The Beginnings: Dresden and Rudi Dutschke

At one point in a blog, the theory that at the creation of "Germany" in 1871 ultimately set in motion a serious of events, accumulating to what we now know as the Cold war, was proposed. From here, let's briefly examine the presence of the former Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. As the Second World War came to a close, Soviet troops clearly occupied eastern Europe. The Soviets and communist leaders in now Soviet occupied eastern Europe used the war to benefit their communist cause for the good and the bad. The communist hatred of Nazism allowed for many "war criminals" to be brought to justice. Good but many innocent Germans suffered and died in the process and most German POW's never returned home. Soviets and eastern European countries expelled Germans to Germany as well.

When the time arrived for the Soviet Union to control East Germany, they meaning the Soviets, took a slightly different approach. The Holocaust, like in Hungary, was not a topic for discussion. In These circumstances  the Holocaust is labeled as "taboo". Instead, memorials were built to commemorate fallen Soviets, communists, and anti-fascists. These three groups fought against the capitalist West. Soviet authorities also enforced the idea that the bombing of Dresden was unnecessary as well as a war crime committed by the capitalist West on the German people. Soviet authorities hoped that playing off the feelings of betrayal felt by many Germans would rally them to support the communist system. Indeed, the city of Dresden held no military base or arsenal of weapons, and it maintained no threat to the Allies. From many, even Germans in Western Germany, the malicious bombing of Dresden remained the vivid picture of Allied brutality.

Fast forward please into the late 1960s. During this period, West German student protests were at its highest  peak. The United States was at war in Vietnam, spreading its' imperialism. Students in West Germany protested the imperial presence of America in West Germany and especially in Vietnam. This generation of children were the offspring of Hitler's Nazi Germany. Fascism, many thought, could be seen all over the West. One of these student leaders was Rudi Dutschke.

The East German government blocked Dutschke's path into the university because of his opposition to the country's militarization as well as his refusal to join the army. So, Dutschke fled East Germany to West Berlin in 1961 just before the creation of the Berlin Wall. Here, he began to study sociology and soon became the leader of the Socialist German Student Organization (SDS; Sosialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund).

Beginning in the early 1960s,

Enrollment at universities increased and fears grew among students that they had become politically powerless in the face of the Cold War. They began protesting rearmament and nuclear testing in the East and West. International crises were targeted as well, particularly those where political oppression might have been at play -- the intervention in Congo by England and France, the segregation policies in South Africa, and the dictatorship of the Iranian Shah, who had powerful backing of the United States. (A Revolutionary Who Shaped a Generation, 2)

In 1967, tensions increased breathtakingly. On June 2nd, when the Iranian Shah was on an official visit to West Berlin, a police officer shot and killed Benno Ohnesorg, a student protester. In response to Ohnesorg's killing from the overreaction  by a police officer caused the number of demonstrators to escalate at later marches. The tabloid newspaper called Bild, owned by Axel Springer, blamed the death of Ohnesorg on the students. This comment furthered agitated students.

On April 11, 1968, Rudi Duschke, who was already the face of the student movement, was shot in the head and shoulder by Josef Bachmann. Duschke was riding his bike to a pharmacy to purchase cold medicine for his son. As Duschke was rushed to the hospital, his bicycle remained laying on the street. He survived the attachk but later died from complications in late 1979. On the evening of Dutschke's attack, 2,000 activists left the Technical University, through west Berlin, and arrived at the Springer Publishing house. students blamed various Springer publications, including Bild, for the attack on Dutscke. Spiegel Online wrties that little came out of the demonstration other then a few burned cars. But it was at this demonstration that journalist Ulrike Meinhof was present.

Between 1959 and 1969, Ulrike Meinhof wrote for the German magazine "konkret". In one such article, titled Dresden, Meinhof discussed the war crimes committed there by the Allies. Follow the NSNBC source link below to find the translation of the article. The translation is by Christof Lehmann. Meinhof begins her article,

...on the 13th and 14th of February 1945, during the night between Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, the greatest air raid of the Allied Bomber Command during World War Two was flown against the German City: The Air Raid on Dresden. The City was bombed three times within 14 hours. (Ulrike Meinhof on the War Crimes committed in Dresden - As Relevant as Ever., 2) 

There was 630,000 permanent residents in the city and a total of more then 1 million human beings in the city when the city was destroyed. Over 200,000 people lost their lives that night. None of the population could imagine the city being bombed due to the fact dozens of hospitals were located there in which hundreds of thousands of refugees now resided, mostly women and children. If one really needed a military target in Dresden to bomb it it would be a large goods and troop relay railway station. The city of Dresden burned for seven days and eight nights.

