Albert Göring

Albert Göring
A
lbert was born in 1895 and was the fifth child
of a German diplomat, Heinrich Göring. One
of Albert’s elder brothers was Hermann –
who would later become one of the highest ranking
members of the Nazi Party. For much of their childhood,
Albert and Hermann had a lavish, aristocratic lifestyle
living in castles across southern Germany. However,
Albert and Hermann were quite different children. Albert
was known for being a quiet, sensitive and even sad
child, while Hermann had a reputation for being loud,
confident, and rebellious.
The differences between the boys continued into
adulthood. Both fought in World War I, but while Albert
was injured on the Western Front, Hermann became
a famous fighter pilot and national hero. After the war
Albert became an engineer while Hermann joined the
Nazi Party. Albert had no time for the beliefs of the Nazi
Party, and in the 1920s the brothers stopped talking to or
seeing each other.
By 1933 Hermann had become Commander-in-Chief
of the Gestapo – the German secret police. Albert on the
other hand had left Germany in protest at the Nazi regime
and moved to Austria. In 1938 the Anschluss saw Austria
absorbed into Germany, and Albert became increasingly
active in opposing the Nazis. On one occasion in
Vienna Albert came across a group of Jewish women
being forced to scrub the pavement by Nazi soldiers. In
response, Albert took off his jacket and took the place
of one woman. The
Nazis seized him and
demanded to see his
papers. After spotting Albert’s surname, the Nazis quickly
stopped humiliating the women.
In the last months leading up to the outbreak of
World War II Albert tried to help his Jewish friends by
getting them visas to escape from Austria. Once war
began, he continued to try and help people and often
managed to manipulate Hermann into aiding him. Albert
even once drove a convoy of trucks to the concentration
camp ghetto at Theresienstadt and used his name to
get thousands of prisoners released. By the 1940s the
SS had files on Albert and he had been arrested several
times, but on each occasion his brother had got him
released. However in 1944 a death warrant was issued
and Albert was a wanted man.
At the end of the war Albert was arrested by the Allies
because of his family name. When he was put in front of
investigators he protested his innocence and presented
a list of 34 Jewish people he had personally saved.
The investigators refused to believe him. It would take
another two years before Albert was believed and finally
released. His name however continued to haunt him, with
many employers refusing to give him a job. He became
depressed, started to drink heavily, and came to rely on
donations from those Jews he had helped to save. He
eventually died in 1966 as a virtual unknown.
Things to discuss
➤ A
lbert and Hermann were very different, even as children. How can our childhood
influence the sort of adults that we become?
➤ D
o you think Albert was right to stop talking to Hermann once he joined the Nazis?
➤ W
hy do you think Albert decided to join the women in Vienna? What do his actions
tell us about him as a person?
➤ H
ermann Göring was a leading Nazi and was convicted for war crimes. However,
he always helped his brother – even when Albert was helping Jews. How can we
explain this?
Tadeusz Gebethner
T
adeusz was born in 1897 in Warsaw, Poland.
His grandfather, Gustaw Adolf, was a founder
of a large publishing house called Gebethner
and Wolff. From an early age Tadeusz was a keen
sportsman, and he soon joined his local football team
‘Polonia’. Polonia had been founded in 1911, and had
members from all sorts of different social groups. The
club also had a reputation for welcoming players from
different ethnic and religious minorities – including Jews.
Tadeusz became a popular player for the team, and also
served as president of the club.
When Germany invaded Poland in September 1939
Tadeusz had no hesitation in joining the army. The Polish
forces were quickly overrun and Tadeusz, together with
other captured comrades, was imprisoned. While he was
being held in Lithuania, Tadeusz managed to escape to
Vilnius and found refuge in a bookstore owned by his
grandfather’s publishers. Here he began working with
the underground against the Nazis, and also started
providing aid to Jews.
Tadeusz returned to Warsaw and soon found himself
in a position to make a real difference to someone’s life.
A Jewish woman called Ludwika Abrahamer arrived in
the city in summer 1942 with her 12-year-old daughter
Alina, after managing to survive a massacre near Krakow.
The pair needed refuge, and Ludwika turned to an old
friend for help. The friend, who had once been a manager
of a Gebethner and Wolff bookshop, couldn’t help them
– but approached Tadeusz to see if he could. Tadeusz
agreed to shelter the
strangers, and later
also took in Ludwika’s
husband Solomon.
Tadeusz not only gave the Abrahamer family a home, but
he also went to great lengths to help them as much as he
could. He helped them to acquire false identity papers,
and also arranged for a surgeon to treat Solomon when
he needed an emergency eye operation.
