Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

Over 3,150 rockets have been fired by Palestinian militant group Hamas from Gaza into southern and central Israel over the past week, targeting both Israeli population centers and border villages. Approximately 90% of those Hamas rockets have been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, according to Israeli officials.

Bystander videos have documented the anti-missile system in action: curving streaks of light, nearly resembling firecrackers, meet rockets mid-trajectory. Seconds later, a bright flash and loud boom, signaling the rocket's interception. Shrapnel falls to the ground.

Israeli officials credit the Iron Dome with saving thousands of civilian lives. They say Hamas rocket fire in recent days has killed 12 people, including two children. In Gaza, without a similar defense, the toll has been far greater: At least 213 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, including 61 children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

When the Iron Dome technology was declared operational in 2011, it was regarded as a "game-changer" for modern warfare.

According to the Israeli Defense Ministry, the targeting system uses radar and advanced tracking technology to follow the trajectory of incoming projectiles and determine if they pose a threat to a major population center. After measuring the speed and direction of the rockets, the intercepting Iron Dome missiles are fired, intended to detonate the projectiles mid-air.

It's like a "bullet shooting down another bullet," the late "60 Minutes" correspondent Bob Simon reported in 2013. It applies the laws of physics to short-range rockets traveling between 500 and 1,000 miles per hour.

A constellation of Iron Dome "batteries" comprise the defense system, according to Israelis. Each battery has its own radar, command-and-control center and launchers that fire the Tamir interceptor missiles.

Currently, there are 10 Iron Dome batteries deployed throughout Israel, with each battery intended to defend 60 square miles.

According to Raytheon, a U.S. defense contractor that produces up to 70% of the components of the Iron Dome's interceptors, each battery has three launchers loaded with up to 20 Tamir interceptor missiles each.

The Iron Dome was developed with the support of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid from the United States government, backed by the then-Obama administration, according to congressional reports that track U.S. foreign aid to Israel.

U.S. aid for the project continued beyond its development, particularly as Israeli defense officials made technological upgrades to the system. In 2014, for example, during an escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas, the House and Senate approved a $225 million bill to restock the Iron Dome's interceptors.

Shooting down thousands of missiles quickly becomes an expensive proposition. The cost of the interceptor missile is about $40,000-50,000, according to the Institute for National Security Studies, a prominent Israeli think tank.

The U.S. government still provides critical financial support. A Congressional Research Service report outlines aid the United States has provided over the defense system's history, as of November 2020: "$1.6 billion to Israel for Iron Dome batteries, interceptors, co-production costs, and general maintenance."

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Israel's Iron Dome has blocked thousands of incoming rockets. Here's how it works. - CBS News

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

If you oppose war crimes only by your enemies, its not clear that you actually oppose war crimes.

Thats a thought worth wrestling with as many experts suggest that both Hamas and Israel are engaging in crimes of war in the current Gaza conflict. For the same reason that we deplore Hamass shelling of Israel, shouldnt we also demand that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel accept a cease-fire and stop bombings that kill far greater numbers of innocents?

The United States was the first country to recognize Israel upon its founding in 1948, and one of the few things that Democrats and Republicans have mostly agreed on over the decades is unwavering support for Israel.

The deep bonds of friendship between the U.S. and Israel remain as strong and unshakable as ever, President Barack Obama wrote soon after taking office.

Yet today, especially within the Democratic Party, those bonds are shaking as Netanyahu resists a cease-fire in Gaza. He leaves us wondering: Why should our tax dollars subsidize a rain of destruction that has killed scores of children, damaged 17 hospitals and clinics and forced 72,000 people to flee their homes?

President Biden has blocked the United Nations Security Council from calling for a cease-fire. He apparently believes that he can accomplish more with private diplomacy than with public rebukes. Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel, Biden said in 2010.

Alas, its difficult to spot this progress. Netanyahu has used American cover to expand settlements and pretty much destroy any hope of a two-state solution. He has winked at domestic extremism, so that at least 100 new WhatsApp groups in Israel (with names like Death to Arabs) encourage violence against Palestinians. And now he is bombing Gaza and igniting street fighting that President Reuven Rivlin of Israel has called a civil war.

