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Satmar ( Yiddish : סאַטמאַר ; Hebrew : סאטמר ) is a group in Hasidic Judaism founded in 1905 by Grand Rebbe Joel Teitelbaum (1887–1979), in the city of Szatmárnémeti , Hungary (now Satu Mare in Romania ). The group is a branch of the Sighet Hasidic dynasty . Following World War II , it was re-established in New York and has since grown to become one of the largest Hasidic dynasties in the world, comprising around 26,000 households.

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142-619: Satmar is characterized by extreme conservatism , complete rejection of modern culture, and strong religious anti-Zionism . The community sponsors a comprehensive education and media network in Yiddish , which is also the primary language used by its members. Satmar also sponsors and leads the Central Rabbinical Congress , which serves as an umbrella organization for other highly conservative, anti-Zionist, and mostly Hungarian-descended ultra-Orthodox communities. Following

284-580: A German colonial empire overseas, leading to the Herero and Nama genocide and subsequent racial apartheid regime in South West Africa . World War I (1914–1918) intensified nationalist and racist sentiments in Germany and other European countries. Jews in eastern Europe were targeted by widespread pogroms . Germany had two million war dead and lost a substantial territory ; opposition to

426-694: A community in Romania too. In addition to the Grand Rabbis' two main congregations, Chaim Yehoshua Halberstam , chief rabbi of the Satmar community in Monsey, became its local leader. Unlike the two brothers, Halberstam does not lay claim to the entire sect, though he conducts himself in the manner of a Hasidic Rebbe, accepting kvitel and holding tish . Another son, Lipa Teitelbaum, established his own congregation and calls himself Zenter Rav, in homage to

568-536: A concentration camp. Despite many deaths, as many as 200,000 Jews survived the war inside the concentration camps. Although most Holocaust victims were never imprisoned in a concentration camp, the image of these camps is a popular symbol of the Holocaust. Including the Soviet prisoners of war, 13 million people were brought to Germany for forced labor. The largest nationalities were Soviet and Polish and they were

710-575: A danger to the Republican Party", as it was "moving the party farther to the right ... [which] would transform the Republican Party into a fringe party". Beginning in the 1970s, ultraconservatives attempted to establish their principles into the government and culture of the United States, with the use of think tanks , political action committees , and lobbyists . These groups were typically supported by wealthy individuals, including

852-513: A demonic force, as much as both the religious and secular streams of Zionism. He demanded complete political passivity, stating that any action to the contrary was akin to disbelief in divine providence . While Agudah opposed Zionism for seeing it as anti-religious, Spira viewed their plan for establishing an independent state before the arrival of the Messiah as "forcing the end", trying to bring Redemption before God prescribed it. In addition, he

994-463: A few kilometers from a town. Victims were rounded up and marched to the execution site, forced to undress, and shot into previously dug pits. The favored technique was a shot in the back of the neck with a single bullet. In the chaos, many victims were not killed by the gunfire but instead buried alive . Typically, the pits would be guarded after the execution but sometimes a few victims managed to escape afterwards. Executions were public spectacles and

1136-553: A food shortfall and planned the mass starvation of Soviet cities and some rural areas. Although the starvation policy was less successful than planners hoped, the residents of some cities, particularly in Ukraine, and besieged Leningrad , as well as the Jewish ghettos, endured human-made famine, during which millions of people died of starvation. By mid-June 1941, about 30,000 Jews had died, 20,000 of whom had starved to death in

1278-555: A higher chance of survival. Although conditions varied widely between camps, Jewish forced laborers were typically treated worse than non-Jewish prisoners and suffered much higher mortality rates. In mid-1943, Himmler sought to bring surviving Jewish forced laborers under the control of the SS in the concentration camp system. Some of the forced-labor camps for Jews and some ghettos, such as Kovno, were designated concentration camps, while others were dissolved and surviving prisoners sent to

1420-808: A huge ransom to have him included in the passenger list of the Kastner train . Teitelbaum reached Switzerland on the night of 7–8 December 1944, and soon immigrated to Mandatory Palestine . Many of Satmar's Jews were murdered by the Nazis. A year after his daughter's death in Jerusalem, Teitelbaum chose to move to the United States, arriving in New York aboard the MS Vulcania on 26 September 1946. Teitelbaum settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn , along with

1562-820: A nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Jews. Following the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union , 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot by German forces and local collaborators. Later in 1941 or early 1942, the highest levels of the German government decided to murder all Jews in Europe . Victims were deported by rail to extermination camps where, if they survived

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1704-443: A network of businesses that provided an economic base for the community's own social institutions. The Satmar group grew rapidly, attracting many new followers. A 1961 survey established that its Williamsburg community included 4,500 people. From the 860 household heads, about 40 percent had been neither Satmar nor Sighet Hasidim in the pre-war years. In 1968, Satmar was already New York's largest Hasidic group, with 1,300 households in

1846-415: A public school system, it would be the fourth-largest system in the state, after those of New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester. In most places, the girls' schools are called Beis Rochel , and the yeshivas Torah VeYirah . In 1953, Teitelbaum founded the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada , which provides various services, including kashrut supervision. Senior yeshivas include

1988-542: A rebellion against God, and that its pursuit brought about the Holocaust as a divine punishment; the continued existence of Israel was a major sin in itself, and would unavoidably lead to further retribution, as well as to the delaying of redemption. Vayoel Moshe crystallized the Rabbi's uncompromisingly hostile stance toward the state. The link between Zionism and the Holocaust became a hallmark of his religious worldview. Teitelbaum's rabbinic authority and wealthy supporters in

