The Holocaust (1933-45) refers to Nazi Germany’s deliberate, progressive persecution and systematic murder of the Jews of Europe. Nazi antisemitism superseded traditional Judeo-Christian religious conflict by uniting a racial ideology with social Darwinism: the Jew is seen as subhuman, a disease threatening the body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 he 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 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, 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 create an increasingly sophisticated technical apparatus for carrying out mass murder on an industrial scale, its ultimate goal the “final solution to the Jewish question.”
--Michael D. Bulmash, K1966
Browse the Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection.
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Nazi Membership Annulled. Photocopy of Document
2019.2.6
White print on black paper with wide white border, vertical line from wear down middle of sheet, stamp including Nazi party emblem near bottom of page, top right corner reads "Magdeburg, den 11. März 1936"
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
From the NSDAP district court in Magdeburg comes this “decree,” signed and notarized, that Fritz Scheuer’s membership in the Nazi Party is annulled, due to the discovery by the Archbishop’s office in Nuremberg-Fuerth that Mr. Scheuer’s great-grandfather, Isaias Neckarsulmer, was fully Jewish (“Volljude“), irrespective of the latter’s conversion and baptism in July 1811. Accordingly, Mr. Scheuer’s Nazi Party membership must be declared void. Interestingly, Mr. Scheuer’s grandfather, according to this document, was Georg Joseph Ignatz Scheuer, also baptized Catholic, who founded and owned a chicory coffee factory in Nuremberg-Feurth. His company was liquidated after 1931.
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Arthur Greiser Correspondence
2015.2.174ab
Envelope: White with typewritten address. Includes two black hand stamps in upper right, and purple hand stamp in lower left.Letter: Off-white paper with a typewritten message. Includes Greiser's printed letterhead, "President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Greiser was an SS-Obergruppenfuhrer and Reich Governor of the German-occupied territory of Wartheland. He was instrumental in organizing the Holocaust in Poland, ordering mass deportations and gassing of mental patients. He asked permission from Himmler to kill 100,000 Jews in his area. Utilizing gas vans, he established an extermination unit which killed more than 150,000 Jews. After the war he was tried by the Polish government for war crimes and sentenced to death. Here his signature appears on an album page along with his title, "President of the Senate of the Free City of Danzig." 1936. Letter of transmittal. 1936.
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Nuremberg Rally Postcard Sent by SA Member
2019.2.226
Postcard with black and white image of busy street in Nuremberg, “Nürnberg. Königstrasse” in white print. Back includes green postage stamp in top right corner next to “Nürnberg” stamped in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Postcard sent from Nuremberg by an SA (Sturmabteilung) member who participated in the Nuremberg Nazi Party Rally of 1936, the so-called Rally of Honor. Also known as the brownshirts, the SA was the paramilitary unit of the Nazi party headed initially by Ernst Rohm. This rally lasted from the 8th to the 14th of September 1936. The card, with stamp depicting the rally, was postmarked “Nuremberg, the city of the German Reich Rallies.”
The SA man writes:
“To Mr. Ernst Roch, chalk plant in Salzhemmendorf Illgau-Hannover Nuremberg, 12.9.1936.
My beloved ones!
I send you greetings from the SA camp at Langwasser, yours Ernst. We have wonderful weather and spirit. We are here with 100,000 men. We will get up tomorrow in the morning at 1:30 am and then start our 40 kilometers’ march and our march past the Fuhrer. Today was a great air show and on Monday is a Wehrmacht show. I will return on Tuesday evening. Lutze is in our camp. My feet are still ok.”
The aforementioned Lutze is a reference to Viktor Lutze, the SA officer at Langwasser who succeeded Rohm as head of the SA after conspiring to have him murdered during the 1934 “Night of the Long Knives.”
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![Partial Envelope with Meter Mark with Slogan "Rassenpflege ist Volksgesundheitspflege" [Racial Care is National Health Care]](https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/2549/thumbnail.jpg "Partial Envelope with Meter Mark with Slogan \"Rassenpflege ist Volksgesundheitspflege\" [Racial Care is National Health Care]")
Partial Envelope with Meter Mark with Slogan "Rassenpflege ist Volksgesundheitspflege" [Racial Care is National Health Care]
2019.2.223
Partial envelope stamped with “Düsseldorf” and dated with “24-10-36” in red ink on left side and “8739” at top.
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SA Confirmation Document
2012.1.65
Half sheet with typewritten message titled, "Bescheinigung!"