Some progress! Some young Americans see the rise of this hawkish, more extremist Israel and perceive not a plucky democracy but an oppressive military power. What strikes them most isnt democratic values so much as what Human Rights Watch calls crimes of apartheid. Netanyahu also undermined bipartisan American support for Israel by undercutting Democrats like Obama and aligning himself at the hip with Donald Trump and Americas right wing.

Many of us admire a great deal about Israel. At home it has a robust democracy that gives more rights to Arab citizens than its neighbors do: Thank God Israel treats its Arab citizens better than Egypt, Syria or Saudi Arabia treat their Arab citizens.

Yet theres also the other Israel that systematically discriminates against Palestinians in the occupied territories and seems to think it can indefinitely control them and grab their land and water without giving them voting rights.

Defenders of Israels policy in Gaza note that Israel sometimes warns people before destroying their buildings, that Israel, in contrast to Hamas, is not trying to kill as many civilians as possible, and that Hamas often locates military sites in civilian areas in ways that make collateral damage more likely. All true. But America should aspire to have allies with a higher moral standard than better than Hamas.

Its also troubling that while the destruction of Gaza helps Netanyahu politically, it doesnt seem to have any strategic purpose. Indeed, it arguably helps Hamas.

This is Israels most failed and pointless Gaza operation ever, wrote Aluf Benn, the editor of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

So bravo to Senators Bernie Sanders and Jon Ossoff for showing leadership in Congress by standing up to Netanyahu. Its notable that both men are Jewish, for today the strongest supporters of Netanyahus hard-line policies are not American Jews but white evangelical Christians. A Pew survey last year found that fewer than one-third of young Jews in the United States rated Netanyahu as good or excellent, and barely one-quarter strongly opposed the B.D.S. movement to boycott Israel.

In a recent column, I asked why giving $3.8 billion a year in military assistance to a rich country like Israel is the best use of that money, instead of, say, vaccinating people in poor countries against Covid-19.

I braced myself for a torrent of criticism. There was some, much of it making legitimate counterpoints. But what struck me was how many people simply agreed with me in a way that would never have been true a decade ago.

One last thing: Suggesting that the United States condition aid to Israel inevitably provokes charges of anti-Semitism, so lets be cleareyed.

Anti-Semitism is a genuine concern and no doubt infuses some denunciations of Israel. But it cheapens the authentic struggle against anti-Semitism to fling such charges lightly. Just as anti-Semites shouldnt use this conflict to promote hate, supporters of Israel shouldnt use anti-Semitism as a screen to hide actions from honest criticism.

It isnt Islamophobic to denounce Irans nuclear program. Its not anti-Christian to reproach President Donald Trump for condoning white nationalism. And its not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel for possible war crimes.

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Opinion | The Unshakable Bonds of Friendship With Israel Are Shaking - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

As the cycle of violence escalates between Israel and Hamas militants, Israels Iron Dome missile defense system and the U.S. military assistance to the country are once again in the spotlight.

The latest round of violence was ignited over the possible eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood Skeikh Jarrah. Coming off the heels of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Palestinians in East Jerusalem took to the streets and demonstrated at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. Following a heavy-handed response from the Israeli security forces, Hamas militants in Gaza responded by firing rockets into Israeli cities.

Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has since gone on the offensive, targeting perceived Hamas military compounds to disrupt the organizations ability to strike Israel. As Israel launches airstrikes inside the densely populated Gaza Strip and exacts a heavy toll on civilian life, the Iron Dome land-based missile defense system is keeping Israeli citizens mostly safe from the barrage of rockets from Gaza.

Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes on a building in Gaza City, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

BIDEN TELL ISRAEL'S NETANYAHU HE EXPECTS 'SIGNIFICANT DE-ESCULATION OF GAZA CONFLICT

The Iron Dome, the first line of defense for Israel when faced with rocket attacks, has been around 90% effective in intercepting the nearly 3,000 rockets fired from Hamas in Gaza during the current conflict. It became operational in 2011 and was integral to Israels defense in military conflicts with Gaza in 2012 and 2014. The United States began providing funding for Iron Dome in 2011 and 55% of the systems components are currently manufactured in the U.S., according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Israel is the largest beneficiary of U.S. military assistance, totaling over $3 billion a year, and the U.S. has provided $1.6 billion for Iron Dome since its inception. Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the U.S. has provided Israel with $146 billion in bilateral and missile defense funding. Decades of U.S. policy across administrations from both parties sought to ensure Israels military edge over its neighboring adversaries.

