filled with gays including Rohm who, as you know, was murdered on 30 June 1934 (Night of the Long Knives).
Regards,
Charles J. Weckesser, M.A. (History)
From: Gideon Goldstein <ortisrael%igc.apc.org@uicvm.uic.edu>
Dan,
Just a word to complement your report:
This afternoon (June 1), a debate was held in the Israeli parliament as to the incident happening at the memorial hall at Yad Vashem.
The formal stand of Yad Vashem, cited by the deputy minister for Education and Culture, said that Yad Vashem policy is to keep the memorial hall open to any individual or group wishing to hold memorial services.
Yad Vashem does not auspice any memorial service.
Yad Vashem expressed regret that the gay movement turned the event into a PR situation, inviting extensive media coverage and distributing informative and promotional materials inside the memorial hall.
Gideon Goldstein
From: "Terry Moore" <RTMOORE%PCAD-ML.ACTX.EDU@uicvm.uic.edu>
Hello, Dan!
I will offer you my thoughts on this.
> Question: If memory serves me correctly, Yehuda Bauer has put the number of > homosexuals imprisoned by Nazi Germany _for being homosexual_ at around > 20,000 (all Germans). Thus while the numbers above may be correct given > the proportion of homosexuals in the population at large, isn't it > misleading to make the statement as above, implying that hundreds of > thousands of homosexuals were killed for their sexual orientation rather > than for being Jews?
I would say so. The Nazis hated homosexuals as much as Jews, IMHO. For some insight into this, please consult Rudolf Hoess' work "Commandant of Auschwitz". He devotes many many pages of his memoirs, written shortly before his execution, to homosexuals and why they had to be expunged from society. His views very much reflected the views generally of his colleagues in the SS.
Hope this helps.
Terry
Terry Moore, Professor of German and French, Amarillo College P.O. Box 447, Amarillo, Texas 79178, voice 806-371-5077 fax 806-371-5370
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 16:34:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Japanese-Americans in World War II From: Jonathan Morse <JMORSE%UHCCMVS.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU@uicvm.uic.edu>
I'm sorry: I've deleted the original post and I don't remember who sent it or precisely what was being asked for. But:
A lot has been written about California's Japanese-Americans and the "inhuman mistake" that sent them to concentration camps during World War II. Much less, however, has been done with:
--California's Italian-Americans, many of whom were likewise interned;
--the Japanese-American internees in Hawaii, a small and (I believe) carefully selected minority of Hawaii's large Japanese-American population; or
--Canada's Japanese, who were singled out for mistreatment in ways that didn't apply in the United States. American policy, for instance, was to keep interned families together; Canadian policy was to separate them. And Canada's West Coast Japanese weren't allowed to return home until, I believe, 1949.
Incidentally, the phrase "inhuman mistake" comes from the letter of resignation that the first administrator of the American program sent to President Roosevelt after just two months. The administrator was Milton Eisenhower, the general's brother.
Jonathan Morse
Dept. of English, University of Hawaii
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 16:39:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Terror under Hitler
From: MKRAIN%ucs.indiana.edu@uicvm.uic.edu
David,
You might try a chapter from Timothy Bushnell, et. al.'s edited volume (1991) on state terrorism and its links to genocide. I'm pretty sure there are a few articles in there which would help, especially one on the development and "overdevelopment" of the SS. The article asks whether terror stabilized or destabilized Hitler's rule, and concludes that because the SS spiraled out of control (of the state) it actually helped to destabilize the regime...
Good luck in your research... let us know how it goes...
-Matt Krain
Dept of Political Science
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN 47405 (USA)
E-Mail: MKRAIN@ucs.indiana.edu
From: JUREK%vaxph.mpi-stuttgart.mpg.de@uicvm.uic.edu
Most probably you know it, but just in case since this book covers your area of study so well:
Author: Bullock, Alan, 1914-. Title: Hitler and Stalin : parallel lives / Alan Bullock. Edition: 1st American ed.
Pub. Info.: New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 1992.
Phy Descript: xviii, 1081 p., [28] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 25 cm.
Notes: Originally published: London : HarperCollins, 1991.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [1035]-1057) and
index.
LC Subject: Hitler-Adolf-1889-1945.
Stalin-Joseph-1879-1953.
Heads-of-state -- Europe -- Biography.
Germany -- History -- 1933-1945.
Soviet-Union -- History -- 1925-1953.
Language: eng
ISBN: 0394586018 : 35.00.
Jerzy Remigioni, Stuttgart
From: "Connelly, William" <wconnelly%ushmm.org@uicvm.uic.edu>
In reply to Mr. Claridge's posting requesting information on
the role and history of the SS to assist him with his paper
comparing the Nazi and Soviet "police states", others will
no doubt refer to works such as _Anatomy of the SS-State_
and other historical works on the SS and Nazi Germany.
I would just like to mention a pair of comparative
statistical studies on the measurable human cost of these
two systems, both by R.J. Rummel. The first, _Democide_,
examines the brutal legacy of the Nazi period, while _Lethal
Politics_ does the same for the Soviets.
Nota Bene for Mr. Claridge: Since I spent a couple of
years in and around St. Andrews, I felt I might save one of
my alma mater a little shoe leather by hytelnetting through
the St. Andrews, Edinburgh and other Scottish University
Library Catalogues, but none seem to have both works.
However, the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh does
have a copy of _Lethal Politics_. The St. Andrews
University librarian may be able to arrange for an
interlibrary loan of this book, and perhaps _Democide_ as
well, from another British library. If this is not the
case, both works are available from Transaction Publishers,
which has an office in London.
With Regards,
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| WCONNELLY@USHMM.ORG |
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| William Connelly |
| U.S. Holocaust Research Institute Library |
| 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl., S.W. |
| Washington, D.C. 20024-2150 |
| Voice (202) 488-6109 |
| Fax (202) 479-9726 |
|______________________________________________|
From: "Terry Moore" <RTMOORE%PCAD-ML.ACTX.EDU@uicvm.uic.edu>
Hello, David!
I ran across one work that may be of interest. I will keep an eye out on others.
> I am working on a chapter on Hitler, Stalin and totalitarianism as part of > my PhD on state terrorism. I am having a few problems with the historical > details regarding the development of the security apparat and legal system > under Hitler. More specifically the relationship between the Nazi party > and the state, particularly the role of the SS as a sort of 'symbiosis' of > the two sources of authority. I am surprised at how limited the literature > appears to be on this area. Can anyone provide any suggestions regarding > books and articles, or any other advice?
One work that I found in my own library is "In the Name of the Volk: Political Justice in Hitler's Germany" by H.W. Koch. It should still be in print.
You might also consult William L. Shirer's "Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". He devotes considerable space to the legal system in Nazi Germany.
Will keep an eye out for others.
Hope this helps, and all the best to you and your research.
Terry
Terry Moore, Professor of German and French, Amarillo College P.O. Box 447, Amarillo, Texas 79178, voice 806-371-5077 fax 806-371-5370
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 15:00:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Homosexual victimization in the Holocaust
Sender: Alex Sagan <sagan%HUSC.BITNET@uicvm.uic.edu>
This is a response to Dan Rogers post and query:
Thanks for posting the VOA story. Yes, the story is misleading.
Elisheva Shaul, in her article in The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (I. Gutman, ed.), writes: "Under Nazi rule, tens of thousands of persons were punished on the charge of homosexuality. Thousands of them (some sources put the figure at ten thousand or more, but no precise figure is available) were imprisoned in concentration camps, where they had to wear a pink triangular patch (rosa Winkel). Many of the homosexuals imprisoned in the camps perished there. Shortly before the end of the war, some of them were set free [sic] and drafted into frontline service with the Wehrmacht. This step, of course, violated Nazi principle on the issue." Shaul goes on: "Persecution of homosexuals was restricted to the Reich and the areas annexed to it. There is no evidence of Nazi-instigated drives against homosexuality in the occupied countries."
Unfortunately it is common for jounalists to put together this sort of sloppy story, doing little more than setting up opposing views of a subject. Only a little effort would be required to properly inform VOA listeners about the issues involved. I wonder what the source is for the historical innacuracies in the article. Perhaps the source consists of persons present at the commemoration; it seems to me a journalist must check such a source (call a historian!). Statements are made which are not attributed to anyone and are presented simply as matters of fact. I do not doubt the validity of the commemoration, though its integrity is jeopardized if it involves misinformation.
As for the protesters, Yad VaShem, and the security guards, it would help to know more about their actions. Here I may be demanding a longer story, not just a more accurate one, but the religious and political context of such behavior might be analyzed. I saw on CNN some footage of the protesters disruptions. They (the disruptions) were rather revolting, to tell the truth, a queer (excuse the pun) manifestation of the politicization of sexuality and religion.
As for the number of Jews who were killed by the Nazis as racially-defined Jews, but who also happened to be homosexual, I would offer these thoughts: I see no reason to believe that the article is referring to this number. We do not, of course, actually know what percentage of the general population may be said to be homosexual, even if we can agree on a definition of homosexuality. But your math makes sense if we take the oft-cited (though recently critiqued) estimates for the percentage of homosexuals in the population: around 10 percent would yield a number that is around half a million. So much death--it boggles the mind.
Thanks, again for posting the article. By the way, on what gopher do you find such things?
--Alex Sagan <sagan@husc8.harvard.edu>
From: "Klevan, David G." <dklevan%ushmm.org@uicvm.uic.edu>
At the prompting of Prof. Rogers, I would like to share
this with the rest of the users on the net:
Prof. Rogers,
To my knowledge most reliable sources, including Dr. Klaus
Mueller (gay consultant to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
estimate the number of homosexuals imprisoned in the camps
at between 10,000 and 20,000. By in large, these prisoners
were male (there is no documentation of a systematic attempt
to incarcerate lesbians, such as there was for gay men).
Many homosexuals were also imprisoned in prisons (not
concentration camps). Gay men wore the pink triangle in the
camps (not in the outside society, as the VOA article
suggests with its comparison to the yellow star-of-david).
The mortality figure in the camps is believed to be at least
2,200 to 5,000 for the people wearing the pink triangles.
You are correct in surmising that the estimation of hundreds
of thousands distorts the truth. Obviously, there were gays
among those murdered because they were Jewish, but of the
victims of the Nazis it was probably less than ten thousand
murdered in the camps specifically BECAUSE OF THEIR
HOMOSEXUALITY. As many as 63,000 men were convicted of
homosexual offenses in courts from 1935-1945 in Germany.
Interestingly, Nazi thugs frequently raided gay bars, and in
cases that we know of when gays were discovered to also be
Jewish, they were often beaten severely and, I believe,
sometimes killed.
The important thing to remember is that very little research
has been done into the fates of homosexuals in the Holocaust
compared to the research on Jews, Poles, and other groups.
One of the major reasons for this reality is that the
anti-gay law known as paragraph 175 that was revised under
the Nazi regime (it expanded an anti-sodomy law into a law
that made all homosexuals, regardless of their actions,
"enemies of the state") stayed on the books until the
1960s and reflected German society's continuing hostility
and indifference toward the fate of homosexuals.
Homosexuals were never recognized as victims of the Nazis
and risked imprisonment (with their stay in the
concentration camps counting as a previous arrest) if they
came out of the closet to testify. Because of this, it may
be some time before we are able to say with real confidence
that we know exactly what the numbers were for homosexuals
killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Nonetheless,
the estimates that we have at the moment are probably fairly
accurate.
I hope that this helps to answer your question.
I would like to add a response to Prof. Weckesser's claim
that paragraph 175 legislated murderous actions against
Jews. I assume that he made a typo and meant to say
homosexuals, but even with that granted, it is important to
make a distinction betweeen the policies of systematic
extermination that were implemented in the case of the Jews
and the anti-gay policies. Barabaric as it was, paragraph
175 was not a "final solution" for homosexuals.
David Klevan <dklevan@ushmm.org>
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 1994 14:57:00 CST
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: JIMMOTT@spss.com
Subject: Re: Need help determining fate of family members
From: Joanne Rudof <JOANNER%YaleVM.CIS.Yale.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
I suggest that the best place toassist in locating relatives lost during the Shoah is the International Tracing Service of the Red Cross. The Holocaust and War Victims Tracing and Information Center has access to recently opened archival recrods and they are very helpful. They are located at the Central maryland Chapter, 4700 Mount Hope Drive, Baltimore, MD 21215-3200, (301) 764-5301 or (800) 848-9277.
Good luck.
Joanne Rudof, Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust
Testimonies, Yale University
From: Romuald Wroblewski onk <Romuald.Wroblewski%onk.ki.se@uicvm.uic.edu>
Dear Ingrid,
I printed out you letter and will put it on the notice-board in Judaica
House in Stockholm. I feel that there is still a chance to finde
relatives. My father met his sister first 1955 on a street in Warszawa
although he was making several attempts to find her through Red Cross.
I feel that may be several of the Wasserman familly from Pinsk are alive.
Regards,
Romuald (Wasserman) Wroblewski
Stockholm
Sweden
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 1994 12:37:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Determining fate of family member
From: Ingrid Shafer <FACSHAFERI@mercur.usao.edu>
Apology and Correction:
On May 28 I posted a request for information that might help a friend of mine who is a Holocaust survivor discover the fate of his family. Only today (June 4) I noticed that I had misspelled my own e-mail address which I had placed in parentheses after my name. Hence, there is a good possibility that messages addressed to me were returned by MERCUR, if they were sent not to the address found in the header (correct!) of my message but the one I inserted in the body of my post. I discovered my mistake when I began to wonder about a forwarded message that had initially been rejected by the local Postmaster as undeliverable on account of a "Bad address" and "No such local user." If you posted my message on other lists, would you please send this correction to the same lists. If your mail was returned, please, accept my apologies and resend the material to <facshaferi@mercur.usao.edu>.
A helpful contact in Jerusalem was able to have the lists of the Search Bureau for Missing Relatives searched. There was not a single Polenzweig listed, and the woman at the agency wonders if Leo knows his correct name. So I am now looking for information about possible alternate family names. The name is German and translates into "Branch of the Poles." Could there be a Polish version or spelling of the name? Leo was called Lizer (spelling?) at home.
Once again I add the original request:
Father: Abraham Polenzweig
Mother: Rifka Polenzweig
Sisters: Esther, born 1926
Sesil (pronounced "Cecil"), born 1933
Zosha, born 1936
Brother: Huna, born 1930
Leo, my friend, was born around 1928 or 1929. His family lived at the outskirts of Warsaw where his father and mother owned and operated a general store with goods ranging from soft coal and clothing to flour and salami. He went to public school and Hebrew school, visited with his grandparents in the country, and spent summers in a two-story white vacation house. There was a live-in maid/nanny (his mother worked). They had Catholic friends and employees (his father also owned several teams of horses and a taxi). Then the Germans marched in. For a while, the family hid behind false walls and took to the sewers. Then they were caught. >From Warsaw, they were first sent to Lublin, and then to Auschwitz.
He last saw his mother and two younger sisters walking toward the gas chambers. He last saw his father being marched toward an area where prisoners were shot. He had lost all contact with his brother Huna and older sister Esther when he first arrived in Auschwitz but he never forgot his father's final words: "You will survive."
Please, help me distribute this request.
Never again!
Thank you, and shalom,
Ingrid
(facshaferi@mercur.usao.edu)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 10:42:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Camp Noe, Vichy France
From: Gaston L Schmir <glschm%minerva.cis.yale.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
In reply to the inquiry by Julian Duffus of April 22, 1994, I cite the following references:
[1] Gret Arnoldsen, Silence, on tue, La Pensee Universelle, Paris,
1981. 278 p.
[2] Eric Malo, Le camp de Noe: des origines a novembre 1942.
Memoire de maitrise, Universite de Toulouse - Le Mirail, 1985. 219 p.
[3] Eric Malo, Le camp de Noe: internement et deportation (fevrier
` 1941 - septembre 1942), ca. 1985. 18 p. Reprinted from
undetermined journal, printed in Auch (France)
[4] Rene S. Kapel, Un rabbin dans la tourmente (1940-1944): dans
les camps d'internement et au sein de l'Organisation Juive de Combat,
Editions du Centre, Paris, 1986. 220 p.
[5] Anne Grynberg, Documents, Le Monde Juif, Centre de
Documentation Juive Contemporaine, Paris, vol 44, October-December 1988, p
167-178
[6] Anne Grynberg, Documents, ibid., vol 45, January-March 1989, p 20-26
[7] Anne Grynberg, Documents extraits du Fonds de la Commission
des Camps, ibid., vol 45, April-June 1989, p 81-87
[8] Eric Malo, Les camps d'internement du Midi de la France 1939-1944,
Bibliotheque Municipale de Toulouse, 1990. 66 p.
Catalogue of an exhibit held in Spring 1990
[9] Anne Grynberg, Les camps de la honte: les internes juifs des
camps francais (1939-1944), Editions La Decouverte, Paris, 1990.
400 p.
[10] Jacques Grandjonc and Theresia Gruntner, eds., Zone d'ombres
1933-1944: exil et internement d'Allemands et d'Autrichiens dans le
sud-est de la France, Editions Alinea et Erca, Aix-en-Provence,
1990. 474 p.
[11] Monique-Lise Cohen and Eric Malo, eds., Les camps du Sud-Ouest
de la France 1939-1944. Exclusion, internement et deportation,
Editions Privat, Toulouse, 1994. 240 p.
Some of these references are only marginally concerned with Noe, but I hope they will be helpful.
Gaston L. Schmir
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 10:51:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Cultural life in the camp of Terezin
From: "Martin Holle" <HOLLEM%jura1.jura.uni-mainz.de@uicvm.uic.edu>
Hallo everybody!
I am working on an essay about the cultural life in the concentration
camp of Terezin (near Prague/Czech Republic). I am especially
interested in informations about the Jewish composer Victor Ullmann
and his opera "The emperor of Atlantis" which was written by him in
Terezin but never performed because the composer himself and most of
the artists working on the opera were brought to Auschwitz before.
If you have any idea, where to find informations about him, please
mail me.
My e-mail adress: hollem.jura1.jura.uni-mainz.de
Martin Holle, Mainz (Germany)
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 1994 17:02:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Email list for finding lost relatives and reconnecting families
From: bkahn%Kodak.COM@uicvm.uic.edu
>From: Bruce E. Kahn, Imaging Research Labs, Mail 01708, Phone 722-3517
> To my surprise, I learned that Leo had given up trying to
> determine the fate of family members in the late forties while he
> was in the U.S. army. Several attempts had proven futile, and he
> decided to accept that he was the only one left. When I suggested
> I give the Internet a try, he agreed.
>
> I am hoping that someone on one of my lists has access to a
> Holocaust list or some other appropriate resource. Supposedly,
> there are some relatives in Argentina. These are the names and
> approximate dates of birth (spellings of first names are phonetic)
> of his immediate family:
> Father: Abraham Polenzweig > Mother: Rifka Polenzweig > Sisters: Esther, born 1926 > Sesil (pronounced "Cecil"), born 1933 > Zosha, born 1936 > Brother: Huna, born 1930
>
>
> Please, help me distribute this request.
Well, since you asked ... I submit that the best place to look for help in finding lost relatives, and reconnecting families is on the Jewish Genealogy list. The JEWISHGEN conference started on FIDOnet and has been gated between FIDOnet and Internet now for about a year.
JEWISHGEN may be accessed from any commercial service from a mailing list. The internet mailing list is housed on NYSERNET.ORG and welcomes new subscribers. To subscribe to the JEWISHGEN List on Nysernet, one must simply send an email message from their service as follows.
To: listserv@nysernet.org (saying nothing but)
SUBSCRIBE JEWISHGEN Firstname Lastname
All messages posted to this list as well as those posted by Fidonet users will be forwarded to your mailbox at the address from which you sent in your subscription.
Be forwarned, the message base averages between 30-50 messages a day and has caused some subscribers to be overwhelmed with the amount of mail in their personal mailboxes. To offset this situation, the listserver at NYSERNET.ORG does have the MAIL DIGEST feature which we do recommend subscribers to use. This allows a days worth of messages to be consolidated in digest form and sent to you as one message.
After subscribing to the list and after taking care of the housekeeping tasks of changing your PASSWORD, you may change to the Mail Digest feature by sending email as follows:
To: listserv@nysernet.org (saying nothing but)
SET JEWISHGEN Mail Digest
Messages can be posted from you as a subscriber at any time by sending email as follows:
To: jewishgen@israel.nysernet.org
SUBJECT: Please be SPECIFIC!
Body of your message
Please be advised also since this message base is being read by a "mixed bag" of users and read in a variety of "flavors" there are some "rules" we must abide by for the good of the message base. These rules will be sent to you after you have subscribed to the list.
All messages posted to the list will be received by all the list subscribers and will also be gated into FIDONET and read by all those who read and post to JEWISHGEN on hobby BBS's. The same is true in reverse. All those who access FIDONET BBS's throughout the world will also receive all messages posted by subscribers to the internet list.
HERE are some other commands you might want to execute from the LISTSERV@NYSERNET.ORG for future reference. They should be sent individually as follows:
HELP SET (these will tell you the commands for controlling MAIL) HELP (these will tell you the commands for SUBSCRIBING and UNSUBSCRIBING)
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us!
Bruce E. Kahn JEWISHGEN co-moderator bkahn@kodak.com
or
Susan E. King Trace!Gateway Computer Graphics Support Group Fidonet 1:106/270 12 Greenway Plaza, Suite 1100 (713)862-6400 Houston, Texas 77046 (713)871-3148 Internet susan.king@trace.cgsg.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 09:19:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Wanted: Book on Nazism
From: SCHOCHET@zodiac.rutgers.edu
I am looking for advice and/or help about books to assign in the largeenrollment,
introductory political science I regularly teach.
Inter alia, I always show the one-hour version of _Triumph of the Will_
(my intentions are certainly mixed: I want to call Nazism to the attention of
my students, and also want to talk about "romantic" political ideologies and
the use and manipulation of symbols by and through politics).
The previous readings, in order, include _Antigone_, "Letter from Birmingham
Jail," _Lord of the Flies_, and _The Communist Manifesto_. _Triumph_ is
followed by Rousseau's _Social Contract_, Atwood's _Handmaid's Tale_ and other
scattered materials. It has become increasingly clear to me that I should
assign some READING to go with _Triumph_ rather than rely upon my lectures.
I presume that most of my students will have seen _Schindler's List_ by this
fall (I haven't seen it yet; re-reading the book last summer was quite enough
for now), and I'm looking for something that will convey the everyday and
mundane nature of the Nazi horror the way that the book (and, I am told, the
film) do. I would like them to know that the character who went out to his
balcony and shot a Jew or two every morning for the sheer sport of it was not,
by his own lights, behaving in an extraordinary manner.
I thought of assigning the two _Maus_ books, partially because the comic-book
idiom they employ captures the matter-of-factness of it all with an amazingly
straightforward horror. But then again, do I have my students spend an additional
$20.00 or so for "comics"?
If anyone has any suggestions, I should be most appreciative.
Gordon Schochet Rutgers University
schochet@zodiac.rutgers.edu
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 10:47:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Re: Nazi-instigated drives against homosexuality
From: whuber%sadis01.kelly.af.mil@uicvm.uic.edu (WILLIAM L. HUBER - SAA)
>
> Sender: Alex Sagan <sagan%HUSC.BITNET@uicvm.uic.edu>
>
> ........................ There is no evidence of Nazi-instigated drives
> against homosexuality in the occupied countries."
Funny you should mention that. I believe that very issue was addressed in _Mein Kampf_. Hitler felt that homosexuality weakened a nation and since Hitler wanted Germany to be strong the homosexuals had to go. On the other hand they were not touched in other countries because it served the Nazi purpose to keep the population weak and easily dominated.