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Obertruppfuhrer and leader of the SA Storm 3/38 confirms in this document that Erwin Loitsch, a member of the SA since November 1933, is a willing and dutiful SA man.
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Letter from Joseph Goebbels
2012.1.383
Typewritten letter on "Der Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda" stationery. Includes signature on back.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945) was the Nazi minister of propaganda. He worked with Hitler from the earliest days of the Reich, a master of manipulation of the masses who took the lives of his wife and family members in the last days of the war. In this letter, Goebbels, as minister of propaganda, wrote to all Gauleiters. The letter reads, in part: "This year, major events have frequently occurred on the same day or that important public ceremonies could not be carried out because all available dates had already been filled. To avoid this in the future, I would like to have an overview now of the important events in 1937. To that end, in consultation with the Fuhrer's deputy and with reference to the Fuhrer's and Reich Chancellor's decree - RK 13096 B - of Nov. 13, 1936, I am asking you to communicate to me whether there are plans for events of the following nature... 1. Events in which participants are able to be drawn from a circle that extends beyond a single political district [gau] of the NSDAP and in which it is projected that more than 3,000 persons will take part. 2. Events which are planned to invite members of the Reich leadership of the NSDAP or members of the Reich government as guests of honor... would be grateful if I could get your reports by December 31, 1936..."
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Haavara Agreement Germany Entrance Document
2014.1.101
Typewritten document with blue stamp and signature in lower right corner.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Haavara was a company established in 1933 as the result of an agreement between the Jewish Agency (the official Jewish executive in Palestine) and the Nazi regime. The Trust and Transfer Office Haavara Ltd. was established in Tel Aviv to facilitate Jewish emigration to Palestine. Though the Nazis had ordered Jewish emigrants to surrender most of their property before leaving Germany, the Haavara agreement let them retain some of their assets by transferring them to Palestine as German export goods. Approximately 50,000 Jews emigrated to Palestine under this arrangement.
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Rabbi Leo Baeck Newsletter
2012.1.491
Tan page with brown text titled, "Zentralausschuss für Hilfe und Aufbau bei der Reichsvertretung der Juden in Deutschland."
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Official publication of the Central Committee for Aid and Structure by the Reich Agency of Jews in Germany. This manifesto is signed (printed signature) by Rabbi Leo Baeck, "The Teacher of Theresienstadt." He reports that "the current situation requires cooperation... we must handle unknown new paths... in order to build our future. Immigration to Palestine and other countries... Economic support to acquire new trades... Principal general education, professional retraining... Loans... Aid for the youth... For families, for the health of institutions, schools and adult education..." Rabbi Baeck chose his words carefully, aware of the current danger from the Nazi regime. He delivered a calm yet urgent message to his flock. "We have here an historic role... To understand the current situation in Germany and to safely survive..." Dated in Hebrew: 5697 (1937).
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Page from Printing of Reich Citizenship Law
2021.1.7
[Cover]: Typewritten page printed 207
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
German printed text from a law journal of the Reich Citizenship Law which had been passed in the Reichstag on September 15, 1935. This law was foundational for the Nazi persecution of the Jews, no longer considered German citizens but rather subjects of the state, stripped of their civil rights and professional employment. Under the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor,” the so-called “Blood Protection Law,” Jews were racially and socially isolated, prohibited from marrying or having sexual relations with non-Jews. Other laws followed, specifying professions, occupations, and educational opportunities from which Jews were expunged.
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German Art Exhibition Catalog
2021.1.9
[Cover]: “Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung 1937” and featuring a shield of sorts incorporating a torch, eagle, swastika, helmeted man, and the year 1937. [Interior] numbered images of German artwork.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
House of German Art official exhibition catalog for the 1937 art show, displaying pictures of German art approved by Hitler. Approximately 900 works were exhibited, including military and political paintings, sculpture, idealized pastoral scenes, mythological scenes, and triumphal images of workers and heroes. Hitler made clear in his speech on National Socialist cultural policy that true German art had to reflect and propagandize for the goals of the regime or it would be banned from museums as degenerate art.
