Some scholars refer to the relationship between the Jewish and the non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust as “the many circles of hell in Dante's Inferno.” The Jews occupy the center, with the other victims extending outward in concentric rings. Michael Berenbaum has argued that in order to comprehend the Jewish center, one must “fully probe the ripple effects as well as the indisputable core.” This article proposes a framework for teaching about the “mosaic of victims” in the Third Reich. It also suggests study questions and activities to help students think about how issues of the Nazi era have relevance today.
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References
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1. The late Lucy Dawidowicz, a well-known Jewish scholar, often commented on the effect of the murder of 6 million Jews, which “is still to be evaluated.” From the Jewish point of view, she wrote, “we know one thing now for certain. The immensity of Jewish losses destroyed the biological basis for the continued existence of Jews in Europe....the annihilation of 6 million Jews also brought an end with irrevocable finality to the thousand-year-old culture and civilization of Ashkenazic Jewry, destroying the continuity of Jewish history. This is the special Jewish sorrow. This is why the surviving Jews grieve, mourning the loss of their past and the imperilment of their future.”Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 1933-1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1975), p. xvi.
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2. The phrase “mosaic of victims” is taken from Michael Berenbaum, ed., A Mosaic of Victims: Non-Jews Persecuted and Murdered by the Nazis (New York: New York University Press, 1990).
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3. “During the 1980s, new sources and new research have produced new interpretations that correct old imbalances by pointing to the connections between the murder of the Jews and that of the Gypsies and handicapped. These new analyses have, however, been unable so far to alter the older interpretation: prejudice and habits of 40 years cannot be reversed overnight.”Sybil Milton, “Reassessing the Racial Context of the Holocaust” (Paper delivered to the meeting of the American Historical Association, New York, 30 Dec. 1990), p. 4.
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4. Michael Berenbaum, quoted by Carol Rittner, “Foreword: The Triumph in Memory,” in Mosaic of Victims, ed. Berenbaum, p. xiv.
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5. The term “biomedical vision” is taken from Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (New York: Basic Books, 1986).
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6. Benno Müller-Hill, Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, Gypsies, and Others 1933-1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 22.
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7. Joachim Remak, ed., The Nazi Years: A Documentary History (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1969), pp. 27-28, 34-35.
8.
See also George L. Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York: Schocken Books, 1964), pp. 303 ff.
9.
9. Lifton, Nazi Doctors, pp. 22-44.
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10. Eugen Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them (New York: Berkeley Books, 1980), p. 29.
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11. Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 116.
12.
12. As quoted in ibid., p. 121.
13.
idem , “Reassessing the Racial Context of the Holocaust,” pp. 6-10.
14.
Gabrielle Tyranauer , “The Forgotten Holocaust of the Gypsies,”Social Education, pp. 111-113 (Feb. 1991).
15.
15. Burleigh and Wippermann, Racial State, pp. 137-140.
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16. Robert Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), pp. 112-114.
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17. The term “euthanasia” has traditionally referred to mercy killing, in which the best interests of the patient are considered. During the Nazi era, however, “euthanasia” referred to the political program of killing the weak and disabled, with the interests of the state taking precedence over the interests of the patients or their families.
18.
18. Robert Jay Lifton, “Sterilization and Euthanasia,” in Mosaic of Victims, ed. Berenbaum, p. 222.
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19. Burleigh and Wippermann, Racial State, pp. 153, 161.
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20. As quoted in Lucy Dawidowicz, ed., A Holocaust Reader (New York: Behrman House, 1976), pp. 1331-1332.
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21. Sybil Milton, “German Occupation Policy in Belgium and France,” in Mosaic of Victims, ed. Berenbaum, pp. 82-83.
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22. Mary Johnson, “The Ravensbrück Lapins,”Facing History News (Fall 1985).
23.
See also C. E. King, The Nazi State and the New Religions (New York: New York University Press, 1982).
24.
See also Mary Johnson and Margot Stern Strom, Elements of Time (Brookline, MA: Facing History and Ourselves, 1989), pp. 220-225.
25.
25. Burleigh and Wippermann, Racial State, p. 167.
26.
26. Quoted in ibid., p. 173.
27.
27. Kogon, Theory and Practice of Hell, pp. 34-35.
28.
Ruediger Lautmann , “Gay Prisoners in Concentration Camps as Compared with Jehovah's Witnesses and Political Prisoners,” in Mosaic of Victims, ed. Berenbaum, pp. 200-206.
29.
29. Carol Rittner and Sondra Myers, executive producers, Triumph of Memory, produced and directed by Robert Gardner, 28 min. and 30 sec., United Way Productions, 1988, 16 mm film and videocassette. Triumph of Memory is available through PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698. Telephone (800) 424-7963.
30.
idem , The Drowned and the Saved (New York: Summit Books, 1986).
31.
31. Sybil Milton, narrative for the Holocaust Poster Series, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1991.
32.
32. Michael Berenbaum, “The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust,” in Mosaic of Victims, ed. Berenbaum, pp. 33-34.
