South Carolina Voices: Lessons from the Holocaust

Teaching Lesson Three

Materials: Handout 3A: News From Germany; Handout 3B: Rudy and the Nuremberg Laws; Handout 3C: Trude Describes the German Takeover; Handout 3D: Two Views of Crystal Night; Handout 3E: Anne Frank Writes in Her Diary

Key Terms: Reichstag, Nuremberg Laws, Aryan, Third Reich, Anschluss, Kristallnacht, Star of David

PROCEDURE

Motivate: Read Overview III and summarize for students. Several of the handouts for this lesson look at the impact of the Anschluss and Kristallnacht on European Jews. Write the terms democracy and dictatorship on the board. Have students identify the major differences between these two forms of government. Through discussion, students should recognize that a dictatorship is a government in which power is held by one person or a small group.

A key characteristic of a dictatorship is that it is not responsible to the people and cannot be limited by them. Those in power have absolute authority over the people they govern. Many modern dictatorships are also totalitarian. This means that those in power exercise total control over every aspect of citizens' lives, from school to the workplace, from what people read, to how they spend their leisure time.

In a democracy, political authority rests with the people, and democratic leaders govern with the consent of the governed. The rights of citizens are protected by law. The majority rules, but the minority has rights that are protected by law. Among these rights are freedom of religion, assembly, petition, speech, and press.

After a brief review of the differences between these forms of government, distribute Handout 3A. Explain that this is a copy of an actual newspaper article that appeared in the "New York Herald" in 1935. Use these questions to start discussion:

1. What lawmaking body passed the Nuremberg Laws?

2. To what political party did most members of the Reichstag belong?

3. The members of the Reichstag were elected by the people of Germany. Does this mean that it was a democratic legislature? Why or why not?

4. What is meant by the statement that the Reichstag is "now nothing more than a rubber stamp"?

5. Was there any discussion of this law before it was passed? Did any members of the Reichstag oppose the laws? How do you think opposition to the laws would have been treated?

6. Who was hurt by these laws?

7. What restrictions were put on Jews by these laws? What were the penalties for breaking these laws?

8. What do you think the Nazi party hoped to achieve with these laws? Focus discussion on the following question: What is the difference, if any, between individual acts of prejudice and discrimination and those which are carried out through government laws? (Through discussion, students recognize that the passage of the Nuremberg Laws by the Reichstag encouraged and supported prejudice and made hatred of the Jews acceptable. A society that tolerates or legalizes bigotry through its government is different from a society where discrimination is unlawful.

In a democratic society like the United States, individual acts of discrimination and prejudice do occur. However, they are not sanctioned by the government and are often actively opposed by government laws and regulations. Furthermore, in countries where discrimination is against the law, people who believe they have been treated unfairly can seek redress through the legal system and the courts.)

Next have students suggest ways laws such as these would have been discussed in a democratic legislature like the Congress. Point out that German Jews had no way of protesting these laws, because they were not represented in the legislature. Ask students how Americans opposed to the passage of such laws could protest against them in the United States before their passage. (contacting their legislative representatives, public petitions and protests) How would a minority group in a democracy protest such laws once they were passed? (public protests, voting against elected officials who supported such laws, challenging the laws in court)

Distribute Handout 3B. Have students read the handout and describe the way that the Nuremberg Laws affected Rudy. Have students explain how the Nazis changed Rudy's textbooks.

1. What was the purpose of these changes? Why might such changes have been popular among the German people, particularly after the signing of the Versailles Treaty? (Note that the changes in the textbooks, like the flags and swastikas, built nationalism and linked Germany's past glory with support for Nazi power in the present.)

2. What did Rudy think about the way German history had been rewritten in his textbooks? If time allows, examine both the positive and negative aspects of strong nationalistic feeling. Consider ways nationalism helps a nation grow by uniting its people. Then consider the negative consequences intense nationalism might have for minorities within a nation.