The son of a high ranking Danish governmental official was picked up in Hamburg in 1940 for participating in homosexual acts. The Nazis used this incident to blackmail the father into causing the Danish Army to stand down and their boarder guards not to interfere with the German invasion. The ploy worked and the son was returned to Denmark unharmed but had the father not done as the Germans specified the son would have been sent to a concentration camp and that detail was spelled out very clearly. I don't have my source material with me but this line of discussion reminded me of this incident. It also points out the political opportunism/terrorism that Hitler excelled in.
Bill Huber / whuber@sadis01.kelly.af.mil
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 10:48:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Representing the Wannsee Conference
From: "Daniel E. Rogers" <drogers%jaguar1.usouthal.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
I have just finished teaching a course on the Holocaust. One essay question on the final exam concerned the Wannsee conference. The students were asked why the conference was necessary, who attended, and what the major results were. During the term, we had read and discussed the minutes of the conference and watched the excellent film, _The Wannsee Conference_.
What I am shocked to find is that the film _became_ the conference for the students. In their exam answers, they refer often to the various positions of the men at the meeting table and almost seem to forget that the screenwriters took a good deal of dramatic license. Granted, the testimony of Adolf Eichmann during his trial added to the screenwriters' knowledge of what happened at the conference, and they based the film in part on his recollections. But when one student wrote about the barking dog disrupting the conference, I began to worry that the film was _too_ powerful (I don't know: DID Eichmann say anything about a barking dog?).
I wonder if anyone else who has used both the minutes and the film has encountered anything similar? Is this anything to worry about? Should the class discuss even further how history can be approached through a variety of means, and how to be critical of sources? During the term we did discuss whether the film or the minutes better represented the "truth" of the Wannsee conference, but without reaching a consensus, of course. Most students, though, preferred the film.
My thanks for any comments.
Dan Rogers
From: "Rebecca Hill" <hillx018%maroon.tc.umn.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
Hannah Arendt's _Eichmann in Jerusalem_ is always a good choice for the issue of "banality of evil," although I think the _Maus_ books are great and worth every penny. I've seen "Triumph of the Will" in a class in which we'd also read parts of _Mein Kampf_ - which was, for me, a really powerful experience. I must say that "Triumph of the Will" stands oddly juxtaposed to your other assignments. Surely, you don't compare Hitler and Martin Luther King? how do you organize this in your class? I'd be interested to know whether you have seen the new film, "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl"? Since that just came out, it might be an interesting extra credit assignment for your class.
From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ%PUCC@uicvm.uic.edu>
To Gordon Schochet: First of all, I think that Maus is hardly a comic book; it is a unique and remarkable work, of enormous appeal to students. $20 seems to me quite a bargain. But if you want other suggestions, two come to mind: 1. Gitta Sereny, Into That Darkness (it works out from interviews with Franz Stangl in prison. He was the commandant of Sobibor and then Treblinka, having started as an Austrian policeman who got involved in the euthanasia program). But the book is far more than this, bringing in many other witnesses, including Nazis, Jews, his wife etc. and giving more than a glimpse into the workings of Treblinka. The last section, which establishes how the Catholic network in Rome helped him escape the Allied net is also riveting.
2. Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning. the study of one single German reserve police battalion, conscripted into operations of mass slaughter of Jews in Poland, and their education into becoming mass murderers from being, as the title suggests, quite 'ordinary men.' It certainly is a shocker, a quick 'education' for the students, since it's quite short.
From: William Mich Thomas <wmthomas%strauss.udel.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
2 books from my Ger. Hist class last semester:
Hilberg, Raul. _Perpetraters, Victims, Bystanders: The Jewish
Catastrophe, 1933-1945_. New York: Harper Collins, 1992. 268
pages of text (plus 63 pages of notes).
I thought this a very well written book: quick read, easy to follow, something I think most undergrads would not find "boring."
Kershaw, Ian. _Hitler_. London and New York: Longman, 1991. Part of
_Profiles in Power_ series. Just over 200 pages.
This book is "drier" than Hilberg but deals more with the politics of Hitler & 3rd Reich & Hitler as a politician.
Hope these help.
Will Thomas
University of Delaware
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 15:47:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Holocaust & homosexuals
From: pl2%ukc.ac.uk@uicvm.uic.edu
I have followed the above discussion with interest and realise how little I know about what happened to gay men during the Holocaust. I guess there are other list members who feel the same and would appreciate David Klevan's suggestions on articles and books to read.
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 16:59:00 CST
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: JIMMOTT@spss.com
Subject: Re: Email list for finding lost relatives and reconnecting
families
From: KATZSOL%VAX2.CONCORDIA.CA@uicvm.uic.edu
Suggest you also try searching for persons with variants of this name, e.g. Polan, Polansky, Pullan, Pollak, Ellenzweig, etc. -- as name changes and spellings often occur when persons emigrate.
Sol Katz, Concordia University
From holoweb@h-net.msu.edu Thu Aug 22 14:08:30 1996
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 14:07:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: HOLOCAUS Gopherspace <holoweb@h-net.msu.edu>
To: HOLOCAUS Gopherspace <holoweb@h-net.msu.edu>
Subject: log 9406b
>From LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU Mon Aug 12 22:19:14 1996 Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU [128.248.100.50]) by h-net.msu.edu (8.7.1/8.7.1) with SMTP id OAA22646 for <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 14:54:15 -0400 Message-Id: <199608121854.OAA22646@h-net.msu.edu> Received: from UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU by UICVM.UIC.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
with BSMTP id 8801; Mon, 12 Aug 96 13:53:27 CDT Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@UICVM) by UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 6004; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:18 -0500 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:15 -0500 From: "L-Soft list server at UICVM (1.8b)" <LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU> Subject: File: "HOLOCAUS LOG9406B" To: H-NET Help <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 08:32:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Terror and Hitler
From: James Costello <jcostello%igc.apc.org@uicvm.uic.edu>
SS ltrTEXTMSWDP@*OV*RZY}To David Claridge, re: Terror under Hitler.
The chapter, *Concentration Camps and Killing Centers* in _Holocaust Literature: A Handbook of Critical, Historical, and Literary Writings_. ed. by Saul Friedman, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1993, (ISBN 0-313-26221-7), Library of Congress call number: D804.3.H35, contains a starting discussion and bibliography on the SS. Helmut KrausnickUs _Anatomy of the SS State_ and Martin BrozatUs, _The German Dictatorship_ are mentioned.
Good luck!
James Costello (jcostello@igc.apc.org)
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 09:25:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Origin of the term Holocaust
From: lin collette <BI599128%BROWNVM@uicvm.uic.edu>
I don't recall if this has ever come up in discussion before, and I haven't come up with an answer myself, but does anyone out there know when the term "Holocaust" was first used to describe the extermination of the Jews? Are there any sources that explain the etymology of the term in this sense?
thanks.
lin collette
bi599128@brownvm.brown.edu
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 14:53:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Representing the Wannsee Conference
From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ%PUCC@uicvm.uic.edu>
Wannsee Conference: I have never used either the minutes of the meeting or the film in the course I teach, but I have seen/read both, and am not surprised that the students should have responded to the film as the 'real' thing. The film was designed to take exactly as much time as the meeting did; I presume it was held in the Wannsee villa itself. On the other hand, I personally found the simulation very jarring and suspected it was not necessarily authentic (including the barking dog), first, because of the actors when one knew the real faces (esp. Heydrich and Eichmann), and then because of the stereotyping of Nazi behavior -- just what one would expect.
From: Jonathan Morse <JMORSE%UHCCMVS.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU@uicvm.uic.edu>
Dan Rogers reports with some anxiety that when he tried to teach the history of the Wannsee Conference with primary documents, supplemented by a modern filmed docudrama, his students wound up regarding the film as somehow "real" in ways that the mere historical record wasn't. Should this, Dan asks, be a matter of concern?
Well, the general phenomenon has caused heavy breathing among theorists of the postmodern. Jean Baudrillard, for instance, has written some interesting things about Disneyland ("Disneyland is presented as imaginary in order to make us believe that the rest is real, when in fact all of Los Angeles and the America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyperreal and of simulation"), and his ideas are helping further the current discussion on the H-net American Studies list of Disney's current plans to build an American history theme park in Virginia. The book to explore for an intro (including an intro to Baudrillard) is _A Postmodern Reader_, ed. Joseph Natoli and Linda Hutcheon (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993).
But Dan, for my money the book that best explores the emotional significance of what you've been experiencing is Don DeLillo's novel _White Noise_ (Viking, 1985). And if you're looking for vocational identification, you'll be interested to know that the book's protagonist is a professor of Hitler Studies who teaches, among other things, a course called Advanced Nazism.
Jonathan Morse
Dept. of English, University of Hawaii
From: herb%halcyon.com@uicvm.uic.edu (Herb Effron)
Your point re: "... how history can be approached ... and how to be critical of sources" is well-put and likely central to the success of your course.
My most recent reminder comes from Prof. Bob Keller (Emeritus) of Western Washington University who makes the point emphatically in his Inquiring Mind presentation, "Chief Seattle's Speech: The Fifth Gospel?"
My perspective (as an advisor for Holocaust education) is that, if your students leave with this alone, you will have instilled a beginning insight to search out and understand the broader lessons of the Holocaust.
Thanks.
Herb Effron Herb Effron herb@halcyon.com Seagopher, Inc. for personal mail seattle-usa@halcyon.com
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 16:27:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Educational resources on the Holocaust
From: "Connelly, William" <wconnelly%ushmm.org@uicvm.uic.edu>
This is in response to Gordon Schochet's posting requesting
recommendations for materials to include in his curriculum.
This Museum's Gonda Educational Resource Center has
produced some marvelous resource guides for teachers such
as its Annotated Bibliographies of classroom materials, an
Annotated Filmography (which includes those often
hard-to-find SOURCES for the films), etc.
To receive a packet of these materials, send your request
(with a mailing address, please) to:
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
Educational Resource Center
100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20024-2150
Or EMail: kbrosius@ushmm.org
With Regards,
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| WCONNELLY@USHMM.ORG |
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| William Connelly |
| U.S. Holocaust Research Institute Library |
| 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl., S.W. |
| Washington, D.C. 20024-2150 |
| Voice (202) 488-6109 |
| Fax (202) 479-9726 |
|______________________________________________|
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 19:20:00 CST
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: JIMMOTT@spss.com
Subject: Holocaust Course Syllabi
We now have 5 syllabi from Holocaust Courses on the HOLOCAUS fileserver. To get a copy of all 5, send this command to listserv@uicvm.uic.edu:
get syllabi $package
If anyone else would like to share their syllabi with everyone else on HOLOCAUS, please send it to holocaus@uicvm.uic.edu and I will include it on the fileserver.
Jim Mott
Holocaus moderator
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 11:07:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Nazi drives against homosexuals
From: Chris <SIMPSON%american.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
There is another aspect to this issue that I think deserves attention. That is,_after_the Holocaust persecution of homosexuals became in a certain sense a substitute for open anti-semitism, which had become widely discredited. I have not worked this theory through thoroughly as yet, so no doubt my argument is fuzzy, but I do think there is something to it.
In most early 20th century political anti-Semitism, Judaism was linked with communism in a way that simultaneously "proved" the evil of Judaism and "proved" the existence of a pervasive communist/liberal conspiracy bent on destroying Christian values. Such claims became central to the radical and even moderate rightwing political movements, including religion-based parties such as the Christian Democrats and various pre-war Catholic Action groups. The role of this ideology in drawing collaborators into the work of the Nazis has been well documented.
After the war, this form of anti-semitism grew widely discredited on the moderate right; it did not disappear, certainly, but became a taboo attitude that could not be publicly embraced. Joseph McCarthy, for example, went to some lengths to avoid association with anti-semitic anti-communism, even though by any realistic standard those were his ideological roots. Meanwhile, anti-semitic anti-communism was formally disavowed by Christian Democratic political parties and eventually by the Catholic Church.
The Jew's place in McCarthy's demonology was taken by the homosexual to a very large degree. McCarthy often used queer-baiting to attack his enemies, particularly during his campaigns against the State Department and the Voice of America. He often described political opponents who could not be typecast as secret communists as "lace pantied," not real men, and so on, in contrast to his own self-presentation as "tail gunner Joe." (Not to get too far off the point, but one element in all this was surely the ambiguous role of Roy Cohn and David Schine (sp?), the rumors surrounding McCarthy's bachelorhood, etc. etc. I am not suggesting that McCarthy was actively gay, only that the rumors surrounding his life did play a role in his politics regardless whether they were true or not).
Similarly, rightwing and Christian-right publications to this day regularly explore the purported homosexual-communist conspiracy that is, once again, attacking "Christian" civilization. The comparison of 30's era rhetoric concerning Jewish-communist conspiracies with post-1950 rhetoric concering homosexual-communist conspiracies really is remarkably close in both English and German languages.
On a related point, Hitler's cultural rhetoric concerning "degenerate art" and the supposed corrupting effects of "Jewish" movies, publications, etc., also frequently attempted to link homosexuality and enlightened attitudes about human sexuality in general to purported Jewish-communist conspiracy. The Freud-Jung controversy over sexuality in the human psyche provides many examples of the distinction the Nazis attempted to draw between "Jewish" (i.e., sexual, including homosexual) science and culture and "Aryan" (i.e., heroic, clean, dynamic) science and culture.
Obviously, I am not accepting the Nazis' claims about Jews, homosexuals, Aryans, etc., etc. I am speaking here of how things appeared to believers and bigots.
Anyway, it seems as though the post-Holocaust silence concerning the Nazis' quite systematic effort to suppress male homosexuals, and the publicity given to the myth that homosexuality was tolerated or even encouraged in the SS, needs to be seen in the light of broader cultural trends sparked by the rising autonomy of women, the Cold War, the Communist-Catholic struggle for control of Eastern Europe, and so on. One such trend, I think, was the perceived necessity to re-integrate much of the German power structure and certain cultural trends that had found their logical fulfillment in Nazism back into the fold of western civilization.
That is as far as I can get with it at the moment. I am very interested in any feedback or critique readers here care to offer.
From: "Klevan, David G." <dklevan%ushmm.org@uicvm.uic.edu>
Although there have been several books written on
homosexuals during the Holocaust, there are only a handful
that I know of that are available in English language.
Below are a few recommendations.
Burleigh, Michael and Wolfgang Wipperman. The Racial State:
Germany 1933-1945. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press, 1991.
Heger, Heinz. The Men With the Pink Triangle. Boston:
Alyson, 1980.
Lautmann, Ruediger. "Gay Prisoners in Concentration Camps as
Compared with Jehovah's Witnesses and Political Prisoners"
in Michael Berenbaum, ed., A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews
Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis. New York: New York
University Press, 1990, pp. 200-221.
Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War against
Homosexuals. New York: Henry Holt, 1986.
Wolff, Charlotte. Magnus Hirschfeld: A Portrait of a Pioneer
in Sexology. London: Quartet Books, 1986.
A new edition of Heinz Heger's book should be coming out in
the near future with an introduction by Klaus Mueller of the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Also, there is a film which
incorporates rare testimony from gays victimized by the
Nazis that is available through the USHMM Bookstore for
around $25. It is called "We were marked with a big 'A'."
The Bookstore phone number is 202/488-6146; fax number is
202/488-0438. Also, the USHMM Education Department is
currently developing an information packet on homosexuals in
the Holocaust which should also be available in the near
future, and hopefully will be loaded into the internet.
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 14:01:00 CST
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: JIMMOTT@spss.com
Subject: Re: Wanted books on Nazism
From: <SBOLKOSK%ca-f1.umd.umich.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
Gordon, Forgive the repetition to what you have already received, but
if you are looking for a work on Nazism, not exclusively on the
Holocaust, then I think Bracher's *The German Dictatorship* remains
perhaps the most informative and compelling. Franz Neumann's
*Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933-
1944* may be dated but still a significant work on the workings of
the NSDAP in power. Bracher has the advantage of focusing on the
annihilation of the Jews. More recent works, I think, have not
surpassed his.
Sid Bolkosky
UM-Dearborn
From: Nicole J Cunningham <nicolejc%csd4.csd.uwm.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
Although I did not make the request for books on nazism, I have found everyone's suggestions to be extremely helpful as I am currently planning a course for the fall entitled "Contemporary Representations of the Holocaust." (Actually I'm co-teaching it with Gary Weissman who, as some of you will recognize, has a more active relationship to this list than I do.) At any rate, we will be teaching a wide variety of texts, ranging from survivor narratives and other historical texts to Holocaust (the miniseries) and an episode of the original Star Trek which imagines a planet world in which Hitler won the War. We are also planning to read *Maus* (and now I'm finally at the point I wanted to make!)
In a previous post, Gordon Schochet expressed hesitancy at asking his students to pay $20 for "comic books." Froma Zeitlin, in a subsequent posting, stated that *Maus* was "hardly a comic book." *Maus* is absolutely a comic book *and* it's worth every penny of the $20 (well, books in general are way over-priced but you know what I mean.) *Maus*'s status as a form of popular media should not have to be redefined or denied in order to make it worthy of being taught in the academy. The approach that Gary and I are taking is that (for better or for worse, and we argue about which one it is) popular representations are the way most of the world (ourselves included) understand and remember history and thus taking these texts seriously and teaching students to think critically about them is crucial.
Now, I know this will mess up Jim Mott's attempt to group posts by subject, but I want to change it (the subject) briefly. In a couple of weeks I am going to Poland with my partner's family (which includes a camp survivor). We will be visiting all of the camps and qhettoes (in Poland) where family members were imprisoned. These include Majdanek, Plaszow, Treblinka, Auschwitz/Birkenau as well as Radom, Warsaw, and Krakow ghettoes. Does anyone have any suggestions for me in terms of either reading before I leave or things to look for or see once I'm there? I would appreciate any and all input.
Thanks,
--
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Nicole J. Cunningham email: nicolejc@csd4.csd.uwm.edu Modern Studies voice: 414.223.3070 (h) Dept of English and Comp Lit 414.229.4141 (o)
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
From: Marc1773%aol.com@uicvm.uic.edu
As a student, one of my classes had a required reading list which included Jackson J. Spielvogel's: Hitler and Nazi Germany. As a fond writer of papers on these related topics, I always manage to incorporate some of his ideas and words. It is a masterpiece which is easy to read and neatly divided into thorough chapters. I highly reccommend it.
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 14:47:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Representing the Wannsee Conference
From: Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@compuserve.com>
Dear Dan,
As a fellow historian I would strongly advise that your approach to teaching the history of the Holocaust rely, ironically enough, on Ranke's methods, the father of modern history who, as you of course know, strongly emphasized the importance of original, primary source documents.
I agree with your opinion that the film depicting the Wannsee Conference did indeed use a great deal of literary device *BUT ONLY* insofar as what the precise words spoken were.
In other words, the words uttered at Wannsee (delayed incidentially by Pearl Harbor) most assuredly used terminology similar to the dialogue in the film; In short, the utter and complete destruction of European - and possibly even American - Jewry.
What fascinates me is that Eichman and others essentially signed their own death warrants by even keeping minutes of the meeting (as Germans, these bureaucrats could not resist documentation - to have asked a Nazi to avoid documentation would have been akin to asking him cut off his own arm - "efficiency" was/is far too entrenched in the German collective psyche to do otherwise).
Of course, in January 1942 Germany still believed that victory was possible even though the front at Stalingrad was collapsing at the very time the conference commenced.
The Wannsee Conference, in my opinion, is the most important reason that Heydrich earned himself a place in history given the fact that he was executed by Czech partisans less than six months after Wannsee. And for his just execution, the Germans retaliated by literally wiping the town of Lidice (sp?) off the map.
What goes around comes around. I take joy in the fact that Heydrich did not die instantly; instead, he died an agonizing death, the only form of death suitable for such a diabolical, nefarious and murderous individual.
Kind Regards,
Chuck Weckesser
From: SCHENKE%oise.on.ca@uicvm.uic.edu
I am new to the list, but was struck by Daniel Rogers' comments on students' ways of taking up the Wannsee film as opposed to the minutes. Film and print are very different cultural practices and require, I think, the asking of different questions and also different forms of pedagogy. To limit the viewing (and teaching) of a film to questions of its representational `validity' is to miss out on questions of how historical validity is struggled over, how films do their cultural work differently from print, and how the seductions of visual persuasion are built out of the interplay between viewers, producers and social contexts. Wouldn't a better exam question be to ask how the film shapes `its' truth about the conference differently from the minutes and what the implications of this are? Rather than asking which form is `more true'? Or, similarly - not `why the conference?', but `why the film?' and `why the film in this way'? The subtitle, for example, of Anton Kaes' book "From `Heimat' to Hitler" is "the return of history through film". In this case, he's looking at how a selection of German films produce particular practices of remembering (and forgetting), but similar questions apply, I think, to `Wannsee' (even to Schindler's List). If Schindler's List, for example, can be seen by many as a `definitive' rendering of the Holocaust, then why is it surprising that the Wannsee film should have the power to `become' the conference? Isn't the question as to how it `becomes' this way the substance (instead of the problem) of the pedagogy? Or why, for some students, the barking dog comes to be such a memorable and powerful image (rather than whether or not Eichmann actually said anything about this)?
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 1994 19:58:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Cultural life in the camp of Terezin
From: Hank.Greenspan@um.cc.umich.edu
re: info on Victor Ullmann, a colleague suggests:
Joza Karas, _Music in Terezin: 1941-5_ (New York: Beaufort Books, 1985).
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 1994 19:08:17 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: SBOLKOSK@ca-f1.umd.umich.edu Subject: Re: Representing the Wannsee Conference
Dan, Part of the significance of the Wannsee Conference lies in the
RSHA's assuming full authority and leadership in the "Final
Solution." Those attending the conference included representatives
from the various civil service offices as well as the diplomatic
corps, and the minutes clearly reveal that they acquiesced to the SS
plan. The minutes, then, serve more than the conceit of a German
penchant for documentation, they are written confirmation of the
hierarchical roles assigned to each of the various agencies. As to
the representation, the film probably captures the mood of the
conference, although I think with a bit of heavy-handed overemphasis
of the nonchalance of the proceedings. Students ought to read the
text as well as view the film, but a discussion of how to represent
historical events would seem important. My problem, when I used it
in a large class, was the difficulties of a videotape and sub-titles--
much more mundane. Good luck.
Sid Bolkosky
UM-Dearborn
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 1994 19:11:47 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Dean Shavit <U55287@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Re: Origin of the term Holocaust
In-Reply-To: Message of Wed, 8 Jun 1994 09:25:00 CST from <JIMMOTT@spss.com>
I do believe Holocaust means "conflagration" or "big fire." It shouldn't be too hard to make the connection from there. The OED says: 1 A sacrifice wholly consumed by fire; a whole burnt offering.
Well, that's pretty self-explanatory.
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 13:37:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Need help locating source of Nazi program against Jews
From: "Dr. Sandy Silverburg" <SSILVER%achilles.catawba.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
I am searching for an English version of the 25 articles of faith formulated by the NSDAP on February 24, 1920 which sets the basis for much of the early Nazi anti-Jewish legislation. Can anyone assist me, please. Thank you.
SRSilverburg
Sanford R. Silverburg (H) 704 633 1702 Department of Political Science (O) 704 637 4397
Catawba College Fax 704 637 4444 Salisbury, NC 28144-2488 email ssilver@achilles.catawba.edu ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 14:34:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Origin of the term Holocaust
From: HANFTS%conrad.appstate.edu@uicvm.uic.edu
A long time ago I attended a seminar on the Holocaust conducted by Taul Hilberg and Rabbi Rubenstein (CUNNING OF HISTORY) and I forget which one said the term was based on a Greek term meaning "burned offering."
