Human Smoke questions US

7/23/2019 Human Smoke questions US

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II .,c.

2

HUM N SMOKE

ReadingQuestions:

Selectthreepassagesyoufind interesting,thought-

provoking,

or

raisequestion

s.

Write responses foreach

passage-

What

dotheyremindyouof?What

further

questionsdothey

prompt

Whydidyoufindthem

interesting

or

moving?

Theexcerptsarefrom the periodbeforethe warstarted.

To

what

extentwasthe UnitedStatesinvolvedbefore

the

outbreakof thewar?Citethe passagesthat pertain.

Based ontheexcerpts,should

the

UnitedStateshave

beenmoreinvolvedbefore

the war

started. If

so,

how?If

not,whynot?

Nicholson

aker

,

Hitlerbegan

sp,ea1cing;

inhis odd, croaldngvoice,.

He

.isted

off

themisdeeds

aJ?d

corruptions

of

the'Weimarregime.Hewept

,overthewoes of

the

p e o p l ~ - : : - t w o

fists iIi theair andtearspour

ingdowneachsideof his

f i a ~ b y

lllose/'LilianMowrerwrote,Then

he excoriated the JewS andthesbcialists,alidhepromised lower .

;taxes,higherwages,more'jobs,betterhousing,and cheaperfertil- .

I . , " ' . .

; izer.Mowrer was not swept away, "Hitlerwas tal1cip.g nonsense,.

,making'thegrossest'mis-staternents,garblinghistoryinavoice .that .

was

r a u c o u ~ a ~ d s ~ g g e s t ~ d

theparadegrourtd,andwith e s t U ~ e s un

couthand

n c o n v i n c i ~ g ' ' ' s h e thoU:ght.

Yetwhensheiookedaround \

.atthe audience; she sawnotjust

:;l.ssent

but ecstacy:'ayoung girl )'

with,ipsparted,eyesfixedonhtfr leader;anoldmannodding;the

.

\

. . .

sixty-year-old

-yv oinan

nexttoher, saying"Richtig!RichtigF' after

. promiseHitlermade:

( j ~

; ; - F - ~ ~ ~ I : I T W A N G ~ R ,

thepopularGennanilOvelist,gaveatalk

at theHotelCommodore ihNew Yorl(.

t

was

F ~ b r u a r Y 8,

1933.

There'were 450,000 jews'in

G e ~ a r i y , F e u c h t w ~ n g e ~

~ a i d , ina

.couiltryof sixty-fivemillionpeople.

And

yet every day, eighteev

million:copiesof

n t i ~ S e m i t i c

paperswerepublis'hed:_

F o r t y

c o p i e ~

>

foranaverageJewper.day,"hesaid.

InMarch,whileFeuchtwangerwasinSwitzerland,BrQwnshirts

raidedhishouseinBerlin . Theytookhiswife's

Cal

andthemanu

s'cript of ahalf-finishednovel. They

tOle

'up a pOliraitof Eleanor

Roosevelt.,

"I

believeitwas i;heir :iriteptionto shootme,

b ~ t

tilis.

failedowingtomy absence,"Feuchtwci.ngersaid. "The

U11fortunate -\

;thing is that these

p ~ o p l

havetakenthe formerwIldspeechesof )

:Hitlertoo literally.'; . .

3

-

\. . THE REICHSTAG cC\.ughtfire:ItwasFebruary27,

93Y

AyoungDutch-bornbricldayer,Marinusvander Lubl:?e; apro

fessed corhmuriist;was found

s h i i i l e s ~ '

onthe sceneand illTested.

Hitlerwentinthemiddleof thenighttotheofficesof the olkischer

B e ~ b a c h t ~ r ,

wherean

as

sistanttoldhim

to

come

back

duringbusi

.nesshours:

A i ~

'youmad?"saidHitler.

"Don't r e a l i ~ e

that'an

eyeht

of

incalculableimportance 'isactuallynowtakingplace?" I-Ie

alldGoebbels worlced.therest of the 'nightgettingthenextissue

ready, -, .

.

.-CiJt.i

-i

rigntsinGennanywere suspended: "Goering-letloosehis

hordes,andat orie

b l o ~

all

u s t i c ~

Gerinanywassmashed:"wrote

StephanZweig.

w

JAMES

G. M c D O N L D .

chairman

of

the'Foreigit"Policy As- '

.