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Postcard from Leo Lichtenberg, Cincinnati, Ohio, to Rabbi Dr. A. Rosenthal in Berlin
2021.1.5
[front]: typed in black and red ink with green pre-printed stamp and red postage stamp; postmarked 11.1.1937; [back]: typed in black ink with last line in handwritten pencil
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Lichtenberg is writing to Rabbi Rosenthal in Berlin shortly before the war, but enough time has lapsed that both men see the current situation in Germany for what it is, especially for the Jews. Indeed, Lichtenberg has already fled Germany (1935), almost completed his B.A. at the University of Cincinnati, and has begun his Rabbinical training at Hebrew Union College. He would be ordained in 1940. Lichtenberg was considered one of the “refugee Rabbis” who fled Nazi Germany for America and became part of the German rabbinate that existed in refugee communities. Lichtenberg was an Air Force chaplain in both WWII and the Korean War. He was as well a director of the Hillel Foundation, and a professor of religion at Adelphi. His letter to Rabbi Rosenthal is quite respectful, ever mindful of the bleak circumstances for Jews. He hopes that the Rabbi’s work will continue to grow, that he will continue to be successful and he hopes “…to hear good things from you again.”
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Attestation that Woman Does Not Have Jewish Parents or Grandparents
2012.1.61
Half sheet with German text and cross outs, titled "Erklärung!"
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: An attestation declaring that the undersigned does not have Jewish parents or grandparents, nor does her husband.
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Letter from the Kaufthaus Nathan Israel to the Carl Bruns Company, Rathenow
2015.2.19
Front: Tan paper with printed "N.J. Israel" letterhead on upper lefthand corner.Typewritten letter with signature and other ink writing on the bottom right. Back: Printed black lines with pencil handwriting written across the entirety of the page.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: This letter from the Kaufthaus Nathan Israel to the Carl Bruns Company in Rathenow refers to payment not having been received, respectfully requesting that said payment be made. Israel's Department Store was founded by Nathan Israel in 1815. By the 1930s the store employed over 2,000 people and was a member of the stock exchange. It had been boycotted by the German government. Israel's was set ablaze and ransacked during Kristallnacht, after which it was aryanized and re-opened under a different name. Wilfred Israel, who had run the store with his brother, emigrated to England and organized ship transports for Jewish children escaping from occupied Europe. Other members of the Israel family were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto where they perished.
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Attestation that Woman does not have Jewish Parents or Grandparents
2012.1.57
Half sheet with printed black text with several pencil cross-outs. Includes several signatures.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: This document was an attestation. This woman attested that she was not the offspring of Jewish parents or grandparents. She scratched out the statement that she was an offspring of Jews. It was signed in Nuremburg.
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Marriage Certificate Approved by Third Reich
2015.2.213
Front: Tan paper with black printed German text and dotted lines. The rest of the page is split into a two-part chart with printed text on left side, and printed dotted lines filled in with blue cursive handwriting on right.Back: Continuation of the chart and black printed text. Includes several signatures beneath, and a purple hand stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Pre-printed Nazi Racial Department document that declares two German citizens are able to wed as neither had Jewish parents or grandparents.
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Postcard to American Magazine
2012.1.513
Tan postcard with Yiddish message written in purple ink. Includes address to "Forward," 175 East Broadway, New York City, United States.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Postcard with added postage from a Polish Jewess to the editorial board of the American Jewish "Forward" newspaper, NY, hand stamped with her husband's name: "Abraham Wilchfort, Oswiecim," soon to be known as Auschwitz. Message in Yiddish for the renewal of subscription to be paid by her sister in N.J. According to the Central Database of Shoah Victims Names, Abraham perished in Auschwitz in 1942, not far from his hometown.
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Certificate Signed by Adolf Hitler
2012.1.388
Certificate with intricate cursive made out to Hans Joachim von Loeschebrand-Horn. Includes Hitler signature in black.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Adolf Hitler, Nazi Party leader and Germany's Führer, signed this document concerning the appointment of Hans Joachim von Loeschebrand-Horn, a propagandist and cartographer, to serve as director of the Reichdienst. Co-signed by William Frick (1877-1948), Nazi Minister of the Interior and author of the Nuremberg Laws.
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![Tag Der Deutschen Kunst München 1937 [Day of German Art in Munich] Postcard](https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1351/thumbnail.jpg "Tag Der Deutschen Kunst München 1937 [Day of German Art in Munich] Postcard")
Tag Der Deutschen Kunst München 1937 [Day of German Art in Munich] Postcard
2014.1.35
Front: A white postcard with iridescent yellow/green symbol of the Nazi eagle, torch and Greco-Roman head.Back: Handwritten message in black ink with a green Hitler stamp.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: House of German Art, Munich, official event postcard used September 23, 1937.