3. In what ways was the daily life of Rudy and his family changing? Why do you think merchants agreed to put up signs saying Aryan Business or Aryan Proprietor? What effect did these signs have on the way people thought about Germans who were Jewish? How did such actions help the Nazis build support for anti-Semitism?

4. What might have happened if all the merchants in a community had agreed not to put such signs in their windows and had taken a stand against this treatment of the Jews? Were the merchants who put signs in their store windows in any way responsible for the growth of anti-Semitism? (Victimization of the Jews continued and grew because there was no strong counter pressure to stop it.)

Distribute Handout 3C. Explain that the Anschluss, or union of Austria and Germany that took place in March 1938, was a direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Threatened by German military action, Austria's chancellor was forced to resign and appoint an Austrian Nazi party official in his place.

Explain that Trude's schooling ended because Austrian Jews were banned from going to school with other Austrians.

1. What was the first change Trude noticed on her way home from gym class? What did this change indicate? What did Trude notice on her way home that signaled the Anschluss would have a direct impact on Jews?

2. Why did her father favor leaving? Why did her mother oppose it? What difficulties would the family have faced if they had left then? Would staying or leaving have seemed safer in 1935? How did Trude's concerns compare with those of an American teenager at that age?

3. What evidence can you find that laws similar to the Nuremberg laws were passed in Austria after Hitler took over?

4. How did Trude's neighbors respond when they saw her washing the streets? Why do you think none of the neighbors tried to help her? Would the humiliation of Trude have continued if the crowd watching had objected? Were Trude's neighbors responsible in any way for her frightening experience or does all the blame fall on the Austrian Nazis? Give reasons for your opinion.

Ask a student to explain what Kristallnacht was and why it is called the Night of Broken Glass. Distribute Handout 3D. Ask volunteers to read Rudy's and Trude's accounts of Kristallnacht aloud to the class. You may want to explain that "denounced" means reported to the police or the Nazis.

1. What stopped the Germans from treating Rudy's family more harshly? What do students think would have happened if they had not seen the picture of Hindenburg or learned of Rudy's father's service in World War I? What happened to the neighbor who helped Rudy's grandmother?

2. How did Trude and her family survive Kristallnacht? What rights or freedoms did Trude's family lose after Kristallnacht?

3. Kristallnacht has been called a turning point in Hitler's treatment of the Jews. Why do think this is? (Kristallnacht stepped up the campaign against the Jews. Up to this point, Jews had been threatened and intimidated. Laws had been passed to exclude them from many aspects of daily life and to deprive them of their civil rights. But Kristallnacht was the first organized act of mass violence against Jewish citizens.)

Distribute Handout 3E. As a class, make a list on the board of the restrictions Anne and Bert describe. (Restrictions included riding on a train or subway, driving a car, going to the movies. Emphasize that Dutch Jews faced these restrictions solely because they were born Jewish or had Jewish parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents. Prejudice rather than any wrongdoing by Jews made them subject to these laws.)

Next ask students to imagine that such laws were applied today in their own community to all families with children between the ages of 11 and 17. The reasons why these laws apply only to these families is not clear to students. However, they must follow the laws or face serious penalties. Have each student write a paragraph, a letter to a friend, or a diary entry describing how his or her life would suddenly change if faced with such restrictions. Have students describe a typical school day and a weekend day. How would students' after-school activities change? How would their relationships with friends and other people who were not subject to these laws change?

Extend: Encourage students to think of periods in American history when citizens have been treated unfairly through government legislation because of prejudice and discrimination. Compare and contrast the Nuremberg Laws with such laws as the Indian Removal Act during the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the black codes and Jim Crow laws during the period following Reconstruction, (Selected items from the black codes and Jim Crow laws can be found in the South Carolina Black History Modules.) and the internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. (Areas for comparison and contrast include purpose or aims of such laws, groups affected by the laws, responses of citizens to such laws, legal repercussions at the time the laws were passed or at a later period, and differences in ways citizens in a democracy and authoritarian society can respond to such laws.)