2130-519: A reference to three oaths forced by God; two on the Children of Israel – that they "shall not go up " (migrate en masse) to their land before redemption, and neither rebel against the Gentile nations among which they are exiled – and the third upon all nations, "that they shall not oppress Israel too much". Teitelbaum argued that the first two are binding and eternal, and that their intent was to keep

2272-607: A result of local and popular pressure, many small towns became entirely free of Jews and as many as a third of Jewish businesses may have been forced to close. Anti-Jewish violence was even worse in areas annexed by Nazi Germany . On 9–10 November 1938, the Nazis organized Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a nationwide pogrom . Over 7,500 Jewish shops (out of 9,000) were looted, more than 1,000 synagogues were damaged or destroyed, at least 90 Jews were murdered, and as many as 30,000 Jewish men were arrested , although many were released within weeks. German Jews were levied

2414-525: A significant number of other European countries abandoned democracy for some kind of authoritarian or fascist rule. Many countries, including Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, passed antisemitic legislation in the 1930s and 1940s. In October 1938, Germany deported many Polish Jews in response to a Polish law that enabled the revocation of citizenship for Polish Jews living abroad. The German Wehrmacht (armed forces) invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, triggering declarations of war from

2556-438: A similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of these other groups . The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of "living space" , and seized power in early 1933. Meant to force all German Jews to emigrate , regardless of means, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated

2698-551: A slight increase in rations to non-Jewish Poles, and combat the black market . In March 1942, killings began in Belzec, targeting Jews from Lublin who were not capable of work. This action reportedly reduced the black market and was deemed a success to be replicated elsewhere. By mid-1942, Nazi leaders decided to allow only 300,000 Jews to survive in the General Governorate by the end of the year for forced labor; for

2840-566: A small group of followers, and set out to re-establish his sect, which had been destroyed in the Holocaust . His arrival in America allowed him to fully implement his views: The separation of religion and state enabled the Satmar dynasty, as well as numerous other Jewish groups, to establish independent communities, unlike the state-regulated structures in Central Europe. In April 1948, his adherents founded "Congregation Yetev Lev", which

2982-628: A special tax that raised more than 1 billion Reichsmarks (RM). The Nazi government wanted to force all Jews to leave Germany . By the end of 1939, most Jews who could emigrate had already done so; those who remained behind were disproportionately elderly, poor, or female and could not obtain a visa. The plurality, around 110,000, left for the United States, while smaller numbers emigrated to South America, Shanghai , Mandatory Palestine , and South Africa. Germany collected emigration taxes of nearly 1 billion RM, mostly from Jews. The policy of forced emigration continued into 1940. Besides Germany,

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3124-511: A symbol of the ultimate human evil. The term Holocaust , derived from a Greek word meaning ' burnt offering ', has become the most common word used to describe the Nazi extermination of Jews in English and many other languages. The term Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of other groups that the Nazis targeted, especially those targeted on a biological basis, in particular

3266-455: A variety of measures, including imprisonment in concentration camps . The Nazis forcibly sterilized 400,000 people and subjected others to forced abortions for real or supposed hereditary illnesses. Although the Nazis sought to control every aspect of public and private life, Nazi repression was directed almost entirely against groups perceived as outside the national community. Most Germans had little to fear provided they did not oppose

3408-587: A view to their ultimate disappearance from the country. Jewish students were gradually forced out of the school system. Some municipalities enacted restrictions governing where Jews were allowed to live or conduct business. In 1938 and 1939, Jews were barred from additional occupations, and their businesses were expropriated to force them out of the economy. Anti-Jewish violence, largely locally organized by members of Nazi Party institutions, took primarily non-lethal forms from 1933 to 1939. Jewish stores, especially in rural areas, were often boycotted or vandalized. As

3550-521: Is neoliberalism . The use of conspiracy theories is also common amongst ultraconservatives. President Jair Bolsonaro was described as an ultraconservative during his tenure, often aligning his views with President Donald Trump . Upon taking office, Bolsonaro nominated ultraconservative Damares Alves to head the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship . His government would go on to be headed by elites who broadened extractivist activities in

3692-731: Is controversial. Romanian soldiers killed tens of thousands of Jews from Odessa by April 1942. Prior to the invasion, the Einsatzgruppen were reorganized in preparation for mass killings and instructed to shoot Soviet officials and Jewish state and party employees. The shootings were justified on the basis of Jews' supposed central role in supporting the communist system, but it was not initially envisioned to kill all Soviet Jews. The occupiers relied on locals to identify Jews to be targeted. The first German mass killings targeted adult male Jews who had worked as civil servants or in jobs requiring education. Tens of thousands were shot by

3834-630: Is here; the annihilation of the Jews must be the necessary consequence." It took the Nazis several months after this to organize a continent-wide genocide. Reinhard Heydrich , head of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), convened the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. This high-level meeting was intended to coordinate anti-Jewish policy. The majority of Holocaust killings were carried out in 1942, with it being

3976-471: Is new is forbidden by the Torah ." Schlesinger accorded Yiddish and traditional Jewish garb a religious status, idealizing them as a means of separation from the outside world. To reinforce his opposition to secular studies and the use of a vernacular, Schlesinger ventured outside the realm of strict halakha (Jewish law) and based his rulings on the non-legalistic Aggadah . The ultra-Orthodox believed that