Israel is considered one of the few democracies in the Middle East and the United States holds it as an integral component of its Middle East policy combating terrorism, and deterring Iran underpin strong support from Washington. Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist organization, has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and acquires weapons and other assistance from Iran in their pursuit of resistance to Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

Since the recent conflict began, more than 200 people, many of them children, have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and at least 12 Israelis have been killed by Hamas rockets. As the conflict rages on with no end in sight, and the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, many in the United States were calling on President Biden to review and temporarily halt the latest round of military assistance to Israel.

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Calls are growing for a cease-fire, with President Biden condemning the violence and civilian death toll while also stating that Israel has the right to defend itself. It is unclear what the endgame is for either side. Hamas views the current crisis as an opportunity to present itself as the sole defender of Palestinian rights in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel, for its part, will retaliate against every rocket fired from Gaza.

When an eventual cease-fire is declared and the missiles fall silent, one thing is clear: The decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict will persist.

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Israels highly effective Iron Dome gets heavy funding by US, Biden urged to review assistance - Fox News

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

Since Hamas began its rocket offensive last week, the Biden Administration has wisely refused to dictate the Israeli response. But the U.S. narrative war took a notable turn this week as Congressional Democrats demanded a cease-fire. We hope the President bucks his instinct to follow his party and leads it instead.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched more than 3,000 rockets into Israel since last week, Jerusalem says, and Israel has been pummeling those groups in the Gaza strip to stop the attacks. Media and progressive activists blamed the Hamas-initiated war on Israel, as they always do, but the White House did not go along.

That position may not be viable for much longer on Capitol Hill. Now, after more than a week of hostilities, it has become even more apparent that a cease-fire is necessary, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told Politico, If Israel doesnt believe a cease-fire is in their interest, that doesnt mean we have to accept that judgment. We have enormous persuasive power.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reportedly floated an arms-sale delay on Monday, but backed off on Tuesday citing assurances from the White House.

With any luck Israel will soon inflict enough damage on Gazas terrorist stockpiles and leadership that it can negotiate a genuine cease-fire. Israel wants a swift end to the conflict, not a repeat of its 2014 Operation Protective Edge, which lasted 50 days and involved a Gaza ground incursion.

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Biden, the Democrats and Israel - The Wall Street Journal

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

ASHKELON, IsraelOn Sunday afternoon, as air-raid sirens sounded across this southern Israeli city, people abandoned cars in the middle of the road and ran to seek shelter. Hiding under a tree, a man tried to comfort his teenage daughter.

Dont worry, he said, it will be fine, the Iron Dome will save us.

As he spoke, the Iron Domes air-defense interceptor missiles streaked into the intense blue sky, making six rockets fired at Ashkelon by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas explode into faraway white puffs. As in the majority of cases since Hamas started raining rockets on Israel on Mondaya total of 2,800 by nowthere were no casualties or major damage.

Deployed since 2011 and built and maintained with $1.6 billion in U.S. funding, the Iron Dome system consists of a network of connected batteries and radars that fire at rockets that seem to be heading to populated areas and ignore those likely to fall into empty fields. While the system has been used in previous conflicts with Hamas, the Palestinian group has never fired as many rockets simultaneously.

What Hamas is doing now is trying to challenge the system. They thought that Iron Dome would stop functioning, but this didnt happen, said Danny Yatom, a former head of Israels Mossad intelligence service.

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As Hamas Rockets Rain on Israel, Iron Dome Proves It Can Withstand the Barrages - The Wall Street Journal

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

Israeli television stations are providing security for some of their highest-profile reporters after physical attacks and death threats from far-right Jewish extremists.

According to reports in the Israeli media, the N12 channel has provided security details for four of its on-air reporters: Dana Weiss, Guy Peleg, Yonit Levi and Rina Mazliah, after a rise in online threats against them amid recent intercommunal violence.

