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Answer questions 1 and 2 on your handout.

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Genocide is an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. These acts fall into five categories:

1. Killing members of the group

2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

There are a number of other serious, violent crimes that do not fall under the specific definition of genocide. They include crimes against humanity, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and mass killing.

Origin of the Term Genocide

The word "genocide" did not exist prior to 1944. It is a very specific term coined by a Polish-Jewish lawyer named Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) who sought to describe Nazi policies of systematic murder during the Holocaust, including the destruction of European Jews. He formed the word genocide by combining geno-, from the Greek word for race or tribe, with -cide, from the Latin word for killing.

Genocide as an International Crime

On December 9, 1948, the United Nations approved a written international agreement known as the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This convention established genocide as an international crime, which signatory nations "undertake to prevent and punish." Preventing genocide, the other major obligation of the convention, remains a challenge that nations, institutions, and individuals continue to face.

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Genocide is an internationally recognized crime where acts are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

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Answer question 3

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The Nuremberg Race Laws At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." Ancillary ordinances to the laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of most political rights.

The Nuremberg Laws, as they became known, did not define a "Jew" as someone with particular religious beliefs. Instead, anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents was defined as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual identified himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity were defined as Jews.

For a brief period after Nuremberg, in the weeks before and during the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, the Nazi regime actually moderated its anti-Jewish attacks and even removed some of the signs saying "Jews Unwelcome" from public places. Hitler did not want international criticism of his government to result in the transfer of the Games to another country. Such a loss would have been a serious blow to German prestige.

After the Olympic Games (in which the Nazis did not allow German Jewish athletes to participate), the Nazis again stepped up the persecution of German Jews. In 1937 and 1938, the government set out to impoverish Jews by requiring them to register their property and then by "Aryanizing" Jewish businesses. This meant that Jewish workers and managers were dismissed, and the ownership of most Jewish businesses was taken over by non-Jewish Germans who bought them at bargain prices fixed by Nazis. Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jews, and Jewish lawyers were not permitted to practice law.

Like everyone in Germany, Jews were required to carry identity cards, but the government added special identifying marks to theirs: a red "J" stamped on them and new middle names for all those Jews who did not possess recognizably "Jewish" first names-"Israel" for males, "Sara" for females. Such cards allowed the police to identify Jews easily.

Key Dates

September 15, 1935
Nuremberg Laws are instituted
At their annual party rally, the Nazis announce new laws that revoke Reich citizenship for Jews and prohibit Jews from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood." "Racial infamy," as this becomes known, is made a criminal offense. The Nuremberg Laws define a "Jew" as someone with three or four Jewish grandparents. Consequently, the Nazis classify as Jews thousands of people who had converted from Judaism to another religion, among them even Roman Catholic priests and nuns and Protestant ministers whose grandparents were Jewish.

October 18, 1935
New marriage requirements instituted
The "Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People" requires all prospective marriage partners to obtain from the public health authorities a certificate of fitness to marry. Such certificates are refused to those suffering from "hereditary illnesses" and contagious diseases and those attempting to marry in violation of the Nuremberg Laws.

November 14, 1935
Nuremberg Law extended to other groups
The first supplemental decree of the Nuremberg Laws extends the prohibition on marriage or sexual relations between people who could produce "racially suspect" offspring. A week later, the minister of the interior interprets this to mean relations between "those of German or related blood" and Roma (Gypsies), blacks, or their offspring.

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The Nuremberg Race Laws At the annual party rally held in Nuremberg in 1935, the Nazis announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. The laws excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or related blood."

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Stop #3- Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass

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Stop #3- Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass

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Answer question 4

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The "Night of Broken Glass" On the night of November 9-10, 1938, the Nazi regime coordinated a wave of antisemitic violence in Nazi Germany. This became known as Kristallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass." It was named for the shattered glass from store windows that littered the streets after the violence.

The violence was supposed to look like an unplanned outburst of anger against Jews. In fact, Nazi leaders actively coordinated it with Adolf Hitler's support. On the night of November 9, they ordered members of the Nazi Party's paramilitaries (the SS, the SA, and the Hitler Youth) to attack Jewish communities.