Meinhof continues to explain that those English pilots who flew the air raids were not given the truth. The pilots were told Dresden contained important military targets such as a Gestapo Headquarters, a large poison gas factory, and a re-supply hub. There existed a British order that requested only residential be bombed instead of industrial centers.Such bombing continued until the end of the war in spring 1945. The bombing of Dresden was unnecessary for the simple reason the war was already lost for the Germans, which was clear after the defeat at Stalingrad, the western front was already at the Rhein, and Soviet troops were at the Oder and Neisse. Meinhof writes, "In Dresden, the anti-Hitler war degenerated into the very evil which one claimed to deplore and to fight. Into barbarism and in-humanity, for which there does not exist any justification. / Should there be a need to prove that there is no such thing as a just war - Dresden would prove it" (Ulrike Meinhof on the War Crimes committed in Dresden - As Relevant as Ever., 2).

From these events, specifically the shooting of Rudi Dutschke and Ulrike Meinhof taking part in the Springer demonstration, the student movement peaked. After a totalitarian state did not come to pass after the implication of the May 1968 German Emergency Acts, the student movement quickly unraveled "but not before it spawned the radical violence of the Red Army Faction", which Meinhof would play an important part.

Sources: 
http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/ulrike-meinhof-on-the-war-crimes-committed-in-dresden-as-relevant-as-ever-2/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-attack-on-rudi-dutschke-a-revolutionary-who-shaped-a-generation-a-546913.html

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-attack-on-rudi-dutschke-a-revolutionary-who-shaped-a-generation-a-546913.html

Images: 
Picture 1: Rudi Dutschke's bycycle, laying on the street.
Picture 2: Benno Ohnesorg, at the scene, laying on the ground after being shot by a police officer.
Picture 3: On the way to Ohnesorg funeral. The sign reads: Benno Ohnesorg Political Murder

LGBT History Month Part II

Welcome to Part II of my honor to LGBT History Month. We left off during the war years, where an unknown number of homosexual men were arrested and deported to concentration camps or held in prison Many died and never returned home. Gay women were often not imprisoned because it was felt by Nazi leaders that since they could still produce children, they should be spared. When the war officially ended with  Nazi Germany's surrender in May 1945, former concentration camp prisoners attempted to salvage the rest of their humanity and start a new life.

Yet, for some of these victims, that could not happen. Homosexuals could not start a new life after their release from concentration camps. Homosexuality remained a CRIME. The Allied government in Germany revoked dozens of laws and decrees after the fall of Nazi Germany but Paragraph 175 remained intact. Former homosexual concentration camp prisoners were forced to continue their "sentence" regardless of their experience in the Holocaust. Paragraph 175 remained in-effect until 1969 when the law was revised "to decriminalize homosexual relations between men over the age of 21." 

Because of continued persecution, recognition for this community's suffering under Nazi terror did not happen. Many homosexual men (and women) kept their experiences to themselves, continuing to live in fear in a "democracy". In June 1956, the West German organizatinon called Federal Reparation Law for Victims of National Socialism declared that interment in a concentration camp for homosexuality did not qualify an individual for compensation. So, survivors continued to suffer. It was not until May 1985 that West German president Richard von Weizsäcker publicly commemorated homosexual victims of Nazi terror. Finally, in 1994, four years after reunification, Germany abolished Paragraph 175 but it was not until 2002 that the German parliament pardoned those homosexuals persecuted under Nazi rule in the name of Paragraph 175. 

Due to homophobia, many homosexual survivors of the Holocaust have died without telling their stories. We, the people of 2012, have very few first hand accounts of their struggle during the Nazi period and the suffering they endured. Pierre Seel is one homosexual Holocaust survivor who has spoken up in support of equal rights for gays and lesbians. He was a French man who was deported to a concentration camp. He, unfortunately, died in 2005 leaving behind his memoir called I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror as his legacy. Homophobia still runs rampant world-wide. 

Please take a moment today, November 1st, to review the month of October and what it means to be part of the LGBT community and supporter. Without recognition and support, laws, like some in the United States, will continue to violate the civil rights and liberties of our gay brothers and sisters. Without remembering and acknowledging the suffering of the gay and homosexual community under Nazi rule, people will continue to forget their struggle as well as continue to support homophobia and hatred around the world. 

