The Holocaust (1933-45) refers to Nazi Germany’s deliberate, progressive persecution and systematic murder of the Jews of Europe. Nazi anti-Semitism superseded traditional Judeo-Christian religious conflict by uniting a racial ideology with social Darwinism: the Jew was seen as subhuman, a disease threatening the body politic, and the cause of Germany’s problems—its economic woes, its defeat in World War I, its cultural degeneracy—and thus must be eradicated. As soon as Hitler came to power in 1933, the Nazis commenced the organized persecution of the Jews. Jewish books were burned, and businesses boycotted. Jews were excluded from professions, public life, and from the arts. The Nuremberg laws of 1935 identified and defined a Jew based on immutable racial characteristics and lineage, less so his religion. Jews were stripped of their civil rights as German citizens. More than 120 decrees and ordinances were enacted subsequent to the Nuremberg laws. In 1938, Kristallnacht occurred, the planned pogrom that led to the destruction of synagogues, mass arrests, and the looting of Jewish businesses. Jews were murdered, and many more were interned in concentration camps that had been established for political prisoners. Jewish property was registered, confiscated, and ultimately aryanized. Life in Nazi Germany was sufficiently intolerable that more than to 200,000 Jews emigrated. Hitler’s goal of making Germany “Judenrein” was proving successful.
With the Nazi’s ascension to power, other groups were imperiled as well, vulnerable to discriminatory treatment, persecution and death; for example, the Roma and Sinti, the developmentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, and political and social "undesirables". Slavic people were considered Untermenschen, fit only for servitude in the new and expanded Reich. During this period of time, in direct contravention of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was also secretly building its military and preparing for an eventual war. Yet it was the Nazi’s growing confidence and skill in pruning the Aryan tree of its undesirables that allowed it to perfect the technical apparatus for carrying out mass murder on an industrial scale, with its ultimate goal the “final solution to the Jewish question”.
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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“Kolner Hof” Anti-Semitic Postcard
Front: White postcard with an illustration of the hotel on top. Includes a boot coming out of the hotel and kicking a cariacturized Jewish man in pinstripe pants out onto the street, his bag opening and his belongings falling out in the process. In the lower lefthand corner is an illustration of a statue. A message is written in messy handwriting next to the statue, and across the rest of the postcard. Back: Green postcard lines filled in with an address in pencil. Green 5 cent stamp in upper right corner, with a black Frankfurt circular handstamp over it. Another black hand stamp in lower left corner. The Frankfurt Hotel "Kölner Hof" barred Jews since 1895 and advertised itself as the "only Jew-free hotel" in the city.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The Frankfurt Hotel "Kölner Hof" barred Jews since 1895 and advertised itself as the "only Jew-free hotel" in the city. The owner of Kölner Hof, Hermann Laass, took great pride in the fact that Jews were excluded. A variety of anti-Semitic media were used: posters, postcards, and advertisements in anti-Semtiic newspapers. Laass was a member of a number of anti-Semtiic organizations, culminating in his joining the NSDAP, the Nazi Party in 1933.
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German Jewish Anti-Semitic Postcard
Postcard with illustration of a bearded Jewish man and a bug titled, "Gruss aus russisch Polen." Includes a message written in purple pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: This postcard was published in Germany. It attempted to portray a Russian Jew as a Russian Polish lice.