In 1943 informers told the Polish police about the
Abrahamers, but to prevent them being handed over
to the Germans Tadeusz gave the police a large sum of
money. Later in early 1944 he helped the family flee to
Hungary, which at that time was safer than Poland. It
was this move that helped ensure that the Abrahamers
survived the Holocaust.
In the summer of 1944 there was a huge uprising
against the German forces in Warsaw. Tadeusz was one
of the leading commanders of this rebellion, but was
severely wounded in the conflict with doctors forced
to amputate one of his arms and one of his legs. He
eventually died in a German prisoner of war camp in
October 1944.
37 years later in 1981, Alina Abrahamer wrote to the
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem – the world famous Holocaust
memorial centre – asking for Tadeusz to be awarded the
title of Righteous among the Nations for rescuing her and
her family. Yad Vashem agreed, and Alina and her mother
planted a tree at Yad Vashem to honour Tadeusz.
Things to discuss
➤ H
ow do you think Tadeusz’s love of sport and career as a footballer shaped him as
a person?
➤ W
hy was Tadeusz so eager to join and fight in the Polish army in September 1939?
➤ B
y giving shelter to the Abrahamer family Tadeusz was playing a dangerous game,
yet he went even further on occasions. How do we explain Tadeusz’s actions?
➤ T adeusz had already experienced imprisonment before 1944, and knew the risks
involved – so why did he take part in the Warsaw Uprising?
➤ T adeusz was passionately patriotic. Is nationalism always a bad thing?
Maximilian Kolbe
M
aximilian was born Raymond Kolbe in
Poland in 1894. As a child he often got up
to mischief, but by the time he was 12 his
religious beliefs became stronger after he had a
vision of the Virgin Mary. A year later Maximilian joined
a school where pupils learnt religious teachings. By the
time he was 16 he began his formal training to follow a
life in religion, adopting the name Maximilian and making
special vows.
In 1915 Maximilian completed a degree in philosophy,
and moved to Rome to undertake further study. Soon he
contracted tuberculosis which severely affected his health
for the rest of his life. Four years later Maximilian returned
to Poland. Over the next decade Maximilian worked
tirelessly to spread the word of God and combat religious
intolerance, publishing a magazine called “Knight of the
Immaculate” and founding a new monastery.
In 1930 he travelled to Japan and within a month
started publishing a Japanese version of his magazine.
A year later Maximilian founded another monastery, this
time in Nagasaki, which remarkably managed to survive
the atomic bomb dropped on the city in 1945. Maximilian
then travelled to India and established a third monastery
there, although this later closed down.
Maximilian’s health continued to worsen, forcing
him to finish his missionary work in 1936 and return to
Poland. However, this did not prevent him from widening
circulation of his magazine, and starting up a radio station
so as to reach a wider audience of people.
In September 1939 Poland was invaded by Nazi
Germany. Maximilian
and others from his
monastery were
briefly arrested before being released. For the next two
years Maximilian and his friars gave refuge to refugees,
many of whom were Jewish. In February 1941 he was
arrested, and in May transferred to Auschwitz.
At Auschwitz Maximilian was frequently beaten, partly
because of his refusal to resist and his convictions.
Despite this he still gave other prisoners care, listened
to their confessions, and administered communion. One
day in July there was an escape from the camp. As usual,
the Nazis selected 10 prisoners at random to be killed
as retribution for each person that had escaped. One
of these men was Francis Gajowniczek – a man with a
wife and children. On learning this, Maximilian stepped
forward and said “I am a Catholic priest from Poland. Let
me take his place.”
Maximilian and the 9 other inmates were taken to
Block 11 – the camp prison. Here they were placed in
cells and starved of food or water. Few survived more
than a matter of hours. However, every day Maximilian
was found in his cell deep in prayer and unbroken, until
after two weeks he was the only one left alive. Needing
the cell for new victims, the guards injected carbolic acid
into Maximilian’s arm while he was still fully conscious.
He died soon after.
Maximilian was canonized as a martyr by Pope John
Paul II in 1982.
Things to discuss
➤ W
hat effect did Maximilian’s vision of the Virgin Mary have upon him?
➤ H
ow, if at all, did tuberculosis affect Maximilian’s life?
➤ W
hy did Maximilian take Francis Gajowniczek’s place?
➤ W
hat do we learn from the story of Maximilian Kolbe?
