Holocaust Bystanders

Bystanders may have remained unaware, or perhaps were aware of victimization going on around them, but, being fearful of the consequences, chose not to take risk to help Nazi victims. Cynthia Ozick writes,

Indifference is not so much a gesture of looking away--of choosing to be passive--as it is an active disinclination to feel. Indifference shuts down the humane, and does it deliberately, with all the strength deliberateness demands. Indifference is as determined--and as forcefully muscular--as any blow.

Claude Lanzmann's documentary, Shoah, provides another portrait of the bystander. At first, bystanders who were interviewed in this documentary engaged in self-deception about the murder of Jews. Only after lengthy questioning did they finally acknowledge that they chose their roles deliberately, even when they could have done otherwise.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the labor leaders, and I did not speak out
because I was not a labor leader.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one
left to speak out for me.

--The Reverend Martin Niemöller, a pastor in the German Confessing Church who spent seven years in a concentration camp.

How could they just stand there and watch? Why did they do nothing? The largest of the “groups” in the whole drama of the Holocaust were the bystanders. They were bystanders because they were ignorant, helpless and fearful or they chose to ignore what was happening around them. Some eventually became rescuers. Many became victims. The bystanders were individuals, institutions (schools, churches, local governments) and nations.

There was no on-the-spot, 24 hour cable news, with rolling pictures; and the Nazis had effectively taken over all news outlets in Germany by the mid 1930s. They even “cleaned-up” all around the site of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, removing antisemitic posters, hiding any damage to Jewish businesses and temporarily suspending persecutions of the Jews and others, fooling many who attended the games.

The Nazi regime used tactics of fear and terror to control any resistance or rescues. By speaking up against actions, one could be placing his own family and neighborhood in jeopardy of the same or worse treatment. Often there were no means to resist or rebel, no weapons, no where to go. Some bystanders were literally paralyzed with fear or helplessness.

But those who could have done something about what they saw, often chose not to because of their own agendas and biases. The United States and other countries believed that only by winning the war could they then provide any means to stop the destruction of the Jews and others. But the United States could have opened its borders to refugees had it not been for the overwhelming sentiment, at the time, that there weren’t means to care for so many “outsiders” when the country was still recovering from the depression.

Conscience and courage would turn many bystanders into rescuers and resisters. Those attributes need to be developed to greater degrees in all of us and modeled for our children. Albert Schweitzer said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”

The Perpetrators

The perpetrators of the Holocaust were those who played some role in the formulation and implementation of destructive measures against the Jews. These perpetrators wore Nazi uniforms and brown shirts. Some wore business suits, and some even wore clerical collars, knickers and pigtails. Over 300,000 people in Germany and its satellite territories took part in the systematic decimation of the Jewish populations and the deaths of many other victims.

Adolf Hitler was, and is still considered, evil personified, because, as the extremely charismatic leader of the Third Reich, he lead Germany and its allies into the downward spiral of prejudice and hatred culminating in the mass murders of millions of Jews and others. He was bent on the total annihilation of the Jews. Through propaganda, intimidation, fear and manipulation of long held antisemitic feelings of the 1800s and early 1900s among the peoples of Europe, he found willing collaborators and few who would protest.

Perpetrators came from all walks of life. Some doctors, lawyers and other professionals participated in their professional capacities. Some clerics willingly gave up church records and preached the Nazi party line from the pulpits. Some teachers propagated the antisemitic messages in their classrooms. Some laborers spied on their employers. Magistrates in the towns and villages took part in the ordered registration of Jews and others. The police rounded up those destined for transport. The camp guards and specialized killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) killed persons en masse. Even children turned in their friends, relatives or those in hiding.

Without the cooperation of so many, even in small parts, the Third Reich could not have carried out the Holocaust. Each person had a choice.

Prewar German Laws Against The Jews Time-line

Antisemitism and the persecution of Jews represented a central tenet of Nazi ideology. In their 25-point Party Program, published in 1920, Nazi party members publicly declared their intention to segregate Jews from "Aryan" society and to abrogate Jews' political, legal, and civil rights.

Nazi leaders began to make good on their pledge to persecute German Jews soon after their assumption of power. During the first six years of Hitler's dictatorship, from 1933 until the outbreak of war in 1939, Jews felt the effects of more than 400 decrees and regulations that restricted all aspects of their public and private lives. Many of those laws were national ones that had been issued by the German administration and affected all Jews. But state, regional, and municipal officials, on their own initiative, also promulgated a barrage of exclusionary decrees in their own communities. Thus, hundreds of individuals in all levels of government throughout the country were involved in the persecution of Jews as they conceived, discussed, drafted, adopted, enforced, and supported anti-Jewish legislation. No corner of Germany was left untouched.