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Postcard from Andrei Sheptysky, Prisoner of War
Front: Message in black ink written at top of page. Red hand stamp on right side of page. Writing in large blue crayon across middle of page, and pencil writing beneath the blue. Back: Red printed postcard text in Ukranian. Several hand stamps and writing in blue crayon.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: This is the only known military postcard written by Metropolitan Archbishop Sheptytsky during WWI. At the time of this writing, he has been deported from Lviv, and is on the way to Balagnska in the province of Irkutsk. Sheptytsky had been head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Lviv from 1901-1944. At the outbreak of World War I, Sheptytsky was arrested by the Russians and imprisoned in both the Ukraine and Russia, but was ultimately released in 1918, whereupon he returned to Lviv. He became active in the struggle for Ukrainian national rights, supporting the Ukrainian Nationalist movement (OUN) and believing naively that the invading Nazis themselves would support Ukrainian indepndence against the loathed Russians. He endorsed the formation of a Ukrainian unit within the German army, believing perhaps that this unit would be a nucleus of a Ukrainian army that would ultimately serve to protect Ukraine from the Russians. To be sure, Sheptysky's bargain with the devil ironically eventuated in many massacres being carried out by Ukrainian collaboration with the dreaded Einsatzgruppen. Sheptytsky, however, did not approve of terrorist activites against the Jews. It is known that he respected Jews, had learned Hebrew in an effort to relate to the Jewish community, and, importantly, helped many Jews by providing sanctuary both in his own residence and in Greek Catholic monasteries. He had cordial relations with Lviv's chief Rabbi, Ezekiel Lewin. When the latter informed him of an impending pogrom, Sheptysky offered him sanctuary along with his family. Rabbi Lewin refused the offer for himself but accepted it on his children's behalf. While two of his children were saved, the Rabbi himself was murdered in front of his son Kurt. He provided forged baptismal certificates for the Jews that he saved, and instructed his priests to train the Jews in his charge to pray in Ukrainian so as not to be mistaken for Jews by the Nazis and their minions. Sheptysky protested Nazi atrocities committed against Jews, pleaded with the Ukrainian Nationalists to stop their attacks on Jews, and interceded on behalf of the Jews in 1942 with Himmler and other Nazi officials to forbid Ukrainian police from murdering Jews. He wrote Pious XII informing the latter of his own observations of the Nazis. He continued to inveigh against murdering of the Jews and wrote an epistle, somewhat coded and euphemized, but understandable nevertheless, forbidding members of his flock from taking part in murdering Jews. Sheptystsky remains a divisive and enigmatic figure. While his name has been brought before Yad Vashem on numerous occasions to honor Jews, Sheptytsky has not been accorded the honor of Righteous Among the Nations (an honor which his brother Klementiy has received), the support that he has recieved notwithstanding. The Committee it seems has felt that despite his noteworthy legacy in rescuing Jews from the clutches of the murderous anti-Semitic Nazis and Ukrainian Nationalists, (all of the children he saved were spared, and none were converted to Christianity), Sheptytsky didn't go far enough due to his encouragement of Ukrainian allegiance with Nazi Germany.
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Irene Erdheim, a Jewish Woman from Vienna, Austria
Formal portrait of female wearing dark jacket with hair pulled back
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Irene Erdheim, who had worked at the German post office in Vienna, was able to leave Vienna as a Jewish refugee for Palestine by 1940. [Related items: 2016.1.02, 2016.1.03]
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Picture Postcard of Dachau
Front: Panoramic view of the small town, many of the buildings covered by trees. A church is in the middle and is the tallest building in the picture. Back: Handwritten note. Leftside is the message in German cursive. Right side has the address on it. The upper righthand corner has a green stamp of Beethoven. The bottom has several numbers written in pencil.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A panoramic view of Dachau, a town in Upper Bavaria, mailed five years before it was to become the site of the infamous concentration camp, the first in Germany and the model for all to follow. Created by Himmler in March, 1933, the first inmates were political prisoners, communists and socialists. Within its first two years the prison population was to swell to over 100,000. Dachau was essentially born with the Third Reich and died with it, having lasted the entire 12 years of its existence.
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Envelope Addressed to Philipp Bouhler
Front: Tan postcard with handwritten message.Back: Black printed postcard lines with six multi-colored stamps and handwritten address.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Philipp Bouhler (1899-1945) was a Nazi leader who was both a Reichsleiter and Chief of the Chancellery of the Fuhrer of the Nazi Party. He was also the SS officer responsible for the Aktion T4 euthanasia program, developed with Karl Brandt, that murdered more than 70,000 disabled German adults and children. Arrested with his wife in 1945, he committed suicide. The knowledge gained from Aktion T4 was eventually applied to the industrialized murder of other groups of people.
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M.M. Warburg and Company Envelope
M. M. WARBURG & CO., HAMBURG 1' printed at bottom left; Addressed to Herrn Hugo Hartig.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The brothers Warburg, Moses and Gerson, founded teh Warburg bank, one of the world's largest privately owned banks, in 1798. While the Warburg family still owns the bank, most members of the family fled Nazi Germany to either the United States or to England by 1938.
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Flier For Nazi Party Meeting
An orange flier with bold German text and two Swastikas.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The flyers (2014.1.7-.9) claim that the Nazis are fighting capitalism, and attack Social Democrats for protecting capitalists and harming workers.
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Flier for Nazi Party Meeting
An orange flier with black printed text.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The flyers (2014.1.7-.9) claim that the Nazis are fighting capitalism, and attack Social Democrats for protecting capitalists and harming workers.
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Flier for Nazi Party Meeting
A green flier with black printed text and a swastika in the lower left.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The flyers (2014.1.7-.9) claim that the Nazis are fighting capitalism, and attack Social Democrats for protecting capitalists and harming workers.
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Candidate Adolf Hitler on Election Ballot
Small election ballet with an X next to Adolf Hitler's name. Titled "Reichspräfidentenwahl."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A ballot related to the German presidential election of March 13, 1932. Along with Hitler's name are Thalmann, Winter, Hindenburg, and Duesterberg.
