JWST 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Ringelblum Archive, Acculturation, Extermination Camp

• School: McGill University
• Department: Jewish Studies
• Course: JWST 240
• Professor: Dan Heller

Document Summary

Hundreds of ghettos est in poland, ussr, romania. In ussr, rom, est after june 1941. West=annexed by germany, hundreds of thousands of cath poles/jews ethnically cleansed and dumped into . Heinrich himmler--head of ss and gestapo (sec pol), central in operating camps. Chaotic nature of nazi rule does not make it better for those under it, howev. Acts of arbitrary terror carried out against ortho jews in particular. Whipped, forced to eat pork, jewish stars carved into forehead, beard/locks cut off. Dehumanization of victims transforms them into image that feeds hatred, cycle continues . Historically, ghettos hadn"t been created to persecute jews. In early mod period, was a way for eur leaders to integrate jews into society. V diff to goals/functions/conditions of nazi ghettos. All local germ rulers had similar goals in est ghettos. Wanted to isolate jews from surrounding pop. To economically exploit jews--concentrating potential labor force, get jews to give up property.