Sheldon Hanft
Hanfts@Appstate.edu
From: "Connelly, William" <wconnelly%ushmm.org@uicvm.uic.edu>
This is one of those perennial, but always unanswered (or
incompletely answered) questions: Where and when did the
word "Holocaust" come to describe the events which nearly
destroyed the Jews of Europe? I particularly look forward
to reading everyone's input. Here's what I've come across
so far:
There is a short entry in the 4 volume _Encyclopedia of the
Holocaust_ which briefly discusses the origin of the term
Holocaust, its derivation from the Greek for "sacrifice",
explains synonymous terms such as Shoah and Churban (also
spelled Hurban, .hurbn), and also contains a brief
bibliography which cites the Yad Vashem Studies article
on the subject which, though well worth looking at,
gives no mention of a "first appearance" of the term
"Holocaust" in the sense that we on this list
understand it. Fact is, I can personally remember having
read of trench warfare in World War One as having been a
"holocaust" (uncapitalized) in a book published in the 20's.
Since the word has often been used in the past to describe
all manner of fires, catastrophes and battles, it seems to
me that finding the very first incidence of the use of the
word in print to refer to the events which affected the
Jews of Europe might be an interesting bit of sleuthery
worthy of the subscribers to this list...to finally have
some reasonably definitive answer to offer. With this in
mind, I offer the following, still apochryphal, curiosity:
I am told that there is a publication (the title of which I
am still not sure of) which appeared in 1940 or 1941 that
has a photograph (on the cover?) of people carrying torah
scrolls to safety from a synagogue in Paris (or maybe
"French" North Africa?) just before the arrival of the
German occupiers. The caption is said to something like
"...and the holocaust begins..." It is said that this
publication is somewhere in the archives of the Leo Baeck
Institute in New York, but I called there and had a chat
with the librarian a few months ago and she was not aware of
the item. Maybe someone out there will have better luck or
more details. If so, I hope they will send me a copy of the
item.
With Regards,
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| WCONNELLY@USHMM.ORG |
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| William Connelly |
| U.S. Holocaust Research Institute Library |
| 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl., S.W. |
| Washington, D.C. 20024-2150 |
| Voice (202) 488-6109 |
| Fax (202) 479-9726 |
|______________________________________________|
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 1994 14:35:00 CST
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: JIMMOTT@spss.com
Subject: Re: Wanted Books on Nazism
From: SBOLKOSK@ca-f1.umd.umich.edu
Nicole (and Gary), Regarding your use of survivor testimonies in your
course: the University of Michigan-Dearborn has now transcribed some
twenty interviews which can be obtained along with the tapes through
interlibrary loan. The UM-Dearborn is now involved in transcribing
and cataloguing these and 145 more interviews to be entered onto
OCLC, an international library network. The tapes (audio, for now)
remain invaluable as the voices are not duplicated by any other
source. Should you (or anyone else) be interested in using these
materials, let me know.
Sid Bolkosky
UM-Dearborn
From holoweb@h-net.msu.edu Thu Aug 22 14:08:36 1996
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 14:07:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: HOLOCAUS Gopherspace <holoweb@h-net.msu.edu>
To: HOLOCAUS Gopherspace <holoweb@h-net.msu.edu>
Subject: log 9406c
>From LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU Mon Aug 12 22:16:27 1996 Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (UICVM-ETH1.CC.UIC.EDU [128.248.2.150]) by h-net.msu.edu (8.7.1/8.7.1) with SMTP id OAA38156 for <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 14:53:44 -0400 Message-Id: <199608121853.OAA38156@h-net.msu.edu> Received: from UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU by UICVM.UIC.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
with BSMTP id 1723; Mon, 12 Aug 96 13:53:22 CDT Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@UICVM) by UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 6008; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:18 -0500 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:16 -0500 From: "L-Soft list server at UICVM (1.8b)" <LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU> Subject: File: "HOLOCAUS LOG9406C" To: H-NET Help <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 08:58:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Wannsee conference's timing
From: JUREK%vaxph.mpi-stuttgart.mpg.de@uicvm.uic.edu
Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@compuserve.com> writes:
>Of course, in January 1942 Germany still believed that victory was possible eve
n
>though the front at Stalingrad was collapsing at the very time the conference
>commenced.
The Stalingrad annihilation of von Paulus' army corps happened almost exactly one year _after_ the Wannsee conference (beginning of 1943, not 1942). Early 1942 the Germans found themselves pushed back from Moscow but still full of hope for the future.
>What goes around comes around. I take joy in the fact that Heydrich did not die >instantly; instead, he died an agonizing death, the only form of death suitable >for such a diabolical, nefarious and murderous individual.
The commonly accepted version, I believe, has been that Heydrich died of infection following some minor shrapnel wounds suffered during the explosion of the grenade. I have recently read in the press that this was not accidental since the bomb had been prepared in a secret weapon establishment in Britain and specifically contained some biological agents. Can anybody confirm this?
Also, note that he was killed not for his role in the Holocaust but rather as the Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, or whatever the official title of the head of that Protectorate was.
Regards,
J. Remigioni, Stuttgart
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 1994 12:37:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Conference on Working with Holocaust survivors and 2nd Generation
From: USERGB2Q@um.cc.umich.edu
AMCHA, the National Israeli Center for Psychosocial Support of Survivors of the Holocaust and the Second Generation has asked me to post this announcement. A conference on "working with Holocaust survivors and second generation" is going to take place in Jerusalem at the Renaissance Hotel from July 3 - 6. AMCHA's address in Jerusalem is: 23 Hillel St., Jerusalem, Israel 94581. Their fax # is - 972-2-250669. Rhw program sounds very interesting but is too long for me to post here. I'll, however, gladly fax a copy to anyone who wishes me to do so. Thanks, Chava
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:25:04 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jonathan Morse <JMORSE@UHCCMVS.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU> Subject: Representing the Wannsee Conference
A small correction to Mr. or Ms. Schenke's useful post: the title of Anton Kaes's excellent book is actually _From 'Hitler' to 'Heimat': The Return of History as Film_ (Harvard UP, 1989). I suppose the difference between Schenke's "through" and Kaes's "as" is what this thread is all about.
Kaes's title, incidentally, refers in the first instance to Hans-Juergen Syberberg's _Hitler: A Film from Germany_. I haven't seen that film, but I continue to find the screenplay (trans. Joachim Neugroschel; Farrar, Straus, 1982) wonderfully, powerfully disturbing. I should think it would be a useful book to read, Dan Rogers, by way of preparatory meditation next time you plan to show _The Wannsee Conference_.
Jonathan Morse
Dept. of English, University of Hawaii
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:25:49 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Harold Marcuse <marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu> Subject: vengeful survivors
----------------------------Original message---------------------------- In the 20 June 1994 *Nation*, pp. 878-82 there is a discussion of the politics and misrepresentations involved in the publication of John Sack's *An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945* (Basic books, 1993). The book was discussed on this list a while ago; the review is by Jon Wiener.
Harold Marcuse internet: marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu Dept. of History Tel: (805) 968-6703 (home) Univ. of California 893-2635 (office) Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Fax: -8795 ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:27:17 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: MICHAEL J SCHULDINER <FFMJS@ALASKA.BITNET> Subject: Travel to Conferences
I'm hoping to attend a holocaust conference this year, perhaps
one overseas. I seem to recall hearing of a travel agency (in NY,
I think) that provided discounts for travel to conferences. Does
anyone know of such a travel agency? Does anyone know of any source
of relatively inexpensive airfare to, for example, Israel? We don't
hear of these things up here.
Michael Schuldiner,
University of Alaska
FFMJS@ALASKA
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 09:31:37 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: charles gregory fried <f6ri@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU> Subject: Revisionism
To any and all readers:
A friend of mine recently had a frustrating and disturbing experience with a holocaust revisionist. I append below my friend Sandy's letter. He gave me his permission to do so her on this list, and will be very interested to hear your comments. I think the most important point he makes is that he fears what such people will do to his children, if they ever gain the ear of the innocent, and so he seeks strategies for pre-empting their influence. What are good books or documentaries to read or show to children which won't traumatize them, but which will also educate them to the nature and magnitude of the crime?
If you can, please write to Sandy directly, as well as to this list.
To any and all:
Here is the copy of Sandy's letter regarding revisionism. I should say that I have already recommended Vidal-Naquet's *Assassins of Memory* and Deborah Lipstadt's *Denying the Holocaust*.
Fr: Sandy Petersen <sandyp@idcube.idsoftware.com>
Greg,
This weekend, I had a rather disturbing experience. I was at a (very minor) civil war re-enactment -- most of which, I hasten to assure you, was riotous fun -- and met a man who had made a part-time career of serving as a extra in period films. He showed up for a recent Texas/Mexican war film (I forget the name), for instance, and reported that his next project was to appear in a film to be called AVENGING ANGELS. The title made my ears perk up, and sure enough, it turned out to be a film about so-called "Mormon assassination squads" of the Old West, a slander that I thought no living educated person believed in anymore (the tales of the Mormon assassins were widespread during the 19th century, when Mormons lived mysteriously out in Utah and everyone thought they were something sinister and evil). So that depressed me a little. Now millions of people will see this dreck on nationwide TV (I assume it's a made-for-TV movie, but I suppose it may be a feature film).
Then, just as the meeting was breaking up, I met another fellow, whom I'm happy to report normally musters as a Rebel. This was the first person I've ever met with whom I've had an extended conversation who believed the tales of the Holocaust revisionists. He was firmly convinced that the Holocaust was either (A) exaggerated or (B) completely made up, and was tending towards the latter.
I was thunderstruck, and pointed out the fact that there were literally millions of eyewitnesses to the events. He more-or-less dismissed the eyewitnesses, claiming that "empirical evidence" was better than eyewitness reports. He then asked me if I'd read the Lutz Report (I could have the name spelled wrong) which apparently attacked the concept of the gas chambers in the death camps -- claiming they weren't built properly to work as gas chambers; no sealing around the doors or something. He also named some other reports, none of which I'd read (life being too short to waste my time on horoscopes, network TV, or Holocaust revisionists).
I wasn't defeated in the argument. It was clear that he'd NEVER met anyone who'd read enough about the Holocaust and the war to be able to refute his statements, and he was quite taken aback. Because the guy was a nice mild-mannered man, the argument was nice and mild-mannered. Unfortunately, just when we were both getting ready to muster our big guns (when I feel I'd have decisively struck a blow for the non-revisionist truths), it started to rain, and we had to leave.
So I didn't get to submit my most important proofs of the damn Holocaust. In my frustration, I'm launching them at you. Basically, if there was no Holocaust, what happened to Poland's Jews? If the huge concrete structures in Auschwitz weren't gas chambers, then what were they? What were the crematoriums for? What about the mass graves of shooting victims, each plugged in the back of the head? What happened to the 3 million Russian soldiers taken prisoner in the first year of the war? What happened to the 25-35 million Soviet citizens who vanished during the war?
I actually brought up the subject of the German atrocities in Russia, and his defense was that the Ukrainians had collaborated, so how bad could the Germans be? I pointed out that the Ukrainians had STOPPED collaborating when the Germans showed their true colors.
Anyway, my concern was not so much that this idiot would be able to make his claims stick. My concern was, frankly, for my children. What would happen if this clown or the knaves who'd convinced him had a discussion with, say, a high-school or college kid, or anyone, really, who was less well-read than myself on the subject? His quoting of actual "reports" and nitpicking of tiny details would probably sound pretty convincing to many people, not to mention the fact that it is psychologically far more satisfying to believe that the Germans weren't a nation of atrocity-mongers only a generation ago.
No wonder the watchword is "Remember".
From: Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@compuserve.com>
While visiting (then West) Germany in 1988 I took the train from Munich to Dachau along with several companions. I was struck by the fact that none of us spoke a single word--not one. The camp spoke for itself; if I am not mistaken, Dachau was/is exactly as it was when it was liberated in 1945.
There is a significant difference between Dachau and Polish concentration camps. To the best of my knowledge, the mass murder of Jews did not take place in Germany proper (heaven forbid the sensibilities of the German people should have been upset). I also recall that Dachau was one of the first camps to open (1934
There were never any operational gas chambers at Dachau. Instead, the hostages of Dachau were brutalized on an individual basis. Hangings were common. Disease (especially dysentary) was rampant. Discipline was brutal and photographs remain to this day of Dachau hostages being subjected to the most horrendous torture one can imagine.
Finally, it is important to remember that at the time Dachau opened, Goering was Minister of the Interior and thus responsible for the creation of the first concentration camps. There was no way that Goering could explain away his involvement in the early camps when prosecuted and sentenced to death at Nuremberg; of course, as we all know, Goering took the coward's way out and cheated the hangman by committing suicide the day before his death.
In short, be prepared for powerful emotions. I swear I could smell death everywhere I walked. I was shaking with fright by the time I left.
CJW
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 10:09:57 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Harold Marcuse <marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu> Subject: Escaped Nazis
The 5 June 1994 LA Times ran a front page story on the work of
an Argentine group "Project Testimony" which is unearthing lots
of archival material which sheds lights on the paths by which
Nazi perpetrators made it to Argentina, including the institutions
which helped them.
Interesting things about Mengele, for example: entered Arg. on
20 May 1949 w/ Red Cross passport #100,501 under the name Gregor
Helmut; in Nov. 1956 he presented his birth certificate to the
West German Embassy to have his name rectified, after which he
petitioned Frankfurt University to validate his medical degree.
He practiced medicine before going under cover to Brazil, where
he died in 1979.
No contact address is given, but I would guess that an organization
such as the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation might know.
Harold Marcuse internet: marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu Dept. of History Tel: (805) 968-6703 (home) Univ. of California 893-2635 (office) Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Fax: -8795 ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 10:11:07 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jonathan Morse <JMORSE@UHCCMVS.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU> Subject: Nazi articles of faith: Sandy Silverburg's query
An English-language summary of the 1920 German Workers' Party (DAP) program, which subsequently became Nazi policy, can be found under "Nazi Party Programme: 25 Points" in _The Third Reich Almanac_, ed. James Taylor and Warren Shaw (World Almanac Books, 1987; originally published in England under the title _A Dictionary of the Third Reich_).
Jonathan Morse
Dept. of English, University of Hawaii
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 10:23:04 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Holocaust Revisionism From: Jonathan Morse <JMORSE@UHCCMVS.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU>
Last year _The New Yorker_ published a wide-ranging article about Auschwitz which mentioned a curious detail about the secondary literature: one of the European revisionists associated with the Faurisson group had changed his mind when he read a purchase order for Auschwitz which included a large number of shower heads but no pipes to go with them. That was a small victory for simple truth, but what I'm afraid it demonstrates most is that the falsehood we're dealing with isn't simple. Its complexity seems to me to arise from its dual epistemological status. I.e., in English:
Consider a literary example. Old Vladek, in Spiegelman's _Maus_, is a man who has suffered deeply and not recovered. He carefully saves bits of wire he has found on the street, he desperately tries to return a half-eaten box of cereal to the store, and his suspicion and lovelessness have made life hell for both of his wives. On this list a few months ago, someone commented that the artist who created such a character, and made him explicitly Jewish, must be an antisemite. It's easy enough to ridicule such a crudely positivist, but-is-it-good-for-the-Jews reading, and in _The Facts_ Philip Roth has done all that needs to be done along that line. I hope most of us realize that a Jewish hero doesn't absolutely have to resemble Paul Newman in _Exodus_ or Charlton Heston in _The Ten Commandments_. But the simplifying impulse that wants us all to be Anne Franks has its counterpart on the other side, and it too is deeply felt. If you've grown up on Shylock--or, to put it more bluntly, if you've grown up believing that the New Testament is true--then you've been taught to read in a way that you may never be able to unlearn. The fear that reduces every fact to a Jewish term, Elie Wiesel style, is a way of reading the world, and so is the impulse to deny that the Jews of Europe ever lived or ever died. And merely to say "Here, read this" isn't going to change the *way* the text is read.
That said, I'd suggest a look at _"The Good Old Days": The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders_, ed. Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen, and Volker Riess, trans. Deborah Burnstone (Free Press, 1991). But it's not a book for the sensitive.
Jonathan Morse
Dept. of English, University of Hawaii
To any and all readers, and to Sandy:
"Revisionist" isa strange term- revised from truth to falsehood is hardly a
revision. In any case, your experience regarding the Holocaust
revisionist is certainly consonant with what I've seen in the media, never
having had the dubious pleasure of conversing with one of them. They are
often well-prepared to argue their case (perhaps well-rehearsed is a better
description). The concern you express at the end about exposure of one's
children to these characters is a real one. Hhere in Canada, we've had
two such cases. One of them, a notorious anti-Semite in New Brunswick, is
a teacher who has never brought his beliefs into the classroom - but the
students know and Jewish kids have had to sit there knowing about his
extracurricular activity. His status is in doubt at present. The other
was a teacher who actually taught this peculiar world view to his classes
(in rural Alberta). Apart from Holocaust denial, he also taught of the
international Jewish conspiracy, the evil teachings of the Talmud and other
such gems of wisdom. Kids were not assigned standard textbooks because, in
his words, "all standard history is censored" (by you know who). Jews
assasinated Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, carreid out the RUssian
REvolution, started both World Wars, and created both communism and modern
capitalism, all linked to the "Jewish-Illuminati" sonspiracy. One child
received 85% for an essay in which she wrote, "The Jews believe in violnece
and revolution to gain their end while Christians believe in serving with
compassion for each other. They live by the bible and Jews by the Talmud
where evil acts are encouraged". The fascinating fact: he did this for
almost thirteen years, with the full knowledge of the community ("well, we
don't relly believe all that buit is is a free country and besides he is a
good teacher and such a nice guy too- in fact, he was mayor for a
while...."). Of course, no Jews live in this small community. Finally a
courageous housewife blew the whistle on him and shortly thereafter the
school board ended his teaching career (he's now repairing automobiles in
case anyone has a car troubles in Eckville, Alberta). The case is
documented in a book by David Bercuson and Douglas Wertheimer, entitled "A
Trust Betrayed" (Doubleday, 1985). A fascinating story of how nice people
tolerate evil...sound familiar?
From: Richard Rubenstein <rrubenst@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>
I have just read Sandy Petersen's letter. I may be wrong but when someone is as resistant to the evidence of the Holocaust as the man she describes, I have the feeling that something in him wants to revive all that the swastika stands for. Deborah Lipstadt is correct when she writes that the real objective of the deniers is to take the stench out of Auschwitz to prepare for a return of National Socialism as a "respectable" political option in Germany.
Richard L. Rubenstein
Florida State University
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 10:29:03 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Origin of the term Holocaust
From: marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu (Harold Marcuse)
etymology of sorts by Leon Jick in the Spring 1986 *Brandeis
Review*, which originally appeared in the 1982 *Yad Vashem
Bulletin*.
I know that I read a more detailed discussion by Sybil Milton,
but I forget where -- perhaps in her 1986 essay in *Holocaust
and Genocide Studies* -- but she would know best.
H. Marcuse
On the term 'holocaust.' It indeed is a Greek word, meaning "wholly burned," and is the Septuagint's translation of the Hebrew sacrifice "ola." The two terms are not synonymous, since "ola" signifies a sacrifice whose smoke 'rises' (=ola), i.e., the afterproduct, while 'holocaust' refers to the process/result (consumed by fire). Neither were the names that Jews gave to the Nazi extermination process during the war, when either 'hurb'n,' more precisely, 'die dritte hurb'n' (the term used for the two destructions of the temple, with this event being the third) and Shoah, meaning annihilation (a word taken from the prophets, e.g., Isaiah 6.11, 10.3, 47.11). The search for the first use of 'holocaust' in the Nazi context yields different results. see e.g., James Young (Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust) 200, n. 8. There are many who detest the use of the term 'Holocaust' on the grounds that its origins as a religious sacrifice implies some submerged theological justification of 'sacrifice,' particularly in a Christian context. Even worse, to some extent, is the fact that an offering was generally wholly burned in Hebrew sacrificial practice because it was a sin offering to atone for some transgresssion. Fortunately, most people neither know the derivation of the word or its more specific meanings, but a certain current in Orthodox Jewish thinking can be detected, both then and now, which suggests the Jews were punished for their sins (and in particular, assimilation). On the other hand, Holocaust itself (with a capital H) has stuck, I think, because its etymology is painfully apt: the idea of total destruction and through burning, which condenses the Nazi style of extermination into a memorable sign. In other words, while 'holocaust' has been and is being used in a figurative sense for any mass disaster, it is horribly literal in the case of the Shoah. At the same time, now that Holocaust has come to signify this single event, it is borrowed metaphorically, with all the emotional baggage it carries, for other events, as we well know.
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 10:33:16 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Joanne <JOANNER@YaleVM.CIS.Yale.edu> Organization: Yale University Subject: Re: Cultural life in the camp of Terezin
In-Reply-To: Message of Mon, 6 Jun 1994 10:51:00 CST from <JIMMOTT@spss.com>
We have several testimonies of people who were in Terezin and participated in o pera performances or attended them. We also have the testimony of Joza Karas w hose book was suggested earlier.
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 12:27:32 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: William Mich Thomas <wmthomas@strauss.udel.edu> Subject: Re: Need help locating source of Nazi program against Jews
In-Reply-To: <199406142113.RAA09117@strauss.udel.edu>
You might try:
Matheson, Peter, ed. _The Third Reich and the Christian Churches_.
Grand Rapids, MI, 1981.
the Appendixes of Conway, John S. _The Nazi Persecution of the Churches,
1933-1945_. New York, 1968.
I'm not sure whether they list the entire program or just excerpts.
Hope these help,
Will Thomas
U of Delaware
wmthomas@strauss.udel.edu
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 12:29:26 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Cerny <J_CERNY@UNHH.UNH.EDU> Subject: US Holocaust Museum developing a WWW server.
In the computer trade publication _Network World_, June 13, 1994, pp. 1 ff., there is a report that the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is developing a World Wide Web (WWW) server so it can make some of its resources available to the Internet community. They write:
"Beyond the Learning Center, Kramer [director of technical services at the Museum] said the museum is planning this summer to publicize the address of its existing WWW server to give Internet users direct access to museum resources. The museum uses a dedicated Unix-based machine running Mosaic as an Internet server." [p. 85]
To access WWW servers, a HOLOCAUS subscriber will need a graphical windowing terminal, with an Ethernet connection, and with a suitable client program such as Mosaic. Mosaic is available at no cost for common windowing platforms such as Unix workstations, Macintoshes, and Microsoft Windows PCs. If you have a dial-up connection to the Internet it is probably not practical to try to access a WWW server, though there is software to support Ethernet over dial-up (SLIP and PPP). WWW servers are usu. described as hypertext-based and include lots of graphics, so line speed becomes important in downloading images that typically run to 50K bytes or more. There is a non-graphical client for WWW access, called Lynx, that just assumes VT100 terminal emulation and does not attempt to display graphics.
If all of these acronyms are unfamiliar to you, then odds are you do not have WWW access at your fingertips. For the subset of subscribers who do have WWW access, I did some Internet detective work to figure out the URL for the Museum's server-in-progress
http://www.ushmm.org/home.html
There is not a lot there yet, but it looks as though it will be very
good.
Jim Cerny, Geography Dept., Univ. N.H.