~ c i a t i o n

of

the

United States, had dinner'in B e r l i n ~ i t h '

Emst

Hanfstaengel,Hitler's'friend.It wasApril1, 1933,McD'Onaldtold

Hanfstaengelthathe'djust hada n e e t i n g with

Hitld,

inwhichhe'd

saidthatHitler'santi-Semitjc 'policieswerei n j ~ i n g GemianY.J:Iif

. hadsaid;"Theworld

;et

1hank

us

fo rteaching t h ~ w deal .)

WIth

theJews," . . ' .


2/12

Han(staengel sipped his wine. He was an ardent booster of

.

. .

. .

Aryanism,buthe wasadark-hairedman, rtotparticularly

N ~ r d i c -

loolcing-

exceptthat, as

he

hadbeen heardto say, his underarm

hairwasquiteblond. "Doyouknow,"hesaidto McDonald,"that

.

we

have arrangedtowipe outthe entireJewishpopUlationin

the'

Reich?EachJewhasaStormTrooperassignedto him.Everything

is readyandcanbedone

ina

singlenight."

.McDonaldwalked back'through'the Tiergarten

to

his

~ 6 t e l .

Loversweresittingonparkbenches. "I felt as if 1'dhadanight-,.

.

mare,"he.wrote.:

r;

--

Kaufhaus des e s t e p s ~ a d e p a r t m ~ n t store;Mowrei-:-shciwing hef

Americanpassport, p u s h ~ ~ pastthelinkedarms of thestormtroop

ers.Theplacewasalmostempty.-Theonlycustomerswereforeign-:

ersprotestingtheboycott."Thesalesfolkstood.around,silentand

miserable.I wantedtobuyup everything in sight,"shesaid. "All

morningIshoppedinJewishplaces ."

It

wasApril1933.

.

. '.

.

How'

could

thisbehappening?shewondered.Thecountrywas

calm.Thestreetswereclean.Thetrafficflowedsmoothly. .

~ ' G e r n 1 a n s

areamong the mostiikab1e people in Europe and

'.

,

.

.

surelyaverage no greaternumberof bulliesand s'adists than any

othernation,"shewrote."ThedifferencewasthatHitler's 'regime

wasbuiltonsadistsandbullies,from

thetop

down."

p

G O E E L S S T O O D

a t ~

swastika-bedeckedrostrumontheUnter

.

,

v

denLinden;awide,tree-linedstreetinBerlinrunningpasttheUni

versityandthe StateOperaHouse.He said: "Theageof extreme

Jewish

i n t e l 1 e c ~ a l i s : i n

h a s n o w

ended."He threw abook into a

fire.

"It

was like burning s o m ~ t h i n g alive," Lilian MOwrer said.

T h ~ n students followed with whole a r m f u l s ~ f books, w h i i ~

schoolbOYS screamed into the microphone theircondemnation'of

thIS ~ d thatauthor,

ap d

eachnamewasmentionedthecrowd

booedand

h i s s e d . ~

r

,, -

" .

I

..,..,

'

, L )

"1

:

. .

.

.

A M E ~ G.

McDONALD

o f ~ b e Foreign Policy s s o c i a t i ~ n , gave

aspeech attheChatauquafestival.Areporter thereforThe New

York

T i m e ~

and c b v ~ r e d

it.

ItwasJuly lO 1933.McDonald didn t

. 'saywhatliitler'and ,flanfstaengelbadtbldhim abouttheir'planfor

(' theJews.But,he didsaythat h e a t t e ~ p t s onthepartofNaziapolo

(

, giststo denY thdtJewswerebeingcroellytreated.were.an"insultto.

, ' I

theintelligence,'!"T.beNazisbe.liwethemythonhe supremacyof

theArvanrace,andaredetermined'tocrushJewi;heconomic 'life,"

'

h said.Hitlerhad e x p l o i t ; d p r e j u d i c ~ s andpostwar i l i a t i o f i s :

T ~ e war,theVersaillestreatyandthetreatment of Germanysince

thewarhavemadeGermansfumto newleaders,"he said."Hitler

ism IS in avery real sensea,gift'

of

theAllies and the United

$tates."

,

In

NUREMBERG,

starn trooperstookanlneteen-year-old .girltoa

,cabaret.Th"eycutoffher 'hair; shaved

het

head,andtiedaplacard .

aroundherneck."Ihaveoffered .myselfto aJew/' saidtheplacard.