4118-579: Is owned and run by a follower of Aaron's. The Satmar community of Williamsburg was portrayed in the Netflix miniseries Unorthodox in 2020, with consultation from Eli Rosen, a former Hasidic community member. A majority of the show's dialogue is in Yiddish. Extreme conservatism Ultraconservatism refers to extreme conservative views in politics or religious practice. In modern politics, ultraconservative usually refers to conservatives of

4260-509: Is taken a step further: Satmar women shave their heads after their weddings, and wear a wig or other covering over their heads, while some cover the wig with a small hat or scarf. The Grand Rebbe also insisted that the stockings of women and girls be fully opaque, a norm accepted by other Hungarian Hasidic groups which revered him. Joel Teitelbaum opened Satmar's "Bais Ruchel" school network only because he feared that if he did not, many parents would send their daughters to Bais Yaakov . In 2016,

4402-629: The Amazon rainforest , while having confrontations with the indigenous peoples in Brazil . In the United States, ultraconservatism first appeared when right-wing politicians and businesses led the opposition to the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Beginning in the 1960s, during the Cold War , ultraconservatism began to rise to prominence, especially with the radical right organization,

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4544-615: The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution . Until the late 1990s, Moshe Teitelbaum's heir apparent was his oldest son, Aaron. In 1999, his third son, Zalman , was recalled from his post as Satmar chief rabbi in Jerusalem and received the parallel post in the sect's largest enclave, Williamsburg. He was later proclaimed successor, and a struggle between

4686-631: The German occupation of Italy in September 1943, there were no serious attempt to deport Italian Jews, and Italy refused to allow the deportation of Jews in many Italian-occupied areas . Nazi Germany did not attempt the destruction of the Finnish Jews and the North African Jews living under French or Italian rule . An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 Germans were directly involved in killing Jews, and if one includes all those involved in

4828-497: The German–Soviet pact . The Soviet Union deported hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens to the Soviet interior, including as many as 260,000 Jews who largely survived the war. Although most Jews were not communists, some accepted positions in the Soviet administration, contributing to a pre-existing perception among many non-Jews that Soviet rule was a Jewish conspiracy. In 1940, Germany invaded much of western Europe including

4970-550: The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust . Satmar issued a further condemnation of Neturei Karta activities following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel . Satmar women are required to cover their necklines fully, and to wear long sleeves, long, conservative skirts, and full stockings. Whereas married Orthodox Jewish women do not show their hair in public, in Satmar, this

5112-612: The John Birch Society . At this time, ultraconservatives were anticommunist , and opposed to the civil rights movement , trade unions, and social programs . Members of the John Birch Society believed that the civil rights movement would lead to the creation of a Soviet Negro Republic in the Southern United States. In 1961, Jacob Javits would say that ultraconservatism "represents

5254-506: The Koch brothers , the families of Richard and Dick DeVos , the Walton family , and Richard Mellon Scaife . Ultraconservatives would then "mark some groups, seemingly based on race, class, and immigration status", in an effort to polarize the public, saying that some groups were "parasitic" to the economy and took away resources from wealthy individuals who could improve the economy . Into

5396-815: The Lublin District of the General Governorate. 45,000 Jews were deported by November and left to fend for themselves, causing many deaths. Deportations stopped in early 1940 due to the opposition of Hans Frank , the leader of the General Governorate, who did not want his fiefdom to become a dumping ground for unwanted Jews. After the conquest of France, the Nazis considered deporting Jews to French Madagascar , but this proved impossible. The Nazis planned that harsh conditions in these areas would kill many Jews. In September 1939, around 7,000 Jews were killed, alongside thousands of Poles, however, they were not systematically targeted as they would be later, and open mass killings would subside until June of 1941. During

5538-492: The Roma and Sinti , as well as Soviet prisoners of war and Polish and Soviet civilians . All of these groups, however, were targeted for different reasons. By the 1970s, the adjective Jewish was dropped as redundant and Holocaust, now capitalized, became the default term for the destruction of European Jews. The Hebrew word Shoah ('catastrophic destruction') exclusively refers to Jewish victims. The perpetrators used

5680-576: The Soviet threat. Hitler believed that Jews controlled the Soviet Union , as well as the Western powers, and were plotting to destroy Germany . Amidst a worldwide economic depression and political fragmentation , the Nazi Party rapidly increased its support, reaching a high of 37 percent in mid-1932 elections , by campaigning on issues such as anticommunism and economic recovery. Hitler

5822-658: The United States debt ceiling , calling for cuts to social spending. During the Obama administration, ultraconservatives would organize Americans into the Tea Party movement , and disseminate a message of "taking back our country" from Obama and creating the birther movement . In the 1980s, " neoauthoritarianism " (or "neoconservatism"), emerged as an ideology that would accelerate the Chinese economic reform and replace

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5964-483: The United Talmudical Seminary and Yeshivas Maharit D'Satmar . Satmar also operates its own rabbinical courts , which settle various issues within the community by the principles of Jewish Law. The sect has a Yiddish newspaper called Der Yid , now privatized, and various other Yiddish publications. It is currently identified with Zalman's Hasidim; whereas Der Blatt , established in 2000,

6106-597: The Western Wall and other holy places fell under Israel's control after the Six-Day War , Teitelbaum reinforced his views in the 1968 pamphlet Concerning Redeeming and Concerning Changing ( Hebrew : עַל-הַגְּאֻלָּה וְעַל-הַתְּמוּרָה , romanized :  a'l ha-ge'ulah v-a'l ha-tmurah ; Ruth 4:7 ), arguing the war was no miracle, as opposed to statements by Menachem Mendel Schneerson of Chabad and others, whom he condemned severely, and forbade prayer at

