Paragraph 3.5 - Discrimination and genocide - 2021

• Geschiedenis
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

What do you know about the Holocaust?

Ten stages of genocide 

• In these lessons I want to go through the ten stages leading to genocide as defined by George Stanton (2012)
• The stages are not linear, and usually several occur simultaneously 
• The stages are meant to use for analysing and even prevent genocide
• We will use the stages to analyse the Shoah, the genocide on the Jews during World War II 

Classification 

• Jewish population as 'The Other' 
  
• Arierverklaring (declaration of Arian ancestry) 
• Jewish teacher and civil servants were fired 
• Professor Rudolph Cleveringa of the University of Leiden protested against the firing of his Jewish colleagues by giving speech. The university was was closed by the Nazi's. De universiteit werd door de Duitsers gesloten.

Symbolisation

• From May 1942 Jews were obligated to wear the star of David
  
• 6 years and older, and you had to buy them yourselves
  
• Visible who is Jewish (shaming)
  
• Exclusion of Jews becomes easier

Discrimination

• Everyone with one or more Jewish grandparent was considered a Jew, even if you didn't practice the Jewish faith
• Freedom withheld due to laws that exclude you from the general body of citizenry 

De- humanisation

• One group denies the humanity of the other group
• Members of 'the Other' are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases

Action T4 and 14f13

• July 1933: sterilisation of people with hereditary diseases
• September 1939: euthanasia on the  incurably sick and mentally ill
• January 1940: gass was first used to kill the unwanted ill
• August 1941: the men of the Februari razzia were among the first Jews to be killed with gass before the program ended in September and all personal of the facility eventually were offered (and accepted) jobs in one of the many concentrationcamps 

Organisation

• Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, often using militias to provide deniability of state responsibility
• Arresting Jews was prepared, organised and executed by the Germans and Dutch police, the Dutch railways (NS) etc. 
• Also help from Dutch civilians (money for betrayal) and the WA (militia of the NSB).  This, and all help given freely to the Germans to aid them oppressing and caring out their policy without force behind it is called: collaboration

Polarisation

• Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Motivations for targeting a group are indoctrinated through mass media
• September 1941: Jewish children had to go to Jewish schools, Jews were banned from public places etc. etc. 

Preparation 

• Plans are made for genocidal killings
• Jews were forced to live in a ghetto: separate from non-Jews
• Jews from all over the Netherlands were taken to Amsterdam to the ghetto
• From the list names were selected for deportation to Westerbork. But first they were imprisoned the Hollandse Schouwburg (near Artis) 

Prosecution

• Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. In state sponsored genocide, members of victim groups may be forced to wear identifying symbols. Their property is often expropriated. Sometimes they are even segregated into ghettoes, deported into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. They are deliberately deprived of resources such as water or food in order to slowly destroy them.
• Genocide aims to destroy an entire population
• Also children, disabled persons and elderly were victims

Extermination

• Quickly the mass killing becomes legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human.
• All previous led to murder
• In  July 1942 the murder on (Dutch) Jews starts in concentration- and deathcamps
• After arrival most of the 140.000 Jews were instantly gassed. Other were forced to work until death. 
• Warning! following pictures might be shocking! 

Denial

• To this day there are people who deny the Holocaust (= forbidden by law).
  
• During/after the war the perpetrators tried to cover their tracks. Fled to Argentinia
• Many survivors therefore see it as their duty to tell their story
• In addition, every diary, document and photo is evidence of the existence of the Holocaust. Education is key

• Of the approximately 140,000 Jews in the Netherlands,  107,000 were deported 
• Only 5,200 returned alive:  meaning that about 95 percent of them  did not survive the Holocaust. 
• About 75% of the Jews living in Amsterdam did not survive the Holocaust.
• The Netherlands have the highest number of Jewish victims in Europe.