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Elect Hitler Political Flier
Tan sign with red text. Titled, "Bis zum Weissbluten."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Flyer related to elections on July 31, 1932. The sign described the economic crisis of joblessness, corruption, and break down of the middle class and so on in Germany. Translation in part:…”The nation woke up and recognized that Hitler predicted correctly as the nation will discover together, and millions will settle up with the guilty ones and those responsible. And now, the betrayers lie in their fear. They hope that the nation is too stupid to see the swindle. They hope they can distract from 13 years mismanagement. They hope they can shake the belief in Hitler. But it's no use! The nation will unite with the largest German party and settle up with the betrayers and will vote on July 31 for the NSDAP.”
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Letter Involving Christoph Diehm, Richard Hildebrandt and Heinrich Himmler
Letter on tan "13. S.S. Standarte der N.S.D.A.P." stationery. Includes typewritten message and signature in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: A letter on early SS Standarte NSDAP letterhead, signed by Brigadefuhrer Christoph Diehm, SS Obergruppenfuhrer Richard Hildebrandt and initialed by Heinrich Himmler. The front bears a letter from Sturmbannfuhrer Schuster to SS Abschnitt X regarding the transfer of a freemason considered a troublemaker, on ESS Sturmfuhrer Jacob Hauser. On the back, Diehm approvesthe transfer, as does Hildebrandt three days later. On April 29th Himmler initals final approval. Diehm would later command the Kaminski, 29th Waffen SS Grenadier Div., SS Rona, fighting in the east and Warsaw. Hildebrandt headed the Office of Race and Resettlement of the SS and was found guilty of forced abductions, forced resettlements, kidnapping of children, euthenasia and a host of other crimes. He was executed by Poles in 1952.
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Postcard Commemorating Nazi Seizure of Power
Front: Off-white postcard with an illustration of a Nazi rally near a classical-looking buildling. Includes brown printed postcard lines, an address written in black ink, black hand stamps, and black and orange postage stamps.Back: Message written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard sent from Dresden, Germany to Akron, Ohio on the first anniversary of Hitler's assumption of power.
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N.S.D.A.P. Member Photograph
Man in uniform with hat and glasses standing before a Nazi swastika flag. Signature and date written in pencil on mat just below bottom right of photograph.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Ominous professional photographer’s image of an unidentified S.A. officer standing before an NSDAP flag, signed and dated 1933 by the photographer.
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Wagner Commemorative Postcard
Postcard with green postage in top right corner, “Postkarte” written in green print, image of building and landscape in green ink on left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Official postcard with indicia showing Wagner in profile. The Festival Hall at Bayreuth is pictured along with inscription “Honor your German master.” Hitler loved Wagner’s operas, especially “Die Meistersinger.” The themes of Wagner’s operas appeared, especially to the Nazis, to glorify Germany’s ancient pagan past, its Teutonic mythology and heroic gods. Wagner himself, most notably in his writing, seemed as well to be anti-Semitic, lending further comfort to Nazi ideology. Prophetically, Hitler’s last visit to the opera was to see Wagner’s Gotterdammerung.
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Commemorative Postcard of 450th Anniversary of Birth of Martin Luther
Postcard with black postage in top right corner, marked “Postkarte” in black ink, image of Martin Luther on left side.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Luther was a Christian theologian and monk whose teachings inspired the Protestant Reformation. He also penned several screeds against Jews. When his early attempts to convert them to Christianity failed, he became more angry and advocated measures including burning their synagogues, destroying prayer books, seizing their money and property and destroying their homes: even going so far as to imitate murdering them. His 20th century fans included Heinrich Himmler, Julius Streicher, and of course, Adolf Hitler. Protestant churches in 1941 thought that Jews wearing the yellow badge was a good idea. Bishop Martin Sasse applauded the burning of synagogues on Kristallnacht. Luther’s animosity toward Jews was, strictly speaking, religious in nature.
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Picture Postcard of Aftermath of Reichstag Fire
Postcard with image of burning building. German text printed below reads "Berlin, Reichstagsgebäude in Flammen"
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
On January 30, 1933, President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler Germany’s chancellor. Hitler, head of the Nazi Party, took the oath of office and convened his cabinet. In less than one month, on February 27, 1933, the German parliament building in Berlin – the Reichstag- was set ablaze. Hitler blamed the Communists for the fire, cynically claiming that this was part of an attempt to overthrow the government. The fire became for Hitler a rationale to seize absolute control of the government, suspending civil liberties and constitutional protections on the news media, free speech, and political assembly, and conducting raids and arrests on offices of political opponents. While a young Dutchman with communist sympathies was tried and eventually executed for the arson, many believed that Hitler and the Nazis had contrived and participated in the arson. On March 23, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, giving full powers to Hitler. By the end of the year, all non-Nazi political parties, labor unions and other organizations had ceased to exist. Hindenburg died in 1934, and the German Army sanctioned Hitler’s decision to combine the posts of president and chancellor, thus cementing Hitler’s absolute power to Germany.
