Those attempting to emigrate often found it difficult to get the visas necessary to enter other countries. This was because other countries had low quotas for immigration , partly due to the world depression following the Wall Street Crash of An international conference was called to discuss the growing refugee problem following pressure from the US President Franklin D. The conference was held in July in Evian, France. Almost all of the 32 countries represented at the conference agreed that there was a growing German Jewish refugee problem, and expressed sympathy for those persecuted.
However, few offered to extend their quotas or contribute to a practical solution. These Jews had had been born in Poland but were living in Germany. Following Kristallnacht , the Nazi government fined the Jewish community one billion Reichmarks to pay for the damage done.
Following Kristallnacht , antisemitism in Germany intensified further. Kristallnacht , also referred to as the November Pogrom or the Night of Broken Glass, was a series of violent antisemitic attacks which took place across Germany on the 9 — 10 November Antisemitic laws and decrees had been increasing from the time that the Nazis rose to power, with over passed between and Kristallnacht started in response to the murder of Ernst vom Rath, a German official in Paris.
Vom Rath was shot by Herschel Grynszpan, a seventeen-year-old Jewish teenager, on the 7 November The Polen-aktion was the movement of thousands of Jews in October by the SS and German police who had been born in Poland but were living in Germany, back to Poland. When the Polish Jews arrived in Poland, Polish guards sent them back to Germany, and they were then stuck between the two borders without food or shelter in difficult conditions.
One of the families involved in was the Gynszpans, whose son Hershchel lived in Paris. The police were told to stay away and not interfere with the attacks. I go to the party reception in the Old Town Hall. A gigantic event. He decides: let the demonstrations continue. Withdraw the police. For once the Jews should feel the rage of the people…. I issue corresponding instructions to the police and the party.
Then I speak briefly to the officials of the party. A storm of applause. They all rush to the telephones. Now the people shall act! Violence spread across the nation in almost every city and town. Whilst the attacks were led by the SA, citizens, and specifically young people, joined in to aggressively attack and cruelly humiliate Jewish women, men and children — in their homes, in their businesses, and on the streets. Over 7, businesses had their windows smashed by the SA and Hitler Youth. From the 10 — 16 November, over 25, men were arrested and sent to concentration camps , such as Buchenwald and Dachau.
A smaller number of women were also arrested. Conditions in the camps was horrific and both men and women endured extreme violence. The event was widely reported across the world, and met with reactions of shock and disgust from the international community. Despite this, again, very few countries made practical steps to increase their quotas for refugees.
The Quaker and Jewish community in Britain did secure visas for 10, child refugees in a scheme known as the Kindertransport , but this was financed privately and not by the British government. Emigration for the Jewish community of Germany was difficult.
A large amount of the Jews in Germany became even more desperate to leave, relentlessly attempting to be granted visas to any safe country. Some families were successful in this despite the tough conditions they faced.
The outbreak of the Second World War made escape almost impossible, shutting down most legitimate methods of emigration. Following the Nazi invasion and occupation of Poland in , many more Roma came under Nazi rule. Here, a Roma man stands for his photograph in occupied Poland in This account is from Kurt Ansin, a Roma who spent time in several concentration camps throughout the late s and early s.
This account, and the accounts following this, are taken from the Donald Kenrick collection , an early holocaust researcher who undertook a significant research project into the fate of the Roma during the Nazi period in the s. Kenrick donated his research to The Wiener Library archives. This account is from Oscar Schafferenzki. Oscar was born in His account details the exclusion that Roma faced from society under the Nazis, and his journey through two camps, Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Here, he describes his life up until his imprisonment shortly before being deported to Auschwitz. At the top of the card, Jan is marked as a Zigeuner — a German word used to describe Roma. The card gives basic biographical information about Jan, as well as the camp he was transferred from, and the reason for his arrest which was listed as work-shy Czech Roma.
The band was made up of members of the Reinhardt family. The band was banned under Nazi rule, and all its members were sterilised. Theresia was married to Gabriel, one of the band members in the previous photograph. Theresia was sterilised at the hands of the Nazis, and her twin children, Rita and Rolanda, were the subject of medical experiments. Rolanda died as a result of one of these experiments.