Provide students with a copy of the Bill of Rights. Have students decide which of the Nuremberg Laws and the laws cited by Anne Frank and Bert Gosschalk would be illegal under the Bill of Rights.

HANDOUT 3A—NEWS FROM GERMANY 1935

New York Herald Tribune, September 16, 1935

"The Shame of Nuremberg" by Rudy Barnes

NUREMBERG, Germany, September 15, 1935. Strict new laws depriving German Jews of all the rights of German citizens were decreed by a cheering Reichstag here tonight after an address by Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Tonight's decrees are among the most sweeping measures taken since the Nazis came into power two and a half years ago. Under the new laws, Jews in Germany will be put back abruptly to their position in Europe during the Middle Ages.

The new laws, which go into effect January 1, help to realize the anti-Jewish part of the Nazi program. They are described as "laws for the protection of German blood and German honor." As read before the Reichstag by the president of the legislative body, they are:

1. Marriages between Jews and German citizens are forbidden.

2. Physical contact between Jews and Germans is forbidden.

3. Jews are not permitted to employ in their household German servants under the age of 45.

4. Jews are forbidden to raise the swastika emblem (now the national flag).

Violation of any of the first three laws is punishable by imprisonment at hard labor. Violation of the fourth law is punishable by imprisonment.

Tonight's session of the Reichstag was called unexpectedly by Hitler. All but two or three of the 600 members are Nazi party men. The Reichstag, which is now nothing more than a rubber stamp, was called to order by the president of the Reichstag at 9:00 P.M. After speaking of the three laws, the President asked the Reichstag for unanimous approval. Six hundred men, most of them in brown uniforms, leaped to their feet.

With the anti-Jewish wing of the Nazi party now in power, further anti-Semitic measures are expected to be enacted soon.

HANDOUT 3B—RUDY AND THE NUREMBERG LAWS

(In the reading below, Rudy describes how the Nuremberg Laws affected his family and explains why the family moved from Frankfurt, Germany to the even larger city of Cologne.)

In 1936 the Nuremberg Laws decreed that Jews could no longer have a German, an Aryan, of childbearing age in the house. You had to hire a woman of over 45. We had some young girls cleaning the house for us. They had to leave.

The treatment we got in school also changed. We were not permitted to join the youth groups. Our textbooks changed as well. The textbooks no longer agreed with what my parents and my grandparents told us about world history. The new textbooks took a nationalistic slant. They emphasized the Germanic heritage. We did not have the judgement to know that much of what was in our books was false. Its only purpose was to glorify the Germans. We accepted it because, thinking of ourselves as Germans, we felt that we also had been fighting the Romans with the German national hero Herman the Cherusk. We pictured ourselves among the brave German fighters in the Teutonberg Forest, defeating the Roman General Varus and his superior army.

Before long the local Nazi authorities told my father it would be healthier for us if we moved into the larger Jewish community in Cologne. Those that didn't move voluntarily were forced to do so in 1938 by an edict from the Reich, the German government. The law stated that all Jews must leave villages of less than 80,000 or 100,000 and move to larger population centers.

In Cologne, my father was no longer allowed to have his grain business. He took over a small transport business. We had two small pick-up trucks and we did hauling until 1940 when all business activity was forbidden to Jews by the German government.

We began seeing signs in the store windows: swastikas and the words, "Jews Are Not Welcome Here." People who did not wish to say that on their windows said instead, "Aryan Proprietors" or "Aryan Business." Most merchants had small flags with swastikas flying in front of their stores.

HANDOUT 3C—TRUDE DESCRIBES THE GERMAN TAKEOVER

(On March 13, 1938, Austria was annexed by Germany. This event was called the Anschluss (Ann-Sh-Loose), and for some Austrians this new union was cause for celebration. Trude, living in Vienna, describes how it affected her family.)

