RESCUERS AND

LIBERATION

RESCUE
Holocaust impossible without help from local
populations. Even if they were indifferent it still
helped the Nazi cause.
Nazis benefited from the Allies not taking military
action to stop the Final Solution when they
learned of it in 1942.
Roman Catholic Church had loudly protested the
euthanasia program but did not say anything as
the Jews were killed. Priests knew what was
happening. The church was uniquely informed.
Vatican among the first to know about genocide.
In the face of Nazi power, to be neutral, was in
fact to support the killers.

 Thousands risked their lives to help Jews. Rescue took many

forms. Some acted on their own. Others worked together.
Entire communities hid Jews. In the case of Denmark an
entire nation rallied to keep the Jews from being deported.
Some sympathized with the Jews. Others were anti-Semitic
but were not okay with murder and genocide. Some saved
friends and those they were loyal to. Others saved
strangers. Some did it because of political or religious
beliefs.
What difference did they make? In places where people
were willing to risk helping the Jews they saved lives.
When citizens stood by and did nothing, Jews died. When
citizens acted, Jews had a chance to be rescued.

SAVING THE JEWS OF DENMARK

Only country to rescue almost all of their Jews. Already
had a tradition of tolerance toward the Jews. Treated them
as equals not different class of people. Accepted and
respected.
Occupied in 1940. They were close enough to the Aryan
ideal the Nazis left them pretty much alone. As long as
that was true the Jews were fairly safe. But in 1943 they
were no longer exempt from the Final Solution.
Danes were warned ahead of time about plan to deport
the Jews. Anyone who could help rescue the Jews, did.
Jews went into hiding. They left by sea. Money was raised
to rent fishing boats. Equivalent of more than $60,000
spent on the rescue.

 October 1943 7,200 Jews left Denmark in fishing boats. The

police and coast guard helped. For two weeks boats ferried them
across the narrow strait separating Denmark from Sweden.
Sweden took all the Jews with the understanding it would violate
their neutral status in the eyes of the Nazis. Did so because they
could see the end of Germany on the horizon.
More than 90% of the Danish Jews escaped deportation. The only
ones left were those who could not take care of themselves and
those who could not provide for themselves.
Less than 500 Jews were deported.
Rescue did not end in 1943. Property was guarded, homes were
inventoried and stored and businesses put in trusts. Government
persistently asked about deported Jews. Did not return home
until after the liberation. Of the 464 deported only 51 died.

WAR REFUGEE BOARD

January 1944 the U.S. acted belatedly and only after
Secretary of Treasury Henry Morgenthau presented FDR
with evidence of government inaction and he knew if
would not be good if that knowledge became public.
For more than 17 months the U.S. had known about the
final solution and done nothing. Went as far as keeping
information about the genocide away from the American
public and the American Jewish community.
Within days of meeting with Morgenthau, FDR established
the War Refugee Board. Private funding. Too little, too late.
Real work did not begin until 8 years after the Nuremberg
Trials. Until them the idea was the best way to save the
Jews was the win the war.

WALLENBERG, BUDAPEST 1944

March 1944 Germany occupied Hungary (had
been allies). Deportations started 2 months later.
Between may 15 and July 1944 there were
437,402 Jews deported on 147 trains. Mostly to
Auschwitz.
When the Soviets got closer and the deportations
stopped there were only 200,000 Jews left in
Budapest.
Refugee Board worked to find countries to take in
the Jews. Switzerland and the Vatican tried to be
helpful but it was Sweden that answered the call.