Sources: 
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005149

http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/focus/homosexuals/

http://www.amazon.com/Pierre-Seel-Deported-Homosexual-Memoir/dp/0465045006

Hammermeister, Kai. "Inventing History: Toward a Gay Holocasut Literature." The Germany Quarterly 70 (Winter 1997): 18-26.

McCormick, Richard W. "From 'Caligari' to Dietrich: Sexual, Social, and Cinematic Discourses in Weimar Film." Signs 18 (Spring, 1993): 640-668.

LGBT History Month Part I

In honor of of LGBT History Month, I will be introducing a brief history of LGBT topics in the gay community prior to 1933 in Germany and during the Nazi Holocaust, while Part II will discuss the gay community after the war and cover how these topics relate to today as well as some conclusions about current events.

Prior to 1933,  Paragraph 175 of the German criminal code was created under Kaiser Wihelm I. The law vaguely prohibited homosexuality. The period between the end of World War I, in 1918, and 1933, was a more "liberating" and more openly sexual time. The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) is general seen as a liberating time for women and feminism. Women were now allowed to vote and openly flaunted their femininity. Yet, as this is occurring, women were also portrayed as physical objects in the arts such as film and paintings. Lesbians and homosexual men organizations and social groups developed in larger cities such as Berlin. Some male individuals and groups felt threatened by this new wave of female freedom and open gay communities. Those male individuals and groups saw the latter as a threat to their way of life and social standing much like some groups of people feel today in 2012.

With the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler arriving in 1933, the code was revised. The revised law was issued on June 28, 1935, and put into effect on September 1st of that year, emphasized the "criminality of both men involved in 'indecency.'" Under Paragraph 175a, ten years of hard labor was imposed for "indecency", even for those under the age of 21. Homosexuality between women was left out of the law. Women are thought to be purposely left out of the law because regardless of their homosexuality, women could still produce children. Though lesbians were not systematically persecuted like gay men, they did lose their gathering places and associations.

Homosexuals were labeled as parasites and "enemies of the state" much like their Jewish neighbors, stereotyped to empower hatred among "Aryan" Germans. Even though the exact number of homosexual victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution may never be known, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested under Paragraph 175. Those arrested were imprisoned and send to hard labor. This was part of the Nazi policy of "re-education". Those in prisons and concentration camps suffered harsh conditions. An estimated 5,000 to 15,000 homosexual men were imprisoned in concentration camps. Homosexual prisoners were marked with a pink triangle. As Nazi territory expanded, Paragraph 175 was imposed on male populations in Austria, western Poland and western Czechoslovakia, Luxembourg, and Alsace-Lorraine.In other occupied territories, the Nazi government was only concerned with the homosexuality of German men and not of the native population. Homosexuals in concentration camps were given the works and most dangerous work and, alongside poor rations and fewer breaks, many died as a result.

Please take a moment and read through these media sources and LGBT references.  

LGBT History Month Website: 

http://lgbthistorymonth.com/ 

The Human Rights Campaign's blog in regards to National Coming Out Day: 

http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/the-history-of-coming-out 

Please check this vlog by Lauren Bird of the Harry Potter Alliance: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMHF0VrJb7c&list=FLbCkNgngfGHVDaOW0Jrd7JA&index=1&feature=plpp_video 

Sources: 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: 

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005149

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/

Holocaust Media

Here are two media sites regarding the Holocaust. The first is a video and the second is a timeline.

Here is the opening statement for a video about the Holocaust History Museum in Israel by Yad Vashem.

By reconstructing the events that led to the Holocaust, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem aims to bring the past to life and prevent future atrocities through greater understanding. Explore.org founder Charles Annenberg Weingarten visits and talks to one of the museum's most senior Holocaust scholars.

Follow the link below to watch:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/places/regions-places/caucasus-middle-east/israel-holocaust-history-museum-eorg/

The United States Holocaust Museum showing the course of events leading up to the Holocaust, the war period, and afterwards.  The timeline also includes the court cases involving Nazis and their crimes against humanity, genocides since the Holocaust, the evolution of countries who recognize racial hatred as a crime and/or write it into law, and ends in 2008.

