Omar Bennett
The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. The Nazi Party was founded in 1920 and rose to power in 1933, turning Germany into a one-party dictatorship. The Holocaust is a subject of ongoing historical debate, with intentionalists arguing that Hitler planned the extermination of the Jewish people as early as 1918, while functionalists argue that the extermination plans evolved in stages as a result of policy failures. The debate also surrounds the knowledge and complicity of average Germans, German military officers, and diplomats in the Holocaust. The legacy of the Holocaust continues to impact diplomacy and foreign policy, with debates over the collaboration of various countries during World War II and efforts to seek justice and commemorate the victims.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Responsibility for the Holocaust | Historians debate whether Hitler planned the extermination of the Jewish people as early as 1918 or if the extermination plans evolved in stages |
| Holocaust Denial | Germans often claimed that the crimes occurred behind their backs and were perpetrated by Nazi fanatics |
| Diplomatic Complicity | Diplomats sympathetic to Nazism did not pass on accounts of the massacres underway |
| Diplomatic Protection | Diplomats tried to protect their threatened nationals by issuing false papers and hiding Jews in danger |
| Genocide of Roma and Sinti Populations | Often overlooked or ignored in discussions of Holocaust issues |
| Complicity of Collaborators | Many people recognized that they could personally benefit from the persecution and murder of Jews |
| Debate and Dissent | The United States Department of State fosters dialogue through the Open Forum and the Dissent Channel to encourage debate on high-stakes issues |
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What You'll Learn
Holocaust denial and historical debate
Holocaust denial and historical revisionism are based on pseudoscientific evidence and fringe academic networks. This includes intradiegetic pseudoscientific journals, conferences, and professional organisations. For example, the Journal of Historical Review, the International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust, and the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust. The first person to openly write about doubting the reality of the Holocaust after World War II was French art critic Maurice Bardèche in his 1948 book "Nuremberg ou la Terre promise" ("Nuremberg or the Promised Land"). Bardèche concluded that kapos were worse than the SS and expressed his "doubts" about the existence of gas chambers.
Holocaust denial often takes the form of claims that the Holocaust did not happen in the way that historical evidence suggests it did, or that it is a hoax or exaggeration. This can include denying the existence of gas chambers, the number of Jews killed, or the intention of genocide. Holocaust denial is often associated with antisemitism and hateful beliefs, and it undermines our understanding of history. It is not uncommon for people to think of the Holocaust as a solely European event, but it has had wide-ranging impacts on a global scale, including in the United States. The Holocaust has been invoked in debates about the moral responsibility of individuals and nations, the nature of evil, and concepts of race and racism.
In some cases, Holocaust deniers have been prosecuted for spreading hate propaganda or inciting hatred. For example, David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison in Austria, and Ernst Zündel was convicted on 14 counts of incitement under Germany's Volksverhetzung law, which bans the incitement of hatred against a portion of the population. Zündel was sentenced to the maximum of five years in prison. These cases have sparked debates about the limits of freedom of speech. Upon hearing of Irving's sentence, Deborah Lipstadt stated that "the way of fighting Holocaust deniers is with history and with truth".
Holocaust denial is not limited to Europe and North America, but has also occurred in the Middle East. In Iran, the House of Cartoon and the Sarcheshmeh Cultural Complex organised the Second International Holocaust Cartoon Competition in 2015, in which artists were encouraged to submit cartoons on the theme of Holocaust denial. A similar contest was held by the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri in 2006. In Turkey, the Islamic preacher Adnan Oktar, under the pen name Harun Yahya, distributed thousands of copies of a book entitled "Soykırım Yalanı" ("The Genocide Lie"), which claimed that the Holocaust was a result of the typhus plague and famine caused by the defeat of the Germans. These actions have been seen as insulting to the victims and memory of the Holocaust.
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Diplomatic indifference and collaboration
The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. The persecution and murder of Jews during the Holocaust were made possible by the active or passive participation of millions of people. Some people recognised that they could personally benefit from the persecution of Jews, acquiring their property or homes, taking over their businesses, or finding jobs in the Nazi regime. In countries invaded by Germany, many collaborators assisted their new leaders, choosing to denounce their Jewish neighbours.