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Booklet of Frederick the Great Stamp
Postage stamp booklet, front includes “Deutsches Reich” in black print and image of two flags, inside includes a page of green postage stamps and a page of red postage stamps.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: The cover of this booklet depicts both existing national flags, the “Kaiserreich” black, white, and red flag, and the new swastika flag which would soon replace the former. The back cover shows information on the new Reichstag opening. As well an interleaf that displays the slogan “All for Germany.” Hitler had been sworn in as Chancellor January 30, 1933. Hitler revered Frederick’s military genius and carried a portrait of him wherever he travelled.
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Postcard Depicting the Garrison Church at Potsdam with Imprinted Stamp of Frederick the Great
Postcard labelled “Postkarte” at top in green. Includes green postage in upper right corner and image of church in green on left side. Back dated “19.5.33,” written in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Inscription on postcard commemorates the opening of the Reichstag on March 21. 1933 in Potsdam. Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on January 30, 1933. He took his oath of allegiance- prior to the opening of the Reichstag- in this church. Frederick the Great was Hitler’s hero and he always carried Frederick’s portrait with him.
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Aryan Racial Declaration by German Citizen
Typed document, ‘Erklarung’ underlined at top center; signatures and dates handwritten at bottom half with red handstamp on left
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: This declaration, given by Mr. Claus Rass, just six months after Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany, states that there are no known circumstances which would give reason to believe that “I am not Aryan or that my parents or grandparents were members of the Jewish religion. I am aware that I will be punished in the event that my given declaration is not true.”
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Bernile Nienau with Adolf Hitler at Obersalzberg
Front: Black and white photograph of Hitler with his arm around a young, blonde-haired girl in a floral-print dress. Behind them is a scenic background of trees and mountains. Back: Blank postcard lines. Coffee stain on bottom. Upper left has purple circular hand stamp with Nazi insignia.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Adolf Hitler with a small girl Bernile Nienau at Obersalzberg. Hitler enjoyed being photographed with children. Bernile had been chosen to visit the "Fuhrer" and it was discovered that they shared the same birthday, April 20. She was a favorite of Hitler and visited frequently. When Martin Bormann, Hitler's secretary, discovered that Bernile's grandmother was Jewish, he had her banned from all contact with Hitler. She apparently died at the end of the war in Munich, although the circumstances surrounding her death are mysterious. Nazi party stamp on reverse.
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Why the Aryan Law?
Front: Tan cover with blocky black text on top and bottom.Interior: Printed black German text.This book was published by the Racial Policy Office of the NSDAP and summarizes the anti-Jewish laws of the Third Reich with explanations of why Jews are over-represented in important parts of society. It also promised the fair treatment of Jews.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: German anti-semtiic publication "Warum Arierparagraph?" by Drs. E.H. Schultz and R. Frercks, published by the Racial Policy Office of the NSDAP, Berlin, 1934. With graphs and illustrations, the pamphlet summarizes and justifies the anti-Jewish laws enacted by the Third Reich and provides statistics "proving" how Jews are over-represented in the important parts of society. Interestingly it promises that Jews will be well treated--only their social standing is intolerable.
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Race Laws of Third Reich Pamphlet
Front: Tan cover with printed black text, lines, and Nazi seal.Interior: Black printed text in German.Back: Small printed Nazi seal.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Pamphlet by William Frick on Nazi Race Laws. 1934. 'Race Laws of Third Reich' by Wilhelm Frick, 16 pages, an early explanation of race laws, ultimately to be codified and known as the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, for the benefit of the press corps. The enactment of the anti-semitic laws facilitated enforcement of legislation restricting civil rights of German Jews.
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Bund Deutsche Mädel Identification Card for Anni Luh
Interior: Black and white photograph of a young woman in pigtails with biographical information.Exterior: Titled, "Mitglieds Ausweis für den Bund Deutsche Mädel." Includes image of a swastika in a diamond and a chart with pink tickets.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: ID with a photograph of a German Bund Deutsche Mädel. All women had to be of Aryan heritage, citizens of Germany, and free of hereditary disease. As Jutta Ruediger, a leader of the German girls, states: girls were raised to "believe in Germany and our leader and pass on these beliefs to their children." Training consisted of sports (particularly gymnastics), philosophical education, and cultural work. Girls attended lectures and participated in work groups.