For the timeline, click the following link:
http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/exhibit.html#/timeline/

Holocaust Remembrance

I apologize for the gap in-between posts. Various reasons prevent me from creating a new post.

Looking back at the various topics discussed so far (collective guilt, the German expulsion, Sovietization, the Holocaust, etc.), it is once again important to put these topics and themes into present day context. First off, President Obama, in April, visited the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Seems like old news? It's not. Press coverage in recent weeks has focused on the November elections and, this past week, remembering 9/11. The NY Daily News quoted the President as he gave a speech at the museum:

"'We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts, and because so many others stood silent,' Obama told an auditorium filled with survivors, Jewish leaders and human rights activists....'Never again' is a challenge to defend the fundamental right of free people and free nations to exist in peace and security, and that includes the state of Israel,' Obama said."

President Obama is right - we should continue our awareness about Nazi atrocities and all peoples are free and deserve to live in peace. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Even in our modern, technology based societies, atrocities still exist around the world and freedom to live in peace is challenged. Examples include Syria and the Congo, where rebels of the M23 group rape and kill while three members of the punk group Pussy Riot are sentences to 2 years in jail for "hooliganism" when in reality they were jailed for opposing Vladimir Putin and being a feminist group.

Even more surprising, and sickening, are recent events in India, as reported by Der Spiegel, regarding the use of Adolph Hitler's name and   the swastika, used by the Nazi party as their symbol and now evokes the meaning of hate promoted by the Nazis. Once again a store owner used the name "Hitler" for his business and the swastika is the logo. This store is a men's clothing store and not the first to use the name "Hitler" or the swastika. Previously, a cafe owner titled his new cafe "Hitler's Cross" while another company that produced bed linens created a bed linen line which displayed swastikas on it as part of their "Nazi Collection". In an interview with Der Spiegel, the owner of the men's clothing line admitted that he knew little  about Hitler when he chose the name for the store. The owner also has no problem with the name and has no intention of changing it. Though people should not fear a name, it is hateful and intolerant to use the name of Hitler for benefit, especially financial, and so blatantly deny the mass killings in his name. India is a rising nation, both economically and socially as well as culturally diverse, and it is extremely disappointing that such businesses are allowed to exist.A comparison in the US would be naming a street after a KKK member who slaughtered innocent people of color. Naming a business after a tyrant is, in a way, honoring that tyrant.

In other news, by spring 2013 a Holocaust museum in Brooklyn is scheduled to open.The museum is titled the Kleinman Family Holocaust Education Center and will be located on 50th Street. The museum will focus on the orthodox Jewish experiences. David Layman, who helped create the 9/11 Memorial in NYC, also helped to create and design this museum.

What we should take from this is all people, no matter where they live in the world, should have access to education and intolerance should be discouraged. We continue to see that intolerance, hatred, and gender inequality can lead to imprisonment and murder.The Nazi government and the mass killings it enforced should be an example of how governments today should NOT act. Holocaust remembrance is important and a vital part of history. If we forget it or continue to avoid those countries who kill innocent people, such events will continue to happen and never end. The Holocaust, to me, represents the ultimate hatred and cruelty of man and I hope that one day, I will see the end of genocides everywhere and governments who speak up for the rights of humankind.

Here are the links to the articles mentioned in this post. Please read them and spread them around.
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-04-23/news/31388381_1_obama-visits-people-and-free-nations-buchenwald-concentration-camp

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-08-07/news/33069735_1_holocaust-museum-holocaust-project-holocaust-survivors

http://www.kfhec.org/

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/new-hitler-store-in-india-triggers-global-uproar-a-853199.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/m23-rebels-in-congo-have-committed-war-crimes-report/2012/09/11/5c7f2c06-fc1c-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html 

Holocaust in Hungary and Sovietization

As I researched for my MA thesis, I discovered an important and under-discussed area of the Holocaust - the Holocaust in Hungary. Hungarian policy towards Nazi Germany can be summed up as the distant, and only semi-supportive ally. Hungary financially supported Nazi Germany, exported tons of good to Germany, especially oil, and even helped with the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Arrow Cross government imposed some Nazi-style laws in order to shield themselves from a Nazi occupation. Jews in Hungary lived a fabulous lifestyle when compared to those Jewish populations in Poland. Hungarian Jews had their basic human rights violated. For example, they could not vote, hold office, attend school with other Hungarians, and other violations. Though several thousand Hungarian Jews died during this time, most were able to continue on semi-comfortably. By 1944, many Hungarian Jews thought  they could survive to see the end of the war and the end of Nazi German and intolerance. But, by the summer of 1944, German troops entered Hungary. German authorities hoped they could prevent Soviet troops from entering Germany at the expanse of Hungarians. Within the course of a few months, most of the Hungarian Jewish population was destroyed. In relation to Poland, where the destruction of the Jewish population developed and occurred over several years, the murder of Hungarian Jews is overwhelmingly startling. A single priest was allowed to evacuate a group of Hungarian Jews, ultimately saving their lives. Few Hungarian Jews returned to Hungary from concentration camps after the close of the war.