Police have arrested one suspect in connection with threats against Weiss.

Reporters from Channel 12, Kan news and Channel 13 have been physically attacked in recent days after rightwing extremists took to the streets to target Israeli citizens of Palestinian origin in various locations.

Among them was Ayala Hasson, a journalist and presenter who was part of a TV crew assaulted in Lod with rocks last week by a group from the far-right Jewish La Familia. La Familia wanted to smash his camera and they threw a rock the size of a boulder at me, the soundman protected me, she said.

Journalists with Israels public broadcaster Kan News were also attacked by Jewish extremists in Tel Aviv last week. In the incident, cameraman Rolik Nowitzki, who had been covering a protest, was kicked and beaten with a motorcycle helmet.

The incidents of violence targeting Jews and Israeli-Arabs in the midst of the conflict between Israel and Hamas have occurred as some on Israels right take aim at media reporting.

Among them, according to the Jerusalem Post, has been the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahus son Yair, who tweeted an invitation to demonstrate in front of N12s office calling on supporters to say no to the medias anti-Zionist brainwashing.

Concern over journalist safety has increased sharply since Israel bombed a Gaza tower block used by Associated Press and Al Jazeera over the weekend.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international media safety group, has called on Israel to ensure the safety of media workers.

Israeli forces should do their utmost to protect Palestinian and Israeli journalists covering unrest and conflict, and should ensure that members of the press can work safely and freely, the organisation said in a statement.

On May 12, Israeli forces in the West Bank city Tulkarem arrested Hazem Naser, a Palestinian camera operator for the Amman-based broadcaster Al-Ghad, according to a report by his employer; he remains in detention today, and authorities have not disclosed the reason for his arrest.

Separately, two members of a rightwing Israeli demonstration in Tel Aviv assaulted a TV crew working for the Israeli public broadcaster Kan News.

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Israeli TV reporters face attacks and threats from Jewish extremists - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

As the worst violence in years rages between the Israeli military and Hamas, each night the sky is lit up by a barrage of missiles and the projectiles designed to counter them.

It is a display of fire and thunder that has been described as both remarkable and horrifying.

The images of Israels Iron Dome defense system attempting to shoot down missiles fired by militants in Gaza have been among the most widely shared online, even as the toll wrought by the violence only becomes clear in the light of the next days dawn.

The number of Israelis killed and wounded would be far higher if it had not been for the Iron Dome system, which has been a lifesaver as it always is, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said this week.

The Iron Dome became operational in 2011 and got its biggest first test over eight days in November 2014, when Gaza militants fired some 1,500 rockets aimed at Israel.

While Israeli officials claimed a success rate of up to 90 percent during that conflict, outside experts were skeptical.

The systems interceptors just 6 inches wide and 10 feet long rely on miniature sensors and computerized brains to zero in on short-range rockets. Israels larger interceptors the Patriot and Arrow systems can fly longer distances to go after bigger threats.

The Iron Dome was recently upgraded, but the details of the changes were not made public.

It is being tested like never before, according to the Israeli military.

I think it will not be a big mistake to say that even last night there were more missiles than all the missiles fired on Tel Aviv in 2014, Major General Ori Gordin, commander of Israels home front, said during a news conference on Sunday. Hamass attack is very intense in terms of pace of firing.

Militants in the Gaza Strip have about 3,100 missiles, the Israeli Air Force said on Sunday, noting that about 1,150 of them had been intercepted.

Despite the layers of defense, there is never 100 percent defense, Gen. Gordin said. Sometimes the aerial defense will miss or not be able to intercept, and sometimes people will not get into shelters or lay on the ground and sometimes a whole building will collapse.

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In pictures: Fire and thunder fill the night sky as Israels Iron Dome is tested. - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

A group of 19 Senate Republican lawmakers led by Sen. Rick Scott of Florida unveiled a resolution Monday affirming U.S. support for Israel amid an escalating conflict with Hamas militants.

The resolution, set to be introduced in Congress this week, expresses support for Israels "right to defend itself against terrorist attacks." The text makes no reference to a cease-fire, marking a contrast to remarks from President Biden and other Democratic lawmakers who called for halt to hostilities amid the worst fighting in the region since 2014.