Irma Grese
I
rma was born on 7th October 1923, in Wrechen –
a small town in Northern Germany. Irma’s family
had an agricultural background, with her father
Alfred a dairy farmer. She had two brothers and two
sisters, one of whom was called Helene. According to
Helene, when Irma was a young girl at school she “never
had the courage to fight” other girls but would instead
“run away”. In 1936 Irma’s mother committed suicide,
apparently due to problems in her marriage with her
husband.
In 1938 Irma left elementary school, and spent half
of the following year doing agricultural jobs on a farm
and the rest of the time working in a shop. After these
experiences Irma went to a hospital in Hohenluchen
where she tried to train as an apprentice nurse. It was
during these middle-teenage years that Irma developed
a passionate interest in the work of the League of
German Girls – a youth organization attached to the
Hitler Youth movement which sought amongst other
things to indoctrinate girls with Nazi beliefs and ideology.
Although Irma’s father Albert was himself a member of
the Nazi Party, he was far from happy with his daughter’s
involvement in the League.
After two years at Hohenluchen Irma’s hope of
becoming a nurse were dashed in 1940 by the Labour
Exchange – an organization which allocated jobs to the
workforce. Instead, they sent the 17 year-old to work at
a dairy in Fürstenburg; much to Irma’s disappointment.
Two years later in 1942, she tried once again to train as
a nurse. As before the Labour Exchange rejected her
request, but instead of sending Irma back to the farms
she was placed in July at Ravensbrück – an infamous
concentration camp in northern Germany which housed
only women and was
becoming a training
centre for female
SS camp guards. Irma later claimed that she “protested
against” being sent to the camp.
Less than a year later in March 1943 the 19 year-old
Irma was transferred from Ravensbrück to AuschwitzBirkenau – the extermination centre of the Auschwitz
camp system and a key site in the Holocaust. Before
moving to Auschwitz Irma returned home to visit her
family. When they asked about her work Irma said that
she merely guarded prisoners and made sure they
did the work they were supposed to. The reality was
somewhat different of course, but her involvement in the
SS made her father very angry. They both argued, and it
is rumoured that Albert thrashed Irma. She never returned
home again.
At Birkenau Irma moved rapidly through the ranks,
becoming Senior Supervisor within nine months – the
second highest ranking woman and responsible for
some 30,000 prisoners. In part this was because of her
enthusiasm for her job, but her good looks played a part
too. She quickly achieved a reputation for brutality and
cruelty, so much so she became known as the “Beautiful
Beast” as she assisted in selections for the gas chamber
and frequently abused prisoners. As the war drew to a
close Irma returned to Ravensbrück and then the BergenBelsen camp in March 1945. When the British army
liberated the camp a month later, Irma was arrested and
tried for war crimes that autumn. She was convicted
and sentenced to death by hanging; a judgement she
unsuccessfully appealed against. On 13th December
1945 she was executed aged just 22.
Things to discuss
➤ What sort of girl was Irma? What effect(s) could her childhood have had on her?
➤ Irma left school at a very young age. What difference may this have had?
➤ W
hat does Irma’s story reveal to us about the role of youth organizations in Nazi Germany?
➤ Is it possible for us to explain Irma’s actions?
Charlotte Salomon
C
harlotte was born on 16th April 1917 in Berlin,
to an assimilated German-Jewish family. Her
father Albert was a well respected surgeon,
while her mother Franziska was a nurse. Some four
years earlier, Franziska’s sister had drowned herself
and as an act of remembrance the couple decided to
give Charlotte her aunt’s name.
Depression and mental illness cast a long shadow
over Charlotte’s family tree, and in 1926 Franziska
committed suicide by throwing herself out of a window in
the Salomon’s apartment. Charlotte was just nine at the
time, and was told that her mother had died of influenza.
Four years later her father Albert met a famous opera
singer called Paula Lindberg, and re-married soon after.
In January 1933 Hitler was appointed Chancellor, and
the Jews of Germany were soon subjected to antisemitic
persecution. Remarkably however Charlotte was able
in 1936 to earn a place at Berlin’s famous State Art
Academy – despite being “100%” Jewish according
to Nazi legislation. She studied at the Academy until
Kristallnacht in 1938, after which time being Jewish
became even more dangerous.
As conditions worsened in Germany Albert and Paula
decided in early 1939 to flee Germany for Amsterdam.
Charlotte was sent her to stay with her late mother’s
parents, the Grunwalds, who had found refuge on the
south coast of France in a town called Villefranche.
Charlotte’s relationship with her grandparents
was strained in September 1939 when Charlotte’s
grandmother attempted to hang herself. While she
lay recovering Charlotte was told the truth about her
mother’s death and the secret of the family’s suicidal
history. Within a
year Charlotte’s
grandmother also committed suicide.