As the war slowly closed and the Soviet army advanced west, Soviet troops occupied Hungary. Starting with the point of occupation, the Sovietization of Hungary began. The first glimpse of this Sovietization began with the German expulsion form Hungary. The Czech President in exile during the war, President Benes, pushed for the expulsion of Germans from the liberated Czechoslovakia and from the rest of eastern Europe. According to Benes and other governments in exile and nationalists, expulsion was a punishment Germans deserved. Hungary was included in this category but Hungarian authorities did not wish to expel all the Germans from within Hungary; they only wished to punish those Germans responsible for war crimes such as the Holocaust. Unfortunately, such wishes by the Hungarian authorities did not happen. The Red army remained in Hungary after the official German surrender. Soviet officials forced the expulsion of all Germans onto Hungary. The weak Hungarian government could not say no to Soviet officials and prevent the expulsions. Therefore, Sovietization began in Hungary. Soviet authorities remained ever present in Hungary and created a communist government. The Holocaust, ironically, was a taboo topic and not allowed to be discussed. The war was then blamed on the West and their democratic ways.

For more information, check out these authors or works:
Stephen D. Kertesz, a former Hungarian diplomat during the war, has several publications both books and journal articles.

Braham, Randolph and Scott Miller, editors. The Nazis' Last Victims: The Holocaust in Hungary. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.

Browning, Christopher. The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939-March 1942. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2004.

Fenyo, M.D. Hitler, Horthy, and Hungary: German-Hungarian Relations 1941-1944. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972.

Paikert, G.C. The Danube Swabians: German Populations in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia and Hitler's Impact on their Patterns. Netherlands: The Hague Martinus Nijhoff, 1967.

Yad Vashem and the Jewish Virtual Library

In the New Jersey Star-Ledger last Thursday (7/19), there was an article titled “Alleged Nazi-era war criminal detained: 97-year-old accused of torturing people sent to death camps.” The article emphasis’s the resurgence of anti-Semitism specifically in Hungary BUT the resurgence of anti-Semitism is not solely occurring in Hungary. It is happening all over Europe and the US. 

In August 1953, Yad Vashem, located in Jerusalem, Israel, was established. Yad Vashem is “the official Israeli institution for the commemoration of the Holocaust,” as Suzanne Vromen writes in her book Hidden Children of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem writes on its’ about section

As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future generations. Established in 1953, as the world center for documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is today a dynamic and vital place of intergenerational and international encounter.

Overall, Yad Vashem is the center for education, research, documentation, and commemoration of the Holocaust. Yad Vashem is also responsible for the Righteous Among the Nation which acknowledges and commemorates those non-Jews who placed their lives at risk in order to help safe-guard (which was done in various ways, please see the Yad Vashem website for details) the Jewish community. The organization does extraordinary work. 

The next resource is The Jewish Virtual Library. It is also a fantastic and wonderful source relating to Jewish history, especially regarding the Holocaust.  A section of the site is dedicated to women and Judaism. This is an important and unique factor of site because when discussion of the Holocaust take place, women are not usually separately addressed. The Jewish Virtual Library naturally has photos and other imagery for the benefit of the general public.  Please also look into this site and the information available for you to read. 

So, how does this tie into the newspaper article? Very easily. Anti-Semitism and intolerance are unacceptable behaviors. Governments such as the United States, and the rest of the world for that matter, need to recognize the significance of the rise of anti-Semitism and address the issue. Accepting such behavior, especially intolerance, has already caused  dozens of genocides across the world, mostly located in Africa and the Middle East. “Modern” society needs to look back at the lessons learned from the Holocaust then look forward and try to prevent further genocide, intolerance, and anti-Semitic behaviors and ways of thinking. Without that that, anti-Semitism, intolerance, and genocides will continue to be the norm of the peoples of the world. 

