Prof. Marcuse, UCSB Hist
33D,
L 13: The End of the Holocaust
(Nov. 7, 2002)
- Ethics of motivation (vs. ethics of behavior)
- The End of the Holocaust
- Announcements (film tonight; final exam choices)
- Impacts--see textbook!
Last Lecture: Ethics (L 12)
Questions: What motivates people to do good (or evil)?
[How do people decide what is the "right" thing to do?]
Answer:
Their "moral horizon" (3 stages after Kohlberg)
1. Pre-conventional (egocentric)
2. Conventional (primary group; law-and-order)
3. Post-conventional (universal perspective)
Stages of Moral Consciousness
(after Kohlberg, Habermas)
scanned from Juergen Habermas, Moral Consciousness and Communicative
Action (MIT Press, 1995, 166f). (presentation
at a 1997 scholarly conference, where I discussed this)
Professor's see-saw model
Pernkopf's Atlas: Ethics of Choice
Let's assume: political prisoners were executed in Vienna, and
their corpses given to Pernkopf's team of artists to dissect for making the
illustrations. And some of those artists were proud members of the Nazi party
and SS (Erich Lepier put a swastika after his name; Karl Endtresser used the
SS runes in his signature--they've been airbrushed back to normal in current
editions of the atlas).
If using the illustrations in this atlas can save lives today, should we use
it?
Today's Question
How did the Holocaust come to an end?
The trajectory of genocide
- March 1942: 75-80% of victims still alive
(20-25% had died)
11 months later
- February 1943: 75-80% were dead
(only 20-25% left who were still to die)
- Change in murder program:
"Extermination through work"(Vernichtung durch Arbeit)
Fortunes of War
- Feb. 1943: Battle of Stalingrad as turning point
- June 1944: Allies invade France; end is near
July: Soviet army liberates Maidanek camp
July: attempt to assassinate Hitler
- But: extermination of Hungarian Jews, May-Aug.
- But: murder of last 70,000 from Lodz, Aug.
- But: Battle of the Bulge, Nov./Dec. 1944
- Winter 1944-45: evacuation "death" marches
skyrocketing death tolls
- Commandant Kramer of Belsen, March 1, 1945, in letter to SS-WVHA, quotation
cited in Marcuse, Legacies of Dachau, p. 48:
"You informed me me by telegram of 23rd February, 1945,
that I was to receive 2,500 female detainees as a first consignment from Ravensbrück.
I have assured accommodation for this number. The reception of further consignments
is impossible, not only from the point of view of accommodation due to lack
of space, but particularly on account of the feeding question. .... [I]t was
decided that the camp could not hold more than 35,000 detainees. In the meantime
this number has been exceeded by 7,000 and a further 6,200 are now on their
way. As a result all barracks are overcrowded by at least 30%. ... In addition
to this question, a spotted fever and typhus epidemic has now begun, which
is spreading every day. The daily mortality rate, which was still in the vicinity
of 60-70 at the beginning of February, has now attained a daily average of
250-300 and will increase further in light of the prevailing conditions."
Chaos at the end
Dachau statistics
HALF of all (registered) deaths occurred in last 6 months before liberation.
1933-1944: average 4/day; 1945: more than 100/day
1940-1943: 1000-3000 deaths per year (only twice more than 400/mo.)
1944: 403 in October,
997
in Nov.
1,915 in
Dec.
2,625-3,977
Jan.-Apr. 1945
Several slides were shown:
Map of concentration camps in 1930s
Map of camps in 1944, showing proliferation of subcamps
Map showing front lines in 1944-45, and evacuation marches from Auschwitz
Scene at Maidanek at liberation in July 1944
Civilians being led through Auschwitz, Jan. 1945
Announcements I
Film
tonight at Hillel, 7:30pm
- (90mins+discussion w/ director!)
- "Conspiracy" (HBO, 2001)
- (10 emmy nominations, won 3)
- Recreation, like the German film
"Wannsee Conference" (1984)
- More info: link on course web
site
Announcements II
- Midterm evaluation (.pdf of form)
- Flow of lectures; repetition ("last lecture")
- Too many journal articles; longer paper
- More personal accounts, more "hard facts"
- Final exam format
- 2-hour in-class: IDs + essay
- Take-home w/ limit on number of words
(same: IDs + essay)
- Oral: groups of 3 students meet w/ prof. for 10 mins.
Announcements III
- 33D classes coming up
- Next Tue: Dachau selection in READER (GrafikArt)
Q3 next Tuesday, something from this essay
- Nov. 21: Ruth Klüger (professor's
notes)
- Dec. 4: Nina Morecki
- Pick up work after class
- My courses next quarter:
- GE 1 EW: "Nazi Holocaust in History, Literature, and Film" (freshman
seminar) (T-Th 11-12:15) (GE1EW website)
- INT 184HM: Oral History & the Holocaust (L&S honors seminar)(F
10-1)
- Spring quarter: Hist 2C: World History (my Hist
2c website)
Impacts (see textbook! [Landau, chap. 10])
- Different world view (end of theodicy?)
- End of cultural arrogance (superiority of the west)?
- The state of Israel (textbook is excellent)
- War crimes trials: Nuremberg to today
- Genocides are still occurring
created Nov. 9, 2003 by H. Marcuse
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