-ItwasAugust

13;,1933.

A group of touristswhowitnessed the s c e n ~ wrotealetterto

the authorities in which they said that while theyhad no desire

to interfereinthe municeipal.affairsofthecity,incidentsof thatkind

couldnotbutbedisgustingto allforeignvisiior's."Somew e e l ( s l a t ~ r ,

,thegirlwaspronounced.mentally

iI I

andtakento anasylum:

.

JOSEPH/

STALIN; thele,aderof Russia; ordered o p e r a t i v e s re-.

: . I

moveallthestoresof foodfromfarming,townsintheU1aaine.Mil .

lionsof peoplehadno

bread-

theyate.fieldmice,insects, h u s k s ~

anddeadchildren. It was

1933

: :;

ARussian-bornAmerican couplevisiteq a: Ukrainianvillage.

. We ~ r e all ~ y i n g of starvation,"avillager:toldthern."Theywant

us; to

,die.,It is"anotganized'faIIline. Thereneverhas'beenabetter

.harvest;hut

if

wewerecaughtcutting 'a'fewearsof

com

wewould

.

.

beshotorputinprisonandstarved to death."

It

wasAugust 1 9 ~ 3 .


3/12

0

13

ERNST UDET, the

German

pilot, was

i n ~ ~ t f u ~ ~

N - ~ ~ Y ~ ~ k , shop

REINHARD

HEYDRICH',

hean-of

the intelligence branch of the

. ping for,dive-bombers.

He

told t h ~ sales mallager CUrtiss-Wrigbt

German secret police, read a p o ~ i t i o n p a p e r p r e p a r e d

f ~ l

him con

that

he

.

wasn't

sure

he could

afford to buy a Hawk II. ~ B u t Mr.

cerning Jewish poiicy.

Itwas

May

24,

1934.

"The aim of Jewish policy must be the emigration

of

all Jews,'"

U det,'.' said. the sales

manager,

"the money has already

been

lodged

. he paper said.

~ w i s h

"assimilatlOriists"-those who wanted to l i v ~

with

our banle."

\

their Jives as Germans within qermany--should be discourage


4/12

-

-

If

of Hitler.Califanofainted.Aneighborfoundhimunconsciousbut '

alive,hangingfromthepipe. He wastakentoahospitaLHe'd been

p'hinning onexhiqitinghis paintingsattheWorldJewishCongress.

,

'

TEN THOUSAND'PEOPLE marchedupFifthAvenuefromy,rash-

, ,

ington Square

Park. They

carriedsigns

that

said:

NO NATION CAN

AFFORD BOTH WAR AND CIVILIZATION andPROMOTE JAPANESE FRIEND-

SHIP. The W o ~ e n s International L e ~ g u e for PeaceandFreedom

formeda"[(larchingwar

cemetery,"and

therewasasortoffioat:a

, ,

turf

graveyard'

of

whitecrosses'with

two

mourners,amother and

,child,and

a

sign h a ~ said,WHAT PRICE GLORY?

Among

those leading

the'

march were two famous religious

leader$-:-JohnHaynesHolmes of theCommuriio/Church(the

ad-'

mirer

of

Gandhi)andRabbi

S t ~ p h e n

Wise

of

theFreeSynagogue- ,

, l o n g ~ i t h leadersof otherdenominations,agroupof Quakers,and

somesocialists carryingredbanners.Adogworea signthatsaid, ,

I'M

NOT GOING TO

BE

AWAR DOG:

The crowdturnedontoTwenty-sixthStreet, thenwent down.

MadisonAvenuetoUnion Square,wherethreehundredpolicemen

stoodin lines keepingorder. Socialist CharlesSolomon to.1d the

crowd

thatcapitalism.breeds imperialism,"which is theparentof

those internationalfrictionsthatcause war."JohnHaynes

HolITles

promisedthatthejailswouldoverflow if

war

came,andheledthe

crowdinapledge:

. ,

Ifwar

comesIwillnotfight.

Ifwar

comesIwillnotenlist.

Ifwar

comes

I

willnotbeconscripted.

Ifwar

comesIwilldonothingtosupport

it.

If warcomesI willdoeverythingto'opposeit.

Sohelp

:me

God.

ItwasMay 18,

1935.

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Human Smoke questions US