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 12:51:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Re: Visiting Dachau
From: SBOLKOSK@ca-f1.umd.umich.edu
Chuck, I, too, visited Dachau in 1988 as a guest of the government
(another story). The original barracks were levelled directly after
the war and one "model" barrack was constructed. The museum and the
monument were later additions, as were the three chapels. We arrived
late and were invited by the director to stay after hours, so my
publisher and I wandered the camp alone. There was one gas chamber,
never used, once sabotaged, which connects to the creamtorium. The
director took us outside of that austere building and pushed her foot
into the earth about six inches. She came to ashes and told us the
earth was still saturated with ashes. One of the more striking
things to me about that visit was the sign on the outskirts of the
town: "Welcome to Dachau, 1500 years old," written in fraktur. I
suspect that explains much of the resentment of the residents of the
village of Dachau--who has ever heard of Dachau and associates it
with anything but the camp which, by the way opened in March, 1933
primarily for political prisoners and homosexuals, opponents or
potential opponents of the NSDAP. It became a repository for Jews as
the death marches took place in 1945, overcrowded, ridden with
disease, filth and death. When I was there, the parking lot was full
of school buses from all over West Germany, part of the process of
Holocaust education. The museum, I thought, was excellent as was the
staff.
Sid Bolkosky
UM-Dearborn
From: osinski%chtm.eece.unm.edu@uicvm.uic.edu (Marek Osinski)
Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@compuserve.com> wrote:
>There is a significant difference between Dachau and Polish concentration >camps.
I presume this was not intentional, but the phrase "Polish concentration camps" is highly offensive to Poles and historically misleading. The correct term should be: "concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland". I would very much appreciate if this correection was posted to the HOLOCAUS list.
Best regards,
Marek Osinski
From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ%PUCC@uicvm.uic.edu>
Having visited Dachau myself, allow me to make some minor corrections. Strictly speaking, the camp is not quite what it was when it was in use. Because of epidemics, all the barracks had to be burned down. One was reerected for purposes of display and only the foundations of the others are there. There is a gas chamber at Dachau; it was built but never used. It is adjacent to the crematoria. This section, including the execution place, is now veiled from view through heavy plantings, which are designed to lead the visitor into this area. The SS headquarters are now the museum. There are also large memorials, one Catholic, one Evangelical, one Jewish (and behind these is the Carmelite convent). I should add that I was there on a rainy day in May, so the air was very humid. When I came to the crematoria, there was a terrible sickly smell. All those around me were holding handkerchiefs before their noses. I find it hard to believe what we all immediately suspected -- after 45 years???
From: William Mich Thomas <wmthomas%strauss.udel.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
> While visiting (then West) Germany in 1988 I took the train from Munich to
> Dachau along with several companions. I was struck by the fact that none of us
> spoke a single word--not one.
I have gone to Dachau three times (when I was 14, 18, and 21) and each
time it was the same experience for me. It is so somber. Visitors
hardly say a word and if they did, it was in a whisper [most visitors--I was
rather annoyed at some of my group the last time I went because they were
chatting away and laughing even after walking through the entrance]. It
seemed to me as if I was walking on hallowed ground. It is an utterly
disturbing and depressing place to visit, but I would go there again if I
had the chance.
I just wonder if the sign, which was standing near the main entrance the
last time I visited, is still there--it was asking people to also go
visit the quaint little village of Dachau itself.
> The camp spoke for itself; if I am not mistaken, > Dachau was/is exactly as it was when it was liberated in 1945. _Victory in Europe: D-Day to Berlin_ has some interesting footage of Dachau taken almost immediately after its liberation. The documenatry itself is excerpts from George Stevens', Hollywood producer filming the war for the US govt., "home" movies. What is particularly interesting about the footage [and why I think it might be of use to Sandy] is that it's all in color. Example: frozen, snow-covered bodies in railroad cars.
> There is a significant difference between Dachau and Polish con- > centration camps. To the best of my knowledge, the mass murder of Jews > did not take place in Germany proper (heaven forbid the sensibilities > of the German people should have been upset). Precisely!
> I also recall that Dachau was one of the first camps to open (1934 > It opened in March 1933.
Will Thomas
U of DE
wmthomas@strauss.udel.edu
From: Devon Miller-Duggan <dmd%bach.udel.edu@uicvm.uic.edu>
In reply to Chuck Weckesser"s message about visiting Dachau: I also found my visit there very important. I saw it in 1978, when my husband and I were living in Germany during his first trip funded by the Humboldt Stiftung. We went to Munich to visit the woman he had lived with while doing dissertation research ten years before, and took a day to visit Dachau. The visit to the camp was hard and scary, although in some ways it was the stuff outside the camp itself that was most dislocating for me--the perefctly normal European train station sign with that name on it, the walk through the town to the camp with the townspeople staring and knowing where all these visitors were going, the cheerful American teens making the same walk, and then the cleanness of the camp itself (my understanding is that the camp was bulldozed after liberation, and that what's there is mostly reconstruction). Then, in the camp itself, there was the emphasis on cleanliness in the explanatory texts inside the reconstructed barracks. But what was strangest about the whole trip was my husband's friend's reaction to our having been to Dachau. She was furious. It was not our history. We had no right. We should look to our own crimes in Viet Nam, and against our Native Americans. We should have gone to visit Neuschwannstein instead. She had grown up in the village of Dachau during the war, and no one knew anything about the camp. She clung to this assertion even though I told her about the photos in the museum of local farmers walking beside hayricks loaded to overflowing with emaciated corpses before they built the crematoria. She was so angry with us, I think, in the end, for knowing, and for being willing to know. And she was so utterly terrified of our knowing. And yet there seemed to be no shame at all in her terror.
I've been told that other camps are much harder to visit than Dachau, but I worry a little about setting up a heirarchy of horror. That may change when I finally get to Auschwitz.
Devon Miller-Duggan
dmd@brahms.udel.edu
Department of English
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 15:01:33 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: James Costello <jcostello@igc.apc.org> Subject: Source of Nazi Program
In reply to Dr. Sandy Silverberg's request: An English version of the German Workers PartyUs twenty-five points can be found in _Nazism 1919-1945: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts_, Vol. 1, edited by J. Noakes and G. Pridham, Schocken Books: New York, 1984, (ISBN 0-8052-0973-5). There are three other valuable volumes in this comprehensive series.
With regards,
James Costello (jcostello@igc.apc.org)
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 15:03:57 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: kim nielsen <kenielsn@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu> Subject: Need recommendation for course book
Help! I'm a U.S. historian (thus, this is not my forte) but am teaching a class this fall which will include a large section on the Holocaust. I had planned to use William S. Allen's Nazi Seizure of Power but just discovered it is out of print. Does anyone have any suggestions about other community studies that are of a similar nature, perhaps discuss the nazification process, or are othewise interesting?
Thanks.
Kim Nielsen
kenielsn@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 15:07:04 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: List Subscriber <THOMPSON@ACAD.LVC.EDU> Subject: Heydrich's death
Conventional wisdom says Heydrich died from massive infection stemming from parts of the car seat driven deeply into his innards by the explosion. The German doctors apparently had no penicillin.
17 Jun 1994 10:23:04 CDT from <U15607@UICVM.BITNET>
A small corrective to Jonathan Morse. Nacht und Nebel was not used for Jews, but for resisters in the occupied countries, particularly France. The name, Night and Fog, was meant to increase the anguish for the relatives of the victims by refusing to give any information as to their whereabouts or their fates. Some communication was at times possible for non-Jewish prisoners, even to the extent of receiving packages and mail. The label NN precluded any contact whatsoever -- and therefore functioned as an escalation of terror to discourage would-be resisters.
More to the point, I think we should all resist using the words 'revisionist, revisionism,' etc. Instead we should substitute 'denial, deniers,' etc. or 'negationist' (which the French do). In fact, if someone uses the word, even in a benign discussion, I simply reply by changing the term or by even saying something like "oh, you mean Holocaust deniers," or some such. Historical revisionism is a perfectly legitimate activity and refers to rethinking about the past; it was not meant to cover the idea of denying factual information and of substituting what Amos Funkenstein calls a 'counter-history.'
Also I don't think the major problem is the so-called absence of the 'smoking gun,' which in any case refers, I think, to a directive from Hitler himself in decreeing the Final Solution. What is at stake is more complex, since the genocidal activity took different forms over a wide area, and the issue is not even policy as much (although it is obviously of great significance) but results. You will notice that the deniers simply focus on Auschwitz and the gas chambers, for the most part. If they can demonstrate that these were not used for exterminating people, then it casts doubt on the entire enterprise. But Auschwitz is only one, albeit the most dramatic and focused sign, (another interesting topic). From the end of the war on, there have always been deniers. Many Germans, in particular, those with strong Nazi sympathies or affiliations, resisted the knowledge. The motives remain consistent: hatred of Jews, fueled by a further resentment that Germany's pariah status was occasioned precisely by its victims. The idea undergoes some transmutation when it takes hold in France and the US, this time, not only of anti-Semitism but also in large part as anti-Israel.
But the crux of what I want to say is this: even at the time, victims themselves could not 'believe' their eyes. Again and again, memoirs and other accounts report that even afterwards, in retrospect, the whole experience seems 'unbelievable.' An SS officer in one of the camps is reputed to have told prisoners (I have heard it from difference sources and for different places): "even if we lose the war, even if by some miracle you are liberated, no one will ever believe you. We will say it was Allied propaganda (like World War I) and we will win this battle." In short, the wheel turns full circle: you accomplish the unbelievable -- it may remain just that (or at best, it is exaggerated).
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 16:30:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Re: Wannsee conference's timing
From: Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@compuserve.com>
Dear Mr. Remigioni,
If Heydrich was put to death because of his title as Protectorate of "Bohemia and Moravia" then why was, for example, no effort made on the life of Governor-General Frank of Poland?
After all, Britain went to war *because* of Poland and NOT to save the Czecks - in fact, didn't the appeasers in Great Britain specifically state that Britain should not go to war "over a people of whom we know nothing" (e.g. the Czecks) and that morever, since the former Czeckoslovokia (sp?? - cannot spell that country correctly) was in "Hitler's backyard" it wasn't worth "the blood of one Englishman."???
Heydrich was no more brutal than Frank; both raped the respected nations over which they reigned supreme.
Now, if your argument is correct, then it stands to reason that the Brits would have stepped up partisan warfare in Poland first and other places later.
Regards,
Chuck
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 10:31:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: New Holocaust Course Syllabi available
There are two new course syllabi available on the HOLOCAUS fileserver, courtesy of H. Ravven and Eric Epstein. To get copies, send these messages to listserv@uicvm.uic.edu
get syllabi n6
get syllabi n7
Syllabi N6 is from H.Ravven and Syllabi N7 is from Eric Epstein.
Please note the address you need to send your message to. DO NOT SEND IT TO HOLOCAUS@UICVM.UIC.EDU.
To obtain copies of all the syllabi on file, send this message to listserv@uicvm.uic.edu
get syllabi package
Jim Mott
Holocaus Moderator
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 10:34:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: E-Mail Address Needed
From: GEORGE M. KREN <KRENG%KSUVM@uicvm.uic.edu>
I am looking for the bitnet or snail mail address of Susan Zuccotti who is the author of THE ITALIANS AND THE HOLOCAUST and a work on the Holocaust in France.
many thanks. gmk (History, Kansas State Univ. Manhattan, KS 66506)
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 15:42:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Essay on Popularity of Holocaust Museum
From: JAloysius@aol.com
Dear Jim: I am the White House correspondent for The Boston Globe. I am currently preparing an essay on the Holocaust Museum and would like to use the Holocaust Mailing List in my work.
The theme of my essay concerns the popularity of the Holocaust Museum here in Washington, DC. Its founders never anticipated that it would be the huge attraction it has become. And three-fifths of the visitors are gentiles. The question I am trying to answer is: Why is this museum so popular? Could it be, as some critics suggest, that the gruesome exhibits make it a must-see stop for morbid minds? Does it say something about the moral righteousness of Americans? Or could it be that this museum, in a time of scientific relativity and moral ambiguity, stands out as a symbol of something neither relative nor ambiguous? That here is the certainty of evil? And that if the Holocaust proves the certainty of evil, maybe it stands as a sign that there are other absolutes: like God and goodness? Thanks for your help, John A. Farrell, The Boston Globe. (farrell@nws.globe.com)
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 15:45:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Need Lesson Plans on the Holocaust for Middle/High Schoolers
From: sullivaj@gvsu.edu (JIM SULLIVAN)
Hi,
I'm a student at Grand Valley State Univerisity in Allendale
Michigan. I just recently completed an entire semester's
worth of a class on the Holocaust, specifically on the
dynamics of aggression & cooperation taught by Prof. William
Baum.
As a result of this class, I want to include a study of the
holocaust in my classes when I become certified to teach
secondary school. I'm looking for material that would be
appropriate to this age level. While I haven't ruled out
other possibilities I'm approaching this topic looking at
"Utopias & Dystopias" and social agreesion i.e. 'The Lord of
the Flies'
Is there a chance that anyone in your list would have lesson
plans on the holocaust for middle/high schoolers?
jim
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 15:47:09 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET>
Subject: The Wannsee Conference
From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ@PUCC>
to Jonathan Morse. I think if you saw the actual Syberberg film in all its tortuous, self-indulgent, kitschy, and unending length, you might think differently.
From: GEORGE M. KREN <KRENG@KSUVM>
I believe the decision for Heydrich's assassination began or at least was suppo rted by Eduard Benes and the Czech exiles. As far as I know there is no eviden ce that the Polish government in exile in London ever advocated making an attem pted on Hans Frank. Perhaps the German reprisals for Heydrich's killing played a role in that, but I have seen no evidence that this was ever discussed.
From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ@PUCC>
My impression about the assassination of Heydrich was that it was done by Czech partisans. It may be that they were assisted by the British government, but it was resistance by Czechs on Czech soil. Certainly, many other plots could have been laid to do away with other Nazi functionaries, but was this ever a part of the general war effort? If so, why not go after the big fish?
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 10:00:00 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: SCHENKE@oise.on.ca Subject: Wannsee and Heimat
Thanks to Jonathan Morse for having (gently) corrected my reference to Anton Kaes' book. I knew the title seemed odd as I wrote it, but was too hasty in sending off the message. Indeed, there is a difference between assuming history to return `through' film and assuming it to return `as' film (I think I prefer Kaes' version), as there is also an enormous shift when `heimat' and `Hitler' are reversed. You were right to point this out.
You also mentioned Syberberg's `Our Hitler. A Film from Germany'. Susan Sontag says of this piece (and of Syberberg) that he simply "can't stop talking". I think she's right here - and especially (from my own viewing of the film) when this talking is done `for' us and has no interest in audience presence. Watching it, for me, felt like being relentlessly (for 7 hours) hammered over the head with a pedagogy that had forgotten (or never had) its sense of dialogue. But perhaps the script reads differently from the watching - which returns us to the point first raised by Daniel Roger's question.
"Heimat II", the sequel to Edgar Reitz's first production by the same name, has recently been shown as a series on Canadian television. I'd be interested in knowing from others on the list if it's also been shown in other countries and, if so, what kind of response it's received? Reitz has been criticized for his selective rendering of `heimat', a critique that I think holds equally true for this second production.
Thanks for any comments
Arleen Schenke ("schenke@oise.on.ca")
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 10:13:01 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Holocaust Revisionism/Denial
From: "Klevan, David G." <dklevan@ushmm.org>
Dear Messrs Petersen and Fried,
Another useful book on deniers is by Kenneth Stern and I
think is entitled "Holocaust Denial." Aside from that, the
ADL offers some concise and useful materials on deniers and
their arguments that I believe they offer for a small fee.
Otherwise, there is little that one can do in a debate with
hardcore deniers. It is akin to debating with a person who
believes that the Earth is flat; there is nothing you can do
when a person disregards established facts and evidence.
However, there are several books that I can recommend that
may make you feel more confident in your own knowledge, and
that you can suggest to anybody who wants to learn more
about the history of the Holocaust.
It wasn't that long ago that I was feeling very depressed
after having read a few treatises written by deniers. I
found that the materials which helped me regain my emotional
balance were primary source documents (ie, the proof that
deniers deny): letters and documents written by the killers
themselves -- THE EINSATZGRUPPEN REPORTS (available in book
form) actually list the numbers killed in mass shootings;
ORDINARY MEN by Christopher Browning; THE GOOD OLD DAYS: THE
HOLOCAUST AS SEEN BY ITS PERPETRATORS AND BYSTANDERS; the
film SHOAH; the massive amount of newspaper articles, diary
entries, and official government correspondence contained in
the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE books
(these are available in a very limited supply); Raul
Hilberg's THE DESTRUCTION OF EUROPEAN JEWRY.
Perhaps one of the most interesting and useful books to read
when one has had to deal with deniers is Jean-Claude
Pressac's AUSCHWITZ: TECHNIQUE AND OPERATION OF THE GAS
CHAMBERS. This book uses corporate and government documents,
German architectural drawings and plans for the crematoria,
and modern studies of the former gas chambers to refute the
claims of deniers. Pressac himself had been taken in by
deniers and joined them. It was when he sought to prove
that the Holocaust never happened that he discovered the
exact opposite. Pressac has written a new book on the gas
chambers at Auschwitz using newly disclosed documents from
former Soviet archives. In America, I believe it will be
published in cooperation with the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum. It should generate some controversy, because
Pressac is very conservative in his figures, and estimates
the number of people killed at Auschwitz as lower than most
scholars (It is my understanding that the USHMM, does not
agree with Mr. Pressac on this particular point).
In any case, the Holocaust may be the best documented event
in modern history. It is almost certainly the best
documented genocide in history. This is because of the
millions of written records, photos, and film that the
killers, bystanders, and victims all left behind or that
were captured at the end of the war. Many of these
important documents/photos/films are published and easily
obtainable. The National Archives, Simon Wiesenthal
Center, Yad Vashem, US Holocaust Memorial Museum all have
substantial records of this major event in world history.
This is not to mention the remnants of the camps in Europe
(many of which are still standing). Majdanek in Poland
still has its gas chambers standing (the interiors are
stained blue from the zyclon B gas that was used). Unlike
at Auschwitz, the Nazis did not have time to
dynamite the chambers at Majdanek because of the rapid Red
Army advance. In addition, I believe the chambers used in
some of the "euthanasia" centers in Germany are still
intact. Though some people try to deny reality today, it is
important to remember that when Nazis and their
collaborators were put on trial at the end of the war, NOT
ONE claimed that the Holocaust didn't occur. In fact, they
usually said, of course it occurred... but I wasn't
involved, or I wasn't the actual trigger man, or most
commonly I was involved but I was only following orders.
From: Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@CompuServe.COM>
Dear Dr. Morse,
I found your post to be intellectually intriguing; that said however I must disagree with one of your themes which essentially states that there is a dearth of primary documents - ironically, the Ranke method - which graphically and vividly illustrates the most vicious and supreme porgrom in the history of the world, that is, Hitler's War against the Jews.
In addition to the documents you mentioned you forgot to mention the minutes of the Wannsee Conference and Adolf Eichmann's trial in Israel in 1960, and that's just for starters.
Hitler's notorious "table talk" is replete with references to the rabid anti-semitism of historical figures such as Martin Luther (it makes me positively ill to think that school children are only taught Martin Luther's "95 Theses" without any mention of his bizarre and sick hatered of Jews) and Wagner, among others. In fact, Hitler once said that one cannot understand National Socialism without understanding Luther and Wagner.
In addition, Hitler declared in a speech to the Reichstag in 1939 that if war broke out again in Europe, the complete destruction of European Jewry would follow. Hitler claimed that "international Jewry" was responsible for the Great War (WWI) and indeed specifically stated in his rambling autobiography "Mein Kampf" that if only 10,000 Jews were put to death by gassing, the war would have been worthwhile.
If memory serves me correctly, wasn't Germany's first Weimar Republic President
Most important are the oral histories of Holocaust survivors. Their direct testimony is prima facie evidence that the Holocaust did indeed occur and thus, no other "proof" is even needed as far as I am concerned.
I am not angry with those who claim that the Holocaust did not happen; rather, I pity them because of the obvious psychological instability that would ensue from anyone holding such an opinion. In my opinion, these people should simply be ignored no matter what they say. To even refute the obvious perpetuates a vicious cycle not to mention the blasphemy and desecration of the memories of the millions of Jews and others slaughtered by the insidious einsatzgruppen and German killing camps.
Althoug I am not Jewish (I am Catholic) I would never respond to the revisionists because they are, in effect, perpetuating Hitler's propaganda concept of the "big lie." The "big lie" theory holds that people are far more inclined to believe fantastic, implausible and unbelievable lies than "small" lie which the listener often knows to be untrue.
One must have a frame of reference if you will to comprehend anything. Almost all of us can comprehend the murder of an individual. Very few people in the 1930's and 40's could comprehend that the country of Bach and Goethe was actually planning and executing the worlds most horrific pogrom. Thus, the frame of reference for most Americans was World War I in which few atrocities took place with the exception of unrestricted submarine warfare.
The fact is that there was an earlier 20th Century precedent of genocide, albeit on a dramatically smaller scale - I am refering of course to the murder of 600,000 Christian Armenians in the closing days of the Ottoman Empire circa 1919 (ironically, Hitler himself once said 'Who remembers the Armenians'?) The problem is that most people - owing to a lack of education - did not and still are not even aware of this mass murder of Christians by radical Muslims. Indeed, pick 100 Americans off the street and ask them who Pol Pot is and what he is responsible for and I would bet my next paycheck that not even one could state that he is responsible for the murder of 1 million Cambodians during the *1970's*!!
Moreover, I believe that FDR, Stalin and Churchill knew what the Nazi's were doing yet they did nothing because of their own anti-semitism (notwithstanding Morgantheau's position as Secretary of the Treasury and who advocated turning Germany into an agrarian state) and the significant undercurrent of anti-semitism in America and Britain proper (one need not mention Russia's anti-semitism as it so historically obvious).
It was no accident that immigration quotas to America were dramatically lowered for Eastern (ergo, Jewish) European people in the 1920's while quotas for Western European individuals, while lowered, was implemented on a much smaller scale.
The point that I am making is that Americans must accept the fact that we were in effect accessories to murder by refusing to admit anymore then a token amount of Jews into the United States when it was vividly clear that the future of Europe's Jews did not auger well as early as 1934 - and certainly by 1938 - let alone the graphic documentation from the World Jewish Congress of German atrocities towards Jewish civilians.
Please forgive this long missive; again, thanks for sharing your thought provoking post.
Regards,
Chuck Weckesser.
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 10:15:59 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Brad Daly <bsc835!bdaly@uunet.uu.net> Subject: Holocaust project
Thanks to all the listmembers who made suggestions regarding my Holocaust project. I really appreciate all the help. I would've thanked everyone sooner, but I've been of campus for a couple of weeks. I think the many sources suggested here will be sufficient for the work I'm doing. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
Brad Daly
Birmingham-Southern College
bdaly@bsc.edu
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 1994 10:19:34 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: SBOLKOSK@ca-f1.umd.umich.edu Subject: Re: Need Lesson Plans on the Holocaust for Middle/High Scho
Jim, I am the co-author of a Holocaust curriculum, *Life Unworthy of
Life*, which is a National Diffusion Network preferred curriculum and
is in use in high schools in some 40 states. It was one of two
highly recommended by Lucy Dawidowicz in her review of such
materials. If you are interested, contact Dr. Peter Nagourney, Center
for the Study of the Child, 914 Lincoln Ave., Ann Arbor, MI. 48104-
3525; phone 313-671-6440, fax (313)761-5629.