1933-1934

The first wave of legislation, from 1933 to 1934, focused largely on limiting the participation of Jews in German public life. The first major law to curtail the rights of Jewish citizens was the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" of April 7, 1933, according to which Jewish and "politically unreliable" civil servants and employees were to be excluded from state service. The new Civil Service Law was the German authorities' first formulation of the so-called Aryan Paragraph, a kind of regulation used to exclude Jews (and often by extension other "non-Aryans") from organizations, professions, and other aspects of public life.

In April 1933, German law restricted the number of Jewish students at German schools and universities. In the same month, further legislation sharply curtailed "Jewish activity" in the medical and legal professions. Subsequent laws and decrees restricted reimbursement of Jewish doctors from public (state) health insurance funds. The city of Berlin forbade Jewish lawyers and notaries to work on legal matters, the mayor of Munich disallowed Jewish doctors from treating non-Jewish patients, and the Bavarian Interior Ministry denied admission of Jewish students to medical school.

At the national level, the Nazi government revoked the licenses of Jewish tax consultants; imposed a 1.5 percent quota on admission of "non-Aryans" to public schools and universities; fired Jewish civilian workers from the army; and, in early 1934, forbade Jewish actors to perform on the stage or screen.

Local governments also issued regulations that affected other spheres of Jewish life: in Saxony, Jews could no longer slaughter animals according to ritual purity requirements, effectively preventing them from obeying Jewish dietary laws.

1935

At their annual party rally held in Nuremberg in September 1935, the Nazi leaders announced new laws which institutionalized many of the racial theories prevalent in Nazi ideology. These "Nuremberg Laws" excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or German-related blood." Ancillary ordinances to these laws deprived them of most political rights. Jews were disenfranchised (that is, they had no formal expectation to the right to vote) and could not hold public office.

The Nuremberg Laws did not identify a "Jew" as someone with particular religious beliefs. Instead, the first amendment to the Nuremberg Laws defined anyone who had three or four Jewish grandparents as a Jew, regardless of whether that individual recognized himself or herself as a Jew or belonged to the Jewish religious community. Many Germans who had not practiced Judaism or who had not done so for years found themselves caught in the grip of Nazi terror. Even people with Jewish grandparents who had converted to Christianity could be defined as Jews.

The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 heralded a new wave of antisemitic legislation that brought about immediate and concrete segregation: Jewish patients were no longer admitted to municipal hospitals in Düsseldorf, German court judges could not cite legal commentaries or opinions written by Jewish authors, Jewish officers were expelled from the army, and Jewish university students were not allowed to sit for doctoral exams.

Other regulations reinforced the message that Jews were outsiders in Germany; for example, in December 1935, the Reich Propaganda Ministry issued a decree forbidding Jewish soldiers to be named among the dead in World War I memorials.

"Aryanization"

Government agencies at all levels aimed to exclude Jews from the economic sphere of Germany by preventing them from earning a living. Jews were required to register their domestic and foreign property and assets, a prelude to the gradual expropriation of their material wealth by the state. Likewise, the German authorities intended to "Aryanize" all Jewish businesses, a process involving the dismissal of Jewish workers and managers, as well as the transfer of companies and enterprises to non-Jewish Germans, who bought them at prices officially fixed well below market value. From April 1933 to April 1938, "Aryanization" effectively reduced the number of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany by approximately two-thirds.

1936

In the weeks before and during the 1936 Winter and Summer Olympic Games held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Berlin, respectively, the Nazi regime actually toned down much of its public anti-Jewish rhetoric and activities. The regime 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. Likewise, Nazi leaders did not want to discourage international tourism and the revenue that it would bring during the Olympics year.

1937-1938

In 1937 and 1938, German authorities again stepped up legislative persecution of German Jews. The government set out to impoverish Jews and remove them from the German economy by requiring them to register their property. Even before the Olympics, the Nazi government had initiated the practice of "Aryanizing" Jewish businesses. "Aryanization" meant the dismissal of Jewish workers and managers of a company and/or the takeover of Jewish-owned businesses by non-Jewish Germans who bought them at bargain prices fixed by government or Nazi party officials. In 1937 and 1938, the government forbade Jewish doctors to treat non-Jews, and revoked the licenses of Jewish lawyers to practice law.