Sources: 

Yad Vashem 

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/museum/index.asp?WT.mc_id=ggcamp&WT.srch=1 

The Jewish Virtual Library 

  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/index.html 

Germany, the expulsion, and the Cold War

The expulsion of innocent German civilians from 1944-1950 as a result of their defeat in World War II was the tip of the iceberg in world affairs that caused what we now know as the “Cold War”. I have encountered several sources as I researched for my Master’s Thesis that state the “Cold War” began with German unification of 1871. This  unification in 1871 sparked a series of events in Europe that ultimately caused the expulsion and the “Cold War.” Any history can agree or disagree with this statement but the expulsion of Germans is a clear tipping point that lead to the “Cold War.” Gilad Margalit’s work, called Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II, published in 2010 is extremely detailed and informative. It gives an overview of the German expulsion, how soldiers and expellees are remembered from the end of the war until present day, and the relationship between former West and East Germany and their interpretation of the war and collective guilt. It is a work worth reading. Another work that looks at refugees and expellees and their presence in occupied Germany is Ian Connor’s Refugees and expellees in post-war Germany. His work covers the origins of the expulsion and the problems expellees and refugees faced in occupied Germany such as housing, food, and unemployment. The concept of how expellees should be represented in present-day Germany is hotly debated. Those expellee leaders, expellee organizations, and expellees, as well as their supporters, are labeled as revisionist because of their desire to give recognition to the suffering of 12 million Germans who were expelleed and the 2 million who perished on their journey to Germany. View museum exhibits have been created to acknowledge the expulsion form 1944-1950. Even though Germany and many other countries are working towards understanding their impact in World War II and the Holocaust, the events surrounding the expulsion and the expulsion themselves have not yet been included in this discussion thus causing a delayed acceptance of flaws on the hands of those who committed the expulsion.

Works mentioned:

Connor, Ian. Refugees, and expellees in post-war Germany. New York: Manchester University Press, 2007.

Margalit, Gilad. Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

Study Abroad / Austria in the war

On the last day of May 2009, just two weeks after the end of my junior year of college (undergraduate), I traveled abroad for my one-month study abroad program. I landed in Heathrow International Airport in London where I would spend the first two days of my trip before continuing on to Munich airport and then a bus ride to Salzburg, Austria.  The program I enrolled in gathered the students in London first for nothing other then sight-seeing. Two days in busy London was unbelievable as well as overwhelming. Between the traffic, it's directions, the loads of people, the Tube, and other visual stimulus, I seemed unable to become coherent. I will always be glad that I was with other students during these two days otherwise I would still be in London, forever attempting to get back to my hotel.

More importantly are the pieces of information that I would soon discover about Austria and its relationship with the war (the Second World War). As I traveled the two hours from Munich, Germany to Salzburg, Austria, I noticed the traditional (and often, stereotypical) farm houses that lay next to the Autobahn and roads. These houses represented traditions that may not have always been unified under one German speaking government.

While living in Salzburg for one month, the belief that the Austrian government was a willing participant in Nazism and welcomed the Anschluss with open-arms was reinforced. In Salzburg, for example, the "Stumbling Stones" often go unnoticed, memorials to soldiers killed during the war are out of view of tourists, and other plaques in memory of those victims of Nazism are few and far between. The impression a visitor receives is that the city, as well as the rest of the country, would rather forget the supposed forced occupation and mass murder of the country's Jewish population. The Jewish population of the Salzburg never recovered after the war. One survivor returned to the city and rebuilt the Synagogue - in a different location then the original, which was destroyed during the war. The Synagogue is out of tourist's view. The hostel I was staying in for the month was a ten minute walk from this synagogue and I never knew it. Today, there are only about 100 Jewish people living in Salzburg. It was not until 2007, that formal recognition was given to forced Jewish laborers and other forced laborers renovated the Staatsbrücke (city bridge; a major bridge in the city for cars and pedestrians) during the war. The city government was forced to place a plaque on the bridge in 2007, after more renovations, because of pressure from certain members of the community. Without their pressure, the memorial plaque would never have happened. The story of the Staatsbrücke proves Salzburg's inability to come to terms with its past.  The city is still very much conservative Roman Catholic.