 Raoul Wallenberg chosen to lead the rescue. He

was a Swedish aristocrat. Given a diplomatic
passport, money, and free reign to get the Jews
out any way he could.
Arrived July 1944. Defeat of the Nazis was close.
Hungary trying to polish its image for the
international community. Eichmann was still
pushing for deportations.
Wallenberg gave Jews passports with Swedish
seals. First batch was 5,000.
November Eichmann ordered a series of marches.
Ordered a roundup of all Jewish men age 16-60.
many Jews went into hiding. Large group of Jews

 Wallenberg issued thousands of Swedish safe

passes, pursued convoys carrying Jews and
roamed through the city harassing officials to
release the Jews in custody. When threats did not
work he offered bribes.
When the Soviets took over Wallenberg went to
work with them to help situate the Jews. He was
never seen free again.
For 10 years the Soviet Union denied having him
in custody. After Stalin died and Khrushchev
became more lenient they admitted he had been
arrested. Produced a death certificate that said he
died in 1947 of a heart attack.

BULGARIAN JEWS
Bulgaria had been an ally of Germany and anti-Jewish
laws were passed. Not anti-Semitic before this so the
people rebelled at the laws.
Germany wanted Jews deported in 1943. Agreement to
deport the Jews from Macedonia and Thrace first.
When it came time to deport Jews from Bulgaria there
was significant resistance. Postponed the resistance.
Persecutions increased. Jewish men between the ages
of 20 and 60 sent to slave labor camps. No Jews were
sent to camps outside of Bulgaria.
At the end of the war 50,000 Bulgarian Jews were alive.

FINNISH JEWS
Jews of Finland came out of the war with almost
no loss. When pressed in the summer of 1942 the
Finnish government responded that there was no
Finnish Jewish Question.
Eight Jewish refugees were turned over to the
German army. Remainder of the small Jewish
population were sent to Sweden.

ITALIAN JEWS
Jews in Italy were assimilated and a part of the culture.
Fascist Italy was an ally of Germany. Until Italy surrendered
to the Allies in 1943 no Jews were deported. After the
surrender Germany took over Italy.
Deported Italian Jews and those who had sought refugee in
Italy. Racial laws introduced. Very lenient because they did
not want to anger the Roman Catholic Church. Those who
had converted were safe.
Vatican did not do much to protest the deportations. Hid
some Jews.
Gestures of human decency were hallmarks of Italian rescue
mission. Most Italian Jews were safe because they only had
a year to implement these laws before the end of the war.

RESISTANCE AND REPRISAL: LIDICE

Collective responsibility big for Germans. Punish entire
community for acts of a few.
Heydrich assassinated in Prague. Germans ordered 10,000
Czechs killed and threatened expulsion of millions. Cathedral
where assassins hiding besieged. Everyone inside killed.
Village where assassins radio transmitter found, every adult
killed. Children relocated to Germany for reeducation- only 2
survived.
June 10- residents of Lidice (10 miles outside of Prague) shot
in batches of 10 behind barn. By late afternoon, 192 men and
71 women killed. Other women sent to concentration camps.
Children sent to Germany or camps.
Tactic worked. Czechs did not resist anymore. Germans
tribute to Heydrich was to rename mass murder of Polish Jews
Operation Reinhard.

CULTURAL/SPIRITUAL RESISTANCE
Acts of opposition that used cultural traditions
and spiritual bonding to undermine Nazi power
and inspire Jewish hope.
For most this was the only possible way to resist
the Nazis.
Creating schools in ghettos, maintaining religious
customs, writing poems and songs or performing
concerts or plays, drawing, painting, or secretly
photographing observed events, keeping records
of camp or ghetto life and keeping them hidden.
Attempt to maintain a persons previous way of
life and his or her unique identity during the war.

ACTIVE/ARMED RESISTANCE
Acts of opposition, defiance, or the sabotage of
Nazi plans using weapons or including typical
battles, attacks, or guerrilla strikes.
Bombing of a bunker, camp, office or train or an
uprising/revolt using weapons and arms.