During the Holocaust, many diplomats, sympathetic to Nazism, did not pass on accounts of the massacres underway. Some diplomats tried to protect their threatened nationals, issuing false papers, and hiding and exfiltrating Jews in danger. Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg is the best-known rescue figure in the history of the Holocaust, putting thousands of Budapest’s Jews under Swedish protection. Other diplomats, such as Carl Lutz, the Swiss consul in Budapest, issued letters of protection and safe-conduct passes, allowing nearly 10,000 children to emigrate. In the summer of 1944, about 50 Turkish Jews, their spouses, and their children were awaiting deportation at the port of Rhodes, demonstrating the duty of diplomats from neutral countries and Germany’s allies to protect their Jewish nationals.
In the first years of the war, laws regulating the admittance of Jews into Spain were written and mostly ignored. Once the tide of war began to turn against the Germans, Spanish diplomacy became "more sympathetic to Jews", although Franco himself "never said anything" about it.
The memory of the Holocaust was initially repressed and set aside, obscured by postwar reconstruction and diplomacy. Germans often claimed that the crimes occurred behind their backs and were perpetrated by Nazi fanatics, or they dodged responsibility by equating their suffering with that of the prisoners, avowing they too had been victimized by the National Socialist regime. Political pressure on prosecutors and judges also tempered any extensive probes and very few systematic investigations in the first decade after the war took place.
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Public recollection and memory
One aspect of public recollection relates to the knowledge of average Germans about the Holocaust. While the Nazi regime is depicted as highly centralized, individual initiative played a crucial role in its functioning. Millions of people were complicit in the persecution and murder of Jews, either actively or passively. Some benefited directly from the persecution, acquiring property, homes, and businesses belonging to Jews. Others found jobs within the Nazi regime, gaining money, power, and influence. This complicity extended beyond Germany, as collaborators in invaded countries also assisted the Nazis, often to their personal advantage. The extent of knowledge among regular German military officers about the Final Solution has been a subject of debate, with some present for speeches explicitly mentioning the extermination of Jews.
Initially, the memory of the Holocaust was marginalized by postwar reconstruction and diplomacy, as noted by historian Nicholas Wachsmann. German citizens often claimed that the crimes occurred without their knowledge or were perpetrated by Nazi fanatics. They also equated their suffering with that of the prisoners, portraying themselves as victims of the National Socialist regime. Investigations and trials were hampered by political pressure on prosecutors and judges, resulting in a limited number of systematic investigations in the first decade after the war.
Diplomats played a complex role during the Holocaust, gathering information from various sources. Some, indifferent or sympathetic to Nazism, failed to report the atrocities. However, a few outraged diplomats, like Jacques Truelle, informed their foreign ministries and suspected a Europe-wide plan to exterminate the Jews. In 1943, the Allies met in Bermuda to discuss accepting Jewish refugees, but their priority remained the war. Diplomats from neutral countries, like Sweden's Raoul Wallenberg and Switzerland's Carl Lutz, carried out notable rescue operations, risking their lives to protect Jews.
The debate about the origins of the Holocaust, known as functionalism versus intentionalism, continues. Intentionalists argue that Adolf Hitler planned the extermination as early as 1918, while functionalists contend that the plans evolved in response to policy failures. While Hitler and the Nazi Party leadership bear primary responsibility, the Schutzstaffel (SS), Wehrmacht, ordinary German citizens, and collaborators also played a role in the persecution.
The Holocaust's legacy continues to impact foreign policy, with debates over the narratives of World War II and the involvement of various countries. Efforts to memorialize the Holocaust, such as the POLIN museum in Warsaw, aim to commemorate the history of Jewish communities wiped out during the Nazi occupation. However, some countries struggle to acknowledge their collaboration with the Nazis, leading to sensitive and heated discussions. Additionally, the genocide of the Roma and Sinti populations is often overlooked or ignored, despite recent efforts to incorporate their experiences into Holocaust discussions.
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Nazi propaganda and ideology
Newspapers like Der Stürmer printed antisemitic caricatures and cartoons, while films such as The Eternal Jew (1940) portrayed Jews as subhuman creatures. Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will (1935) glorified Hitler and the Nazi movement, fostering a cult of personality around the Führer. The Nazis also made radios more affordable so that more Germans could listen to their ideas and news, and they organized large rallies to celebrate the Nazi Party. They even created youth groups like the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls to foster Nazi ideals in the next generation.
