Briar Rose Notes
Context 1: The historical context - the Jewish Holocaust
The word holocaust originally meant a sacrifice wholly consumed by fire; now it is most commonly used to mean:
The (period of the) mass murder of the Jews (or of other groups) by the Nazis in the war of l939-45 (The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).
During World War II the anti-semitic German government under Chancellor Adolf Hitler decided on a "final solution" to what it saw as "the Jewish problem". This was to set up death and work camps so that this group - which the government saw as a threat to national unity - would be eliminated. Death was to be the final solution. Other groups were also targeted - among them gypsies, homosexuals and political and religious dissidents.
The evidence is that the victims were told only that they were going to work as slave labour. They were taken by train to a network of camps established in Germany and Poland. Most were then gassed to death, although at the work camps many did survive for some time. The word 'holocaust' was appropriate, for the vast majority of bodies were eventually burned, although many ended in mass graves. The best estimate from the evidence is that about six million were killed.
Students in the Sydney region can view a range of evidence displayed at the Sydney Jewish Museum - Museum of Australian Jewish History and the Holocaust, 148 Darlinghurst Road. Video interviews with survivors - many financed by film-maker Steven Spielberg - can be viewed, and documents, artefacts and photographic evidence may be studied (telephone no: 02 9360 7999).
Such appalling and tragic events have inspired a range of movies, fiction and memoirs. Films include the factualShoah, the fiction Schindler's List and the fantasy Life is Beautiful. Memoirs include Ifthis is a Man by Primo Levi. Australian writers on the holocaust include Lily Brett, The Auschwitz Poems, and Mark Raphael Baker, The Fiftieth Gate. Both Brett and Baker are children of survivors.
The word holocaust originally meant a sacrifice wholly consumed by fire; now it is most commonly used to mean:
The (period of the) mass murder of the Jews (or of other groups) by the Nazis in the war of l939-45 (The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).
During World War II the anti-semitic German government under Chancellor Adolf Hitler decided on a "final solution" to what it saw as "the Jewish problem". This was to set up death and work camps so that this group - which the government saw as a threat to national unity - would be eliminated. Death was to be the final solution. Other groups were also targeted - among them gypsies, homosexuals and political and religious dissidents.
The evidence is that the victims were told only that they were going to work as slave labour. They were taken by train to a network of camps established in Germany and Poland. Most were then gassed to death, although at the work camps many did survive for some time. The word 'holocaust' was appropriate, for the vast majority of bodies were eventually burned, although many ended in mass graves. The best estimate from the evidence is that about six million were killed.
Students in the Sydney region can view a range of evidence displayed at the Sydney Jewish Museum - Museum of Australian Jewish History and the Holocaust, 148 Darlinghurst Road. Video interviews with survivors - many financed by film-maker Steven Spielberg - can be viewed, and documents, artefacts and photographic evidence may be studied (telephone no: 02 9360 7999).
Such appalling and tragic events have inspired a range of movies, fiction and memoirs. Films include the factualShoah, the fiction Schindler's List and the fantasy Life is Beautiful. Memoirs include Ifthis is a Man by Primo Levi. Australian writers on the holocaust include Lily Brett, The Auschwitz Poems, and Mark Raphael Baker, The Fiftieth Gate. Both Brett and Baker are children of survivors.