The impact of the Holocaust on the Jews

The Holocaust was a genocide against the Jews from 1933-1945 by Nazi Germany that destroyed much of Chasidic (orthodox Jewish) culture. Before millions of Jews lived in Eastern Europe; Poland, Russia, Lithuania and Ukraine. The majority were very religious and followed Chasidic traditions. They dressed extremely modestly, had large families, lived in small houses, were almost totally isolated from the non-Jewish communities, devoted their spare time learning the laws of Judaism and kept to a rigid routine completely governed by tradition. For example: on weekdays and Sundays the men and boys woke up early, before six in the morning to pray for an hour then go to schools which exclusively taught religious studies called cheder, or work then break for lunch and afternoon prayer at about two, work some more, be back home by six, eat supper as a family, learn and clarify the intricacies of Jewish law, say the evening prayers and go to bed. Boys had an intensive Jewish education from around the age of three when they gradually learned to read Hebrew, study from basic Jewish texts, eventually moving onto more complex ones and then stopping education at thirteen when they’d learn a trade or become an apprentice. Secular education was very basic and elementary and basic, if given at all. The women and girls had a very limited education; only really of Jewish laws such as dietary requirements and family purity. Even then, that was taught by their mothers. The communities were frequently very poor but still managed to keep a dignified, clean and orderly home. On Fridays the men would be back by early afternoon to spiritually prepare for the Sabbath. Women and girls would prepare traditional food such as chicken soup, minced fish known as gefilte and roast poultry. By sunset the entire family would be bathed and ready. The men and boys would go off to synagogue for an extended service with special songs known as zemirot then come home and the family would eat a long, leisurely supper then go to bed. In the morning the entire family would go to synagogue for another extended service that would be followed by a Kiddush, a benediction over a cup of wine that was sometimes followed by a reception consisting of biscuits and drinks. Afterwards, the family would go home for another meal that was followed by a schloof, a prolonged siesta. There would then be another meal, more zemirot and the Sabbath would end an hour after sunset. These small communities were known as schtetls and all of them, without exception spoke a common language: Yiddish. Yiddish was as much a part of Chasidic-Jewish culture as afternoon tea, cricket and skinheads are to the British. Much of this in the Holocaust.

In the first half of the Twentieth Century thousands of Jews lived in the East End Of London where Yiddish was an essential part of everyday life. There was a thriving Yiddish theatre and it was an integral part of Anglo-Jewish culture. To briefly touch on the History of British Jewry, when Jews were driven out of Tsarist Russia thousands of Russian and Polish Jews went to either America or the UK. The majority of the latter settled in the East End of London in areas such as Whitechapel, Brick Lane, Shoreditch and Petticoat Lane. There they flourished until the blitz, when the East End was hit particularly badly. They then moved out to Northern London and are concentrated in Golders Green, Hendon, Stamford Hill and Edgware.

The use of Yiddish has now more or less died out in the UK with the exception of some Chasidic communities who use it as a second language. Yiddish is also widely spoken in Israel by orthodox-Jews who believe that Hebrew (the language of Israel, the bible and prayer) was far to holy to be spoken as an everyday language. It was only acceptable to pray and to study Jewish law in Hebrew.

The Nazi persecution of Jews was a gradual process. When Hitler came to power in 1933 the government soon failed to persecute anti-Semitic violence and boycotts of Jewish shops were organised. Hitler’s private army of brown-shirted thugs, the Stormtroopers made life misery for Jews by committing atrocities such as beating them up in the street, smashing shop windows and handing out anti-Semitic propaganda. In 1935 the Nuremberg laws came into effect. These were a code of racist laws against the Jews banning them from serving in any of the armed forces, marrying “pure” Germans and restricting their businesses. On the Germans November 9th 1938 the Nazis incited a vicious pogrom against the Jews to known as Kristallnacht. The official purpose was to retaliate for the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Jew called Hershel Grynszpan, but really it was just an excuse to discriminate against the Jews. What caused Grynszpan to kill the diplomat was that on September 1939 German Jews of Polish origin were stripped of their citizenship and in late October dumped in a buffer zone between the two countries. His parents were one of the thousands displaced. On Kristallnacht throughout Germany, occupied Austria and Czechoslovakia synagogues were burned, Jewish property was vandalised and many Jews were sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht means night of broken glass because of all the smashed windows in Jewish homes.

When Hitler invaded Poland in September 1939 Jews were not instantly rounded up, deported to death camps and gassed but gradually persecuted. For example property would be seized, men were beaten up, religious Jews were forced to spit on religious articles or eat forbidden foods such as ham and occasionally Jews were put into synagogues that were then set on fire. The survivors were shot as they tried to escape. By 1940 on a small scale, Jews were rounded up then shot in deserted forests. Soon Jewish areas of towns known as ghettos were created and Jews were segregated into them. The largest was in Warsaw and any Jews found outside of it were shot. Soon they were deported to extermination centres such as Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno and Belzec to be gassed. About two million were murdered this way. Before then members of Hitler’s private army of bodyguards; the SS were roaming through Eastern Europe in mobile units rounding up Jews, forcing them to dig pits then shooting them into them. Around three and a half million Jews were killed in this way (not including the disabled, homosexuals, political prisoners & gypsies who were murdered in the Holocaust). When the tide of the war began to turn against the Germans and the Russians advanced westwards the Nazis destroyed the centres of Extermination and deported the Jews to infamous horror camps such as Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald.

When these were liberated in early 1945 hundreds of thousands of Jews of different nationalities were made stateless. Hungarian, Polish, Russian, German, French and Dutch were just some of the nationalities that could be found in the recently liberated camps. These Jews’ memories were frequently to horrific for them to return to their motherlands so many of them migrated. The majority went to Britain and America whilst some went to Australia or South America. Later many went to Israel when it was formed as an independent state.

The impact of the Holocaust on world Jewry was immense. Physically, many Jews who went into the camps during the early stages of puberty failed to develop properly, being shorter that average or having badly proportioned bodies. Physiologically the majority, if not all survivors suffer some form of post-traumatic stress disorder. They cannot bare the sound of spoken German, standing in ques, seeing smoke rising, trains, large dogs such as Alsatians, Rottweilers and Doberman Pinschers because of their experiences. They will wolf down their meals as if someone will try to take it from them at any moment. The sight of families will also highly distress them as it reminds them of how their family was before it was abruptly separated without a chance to properly say good-bye. They may also feel unable to visit the countries where the lived as it brings back so many horrific memories. The cultural affect is huge. As a result many Jews are now extremely sensitive to jokes about anti-Semitism or Hitler and the Nazis. Many Jews have become more religious as a result, realising what the victims of the Nazis would’ve thought if they could see the disregard of Jewish law nowadays. On the other hand many survivors have disregarded the whole idea of Judaism as to them it seemed that if there was really a god, then he would’ve saved them and their families from death and destruction.

My conclusion is that the Holocaust had a huge impact on the whole of the Jewish world in all areas of life and that we must never forget it.