Both Theresia and her other daughter, Rita, survived. Roma and Sinti were persecuted before, during and after the Holocaust. Following the Nazi rise to power, the persecution of all Roma in Germany increased and eventually became genocidal. Prior to the Second World War, approximately 30, Roma lived in Germany, and just under a million lived across Europe.
This belief was reinforced by the research of the eugenic scientist Dr. Robert Ritter. This new role gave Himmler unlimited control over the terror forces in Germany. This office centralised efforts to persecute Roma living in the Third Reich. Amongst other actions, the decree ordered the creation of a nationwide database of all Roma living in the Third Reich. This database would later be used to round up Roma and put them in forced labour and concentration camps.
Alongside these developments, in the second half of the s, a large number of holding camps were created. These camps designated certain areas of the cities or towns where Roma could live. The camps were created individually by the different regional governments, varying from city to city and between states. The initial Roma camps were portrayed as a move to clean up inner cities and remove any unauthorised dwellings in municipal areas, which often attracted complaints. The camps varied, but most had limited sanitation and were guarded by a police or SS officer.
At this stage, most people were free to enter and leave the camps for work or leisure. This was, however, simply the beginning.
Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the nature of the camps changed. The rules became stricter, with increased supervision, curfews, and daily head counts of the occupants. In October , a decree was issued banning the movement of Roma.
People in the camps also became subject to compulsory labour. The Nazi policy towards the Roma population escalated following the outbreak of war and soon became genocidal. On 27 April , Heydrich issued the Decree for the Resettlement of the Gypsies , which aimed to deport all German Roma from the Reich within one year. This decree resulted in people being deported to the General Government in Poland, before it was suspended in September On 16 December , a decree was issued by Himmler to move all Sinti and Roma in Reich Territory to Auschwitz, where a special camp had been built to hold them.
Following the order, more than 22, Roma most of the remaining Roma in Germany were rounded up and sent. Just a few survived. A number of inhumane medical experimentations took place on Roma in the various concentration camps they ended up in, including the infamous experiments by Dr. Joseph Mengele at Auschwitz, and typhus injections at Natzweilier.
In addition to their horrific treatment in camps, Roma were also murdered in their thousands by the Einsatzgruppen in eastern Europe. The total number of Roma murdered in the Holocaust is unknown. A number of factors contribute to this.
Many of the Roma killed were murdered by the Einsatzgruppen or Nazi collaborators in Soviet territories and Yugoslavia, where murders were often not recorded. The Nazis variety of camp categories for Roma they were classified Ziguener , criminals or a-socials depending on where and when they were imprisoned also makes calculating a definite figure challenging.
Finally, many camp records are incomplete, meaning accurately assessing the number of victims, and different types of victims specifically, is very difficult. The total number of Roma murdered by the Nazis has been roughly estimated by historians to be between , to , people. Detroit, MI: St. James Press, D H [ Find in a library near you ]. Provides facts concerning the period and two opposing viewpoints on the topic. Part of the History in Dispute series , this work is written for both teachers and students.
Includes endnotes, appendices of primary sources, a bibliography, and an index. Meinecke Jr. Nazi Ideology and the Holocaust. N43 [ Find in a library near you ]. Supplemented by excerpts of writings by perpetrators.
Includes photographs, a bibliography, and an index. Penton, M. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, P46 [ Find in a library near you ]. Includes information on relations with various governments, including the Third Reich. Contains illustrations, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index. Peters, Shawn Davis. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, P48 [ Find in a library near you ]. Describes the legal struggles faced by the Witnesses in attempting to gain their individual rights.
Written primarily from first-hand testimony and ACLU documents. Includes endnotes, a bibliography, and an index. Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
W25 [ Find in a library near you ]. Includes a chronology and an index. Kreuzzug Gegen das Christentum. G4 Z87 [ Find in a library near you ]. Provides key religious principles, explanations of theology, and attitudes towards religion and authority written by a Witness in In German. The Library also has an edition in French under the title Croisade contre le christianisme. Bergman, Jerry. G3 B47 [ Find in a library near you ].
