The Stroop Report

1
The Stroop Report

• The Warsaw Ghetto is No More!

2
The Stroop Report

• What is its place in the narratives we have been
  discussing?
• Participants in the Holocaust
• Victims
• Bystanders
• Collaborators
• Perpetrators

3
The Perpetrators

• So far we have mostly talked about the victims,
  different kinds.
• Here is a report from the perspective of the
  perpetrators.
• A representation of the Holocaust (or a main
  event thereof) in their own words.

4
The Perpetrators

• Other sources that you may want to look into that
  give you insight into the mentality of the
  perpetrators and bystanders
• Kazimierz Moczarski Conversations with an
  Executioner.
• The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl.
  A film available in the ICC library.

5
The Warsaw Ghetto Revolt

• The event which the report documents.
• Particularly famous in Holocaust studies.
• A real battle in which the Jews of the Warsaw
  Ghetto and others rose up against the Nazi.
• They not only resisted, they attacked

6
The Warsaw Ghetto Revolt

• April-May 1943 uprising.
• Ghetto had about 37,000 people left in it.
• Assistance by the Polish underground.
• Eventually all were liquidated, few survivors,
  mostly those who got out early.
• There were over a thousand fighters, including
  women and children.

7
The Grossaktion

• Aktion was a word used a great deal by the
  Nazis to refer to the deportation and liquidation
  of people.
• Still a tainted word in the German language
  today.

8
Who was Juergen Stroop?

• Warsaw SS and police chief, trusted by Himmler
• Liquidator of the Warsaw Ghetto
• Before Warsaw he had already liquidated a number
  of Jewish centers in Stryg, Rava Russkaya,
  Chortkov, etc.
• He was brought in when the liquidation was going
  badly.

9
Who was Stroop?

• A volunteer in WWI
• Nazi party organizer
• Had a rudimentary education, climbed the SS
  ladder of promotion quickly.
• He referred to Hitler and Himmler as two great
  men of 20th century Germany
• He came from peasant stock.

10
Stroops Role

• To stop the revolt he used heavy artillery, flame
  throwers, mines, anti-aircraft guns, a howitzer.
  He used weapons of tremendous power.
• He flooded sewers, used fire and smoke to bring
  people into the open.
• Eventually he overwhelmed the resistance which
  used Molotov cocktails, machine gun and sniper
  fire.

11
Mentality of the Perpetrators

• According to Kazimierz Moczarski who spent time
  with Stroop in prison
• Stroop was completely unaware of his cruelty.
• His maxims were orders are orders, virtue is
  loyalty, order must prevail.
• His thinking was based on party slogans.
• He worshiped authority and power and he himself
  was servile and submissive in the face of it.

12
Mentality of the Perpetrators

• Stroop worshiped war and uniforms.
• Equated victory with racial superiority.
• He had a combat mentality.
• He could not tell the difference between legality
  and morality.
• He was highly self-disciplined, with an extreme
  sense of group loyalty.

13
Mentality of the Perpetrators

• Stroop was blindly obedient to the Fuehrer.
• He was not an evil demon, only a functionary of
  evil.
• He thought he was following law.

14
What happened to Stroop?

• He received repeated death sentences in court.
• First one for shooting at American pilots.
• In Poland he was condemned as a fascist
  hangman.

15
The Stroop Report

• First published in 1960.
• What does the introduction to the report say?
• What does the report show?
• Look at the photographs from the report
  http//www.holocaust-history.org/works/stroop-repo
  rt/jpg/img001.jpg

16
Jewish Resistance

• A variety of opinions about the general lack of
  resistance.
• Raul Hilberg in his pioneering study of the
  history of the Holocaust, The Destruction of the
  European Jews, published in 1961.

17
Hilberg on Jewish Resistance

• Over a period of centuries the Jews had learned
  that in order to survive they had to refrain from
  resistance. . . . A 2000 year old lesson could
  not be unlearned, the Jews could not make the
  switch. They were helpless.
• He analyzes the role of the Jews in aiding in
  their own destruction.

18
Hilberg on Jewish Resistance

• The Jews were unprepared to resist.
• Their culture had too long put a premium on
  accommodating gentiles.
• They looked to political authorities for
  protection against outbreaks of popular
  anti-Semitism.
• Now persecution came from the authorities
  themselves.

19
Criticism of Hilberg

• He has been criticized for lacking sensitivity to
  the Jews impossible situation.
• Hilberg believes that the failure of the Jews to
  resist more than they did helped to seal their
  fate.

20
Another Opinion Yehuda Bauer

• Jewish armed resistance was considerably more
  widespread than has been assumed . . . . The
  range of Jewish resistance was broad . . . armed,
  unarmed, but organized, semi-organized or
  semi-spontaneous.
• He denies that the Jews missed opportunities for
  armed revolt.

21
Yehuda Bauer

• He believes they took up arms where they could.
• He suggests a broader definition of resistance.
  One that recognizes non-violent action to save
  Jewish lives.
• He says it was impossible for the Jews to know
  that the only alternative to death was militant
  resistance.
• He sought to rehabilitate the reputation of
  Jewish leaders.
• Especially the Jewish councils have been
  criticized.

22
Another Opinion Isaiah Trunk

• He is also supportive of the Jewish councils (the
  Judenrat)
• Considering their tasks,cooperation was
  unavoidable for the councils. When all factors
  are considered, Jewish participation or
  nonparticipation in the deportations had no
  substantial influenceone way or the otheron the
  final outcome of the Holocaust.

23
Isaiah Trunk

• He is responding to the criticism of the Jewish
  councils that according to many were guilty of
  groveling compliance to the destruction process.

24
The Judenrat (Jewish Councils)

• They were created by the Nazis
• Were made up of authentic Jewish leaders.
• They typically organized the production of vital
  products for the Wehrmacht (army).
• They conveyed the German demands to their people.
• They delivered the Jews for resettlement.
• They restrained their fellow Jews from
  resistance.
• And much more.