6248-571: The Wola Massacre , or deported to extermination camps for fear of additional Jewish resistance developing. Nevertheless, in early 1944, more than 70,000 Jews were performing forced labor in the General Governorate. Unlike the killing areas in the east, the deportation from elsewhere in Europe was centrally organized from Berlin, although it depended on the outcome of negotiations with allied governments and popular responses to deportation. Beginning in late 1941, local administrators responded to

6390-521: The aggadic source of the Oaths made them non-binding, or that they were no longer valid, especially after the Gentiles "oppressed Israel too much" in the Holocaust. The Oaths were never utilized as a central argument beforehand, and his interpretation of the matter is Teitelbaum's most notable contribution to rabbinic literature. Based on his arguments, Teitelbaum stated that Zionism was a severe heresy and

6532-566: The far-right on the political spectrum , comprising groups or individuals who are located to the right of those willing to temporarily agree with political moderates , and continuing further right to include fringe parties . Elements of ultraconservatism typically rely on cultural crisis; they frequently support anti-globalism – adopting stances of anti-immigration , nationalism , and sovereignty – use populism and political polarization , with in-group and out-group practices. The primary economic ideology for most ultraconservatives

6674-606: The ghettos . Soviet prisoners of war in the custody of the German Army were intended to die in large numbers. Sixty percent—3.3 million people—died, primarily of starvation, making them the second largest group of victims of Nazi mass killing after European Jews. Jewish prisoners of war and commissars were systematically executed. About a million civilians were killed by the Nazis during anti-partisan warfare , including more than 300,000 in Belarus. From 1942 onwards,

6816-399: The postwar settlement united Germans across the political spectrum. The military promoted the untrue but compelling idea that, rather than being defeated on the battlefield, Germany had been stabbed in the back by socialists and Jews. The Nazi Party was founded in the wake of the war, and its ideology is often cited as the main factor explaining the Holocaust. From the beginning,

6958-404: The rise of nationalism in Europe and industrialization that increased economic conflicts between Jews and non-Jews. Some scientists began to categorize humans into different races and argued that there was a life or death struggle between them . Many racists argued that Jews were a separate racial group alien to Europe . The turn of the twentieth century saw a major effort to establish

7100-506: The "most influential figure" in the maintenance of the language in the post-war period. The uniformity of Satmar in America made it easier to teach young people the language, unlike in Europe: George Kranzler noted already in 1961 that the children speak Yiddish much better than their parents. On 23 February 1968, Teitelbaum suffered a stroke, which left him barely able to function. His second wife, Alte Feiga, administered

7242-455: The 1950s to help Jews in the Soviet Union, aids Jewish refugees. Today, the organization mostly helps Jews from Iran and Yemen . Keren Hatzolah is a charitable fund to support yeshivas and the poor in Israel, providing for those who shun government benefits. Teitelbaum founded a network of large educational institutions, both yeshivas and girls' schools . If its schools in New York were

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7384-483: The 1980s. In 1984, Moshe Teitelbaum appointed his oldest son, Aaron , as chief rabbi of Kiryas Joel. Both incurred opposition from elements within the sect. They were blamed for exercising a centralized leadership style, and for lack of sufficient zealotry. In 1994, the U.S. Supreme Court held, in the case of Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet , that a school district whose boundaries had been drawn to include only Satmar children violated

7526-482: The 21st century, the Second New Right , specifically during the tenure of George W. Bush , became more ultraconservative, with some elements of neofascism , adopting views supporting strict law and order , the defense of private property , and using nationalism to describe a mythical "past national glory". Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, ultraconservatives made alarmist statements about

7668-689: The Conservative Revolution drew inspiration from various elements of the 19th century, including Friedrich Nietzsche 's contempt for Christian ethics , democracy and egalitarianism; the anti-modern and anti-rationalist tendencies of German Romanticism ; the vision of an organic and naturally-organized folk community cultivated by the Völkisch movement ; the Prussian tradition of militaristic and authoritarian nationalism; and their own experience of comradeship and irrational violence on

7810-653: The German Jews out of public life by the end of 1934, the regime passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. The laws reserved full citizenship rights for those of "German or related blood", restricted Jews' economic activity, and criminalized new marriages and sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jewish Germans . Jews were defined as those with three or four Jewish grandparents; many of those with partial Jewish descent were classified as Mischlinge , with varying rights. The regime also sought to segregate Jews with

7952-587: The German occupiers and other non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing continued at a lower rate until the end of the war in May 1945. Many Jewish survivors emigrated outside of Europe after the war. A few Holocaust perpetrators faced criminal trials. Billions of dollars in reparations have been paid, although falling short of the Jews' losses. The Holocaust has also been commemorated in museums, memorials , and culture . It has become central to Western historical consciousness as

8094-547: The Germans and their allies targeted villages suspected of supporting the partisans, burning them and killing or expelling their inhabitants. During these operations, nearby small ghettos were liquidated and their inhabitants shot. By 1943, anti-partisan operations aimed for the depopulation of large areas of Belarus. Jews and those unfit for work were typically shot on the spot with others deported. Although most of those killed were not Jews, anti-partisan warfare often led to