Following the Kristallnacht (commonly known as "Night of Broken Glass") pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, Nazi leaders stepped up "Aryanization" efforts and enforced measures that succeeded increasingly in physically isolating and segregating Jews from their fellow Germans. Jews were barred from all public schools and universities, as well as from cinemas, theaters, and sports facilities. In many cities, Jews were forbidden to enter designated "Aryan" zones. German decrees and ordinances expanded the ban on Jews in professional life. By September 1938, for instance, Jewish physicians were effectively banned from treating "Aryan" patients.

The government required Jews to identify themselves in ways that would permanently separate them from the rest of the population. In August 1938, German authorities decreed that by January 1, 1939, Jewish men and women bearing first names of "non-Jewish" origin had to add "Israel" and "Sara," respectively, to their given names. All Jews were obliged to carry identity cards that indicated their Jewish heritage, and, in the autumn of 1938, all Jewish passports were stamped with an identifying letter "J". As the Nazi leaders quickened their preparations for the European war of conquest that they intended to unleash, antisemitic legislation in Germany and Austria paved the way for more radical persecution of Jews.

Further Reading

Edelheit, Abraham J., and Hershel Edelheit. "Legislation, Anti-Jewish." In History of the Holocaust: A Handbook and Dictionary, 299-331. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.

Friedländer, Saul. Nazi Germany and the Jews. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Schleunes, Karl A. The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy Toward German Jews, 1933-1939. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970.
Source: USHMM http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId=10005681

Nuremberg Laws Against Jews

The Nuremberg Laws greatly affected the society of Germany during WWII. Many of the Jews living there were very prosperous, which really angered those who were not so lucky. The Nazis and their leader, Adolf Hitler, wanting to support the majority of people in Germany, created the Nuremberg Laws to annoy the Jews and also gain the support of the other German citizens. The laws indirectly restricted the Jew’s livelihoods, confiscated their property, took away their jobs, and encouraged emigration. The Nuremberg Laws had a huge effect on the Jews because they were denied their rights, they were abused, and their way of life changed drastically for the worse.

Behind the Laws

Because of their wealth, the Germans had a strong hatred toward the Jews. The Nazis, therefore, treated the Jews inhumanely. They destroyed synagogues and Jewish owned stores. To make matters worse, Jews were now categorized as people with at least one Jewish grandparent, in addition to those practicing Judaism (“Nuremberg Laws”). All of them were forced to wear the Star of David just to show that they were Jewish (Newman 8). The Sturmabteilung or SA, part of the Nazi party, began harassing Jews while other Nazis arrested them (Newman 13). Many people believed, “These laws demonstrate the ways in which the legal system, in the hands of the wrong people, can be perverted and used to incite violence” (Newman 9). The Nuremberg Laws were set up primarily out of jealously and Hitler’s love of power.

Other Nuremberg Laws

In September 1935, at a Nazi convention, Hitler presented the Laws to his followers (“Nuremberg Laws”). The Reich Citizenship Law proclaimed that there would be no Jewish citizens of Germany (“Nuremberg Laws”). Because of this, approximately 60,000 Jews reluctantly left Germany (Newman 19). The Law of Protection of German Blood and Honor prohibited marriage and sexual intercourse between Germans and Jews (“Nuremberg Laws”). “The Nuremberg Laws demonstrate the fear the Nazis had of ‘blood poisoning’” the people felt (Newman 66). Also, this law proclaimed the employment of German women under the age of 45 in a Jewish household was forbidden (“Nuremberg Laws”). The raising of the German flag by a Jew was also prohibited (“Nuremberg Laws”). These laws were very discriminatory.

Effect on the Jews
The Nuremberg Laws gave the Jews a very bad reputation.
Jews were no longer allowed to vote in Germany and they were excluded from schools, libraries, theaters, and public transportation facilities (Herzstein 138).

Jewish teachers lost their jobs, while artists, musicians, and actors were banned from performing for German audiences (Herzstein 138).

Jewish men were forced to add “Israel” as their middle name; Jewish women, however, added “Sarah” (Herzstein 138).

The Jews that refused to leave Germany were moved into ghettos (Newman 63). The Warsaw Ghetto, the largest, killed hundreds of thousands of Jews (newman 63). Starvation, disease, and murder were the main causes of their deaths (Newman 63).

“The Nuremberg Laws… gave an individual with a grudge against another person the power to send that person to his or her death” (Newman 61). The Nuremberg Laws brutally hurt the Jews.

Nuremberg Laws 1935. Nazi Laws Against Jews.