In the hours and days that followed, organized groups of Nazis wreaked havoc on Jewish life in Nazi Germany. They burned hundreds of synagogues. They vandalized thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, shattering the glass in storefronts. They damaged Jewish cemeteries and homes. Nazi leaders told the police and fire brigades to ignore the attacks. Police forces did not protect Jews or their property. Fire brigades did not put out fires in synagogues. Hundreds of Jews died during Kristallnacht and its aftermath.

The next morning, the Nazi regime ordered the police to arrest about 30,000 German Jewish men. These men had not committed any crime. The police arrested them simply for being Jewish. They were sent to such concentration camps as Dachau and Buchenwald. The arrests shocked and terrified Jewish families and communities. The Nazi authorities released many of these men if families could prove they had plans to leave Germany. Other men died in these camps.

The Night of Broken Glass was an important turning point for Germany's Jews. Afterwards, many Jews concluded that there was no future for them in Nazi Germany.

Key Dates

November 7, 1938
The catalyst for Herschel Grynszpan shoots Ernst vom Rath. Grynszpan is a 17-year-old Polish-German Jew living in Paris. Vom Rath is a minor German diplomat posted to the German embassy in Paris. Grynszpan apparently acts out of despair over the fate of his parents, whom the Nazi regime had expelled from Germany to Poland. The Nazis use the shooting to incite antisemitic fervor. They claim that Grynszpan did not act alone, but was part of a wider Jewish conspiracy against Germany. When vom Rath dies on November 9, Nazi leaders use this theory as a pretext for Kristallnacht .

November 9, 1938
Joseph Goebbels instigates Nazi Party leaders from across Germany gather in Munich to commemorate the Beer Hall Putsch. The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt by Adolf Hitler in 1923 to seize power in Germany. During the event, they learn vom Rath has died of his wounds. In response, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels delivers a passionate antisemitic speech. With Hitler's permission, Goebbels calls for an attack on Germany's Jewish communities. After the speech, Nazi officials call their home districts and communicate Goebbels' instructions. This results in the violence known today as Kristallnacht , or the "Night of Broken Glass."

November 15, 1938
Americans condemn American newspaper headlines condemn the violence of Kristallnacht . At a press conference on November 15, 1938, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces the antisemitic attack. In an official statement, he writes, "I myself could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a twentieth-century civilization." The president recalls the US ambassador to Germany.

Last Edited: Jan 15, 2021

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The "Night of Broken Glass" On the night of November 9-10, 1938, the Nazi regime coordinated a wave of antisemitic violence in Nazi Germany. This became known as Kristallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass." It was named for the shattered glass from store windows that littered the streets after the violence.

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Answer questions 5 and 6

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Photographs & Overview of Jewish Badges in the Holocaust

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Encyclopedia of Jewish and Israeli history, politics and culture, with biographies, statistics, articles and documents on topics from anti-Semitism to Zionism.

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Answer questions 7, 8 and 9

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At the same time that ghettos were being emptied, masses of Jews and also Roma (Gypsies) were transported from the many distant countries occupied or controlled by Germany, including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Italy, North Africa, and Greece. The deportations required the help of many people and all branches of the German government.

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Answer question 10.

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The Survivors For the survivors, returning to life as it had been before the Holocaust was impossible. Jewish communities no longer existed in much of Europe. When people tried to return to their homes from camps or hiding places, they found that, in many cases, their homes had been looted or taken over by others.

Returning home was also dangerous. After the war, anti-Jewish riots broke out in several Polish cities. The largest anti-Jewish pogrom took place in July 1946 in Kielce, a city in southeastern Poland. When 150 Jews returned to the city, people living there feared that hundreds more would come back to reclaim their houses and belongings. Age-old antisemitic myths, such as Jews' ritual murders of Christians, arose once again. After a rumor spread that Jews had killed a Polish boy to use his blood in religious rituals, a mob attacked the group of survivors. The rioters killed 41 people and wounded 50 more. News of the Kielce pogrom spread rapidly, and Jews realized that there was no future for them in Poland.

Many survivors ended up in displaced persons' (DP) camps set up in western Europe under Allied military occupation at the sites of former concentration camps . There they waited to be admitted to places like the United States, South Africa, or Palestine. At first, many countries continued their old immigration policies, which greatly limited the number of refugees they would accept. The British government, which controlled Palestine, refused to let large numbers of Jews in. Many Jews tried to enter Palestine without legal papers, and when caught some were held in camps on the island of Cyprus, while others were deported back to Germany. Great Britain's scandalous treatment of Jewish refugees added to international pressures for a homeland for the Jewish people. Finally, the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state. Early in 1948, the British began withdrawing from Palestine. On May 14, 1948, one of the leading voices for a Jewish homeland, David Ben-Gurion, announced the formation of the State of Israel. After this, Jewish refugee ships freely landed in the seaports of the new nation. The United States also changed its immigration policy to allow more Jewish refugees to enter.