Sid Bolkosky
UM-Dearborn
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 10:08:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Assasination of Heydrich
From: TKGIERYMSKI@stthomas.edu
Froma Zeitlin writes:
>My impression about the assassination of Heydrich was that it was done >by Czech partisans. It may be that they were assisted by the British >government, but it was resistance by Czechs on Czech soil.
The story behind the assassination of Heydrich is a bit more complex than that, and it is still not entirely known or certain.
Heydrich began to administer Bohemia and Moravia brutally, but eventually initiated a carrot and stick policy, which started to yield results. He issued additional ration cards and clothing coupons to the cooperating and productive workers. Industrial productivity was rising, and there was fear in London of growing collaboration in Czechoslovakia.
The British, so goes one account, expected brutal reprisals for the assassination of Heydrich, and that was the real reason for it: to put an end to the feared collaboration. The Czech resistance, when they learnt of the plan to kill Heydrich, objected to it, and asked the Czech government in exile to intervene with the British. The mission was not aborted; the parachuted detachment of Czech soldiers went into action, and Heydrich was mortally wounded. The parachutists and their local helpers were wiped out in the Prague church, and the terror, whether it was feared or hoped for, began.
Some 860 people were condemned to death in Prague, almost 400 in Brno, the population of Lidice was slaughtered or dispersed, thousands of Czechs were deported to Mauthausen, the campaign against the Jews intensified, and the hostility of Czechs to the occupiers was assured.
One thing is certain: no flight could have left England to drop the Czech detachment near Prague without the knowledge, approval, and cooperation of the British.
Regards,
Tadeusz K. Gierymski
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 11:15:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Dachau
From: pl2@ukc.ac.uk
I've followed the postings on Dachau with interest.
I've visited couple of times and agree with much of
what others have already stated.
However I find it hard to accept that the gas chamber
was never used at all. I would appreciate more
information on this. Does anyone know when it was
built and what evidence there is about it's lack of use?
Peter Lindley
From: CIPSMARY%MIZZOU1@uicvm.uic.edu
I wonder if Chuck Weckesser is confused a bit about Dachau. I was there in 1991 with my middle-aged German history teacher friend. My father was with the American troops that liberated Dachau, and I've heard about it all my life. I'm not a scholar, but I've done a bit of reading about Dachau because of my family connection.
First, Dachau's barracks were used as "temporary" housing for displaced persons for several years after the war, then demolished. Memorials were designed and built and the camp was open to the public (in the early '60s? My books are at home.). Now, there is a reproduction wooden barracks and the rows where the barracks formerly stood are neatly outlined with stones. My most powerful experience was walking down those same walkways where my father had walked as a 19-year-old kid.
Second, there are ovens there, but there apparently is no clear evidence either way that they were used or not used. Scholars on the list may have more information than I found readily available here.
My overall impression of Dachau was that of a very accessible -- yet very horrible -- monument to the Shoah.
mary hartigan
University of Missouri
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 12:28:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Holocaust Revisionism/Denial From: Jonathan Morse <JMORSE%UHCCMVS.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU@uicvm.uic.edu>
Thanks to all of you for your replies, onlist and off, to my June 16 post. To Froma Zeitlin, specifically: you may be right about the unbearableness of Syberberg's _Hitler_, the film, but do take a look at the screenplay. Maybe the thing that makes it fail as a film, assuming it does fail, is precisely what makes it work as a text: i.e., it IS a text, not a moving picture. But this is a topic for a lit theory list. And I do think your idea of substituting the word "denier" for "revisionist" is a good one, though there's no point in placing too much stock in nomenclature. Cf. the history of euphemisms like "cemetery" or "toilet," which constantly need to be replaced by new euphemisms. For that matter, consider the history of Negro/black/colored person/Black/person of color/African American, or the tangle around the terms administered territory/occupied territory/West Bank/Judea and Samaria.
To Chuck Weckesser: thanks for your thoughtful post. No, I don't think Friedrich Ebert was Jewish, but Walther Rathenau was. That's what got him killed.
Jonathan Morse
From: John Gillies <JOHNG%psy.gla.ac.uk@uicvm.uic.edu>
Jonathan Morse writes:
>
> That said, I'd suggest a look at _"The Good Old Days": The Holocaust as Seen
> by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders_, ed. Ernst Klee, Willi Dressen, and
> Volker Riess, trans. Deborah Burnstone (Free Press, 1991). But it's not a
> book for the sensitive.
I would strongly endorse this recommendation - However, the title of Burnstone's translation of "Scho"ne Zeiten" (in my copy) is "Those Were The Days" - Perhaps the US edition has a different title? Either way - a powerful title for a shocking book.
John
John Gillies
Department of Psychology
Adam Smith Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8RT Tel: (0)41 339 8855 ext.5351
Scotland
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 14:48:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: Re: correction on Jack Farrell's email address
From: JAloysius@aol.com
Hi. I'm the reporter from The Boston Globe who asked to be put on the Holocaust list. I got a call from a helpful fellow journalist who told me that I had listed my address wrong, which may explain why I still can't access the list. It's not farrell@nws.globe.com but rather farrel@nws.globe.com. That's farrel with only one "l." Or JAloysius on American Online. Thanks for your patience. jack farrell
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 14:44:14 CDT Reply-To: "William C. Daroff" <wcd@po.CWRU.Edu> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: "William C. Daroff" <wcd@po.CWRU.Edu> Subject: President Names 9 to Holocaust Memorial Council
FYI:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
PRESIDENT CLINTON APPOINTS 9 MEMBERS
TO THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
President Clinton today appointed nine members to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. The council was established in 1979 to provide for the annual commemoration of the Days of Remembrance and to construct and operate a permanent living memorial museum to the victims of the Holocaust. The Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated on April 22, 1993.
Brief bios on the members appointed today follow:
BENJAMIN MEED of New York Mr. Meed is a Principal founder and President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. He is also a founding member of United States Holocaust Survivors and the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, worked as a slave laborer for Germans outside the Ghetto during World War II and was an active member in the Warsaw Underground.
JOHN T. PAWLIKOWSKI of Illinois Mr. Pawlikowski is a Servite Priest and Professor of Social Ethics at the Catholic Theological Union, a constituent school of the Chicago Cluster of Theological Schools at the University of Chicago. He is a founding member of the Holocaust Memorial Museum and chairman of its Church Relations Committee.
DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT of Georgia Ms. Lipstadt is a Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University and the author of Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory and Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust. She is also an historical consultant to the Holocaust Memorial Museum, where she participated in designing the section of the Museum dedicated to the American response to the Holocaust.
DAVID BERGER of Pennsylvania Mr. Berger is a senior partner in the law firm of Berger & Montague. He is a also a strong supporter of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
GARY A. BARRON of Florida Mr. Barron is Director of Corporate Affairs and Executive Assistant to the Chairman of Vitas Healthcare Corporation. He was Executive Director of Vote Now '92, which issued grants to non-partisan voter registration and Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) groups during the 1992 campaign.
MENACHEM Z. ROSENSAFT of New York Mr. Rosensaft is Vice President and Senior Associate Counsel for Chase Manhattan Bank.
ABIGAIL S. WEXNER of Ohio Ms. Wexner serves on the Board of Directors of the Children's Defense Fund, the Governing Committee of the Columbus Foundation, and the Board of Trustees of Columbus Children's Hospital. She was formerly an attorney with Davis, Polk & Wardwell. She and her husband Les Wexner, Chairman and CEO of the Limited, have been very involved in Jewish affairs, as well as founding the Wexner Heritage Foundation.
ARTHUR L. SCHECHTER of Texas Mr. Schechter is an attorney with Schechter & Associates. He is also President of the American Jewish Committee, Chairman of "Operation Exodus II," a program to raise $1 billion for the resettlement of Soviet Jews and a member of the Executive Committee of the Southwest Region Anti-Defamation League.
LAWRENCE M. SMALL of the District of Columbia Mr. Small is President and Chief Operating Officer of Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association). He is also a member of the Board and the Treasurer for Morehouse College and a director of Paramount Communications Inc. and the Chubb Corporation He has been leading the corporate fundraising effort for the Council on a volunteer basis.
-30-30-30-
--
William C. Daroff
Case Western Reserve University
WCD@po.CWRU.Edu
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 14:50:14 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Shafer,
Ingrid. Univ. of Sci/arts of OK" <FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU>
Subject: Lublin etc.
>From Ingrid Shafer, a new subscriber:
Between May 28 and June 4 I posted a request on several lists and to a number of individuals asking for help concerning Leo Polenzweig, a Holocaust survivor from Warsaw who was a child while he was in the camps and is now, after fifty years, trying to confront the horror of those years.
I believe that someone was kind enough to forward my letter(s) to this list, and that this allowed an American researcher at the Jewish archives in Warsaw to contact me, offering his assistance. A member of another list who lives in Jerusalem called a friend at the Jewish Agency's Search Bureau for Missing Relatives. The woman there found no record of survivors and even doubted the spelling of Leo's name but sent a request for information to Yad Vashem. My Jerusalem contact has recently e-mailed me the news that some records concerning Leo and/or members of his family have indeed been found, and that copies are on the way to me. He did not know the content of the material. At least the records prove that Leo indeed knows the correct spelling of his family name.
Leo remembers his movements as being arrested on the streets of Warsaw around 1941, being kept in a Warsaw prison for several months, and being moved by train to the railroad station at Treblinka where captives were separated into those who stayed and those who were herded back onto a train. He was sent to Lublin, probably because two men on either side of him picked him up and made him appear taller than he was. Eventually he ended up in Auschwitz from where he was moved to a series of smaller camps in the final months of the war. He suspects those camps were in Czechoslovakia and Germany but does not remember their names. He escaped on one of those random marches, hid in the forest for a couple of days, and gave himself up to American G.I.s when he saw a white star on their jeep and heard them speak a language he did not understand (by then he knew Polish, Yiddish, German, and realized that Russian sounded much like Polish). They took him to Regensburg. He and the rest of his family were arrested and processed at least a year apart and under entirely different circumstances. He saw his parents again when they arrived in Lublin after he had been there for many months. The Germans never realized that he was his father's son or his little brother's brother.
My question concerns Lublin. Leo remembers a gas chamber and crematorium. He is sure he last saw his mother and two little sisters (still in their civilian travel clothes) walk toward the "showers" never to emerge. He recalls camp grapevine concerning the deadly "showers." His father and brother were kept alive at the time.
According to my research (i.e. _The Pictorial History of the Holocaust_, Gilbert's _The Holocaust_, the "Operation Reinhard" material in the Yad Vashem electronic archive) Lublin itself was not a death camp even though there were death camps in the region. I suggested Leo look at maps of Sobibor and Belzec, but the layouts did not seem particularly familiar. I don't yet have a map of Majdanek. He insists that the name that sticks in his memory is Lublin and that he believes his mother and baby sisters were murdered there. Does anyone have information on Lublin? Is it possible he remembers seeing the term "Bezirk Lublin." Does anyone know whether death camps in the region were marked as being located in the Lublin district?
Concerning revisionist: a few months ago one of my students showed me a draft of his senior seminar paper which contained some outrageous revisionist claims which this young man had swallowed whole. When I asked him where this nonsense originated I discovered that there was a new student of German descent on campus who was dazzling the more naive among his dormitory confreres with his academic brilliance, his ability to guzzle beer, his willingness to make money by anonymously writing their papers, and his "knowledge" of 20th century German history. I checked with the registrar and discovered that the young man was enrolled in a large general education course where I was scheduled to give a guest lecture on creativity a couple of days later. When I talked to students in that course I learned that he had been busy spreading his poison before and after class (in addition to the dorm). By the way, the faculty in the team-taught course (one of whom is Jewish) had no idea what this guy was doing. For my creativity lecture I usually bring an assortment of personal creative endeavors from drawings and paintings to computer-art, poetry, and some of my less orthodox scholarly work. This time I had a more specific agenda: I presented my life story as ongoing response to my shattering discovery of the Holocaust when I was around eight or nine. In my computer I already had a collection of Holocaust poems (published and unpublished) going back some thirty years and drawing on memories going back an additional two decades (I clearly remember people's reaction to the liberation of Mauthausen when I was five). I stayed up most of the night to generate transparencies on the laser printer of some of the most ghastly images from my collection of videotaped documentaries. And then, the next morning, I let them have it from the perspective of an Austrian Catholic who has been convinced for forty-six years that the lives of her generation of Germans and Austrians were largely purchased at the expense of their parents' silent complicity to mass murder in order to protect themselves and their children. After all, when I confronted my mother in that dingy kitchen in Innsbruck around 1948 with the simple question why people like she and Papa had allowed this horror to happen she finally reduced it to, "You'll understand when you have a child of your own." (My children are now grown, and I still don't understand.) And so, while I certainly don't feel guilty for something I didn't do, I feel I owe a debt to the tortured and dead and to all those many generations who will never be because their potential parents were killed by my people. The only way I can pay the debt is to help make sure that the truth will not be forgotten in the hope that the sheer horror of the story will help affect the minds and hearts of those alive today and those yet unborn so that they will truly commit themselves to the only valid response possible to the Shoah: "NEVER AGAIN!"
Ingrid Shafer (FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU)
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 14:52:58 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: Brad Daly <bsc835!bdaly@uunet.uu.net>
Subject: Re: Essay on Popularity of Holocaust Museum
In-Reply-To: <QQwuwh11582.199406182051@relay2.UU.NET>; from "spss.com!JIMMOTT"
at Jun 18, 94 3:42 pm
> question I am trying to answer is: Why is this museum so popular? Could it > be, as some critics suggest, that the gruesome exhibits make it a must-see > stop for morbid minds? Does it say something about the moral righteousness of > Americans? Or could it be that this museum, in a time of scientific > relativity and moral ambiguity, stands out as a symbol of something neither > relative nor ambiguous? That here is the certainty of evil? And that if the > Holocaust proves the certainty of evil, maybe it stands as a sign that there > are other absolutes: like God and goodness? Thanks for your help, John A. >
John,
I doubt that any one of these possibilities is the sole source of the Museum's
popularity. I've not had the chance to visit it yet, but I hope to as soon
as possible. Some high-school-age friends of mine recently visited and acted
dissapointed at the lack of gruesomness in the Museum. To me, it seems that
extreme gruesomness would be almost redundant. Isn't the fact that six million
human beings were murdered horrible enough? Maybe my friends' actions are a
comment
on how jaded Americans have become to violence and horror. I'm sure there was
also an aspect of moral rightiousness on their part. They, like many
Americans, like the think, 'Look what they did; WE could never do that.' I
find that here in the South a lot: people who have black friends, and, in
retrospect, support the Civil Rights Movement, are the very ones who would've
fought tooth-and-toenal against it in the late fifties and early sixties.
Brad Daly
Birmingham-Southern College
bdaly@bsc.edu
Date: Mon, 20 Jun 1994 14:54:21 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: M_BURKE@prime.delta.edu Subject: Multimedia on Presentation on the Holocaus
As a community college English professor, I have been reading the discussions on this listserv with great interest. My colleague teaches a holocaust literature course, and I have with great regularity taught the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel with great regularity (and success) to developmental readers and writers.
Recently, I have been working on a multimedia presentation on the Holocaust to help my students understand the historical background of the period. Frequently, students ask the same questions. Using this a basis for the presentation, I have created a hundred "page" hypertext on the holocaust. It includes a glossary of names, places, and terms. The first section is a timeline of Hitler's time in power. The second answers five frequently asked questions I hear from students. The questions are: why were the Jews targeted; what happended to the people in the camps; what happened to those who hid; what happened to those who survived the camps; and could this ever happen again. The third section is maps, and the fourth outlines Wiesel's life so that the developmental readers can understand the time period that Wiesel describes in Night.
In the glossary I define terms such as Nazi, concentration camps, death camps, crematories, gas chambers, aryan, anti-semitic, and pogram. I also try to give background on Mengele and Hitler.
I would like to know what components I could add. I have avoided discussing revisionists or as someone on the serv said deniers because, quite honestly, I do not want to give them anymore press than they already get. But I wonder if my thinking there is misguided.
I also wonder what many of you would think would be the most important message I should be communicating through this presentation. What should my students understand about the Holocaust?
I teach developmental reading and find the students react well to this book and in the past have taken it upon themselves to do independent research, ant important component of the reading course. Yet I am concerned they receive piecemeal info on the event. How can I better fill in the gaps?
Thanks for the fascinating discussions on the listserv. I am in awe of your knowledge and insights.
Ebert was certainly not Jewish. His association with the Dolchstoss-myth comes from his greeting to troops returning through the Brandenburg Gate. He said that they had never been defeated in the field. While this phrase became part of the myth, Ebert said nothing about Germany having lost the war because it had been stabbed in the back by Jews, democrats, and socialists (he led the SPD). This was the "corollary" of never having been militarily defeated (an absurdity) and the province of the radical and conservative Right.
rsl
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 14:37:35 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: pl2@ukc.ac.uk Subject: Yad Vashem electronic archives
One of the recent postings mentioned the Yad Vashem electronic archives. Could anyone please send me details of how to access them.
Many thanks
Peter Lindley Phone: 0227 764000 The Tizard Centre Fax: 0227 763674 University of Kent email: pl2@ukc.uk.ac
Canterbury
Kent
CT2 7LZ
UK
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 14:39:27 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: crjackson@ucdavis.edu Subject: Re: Need recommendation for course book
In-Reply-To: <199406172158.OAA16280@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
If Allen's book is out of print (too bad!), you might want to take a look at Rudy Koshar's excellent recent study, "Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935" (University of North Carolina Press, 1986). Although not quite as "up close and personal" as Allen's book, it is more sophisticated.
Christopher R. Jackson, UC Davis
On Fri, 17 Jun 1994, kim nielsen wrote:
> Help! I'm a U.S. historian (thus, this is not my forte) but am teaching
> a class this fall which will include a large section on the Holocaust. I
> had planned to use William S. Allen's Nazi Seizure of Power but just
> discovered it is out of print. Does anyone have any suggestions about
> other community studies that are of a similar nature, perhaps discuss the
> nazification process, or are othewise interesting?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Kim Nielsen
> kenielsn@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
>
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 1994 15:26:00 CST Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: JIMMOTT@spss.com Subject: A new Holocaust Course Syllabi on the HOLOCAUS filelist
A new Holocaust course syllabus is on the HOLOCAUS filelist courtesy of Lawrence Powell. To get a copy, send this message to listserv@uicvm.uic.edu
get syllabi n8
Again, to get copies of all syllabi on the filelist, send this message to listserv@uicvm.uic.edu
get syllabi package
PLEASE NOTE THE ADDRESS!!
Jim Mott
Holocaus Moderator
From holoweb@h-net.msu.edu Thu Aug 22 14:08:40 1996
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 14:07:50 -0400 (EDT)
From: HOLOCAUS Gopherspace <holoweb@h-net.msu.edu>
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Subject: log 9406d
>From LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU Mon Aug 12 22:22:31 1996 Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (UICVM-ETH1.CC.UIC.EDU [128.248.2.150]) by h-net.msu.edu (8.7.1/8.7.1) with SMTP id OAA22200 for <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 14:54:30 -0400 Message-Id: <199608121854.OAA22200@h-net.msu.edu> Received: from UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU by UICVM.UIC.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
with BSMTP id 1991; Mon, 12 Aug 96 13:53:27 CDT Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@UICVM) by UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 6013; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:20 -0500 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:18 -0500 From: "L-Soft list server at UICVM (1.8b)" <LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU> Subject: File: "HOLOCAUS LOG9406D" To: H-NET Help <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 11:31:07 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Holocaust Revisionism/Denial
From: Richard Rubenstein <rrubenst@garnet.acns.fsu.edu>
I was surprised to see the statement by Chuck Weckesser that Friedrich Ebert was Jewish. Some right wing radicals may have accused him of being Jewish given their hatred of Weimar but there was nothing Jewish about him.
Richard L. Rubenstein
Florida State University
From: "HIUSERS" <HIPIER@ruby.indstate.edu>
I have been interested in extreme right versions of Christianity for many years (especially those with political or racialist orientations), and the Holocaust deniers are indeed a strange bunch. Deborah Lipstadt helped me to see the importance of not using the term "revisionist" for them, although I still on occasion will tack "so-called" in front of it in order to inform people what I am talking about. I did a paper on their efforts to infiltrate evangelical Protestantism in the U.S. at the Remembering for the Future conference in Berlin in March, and this brought to my mind once again what an insidious lot they are. They are extraordinarily unpleasant people to deal with. When the magazine Christianity Today published my review of Lipstadt's book a couple months ago, one of these guys called me all the way from California one evening and argued with me for some time until I finally terminated the conversation.
I am still welcoming information about deniers/revisionists that are pitching their line to Christians. One kind person on the list tipped me off about Herman Otten and his Christian News, and I checked it out. His stuff was terrible!
Richard Pierard/History/Indiana State University
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 11:48:43 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Wannsee Conference Timing / Heimat
From: "Terry Moore" <RTMOORE@PCAD-ML.ACTX.EDU>
Hello, Chuck!
Would like to add my two cents' worth to this.
> If Heydrich was put to death because of his title as Protectorate of "Bohemia > and Moravia" then why was, for example, no effort made on the life of > Governor-General Frank of Poland?
The reason the Brits wanted Heydrich done away with is that he was doing his job too well. Through Heydrich's improved work incentives, his favorable attitude toward the Czechs in particular had brought the British to the point that by removing Heydrich, the well-known Nazi reprisals would re-alienate the Czechs from the Germans and create much instability in the region. There were far more positives than negatives in removing Heydrich.
Frank, of course, was far more brutal, but Heydrich had done his job too well in Czechoslovakia than was thought possible by the Brits.
Thanks, Chuck.
Terry
Terry Moore, Professor of German and French, Amarillo College P.O. Box 447, Amarillo, Texas 79178, voice 806-371-5077 fax 806-371-5370
From: Terry Hanstock - Dryden Library <LIB3HANSTTM@NOTTINGHAM-TRENT.AC.UK> Heimat II was broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC2 (a minority channel)
Terry Hanstock
Nottingham Trent University
From: Tom Kazmierski <T.J.Kazmierski@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
> From: Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@compuserve.com>
>
> If Heydrich was put to death because of his title as Protectorate of "Bohemia
> and Moravia" then why was, for example, no effort made on the life of
> Governor-General Frank of Poland?
>
In the Spring 1942, The Home Army HQ (Komenda Glowna AK) was planning to execute Hans Frank [1]. An assault group "Osa - Kosa" ("Wasp - Scythe") was formed and trained specifically for this purpose. As part of the same plan, all railways leading to the Warsaw railway node were to be disabled simultaneously with an attack on Frank. The railway part of the action was codenamed "Wieniec" ("Wreath").
The plan to kill Hans Frank was abandoned but "Wieniec" was successfully carried out on Oct 7, 1942. Seven sabotage groups broke six railway lines in the Warsaw area, five trains were derailed, one railway bridge destroyed and another one damaged. The Germans retaliated in the usual way. 50 political prisoners (39 of them happened to be communist partisans who had nothing to do with the action) were hanged immediately on public gallows and the efforts against armed resistance were stepped up.
Attempts to assassinate high-ranking German officials were rare. They were considered costly and inefficient in terms of military benefits: had Hans Frank been killed, another General Governor would have been appointed instantly. After the assassination of Heydrich in Prague, the Germans almost totally annihilated the Czech resistance, which did not resume its activities until the retreat of the German army in the beginning of 1945.
Tomasz J Kazmierski
PS. I have just noticed that Tadeusz Gierymski, in reply to a separate posting, gave details on the German reprisals after the Heydrich action. My comments only amplify his point.