No historian can state that the whole of Austrian society were willing supporters of Nazism. That would support the concept of collective guilt which is incorrect and inappropriate. Yet, the Austrian government has a duty to the Jewish and other Austrian victims of the Holocaust by recognizing and remembering that such events occurred in Austria.  Believing in the idea that the country of Austria as a whole was a victim of Nazism pushes all blame to Germany as the sole villain which is also incorrect. The Austrian government today needs to denounce the actions of Nazi-supporting Austrian officials from during the war as well as the Holocaust and persecution of Jewish populations. Without this, cities like Salzburg will never be able to overcome their conservatism, perceptions of history, and accept the destruction of their Jewish community which has been preventing the city from remembering their lost community.

Helpful sources:
For more information on AIFS Study Abroad, check out their website: 
http://www.aifsabroad.com/

Brief history of Salzburg's Jewish population:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Salzburg.html

Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Salzburg:
http://www.ikg-salzburg.at/

German Expellees and Reparations Continued

Perfectly enough, the recent issue of the National Geographic magazine contains an informational page regarding the “Stumbling Stones” in Germany (see last week’s blog). In addition, this past week in the New Jersey Star Ledger, a newspaper that covers NJ news as well as world and global news, published an article by Kathleen O’Brien called “For some victims of Nazis, decades until an amends”. Under previous German law, the length of suffering by victims of the Third Reich was set for at least 18 months. Recently, according to this article, the limit was changed to 12 months thus allowing thousands of Jewish victims to receive payments form the German government.

Holocaust discussions are, more often then not, focused on the Jewish experience. Millions of other social and religious groups were murdered such as Jehovah’s Witness, homosexuals, and the mentally and physically handicapped (which included Dwarfism - most of whom did not survive the war). Many prisoners in the camps died after they were liberated by Allied and Soviet troops but as troops liberated concentration camps, ethnic Germans were killed as they were forcibly kicked out of liberated territories. Much like the restrictions placed on Jews during the war, Germans outside of occupied Germany could not hold property, restricted on the hours when they could go shopping and places they could go, and many other ways. Ultimately, most Germans were expelled to Germany. Some 12 million Germans were expelled Germany and more than 2 million Germans died in the process. These Germans, who lost most, if not all of their property and wealth, never received reparations payments from the expelling states, like Poland and Czechoslovakia. In 1950, the Charter of the German Expellees was published by leaders of the expellee leaders. This document represented the expellee population in all of Germany and renounced revenge and retaliation. To this day, no reparations have been made to Germans affected by the expulsion.

The expulsion is looked at as a righteous punishment against Germans for the crimes Nazis committed during the war. Expellee leaders today are seen as “revisionist” - in other words, trying to downplay the suffering of Jews and other victims of the Holocaust and make the focus of the war the suffering of Germans. Expellee leaders are not “revisionist” nor are they down playing the suffering of Holocaust victims. BUT, the German expulsion cannot be ignored. It is an important part of German history as well as an important side-effect of the Second World War. It can also be proven that the expulsion was the boiling point of the eventual “Cold War” that had been looming. Expellees, expellee organizations, and their leaders never expected payments for their suffering and loss. They only demand recognition where recognition is due such as in textbooks and in the discussions on the Second World War and its aftermath. Accepting the actions by victors, aka the Allies and the Soviet Union, accepts the concept of collective guilt and the millions of innocent and avoidable deaths (see first blog on “Collective Guilt”).

The evolution of German nationalism since the founding of the unified German state in 1871 to the expulsion (1944-1950) is an interesting and important topic. In research regarding the expulsion, several hints have been made to the unification in 1871 and the rise of German nationalism (mind you, Germans are not the only country at the time with nationalistic views) as the point in modern history that set the stage for the “Cold War”. This topic will be discussed in detail at a later time.

Questions for consideration:

1. Where do you think the German expulsion fits into German history?

2. How does the German expulsion fit into the Second World War?

3. How has nationalism changed since the end of the Second World War?

Check out the New Jersey Star Ledger article here:

http://blog.nj.com/njv_kathleen_obrien/2012/06/obrien_for_some_payments_to_ho.html

The Charter of German Expellees can be found in most works regarding the German Expulsion. Check out the closest university library (or Google).

