What is the myth at the 1936 Olympic games?

As the myth goes, in the 1936, the Olympics games were held in Berlin, Germany, and it was called “Hitler’s Games". On the first day of the Olympic Games, Hitler, “Führer”, allowed the victors of the events to come to his box. When Jesse Owens, an African American athlete, won the 100m dash, many Germans were very impressed with his talents. However Adolf Hitler departed after he saw the results, and refused to shake hands with Jesse Owens due to his colour.

 The legend above is wrong, and over the years the story of this event has changed a lot. The reality is during the first day it was late, and Adolf Hitler left after the German athletes lost in their events. Jesse Owens was not in this event. The Olympic official said to Hitler to congratulate all of the athletes or none of them. He decided to stop congratulating the athletes. After the games were done, the Führer decided to invite all the winning athletes to the “Reich Chancellery”, so he could personally congratulate, and shake their hands, including Jesse Owens. Additionally the Germans respected Jesse Owens a lot, and they called him “The Fastest Man”. They also named a street after him. This African American athlete said that he was treated well during his stay. The myth in the 1936 Berlin games was a lie, and the reality of Hitler shaking Owens’ hand was true.

Interesting Facts
Jesse Owens explained “... the warmth of his reception in Germany and his happiness during those days in Berlin...”
In the article, it contained a letter to the Director of ZDF. It stated “... Adolf Hitler received and congratulated the German Olympic winners of the 1936 Games in the place of honour at the Olympic stadium...”
Relevant Quotes
“Even the most racist Germans were amazed with the efforts of Owens...” ( Zusak, 56)
“Owens is looking good,” he began to commentate. “This could be his greatest victory ever….” ( Zusak, 57)
“You know Papa, the Black Magic one.” “I’ll give you black magic.” ( Zusak, 59)
“Because you shouldn’t want to be like black people or Jewish people or anyone who is…not us.” ( Zusak, 60)
“It’s like you’re German or Catholic.” (Zusak, 60)
“Oh. Is Jesse Owens Catholic?” ( Zusak, 60)

Click on this LINK to read more.

This is Jesse Owens racing

                                     

This is an interview with Jesse Owens 

                                         

...And the World Remained Silent

 The Final Solution
    By: Shymanta and Raisa

When I came to power, I did not want the concentration camps to become old age pensioner homes, but instruments of terror. -Adolf Hitler



 

Jews being burned at the crematoriums

Hitler is the infamous, sadistic dicator of World War II,known for exterminating Jewish people in what were known as "death factories" or extermination camps. The Nazis conspired to bring the demise of the entire Jewish population. After much thought, Hitler decided he would send Jews to ghettos, making them wear the star of David, then later sending them on their way to extermination camps- The Final Solution to The Jewish Question.

"When their bodies had finsihed scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up...we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower." (Zusak, pg 349)

Hitler initially put the Jews in ghettos in Poland. There, Jews suffered horrendous conditions without food or medication. They were forced into brutal physical labour. This was a slow process of killing the Jews painfully.

Arbeit Macht Frei- Written on the doorway of Auschwitz.
 Ironically, it means "Work will set you free."

     Hitler`s    final solution was to put the Jewish people in concentration camps all over Poland. The biggest one known for Jewish extermination is Auschwitz, located on the outskirts of Krakow, Poland. There were large gas chambers with adjacent cemeteries for the disposal of corpses.  Hitler only put young children and the elderly in them, keeping anyone who deemed fit to work in work camps. Nazis were ordered to gather and bring Jews over to the concentration camps by trains from the ghettos. 

"Did they deserve any better, these people? How many had actively persecuted others, high on the scent of Hitler's gaze, repeating his sentences, his paragraphs, his opus? Was Rosa Hubermann responsible? The hider of a Jew? Or Hans? Did they all deserve to die? The children?" (Zusak, pg 375)

A typical gas chamber during the WW2 Holocaust. The gas used
was Zyclon B, originally an insecticide.