W-wa, 1980, p. 719.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 11:50:43 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Danny Keren <dzk@cs.brown.edu> Subject: Badly Needed Information for an Article
Hi everybody,
I need the following items of information, for an article on the Holocaust I am writing. I would be very grateful for them or for any hint where I might find them...
manufacture Zyklon-B). I think it is in Frankfurt.
Elliot and Davis, "Composition of Diesel Exhaust Gas," _SAE Quarterly Transactions_ Vol. 4, No. 3 (July 1950),
4) The address of the Dutch architect, Mr. Van-Pelt, who researched
the captured documents from the Auschwitz construction department. He appeared some time ago in the "Horizons" program on the BBC, some of which was also aired on Israeli TV.
Many thanks,
-Danny Keren.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 12:01:58 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Dachau
Just re-read my own post...should do that more often.
I meant to say, of course, that the *ovens* were used and that there's some doubt about the gas chamber. Please forgive my carelessness.
mary hartigan
cipsmary@mizzou1.missouri.edu
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:19:50 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Arezzo Massacres [ x H-Italy]
IN MEMORY
REVISITING NAZI ATROCITIES IN POST-COLD WAR EUROPE
International Conference to commemorate the fiftieth
anniversary of the 1944 massacres around Arezzo: from
Vallucciole to Civitella della Chiana
June 22-24, 1994
below is an abstract of one paper from that conference:
Gustavo Corni, University of Trieste
Diaries from the Ghettos as Sources for Historical Memory
"This is a preliminary approach to this kind of source, which I intend to analyse with regard both to form and to content. I shall examine a sample of ten or so diaries, my aim being to highlight the sensibility and mentality of the Jewish community, the way in which the Ghetto worked as a social microcosm, and its interaction not only with the German invaders, but with the local civilian population as well"
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 00:37:19 +0100 From: Franco Andreucci <fran@vm.cnuce.cnr.it> Subject: In Memory - The Inside Story: Civitella della Chiana, 29 June, 1944
Angela Scali, University of Siena
Events at Civitella are still fresh in people's memories, and the ways of those memories are many. This makes it necessary to have a well-defined frame of reference to interpret the corpus of on-the-spot interviews conducted there. The focus is, therefore, on details of individual stories. Together these make up a highly coherent historio-social picture, though I should add that I have no intention of reducing these details to a rigid, predetermined analytic system. What I propose to do is to give a personal reading to three of four accounts of first-hand experience, in which a paticular event - the Nazi-Fascist massacre of 29th. June 1944 - is recollected differently by different people. The event acts as a catalyst of memory, but also allows memory to burst bounds, so to speak, as other moments, episodes and stories are recalled. (...)"
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:23:29 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Shafer,
Ingrid. Univ. of Sci/arts of OK" <FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU>
Subject: Yad Vashem electronic archives
Peter Lindley wrote:
One of the recent postings mentioned the Yad Vashem electronic
archives. Could anyone please send me details of how to access
them.
Ingrid Shafer:
I was the one who mentioned the archive. In fact, I accessed the
Jerusalem One Network that contains extensive records dealing with
the Holocaust and includes a Yad Vashem option. To make sure I am
conveying current information I just accessed the library once
again a few minutes ago. My school does not have a Gopher server,
so I used telnet to reach Panda (an excellent Gopher server located
at the University of Iowa; Europeans might use <Gopher.sunet.se>).
Then I sent the command <gopher jerusalem1.datasrv.co.il> and was
almost immediately connected with the Jerusalem One main menu that
includes:
Press <5> for the Electronic Jewish Library... and <2> --currently--for Special! Holocaust and Holocaust Denial Archives:
I am e-mailing this information directly to Peter Lindley with a copy to the Holocaus-L because others might find the information helpful.
By the way, the first time I sent this note to Peter Lindley, it bounced. I noticed that the e-mail addresses in the header and in the signature didn't match. I had used the one in the signature, <pl2@ukc.uk.ac>; now I'll try the one in the header <pl2@ukc.ac.uk>.
I hope this helps,
Ingrid Shafer
FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:24:50 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ@PUCC.BITNET> Subject: Re: Essay on Popularity of Holocaust Museaum
In-Reply-To: Message of Mon, 20 Jun 1994 14:48:00 CST from <JIMMOTT@spss.com>
To Jack Farrell: I write a few thoughts about the Museum for the list as a whole, since no doubt, many have already visited it and will want to discuss the reasons for its overwhelming popularity. I have been there three times, once on my own, once with my Holocaust course, and once again with two professional colleagues, since our annual convention last December was in Washington D. C. I have discussed the Museum with a number of people, have read various articles, mostly pro and a few cons, but obviously the visit itself is the main thing.
What follows is purely my own impression. The Museum breaks new ground, in my opinion, in representational techniques and the empowerment of the visitor/viewer so that he/she becomes 'complicit' in the project, as it were, becomes a participant to whatever degree he/she chooses, both in respect to the architecture of the building itself and in the exhibits as you take a 'journey' through historical time and constructed space. There is a vast amount of information presented in an imaginative and intelligent variety of ways that at virtually every point avoids the the familiar icons and images [You have to look for Ann Frank, for example, tucked out of the way and included in the small alcove room on the fate of Jews in Western Europe]. In conveying this expanse of information, the Museum, it seems to me, does so with clarity and directness, but not with condenscension, simply but not simplistically. Moreover, you go at your own pace, stopping for longer or shorter periods, taking in as much as you care to. You don't know at first what will attract or keep your attention, and it is this 'do-ityourself' process which I have termed the empowering feature of the visit, along with genuine elements of surprise, discovery, and the unexpected. Objectively presented, the museum 'journey' engages your own subjectivity and allows you to draw your own conclusions and take the measure of your own reactions. The symbolic aspects of the Museum (the 'crematoria' style of the brick walls, the catwalks, ramps, tower of photos etc) are decipherable. They are elegant and dignified features on their own, but again it is up to you to realize what they are meant to suggest. I think that this 'empowerment' is also evident in the crush of people always trying to use the Resource Center (and its interactive computers). It is another way to allow you to tailor the visit to your own interests, level of curiosity, etc., and no doubt, the initial visit to the exhibits stimulates the desire to know more. I realize that this explanation does not answer the original question: why go in the first place? why subject yourself to such an experience? why be interested at all? Surely, the vast hordes of visitors could not be motivated simply by some morbid and depressive need. I admit that on each of my visits, I have been disconcerted by the fact that the most crowded exhibit is the one showing Nazi medical experiments in all their gruesomeness. There is a high barrier around it and you must look down at a series of television screens in a 'pit' to prevent children from looking (you are not supposed to bring children anyway, but a lot of people shockingly do just that). I do not know why this exhibit keeps so many visitors there for so long, but it certainly does. On the other hand, another of the most crowded exhibits is understandably the one dealing with US involvement (or lack thereof). Here where you sit in little booths, crowded in like 3 peas in a pod, you can use earphones and watch privately at small screens. Only once did I succeed in gaining a place there.
In conclusion, perhaps some of the reasons you have been seeking lie in the fact that the Holocaust does exert a powerful fascination but remains beyond grasp in its conception and execution. To enter the Museum is to cross a certain line into the forbidden zone, to be asked to 'participate' to some extent in confronting (and walking through and up to) the unspeakable, the unimaginable. No doubt, you will hear voices far more cynical than mine in response to your query, but a large part of the Museum's popularity has carried simply by word of mouth. I know people of course who simply cannot or do not want to go for their own variety of reasons. But all those I know who have gone seem to emerge with the same sense of an unforgettable experience.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:27:00 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Devon Miller-Duggan <dmd@bach.udel.edu> Subject: Re: Essay on Popularity of Holocaust Museum
In-Reply-To: <199406182047.QAA01148@bach.udel.edu>
At an MLA session on Holocaust lit. a couple of years ago (Hartman, La Capra, Young, and Ezrahi, among others, in attendence) the issue of the then incomplete museum came up. This was toward the end of the session, with the result that the sessions final comment was by a woman who stood up and asserted firmly that no non-jew would ever visit that museum, so that it was a waste of resources.
Thomas Merton said that "The twentieth century man who has not meditated on Auschwitz does not yet know the meaning of meditation or the meaning of his own times."
Fackenheim said that "The truth is that to grasp the Holocaust whole-of-horror is not to comprehend or transcend it, but rather to say no to it, or to resist it."
Devon Miller-Duggan
dmd@brahms.udel.edu
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:28:10 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: "Tracy A. Moran" <morant@river.it.gvsu.edu> Subject: children of Terezin
Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone knew of a good book to read about the Czech children who were sent to Terezin. After visiting Prague's Jeiwsh quarter two years ago, I learned about this work camp and say the drawings of these children. Were any personal accounts ever written on or by these children? Thanks for your help in advance.
P.S. I may be spelling the name of the camp incorrectly. I mean the children's camp outside of Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:30:33 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: ____Textpert Alert____ <ianf@random.se> Subject: Looking for references of Anna Rasmus, "The Nasty Girl"
Some time ago I saw a (60 Minutes?) TV item about Anna Rasmus[?], once an ordinary German high-school girl, who set out to write a term paper on how her home town, I think it was Passau, acted during the Nazi era. Acc. to the local lore, undocumented but prevailing, the town was a hotbed of resistance against Hitler etc. What she found was of course nothing of the sort, quite to the contrary: one of the first municipalities to support Hitler in the thirties, euthanasia being performed in a clinic of a respected "family" doctor, attempts to deny once existence of Jews in the city etc. In time she acquired a nickname "The Nasty Girl" which I believe sounds even more juicy in Teutonic. The TV program refered to a TIME article, and other materials. Anna Rasmus is now working for a doctorate in history in the US.
I wonder if someone could point me to articles, a book, maybe a WorldWideWeb page on the subject of A Rasmus' experience and the story behind? Thanks!
__Ian
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 13:40:43 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Dachau
From: "Kenneth.Waltzer" <21409MGR@msu.edu>
I visited Dachau twice in September, 1994. I was taken through the camp, first, by Max Mannheimer, a Czech jewish survivor who lives in Munich, and who was in Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, and Dachau. I returned two days later to walk quietly through the place again. Sid Bolkosky and I. Zeitlin have provided important information about the reconstructions at the camps, the gassing room (never used), the crematoria, and the chapels. An important additional point concerns the movie shown in the museum, with substantial footage taken at the camp's liberation. I think the movie has a powerful impact on visitors and contributes to the somber, serious demeanor I viewed among the large numbers of people who were there both days I visited.
Mannheimer told me about the special treatment of Jewish prisoners at Dachauin 1944-45, who were separated from other prisoners and farmed out to the killing construction work on underground armaments and air factories in the satellite camps at Allbach, Muhldorf, and elsewhere. My thought was that the museum might have included a display that focused on this distinctive piece of the larger horror. Mannheimer was in a position to know what the fate of prisoners were in these satellite camps, as he carried dead bodies back to be cremated at Dachau. Additional survivors here in the Detroit metropolitan area, who wound up at Dachau and Muhldorf, have recounted similar stories.
As for neighboring Dachau, the village, walking through its picturesque streets stirs greatly ambivalent emotions -- so close near the camp. The kids who attend Dachau's Josef Effner Gymnasium bear a heavy burden for spending their youth in this place. I'm happy to say I was impressed by what I saw at the Josef Effner Gymnasium, which sponsors extensive teaching on the Nazi era and the Holocaust, and which, supported by the Bavarian Gov't, has extra teachers on staff to work with Dachau in supporting visits from schools from all over Bavaria and other nearby Lander to the Dachau concentration camp. One such teacher, Robert Sigel, has completed a study of the Dachau trials after the war and is now doing a social history of the terror of the Dachau camp. Student visitors are apparently sent a preparatory syllabus before coming to the camp, are tested on entry (to assess the level of preparation for the teachers who work with them), are taken around the museum and camp, and then are hosted at the Effner Gymnasium where they work with teachers and, occasionally, with survivors, like Mannheimer. The Effner Gymnasium also has an exchange program with a high school in Israel.
From: "Klevan, David G." <dklevan@ushmm.org>
This is in response to the query from Peter Lindley.
The following information is from a book entitled, "Nazi
Mass Murder: A Documentary History of the Use of Poison
Gas" edited by Eugen Kogon, Hermann Langbein, and Adalbert
Ruckerl.
It has not yet been conclusively proved that killings by
poison gas took place at the Dachau concentration camp.
However, Dr. Rascher, an air-force doctor who carried out
notorious medical experiments on humans at Dachau did write
the following to Himmler on August 9, 1942:
"As you know, the same facilities have been built at the
Dachau concentration camp as at Linz [this is a reference to
the Hartheim 'euthanasia' facility]. Because the convoys of
invalids end up, one way or another, in the chambers that
are intended for them, I am asking the following question:
In these chambers, on people who are destined for them in
any case, would it not be possible to test the efficiency of
our combat gases? So far, all we have are [the results of]
tests made on animals, or reports on accidents that occurred
during manufacture. Because of this paragraph, I am sending
my letter marked 'Secret.'" (Federal Archives, ref. NS
21/319)
The explanatory memo attached to the preliminary plan to
construct the new crematorium known as "building X" stated
"The building is almost completely surrounded by trees; thus
it is relatively isolated in the countryside. It will be
surrounded by a wall two meters high that will hide it from
sight." ---- From this one can surmise that whatever
happened in "building X" was not for the public eye, even
within the camp.
When Dr. Rascher was later condemned to death for attempting
to pass off two children that they had taken into their home
as their own biological children (Nazis were very sensitive
about "child substitution"; it could "pollute" the gene
pool), he told a fellow-prisoner, a British officer named S.
Payne-Best, about the difficulties encounterd by the SS in
camouflaging the gas chamber and concealing gassings.
In addition, American camera crews recorded that the gas
chamber was a windowless room with the inscription "Showers"
on one of the iron doors. On the left side of the building
were four little disinfestation rooms, also with iron doors,
which bore the inscription under a death's head "Attention!
Gas! Danger of Death. Do Not Open." It seems clear that
this room was meant to be used on people, though it is not
proven whether it ever was.
During a post-war trial there was one witness who claimed
that gassings did take place at Dachau. He was a Czech
physician assigned to care for the prisoners, Dr. Frantisek
Blaha. He claimed that experimental gassings took place in
Dachau. He said that Dr. Rascher had once taken him to the
chamber in 1944 to do some autopsies. However, his
testimony alone is not conlusive.
Regardless of whether there was a gas chamber at Dachau or
not, there were gas chambers at plenty of other sites within
Germany itself. The previously mentioned "euthanasia"
facilities stand out. Indeed, some sick or feeble prisoners
from camps like Dachau were sent to the "euthanasia"
facilities to be disposed of. It is also important to
remember that most of these gas chambers were quite small
when compared to the ones in Poland, particularly those at
Auschwitz where many hundreds could be gassed at once.
David Klevan <dklevan@ushmm.org>
From: FISHMAN@SNYFARVA.BITNET
I visited Dachau in July 1966, just before my 23rd birthday, on my hitch-hike journey through Europe. What prompted me to go was this statement in a tourist guidebook I had with me:
"What would Munich be without its lovely surroundings, the rolling
hills of Dachau in the northwest."
Those words are imprinted indelibly in my memory because they were so startling to encounter and because I used them as the epigraph to my poem, "A Morning at Dachau," first printed in Jewish Frontier by Charles Reznikoff and reprinted (in a much shorter version) in my book, _The Death Mazurka_ (Texas Tech University Press, 1989).
My experience of the camp was emotionally wrenching for several reasons, perhaps most tellingly by my impulse to enter an underground portion of the museum building which, at the time, was off-limits to visitors. It was there I found many haunting photos and charts that were not otherwise on display. A second reason is that, on reaching the German border, I discovered that my passport had been stolen in Innsbruck . . . and was taken by the polizei to headquarters where I was issued a temporary document that enabled me to remain in the country. There is more, but this gives some insight into my state of mind at the time of my visit.
It was the photograph of a mountain that slowly resolved into individual shoes that moved me past horror to intense pain and sorrow--because my mind began to place people back into the shoes and I couldn't stop myself from seeing things this way until I staggered out into the glaring sunlight and sprawled back with my face in the sun.
I stayed in Munich for two weeks; none of the Germans I met during that period ever admitted knowing anything about the camp--or the Holocaust itself, for that matter. Denial was in full bloom.
--Charles Fishman
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 15:13:29 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Multimedia Presentation on the Holocaust
From: herb@halcyon.com (Herb Effron)
The question: "... could this ever happen again."? begs the question:
Why did it happen the first time?
Too many courses on the Holocaust unwittingly focus on what I term the 'blood and gore' component. This elicits the expected emotional response from students, yet I think it does little and may probably overwhelms the spark that should be prompting students to ask questions beyond what's visible.
Most plaguing it seems is wholesale abandonment of one own professional ethics, to the extent that tortuous gymnastic apologisms seemed to prevail over one's deep sense of committment: theologians, physicians, attorneys, even university professors -- all of whom should have rebelled within their own halls at the onset of irrationality of the Nazi regime.
I often wonder if the agonizing cry for relief, "Do to Julia. Don't do to me.", is really more reflective of our fundamental nature.
Herb Effron Herb Effron herb@halcyon.com Seagopher, Inc. for personal mail seattle-usa@halcyon.com
From: sullivaj@GVSU.EDU (JIM SULLIVAN)
Your hypermedia project sounds like it is very worthwile and
I would like to know how I can order it when it becomes
available.
Suggestion: Have you included the
blood-libel myth as a part of the section on why the Jews
were targeted?
Something to think about:
I've been working on deigning lesson plans to teach about
the holocaust to adolscents and I've been posed by your
question of what my students should understand about the H~.
Do I want to say, this did happen but should never happen
again and they must be a part of preventing it from
happening.
This is a very nice idea and would be nice if we could
prevent genocide from occuring. But is this realistic? Even
today we are facing the Bosnia/Serb war and the horrific
accounts in Rwanda. Can we expect to be so effective as
educators to prevent holocaust/genocide from occuring again?
If we our goal cannot be to prevent it, why else should we
teach about the holocaust?
What is Simon Wiesel's message to adolsecents?
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 15:27:00 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Mott, Jim" <jimmott@spss.com>
Subject: FW: National Archives Announcement
The National Archives is pleased to announce the availability of a general information electronic mailbox service. The User Services Division of the National Archives has created a designated electronic mailbox for the receipt of electronic mail reference inquiries. Researchers with specific questions about the programs and records (except electronic records) in the custody of the National Archives should send their inquiries to:
The Center for Electronic Records will continue to receive reference inquiries about its services and holdings at the following electronic mail addresses:
tif@cu.nih.gov or cer@nara.gov
The latter address has only recently been assigned to the Center as an alternative mailbox for receiving electronic mail reference inquiries. Researchers interested in electronic records in the custody of the National Archives should continue to send their reference requests directly to us.
Sincerely,
THEODORE J. HULL
Archives Specialist
Center for Electronic Records
The National Archives at College Park
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
(301) 713-6645
Internet: TIF@CU.NIH.GOV
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 1994 16:55:52 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: DAPERLSTEIN@vaxsar.vassar.edu Subject: interest in the holocaust museum
From: VAXSAR::DAPERLSTEIN 20-JUN-1994 12:46:10.91
To: IN%"farrell@nws.globe.com" CC: DAPERLSTEIN
Subj: Holocaust museum's popularity
Dear John Farrell,
As a historian of education, I have recently become interested in trying to understand why Holocaust curricula have become so popular in public schools. This question is close enough to yours that I thought I would drop you a note. Many of the possible explanations you consider are timeless in quality, as true in 1947 as in 1994. And yet, the museum wasn't built in 1947, nor were there the kind of efforts one sees today to ensure that the "lessons of the Holocaust" be taught to children. The two most common explanations I have seen for the introduction of curricula are (1) that it is a response to the rise of Holocaust denial; and (2) that it reflects the need of survivors, who are approaching the ends of their life-spans, to tell their stories. Neither of these explanations strikes me as very convincing.
Two sources I want to think about: among Jewish intellectuals the centrality of debates about socialism/communism and other radical ideologies has been declining over the past 4 decades. Still, a magazine like commentary showed relatively little interest in the Holocaust or in Zionism in the ten to twenty years after world war II. At some level, it seems to me that the 1967 War gave many Jews an answer to the Holocaust, without which they could not consider it. At the same time, the Holocaust museum and curricula ought be explored in relationship to the place of Jews in American race relations. Considerations of black Jewish relations are, you know, almost a small industry. Why is this so? What does this suggest about Jewish relations with non-Jewish white Americans? I do not have a ready line on these questions but to ask about the popularity of a museum about the racial victimization ogf
Jews, it seems to me, requires some consideration of the place of Jews in the racial imagination of both jews and non-Jewish Americans. Again, as a (an?) historian, I would hope to see some historical specificity and historical roots for present-day concerns.
I hope these musings are of some use to you. As I do think
your question and mine are similar, please do send me a copy of
whatever you end up writing on the topic. If I can be of further
help, please feel free to get in touch with me.
Yours,
Dan Perlstein
Education Dept.
Vassar College
Poughkeepsie NY
12601
914-437-7364
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 11:58:49 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Danny Keren <dzk@cs.brown.edu> Subject: Did gassing take place at Dachau?
According to the German "Institute for Contemporary History" in Munich, which is considered an authority on crimes of the Nazi regime, gassing did take place in Dachau, but on a relatively small scale. Gassing also took place in a few other camps inside the "Old Reich" (Germany proper) - Mauthausen, Natzweiler, Neuengamme, Ravensbruk, Schanehausen, and sttuthof (I probably misspelled a few names), and in the "Euthanasia" (mercy killing) centers.
The gassings in all these camps were on a rather small scale, compared to the death camps the SS built in Poland. However, numerous people died in these camps of reasons other than gassing.
-Danny Keren.
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 16:28:49 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Re: Need Information on Anna Rasmus
From: "Kenneth.Waltzer" <21409MGR@msu.edu>
The Nasty Girl is available on video for rental, and articles about her experience can be found by using the NYTimes Index. When I was in Germany in fall of 1993, meeting with historians and educators, they took great umbrage at the way in which this story was being played up abroad as a representative case about attitudes in contemporary Germany. They emphasized strongly to me that her essay was one among many such investigations in the Presidential contests of the early and mid-1980s, which sponsored local social history inquiry into the Nazi past. One social historian, who was on the judging panel that year, told me that her essay was one among many good ones doing the same sort of thing. Only in Passau was there this reaction. It was a sensitive subject, about which people felt very strongly.
Kenneth Waltzer
James Madison College, Michigan State U.
From: William Mich Thomas <wmthomas@strauss.udel.edu>
Her book [I confess I do not know the actual title of it] was made into
a movie--_Das schreckliche Maedchen_ or _The Nasty Girl_. The film is
brilliant! Technically, the cinematography is wonderful--downright
"Brechtian" but not obtrusively so, the directing superb [although the
director went on to make _Basic Instinct_, go figure!]. It draws you in
with humor and the horror evolves out of the humor. The impact on the
viewer parallels what the main character is experiencing. Things start
out nice and become increasingly sinister.
While the book is set in Passau, the film is set in "Pfilzing."
Towards the end of the film, she decides to research what happened to the
Jews of Pfilzing, which (from what I understand), the "real-life" Anna
Rasmus has just had published (I wonder if they're going to make that
into a film as well?).
Anyway, I highly recommend the film to those who haven't seen it.
Will Thomas
U of DE
wmthomas@strauss.udel.edu
From: "Klevan, David G." <dklevan@ushmm.org>
This is in response to the query from "Ian."