"For decades, the people of Israel have endured unyielding attacks from terrorist groups, like Hamas, who wish to destroy the Jewish state and its people," Scott said in a statement. "Now, as thousands of rockets rain down, our resolve to stand with Israel must be stronger than ever. I want to be clear: no country, certainly not the United States, would tolerate attacks like these and not take whatever action is necessary to end them. As our great ally and the only shining example of democracy in the Middle East, Israel deserves our full support."

Biden has faced intense pressure from both sides of the aisle regarding his handling of the conflict. GOP lawmakers have accused Biden of failing to stand up to the progressive wing of the Democratic party, which has been critical of Israel.

SANDERS, AOC PUSH BACK AFTER BIDEN VOICES SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL

Meanwhile, prominent Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders have called for an immediate cease-fire and pressured Biden to speak out against the Israeli governments actions.

"The death toll and the destruction are terrible, and we need to everything we can to bring about a cease-fire," Sanders told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Biden spoke to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for at least the second time in three days on Monday. The White House said Biden had "reiterated his firm support for Israels right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks."

The president also "expressed his support for a cease-fire," according to the White House, though he stopped short of a call for an immediate end to military action favored by some progressive Democrats.

Co-signatories on the GOP-backed resolution included Republican Sens. Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.

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"Israel is our strongest ally. President Biden should unapologetically reaffirm U.S. support of Israel and its right to defend itself," Cotton said in a statement. "The Left's moralistic calls for a cease-fire are little more than a propaganda win for Hamas."

Scott called on Biden to "stop cowering" to what he described as the "anti-Israel radical left."

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GOP resolution backs Israel's 'right to defend itself,' omits call for cease-fire - Fox News

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

What cant be emphasized enough, especially among those who think of themselves as pro-Palestinian: If you want a Palestinian state to exist and succeed, you must also want Hamas to be humiliated and defeated. Hamass sole aim for over 30 years has been to turn a difficult, but potentially negotiable, conflict into a nonnegotiable, zero-sum holy war. That strategy has to be proved a loser before Palestinian politics can move in a better direction.

By the same token, if youd like a more moderate cast of Israeli leaders, then the last thing youd want is for Hamas to emerge emboldened and essentially unscathed in the current round of fighting. No Israeli government of any ideological stripe is going to concede territory for a Palestinian state thats likely to look like a larger version of Gaza today: one that terrorizes its neighbors while tyrannizing its people.

Nor is the Israeli public going to pay much heed to hectoring critics in the West who, like Sanders, somehow think that, for Hamas, a legal case involving an ugly eviction effort in East Jerusalem was anything more than a pretext to start a war while jockeying for political advantage against its Palestinian rivals in Fatah.

Israel made plenty of mistakes in the run-up to the current fighting, including heavy-handed policing in Jerusalem at Ramadan and inadequate policing in Arab-Israeli towns that have been hit by mob violence. But there is a vast difference in moral weight between Israels miscalculations and Hamass calculations, between blunders and crimes. Thats something to bear in mind when Palestinian rockets hit Israeli civilians by design and Israeli missiles hit Palestinian civilians inadvertently.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the U.S. does not have a vital national interest in creating a Palestinian state: Its on the nice but not necessary list of Americas Middle East priorities. But we do have a vital interest in nurturing and sustaining an alliance of moderates and modernizers, people who can offer a plausible alternative to the forms of politics that have dominated the region and spread their pathologies worldwide: terror-sponsoring theocracies like Iran; military dictatorships like Egypt; cult-of-personality regimes like Turkey.

When it comes to Gaza, the goal of U.S. policy is to support Israels efforts to defang, deflate and ultimately disempower Hamas, not just for the sake of Israelis living under threat but also for Palestinians living in fear. Moderates only thrive when the shadow of terror lifts.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Opinion | For the Sake of Peace, Israel Must Rout Hamas - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on May 20, 2021

Primary Image:Prisoners in barracks at the Buchenwald concentration camp. (National Archives and Records Administration, 208-AA-206K-31.)