BEHIND ENEMY LINES

In Palestine Jews were eager to join the fight.
Long way from Europe but it was their families
being killed. Had necessary skills to help carry out
rescue missions.
If they joined the British army they served in the
Jewish Brigade. Parachuted behind enemy lines in
1943 to act as British agents and as Jewish
emissaries.
Hannah Szenes was one of two women in the
group. She ended up in Hungary (native of
Budapest). Arrived after the first deportation of
Hungarian Jews to the camps. She was captured,
tortured (never talked), tried and executed for

GHETTO REVOLTS
Took up arms in 1942 and 1943 when they knew
for sure liquidation was happening. There was
little hope of survival.
The underground fighters were sometimes at
odds with the Jewish leadership.
Choice was stark: deportation or armed revolt.
Death was a sure result either way. In Lithuania
another choice was the forest.
Those who survived the ghettos in Poland and the
Soviet Union were a tiny minority. Resistance was
never, and could not have been, a strategy for
survival or military victory.

JEWISH PARTISANS
In Eastern Europe there were dense forests to hide in. they fled
there and formed their own fighting forces.
Soviet Union Jews were welcomed. Belorussia the local
populations helped the Jewish partisans.
Jewish partisans developed in parallel to Soviets and often
cooperated.
In Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia the Jews would get little
help.
Best place was in Belorussia. Life was uncertain and harsh. Moved
from place to place, plundered for food, fought for survival, and
froze in winter.
Early 1944 partisan bands were auxiliary forces for Soviets. New
groups made up of single men able to fight. Rest of the group who
were unable to fight made up new family groups where women,
children and old people lived with and were protected by fighters.

DEATH CAMP UPRISINGS

May 1943 one of the last transports arrived at
Treblinka. Only a small group of 1,000 remained.
Assignment was to exhume and burn the bodies.
When it was completed they would be killed.
Those who rebelled were inspired by Warsaw. Got
weapons and had a plan for overtaking the camp. As
many as 200 prisoners escaped and about half
escaped the dragnet sent after them.
At Sobibor the resistance was subtle. Made it outside
the gates. Only 1 in 3 made it to the wars end. Easy
prey to the locals. Hard to survive the harsh winters.

DEATH MARCHES
3 purposes of evacuating the camps.
1) SS authorities did not want prisoners to fall into enemy
hands alive and tell their stories
2) SS thought they needed prisoners to maintain
production of armaments wherever possible
3) some SS leaders, including Himmler, believed
irrationally they could use prisoners as hostages to
bargain for a separate peace in west that would
guarantee the survival of the Nazi regime.

Summer and fall 1944 evacuations took place by

boat or train. After that they were carried out on
foot. Order to kill any prisoners who could not
walk. Prisoners brutally mistreated. Shot
hundreds along the way.

 Thousands died from exposure, starvation and

exhaustion. Liberations took place almost up to
the end of the war.
Winter 1944-1945 Germans knew the war was
lost. As the Allies closed in on the camps, the SS
officials tried to evacuate the camps. No
eyewitnesses.
Made great effort to cover up crimes. January
1945, just days before the Soviets arrived 70,000
were marched from Auschwitz to freight trains
that carried them to other camps. Almost one in
four died.

 January 20, 1945 7,000 Jews (mostly women)

were marched from Stutthofs satellite camps in
the Danzing. During the 10 day march, 700 were
murdered. Those who survived were marched into
the Baltic Sea and shot. Only 13 known survivors.
There were 59 different marches from
concentration camps during the final winter,
some covering hundreds of miles. Prisoners were
given little to no food and water, and hardly any
time to rest or take care of bodily needs. Those
who paused of fell behind were killed.
Germany got back the Jews it had proudly
expelled.

LIBERATION
Soviets first to arrive at the camps. July 23, 1944 arrived
at Majdanek. Germans ran out of time to clean up all the
evidence. Found a few prisoners and ample evidence
including a storehouse full of 80,000 pairs of shoes.
Soldiers were shocked and press coverage was intense.
During the summer of 1944 Soviets overran Belzec,
Sobibor and Treblinka. Germans had already dismantled
the camps and planted pine trees and turned them into
farms. Soviets found bones protruding from the ground.
January 27, 1945 entered Auschwitz. Only ones left were
the ones too weak to march. Records destroyed. Mengele
took his research with him. 29 storehouses burned. In the
6 left found 348,820 mens suits, 836,255 womens coast,
more than 7 tons of human hair and 13,964 carpets.