I would check out your local libraries. Ms. Rasmus has
written a few books about her experiences. I believe that
her third or fourth book was just published and is now
available in the U.S. She is probably accessible herself,
but I do not know how to reach her. I am sure that she is
doing some of her research at the US Holocaust Memorial
Museum; you may want to contact the USHMM Research
Institute. In addition, you may be able to get some
information (such as Ms. Rasmus's winning childhood essay)
from the foundation which sponsored the writing contest. It
is the Korber-Stiftung Foundation
21027 Hamburg
Germany
Electronic Mail
CompuServe: 100321,1157
Internet: 100321.1157@compuserve.com
Good Luck.
David Klevan <dklevan@ushmm.org>
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 16:48:00 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Mott, Jim" <jimmott@spss.com>
Subject: Children of Terezin
From: David Neuman (DavidN@enh.nist.gov)
That was no children's camp. Some of the story is told in George E.
Berkley:
"Hitler's Gift: The story of Theresienstadt", Branden Books, Boston. 1993.
See the chapter which starts on pag. 108. The book is available at
Borders' Books and other large book stores. The bibliography in Berkley's
book will point you to the stories by the children as well as their art and
poems.
David Neumann
DavidN@enh.nist.gov
From: Charles Fishman (Fishman@snyfarva)
Inge Auerbacher, a child survivor of Terezin, published a book of poems concerning her experiences in the camp: _I Am a Star_ (Prentice Hall, 1986).
I believe there was a follow-up volume, also, but I don't recall the title.
I
know Auerbacher personally and could find out more information for you,
should
you desire this.
--Cordially,
~~
Charles Fishman * Email: Fishman@snyfarva
Distinguished Service Professor * * * Voice: (516) 420-2031
English & Humanities * * * Fax : (516) 420-2051 SUNY, Farmingdale * * * "If the Sun & Moon should doubt, Farmingdale, NY 11735 * They'd immediately go out." --Blake ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 15:16:48 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: "Richard Jensen, exec. dir. H-Net" <CAMPBELLD@LYNX.APSU.EDU> Subject: Arezzo Massacres Conference: 2 more abstracts
----------------------------Original message---------------------------- from H-ITALY
Abstracts of Papers from the International Conference to
commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1944 massacres
around Arezzo: from Vallucciole to Civitella della Chiana
June 22-24, 1994
********************************************
Carla Bianco (University of Siena)
Analysis of Narrative Oral Forms
In the analysis of this corpus of narratives, I attempt to explore the occurence of a process of textual formalization. The focus is, in other words, on how these memories, constructed around a central tragic event, acquire traditional narrative strategies, such as the use of various forms of "memorates",of some dialogic constructions (or "quoted speech"),and of other standard oral patterns. The underlying assumption is that the presence of such traditional traits can be a useful indicator of how frequent and important for the community the performance of these texts has been since the occurence of the central event which gave rise to them.
Givanni Contini (Sovrintendenza Archivistica per la
Toscana)
Remembering the Speakable and the Unspeakable:
observations on the memory of the massacre at Civitella, Val
di Chiana on the 29th of June 1944
The memory of the Nazi massacre at Civitella differs strikingly from ordinary, individual or collective memory. This event has resisted every attempt to metabolize or utilize it creatively in the lives of those who experienced it. Their grief differs from normal grief, which, for ll its gravity, is nonetheless taken to be part of the natural order of things, and for which there are readily available rituals and a human solidarity shared by others aware of what the loss means to the bereaved.
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 15:17:54 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Mata Kimasitayo <SLREVIEW@ucs.indiana.edu> Subject: Re: Badly Needed Information for an Article
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Do not have a precise address for Robert-Jan van Pelt but he is associate professor of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, Canada, according to the information attached to his article "Auschwitz: >From Architect's Promise to Inmate's Perdition" in _Moderism/Modernity_, vol 1, issue 1 (1993), pp. 80- 120.
S Presti
slreview@ucs.indiana.edu
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 15:25:57 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET>
From: Daniel Keren <dkeren@CS.HUJI.AC.IL>
Ian writes:
# I wonder if someone could point me to articles, a book, maybe a # WorldWideWeb page on the subject of A Rasmus' experience and the # story behind? Thanks!
Well, there is the movie, naturally called "The Nasty Girl".
I had the pleasure of meeting Anja Rossmus at Brown Univeristy - there was a public screening of the movie.
-Danny Keren.
Terry Hanstock
Nottingham Trent University
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 15:29:34 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: "Klevan, David G." <dklevan@ushmm.org> Subject: Re: essay on popularity of US Holocaust Memorial Museum
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
I would like to suggest some suprisingly mundane
explanations for some of the crowds at the USHMM. It is the
newest kid on the block in DC. This means that tourists who
have been to DC before are probably putting the museum at
the top of their list as a new attraction. I personally
have never witnessed a positive media blitz like the one
that the USHMM got. It seemed impossible to avoid lauditory
articles when the USHMM first opened. This, of course, is
akin to any tourist site opening to applause. It makes it
more attractive to visitors. On top of this, the Holocaust
is something that the average American knows very little
about, but probably has heard about. It is associated with
a grand stuggle between good and evil. This too would draw
people who are curious to learn more about this
"controversial" topic. I have even heard teachers compare
teaching about the Holocaust to sex education. It is
something where you have to be concerned about how students
will react, how parents will react and how administrators
will react. Can you imagine if a museum on the history of
sex opened up to rave reviews? Imagine the lines! Of
course, the opening of Schindler's List didn't hurt interest
in the topic of the Holocaust either (though lines went
around the block at the museum before the movie came out).
To me, the extraordinary and impressive thing is that
visitors are staying in the museum for an average of about 3
hours (twice the length of most museum stays), and they seem
to be leaving wanting to learn more about the history. This
I view as a major success, and I hope to see more of in DC
as the new Museum of the African-American and Museum of the
Native American open in the near future.
David Klevan <dklevan@ushmm.org>
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 17:06:39 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ@PUCC.BITNET>
Subject: Re: Holocaust Revisionism/Denial
In-Reply-To: Message of Mon, 20 Jun 1994 12:28:00 CST from <JIMMOTT@spss.com>
At the risk of belaboring the issue, Jonathan, let me say again that I think the distinction between 'revisionism' and 'denial' is a very significant one, not quite in the same categories as those other 'euphemisms' you cite (in the interests of prudery or ideology, as the case may be). For the deniers to use the term 'revisionism' is to shroud their activity with a respectable aura that fits in precisely with their agenda: to insinuate themselves into the position of conducting a reasonable historical debate. To revise is to change something on the basis of review of the evidence; it is predicated on taking a second look at accepted facts, theories, etc. By using this term, the deniers become 'historians,' (e.g., the American journal, the National History Review) and gull uninformed people into thinking they are legitimate.
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 17:07:44 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Marc1773@aol.com Subject: Re: Need recommendation ...
I find that Jackson J. Spielvogel's HITLER AND NAZI GERMANY, is the best book to get a general feel for the rise of Hitler, his policies, German life in this time period and of course numerous facts on the Holocaust.
Marc Shapiro
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 17:09:02 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: SZELITCH@delphi.com Subject: Survivors in Israel
I'm looking for information on holocaust survivors' adjustment to life in Israel, particularly in the camps set up for newcomers. I've already read Tom Segev's two books (_The Seventh Million_ and _The First Israelis_) but I don't know how much else on the subject has been published in (or translated into) English. I'd esp love to read some oral history. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Simon
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 17:10:49 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Shafer,
Ingrid. Univ. of Sci/arts of OK" <FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU>
Subject: HESED
>From Ingrid:
Reflections of a new member of this list:
It seems to me that today there are only three productive responses to the Holocaust:
(1) To hold the dead in loving memory.
(2) To allow no one to cover up the horror.
(3) To emulate and honor the Righteous among Nations.
It is this third point I want members of this list to consider. We are missing a grand opportunity for learning about human beings at their best if we don't focus on those six thousand odd individuals and others like them who risked their lives and the lives of their loved ones for the sake of strangers during the period of the Shoah.
Mordecai Paldiel finds evidence for the cosmic principle of hesed (compassionate love which, in cooperation with zedek, righteousness, creates and sustains the universe) breaking into everyday life in the extraordinary actions of selfless love performed by ordinary people. Paldiel's discussion of the practice of hesed is important both as earthly hint of gracious transcendence and as manifestation of the kind of undiluted love toward others that has the power to provide a firm foundation for the future of the human community. There is not only evidence that the extreme conditions of the death camps desensitized inmates to their own suffering and that of others, there is also evidence that they became the occasion for the practice of altruistic love from the smuggling of food to notes and words of warning--all potentially punishable by death.
The Christian theologian might call this the rupture of the everyday by the kingdom of God. That is certainly what appears to have caused the metamorphosis of would-be war-profiteer Oscar Schindler. Catholic theologian Bernard Lonergan believes that spontaneous stretching out of one's hand to keep a stranger from falling is based in what he considers a psychological layer of a "prior we." Paldiel calls the same sort of seemingly unnatural behavior an "impulsive type of altruism," an "immediate response to help a kindred human being in distress--come what may--even at great potential risk" (93).
Auschwitz survivor Hermann Langbein tells that camp officials tried to discourage prisoner flight by randomly selecting groups of inmates to be put into a dark cell where they would be left without food or water until the escapee was caught or the hostages had starved to death. This policy led to acts of heroic love, such as the well known self-sacrifice of Maximilian Rajmund Kolbe, a priest who has since been beatified for taking married man's place. The priest died of a lethal injection on 14 August 1941. Less publicized is the case of Marian Batko, a college physics teacher from Chorz"v who volunteered for death on April 23, 1941. Four days later he died (Langbein [1972] 1980, 277-78).
(Bibliographic note: The preceding three paragraphs are condensed from my article "From the Senses to Sense; The Hermeneutics of Love" to be published in the December issue of _Zygon_.)
It occurs to me that this list might be an appropriate place to share such stories of heroism and hope. If there is any light that glows in the dark abyss of that infernal era it is the light of compassion and caring in the hearts of extraordinary ordinary people, and these light bearers deserve to be remembered no less than the darkness their tiny flames managed to hold at bay, at least for a while, at least for a few.
Ingrid Shafer (FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU)
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 17:12:02 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Shafer,
Ingrid. Univ. of Sci/arts of OK" <FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU>
Subject: SEARCHING FOR LOVED ONES
>From Ingrid:
Several Holocaus-l subscribers have sent me messages, hoping that I might have discovered a magic Internet method of locating lost family members. Alas, I haven't. But statements, such as the following, bring tears to my eyes: "Holocaust survivors - such as my parents are passing away without giving us information that may lead to reunion. I think that many of us from Second Generation will appreciate if You could make a kind of summary of Your experiences giving us instructions where to start, how etc."
And so I'll try. Maybe we could start a thread that could at least
result in a discussion of search methods and a retrievable file in
the Holocaus-l archive of available international resources, electronic
and otherwise. To this end I am appending my personal
response to one of those requests:
Dear Romuald,
Thank you for your note. I am afraid that I won't be of much help because I didn't really verify Leo Polenzweig's name via Internet archives; I was able to verify his name because a Jewish electronic correspondent on another list lives in Jerusalem and was kind enough to contact a personal friend in the Search Bureau for Missing Relatives who searched manually and found nothing. He also called Yad Vashem and was told that they did not have the human resources to search the records there; people would have to come and do the searching themselves. However, when my friend's friend submitted an official agency-to-agency request, someone at Yad Vashem did conduct a search, and records concerning my friend Leo were found. Copies of those records are one the way to me via registered mail. There still is no trace of names or fates of Leo's family members.
In addition, a member of this list offered to help us by searching the Jewish archives in Warsaw. Again this involved going through records--such as phone books--manually (though he had originally read about Leo's search on the Net and contacted me by e-mail).
My reference to archives/libraries, such as Jerusalem One, pertained to locating, searching, and downloading published material. It contains excellent ammunition to counter Holocaust denials, some eye witness accounts, and all kinds of information on the camps (especially Operation Reinhard). So far I have not been able to locate an electronic archive containing a list of names of Holocaust victims and/or survivors. What I have discovered is many caring and helpful individuals on three continents who have gone to a great deal of trouble to help me help Leo come to terms with his past. For that I am deeply grateful.
Various individuals supplied the following addresses:
The Jewish Agency - Jerusalem
Search Bureau for Missing Relatives
P.O. Box 92
Jerusalem, Israel
fax: 202-516
Zydowski Instytut Historyczny
ul. Tlomackie 3\5
00-090 Warsaw, Poland
(this is the most recent post-Communist address of the Warsaw
Jewish Archive)
International Tracing Service
D-3548 Arolsen
Germany
(this does not seem like a complete address, but it's all I
have at the moment.
According the woman with the Jewish agency who supplied the address the Tracing Service normally takes at least two months to respond.
While there are as yet--as far as I know--no extensive, digitized, electronically searchable lists of those who were murdered and those who survived, I still feel that Internet provides fantastic (and largely untapped) opportunities for the kind of intuitive searching that depends on human networks. In the course of a life time, each one of us has met hundreds if not thousands of human beings, and Internet weaves us all together into one community that can share resources in reach out into the general population of individuals who are not themselves attached to a modem. Over the past three weeks, my search for Leo's past has brought me into electronic contact with individuals from many parts of the United States as well as England, Israel, Australia, Sweden, and Poland. Hence I would suggest that any one who wishes to locate lost relatives post a brief query on this list and others that might reach the international Jewish community. I'd repeat the process once every six months to catch new subscribers. Include as much information as available--first and last names, date of birth or at least approximate age, place of birth, last known address, profession, date of arrest, camps to which transported, and any other special characteristics that might jog someone's memory.
That's basically how I started my search for Leo's past, and I think we've come a long way since May 28.
With best wishes and blessings,
Ingrid
(FACHSFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU)
SORRY, WRONG ADDRESS. (FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU) IS RIGHT . . .
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 17:13:08 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Sara Horowitz <srh@brahms.udel.edu> Subject: Re: Essay on Popularity of Holocaust Museaum
In-Reply-To: <199406221937.PAA03528@brahms.udel.edu>
There is a very interesting and thought provoking essay on the museum by Lilliane Weissberg in a journal called Documents (an art journal)--current issue (Spring 94).
Sara Horowitz
University of Delaware
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 17:14:23 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: muckb1@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu Subject: Re: Badly Needer Information for an Article
On Friday 24 June 1994, Mata Kimasitayo wrote:
> Do not have a precise address for Robert-Jan van Pelt but he is > associate professor of Architecture at the University of Waterloo, > Canada, according to the information attached to his article "Auschwitz: > From Architect's Promise to Inmate's Perdition" in _Moderism/Modernity_, > vol 1, issue 1 (1993), pp. 80-120.
To following is the gopher information on Prof. Robert van Pelt:
name: Robert Van Pelt
uwuserid: rjvanpelt
phone: (I deleted this for privacy's sake)
office: ES2 282
department: Architecture, School of
Hope this helps in your research.
C.K. Bryant
The 62nd Rule of Acquisition / W.I.U. English
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 08:41:20 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: Was Dachau used for gassing? From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ@PUCC>
Indeed, I was at Natzweiler (a curious and haunting place in a remarkable mountainous setting in Alsace, not far from Strasbourg in France and Munich in Germany), and there is a gas chamber which was used on occasion.
From: muckb1@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu
According to the literature I have on KZ Dachau, the gas chambers were never used. It is not explained why this is true, but I have not seen anything to contradict this information.
C.K. Bryant
From: marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu (Harold Marcuse)
I'm may be the list expert on the post-45 history of the Dachau
camp, have published a couple of articles in German, and wrote
my dissertation on the topic (1992 University Microfilms, will
be published by a regular press within a year or so).
On the subject of "Barrack X" in Dachau, as the "new" crematorium
with integrated gas chamber built in 1942 was called by its
makers, there is an excellent essay in:
Eugen Kogon et al (eds.), Nationalsozialistische Massentoetungen
durch Giftgas: Eine Dokumentation (Frankfurt: S. Fischer, 1983),
277-80.
In a nutshell: the gas chamber was (almost) never used, although
the crematorium ovens most certainly were. (Much of the Holocaust
denier claims are based upon the confusion of the two, as in
"gas-ovens". The gas chamber was completed in 1944, and, according
to the testimony of the prisoner-functionary doctor in the camp,
tested on 8-10 persons in 1944, three of whom survived. But it was
never used as planned -- death by other causes was rampant by that
time in Dachau, and fuel was short, so that several thousand
corpses of prisoners who died from epidemics and starvation are
buried on a nearby hill. So: it could have been used and was intended
to be used, but wasn't. The four ovens in the new crematory burned
thousands of corpses since spring 1943; the last of them under
the Americans in May 1945 in a misguided attempt to control the
rampant epidemics. (The US Army discontinued the attempt after a
few days.)
As far as the post-war history is concerned: from August 1945 until
mid-1948 it was used as an internment camp for SS, Wehrmacht officers,
and Nazi functionaries. Then it was handed over to the Bavarians,
who renovated the barracks and converted the former prisoners'
compound into a refugee "settlement" (Wohnsiedlung; roughly: housing
project) for about 2000 persons. After the Bavarian gov't was put
under massive public pressure by former inmates, the refugee settlement
was phased out in the early 1960s.
A museum set up by a former prisoner under US auspices in 1945 was
removed by Bavaria in 1953, reinstalled (in the various rooms of
the "new" crematorium, i.a. the undressing and storage rooms on both
sides of the gas chamber) in 1960, and finally moved to the
building at the head of the camp where it is now in 1965. That building,
by the way, formerly housed the storage room for personal effects of
the prisoners, the kitchen, and the camp showers. The SS headquarters
was located outside of the prisoners compound. The US army used those
facilities
until 1972, when they were given to the Bavarian riot police in preparation
for the Munich olympics. The latter are still stationed there.
The barracks were not razed until 1962-5: could not be restored to
the "original" set-up (which one?), too badly deteriorated etc --
mostly subterfuges. (Belsen was completely razed right after the war.)
The religious chapels (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Carmelite) were
erected 1960-67; they will be joined by a Russian Orthodox one within
a couple of years.
The town has had a much more difficult time accepting the memorial site than it did accepting the camp itself. However, it is unfair to speak of "the town" without differentiating. Since the 1970s several increasingly influential local groups have been supporting the memorial site, including a Catholic group which trains volunteer tour guides, and a history workshop type group, but most notable is the group which forced the creation of a "center for youth encounters," a kind of educational youth hostel that is not quite yet under construction.
Harold Marcuse internet: marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu Dept. of History Tel: (805) 968-6703 (home) Univ. of California 893-2635 (office) Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Fax: -8795
From: Gaston L Schmir <glschm@minerva.cis.yale.edu>
I would like to cite two sources which offer support for the statements of Danny Keren concerning the occurrence of gassing on a small scale at Dachau.
[1] Germaine Tillion, "Ravensbrueck", Anchor Books, Garden City, NY, 1975, p 221-222
[2] Eugen Kogon, Hermann Langbein, and Adalbert Rueckerl, "Les chambres a gaz - secret d'etat", Editions de Minuit, 1985, p 252-255. I believe that this book has recently appeared in English translation (Yale University Press)
Gaston L. Schmir
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 08:49:19 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: MCLEODJ@sask.usask.ca Subject: Re: children of Terezin
More information about children in Terezin can be found in:
I entirely agree: "denier" is a better word than "revisionist." It's better on any view, prudential and tactical and linguistic. I should think it even has a chance of being accepted, since it's both more specific and more euphonious. (That's why non-sexist "firefighter" has successfully replaced sexist "fireman," whereas "repairer" doesn't have a chance against "repairman.") All I'm saying, on purely linguistic grounds, is that the honest word "denier" is just as open to an evil construction as "revisionist." That being the case, there's no point in hoping that a mere semantic change can stop the evil. But yes, let's try to make the change. Like chicken soup in the case of a broken leg, it can't hurt.
But about euphemisms in general: the trouble is, people WANT 'em. When I teach _The Rape of the Lock_, for instance, and we come upon the lines
The merchant from th' exchange returns in peace
And the long labors of the toilet cease,
I naturally explain, if only so the class will get the joke, that in the early 18th century the word "toilet" referred only to a lady's dressing table. Eventually the class concedes that Pope's joke may be sexist, but it isn't scatological. The husband has been working hard making money; his wife has been working hard putting on her makeup. Polite titters ensue. Still, there's an undertone of nervousness. Do I have to use THAT word, the T word? Couldn't I please, like, change the subject?
And now here come some respectable-sounding people who call themselves revisionists. Maybe it will help, certainly it will be more honest, to shout, "These swine aren't revisionists, they're deniers!" But what I'm afraid may happen is that the revisionists will just act hurt, accuse us of name-calling, and win sympathy from a college audience which is notably sympathetic to the right to choose one's own name (not Indian but Native American, not homosexual but gay).
But all of the foregoing is a merely prudential argument. My own feeling is, Prudence be damned, Froma is right, call 'em deniers.
Jonathan Morse
------------------------------TEXT-OF-YOUR-MAIL--------------------------------
> At the risk of belaboring the issue, Jonathan, let me say again that I > think the distinction between 'revisionism' and 'denial' is a very > significant one, not quite in the same categories as those other 'euphemisms' > you cite (in the interests of prudery or ideology, as the case may be). For > the deniers to use the term 'revisionism' is to shroud their activity with > a respectable aura that fits in precisely with their agenda: to insinuate > themselves into the position of conducting a reasonable historical debate. > To revise is to change something on the basis of review of the evidence; > it is predicated on taking a second look at accepted facts, theories, etc. > By using this term, the deniers become 'historians,' (e.g., the American > journal, the National History Review) and gull uninformed people into > thinking they are legitimate.
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 15:07:03 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: SCHENKE@oise.on.ca Subject: interest in Holocaust museum
Dan Perlstein's recent post raised a number of important and urgent questions, especially regarding the place of Jews within the racial imagination of contemporary American race relations. Feminist work is doing much to address these kinds of struggles. One book that came to mind as I was reading Dan's message is "Yours in Struggle: Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism" by Elly Bulkin, Minnie Bruce Pratt and Barbara Smith. It's a brave attempt to situate personal and social histories within the currency of political tensions across differences of race and religion, but also across those of gender and sexual orientation. Though no longer so recent (published 1984), it still stands out for me as a work that sheds a lot of light on questions of the pedagogy as well as the politics of difference.
Arleen Schenke
(schenke@oise.on.ca)
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 1994 15:28:39 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Jim Mott <U15607@UICVM.BITNET> Subject: New Course Syllabus on HOLOCAUS fileserver
A Holocaust course syllabus from Robert Michael is now available on the HOLOCAUS fileserver. To get a copy, send this message to listserv@uicvm.uic.edu
get syllabi n9
To get copies of all available syllabi, send this message
get syllabi package
Please note that these messages must be sent to listserv@uicvm.uic.edu and not to holocaus@uicvm.uic.edu.
Jim Mott
Holocaus Moderator
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 13:14:30 CDT
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
From: "Froma I. Zeitlin" <FIZ@PUCC.BITNET>
Subject: Re: HESED
In-Reply-To: Message of Fri,
24 Jun 1994 17:10:49 CDT from <FACSHAFERI@MERCUR.USAO.EDU>
There's been a great deal of interest in rescuers of late (even before Schindler's List). I think I've written on this subject before to the list, mentioning The Jewish Foundation for Christian Rescuers (under the ADL) who mount conferences on altruism and teaching moral courage, among other things (and support needy rescuers in formerly occupied countries). Also, see Nehama Tec, When Light Pierced the Darkness and the book on Altruism by the two Oliners. There was an interesting piece in the Sunday Times last week, concerned with the turn of interest to rescuers. It was provocative. Thanks, Ingrid, for your deeply felt words.