Stolpersteine

These plaques are called "Stumbling Blocks" (Stolpersteine) and are located in Salzburg, Austria. During the 1990s, Gunter Demnig, from Cologne, Germany, created the "Stumbling Blocks" in order to give average Germans the ability to commemorate the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Germans buy the plaque[s] then they are engraved and installed into sidewalks, usually at the entrance where the victims once lived or worked. As you can see, the plaques contain the person's name, their birth year, the day of deportation and to where, and the place and date of where they were murdered.  Demnig's "Stumbling Blocks" spread throughout Europe. These two photos are taken personal while on my study aboard trip to Salzburg. Unless a tour guide or other individual personal points the plaques out, they are easy to simply overlooked by tourists and visitors to the city. The city of Salzburg, as well as the rest of Austria, is beautiful in all aspects - architecturally, traditional culture, and of course, its history. Yet, Austria, and Salzburg, still holds the theory that the country never supported Nazi Germany and was the victim of Nazi occupation. This is one item in which Austria needs to accept - the country was in fact willing supporters of Nazism and the Nazi occupation. Accepting this is the only way they will be able to accept and understand their role in the Holocaust. Salzburg is a fine example of this. The city's Jewish population was wiped out and it's synagogue burned. As of 2009, no memorial plaque rests in the place where the synagogue stood. The bridge in the city that was renovated by the city's Jewish population and other slave labor was not commemorated or even acknowledged until 2007. Even though not all Germans or Austrians can be blamed for the Holocaust, those who died because of it, and the Holocaust itself, can never be forgotten and ignored. As we look at the world today, massacres and genocides still occur with no world outrage.

For more information and details about Gunter Demnig and his work with "Stumbling Blocks", check out his website at:

 http://www.stolpersteine.com/DE/start.html

Collective Guilt and German Expulsion

The concept of German collective guilt for the crimes committed by the Nazi regime during the Second World War has been debated since the ending of the war. Collective guilt is a false theory, used out of hatred, and eventually destroyed the lives of millions of ethnic Germans living outside the German borders established in 1945. Nazi occupation, in countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, became the final straw from many majority groups living in each country.

Germans lived in Czechoslovakia, mostly in the region known as the Sudetenland, for centuries. A much smaller population lived in Poland but many ethnic Germans arrived to Poland during the war from the Balkans. As the course of the war continued, nationalism rose heavily. Nationalists in Poland and Czechoslovakia rallied around the common hatred of Germans and Nazis. This set the basis for their nation-state building desires. Both countries hoped to created a homogeneous state after victory over Nazi Germany.In order to accomplish such ideas, the Germans were no longer welcome in the country and needed to be removed. The Germans would be forcibly deported.

The nationalists also had the support of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union also held a deep hatred of Germans which the war only intensified. Together all three countries decided and accepted the idea of expulsion as a solution to their "German problem". The Nazi occupation was the last conflict for Poland and Czechoslovakia and the two countries saw expulsion as the final solution to their German minority problem once and for all.

So by the the end of 1944 and 1945, the "wild transfers" began. After the Potsdam Agreement, an "organized transfer" started, which was in 1946. Ultimately, ethnic Germans remaining in Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were forced to leave their homes, with very few personal belongings, and sent via train back to Germany. Millions were expelled and thousands died on the journey as a result of the harsh conditions. These Germans were expelled for no other reason then being of "German" ethnicity. They committed no crimes against humanity and most were not Nazis but yet they suffered from racism and collective guilt. Nazis were Germans and created concentration camps in Europe so its only fair for all Germans to suffer from the same fate - Not true or even justified! The leaders of the Western Allies, like the United States and Great Britain did not stand up for the civil rights of ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe. They allowed millions more to suffer after the close of a devastating war. Instead, they chose to stand aside and watch because it was better then risking a war with the Soviet Union.

This is only a snippet of the story of the German expulsion and the concept of collective guilt. Collective guilt is never a reason to destroy the lives of millions of innocent civilians.

For more information on German collective guilt and the German expulsion, check out these works:


Schieder, Theodor, ed. Documents on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central-Europe Volume

I, II, III and IV. Bonn: Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims, 1950-1970.

Conner, Ian. Refugees and Expellees in Post-War Germany. Manchester University Press, 2007. 

de Zayas, Alfred M. Nemesis at Potsdam: The Anglo-American and the Expulsion of Germans: 

Background, Execution, and Consequences. London: Rutledge & Kegan Paul, 1977. 

------------------------. The German Expellees: Victims in War and Peace. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

Margalt, Gilad. Guilt, Suffering, and Memory: Germany Remembers its Dead of World War II. 

Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2010.