Although many Jewish survivors were able to build new lives in their adopted countries, many non-Jewish victims of Nazi policies continued to be persecuted in Germany. Laws which discriminated against Roma (Gypsies) continued to be in effect until 1970 in some parts of the country. The law used in Nazi Germany to imprison homosexuals remained in effect until 1969.

Key Dates

August 3, 1945
Harrison issues report on Jews in Germany
US special envoy Earl Harrison heads a delegation to the displaced persons' camps in Germany. Following World War II, several hundred thousand Jewish survivors are unable to return to their home countries and remain in Germany, Austria, or Italy. The Allies establish camps for displaced persons (DPs) for the refugees. Most Jewish DPs prefer to emigrate to Palestine but many also seek entry into the United States. They remain in the DP camps until they can leave Europe. Harrison's report underscores the plight of Jewish DPs and leads to improved conditions in the camps. At the end of 1946 the number of Jewish DPs is estimated at 250,000.

July 11, 1947
Refugee ship sails for Palestine despite British restrictions
Many Jewish DPs seek to emigrate to Palestine, despite existing British emigration restrictions. (In 1920, Great Britain received a mandate from the League of Nations to administer Palestine, and administered the territory until 1948.) Despite the restrictions, the refugee ship Exodus leaves southern France for Palestine, carrying 4,500 Jewish refugees from DP camps in Germany. The British intercept the ship even before it enters territorial waters off the coast of Palestine. The passengers are forcibly transferred to British ships and deported back to their port of origin in France. For almost a month the British hold the refugees aboard ship, at anchor off the French coast. The French reject the British demand to land the passengers. Ultimately, the British take the refugees to Hamburg, Germany, and forcibly return them to DP camps. The fate of the refugee ship Exodus dramatizes the plight of Holocaust survivors in the DP camps and increases international pressure on Great Britain to allow free Jewish immigration to Palestine.

November 29, 1947
United Nations votes for partition of Palestine
In a special session, the United Nations General Assembly votes to partition Palestine into two new states, one Jewish and the other Arab. Less than six months later, on May 14, 1948, prominent Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion announces the establishment of the State of Israel and declares that Jewish immigration into the new state will be unrestricted. Between 1948 and 1951, almost 700,000 Jews immigrate to Israel, including more than two-thirds of the Jewish displaced persons in Europe. Holocaust survivors, the passengers from the Exodus, DPs from central Europe, and Jewish detainees from British detention camps on Cyprus are welcomed to the Jewish homeland.

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The Survivors For the survivors, returning to life as it had been before the Holocaust was impossible. Jewish communities no longer existed in much of Europe. When people tried to return to their homes from camps or hiding places, they found that, in many cases, their homes had been looted or taken over by others.

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Answer question 11

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The Holocaust History - A People's and Survivor History - Remember.org

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A Survivor's Prayer
By:
MalkaB
I have lived
dear G-d
in a world gone mad
and I have seen
evil
unleashed beyond reason or
understanding.

I was with them.
We drank from the same
bitter cup.

I hid with them
Feared with them,
Struggled with them
And when the killing was finally done
I had survived
while millions had died.
I do not know why

I have asked many questions
for which there are no answers
And I have even cursed
my life
thinking I could not
endure the pain.

But a flame
inside
refused to die.
I could not throw away
What had been ripped away
from so many.

In the end
I had to choose life.
I had to struggle to cross
the bridge between
the dead and the living.
I had to rebuild
what had been destroyed.
I had to deny death
Another victory.
Return to Witnesses

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A Holocaust Survivor's Prayer | The Holocaust History - A People's and Survivor History - Remember.org

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A Survivor's Prayer By: MalkaB I have lived dear G-d in a world gone mad and I have seen evil unleashed beyond reason or understanding. I was with them. We drank from the same bitter cup. I hid with them Feared with them, Struggled with them And when the killing was finally done I had survived while millions had died.