The Nazis also relied on censorship to suppress dissenting ideas and control the narrative. They banned Germans from listening to foreign radio broadcasts and made it illegal to criticize the Nazi government. Even telling a joke about Hitler was considered treachery. Through decrees and laws, they abolished civil liberties and destroyed German democracy.
Nazi propaganda was essential in mobilizing the German population to support its wars and motivating those who carried out the mass murder of Jews and other victims. It also served to secure the acquiescence of millions of bystanders to racially targeted persecution. Even after the war, the memory of the Holocaust was initially repressed, and the German people often denied responsibility, claiming the crimes occurred without their knowledge or that they, too, had suffered under the Nazi regime.
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Genocide of Roma and Sinti populations
The Roma and Sinti populations, also referred to as "Gypsies", were among the groups that the Nazi regime and its partners singled out for persecution and murder before and during World War II. The Nazis viewed the Romani people as racially inferior and as social outsiders. The Nuremberg Laws, which prohibited marriage between Jews and Aryans, were also applied to the Roma and Sinti. Additionally, Roma and Sinti children were banned from public schools, and adults struggled to maintain or secure employment.
The exact number of Romani people murdered by the Nazi regime and its allies is unknown, but it is estimated that at least 250,000 European Roma were killed during World War II, with some scholars estimating a death toll of around 500,000. The fate of the Roma varied according to local conditions in German-occupied Europe; they were interned, used as forced labourers, or killed. Einsatzgruppen units and other mobile units killed the Romani in the Baltic States, occupied Poland, and the USSR. In occupied Serbia, Roma men were executed en masse. In France, the Vichy authorities interned thousands of Roma, and in Romania, 26,000 were deported to Transnistria, where many died of disease and starvation. In Croatia, the Ustasha regime killed almost the entire Roma population, approximately 25,000 people.
The genocide of the Roma and Sinti was not immediately recognized after the war. In fact, the West German Government only fully recognized their experiences in 1981, and the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt officially recognized the German Sinti and Roma as victims of genocide in 1982. The late recognition of this genocide has contributed to the uncertainty around the number of victims, as has the lack of accurate data on the Romani population in Europe before the war.
The Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma and Sinti populations have been the subject of ongoing historical debate and diplomacy. For example, the debate about the origins of the Holocaust, known as functionalism versus intentionalism, centres around whether Adolf Hitler planned the extermination of the Jewish people early on and oversaw its execution, or whether the extermination plans evolved in stages as a result of initiatives taken by bureaucrats. The responsibility for the Holocaust is also debated, with some arguing that while Hitler and the Nazi Party's leadership bore primary responsibility, operations to persecute Jews, Romani people, and others were also carried out by the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Wehrmacht, ordinary German citizens, and collaborationists.
Diplomats played a complex role during the Holocaust, with some gathering information from various sources and informing their foreign ministries, while others remained indifferent or sympathetic to Nazism. In 1944, diplomats from neutral countries carried out rescue operations, providing resources and saving the lives of Jews facing deportation and persecution.
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Frequently asked questions
The debate about the origins of the Holocaust is known as functionalism versus intentionalism. Intentionalists argue that Adolf Hitler planned the extermination of the Jewish people as early as 1918 and personally oversaw its execution. On the other hand, functionalists argue that the extermination plans evolved in stages as a result of initiatives taken by bureaucrats in response to other policy failures.
During the Holocaust, diplomats, especially those sympathetic to Nazism, failed to pass on accounts of the massacres underway. However, a few outraged diplomats, such as Jacques Truelle, informed their foreign ministries. Some diplomats also tried to protect their Jewish nationals by issuing false papers and facilitating their escape.
The United States Department of State has teams dedicated to addressing Holocaust issues, countering antisemitism, and working to prevent future atrocities. They foster dialogue through initiatives like the Open Forum and the Policy Ideas Channel.
Debates about the Holocaust and World War II spill into foreign policy as countries argue about their narratives of these events. For example, Hungary has made efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of Miklos Horthy, its leader from the 1920s until 1944, who was complicit in the deportation and murder of Hungary's Jewish population during the Holocaust. Additionally, Poland passed a law in 2018 that made it a crime to say that Poland or Poles perpetrated or were co-perpetrators of the Holocaust, demonstrating the sensitivity and complexity of these debates.
