Mennonites and the Holocaust: From Collaboration to Perpetuation
2010; Volume: 84; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0025-9373
Autores Tópico(s)Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
ResumoAbstract: Building on earlier discussions of Mennonites and National Socialism, this article examines several direct connections between Mennonites and Holocaust in Europe, Russia and America. Mining recent scholarship and new evidence author presents sobering view of Mennonite collaboration with German Schutzstaffel (SS) in carrying out solution and their extensive ties to concentration camp at Stutthof near Danzig. also exposes Mennonite participation in massacre of at Zaporozhia, region around Mennonite colonics of Chortitza and Molochna, and concludes with close analysis of activities of two Mennonites, Jack Reimer and Heinrich Wiens, who were accused of committing war crimes. It can be demonstrated that ... people of Mennonite heritage ... most likely did not participate in atrocities and denunciations committed at Stutthof. (1) Horst Gerlach, prolific German Mennonite writer who was born in Elbing, Poland, drew that hopeful conclusion nearly forty years ago. The Stutthof concentration camp--located not far from Elbing and just few miles east of Danzig--w7as first camp to be constructed outside of Germany. Along wTith its numerous outlying slave labor camps was initially intended, according to Polish scholar Janina Grabowsky, as a camp of political terror against Poles, In course of time, however, it became major cogwheel in German machinery of destruction against people of Europe, at end--and above all--against Jews. (2) Stutthof was also located in an area with highest density of Mennonite residents of any place in world. Based on interviews with former Mennonites from area, Gerlach argued that Mennonites, among others, actually tried to prevent erection of camp in 1939 and that they sought to moderate conditions for many inmates, to degree that such influence was possible within context of dictatorial regime. As current scholarship has demonstrated, however, Gerlach's claim that Stutthof concentration camp and killing process that occurred within its guarded walls remained well-kept secret to public, including local residents, is not plausible. Already in early 1980s Meir Buchsweiler was certain that most native Germans in Ukraine--home to another very large settlement of Mennonites --knew what was being done to Jews and that thousands most likely participated in the killing actions. Indeed, many Russian Germans received portion of clothes and property stolen from victims. (3) If Mennonites in South Russia knew that genocide was happening around them, then certainly their cousins in Vistula delta of Poland, motherland of Russian Mennonites, knew and understood that they were in midst of Holocaust and could not avoid involvement in one way or another. This essay traces painful story of Mennonite participation in Holocaust, moving from pattern of collaboration in Danzig Lowlands to direct perpetration of genocidal acts in Caucasus with significant part of story occurring at midpoint between these two regions in Russian Mennonite settlements of Chortitza and Molochna. SOVIETS, MENNONITES AND GERMAN IDENTITY As final tragic event in concluding phase of Mennonite sojourn in Russia, Holocaust has not yet been fully examined as part of Mennonite history either in Russia or in Europe as whole. The roots of that story begin with painful events of Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent civil war. Driven by fear and predation of violent anarchists, many Mennonites in South Russia set aside their pacifist tradition and formed self-defense units to protect their homes and families against bandits and even Red Army. Since many had earlier joined counterrevolutionary forces of former tsarist generals Mennonites now found themselves on losing side of conflict as enemies of new communist government. …
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