The Dark Years 1940-1930's Analysis

Anti-Semitism changed the French perspective of Jews before and after the Vel d’Hiv Roundup in July 1942, because this Roundup was the first time the French government explicitly targeted foreign and French Jews alike without pressure from German occupiers. The French government explicitly designed and carried out the Vel d’Hiv Roundup where they collected all of the Jews in Paris, France on their own accord and sent them to concentration camps to be exterminated. While holding in scope two years prior, 1940-1, and one year, 1943, following the Roundup, the changing perspective in Paris, France, of mutual obliviousness to sympathy, is evident by the analysis of anti-Semitic legislature, the influence of German occupation, and the leading operations of the French government. The changing perspectives in Paris show that a majority of society will follow their government (without rebelling) until this influence affects society as a whole, and alters the way of life. The government and societal viewpoint of Jews transformed together, but arrived at opposing conclusions – anti-Semitism and pro-Semitism respectively. This transformation became definitive after the Vel d’Hiv Roundup in Paris on July 16-17, 1942. This claim holds relevance to current knowledge and culture by providing an example of profound importance on the influence of governmental actions and its own societal standpoint in connection with world issues. In respect to this claim direct governmental actions

“After the War”, a book written by Carol Matas, is a captivating story about a group of Jewish people who illegally immigrate to Palestine. Throughout this story, we learn about the many struggles that the Jewish people had after WW2 ended. They had to find many ways to fight for their right to live. Some of these survival techniques include lying, stealing, and hiding.

“Was German ‘Eliminationist Anti-Semitism” Responsible for the Holocaust?” is a fascinating and somewhat discouraging debate that explores the question of whether German anti-Semitism, instilled within citizens outside of the Nazi Party, played a vast role in the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust . Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, author of “The Paradigm Challenged,” believes that it did; and argues quite convincingly that ordinary German citizens were duplicitous either by their actions or inactions due to the deep-seeded nature of anti-Semitic sentiment in the country. On the other hand, Christopher R. Browning, who has extensively researched the Holocaust, argues that the arguments of Goldhagen leaves out significant dynamics which were prevalent throughout most of Western and Eastern Europe during this period of history.

French emphasises the fact that the Jewish people were considered a problem towards the Nazi Party and that Heidi hadn’t known much about the Jews and the concentration

When the Starzynski family was taken from their home by the French police, the onlookers exhibited dehumanization. In this instance, dehumanization was portrayed in the form of indifference, “...shutters began to open, faces peered out from behind curtains... nobody moved, nobody said anything. They simply watched” (Rosnay 18). The onlookers did not view the Starzynskis as their human equals, and they allowed the police to take them to their death without saying a word. Their Jewish religion made them be viewed as less than human, and therefore they felt it was acceptable for them to be taken away to be killed. Once the Starzynski’s friends and acquaintances discovered that they were Jewish, by the yellow star on their clothing, they began to treat them differently. “...most girls stopped speaking to the children with the stars. Or... stared at them with disdain” (47). Once captured and inside the Vel’ d’Hiv, the Jewish people of Paris are treated as animals; the conditions inside the Vel’ d’Hiv are heartless and inhumane. “The girl had to squat against the wall to relieve herself, fighting against the overpowering urge to vomit, her hand clapped over her mouth. People were... defecating wherever they could... cowering like animals near the filthy floor” (30). The captured Jews are not only deprived the basic right of privacy,

Europe’s Growing Anti-Semitism is written by Mike Ross, and was published on October 20, 2014. In this article, Ross explains the disturbing anti-Semitic acts that are taking place in Europe and the effects it is having on Jewish communities. For example, in France three Jewish children and a rabbi were murdered in a Jewish school, four people were shot in a Jewish museum in Brussels, and violent riots have emerged outside numerous synagogues in Europe. Due to these

The U.S was extremely reluctant to be drawn into the wars that emerged in Asia in 1937 and European nations in 1939. Disillusioned with the experience of the first World War, when huge number of trench warfare casualties had led to a peace that Americans believed betrayed the objectives they had fought for, the U.S sought to deflect from all forms of entangling alliances. Between the Manchurian crisis and invasion of Germany in the 1930s, the U.S edged slowly along the road that resulted in the second World War (Allison, Grey and Valentine, 252). During the 1930s, the U.S largely preferred to remain a bystander, even going to an extend of enacting neutrality legislation in the mid-1930s, in a bid to prevent involvement in any potential war.