 April 15, 1945 liberated Bergen-Belsen. Ravaged by a

typhoid epidemic. Thousands of bodies lay unburied,
rotting in the sun. 14,000 of the newly liberated inmates
died weeks from getting their freedom. Epidemic was so
lethal the camp had to be burned to the ground. Locals
taken on tours to show them the horrors. Films showed
around the world.
As Allied forces closing in on Berlin, Hitler retreated to
the Reich Chancellerys two story air raid shelter 50 feet
below ground. April 21, Soviets encircled Berlin.
In his final hours, Hitler married long time girlfriend Eva
Braun. Within a day she died of poison and he shot
himself. Bodies burned.

CHILDREN
Ultimate crime was the murder of children. More than 1 million
children under the age of 15 were killed.
In Poland and Eastern Europe the children went to the ghettos.
Became smugglers and beggars.
Children in Western Europe were sent with their families to the
transit camps. Tried to form some semblance of normalcy wherever
they were.
In the end they were deported to concentration camps with their
parents. Could no longer protect their children. If they refused to be
separated they were sent to the gas chambers as well. Pregnant
women were sent to the gas chambers.
Presence of children forced parents to make impossible decisions.
Young children often endangered their parents.
Children in hiding were often confused about their religion, identity,
even their gender.

NUREMBERG TRIALS
Winter 1943 Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt said
they would bring the Nazi leaders to justice when
the war was over.
Two weeks after war was over, agreed to hold
joint trials. Justice Robert Jackson from the
Supreme Court was asked to lead the
prosecution.
Four counts in the indictment: 1) Crimes against
Peace- including planning, preparing, initiating or
waging wars of aggression. 2) War Crimes- acts
that violated the laws and customs of warfare. 3)
Crimes against Humanity- (NEW) murder,
extermination, enslavement or deportation of

 1946 opened with 24 leading Nazis indicted. 22

stood trial including Goering. 12 sentenced to
death by hanging. 7 were given prison terms and
3 were acquitted.
After that series of trials in front of U.S. military
tribunals. 185 defendants divided into groups.
Physicians, administrators, judges, generals,
company CEOs.
Most common defense was ignorance. Just
following orders. Proximity to crime as a measure
of guilt. Those directly involved got harsher
punishments.

 Cold War shifted attention away from trials. Clemency boards

established. Sentenced reduced. Pardons granted. 37 death
sentences commuted. Fortunes and companies returned.
Some Nazi leaders took new identities. Others fled to South
America or the Middle East. Some got help from the Vatican.
Others came as anti-communists fleeing Soviet persecution to
the U.S.
For the first time leaders were held legally responsible for
crimes committed in the course of carrying out their
governments policies.
December 9, 1948 UN adopted Genocide Convention.
Followed by the adoption of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Next year adopted Geneva Conventions.

EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM
1960 Israel captured him in Argentina. Had been in charge of
deportations. Took to Jerusalem to stand trial. Controversial
because they violated state sovereignty to do it.
Lawyer argued he would not get a fair trial in Jerusalem. Court
argued when a judge heard a case he put aside his emotions.
Tried and hung. His body was cremated and his ashes
scattered as sea so they did not pollute the soil of Israel.
Trial made it okay to talk about the Holocaust. Younger
generation, untouched by it, riveted by the events and
survivor stories.
Another consequence was the questioning of the role of the
Jewish councils and leadership during the Holocaust.
Controversial.

DISPLACED PERSONS
When they Allies moved through Europe they
found 7 to 9 million people living in countries not
their own. More than 6 million returned to their
native lands.
1 million refused reparations. Most of them were
Poles, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians,
Ukrainians, and Yugoslavs. Some had
collaborated with the Nazis and were worried
about retaliation. Others scared of Communists
Many Jews cold not return to homes. Communities
shattered. Homes destroyed or occupied by
strangers. In the east they were not welcome.