8236-850: The Holocaust, as well as profiting from unclaimed deposits made by Holocaust victims. Beginning in 1938—especially in Germany and its annexed territories—many Jews were drafted into forced-labor camps and segregated work details. These camps were often of a temporary nature and typically overseen by civilian authorities. Initially, mortality did not increase dramatically. After mid-1941, conditions for Jewish forced laborers drastically worsened and death rates increased; even private companies deliberately subjected workers to murderous conditions. Beginning in 1941 and increasingly as time went on, Jews capable of employment were separated from others—who were usually killed. They were typically employed in non-skilled jobs and could be replaced easily if non-Jewish workers were available, but those in skilled positions had

8378-583: The Hungarian ultra-Orthodox school of thought, a particularly extreme variety, founded by Hillel Lichtenstein and his son-in-law Akiva Yosef Schlesinger in the 1860s, on the eve of the Schism in Hungarian Jewry . Faced with rapid acculturation and a decline in religious observance, Lichtenstein preached utter rejection of modernity, widely applying the words of his teacher, Moses Sofer : "All that

8520-432: The Jews killed in the Holocaust died by poison gas. Thousands of Romani people were also murdered in the extermination camps. Prisoner uprisings at Treblinka and Sobibor meant that these camps were shut down earlier than envisioned. Plans to kill most of the Jews in the General Governorate were affected by various goals of the SS, military, and civil administration to reduce the amount of food consumed by Jews, enable

8662-615: The LDP itself as "ultraconservative". Ultraconservative has occasionally been used interchangeably with fascism , ultranationalism , and right-wing populism when describing the radical right in Europe . The Ultra-royalists were an ultra-conservative faction from 1815 to 1830 under the Bourbon Restoration in France . An Ultra was usually a member of the nobility of high society who strongly supported Roman Catholicism as

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8804-827: The Nazis—not unlike other nation-states in Europe—dreamed of a world without Jews , whom they identified as "the embodiment of everything that was wrong with modernity ". The Nazis defined the German nation as a racial community unbounded by Germany's physical borders and sought to purge it of racially foreign and socially deficient elements. The Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler , were also obsessed with reversing Germany's territorial losses and acquiring additional Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe for colonization. These ideas appealed to many Germans. The Nazis promised to protect European civilization from

8946-571: The Netherlands , Belgium , Luxembourg , France , and Denmark and Norway . In 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece . Some of these new holdings were fully or partially annexed into Germany while others were placed under civilian or military rule . The war provided cover for " Aktion T4 ", the murder of around 70,000 institutionalized Germans with mental or physical disabilities at specialized killing centers using poison gas. The victims included all 4,000 to 5,000 institutionalized Jews. Despite efforts to maintain secrecy, knowledge of

9088-476: The Netherlands was higher than neighboring countries, which scholars have attributed to difficulty in hiding or increased collaboration of the Dutch police. The German government sought the deportation of Jews from allied countries. The first to hand over its Jewish population was Slovakia , which arrested and deported about 58,000 Jews to Poland from March to October 1942. The Independent State of Croatia had already shot or killed in concentration camps

9230-445: The United Kingdom and France . During the five weeks of fighting, as many as 16,000 civilians, hostages, and prisoners of war may have been shot by the German invaders; there was also a great deal of looting. Special units known as Einsatzgruppen followed the army to eliminate any possible resistance. Around 50,000 Polish and Polish Jewish leaders and intellectuals were arrested or executed . The Auschwitz concentration camp

9372-480: The United States made him the leader of the radical, anti-Zionist flank of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish world. He adopted a policy of utter non-recognition towards the State of Israel, banning his adherents residing there from voting in the elections or from affiliating in any way with the state's institutions. When he visited the country in 1959, a separate train was organized for him, with no Israeli markings. The Israeli educational networks of Satmar and Edah HaChareidis ,

9514-401: The Wall or at the other occupied holy sites, as he believed it would grant legitimacy to Israel's rule. While providing some support for the otherwise unrelated Neturei Karta , Satmar has not always condoned its actions. Teitelbaum denounced them in 1967, when they co-operated with Arabs, and in 2006, the rabbinic court of Zalman Leib Teitelbaum's group placed an anathema upon those who visited

9656-541: The Wartheland and General Governorate in 1939 and 1940 on the initiative of local German administrators. The largest ghettos, such as Warsaw and Łódź , were established in existing residential neighborhoods and closed by fences or walls. In many smaller ghettos, Jews were forced into poor neighborhoods but with no fence. Forced labor programs provided subsistence to many ghetto inhabitants, and in some cases protected them from deportation. Workshops and factories were operated inside some ghettos, while in other cases Jews left

9798-476: The Xi Jinping's rule. Some hardline pro-Beijing conservatives in Hong Kong have been referred to by critics as "ultraconservative". Japan's far-right nationalist organization Nippon Kaigi , has been described as " reactionary " or "ultraconservative" due to its support for the constitutional amendment of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution , defense of the Empire of Japan , and denial of Japanese war crimes . Since 2006, all Japanese prime ministers from

9940-510: The assistance of local collaborators and rewards offered for their denunciation. The death penalty was sometimes enforced on people hiding them, especially in eastern Europe. Rescuers' motivations varied on a spectrum from altruism to expecting sex or material gain; it was not uncommon for helpers to betray or murder Jews if their money ran out. Gerlach argues that hundreds of thousands of Jews may have died because of rumors or denunciations, and many others never attempted to escape because of