      These bodies were later burned in  crematoriums. The SS members kept Jewish belongings like shoes and clothes in makeshift vaults, as collateral to pay for railroads, crates and anything else that contributed to make the Holocaust possible. 

Survivor of Holocaust, Elie Wiesel, talks to Oprah, as he goes back to Auschwitz and recalls his first night at the largest concentration camp.

Facts on The Holocaust

When the Jews were in the concentration camps, a few non-Jews were ready to risk their lives for these unfortunate souls. Oskar Schindler was a German who saved over 1,000 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.

As trainloads of Jews arrived at the concentration camps, they were stripped of all that they possessed. These possessions were sorted out at a section of Auschwitz called ‘Canada’. Back then, Canada was known to be a land of great riches, and the possessions of Jews were like riches to the Nazis.

     


It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, where one million within them were children.

References  

Zusak, Markus. Book Thief. New York: Random House, 2005. 350, 375. Print.

"The Final Solution ." The History Place - Defeat of Hitler. The History Place, n.d. Web. 30 Apr 2012.

Trueman , Chris. "Auschwitz-Birkenau." . History Learning, 2012. Web. 2 May 2012. .

Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Holocaust Facts What You Need to Know About the Holocaust." 20th Century History. About, 2012. Web. 2 May 2012.

"The Final Solution ." The History Place - Defeat of Hitler. The History Place, n.d. Web. 30 Apr 2012.

Links
  

Article - The Final Solution 

  

The Final Solution Blog

 



Kristallnacht: The Night of Broken Glass

By: Cassandra & Salma

 
It was a peaceful and quiet night on November 9, 1938 when the Nazi regime swept across the streets of Germany in a plan to terrorize and persecute innocent Jewish people. The Nazi's dubbed the unfortunate night Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass".

Fact: Many Jewish people demote the use of the term Kristallnacht because of the Nazi origins and what it cost; feeling that the significance of the night was not the destruction of property or shattered crystal but the spark of Anti-Semitism on a continental scale.

It signalled the reign of terror that was to come, as insurmountable amounts of violence were unleashed on the Jewish population, killing over 91, injuring hundreds and escorting over 30,000 people to concentration camps. Jewish shops and houses had been marked in slurs, broken down and looted while synagogues crumbled down in flames.

Fact: Approximately 300 religious congregation halls, known as synagogues, were burned down in flames - many of which were historical structures.

"Many Jewish establishments were being surgically smashed and looted when there was a clatter of knuckles on the apartment door... [Max's father] looked at the faces, naked with fear, turned the lock and opened the door. As expected, it was a Nazi. In uniform" (Zusak, 192-93).

Many who were not a part of the regime joined in the riots, while a majority of people simply stood watching or passed by, turning a blind eye to the horror. The people had been marked; armbands with the infamous yellow Star of David, printed Juden. They were forced into the streets to parade their shame. 

 

Fact: The Jewish people of Germany were fined 1 billion marks for the mass destruction of property in Germany on Kristallnacht.

That night, the Jewish people were made outcasts in their own motherland; strangers to their own soil. The Jewish, who were able to escape the fate, were those who had gone into hiding or escaped Germany for countries of refuge such as England or the U.S. These people who lived are still traumatized by the horrific night up to this date. They consider themselves "one of the lucky ones" but still experience the fear and regret of others who suffered - their own people, with innocents who perished.

"'Come on.' Walter pulled at him as the rest of the family said their goodbyes...'It's chaos out there, and chaos is what we need'" (Zusak, 194).

Click Links to Read Article: link 1 , link 2 , link 3
For more facts on Kristallnacht, go to this link.