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 13:20:29 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: Chuck Weckesser <71233.677@CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Was Dachau used for gassing?
Dear Professor Marcuse,
I found your post to be highly informative. Thank you so much for sharing.
Kind Regards,
Chuck Weckesser
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 13:21:52 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: Robert Michael UMASS Dartmouth <RMICHAEL@UMASSD.BITNET> Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: Re: Euphemisms
Re the issue of eumphemisms. I agree that the deniers are just that
and revisionists is too *nice* a word. But even words like
Holocaust and antisemitism are euphemisms as well for mass murder of
Jews and Jew hatred.
Bob Michael
RMICHAEL@UMASSD.EDU
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 13:23:38 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: "David B. Neumann" <DAVIDN@NBSENH.BITNET> Subject: Re: SEARCHING FOR LOVED ONES
International Tracing Service
Grosse Allee 5-9
34444 AROLSEN
Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Tel: 0 56 91 - 60 37
That is the address asked for - Intern. Suchdienst.
Also
Comite international
de la Croix-Rouge
Agence Centrale de Recherches
19, avenue de la Paix
CH-1202 Geneve
above address can be used to find records of war prisoners.
The first address above will provide additional addresses that may be of assistance.
David Neumann - DavidN@enh.nist.gov
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 13:25:04 CDT Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> From: ____Textpert Alert____ <ianf@random.se> Subject: Re: Looking for references of Anna Rasmus, "The Nasty Girl"
Following up on my original inquiry of Wed, 22 Jun 94 08:14:28 which led to several people mentioning Anna Rasmus' 4 books I was surprized to learn that none of the online US bibliographic databases that I searched, incl the Library of Congress, Socrates at Stanford University, DRA.COM or Books.COM, knows of any of them. I searched both for "Rasmus, A" and "[The] Nasty Girl". Nil returns.
Unfortunately, I've no access to exotic commercial services like the NYT Article Index, which may be more of what I'm after, nor do I know of any resources where more precise information on _Das Schreckliche Madchen_ (dir Michael Verhoeven) documentary movie could be found. I wonder therefore, could someone in the US, whose University subscribes to the NYTIndex service do a quick scan for [books and articles by and about] Anna Rasmus, and send me the pointers? (if under a megabyte ;-))
Thanks!
__Ian
PS. Incidentially, the town of Passau is represented on the WorldWideWeb, they even talk of "Passau im Nationalsozialismus", of synagogues, but far as I could discern no mention is made of Anna Rasmus' endeavors. It's all in German which requires a WWW client with correct ISO 8859-1 character set:
http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/passau/stadtarchiv/fuehrung/aktuell/uebersicht.html http://www.fmi.uni-passau.de/passau/stadt/plan/uebersicht.html
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 23:09:52 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu
Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA
Jonathan, While I think the linguistic and politically correct issues
are significant, there is also a relevant historical dimension to the
name "revisionist." I think the first time the term was used it
referred to those who wanted to revise the first Dreyfus decision,
i.e., Dreyfus' conviction. Zolar led the group of revisionist to
turn around an unjust and antisemitic decision. The next group to
claim the name were those who reexamined Germany's and Austria's
guilt in the origins of the First World War. Led by Harry Elmer
Barnes, they tended to be Germanophiles but legitimate re-viewers of
the documents and events leading up to WWI. The term revisionism is
thus placed in a context of legitimate historical debate--exactly
what the so-called Committee on Open Debate on the Holocaust demand.
To give them the name "revisionists" is to grant them this legitimacy
and access to debate a non-debatable question. Deniers is more than
just honest.
Sid Bolkosky
UM-Dearborn
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 23:16:34 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: nasty girl
Ian:
Here's an entry I found in Northwestern University's Luis computer
catalog system. It appears to be what you are looking for.
Howard Reich (hreich@mcimail.com)
Title: Das Schreckliche Madchen <videorecording> = The Nasty girl /
Miramax Films ; Filmverlag der Autoren ; Herstellungsleitung
von Michael Senftleben ; Drehbuch und Regie von Michael
Verhoeven.
Published: New York, N.Y. : HBO Video, c1990.
Description: 1 videocassette (VHS) (94 min.) : sd., col. with b&w
sequenences ; 1/2 in.
Notes: Dialogue in German; subtitles in English.
Based on the true story of Anja Rosmus in Passau.
Eine Coproduktion mit dem ZDF und Sentana
Filmproduktion.
"Letterbox format with yellow subtitles."
Originally produced as motion picture in Germany in
1989.
Dolby Hi-Fi Stereo.
Title: Das Schreckliche Madchen The Nasty girl
Cast: Lena Stolze, Hans-Reinhard Muller, Monika Baumgartner.
Credits: Photography, Axel de Roche ; music, Mike Herting ... et al. Other titles: Nasty girl <videorecording>
ISBN: 1559837551
Other authors, etc.:
Verhoeven, Michael, 1938-
Stolze, Lena.
Miramax Films.
Sentana Filmproduktion.
Filmverlag der Autoren.
Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen.
LOCATION: CALL NUMBER STATUS:
(Non-Circulating)
Ian, her name is spelled Rosmus -- I'll append a printout of her
first book's data from the UC library catalog. Her second book
came out last year, nad there was litigation over the summer by
the children of a doctor who Anna claimed had performed abortions
on forced laborers in their 7th month w/o anesthesia, so that
several passages had to be deleted from the text. I have a few
newspaper articles from German papers (including the title of that
book) in my office and could look them up if you're interested.
Let me know.
Harold marcuse
To: marcuse@humanitas.ucsb.edu
Subject: (id: NMS12655) MELVYL system mail result
Status: RO
Search request: F PA ROSMUS
Search result: 1 record at all libraries
Display: LONG
1.
Author: Rosmus-Wenninger, Anja.
Title: Widerstand und Verfolgung am Beispiel Passaus 1933-1939
/ Anja
Rosmus-Wenninger ; mit einem Vorwort von Martin
Hirsch. 1.
Aufl. Passau : Andreas-Haller, 1983.
Description: 191 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Notes: One folded leaf laid in.
Includes index.
Bibliography: p. 181-185.
Subjects: Anti-Nazi movement -- Germany (West) -- Passau.
Passau (Germany) -- History.
Call numbers: UCLA URL DD 901 P3 R56 1983
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 23:40:16 -0400
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
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From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu
Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA
Subject: popularity of museum
Subject: Popularity of the Museum
Re: Jack Farrell's Query on the Popularity of the HMM
In general, I agree with Froma Zeitlin's suggestion that the
Holocaust
Memorial Museum is popular in large part because it is so wonderfully
conceived and constructed. At the same time, it is important to note
that
the current wave of interest in the Holocaust did not originate with
the
Museum (or "Schindler's List") but reflects at least fifteen years'
development.
Strange to say, a turning point can be located quite precisely at
the
end of the 1970's. A series of key events took place at that time
that
marked a genuine shift in public response to the destruction: (1)
The
first large-scale conference and gathering of children of survivors in
New York in 1979 (following the publication of Helen Epstein's book
the
same year), (2) The broadcast of the television mini-series
"Holocaust,"
also in 1979, and (3) The initiation under President Carter of the
Holocaust Memorial Council where planning for the Museum began--also
in 1979.
(I am writing a paper entitled simply, "1979", which specifically
attempts
to analyze this confluence of events and related developments since.)
The significance of the late seventies/early eighties can also be
documented in other ways. For example, of existing U.S. oral history
collections of survivor testimonies that Joan Ringelheim has
catalogued,
84% were initiated from 1978 on. An amazing 74% (28 of 38) were
established
within the five-year period 1980-1985, probably in response to the
initial
burst of interest--and the key events--of the late '70's. On my
campus,
as on several others, an annual conference on the Holocaust also began
in
1979, while many of us on this list first became seriously involved in
professional work related to the Holocaust--creating courses,
interviewing
survivors, initiating research--in the late 1970's. The trend is
further
confirmed when one looks at patterns in publications, movie releases,
and
so on.
Why the late seventies? That is a more difficult question than
simply
documenting the trend. Personally, I find Christopher Lasch's
analyses
as first articulated in _The Culture of Narcissism_ (published,
dayenu,
in 1979) to be compelling. Lasch explores a general cultural
preoccupation with public and private disaster that had begun to take
quite distinctive
form in mid-'70's America. In particular, he brilliantly analyzes the
burst
of imagery of "survival" and "surviving" that seemed to pervade all
sorts of
disparate contexts: hard-core "survivalists" taking to the woods in
anticipation of civilization's dissolution; environmental theorists,
nuclear strategists, and self-styled economic realists constructing
"doomsday scenarios" and how they might be "winnable" (for the lucky
surviving few); the explosion of pop "How to Survive" guides covering
every life contingency from "the loss of a love" to falling in love to
going off to college to finding work after to "surviving" at work (for
the "savvy" few) and so on and so on. (My own favorite example of
what
I call "pop survivalism" was a _New Yorker_ cartoon of the
mid-eighties.
Depicting an archetypal two guys stranded on a desert island, one is
exclaiming to the other: "You know what we are? REAL SURVIVORS!
People
will say, 'Those two guys are real survivors!' I mean, when it comes
to
survivors, we really...".)
Lasch's attempts to explain all of this--how the world, even
everyday
life itself, became such a dangerous place (or came to be marketed as
such)--
are more complex than can be outlined here. But clearly he was one of
the first to articulate trends that have become more apparent in the
intervening years; especially the wider preoccupation with the
perpetrating
of radical evil and the inner lives of victims. It is now quite
clear,
for example, that the surge of public interest in perpetrators and
victims
of child abuse, rape, domestic violence, and various forms of posttraumatic
stress coincides with the surge of interest in the
Holocaust.
For whatever combination of reasons, we have become a nation
preoccupied
in general with radical destructiveness and radical victimization, and
there
is no better arena than the Holocaust for these.
Against these trends, what the Museum ideally can do is to
confront
our half-wishful, half-apocalyptic imaginations with the complexity
and
sobriety of fact. Through its exhibits, for example, we learn that
"survival" is NOT the prize of the most savvy or canny or cynical or
sincere; "survival" may not even be "survival" at all. We learn that
"rescue" is equally complex: there were those who rescued who were
also
antisemites; those who rescued out of nonconformity or adventure;
those
who rescued "their" Jews but not others whom they were in a position
to
help; those who were truly saints or aspired to become so.
Ultimately,
as Froma suggests, we come to know how much we cannot know, which is
itself the beginning of knowledge--perhaps in general, certainly in
this area.
(c)1994 Hank Greenspan, The University of Michigan
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 00:02:31 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: euphemisms
> Re the issue of euphemisms. I agree that the deniers > are just that and revisionists is too *nice* a word. But > even words like Holocaust and antisemitism are euphemisms > as well for mass murder of Jews and Jew hatred.
That is an interesting point, but:
I am trying to think whether all Jew hatred is antisemitic. Logically
my mind tells me it should not be, pragmatically it is difficult for
me to come up
with an example of Jew hatred that I would not describe as
antisemitic.
Clearly someone could hate a Jew, or even more than one Jew, without
being
antisemitic.
David A. Hirsch
Beckman, Hirsch & Ell Telephone: 319-754-8404 314 North Fourth Fax: 319-754-6302 Burlington, IA 52601 david@iowalaw.com ========================================================================= Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 00:07:02 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu
Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA
Ingrid,
Thanks, too often, cynical students like me forget that for the six
million who
died,
there were six thousand who did the best they could to save some lives
and combat the greatest evil our century has known. I guess it's just
the nature of our society to focus on the horror in an attempt to keep
it from happening again. I'm afraid, however, that the nature that
drives
that attempt is the same nature that allowed the Holocaust to happen.
As
Woody Allen says in "Random Reflections of a Second-Rate Mind," an
essay
in the 1991 edition of the _Best American Essays_, it's a "worm of
selfpreservation,
fear, greed, and an animal will to power." But maybe
that's
my cynicism overpowering me again. Let's hope that particular aspect
of
our nature works, and lets honor those heroes who did rescue people
from the Shoah.
Brad Daly
Birmingham-Southern College
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 23:04:48 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: the rescuer
Dear Dr. Burke:
Perhaps you might add a component on the "innocent bystanders"
contrasting
them with the "rescuers". This should providde a good opportunity to
discuss
altruism and individual's moral choice to help or not to his fellow
human
being in trouble.
As someone who was helped by my Danish neighbors to escape to Sweden
in
October 1943, when the Germans attempted to round us up, I have found
the
story very well received whenever I have
spoken on campuses and elsewhere regarding the holocaust. (I edited a
book on
the topic in 1987: The Rescue of the Danish Jews: Moral Courage Under
Stress, NYU Press) and there are several others I could point you to.
The
recent Schindler film makes the whole topic of "The Rescuer" very
topical,
indeed.
Leo Goldberger.
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 23:21:18 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: Holocaust children's diaries
I am in search of diaries written by children and adolescents (up to
the age of 20) during the Holocaust. I would like any information
about published and unpublished diaries in any language, in any
country, under any circumstances. The following information is
specifically helpful:
1. Where is the original, or a copy of the diary?
2. Is is accesible to the public?
3. Has it been published?
4. What language is it in?
5. Where was it written, and when?
6. Who wrote it, and how old was the writer?
But any information would be very much appreciated, even just the
name, if nothing else.
(I should mention that I have information on these: Anne Frank,
Yishkok Rudashevski, Eva Heyman, Moshe Flinker, David Rubinowicz,
and perhaps a few others.)
Thanks whoever.
azapruder@ushmm.or "Zapruder, Alex"
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 23:23:30 -0400
Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET>
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From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu
Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA
Subject: teaching Holocaust--materials
Hi everyone. I will be teaching the Holocaust to sixth graders in a
Reform
day school in the fall. Any suggestions as to worthwhile materials,
curricula etc.? jubrenman@THEO.JTSA.EDU
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 23:24:53 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: holocaust denial
Would it help to keep the two terms clearly discrete? "Denial" to mean
what it literally says (i.e., no Final Solution). "Revision" to keep
open the
possibility that while there was clearly a Final Solution, various
aspects,
assumptions, claims, might have to be revised if/when new information
comes to light (e.g., was the gas chamber at Dachau ever used on human
beings; dis Hitler ever sign a written Befehl for the extermination;
was
Kurt Gerstein in fact a member of the resistance against Hitler, etc).
I'll be grateful responses.
Can anyone verify that Wehrmacht personnel with severe combat trauma
and/or
illness were sent from the front to various T-4 Anstalten?
Has anyone out there received responses to personal postings to Boston
Globe
reporter Farrell? I've sent two c/o his corrected e-mail address ...
thus far
with nothing in return.
The Yale University Library on-line catalog shows an entry for a book
by Anna E. Rosmus (not: Rasmus), titled "Exodus - im Schattten der
Gnade",
Tittling (Germany): Dorfmeister, 1988. This may very well be the same
author as the Anja Rosmus of "Das Schreckliche Madchen".
I don't know if I'm on a wild goose chase, but here is
another citation to a book by Anna Rosmus, this one from the Harvard
University Library:
"WINTERGRUN: VERDRANGTE MORDE", Konstanz: Labhard, 1993.
Gaston L. Schmir
From holoweb@h-net.msu.edu Thu Aug 22 14:08:45 1996
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1996 14:08:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: HOLOCAUS Gopherspace <holoweb@h-net.msu.edu>
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Subject: log 9406e
>From LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU Mon Aug 12 22:16:53 1996 Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (UICVM-ETH1.CC.UIC.EDU [128.248.2.150]) by h-net.msu.edu (8.7.1/8.7.1) with SMTP id OAA33834 for <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 14:53:54 -0400 Message-Id: <199608121853.OAA33834@h-net.msu.edu> Received: from UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU by UICVM.UIC.EDU (IBM VM SMTP V2R2)
with BSMTP id 1724; Mon, 12 Aug 96 13:53:24 CDT Received: from UICVM.UIC.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@UICVM) by UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 6016; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:21 -0500 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:53:20 -0500 From: "L-Soft list server at UICVM (1.8b)" <LISTSERV@UICVM.CC.UIC.EDU> Subject: File: "HOLOCAUS LOG9406E" To: H-NET Help <help@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 09:21:42 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: teaching Holocaust--materials
Good luck teaching such youngsters! The curriculum of which I was a
co-author, *Life Unworthy of Life* should be of some help. It is
addressed primarily to high school students, is one of the National
Diffusion Network's preferred curricula, and has been most effective
in some 40 states and Canada. For information or materials, contact:
Dr. Peter Nagourney, Center for the Study of the Child Holocaust
Curriculum Project, 914 Lincoln Ave., Ann Arbor, MI. 48104-3525
Phone: 313-761-6440 or Fax: 313-761-5629.
Sid Bolkosky
UM-Dearborn
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 09:22:38 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: nasty girl
This last title (Wintergrun or Wintergreen) is indeed by the same
author in question, whom I heard being interviewed on the topic of
the book. Wintergreen refers to the plant, which grows profusely
and was used to cover up unmarked graves of dead prisoners (who, I
believe, died in the vicinity of Passau, either on death marches
or from local work camps).
FIZ@PUCC.BITNE "Froma I. Zeitlin"
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 09:25:02 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: revisionists
As one who has sounded off more than once about shunning the term
"revisionists," I think the word is too contaminated now in the
context
of the Final Solution to be useful. What you speak of in regard to
finding new facts or verifying old ones doesn't in any case sound to
me what I think of as revisionist, which has the connotation of a
large scale rethinking.
FIZ@PUCC.BITNE "Froma I. Zeitlin"
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 20:43:28 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu
Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA
Dear Dr. Goldberger,
You did not include your email address with your post. Would you send
it
to me privately? I am currently conducting research for my
dissertation
and I would like to ask you some questions about your experience and
your
work.
My apologies for using the list to conduct a personal inquiry.
Myrna Goodman
Department of Sociology
University of California, Davis
Davis, Ca 95616
<mlgoodman@ucdavis.edu>
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 20:44:38 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: revisionists
My problem with the distinction is that the "revisionists" (read
deniers) use these disputed facts and claims as a device to cast a
shadow of doubt on the validity of the Holocaust per se. As new
information becomes available on Nazi Germany, we historians
naturally modify our presentations of the period (I think of how
much has changed over the 30 years I have been teaching), but the
deniers regardless of their professions of historical objectivity
really want to bring our entire understanding of the Holocaust into
disrepute. This is a sort of fabian approach to achieving that
objective.
Richard Pierard/Indiana State Univ.
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 20:46:27 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: Holocaust children's diaries
Answering the question of Alex Zapruder re: Holocaust children's diaries:
The diary of Masha Rolnikayte, 13-year old girl from Vilno ghetto should be included in your list. It was written in Vilno (Vilnius) in 1941-44 in Yiddish originally. Now Masha (Maria) Rolnikayte lives in St.Petersburg, Russia. If you are interested I can ask her where is the original now. As far as I know there is a photocopy of it in Yad Vashem Archive.
This diary was edited and translated into Lithuanian by Masha
Rolnikayte herself and published in Vilnius in 1963 as a book
named "I must tell you". Later this book was published in the
USSR in Russian and Yiddish (also translated by Masha
Rolnikayte). As far as I know this book was also published in
many countries in more than 20 languages. Unfortunately this book
was never published in English as a book. The only English text
was published in English edition of Moscow magazine "Soviet
Literature" #12/1965 (abridged version, translated by Avril
Pyman). It is strange and sad that this famous book (the only
honest book about the Holocaust published in the USSR under the
Communism) was never published in English completely.
Alexander Frenkel | E-mail:
frenk@lea.spb.su
Jewish Association of St.Petersburg, Russia | Phone/fax:
7-(812)-3115125
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 1994 20:48:17 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: T-4 program
To Terry Moore and others interested in this topic: I'm in the rather
bizarre position of answering (partially) my own question posted to
this list
yesterday. After I posted the query I ran across the following
material in Hugh
Gregory Gallagher, BY TRUST BETRAYED: PATIENTS, PHYSICIANS, AND THE
LICENSE TO
KILL IN THE THIRD REICH [Holt, 1990], p.70f: When the T-4 program
began, there
was an exemption for German veterans. Later, the exemption was
modified to
spare only veterans who had been wounded or decorated. "Decisions as
to which
vets were to be taken and which excused were under the direction of a
Mr.
Jennewein at T-4 headquarters. As a result, many veterans of World War
I and
even shell-shocked veterans of the Russian campaign of World War II
went to
their deaths. When news of the killing became known on the Russian
front,
troop morale was disturbed to the point that ... Keitel complained to
Hitler
.... When news that veterans were being killed by the government
became
generally known, it created a major furor ...."
Keitel's complaint to Hitler is cited in the following source:
US Nuremberg War Crimes Trials, 21 Nov 1946 - 20 Aug 1947 (National Archives Microfilm Publications), M887, Tape 4, Doc #2420.
Warren, The terminology has been too clouded by the misnomer of
"revisionism" so that keeping the words discrete is virtually
impossible. There is virtually no aspect of the Holocaust not open
to debate, interpretation and analysis--except the fact that it
happened. Given the evolution of such subtleties, the term "denial"
should gain wider acceptance in about ten years. Until then, it
behooves some of us to keep the distinctions in the foreground as
much as possible.
Sid Bolkosky
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 1994 23:43:25 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: concentration camp study tour
I just returned from a study tour for profs teaching the Holocaust. We visited Majdanek, Auschwitz/Birkenau, Theresienstadt, as well as Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen. Excellent leadership from Geoffrey Giles and Theodore Z. Weiss. The study tour was organized by the Holocaust Education Foundation, 3130 Big Tree Lane, Wilmette IL 60091, and plans are under way for another trip next year. There is no way in a few words to express the depth of understanding which I have gotten from this experience. Gordon Mork, Purdue
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 1994 23:56:00 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: address
Dear Ms. Godman,
My E-mail address is: Gberger@xp.psych.nyu.edu
but as this is my last day in my office until September, you might write me at : 292 Great Barrington Rd., Housatonic, MA 01236. Leo Goldberger
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 00:00:21 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: T-4 program
> illness were sent from the front to various T-4 Anstalten? > -- Warren Thompson
I am working on the Medical War Crimes Trial Transcript and will check this out for you. I have read that this was so in a number of articles and books on the 'euthanasia' programme but unfortunatley non I've read so far refer to sources for the claim.
I have a reading list on the 'euthanasia' programme if you are interested.
regards
Peter Lindley
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 1994 00:06:07 -0400 Reply-To: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Sender: Holocaust List <HOLOCAUS@UICVM.BITNET> Comments: A VAX cluster with VMS V5.5-2, PMDF V4.2-10, JNET V3.6 & MU V3.2 From: RMICHAEL@umassd.edu Organization: University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, North Dartmouth, MA, USA Subject: Holocaust children's diaries
With reference to the comments by Alexander Frenkel concerning the
diary of Masha Rolnikaite, I would like to mention that excerpts of
the
diary in English translation appeared in the magazine "Soviet Life",
April 1965.
Names of additional authors of children's diaries may be found in:
Jacob Robinson, "The Holocaust and after: sources and literature in Engl
ish" Israel Universities Press, Jerusalem, 1973, p
50-51. Included are references to the diaries of David Sierakowak and
Yanka Heszeles.
Another author who might well be included on the list of Alex Zapruder is Leon (Weliczker) Wells. His work "Brigada smierci" [The death brigade] is based largely on the diary kept by the teen-aged Weliczker. It has appeared in English as one of the chapters in "The Janowska Road", New York: Macmillan, 1963.