In his monumental book The Destruction of the European Jews, Raul Hilberg describes the Holocaust as a destruction process, one that unfolded step by step, but did not proceed from a definite plan. Nonetheless, he argues that one can trace the chronological order of the destruction process and that it runs roughly thus: definition, expropriation, concentration and killing.1

The Nuremberg Laws were the first attempt by the Nazi government to define the Jews and as such, play a pivotal role in the process that lead to their annihilation.

The Nuremberg Laws were adopted by the Reichstag at the Nazi Party Day of September 15, 1935. There were essentially two laws and a decree (adopted in November) that are of importance here.

The first of these was the Reich Citizenship Law [Reichsbürgergesetz]. Among other things, it stated that a Reich citizen was a person who was of German or related blood and was the "sole bearer of full political rights in accordance with the Law". Subjects, on the other hand, were people who enjoyed "the protection of the German Reich and who in consequence [had] specific obligations towards it". 2 Since Jews were not considered by the Nazis to be of German blood, this law effectively ended their status as citizens of the Reich and reduced them to subjects.

The second law was the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor [Gesetz zum Schutz des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre]. It forbade marriages between Germans and Jews, outlawed extramarital sexual relations between Germans and Jews, prohibited Jews from employing Germans under the age of 45 in their household and denied Jews the right to fly the German flag.

In case there was any ambiguity about the meaning of the first law, it was cleared up in a decree issued on November 14, 1938. The so-called First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law stated bluntly that "no Jew can be a Reich citizen. He has no voting rights in political matters; he cannot occupy a public office". 3

This set of laws obliged the Nazis to do something they had not done before – define what a Jew was. The Aryanization laws of 1933 had said what Aryans could do, and what non-Aryans could not, but made no attempt to define the terms. 4 Now, the Reich had laws that used the words "Germans" and "Jews", and definitions were therefore required. That this was a difficult job is evidenced by the fact that the Nazis were still debating it at the Wannsee Conference in 1942.

Germans had been defined as a "person of German or related blood". Jews could easily be defined as people whose 4 grandparents were Jewish, or whose parents were Jewish. But this raised several problems. First, there were many Germans and Jews who had intermarried with each other. How were they to be defined? There were Jews who did not practice their religion. And there were Jews who did not "look" Jewish.5 What was one to do with partial Jews?

After much discussion, the definitions arrived at were as follows:

* a Jew was anyone who was descended from three or four Jewish grandparents;
* a Jew was also anyone with two Jewish grandparents and who belonged to the Jewish religion, or was married to a Jew as of the date of the adoption of the Laws;
* a Mischling First Degree was anyone with two Jewish grandparents, but who did not belong to the Jewish religion and were not married to a Jew
* a Mischling Second Degree was anyone descended from one Jewish grandparent.

The word "Mischling" roughly translates into English as "half-breed" or "mongrel". Those who suffered the most under the Final Solution were the Jews and the Mischlinge First Degree. And the distinction is important because, when the physical extermination process began in 1941, it was the two categories of Jews who were targeted. Mischlinge First Degree were also victimized, but to a lesser extent, and Mischlinge Second Degree were largely left alone.

In one of the supreme ironies in history, the determination of whether someone was Jewish was based on their religion, not on their "race", and this in spite of the hideous antisemitic propaganda already mentioned. This characterization caused the Nazi endless problems that are beyond the scope of this essay.

Were the Nuremberg Laws in fact a forerunner of the Final Solution? There may be no absolute answer based on current evidence, but the following extract from a speech by Hitler on the occasion of their adoption certainly sounds ominous.

...The only way to deal with the problem which remains open is that of legislative action. The German Government is in this controlled by the thought that through a single secular solution it may be possible still to create a level ground on which the German people may find a tolerable relation towards the Jewish people. Should this hope not be fulfilled and the Jewish agitation both within Germany and in the international sphere should continue, then the position must be examined afresh.

The third [law] is an attempt to regulate by law [the Jewish] problem, which, should this attempt fail, must then be handed over by law to the National-Socialist Party for a final solution.[Endlösung]6

Notes

1 Raul Hilberg, Destruction of the European Jews, Holmes & Meier, New York, 1985, Volume 1, page 53

2 Arad, Gutman and Margaliot, Documents on the Final Solution, University of Nebraska Press (Bison Books), 1999, page 77

3 Ibid., page 80

4 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service [Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums], April 7, 1933, Reichgesetzblatt I, 1933, page 175

5 This is meant in the stereotypical context of Nazi propaganda, and is not meant to imply that Jews have a particular appearance. See Who was Julius Streicher?

6 N.H. Baynes, ed., The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, I, London, 1942, pp. 731-732.