In the summer of 1940, Charlotte and her grandfather
were arrested and imprisoned in a detention camp at
Gurs. Due to his age the grandfather was eventually
released, with Charlotte allowed to accompany and live
with him in Nice. It was here that Charlotte began working
on her massive, autobiographical art project, which she
entitled Life or Theatre? Eventually consisting of over a
thousand paintings with accompanying descriptions and
created over the next three years, Life or Theatre? relayed
the events of Charlotte’s life. It included the suicides
of her mother and grandmother, the fate of her friends,
her flight from Germany, the plight of Jews in mainland
Europe and her own personal romantic thoughts.
In February 1943 Charlotte’s grandfather died and
she returned to Villefranche. She began a relationship
with Alexander Nagler, a Jewish refugee from Austria,
and the pair soon married. However, the Nazi occupation
of the French Riviera in September 1943 brought a
change in fortunes. Jews found in the region were
systematically rounded up for deportation, but before
she was transported Charlotte managed to give her
paintings to a friend for safekeeping. Days later Charlotte
and Alexander were taken to a transit camp in Drancy,
near Paris, before finally arriving at Auschwitz-Birkenau
in October 1943. By now Charlotte was visibly pregnant,
and on arrival was sent to the gas chambers. Alexander
though initially selected for work, was also later killed.
After the war Charlotte’s father Albert uncovered Life or
Theatre? and brought the paintings to Amsterdam.
Things to discuss
➤ Why did families like the Salomons leave it so late before they left Germany?
➤ What reasons did the family have for not telling Charlotte the truth about her mother?
➤ How did Life or Theatre? help Charlotte to survive?
➤ What is the value of Charlotte’s paintings today?
Marianne Cohn
M
arianne was born in Mannheim, Germany,
on 17th September 1922. Her parents,
Margaret and Alfred, were both academics
and moved with Marianne and her sister to Berlin in
1929. By 1934, the antisemitic policies of the Nazi regime
convinced Margaret and Alfred that it was necessary
to leave Germany, and the family sought refuge firstly
in Spain. As civil war broke out Marianne and her sister
Lisa were sent to stay with their uncle in Paris, with their
parents following soon afterwards.
Once in France the Cohn family were able to live in
relative peace, before the beginning of the Second World
War in September 1939 raised the prospect of new
dangers. The first of these was arrest, for as they were
Germans, Margaret and Alfred were assumed to be a
threat. As a result they were imprisoned at an internment
camp named Gurs, while Marianne and her sister were
taken to a children’s home run by the French Jewish
Scouts.
In the summer of 1940 the German army had
conquered France, and the country was divided. In
the north and west, the land was occupied by German
forces, with the remaining southern “Free Zone” declared
an independent state. This area was ruled by the Vichy
government, which in fact collaborated with Nazi
Germany. The French Jewish Scouts moved their homes
into this “Free Zone”, and increasingly began to take in
Jewish children held in Nazi camps.
It was through her involvement in the French Jewish
Scouts that Marianne’s life changed yet again. In March
1942 the Nazis began to deport Jews from France to
the extermination centres in Eastern Europe. Marianne,
who by this time was
still only 19, became
increasingly active
in the Scouts work, which included supplying children
with forged papers, placing them in safe houses and
smuggling them out of France. To help her in this work
she adopted a false identity – Marianne Colin – which
helped her when she was first arrested in 1943 as it
disguised her Jewish background and lead to her release.
In October that same year, two of Marianne’s associates
in the Resistance were arrested. Marianne now assumed
responsibility for transporting and accompanying children
across the French border into the safety of Switzerland,
which was neutral in the war.
On May 31 1944 Marianne was running one such
journey, driving 28 children towards the Swiss border.
On route she was stopped by a German patrol and
immediately arrested. Marianne and the children were
taken to the Pax Hotel in Annemasse, which was being
used as a Gestapo prison. The mayor of the town – Jean
Deffaugt – was also part of the Resistance, and was able
through cunning to secure the release of some of the
children. He also planned to help Marianne to escape
but she refused, saying that she would not abandon the
children. The Nazis spent hours torturing Marianne in the
hope of getting information from her, but she refused to
give them any. It was between these sessions that she
wrote the poem “I shall betray tomorrow”.
On the night of 8th July 1944 Cohn was murdered.
She was 21 years old. The smuggling of children by the
Resistance had saved the lives of around 1,600 people.
Things to discuss
➤ Why didn’t the Cohn family try to escape from Europe before war began?
➤ In 1939 Marianne’s parents were arrested not because they were Jewish, but because they were
German. What reason did the French authorities have for doing this?