“Those who had no choice but to flee for their survival and the survival of their families became refugees, seeking safe havens in other parts of Europe and beyond. At first, Jews were allowed to settle in neighboring countries such as Belgium, France, and Czechoslovakia, but as German occupation spread across the continent, these countries were no longer safe and refugees became increasingly desperate to escape. The life of Jewish refugees was described in this way: “[The refugees] were welcomed nowhere and could be assimilated nowhere. Once they had left their homeland they remained homeless, once they had left their state they remained stateless; once they had been deprived of their human rights they were right-less, the scum of the earth” (America, 2017).

In The Journal of Hélène Berr, we are given the first hand account of a young Jewish woman in Paris during the German occupation. This primary source provides a strong insight into how Paris was changing before Hélène’s eyes. Hélène started keeping a journal to preserve memories, but over time, as the German occupation started to change her life, it became something more. Her writing became darker, because so did her outlook. For one, towards the end of the

As millions of Jews were being corralled and killed by the Nazi regime during the height of Hitler’s power from 1931 to 1945, millions more were attempting to flee to other countries to escape. Many were not welcome by Western Democracies, and of all these countries who eventually went on to defeat Hitler Canada had perhaps the worst record, taking in a scant five thousand Jews, compared to the hundreds of thousands of Britain and the United States. Despite its vast tracts of land, and abundant Natural Resources, and history of a moderate and liberal Nation Canada refused to help those that needed it the most. This essay will examine this important historical issue in the following way, first it will look at the rise of and prevalence of anti-Semitism during the war in both English and French Canada, then it will look at Canada’s reaction to refugees during and after the war, before finally coming to a conclusion about how Canada treated Jewish refugees and why. This paper will argue that Canada treated Jewish refugees profoundly unfairly, and that they were treated this way due to deep seated racial hatred in Canada.

In the 1929 and 1940 The Great Depression in history millions of people were out of work or they will soon to be out of one. It didn’t matter if you were Black , White HIspanic or Asian you will still would be unemployment even if you were really rich. Everything was crashing down there wasn’t jobs for people. Many banks failed then markets did as well.

World War 2 began in September 1939, mainly due to German Reich Adolf Hitler attempting to create a perfect world, which in his mind excluded mainly Jews, but also Gays, Gypsies, Poles, and people with physical, or mental disabilities. Hitler’s plan was to slowly take over the entire continent, converting the entire area slowly to his idea of Utopia, and hopefully at one point Germanize the entire world. He had formed the Nazi party in 1920, a group of over three thousand members all soldiers literally looking for a fight. German Nazis launched their first attack in 1940. France 's vaunted Maginot Line, engineered to protect the country failed to hold back the Nazi onslaught and the German Blitzkrieg poured into France. The city of Paris fell under German control, only weeks after the first invasion. France was then split into two parts, One-half being occupied France, which would be ruled by the Germans and guarded by the Nazi soldiers, Which also happened to hold the most populated city, Paris. The other half was called Vichy France, and would still be under French rule.

The 1930’s were one of the most difficult times in American history. It was the time of the Great Depression. Millions of Americans suffered hardships as the economy was in a free fall. Many Americans were unemployed and lost almost everything they had owned. In 1932, America realized it was time for a change, and elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a landslide vote. Roosevelt promised to help end the depression and with his New Deal. The New Deal was Roosevelt’s plan to end the Great Depression. Through increased government spending, FDR enacted numerous public works programs in an effort to simulate the economy. The New Deal’s “alphabet soup” (this was the nickname for the numerous programs FDR enacted) was FDR’s plan to people

The beginning of the Holocaust seems hopeful for Elie and his family, even though the Hurgarian police take away the foreign Jews that live in Sighet, Elie’s hometown, in cattle cars. Although nobody knows exactly what happens to them, the Jews in Sighet hear that they are in Galicia, working, and “content with their fate” (Wiesel 6). But that is not so, for Moishe, a

The atmosphere in the British West Indies during the 1930’s was one of strife, conflict and a general sense of injustice. This statement of course is descriptive of the conditions faced by the middle and working classes of the British West Indian colonies. These workers have long suffered the exploitation and inequalities associated with being the subservient group to the colonial powers that governed them. For this general reason, the ‘disturbances’ occurred during the1930’s. To the colonial authorities, however, all was well in the colonies as the normal mercantile service continued whereby the colonial power received the lion’s share of revenues to the detriment of the colony. It is no surprise, then, that the British reacted the way they did to the disturbances of 1934 to 1938. Their means of response were indicative of repressing the issues rather than wholly trying to rectify the situation. The colonial authorities’ reaction to the disturbances indicated their desire to maintain their capitalist power relations over the colonies. In order to assess this point the issues faced by the colonies, the