10082-499: The beginning of September, all German Jews were required to wear a yellow star, and in October, Hitler decided to deport them to the east and ban emigration. Between mid-October and the end of 1941, 42,000 Jews from Germany and its annexed territories and 5,000 Romani people from Austria were deported to Łódź, Kovno, Riga, and Minsk . In late November, 5,000 German Jews were shot outside of Kovno and another 1,000 near Riga, but Himmler ordered an end to such massacres and some in

10224-556: The city. In addition, there are many Satmar Hasidim in other parts of the United States, and worldwide. As part of his vision of complete isolation from the outside world, Teitelbaum encouraged his followers to make Yiddish their primary language, though many had previously used German or Hungarian , being immigrants from former Greater Hungary . The sect has its own Yiddish-oriented education system and several publishing houses which provide extensive reading material. Teitelbaum's work in this matter made him, according to Bruce Mitchell,

10366-528: The community board, his nephew Moshe , Chaim Tzvi's second son, was appointed as successor, despite Alte Feiga's severe objections. Moshe Teitelbaum was proclaimed Rebbe on 8 August 1980, the first anniversary of his uncle's death by the Hebrew calendar . The great majority of Hasidim accepted the new leader, though a small fraction called Bnei Yoel , which was unofficially led by Feiga, opposed him. The tense relations between both led to several violent incidents in

10508-461: The conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have been affiliated with the Nippon Kaigi. Fumio Kishida , who is currently the prime minister of Japan, is also a member of Nippon Kaigi. Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe , was often described as "ultraconservative" because he supported socially conservative and strong Japanese nationalist policies. Bryan Mark Rigg referred to

10650-409: The country's population in 1933. They were wealthier on average than other Germans and largely assimilated, although a minority were recent immigrants from eastern Europe. Various German government agencies, Nazi Party organizations, and local authorities instituted about 1,500 anti-Jewish laws . In 1933, Jews were banned or restricted from several professions and the civil service . After hounding

10792-635: The death of Joel Teitelbaum in 1979, he was succeeded by his nephew, Moshe Teitelbaum . Since Moshe's death in 2006, the dynasty has been divided between his two sons, Aaron and Zalman Leib , each leading separate communities and institutions. Chananya Yom Tov Lipa Teitelbaum was the Grand Rebbe of the Sighet Hasidic dynasty . He died in 1904, and was succeeded by his oldest son, Chaim Tzvi Teitelbaum . A few Sighet Hasidim preferred his second son, Joel , as their leader. Joel Teitelbaum left

10934-653: The deaths of Jews. The systematic murder of Jews began in the Soviet Union in 1941. During the invasion, many Jews were conscripted into the Red Army . Out of 10 or 15 million Soviet civilians who fled eastwards to the Soviet interior , 1.6 million were Jews. Local inhabitants killed as many as 50,000 Jews in pogroms in Latvia, Lithuania , eastern Poland , Ukraine, and the Romanian borderlands. Although German forces tried to incite pogroms, their role in causing violence

11076-491: The decision to switch to other methods of killing. Most historians agree that Hitler issued an explicit order to kill all Jews across Europe, but there is disagreement as to when. Some historians cite inflammatory statements by Hitler and other Nazi leaders as well as the concurrent mass shootings of Serbian Jews , plans for extermination camps in Poland, and the beginning of the deportation of German Jews as indicative of

11218-694: The deportation of Jews to their area by massacring local Jews in order to free up space in ghettos for the deportees. If the deported Jews did not die of harsh conditions, they were killed later in extermination camps. Jews deported to Auschwitz were initially entered into the camp; the practice of conducting selections and murdering many prisoners upon arrival began in July 1942. In May and June, German and Slovak Jews deported to Lublin began to be sent directly to extermination camps. In Western Europe, almost all Jewish deaths occurred after deportation. The occupiers often relied on local policemen to arrest Jews, limiting

11360-440: The early twentieth century, most Jews in central and western Europe were well integrated into society, while in eastern Europe, where emancipation had arrived later, many Jews continued to live in small towns , spoke Yiddish , and practiced Orthodox Judaism . Political antisemitism positing the existence of a Jewish question and usually an international Jewish conspiracy emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth century due to

11502-404: The end of 1941, more than 80 percent of the Jews in central Ukraine, eastern Belarus, Russia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been shot, but less than 25 percent of those living farther west where 900,000 remained alive. By the end of the war, around 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot and as many as 225,000 Roma. The murderers found the executions distressing and logistically inconvenient, which influenced

11644-706: The end of July. The vast majority of civilian victims were Jews. In July and August Heinrich Himmler , the leader of the SS ( Schutzstaffel ), made several visits to the death squads ' zones of operation, relaying orders to kill more Jews. At this time, the killers began to murder Jewish women and children too. Executions peaked at 40,000 a month in Lithuania in August and September and in October and November reached their height in Belarus . The executions often took place

11786-634: The existing orthodox Maoism . During Xi Jinping 's leadership, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has become more closely related to ultraconservative, ultranationalist , and is referred by some as having Han-centric elements. Some of the CCP's politics are parallel to ideas by German ultraconservative Carl Schmitt . The Beijing Daily is a mainland Chinese newspaper, referred to by some as "ultraconservative". Hong Kong 's shrinking autonomy and democratic backsliding are linked to

11928-417: The extermination camps later dug up human remains in search of valuables. The property of deported Jews was also appropriated by Germany's allies and collaborating governments. Even puppet states such as Vichy France and Norway were able to successfully lay claim to Jewish property. In the decades after the war, Swiss banks became notorious for harboring gold deposited by Nazis who had stolen it during