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Letter from Hans Frank to Mein Fuhrer (Adolph Hitler)
2014.1.247
Typewritten letter on white stationery with printed header. Includes a signature in black ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: Hans Frank (1900-1946) was the Nazi Occupation Governor of the area of Poland known as the "General Government". He was responsible for the ghettoization of Jews in Warsaw, and the genocide perpetrated there. This is a letter addressed to Adolf Hitler written on his personal letterhead, addressed October 26, 1937. Frank thanks Hitler for giving him permission to travel to Paris and would like to give the Führer his impression of the city, of life in France, and especially of the comments of Prime Minister Camille Chautemps. He notes, "... his remarks were in part very interesting and not unimportant to judge the French intentions..."
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Antisemitic Exhibition – Munich 1937
2012.1.477
Yellow postcard with an illustration of a stereotyped Jewish man, holding a cane and map with the Communist hammer and sickle in one hand and coins in the other. Includes caption, "Der Ewige Jude" (The Eternal Jew) in type that mirrors Hebrew. Back is addressed to Beita Schniler in blue ink.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
To further promote Nazi antisemitic objectives, a travelling exhibition named “Der Ewige Jude” ("The Eternal Jew") was created in 1937. It appeared in five cities during the following eighteen months. The exhibition depicted Jews - their clothes, facial characteristics, cultural items and art - in every conceivable negative and unfavorable way, and markedly “degenerate” in contrast to the Nazi aryan ideal. This postcard advertising the exhibition - in this case in Munich - depicts a caricatured, unattractive image of a disheveled Jewish man against a yellow background clutching a knotted whip in his left hand with an inset map of the Soviet Union with red Communist hammer and sickle. In his outstretched right hand are gold coins. His eyes are closed against a secret he is hiding: the composite image represents a putative Jewish conspiracy for world domination. The two special cancellations on the back of the postcard commemorate the event.
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Karl Gebhardt (1897-1948) Letter to Rudolf Hess
2019.2.9ab
Two pages, first page includes "Persönlich!" printed in black print and underlined in top center and "2" in bottom right corner of page, next page marked with "2" at top center and includes signature of Ihr Dankbarer
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Gebhardt was the personal physician to both Himmler and Hess, as well as president of the German Red Cross, and medical superintendent of the Hohenlychen Sanatorium, a medical facility for treating injured or sick SS personnel. Involved in coordinating surgical experiments on inmates of Ravensbruck and Auschwitz in an effort to justify his surgical approach to treating contaminated wounds as opposed to using antibiotics, he was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial and sentenced to death by hanging. In this letter to Hess on his personal Hohenlychen medical letterhead, Gebhardt offers his opinions on an examination of the aunt of Hess’s wife, Ilse.
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Dr. Freud Arrives in London as Refugee
2014.1.87
Front: An image of Dr. Sigmund Freud accompanied by a younger man. Back: A typed description of the photo.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
Photo shows an 82-year-old Sigmund Freud, Austrian pioneer of psychoanalysis, arriving at Victoria Station in London, June 6, 1938, not long after the "Anschluss". According to the information provided on the wire photo by Planet News, he is intending to make his home in London (his daughter works there). " Dr. Freud, who is Jewish, had his passport restored to him unexpectedly by the Nazi authorities. He was allowed to take out of Austria only his furniture, his library, and his collection of Greek and Egyptian antiques."
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Jewish Refugees from Austria
2014.1.88
Front: An image of Jewish refugees surrounding a table while having an English lesson in Switzerland. Back: Typed information about the image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: According to information provided on this wire photo (verso), "Thousands of Jewish refugees are now living in special encampments in Switzerland, where the authorities are trying to ease the problem by taking measures to prevent further influx. Many of the refugees are said to have been aided across the border by the Austrian Nazis. The photo shows a group of the refugees having an English lesson in the camp here."
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Jewish Refugees on SS Aorangi
2014.1.91
Front: An image of a young woman in a coat next to a chalkboard on the SS Aorangi. Information about the photo is typed underneath. Back: Title and date are stamped.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash: AP wirephoto with explanation verso: "This sign at the gangplank of the SS Aorangi spelled a new home in Australia or New Zealand for this German-born Jewess. She was one of 150 refugees, mostly from Berlin and Vienna, enroute to a new home."
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Schooled in New Ways
2014.1.94
Front: An image of two boys writing during lessons at a refugee camp in Dovercourt Bay, England. Verso: Typed information describing the image.
Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:
AP wire photo from 1938 verso: "Here is a study of young German Jewish refugees writing during lessons at the refugee camp school which has been set up for them at Dovercourt Bay, England. Many of the children wear caps indoors in accordance with tradition."