The day Hitler marched in, I was on my way to gym class. I wasn't allowed to go by myself. My parents always had somebody to go with me. The whole city was in an uproar because Austrians were going to vote on whether to be part of Germany or not. I did not see one swastika on the way. I saw signs, armbands, and many different-colored flags for the Communists, the Social Democrats, and other political parties. Everybody was yelling for their party.

A half an hour later when I came out of the class, the city was a sea of swastikas. Every building had a swastika flag. Every policeman pulled out a swastika armband. Everything else was gone. It was such a shock to go in without a swastika showing, and come out to go home and every synagogue was burning. When I got home, my father said, "Our passports are ready, let's go."

My mother said, "Are you crazy? What do you mean let's go? This is where we live. This is where we make our living. This is where our money is. When do we go, and what do we do, and how do we leave everything behind?"

I was going to high school at that time. From that day on I was never called on in class again. Then I had to quit. So at 15 and a half my education ended. After that things changed very quickly. We had help in the house and she had to leave. Nobody under 45 that wasn't Jewish could work for a Jewish family. Then all the non-Jews who worked for us in our stores had to leave. We had Jewish young people who were our friends helping out in the store. They had nothing else to do.

The first thing that happened to me personally was that Austrian Nazis came to ask me to wash the streets with my mother. We went to a place where the Nazis had painted Stars of David near the offices of Jewish organizations. The Nazis had marked all businesses belonging to Jews . They told us to scrub off the paint.

Many neighborhood people stood watching. I knew a lot of them. I had grown up in that neighborhood. They all spoke to me, but I didn't say very much. I was afraid to say the wrong thing. Then all of a sudden the Austrian Nazis sent away all the other people and kept me there. I was a young girl, 15 years old. They started surrounding me and touching me. Two German officers came up. They saw what was going on and they broke it up. I was very lucky. I went home and cried for 36 hours. I was very brave while it was going on, but I was very frightened.

HANDOUT 3D—TWO VIEWS OF CRYSTAL NIGHT

(Crystal Night or Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass as it is sometimes called, began on November 9, 1938. In the readings below two people recall their experiences on this frightening night.)

Rudy in Germany

In 1939 Kristallnacht occurred. Overnight my grandmother's house was totally ruined. She was pushed down the stairs into the basement of her house by the Nazis. The Nazis broke the water pipes and my grandmother who was about 70 nearly drowned. A neighbor had to haul her out of the basement. The neighbor was later denounced for helping a Jew.

My family was saved by circumstance of which I was probably the cause. Some time back I had found in a magazine a large picture of Paul von Hindenburg, the field marshall under whom my father had fought in World War I. When the Nazi Storm Troopers burst into our apartment in Cologne, the first thing they saw was this large picture of Hindenburg. It surprised them a little bit. We were all hiding except my father, but I could see where they were standing. They asked my father how the picture came to be on the wall. He said that his son Rudy had pasted it there. My father explained that he was the recipient of a decoration for bravery in the First World War. He told the SS men he had served under Hindenburg in the 65th Rhenish Infantry Regiment for four years and then had been a French prisoner of war not released until 1921.

After hearing this, they decided not to bother us further. They just smashed the front door and warned my father that he and his family should leave Germany as soon as possible. Unfortunately for us, almost all the borders were closed, so we stayed in Cologne.

Trude in Austria

It was Kristallnacht and the Austrian supporters of the Nazis were given a free hand. They could do with the Jews as they wished. My father was still going to work at his store, but it was getting kind of dangerous for us. The Nazis supporters were robbing people. They were coming in and taking everything from Jews that they could. One day just after my father left for work, I got a call from a girlfriend. She said, "Don't let your father leave," and she hung up.

I didn't understand what she meant. All of a sudden my father came back. He said, "I'm lost. This is it. Austrian policemen are downstairs arresting people. I knew the man arresting me; I asked him if I could turn over my keys to the family."

He said, "OK, I'll wait for you."