➤ Do you think Marianne was brave or foolish for doing what she did?
➤ What did Marianne mean “I shall betray tomorrow”? Why is her story important for us today?
Mendel Grossman
M
endel was born in 1917 in Poland. His
parents were relatively poor orthodox Jews,
but he would not come to follow a traditional
religious lifestyle. Instead, from a young age Mendel
dreamed of becoming an artist so that he could make
the most of his love for drawing and painting.
In order to help support his family Mendel taught
himself photography, and became a professional
photographer. In the 1930s, he earned a small income by
taking pictures of the Habimah theatre company during
its tour in the Polish city of Łódź. He also started to take
photographs of everyday Jewish life in the streets of
the city, and as a result his reputation increased. In the
summer of 1939 a Jewish children’s health organisation
asked him to help them create a photograph album.
However, although Mendel enthusiastically took the job
the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany meant that the
album was never published.
Łódź was occupied by the Nazis soon after war
began, and became incorporated into Germany as
part of the Warthegau district. The city was renamed
“Litzmannstadt”, and in February 1940 a ghetto was
created. The ghetto was surrounded by barbed-wire, and
became “home” for the city’s 160,000 Jews – including
Mendel and his family.
The Germans made it illegal for photographs to be
taken in the ghetto, and this was enforced by the Jewish
Council (Judenrat) which banned personal and private
photography at the end of 1941. Mendel found a job in
the Statistics Department in the ghetto, where he worked
taking official pictures for the Nazis and the Jewish
Council. These included taking photographs of different
industries which were intended to prove that the ghetto
had economic value. Because the Nazis demanded
all Jews were formally registered, Mendel also took
photographs for identity cards.
Mendel began to take other, unofficial pictures too.
Working in secret, Mendel and some of his colleagues
decided to photograph the ordeals of daily life in the
ghetto. This included the experience of starvation, Nazi
attacks, and the process of deportation. Since making
such photographs was completely forbidden, Mendel
hid his camera beneath his coat and made holes in his
jacket pockets so as to take the pictures without anyone
knowing. Some of these pictures were then developed
and placed in the ghetto’s underground archive.
In the summer of 1944 it was decided to liquidate
the few Jews who remained in the ghetto. Before he
was deported, Mendel managed to hide some 10,000
negatives – some of which were placed in a wooden box
buried in a wall. Mendel then ended up in a labour camp
in Germany, before he was sent on a death march in April
1945. Though he had kept his camera, during the walk
he collapsed and died. His sister managed to survive
the war, and on liberation returned to Łódź to retrieve
Mendel’s negatives. She took them with her to Israel,
where many of them were lost during the Israeli War of
Independence in 1948.
Things to discuss
➤Why is it important to know what Jews did before the Holocaust?
➤Mendel took huge risks in taking his secret pictures – what may have been his
reasons?
➤What was the purpose of proving that the Łódź ghetto had economic value?
➤How useful are the photographs of Mendel Grossman to us today?
Abraham Gancwajch
A
braham was born in the Polish city of
Czestochowa in 1904. From an early age he
showed he was intelligent and talented, and
even went on to become a certified Rabbi. Abraham
was very much a man of mystery, but we do know that he
worked as a journalist and spent time travelling. Before
Austria was incorporated into the Third Reich in 1938,
Abraham lived in Vienna with his wife and son where he
worked on an anti-Nazi publication with a man named
Wilhelm Ohlenbusch. After the Anschluss Abraham
moved his family to the Polish city of Łódź , where he
continued his writing.
Soon after Germany invaded Poland, Łódź fell under
Nazi occupation. As a known anti-Nazi Abraham was in
real danger of being arrested, but he managed to escape
Łódź with the help of his old colleague Wilhelm – who,
it turned out, was not what he seemed. In fact, Wilhelm
was a Nazi agent who had been spying in Vienna and
was now responsible for propaganda in the Warsaw area.
With Wilhelm’s help Abraham moved to Warsaw, and
when the ghetto was established Abraham was given
all sorts of special concessions - including not having to
wear a Star of David, and being able to go the Aryan side
of the city freely as he wished. In exchange, Abraham
was to report to the local Gestapo about everything that
was going on in the ghetto.
Abraham believed that as the Nazis were certain to
win the war, it was necessary for Jews to start adapting
to life under their rule and making themselves more
valuable to the Germans. He soon took advantage of his
privileges, starting various commercial activities and also
becoming leader of an organisation set up by the Nazis
within the ghetto. Established in the autumn of 1940, this
organisation became known as “the Thirteen” because
of its address at 13 Leszno Street. Its main aim was to
prevent profiteering, but in reality the Thirteen instead
used blackmail and intimidation to force business into
paying for protection.