12070-454: The final decision having been made before December 1941. Others argue that these policies were initiatives by local leaders and that the final decision was made later. On 5 December 1941, the Soviet Union launched its first major counteroffensive . On 11 December, Hitler declared war on the United States after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor . The next day, he told leading Nazi party officials , referring to his 1939 prophecy , "The world war

12212-763: The front lines of World War I . From the 1960–1970s onwards, the Conservative Revolution has largely influenced the European New Right , in particular the French Nouvelle Droite and the German Neue Rechte . In its first years, Jobbik held ultraconservative stances, promoting anti-communism and anti-globalism as some of its core tenets, though it became more successful as its views became more moderate. The Holocaust The Holocaust ( / ˈ h ɑː l ə k ɔː ˈ s t / , HAW -lə-kawst )

12354-470: The ghetto after a final selection, and around 20,000 or 25,000 managed to hide in the ghetto. Misdirection efforts convinced many Jews that they could avoid deportation until it was too late. During a six-week period beginning in August, 300,000 Jews from the Radom District were sent to Treblinka. At the same time as the mass killing of Jews in the General Governorate, Jews who were in ghettos to

12496-550: The ghetto to work outside it. Because the ghettos were not segregated by sex some family life continued. A Jewish community leadership ( Judenrat ) exercised some authority and tried to sustain the Jewish community while following German demands. As a survival strategy, many tried to make the ghettos useful to the occupiers as a labor reserve. Jews in western Europe were not forced into ghettos but faced discriminatory laws and confiscation of property. Rape and sexual exploitation of Jewish and non-Jewish women in eastern Europe

12638-604: The ghetto would be raided without warning, usually in the early morning, and the extent of the operation would be concealed as long as possible. Trawniki men would cordon off the ghetto while the Order Police and Security Police carried out the action. In addition to local non-Jewish collaborators, the Jewish councils and Jewish ghetto police were often ordered to assist with liquidation actions, although these Jews were in most cases murdered later. Chaotic, capriciously executed selections determined who would be loaded onto

12780-603: The ghetto, and set it on fire. These ghetto uprisings were only undertaken when the inhabitants began to believe that their death was certain. In 1943, larger uprisings in Warsaw , Białystok , and Glubokoje necessitated the use of heavy weapons. The uprising in Warsaw prompted the Nazi leadership to liquidate additional ghettos and labor camps in German-occupied Poland with their inhabitants massacred, such as

12922-535: The invasion, synagogues were burned and thousands of Jews fled or were expelled into the Soviet occupation zone. Various anti-Jewish regulations were soon issued. In October 1939, adult Jews in the General Governorate were required to perform forced labor. In November 1939 they were ordered to wear white armbands. Laws decreed the seizure of most Jewish property and the takeover of Jewish-owned businesses. When Jews were forced into ghettos, they lost their homes and belongings. The first Nazi ghettos were established in

13064-457: The journey, most were killed with poison gas. Other Jews continued to be employed in forced labor camps where many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in deadly medical experiments . Although many Jews tried to escape, surviving in hiding was difficult due to factors such as the lack of money to pay helpers and the risk of denunciation. The property, homes, and jobs belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to

13206-431: The killings leaked out and Hitler ordered a halt to the centralized killing program in August 1941. Decentralized killings via denial of medical care, starvation, and poisoning caused an additional 120,000 deaths by the end of the war. Many of the same personnel and technologies were later used for the mass murder of Jews. Germany gained control of 1.7 million Jews in Poland. The Nazis tried to concentrate Jews in

13348-461: The largest number of Jews . Romania deported about 154,000–170,000 Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina to ghettos in Transnistria from 1941 to 1943. Jews from Transnistria were also imprisoned in these ghettos, where the total death toll may have reached 160,000. Hungary expelled thousands of Carpathian Ruthenian and foreign Jews in 1941, who were shortly thereafter shot in Ukraine . At

13490-706: The latter also led by the Grand Rebbe, are fully independent and receive funding from abroad. Satmar and allied elements refuse to receive social benefits or any other monetary aid from the Israeli state and criticize those non-Zionist Haredim who do. Teitelbaum and his successors routinely condemned the Agudah and its supporters for taking part in Israeli politics. As to Religious Zionism , the Satmar Rebbe described its chief theologian, Abraham Isaac Kook , as "a wicked adversary and enemy of our Holy Faith". In 1967, when

13632-533: The latter's writings due to the personal animosity between both. Already firmly anti-Agudist and anti-Zionist in the interwar period, Teitelbaum had to contend with the issues which baffled world Jewry in the aftermath of World War II: the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1959, he enunciated his theological response in the book Vayoel Moshe ( Hebrew : וַיּוֹאֶל מֹשֶׁה , romanized :  va-yo'el moshe , lit.   'and Moses

13774-527: The local Galician-descended Jews were poor, unacculturated, and strongly influenced by Hasidism . Sighet , as well as most other Hungarian Hasidic dynasties, originated from these regions. Lichtenstein's successors were no less rigid; the leading authority of Hungarian extremists in the Interwar period , Chaim Elazar Spira of Mukačevo , regarded the Polish/German ultra-Orthodox Agudath Israel as

13916-493: The main threat did not come from liberal Jewish Neologs , who advocated religious reform, but from the moderate traditionalists; they directed their attacks chiefly against the modern Orthodox Azriel Hildesheimer . Their power base lay among the Unterlander Jews of northeastern Hungary – roughly present-day eastern Slovakia , Zakarpattia Oblast , and Northern Transylvania – where modernity made little headway, and