 With nowhere to go they were forced to live in

camps for displaced persons. Usually set up in the
same places as the German camps. For some this
meant a prolonged stay in Germany.
The American army had a hard time juggling their
many hats as liberating army/occupying force/
and also as a counterforce to communism. Also
had issues dealing with survivors.
Short term issues- housing, medical treatment,
food, reuniting families. No long range strategy
for resettling those who could not or would not
return to their homes.

 Many Jews wanted to start over in Palestine.

Same wanted to go to U.S. but did not want to
wait several years to qualify for admission.
Living in these camps did not help. They were
filled with people who

POGROM IN KIELCE
July 4, 1946 mob of Poles attacked the 150 Jews who had
returned to the town of Kielce. 42 killed and 50 wounded.
Before the war 24,000 Jews lived there. 150 who returned were
victims of pogroms and had come back to look for their families.
Kielce pogrom inspired by age old blood libel that was part of
classic pattern of anti-Jewish violence- mob believed Jews were
killing Jewish children and drinking their blood. Also worried
they would want their property back.
Appeals were made to local churches and authorities to try and
prevent the massacres. Church did nothing. Police took the
weapons of the Jews.
Word spread throughout Eastern Europe quickly. It was as
though nothing had changed. Understood it was not safe to
return to Poland.

RETURN TO LIFE
Life in displaced person camps got better in 1946 when Polish
Jews released from the Soviet Union entered along with
survivors of the Kielce pogrom.
Survivors married. Many remarried. Rabbis were lenient on
religious laws concerning remarriage. New families were
created. Birth rates increased.
Political life renewed. More than 70 newspapers published in
camps. Schools opened.
December 22, 1945 Truman offered special treatment to
displaced persons who wanted to immigrate to the U.S. Within
the next 18 months 22, 950 displaced persons were admitted,
15,478 of them were Jews.
Papers walls hindering immigration before and after the
Holocaust.

EXODUS
Between 1944 and 1948 more than 200,000 Jews from
eastern and central Europe fled to Palestine crossing borders
illegally, semi-legally and legally.
Borders were crossed by day and night, on foot and by train.
Some border guards were bribed. Others simply turned aside.
Most countries were quite pleased to get rid of the Jews.
Jews not content to wait for the politicians to make the
decision. Set our for Palestine on their own. Assisted by
Zionist underground.
Between 1945 and May 1948, 69,000 Jews made the journey
by sea illegally on 65 boats. Only a few of that ships that ran
the British blockade succeeded in reaching the coast of
Palestine.

 Secret intelligence organization ran the ships.

Purpose of the ships not a secret. Journalists told
ahead of time about the missions. Do this so they
can get pictures of the British handling the Jews.
Exodus- set sail form Marseilles in July 1947
carrying 4,500 passengers. Ship captured. Not
sent to detention camps in Cyprus but back to
Marseilles. Passengers refuse to get off the ship.
Hunger strike. Got international attention. Took
tear gas to get the survivors off the boat. Sent to
camps in British sector of Germany.

 Four months later UN created Israel. May 14, 1948

David Ben-Hurion declared the state of Israel. That
evening the British troops left and the Union Jack was
lowered so the Israeli flag could be raised. Attacked
by 5 Arab countries. Jewish army in place to defend it.
Provisional government ended all restrictive
immigration policies. Evacuated the camps in Cyprus
and Europe. Recruited for the Israeli Defense Forces
among the young able-bodied survivors.
Birth of Israel was the most significant positive
consequence of the Holocaust. It is not the answer to
the Holocaust. Cannot undo its horror.

A NEW WORLD
Survivors began arriving in the U.S. in 1946. Continued to
arrive for a dozen years.
Once in the U.S. they were on their own. Did have some
organizations to help them.
Many did not speak the language. Many were too young and
had no relatives to care for them. Went to orphanages. Fell
behind in education. Lost their childhoods.
Remembered the dark side of American history- the side that
did not want them during the war. Soon developed a deep
sense of love for U.S.
Survivors felt they need to speak about what happened. It
could not be ignored. Story had to be told. Deaths could serve
as a warning but only if told from generation to generation.