My mother ran next door. A very elderly Jewish lady and her son were living there. She asked them to let my father hide there. They agreed. So my father went in there. When they came for him, my mother said, "He left this morning."

Then they went next door. They took the woman's son, but she didn't tell them that my father was there.

I went down to the street and called a cab. We all got in. My father hid in the bottom of the cab. The cab driver did not give him away. We went to our store. We went in and locked it from the inside. We stayed in there 28 hours without lights or toilets. Austrian Nazis came and knocked. We didn't move. Outside we heard a lot of shouting. We heard voices, but we didn't know what was going on. They were looking for my father and for a young man who was hiding with us.

We told ghost stories that night to make the time go by, and we slept on the store tables a bit. My girlfriend called us. We had a telephone, and she told us when it was over.

It wasn't that easy to come out because they had put a swastika seal on the keyhole of our store. We could see it when we looked out of the keyhole. If you tore a swastika, it was certain death. It was like defacing something. It was up to me to get us out without breaking the seal. I did it very carefully and gently.

We came back out. We survived that night, but it was a horrendous, horrendous night. A lot of Jewish people disappeared that night. They took away so many.

HANDOUT 3E—HOLLAND UNDER THE NAZIS

Anne Frank Writes in Her Diary

"SATURDAY, June 20, 1942. The arrival of the Germans was when the sufferings of us Jews really began. Anti-Jewish decrees followed each other in quick succession. We must wear a yellow star. We must hand in our bicycles. We are banned from trams (trains or subways) and forbidden to drive. We are only allowed to do our shopping between three and five o'clock and then only in shops which bear the sign Jewish shop. We must be indoors by eight o'clock and cannot even sit in our own gardens after that hour. We are forbidden to visit theaters, cinemas, and other places of entertainment. We may not take part in public sports. Swimming, tennis courts, hockey fields and other sports grounds are all prohibited to us. We may not visit Christians. We must go to Jewish schools, and many more restrictions of a similar kind."

Bert Recalls Restrictions

(Bert Gosschalk was born in 1920 in a little village called Wihe in Holland. When he was two or three years old, his family moved to the nearby town of Deventer where he went to school and college. He came from a family of five, two brothers and two sisters. All five survived the war.)

On May 10, 1940, when I woke up at six o'clock in the morning, I was already behind the German lines. The Germans had run through town, crossed the river, and we were in an occupied country. It came as a surprise. We were now in occupied territory. It took five years to get to liberation.

For the first few months after occupation, the Germans were busy waging and winning a war. They didn't have time yet to start with the civilian population. But gradually after a few months, they started tightening up a little bit at a time. It took a while for us to realize what was happening. First Jews were not permitted in the movie theaters. A little sign said "Jews Not Allowed." A little while later the Nazi Dutch government started issuing identity cards. If you were Jewish, they put a J on it. Later on we were not allowed in restaurants. Then Jewish kids could not go to public schools. Jews could not go to non-Jewish doctors. There was a special curfew for Jews. The regular population could not leave the house after 11 o'clock at night. Jews were not allowed out after 7 o'clock.

Many of these things we could live with. It is only unpleasant, but the bigger things came a little later. First we couldn't have an automobile or a horse and a cart. Then we couldn't have bicycles. All bicycles were taken away. We were not allowed to have a radio. All the radios were confiscated. Money and any bank accounts that we might have or stocks and bonds had to be deposited in a certain bank controlled by the Nazis. Jews could only go to stores between five and six in the evening. This was after everybody else had bought out what was available that day. Then we could buy the wilted lettuce or rotten tomatoes, if there were any.

Jews could not have a job so there was no income. We were all moved. We couldn't live in our own homes anymore. We were told that we had to move to a certain area, a ghetto. We had to start wearing a star on our clothes. Any time we were outside we had to wear a yellow star, the Star of David, with the word "Jew" in it.

Overview IV—The Holocaust

Back to Overview III—Prewar Nazi Germany