Some 400 people worked for the Thirteen, and all
wore a uniform very similar to the ghetto’s Jewish Police.
Many began to fear the Thirteen and Abraham, but
because of his links with the Nazis he was also known to
be able to get things done that other people in the ghetto
could not. Abraham enjoyed having this influence, as
he wished to ultimately become the leading figure in the
ghetto and replace the Jewish Council. He sought to gain
support by hosting lavish events and also distributing
food to the most needy. However, Abraham’s position
always depended on the Nazis goodwill.
In July 1941 the Nazis closed down the Thirteen’s
work against profiteering. In response, the organisation
focused on its “First Aid” programme – a project which
in theory provided emergency services, but was often
used for illegal business dealings. By April 1942 the Nazis
turned against Abraham, and he was to be arrested as
part of a raid on the ghetto. Having heard about this in
advance Abraham was able to escape and go into hiding,
but he later reappeared on the Aryan side of Warsaw
where he acted as an informer. Although we do not know
for certain what happened to him, it is most likely that
Abraham was eventually caught by the Nazis and shot
with his family in April 1943.
Things to discuss
➤Why did some people decide to collaborate with the Nazis?
➤Why would a Nazi ever help a Jew?
➤How can we explain Abraham’s change from anti-Nazi to collaborator?
➤In what ways can the story of Abraham Gancwajch challenge our understanding of
the Holocaust?
Hannah Szenes
H
annah was born in 1921 into Jewish family
living in Hungary. Her father was a well known
writer and dearly loved by Hannah, but he died
when she was just 6 years old. Other members of her
family were also artistically talented, and as she grew
up Hannah found that she too was good with words.
She kept a diary from the age of 13, and she also
wrote brilliant poetry.
Hannah’s family were well integrated into Hungarian
society and were not practising Jews, but they were still
often treated differently. One example of this came when
Hannah was 10 years old and she joined a new school.
The school was Protestant, but it accepted Catholics and
Jews as well. However, the fees for Jewish children cost
more than they did for anyone else. Hannah’s mother
complained at this discrimination, and because Hannah
was such an excellent student, the school lowered her
fees. Although she enjoyed studying, Hannah became
increasingly frustrated by the growing hostility shown
towards Jews in 1930s Hungary.
More and more Hannah was experiencing
antisemitism first-hand, and her diary became an outlet
for her thoughts and her feelings. After an incident at
school where she was not allowed to be an officer of
the Literary Society because she was Jewish, Hannah
wrote in her diary that she “didn’t care” about the Society
anymore. Instead she became very interested in Jewish
culture and history – particularly in the ideas of Zionist
writers, who argued that Jews needed to return to their
ancient homeland in Palestine. Quickly, Hannah found
that she shared such views.
In 1939 Hannah decided that she wanted to move
to Palestine and help build a new country for Jews. She
taught herself Hebrew, and applied for a place at the
Nahalal Girls School of Agriculture in Palestine. She was
accepted soon after her 18th birthday and left Hungary in
the autumn. Hannah became a valuable member of her
new school, organising cultural events and farming the
land. After finishing school in 1941 she joined a kibbutz,
but she became more and more concerned about news
from Europe. In 1943 she made the decision to enlist in
the Jewish Palestinian defence unit in the British army,
and in January 1944 she left for Europe on a secret
mission.
In March, Hannah and four male companions were
parachuted into Yugoslavia instructed to find partisans
and rescue abandoned British pilots. After fighting with
the partisans for three months and hearing reports of
increasing atrocities involving Hungarian Jews, Hannah
and others decided to cross the border and enter
Hungary. The group were arrested right away, and
Hannah – who was caught with a British transmitter
radio – was taken away for questioning. She was beaten
and tortured by the Nazis as they tried to get valuable
information. They even threatened to attack her mother,
but Hannah refused to cooperate.
Five months later Hannah was put on trial for treason.
She defended herself against the charge, but was found
guilty nonetheless. She was sentenced to death and
executed on 7th November 1944. As she waited for her
execution Hannah wrote her last poem – beginning with
the words “one, two, three eight feet long...”
Things to discuss
➤How would you describe Hannah? What sort of character was she?
➤What effects did Hannah’s experience of antisemitism have on her?
➤Hannah was safe in Palestine; why then did she volunteer to go back to Europe?
➤How do you interpret Hannah’s final poem?
