Holocaust Audio Tour 07: Timeline

Move to the long striped jacket in the glass exhibit case. Perhaps the rarest artifact in this exhibit, this concentration camp uniform is one of very few still in existence. It was given to the exhibit by Jack Bomstein, whose father Moritz wore the uniform while he was imprisoned at Buchenwald. Allied Prisoners of War, or POWs, interned at Buchenwald in 1944, had their U.S. uniforms taken away and were forced to wear uniforms similar to this one.

Move to the grouping of photos on the left side of this exhibit. These buildings and places represent “Places of Ha’Shoah” – places where the events of the Holocaust took place. Tucson photographer Cy Lehrer used heavy black borders and film base to enhance the dramatic effect of his imagery. This technique encourages the viewer to experience the starkness of the photo and suggests an environment that would allow for incomprehensible crimes to take place.

Along the floor path of the Holocaust exhibit, you will find a timeline of a brief history of human rights in the 20th century. This retrospective includes not only issues relevant to the Holocaust, but to all matters of human rights from across the globe from 1901 to 1950.

Near the “Places of Ha’Shoah” images is another grouping titled “Fragments of the Budapest Ghetto.” These scenes are from an old Jewish section of Pest, Hungary, a district of 19th century buildings near the Danube River. Here the Nazis established a large ghetto in June 1944, several months after occupying Hungary and deporting virtually every Jew living in the provinces. Budapest’s 220,000 Jews were forced into 2,000 houses marked with a yellow star. In October, Hungarian Fascists began their program of anti-Jewish violence, even as Soviet troops approached the city. In November, thousands of Jews were shot and thrown into the Danube and preparations were made for massive deportation of those remaining. The Soviets occupied Budapest on Jan. 18, 1945, and an estimated 120,000 Jews were saved. Dominating the Jewish section is the Moorish-style Dohany Street Synagogue, a huge, ornate, twin-towered structure inaugurated in 1859 by the city’s Neolog (Reform) congregation. The largest active synagogue in Europe, it seats 3,000 and has undergone a full restoration that was completed in 2009. During the war, the church was fenced off and used as a concentration camp for Jews massed prior to deportation. In the arcade courtyard are individual and mass graves of thousands of Budapest’s ghetto victims. Another courtyard contains a memorial to Hungarian Holocaust victims, a weeping willow tree created in granite and steel, by Hungarian sculptor Irma Varga. On nearby Sip Street are found the offices of the Central Board of Hungarian Jews, the Budapest Jewish Community, the World Jewish Congress and the American Joint Distribution Committee. The immediate neighborhood offers an Orthodox Mikvah, kosher restaurants, grocers and wine shops, Jewish gift shops and three Jewish schools.

By May 1945, Nazi Germany had collapsed. American and Soviet troops liberated the camps and were shocked at the conditions they found. They were sickened by the sight of thousands of dead bodies stacked on top of each other. Most of the survivors resembled living skeletons. Even after they were freed, the Jews had problems. Most survivors had no homes to return to and so they immigrated to places like the United States, where they could start a new life. The word “Holocaust” means destruction by fire. It is a reminder that many books, synagogues and people were consumed by fire as the Nazi leaders killed six million Jews and millions of others in their efforts to achieve racial purity. More people died in the Holocaust than now live in the state of Ohio. Today the survivors, their children and their grandchildren are scattered among many nations. They are our neighbors, and they stand witness to what happened when racial and religious prejudice is encouraged by people who offer simple answers based on lies and hatred. It is our obligation to the millions of persons who died in this great human Holocaust to see that this does not happen again. On the reverse side of this wall, you can view photos and other artifacts that represent local histories of the Holocaust.

Hitler came to power legally in January 1933, promising to remove Jewish influence from German life. In April 1933, Germans burned Jewish books and forced most Jewish government employees and professionals to leave their jobs. Jewish life was further restricted by September 1935 by the passage of the Nuremburg Laws. These laws identified Jews by the religion of their grandparents. Some people who practiced Christianity discovered they were now classified as Jews who lost all rights of citizenship. Hitler also decided to “improve the purity of the Aryan race” by killing all German adults and children who had physical or mental disabilities. After 1937 Jewish children were not allowed to go to school, swim in public pools or even play on public playgrounds. Germans forced Jews out of their businesses and required them to wear a yellow star for identification. As things got worse, many left Germany but others stayed behind hoping things would get better. Some who wanted to leave could not obtain entry into other countries. The Nazis found an excuse to organize large scale violence against the Jewish people. When a Jewish teenager shot a German diplomat in Paris, German authorities immediately instigated mob violence on November 9 and 10, 1938. Thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed and synagogues burned. So many store windows were smashed and homes ransacked that this night became known as Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass. Many Jews were beaten and at least 91 killed, and authorities sent over 30,000 Jewish men between the ages of 16 and 60 to concentration camps. After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, they forced Polish Jews out of their homes and into closed-off neighborhoods called ghettos. Many families had to leave everything behind. They could only bring what they could carry. Food was scarce and the ghettos were very crowded. In many ghettos, the Germans forced the Jews to work making supplies and munitions for the German army. Many Jews were worked to death. Others died of starvation or were shot trying to escape. Jews were rounded up and sent to death camps regularly.

