Why did the Nazis Keep a Record of the Holocaust?

The events of World War II were recorded to an extent far beyond that of preceding conflicts. Events were captured in print, photographs, and moving pictures. The most chilling of all was the exhaustive documentation of the Holocaust, much of it created by the very people who committed the crimes.

Knowledge of the Holocaust stems from many sources, the most compelling of which are the eyewitness testimonies of victims. But there is another source that helps confirm the extermination's unthinkable scale, as well as the fates of individuals. That source is the accounts kept by the Nazis themselves. Seized by the liberating armies in the last days of the war, the documentation exists in various collections, but the bulk of the records have been under the care of the Red Cross for the last half-century. The files are extensive: millions upon millions of papers covering 16 miles of shelves. Why? Why would a group of people intent on murder risk putting their activities in writing? The answer may be surprisingly simple.
In the opinion of Paul Shapiro, director of Holocaust studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "They wanted to show they were getting the job done." Many accounts suggest that he may be correct.
JUST A JOB: "THE BUREAUCRACY OF THE DEVIL"
A stereotypical but fairly accurate image of the prewar German government is one of bureaucracy. Everything was documented, and paper authorizations were generated by the handful for the most mundane of tasks. This attitude extended into the war. The task of running an empire, even a despicable one, is complex, requiring extensive procedures and paper trails. like many governments, Nazi Germany employed an array of middle managers who wanted to prove their efficiency. The only way an official could show he was performing up to par was to keep records. Prisoners who were immediately executed had the least documentation, sometimes being reduced to a mere entry in the number of arrivals for the day. Individuals who stayed in the camps longer typically had more extensive records. Because of the sheer number of people involved—some 17 million in all—some startling documents survived, such as the original list of Jews transferred to safety in the factories of Oskar Schindler. Another file contains the records of Anne Frank.
WHY WORRY?
For most of the war, the Nazis showed little worry about documenting their activities. In their minds, why should they? To whom would they be accountable? After all, many thought the Third Reich would last a thousand years. In the closing months of the war, there was a slight reversal of this policy, and the commandants of some camps sought to destroy records and eliminate the remaining witnesses as the Allied forces closed in. Fortunately, they were not able to erase the record of their own atrocities. Private memoirs of the Holocaust also exist. Participants at all levels wrote letters about their experiences, and some SS guards took photographs of the camps and inmates with their personal cameras. Some of the Nazi leadership was also prone to recording daily activities; Joseph Goebbels kept a journal throughout the war, viewing it as a "substitute for the confessional." Much like Goebbels’ diary, the official records of the Holocaust have become the unintentional confession of a Nazi machine that had uncountable crimes for which to answer. The archive exists in Bad Arolsen, Germany, and was opened to the online public in late 2006. Survivors of the camps hope that its presence serves as a counterargument to those who inexplicably deny that the Holocaust ever happened, and as a reminder that humankind must never allow it to happen again.

1. Give three possible reasons that the Nazis kept a record of the Holocaust.
2. What did many Nazi leaders try to do when they understood the Germans were losing the war?
3. Give two reasons that these records are considered to be valuable resources and explain why.

POISON FOR YOUNG MINDS: NAZI EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE

Though it lasted only 12 years, the German Reich was supposed to last a thousand. Early in his political career Hitler argued that in order to survive and prosper, future generations of Nazis would need to maintain a single-minded dedication to purity and strength. As such, the Nazis imbued all areas of public education with their party's ideology. These lessons took several forms:

Children's Stories: One of the more widespread lessons taught to young children was a story called "The Poison Mushroom." A mother and her son are picking mushrooms in the forest, and the boy finds some poisonous mushrooms. The mother compares the dangerous mushrooms to the dangers of a certain land of people. The boy rightly concludes that she is speaking of the Jews. The mother is proud of her son and exhorts him to learn to identify Jews in all their dangerous guises. The story was part of a collection published by Julius Streicher, who was executed as a war criminal in 1946. Repugnant yet alluring art by "Fips" (Philip Rupprecht, a Der Sturmer staffer) is the capper.

Primers: Nazi elementary books used simple illustrations and stories of children. Many of the stories include veneration for military parades and weapons. They also portray Hitler as a great man who is kind to children who bring him gifts. In one story, a boy named Karl attends a Hitler Youth rally. He wants to march with his older brother, but is too young. After the march, a race for young children takes place. Karl wins and receives a sausage and a pretzel, which he promptly eats.

Geography: Geography lessons stressed the concept of Lebensraum ("living space"), which Nazis proclaimed would provide the German people with land and resources that had been stolen from them after the Great War. Texts emphasize not only the need for this territory, but also the Germans' historical right to it. They mention Germany's cultural and historical influence on the countries surrounding it, as well as its geographic disadvantages, such as the ease with which the country was blockaded during World War I.

Biology: In German textbooks, biology was synonymous with racial purity and strength. Girls were given rigorous instruction in the selection of a suitable mate and the proper method of nurturing the next generation of Germans. Women's magazines often ran articles advising mothers to raise strong, physically active children who eschewed the classroom for the playing field. The articles advised parents to be stern with their children since "only he who has learned to obey can lead."

Mathematics: Even the discipline traditionally least susceptible to cultural bias, mathematics, was tainted by Nazi influence. For instance, word problems asked students to calculate the amount of money wasted on handicapped citizens and the amount of ammunition a plane could carry over a certain distance to bomb an ethnic slum.

A 1937 Nazi pamphlet for teachers, The Jewish Question in Education, quotes "Munich scientist Dr. Escherich," who relates a hare-brained tale of guards at a thriving termite colony who fall for the seductive charms of "foreign insects" of a different "race." In short order, "the foreigners had murdered the queen," and destroyed the colony. The pamphlet suggests that schoolteachers encourage students to draw a parallel between this astonishing natural event and predatory Jews who threaten the Aryan gene pool.

"POISON FOR YOUNG MINDS: NAZI EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE." World War II. Comp. Allen Orsi. Lincolnwood: West Side Publishing, 2007.

1. How did Hitler use the schools to spread his ideas?

2. At what age did this "education" appear to start?

3. Identify three specific "facts" that were taught and how they supported the Nazi's ideas.

4. Would the idea of free will or independent thought have been acceptable to the Nazis? Explain your answer.