 

Nazi on Jews By: Benita and Athira

Hitler’s hate of Jews is what influenced people under his rule to feel the same way. But it was not only Hitler who felt this way. In the 1930’s, the world looked at Jews in disgust.  The whole world brought about the holocaust with the Nazis. In general, the Nazis willingly rounded up the Jews. However, the rest of the world rejected Jewish refugees who tried to escape.

http://jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/GCA_68.htm

The Jews in Germany were overrepresented in the top ranks of the German society. Hitler used this as an example to show that “good, ordinary Germans” were being excluded from those positions by the Jews scheming. The Nazis generally thought of Jews as filthy, and in Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf “he portrays Jews as trying to “contaminate” German blood."Was there any form of filth or crime...without at least one Jew involved in it? If you cut even cautiously into such a sore, you find like a maggot in a rotting body, often dazzled by the sudden light - a Jew." The article continues to talk about using Jews as “scapegoats” and Jews creating “disunity” amongst Germans.

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/index.html

If you follow the LINK the article goes on to say that Hitler influenced the Nazis along with others to act on their hatred for the Jews. Hitler’s love for the Germans and their love back, lead the Germans to be easily influenced by him and caused the hatred of Jews to grow.

Main Source:

"Why Hitler hated Jews." Majorityrights.com. ExpressionEngine , 24 June 2005. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <majorityrights.com/weblog/comments/why_hitler_hated_jews >

"Jews in Nazi Germany." History Learning Site. History Learning Site, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Jews_Nazi_Germany.htm>

Interesting Facts

·                         The term "Holocaust," originally from the Greek word "holokauston" which means "sacrifice by fire," refers to the Nazi's persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people.

·                         Although many people refer to all Nazi camps as "concentration camps," there were actually a number of different kinds of camps, including concentration camps, extermination camps, labour camps, prisoner-of-war camps, and transit camps.

·                         Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination camp built. It is estimated that 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz.

Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Holocaust Facts." About.com. About.com, n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. <history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/holocaustfacts.htm >

Quotes from The Book Thief

• "Of course, everyone knew about the Jews, as they were the main offender in regard to violating the German ideal."(Zuzak, pg 111)
• "He's infesting you with his family and he's about to take over you". ( Zusak,pg 254)

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Knopf, 2005. Print.

Video: Hitler's Views on Jews

                                                       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgdTFqZ7hs8

German Resistance Summary: By Nilab & Sigma

The gestapo (Secret police) 

Adolf Hitler was the oppressive dictator of Germany from 1918-1924, and suppressed any criticism from the German people using his secret police called the Gestapo. However, German people that disliked Hitler’s ways resisted their "Fuhrer" and risked getting executed and arrested. Some Germans disliked Hitler so extensively that they plotted his assassination as the article from the Holocaust Museum states. Other ways in which Germans resisted Hitler's orders were by assisting Jewish people. Anna Rudolph was a German that was interviewed by Historians and featured in an article in the book "Perspectives on modern world history: The Holocaust". She and other Germans hid Jewish people and prevented Hitler's army from taking them to concentration camps to be executed brutally.




Even some German children knew how Hitler's actions were wrong and resisted Hitler's hate messages using opportunities they had. Hitler youth was a mandatory school program for children and some did not take part in this compulsory program because they did not want to be apart of the Nazis. Some German citizens were completely unaware of Hitler's actions because the Nazi's controlled all media and filled newspapers and radios with Nazi propaganda. In the Holocaust Museum article, the historians mentioned how some Germans distributed leaflets that spoke out against Nazism and were arrested or never seen again. Among these Germans were Sophie and Hans Scholl, two siblings/ students who started a "white rose movement" and advocated against Nazism. These visionary Germans were arrested and accused of treason then condemned to death.

Anti-nazi Propaganda 

 

Hitler youth propaganda 

Hans and Sophie Scholl with white rose members

                                                             











Around the world, many accuse Germans of blindly following Hitler's footsteps. However what people fail to see is that Germans have tried to resist the Nazi's many times. Throughout history many Germans lost their lives brutally for trying to make a difference and stop anti-Semitism or trying to move past the time period of Nazi Germany.