Zofia Kossak
Z
ofia was born in 1890 into a Polish Catholic
family of well-known painters. The family lived
in Central and then Eastern Poland, meaning
that by the time she was 30 Zofia’s life had already
been touched by the events of the First World War
and the Bolshevik Revolution.
Following the death of her first husband, Zofia moved
back into the family home in Gorki Wielkie, southern
Poland, with her two young sons. It was here in a 300year old manor house that Zofia continued her early
career as a writer. Her first book – Pozoga later published
as “The Blaze” in English – described her experiences
during the Bolshevik Revolution. The book was a
success, and Zofia followed this with The Troubles of
a Gnome – a children’s story set in the Manor House
starring Zofia’s sons, which would become one of
Poland’s best-loved books.
Zofia soon became a very successful and popular
writer, even being given the Golden Laurel Award from
the Polish Academy of Literature in 1936. By now
Zofia was also publishing various magazine articles. In
these Zofia expressed her strong Catholic beliefs, her
patriotism, and her view that Jews were the enemies of
Poland – suggesting that “Jews are so terribly alien to us,
alien and unpleasant, that they are a race apart”. Such
views were not uncommon in various parts of Europe
at this time, but they have been interpreted as clear
evidence that Zofia was antisemitic.
At the time of the Nazi invasion of Poland Zofia
was living in Warsaw. She became heavily involved in
the activities of the Polish resistance, working on the
underground printing press and leading the right-wing
patriotic Catholic organisation “Front for the Rebirth of
Poland”. In August 1942, following deportations from
the Warsaw ghetto, this group published 5,000 copies
of a leaflet entitled “Protest”, written by Zofia. She noted
that “millions of defenceless humans are slaughtered in
the midst of a general sinister silence” and that everyone
was “washing their hands” from helping the Jews. For
Zofia, God demanded that the Catholics of Poland
protest against the Holocaust, because those who
did not became an accomplice to it. Importantly Zofia
emphasised that “our feelings towards the Jews have not
changed. We still consider them to be political, economic
and ideological enemies of Poland”, but “awareness of
these feelings, however, does not relieve us of our duty
to condemn the crime”. A month or so later in September
1942 Zofia co-founded Zegota (Council for Aid to Jews)
which helped thousands in a variety of ways.
In September 1943 Zofia was arrested, although as
she was using an alias the Nazis did not realise just who
she was. She was then transported to Auschwitz, and
then moved to the notorious Pawiak Prison before being
released in the summer of 1944. Zofia then took part in
the Warsaw Uprising. At the end of the war a Communist
government took over Poland, and Zofia was advised to
leave the country for her own safety. She left for England,
before returning to Poland in the 1950s where she
lived until the end of her life. After her death, Zofia was
honoured by the State of Israel as one of the Righteous
Among The Nations in recognition of her efforts to rescue
Jews.
Things to discuss
➤ What does “antisemitism” mean?
➤ Do you think Zofia was an antisemite? How would you support your answer?
➤ Why did Zofia write the “Protest” leaflet? What was she trying to achieve?
➤If it is possible to dislike Jews and yet try and rescue them as well, what questions
does this raise about the Holocaust?
Kristina Söderbaum
K
ristina was born in 1912 in Stockholm,
Sweden. Her father – Professor Henrik
Gustaf Söderbaum – was a famous Swedish
scientist and a leading figure in various academic
organisations. Kristina however, would become
famous for quite different reasons.
In the early 1930s, Kristina spent some time living
in Paris before she moved to Berlin following the death
of both of her parents. On arriving in the city Kristina
enrolled to study history of art at college and also began
taking acting lessons. It was during this time that Kristina
came to the attention of the well-known director Veit
Harlan, who had recently made a number of pro-Nazi
films. Veit was thought of very highly by leading Nazis,
in particular the man in charge of propaganda: Josef
Goebbels. Soon after meeting her, Veit decided to cast
Kristina in a number of his films. Among the first of these
was Jugend (“Youth”), which was released in 1938 and
saw Kristina play a character who commits suicide. A
year later Kristina and Veit decided to marry.
In 1940 Kristina appeared as Dorothea Strum in
perhaps the most infamous antisemitic film to come
out of Nazi Germany. Commissioned by Goebbels, and
written and directed by her new husband, the film was
called Jud Süss. In the film, the main character is a
Jew named Süss Oppenheimer, who advises and lends
money to a German Duke and gradually becomes very
rich and powerful. Süss uses his wealth and influence for
his own benefit, whilst also trying to have a relationship
with a married Christian woman named Dorothea Sturm.
Although Dorothea is not interested in Süss, she is
tricked and sexually attacked by him. Eventually Süss is
arrested and executed, but Dorothea is unable to recover
from the experience and so drowns herself.