The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and machinelike murder of approximately six million European Jews and at least five million prisoners of war, Romany, Jehovahs Witnesses, homosexuals, and other victims. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin. It means burnt offering.

Anti-Semitism was a centuries-long phenomenon in Europe, but it reached its height in Germany during the Nazi era (19331945). The Nazis also claimed that Romany (Gypsies), Slavs (Poles, Russians), and physically and mentally disabled people were Untermenschen (subhuman) and did not deserve to live.

On assuming power as absolute ruler of the German state, Hitler began a systematic campaign to strip Jews of their property and their jobs in academia, the judiciary, the military, and the civil service. Synagogues were defiled and burned. Jewish businesses were boycotted or shut down. The Nuremburg Laws of 1935 denied Jews their German citizenship, forbade Jews to marry non-Jews, and took away most of their political rights. Jews became scapegoats for everything awful that had happened to Germany over the previous several decades: inflation, economic depression, the loss of World War I, and the punitive Treaty of Versailles. No salvation is possible, Hitler had told his followers in 1922, until the bearer of disunion, the Jew, has been rendered powerless to harm.

During a Nazi-provoked riot known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) on November 9, 1938, at least 267 synagogues were destroyed. At least 91 people were murdered. Countless Jewish businesses and homes were vandalized and destroyed, and 30,000 Jews were sent to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and other concentration camps. It became difficult for Jews to leave Germany because few countries, including the United States, were willing to take them in, even though it was widely known that they were suffering horribly under the Nazis.

When Hitler began his march of conquest in 1939, Jews in countries under the fascist heel, beginning with heavily Jewish Poland, were herded into unsanitary ghettos, walled-off sections of the city where they were denied proper food, medical services, and heat. Starvation and disease killed hundreds of thousands of Jews in Warsaw and Lodz, two of the largest ghettoes in Poland. Many Jews escaped the ghetto and went into hiding, often relying on the kindness and bravery of non-Jewish friends. To hide a Jew was to put ones life, and the lives of ones family, at risk. If caught, those hiding Jews were imprisoned or shot. Few Jews were able to survive the war in hiding. Like German-born Anne Frank and her family, who spent much of the war hiding in Amsterdam, they were usually found and shipped off to concentration camps.

In January 1942, high-ranking Nazi Party officials met secretly in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to formulate plans for the Final Solution of the Jewish question. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were already in Nazi concentrations camps serving as slave laborers for the German war effort. After the Wannsee Conference, the Nazis began large-scale deportations from the ghettos. Victims were herded together at train stations, loaded onto cattle cars, and takenunknown to themto extermination camps, killing centers in Poland with specially designed gassing facilities. Auschwitz, Treblinka, Chelmno and other SS-run camps employed industrial-style killing, using a pesticide designed to kill rats. The old, the very young, and the physically weakthose unable to workwere killed first. When the strong grew weak and unable to work they were exterminated. But by mid-1943, almost all Jews who arrived at a death camp were put to death immediately. Charlotte Weiss recalled that when she arrived at Auschwitz in 1944 with her sisters, they saw mountains of eyeglasses, shoes, and clothing belonging to the victims. We were shaking, she said. We knew the end was not going to be good.

There were valorous efforts to resist the Holocaust. A number of armed uprisings in the ghettos and camps surprised the Nazis, but all were put down with fanatical brutality. Some Jews escaped ghettos and joined partisan movements fighting against the Nazis from forest enclaves. Within the ghettos and the killing camps, acts of defiance, small or large, were suppressed and the brave dissidents savagely punished.

When the Allies began to close in on Germany in late 1944 and early 1945, the Nazis forced the surviving prisoners on long marches to camps believed to be out of the way of the advancing enemy armies. Hundreds of thousands died of exposure, violence, and starvation on these death marches. As the Allied armies moved into Germany and Poland, they liberated the concentration and extermination camps, and witnesses to these sceneswar reporters and military personnelwere horrified by what they found. The world already knew the Germans were gassing, or working to death, Jews and other ethnic victims in these camps. Escaped prisoners had reported conditions to the media and to government officials in the United Kingdom and the United States. But it wasnt until the camps were liberated that the full horror of Nazi crimes was exposed to the world.

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The Holocaust | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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