In June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Following the army were special mobile killing units known as Einsatzgruppen. They rounded up Jews and murdered them. More than one million Jews and millions of Soviet citizens were killed. In January 1942 Nazi leaders decided to kill all Jews living in the areas occupied by the German army. This project, which became a national priority for Germans, was known as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.” Within a few months, the Germans began to empty the ghettos and force Jews into crowded boxcars. They were transported, without food or water, to death camps. Many died during the trip. When the trains arrived a selection occurred: camp guards killed women, children and the aged with poison gas. Only the able-bodied young remained alive to work as slave laborers. The Germans forced them to carry the victims’ bodies and sort out their belongings. When they were no longer needed, these men and women were killed. In addition to Jews, the Nazis sent other people to concentration camps and slave labor camps. Among these were political prisoners, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, persons with various disabilities, and ethnic minorities like Gypsies and persons of color. Many people were killed because they did not work hard enough. Others were tortured and killed for no reason other than racial hatred. Some Jews fought back. They joined partisan units that lived in the forests and attacked Germans. Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rebelled and fought until the Germans finally burned the ghetto down. In the Treblinka death camp, the Jews rioted and several hundred escaped. At Auschwitz, a Jewish group attacked the guards and destroyed some crematory ovens.

Go to the glass exhibit case containing a leather pilot’s jacket. This jacket belonged to Sgt. Delbert Cooper. In 1943, Cooper served as a solider in the U.S. Army’s 14th Regiment, 71st Infantry Division. His story can be heard in the video in this exhibit. He was among the first Americans to enter and assist in liberating Gunzkirchen Lager, which was part of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.

Stand on the opposite side of the granite wall of photographs. Within this exhibit is a wall of photos and other artifacts that provide an in-depth history of the Holocaust. The first panel, titled “Prejudice and Lies,” provides an historic overview of the Holocaust. Survivors of the World War II Holocaust and their families are living among us. They are European Jews who have survived the Nazi effort to systematically exterminate the world’s Jewish population between 1933 and 1945. Their stories and artifacts shared in this exhibit remind us that we must be ever watchful to prevent its recurrence to people everywhere. Germans were proud of their cultural heritage and some came to believe that they were superior to other people and nations. After losing World War I and being forced to pay heavy reparations, many Germans were angry because people were out of work and food was scarce. High inflation impoverished the middle class as people were forced to bring wheelbarrows full of money to pay for a loaf of bread. The Germans looked for someone to blame for the loss of the war and for their troubles. The Nationalist Socialist Workers Party, or Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, gave the German people a comfortable answer. He blamed the Jews. One in six Jews had fought and 12,000 died alongside other Germans in World War I. Many others received awards for heroism. He claimed the Jews were intent on destroying the German people. Logic was replaced by emotions. The truth was replaced by old lies and prejudice.

Stand at the “gate” to enter the Holocaust exhibit. I’m Renate Frydman, project director and curator for the “Prejudice and Memory” exhibit. In the years since 1960 when I first began speaking about the Holocaust, audiences have most responded to the personal items – a singular family picture, a passport with a red letter ”J,” a letter stating when and where grandparents were sent to be killed. The Holocaust exhibit at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force brings the millions down to the singular faces. They are your neighbors from all parts of the greater Dayton area. Now you know someone living right next to you could be a survivor, a liberator or a “righteous Gentile.” In collecting these many pictures and artifacts, I learned once again stories of incredible courage, of horror and sacrifices, of loss and rebirth. I am amazed at the trust contributors had in giving me the only picture of a parent or family member to use in this exhibit. I tried to treat each one with the reverence it deserves. I am grateful for the benefactors who made this exhibit possible and to the Boonshoft Museum of Natural History for having the vision to premier this exhibit in September 1997. The two-year period of collection and of building this exhibit was intense and fulfilling. We present it to the people of this area as a memory of the past and a hope that prejudice will diminish in the future. With the firm belief in the resilience of the human spirit and the hope for a better tomorrow, I ask that you join me in Tikum Olam, helping heal the world.