To read more about German resistance or about the Holocaust visit This link

Other Interesting Facts:


- The gestapo were a group of Nazi secret police that arrested anyone against Nazism and the German citizens did not know what happened to those arrested. (We now know about the concentration camps)

-Hitler made sure that NO ONE could oppose the Nazi's and even condemned his "beloved" Aryan people to death if they disliked his ways

-The white rose movement leaflets were dropped from airplanes on Germany from allies of others in the war (wow, the entire world wanted to stop Hitler!)


"Holocaust History." German Resistance to Hitler. Web. 04 May 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005208>.

Above is a video that explains the White Rose movement's actions.


Situations from the Book Thief that support Anti-Nazism:


Liesel's thoughts : " All Jews are not all the same"

Liesel: "I hate Hitler" (Zusak,115)

Max: "Sometimes I dream of me fighting Hitler and I win" (Zusak, 251)

Plot: "Hans presented the Jew with a piece of bread" (Zusak, 394)

Plot: "The Hubermann's hid Max in their basement and treated him like family". (Zusak, 223)


Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. 1st ed. United States: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. Print.

Book Burning By: Rammiya, Fariha & Sumbul

"Book burning" often refers to the tradition of destroying books or other written materials opposed by a culture, religion, or political view to create an element of restriction. Book burning, has been performed widely throughout history but has been most famously done in Germany, during the Nazi regime. Some cases dating back to 1817 and continuing onto 1933 include many student university organizations burning books, which were considered "un-German." On April 6th 1933, a student association's main office decided to go on a nationwide act to eliminate any un German authors that compose literary work. During a religious act on May 10th 1933, university students burned up to 25,000 volumes of Jewish books. On the night of that same day, the school population proclaimed to march with torchlight's at parades to represent the hatred against Jews. Amongst this group, there were university professors, rectors and students leaders who had seemed to enjoy this ritual. Students threw the unwanted books related to Jews into the bonfires, while fire oaths and bands played with celebration. The people who were targeted were mainly famous Jewish authors such as Franz Werfel, Max Brod, and Stefan Zweig. The Nazis claimed that their reason for burning books was to promote the Aryan culture by "cleansing" the nation. The Nazi's once burned the written materials of German-Jewish poet Heinrich Heine who coincidentally had written in his 1821 play that" Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people." The following are some examples of other book burnings recently and through history:

·         The earliest act of book burning was in china during 213 B.C.E when Emperor Shi Huang ordered his followers to burn Confucian literature and other written materials that challenged his authority. He also demanded that the Confucian scholars be buried alive.

·         Numerous Harry Potter books were burned in the U.S during 2001. For instance, the Harvest Assembly of God Church in Pennsylvania was amongst these people.

·         On July 11, 2010, Florida pastor Terry Jones declared that" Islam is of the devil" and planned to burn copies of the Quran on the following September 11. However, this got the attention of U.S and world leaders who demanded that he do not proceed. This had leaded him to finally cancel the book burning.

·         In the Netherlands, during 2011 Lawrence Hill's The book of Negroes was burned due to numerous people finding the word "negro" in the title to be offensive.

·         In Bosnia, during 1992, Serbian nationalist forces burned over 1.5 million books by creating a fire from bombing the national library of Bosnia, in Sarajevo. It has been said, that the goals was wipe the presence of Muslims through the country.

·         After the overthrow of Chilies' government in 1973, the military burned written materials that were considered rebellious on.

Here is a video of a family who shockingly has the same ideology as the Nazis.

To see the entire article click here
Schwartz, Daniel. "The books have been burning." CBC News/World. CBC ,
22/06/2011. Web. 1 May 2012.
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2010/09/10/f-book-burning-timeline.html>.
Cagle, Anne. "Book Burning Facts." eHow. Demand Media, 2012. Web. 1
May 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/about_6732024_book-burning.html>.