The film played on and reinforced a range of
stereotypes. Throughout the film Jews were presented
as devious villains driven by money, who posed a
fundamental threat to the well-being and health of nonJewish society. This was especially portrayed by Süss’
actions towards Dorothea, since she was presented as
the stereotypical Aryan woman. With her blonde hair and
blue eyes, Kristina fitted the role of Dorothea perfectly.
Jud Süss was enormously successful in cinemas,
but it was also screened to SS units and others involved
in the deportation and extermination of Europe’s Jews.
Kristina and Veit worked on other, pro-Nazi films, with
Kristina gaining a reputation for playing stereotypical
“Aryan” women – most of who would end up drowning.
In the immediate post-war years Kristina and Veit
experienced a backlash against their films. Whilst Veit
was tried – and acquitted – for his involvement with the
Nazis, both he and Kristina were heckled in public, and
on occasions asked to leave film screenings. However,
she also remained very popular and successful as both
an actress and photographer.
In 1983 Kristina wrote her memoirs and in 1994
made her last film – Night Train to Venice – alongside
Hugh Grant. By the time of her death in 2001, Kristina
had indicated that she regretted her association with
Jud Süss.
Things to discuss
➤ Why did the Nazis see movies as particularly useful for spreading propaganda?
➤ Are your thoughts and beliefs shaped by films or television?
➤ Was Kristina actually “guilty” of anything?
➤ What is the significance of the box office success of Jud Süss?
Otto Weidt
O
tto was born on 2nd May 1883 into a workingclass German family living in Rostock,
northern Germany. Otto’s childhood was
modest, and after attending school he followed
in his father’s footsteps and began training as an
upholsterer and wallpaper hanger.
The family moved to Berlin, where Otto married in
1913. As a pacifist, Otto was unenthusiastic about the
outbreak of World War One, and he managed to avoid
military service due to a medical condition. Otto was less
successful however in his work as a decorator, and due
to his deteriorating eyesight he was forced to give up his
job.
In 1936 Otto decided to try a new business venture.
He set up a factory making brooms and brushes in a
basement, but Otto’s factory was distinctly different
to most other businesses for one simple reason: the
workforce was almost entirely made up of deaf, dumb or
blind Jews. Otto’s workers came from the Jewish Home
for the Blind based in Berlin, and at a time when German
Jews were suffering growing persecution, the opportunity
to work in the factory was most welcome.
The beginning of World War Two brought about
changes in the way Nazis treated Jews under their
control, and Otto’s “Workshop for the Blind” had to
adapt to these new conditions. In order to survive, it
became increasingly essential for the Workshop to be
seen as useful, and it was able to do this by producing
materials for the Wehrmacht. As a result, the factory
was considered by officials as “important for the war”. In
© Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt
1940 the Workshop moved to larger premises and a year
later some 35 people worked for Otto. The majority were
Jews, many of whom were blind and/or deaf, and three of
these worked directly in Otto’s office. This was forbidden,
so whenever the Gestapo arrived to inspect the factory
a bell rang to warn those who could hear and give them
time to hide the others.
Although the factory was valuable to the Nazi war
effort, once the deportations of German Jews began
Otto’s workers were as much in danger as anyone else.
On one occasion in 1942, some were arrested but were
eventually released after Otto bribed the relevant officials.
By February 1943, the Nazis decided to deport all the
Jews left in Berlin to the East. Otto had known about
this in advance, so on the day of “Operation Factory”
he made sure that the Workshop was closed. However,
many of his workers were taken from their homes. In
October, the Gestapo found out from an informer that
some Jews were still hiding in Otto’s Workshop, so
the factory was raided and those not married to nonJews were deported. Among this group was Alice Licht,
who was sent to Auschwitz and then Gross-Rosen
concentration camp. Otto followed Alice, and managed to
help her escape by hiding food and clothes for her. She
then lived out the last days of the war in his apartment.
At the end of the war Otto created a home for young
and old Jews in Berlin, before he died in 1947. We do not
know exactly how many lives were saved by Otto and
his Workshop but his actions were recognised with the
award of Righteous Among the Nations in 1971.
Things to discuss
➤ How would you describe Otto? What sort of character was he?
➤ Why may Otto have decided to mainly employ deaf, dumb and blind Jews?
➤How can we explain the fact that the Nazis planned to murder all of Europe’s Jews,
yet were also willing to let businesses like Otto’s exist?
➤People like Otto were remarkable but also exceptional. What does this tell us about
how people responded to the Holocaust?