Connections Agriculture and the Holocaust

1
Connections Agriculture and the Holocaust

• 1933 poster announcing agricultural fair
• 8 months after Hitler took power.

2
Late 1920s Nazis shift from cities to rural
areas

• What does this mean for agriculture?
• Confiscation of Jewish agricultural property
• "National Socialist Rural Post" published on
  Adolf Hitler's orders
• the Nazi party's only official agricultural
  weekly

3
"National Socialist Rural Post"

• Each farmer, farm worker or agricultural hand,
  and anyone else in the countryside, must be
  persuaded persistently, but not obnoxiously, to
  subscribe to the only National Socialist farmer's
  newspaper.

4
Concentration Camps

• Subcamps producing or processing agricultural
  goods were subordinate to Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Auschwitz inmates employed on huge farms
• including Rajsko experimental agricultural
  station

5
Fourth Reich Farmers Rally

• Primary Themes
• Declaration of war against Jewish world
  Bolshevism
• self-assertion and national independence
• Opening remarks of Reich Farmers Leader
• Agriculture to the front.

6
Non Jewish Victims

• Poland
• Why?
• agricultural country with little military power
• agricultural land in close proximity to Germany
• populated by strong and healthy farmers
• What happened?
• Polish citizens rounded up and placed in slave
  labor for German farmers and factories or taken
  to concentration camps

7
Priorities for Use of Occupied Territory Manpower

• Labor required for the troops, the occupation
  authorities, and the civil authorities
• Labor required for the German armaments
• Labor required for food and agriculture
• Labor required for industrial work other than
  armaments, which is in the interest of Germany
• Labor required for industrial work in the
  interests of the population of the territory

8
German Prisoners of War Working on Farm
A British private (left) supervises German
prisoners of war who are working in a sugar beet
field at Low Cottage Farm in Upwell, Norfolk,
England, in 1944. A German Corporal stands by to
translate the orders.
9
Fritz Haber - Scientist

• Responsible for chemical warfare development of
  Nazi Germany
• Created synthetic fertilizers
• Catalyst for the Green Revolution
• Irony? Killed by the same gasses that he created.

10
Henry Morgantheau

• What did he do?
• WWI worked in the U.S. Farm Administration of the
  USDA
• 1922 to 1933 - Publisher of American
  Agriculturist
• 1933 appointed Chairman of the Federal Farm
  Board
• United States Secretary of the Treasury January
  1, 1934, - July 22, 1945
• Proposed various rescue plans for Jews in Germany

11
Benoît Musy

• Nationality
• Swiss
• Education
• Attended Swiss agronomy institution
•  Received his agricultural engineer's diploma
• Work experience
• Lieutenant in Swiss Air Force
• Worked in Agribusiness
• 1st military skydiver

How does a man with agricultural background
help? Negotiated release of 1,200 prisoners from
the Therensienstadt concentration camp.
12
Food for Fighters

• Feeding America Soldiers during WWII

13
Websites used

• http//fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/TIMELINE/nazirise.HT
  M
• http//www.holocaustforgotten.com/non-jewishvictim
  s.htm
• http//www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?ModuleId1000
  5189
• http//www.nizkor.org/hweb/imt/nca/nca-01/nca-01-1
  0-slaves-08b.html
• http//orbisenterprises.com/Holoc-1/holoc-1.html
• http//www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wilweg01.ht
  m
• http//www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters/bav
  aria.jpg
• http//www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/bauerntag36
  .htm
• http//www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?langenModul
  eId10007408
• http//pro.corbis.com/search/Enlargement.aspx?CID
  isgmediauid7B4BE5F4C1-C6D4-46E3-9CA5-4111BEEC4F
  437D