Discusses the experiences of the Witnesses during the Nazi era. Elaborates on the sense of community under hardship and the efforts of Germans to assist Witnesses. Includes footnotes. Borner, Michael and Roser, Hubert. Freiburg: Schillinger, G3 F74 [ Find in a library near you ]. Incorporates primary source materials and personal experiences. Includes bibliographical references, indexes and illustrations. Canonici, Guy. Paris: Albin Michel, J44 C36 [ Find in a library near you ].
Discusses religion in Germany during the Nazi era. Presents information on origins of the Nazi persecution of Witnesses.
Contains a chronology, a glossary, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index. Dirksen, Hans-Hermann. Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars, A2 E73 [ Find in a library near you ].
Part of a larger collection of eleven essays analyzing Nazi policies regarding ethnic, religious and sexual minorities in Germany and satellite states. Includes bibliographical references and statistical tables. Filippini, Andrea. I Bibelforscher e il nazismo: obiettori di coscienza per motivi religiosi. Chi erano? Kdo so to bili? Zakaj so jih perganjali?
Pescara: Italica, J44 F55 [ Find in a library near you ]. Discusses neutrality and faith even during persecution by the Nazis.
Contains illustrations, footnotes, a list of archival sources, and a bibliography. Friedman, Jonathan editor. New York: Routledge, R76 [ Find in a library near you ]. Includes bibliographical references, index, graphs, tables and poetry excerpts. Garbe, Detlef. Dachau: Dachauer Hefte, A2 D [ Find in a library near you ]. Provides an overview of the experience of Witnesses in the camps, with special emphasis on SS hatred, faith and social structure in the camp, work assignments, covert Bible study, and faith as resistance.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, c G3 G [ Find in a library near you ]. Explores origins of their persecution by the Third Reich and forms of their resistance, describing their experiences both inside and outside of the concentration camps. Contains population statistics, a bibliography, and footnotes. Graffard, Sylvie, and Michel Reynaud. New York: Cooper Square Press, Presents numerous personal testimonies and historical documentation.
The Library also has an edition in French under the title Bibelforscher et le nazisme, Haas, Justyna. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Edition, J44 H22 [ Find in a library near you ]. Includes bibliographic references. Hacke, Gerald. G3 H [ Find in a library near you ]. Many actions of Jehovah's Witnesses antagonized Nazi authorities. While Witnesses contended that they were apolitical and that their actions were not anti-Nazi, their unwillingness to give the Nazi salute, to join party organizations or to let their children join the Hitler Youth, their refusal to participate in the so-called elections or plebiscites, and their unwillingness to adorn their homes with Nazi flags made them suspect.
A special unit of the Gestapo secret state police compiled a registry of all persons believed to be Jehovah's Witnesses. Gestapo agents infiltrated Bible study meetings. While Jehovah's Witnesses as such were not banned, many of the activities which were basic to the exercise of the faith increasingly came under attack.
Above all, the authorities sought to interdict the distribution of printed materials, produced locally or smuggled in from outside the country in large quantities, which in the eyes of the Nazis were clearly subversive. When Germany reintroduced compulsory military service in March , the conflict with the Witnesses escalated. For refusing to be drafted or perform military-related work, and for continuing to meet illegally, increasing numbers of Jehovah's Witnesses were arrested, tried by judicial authorities and incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps.
By , an estimated 6, Witnesses including some from Austria and Czechoslovakia were detained in prisons or camps. Others fled Germany, continued their religious observance in private, or ceased to observe altogether. Some Witnesses were tortured in attempts to make them sign declarations renouncing their faith, but few capitulated to this pressure.
In the concentration camps, all prisoners wore markings of various shapes and colors so that guards and camp officers could identify them by category. Jehovah's Witnesses were marked by purple triangular patches. Even in the camps, they continued to meet, pray, and seek converts. In the Buchenwald concentration camp, they set up an underground printing press and distributed religious tracts. Conditions in Nazi camps were harsh for all inmates.
Many prisoners died from hunger, disease, exhaustion, exposure to the cold, and brutal treatment.
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