14058-439: The majority of its Jewish population (along with a larger number of Serbs ), and later deported several thousand Jews in 1942 and 1943. Bulgaria deported 11,000 Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Greece and Yugoslavia , who were murdered at Treblinka, but declined to allow the deportation of Jews from its prewar territory . Romania and Hungary did not send any Jews, which were the largest surviving populations after 1942. Prior to

14200-437: The most part, only those working in armaments production were spared. The majority of ghettos were liquidated in mass executions nearby, especially if they were not near a train station. Larger ghettos were more commonly liquidated during multiple deportations to extermination camps. During this campaign, 1.5 million Polish Jews were murdered in the largest killing operation of the Holocaust. In order to reduce resistance,

14342-556: The movement's founders to royalism . The movement supported a restoration of the House of Bourbon and, after the 1905 law on the separation of Church and State , the restoration of Roman Catholicism as the state religion—all as rallying points in distinction to the Third Republic of France which was considered corrupt and atheistic by many of its opponents. The Conservative Revolution ( German : Konservative Revolution )

14484-457: The new regime. The new regime built popular support through economic growth, which partly occurred through state-led measures such as rearmament . The annexations of Austria (1938), Sudetenland (1938), and Bohemia and Moravia (1939) also increased the Nazis' popular support. Germans were inundated with propaganda both against Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis. The roughly 500,000 German Jews made up less than 1 percent of

14626-640: The northeastern regions of Hungary were ceded to Czechoslovakia and Romania , under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon . This area was densely populated with a segment of Orthodox Jewry known as Unterlander Jews . Many Sziget Hasidim, unable to regularly visit Chaim Tzvi's court, turned to Joel Teitelbaum instead. In 1925, Teitelbaum was appointed chief rabbi of Carei (Nagykároly). On 21 January 1926, Chaim Tzvi died unexpectedly, leaving his twelve-year-old son Yekusiel Yehuda to succeed him. Their mother emphasized Joel as successor, her grandson being too young for

14768-548: The number who were deported. In 1942, nearly 100,000 Jews were deported from Belgium , France , and the Netherlands . Only 25 percent of the Jews in France were killed; most of them were either non-citizens or recent immigrants. Si Kaddour Benghabrit and Abdelkader Mesli saved hundreds of Jews by hiding them in the basements of the Grand Mosque of Paris and other resistance efforts in France. The death rate in

14910-442: The organization of extermination, the number rises to 500,000. Genocide required the active and tacit consent of millions of Germans and non-Germans. The motivation of Holocaust perpetrators varied and has led to historiographical debate. Studies of the SS officials who organized the Holocaust have found that most had strong ideological commitment to Nazism. In addition to ideological factors, many perpetrators were motivated by

15052-426: The peak of the genocide, as over 3 million Jews were murdered, with 20 or 25 percent of Holocaust victims dying before early 1942 and the same number surviving by the end of the year. Gas vans developed from those used to kill mental patients since 1939 were assigned to the Einsatzgruppen and first used in November 1941; victims were forced into the van and killed with engine exhaust. The first extermination camp

15194-441: The people in divinely decreed exile until they would all fully repent their sins and earn a solely miraculous salvation, without human interference. He sought to demonstrate that Rabbinic sages of the past all treated the Oaths as legally binding, and even those who did not mention them, like Maimonides , did so because this was common knowledge. His thesis was also meant to refute contrary pro-Zionist religious arguments, whether that

15336-480: The phrase " Final Solution " as a euphemism for their genocide of Jews. Jews have lived in Europe for more than two thousand years. Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, Jews were subjected to antisemitism based on Christian theology , which blamed them for killing Jesus . In the nineteenth century many European countries granted full citizenship rights to Jews in hopes that they would assimilate . By

15478-419: The position, and Joel returned to Szhiget. However, Chaim Tzvi's followers would only accept Joel as a trustee-leader until Yekusiel became old enough. Although Teitelbaum was highly regarded, he was not well-liked there. Under these conditions, Teitelbaum would have become the dynasty's head in all but name, which was nevertheless unacceptable for him and his mother, and they left Sziget again. In 1928, Teitelbaum

15620-406: The possibility of better treatment from the occupiers, or ideological motivations such as nationalism and anti-communism. According to historian Christian Gerlach , non-Germans "not under German command" caused 5 to 6 percent of the Jewish deaths, and their involvement was crucial in other ways. Millions of Germans and others benefited from the genocide. Corruption was rampant in the SS despite

15762-832: The previous Aktion T4 programme —amid increasing talk among German administrators in Poland of large-scale murder of Jews in the General Governorate. In late 1941 in East Upper Silesia , Jews in forced-labor camps operated by the Schmelt Organization deemed "unfit for work" began to be sent in groups to Auschwitz where they were murdered. In early 1942, Zyklon B became the preferred killing method in extermination camps after gassing experiments were conducted on Russian POWs in late August 1941. The camps were located on rail lines to make it easier to transport Jews to their deaths, but in remote places to avoid notice. The stench caused by mass killing operations

15904-440: The proceeds of the Holocaust being designated as state property. Different German state agencies vied to receive property stolen from Jews murdered at the death camps. Many workers were able to obtain better jobs vacated by murdered Jews. Businessmen benefitted from eliminating their Jewish competitors or taking over Jewish-owned businesses. Others took over housing and possessions that had belonged to Jews. Some Poles living near

16046-439: The prohibition of relationships, including fraternization, between German and foreign workers, which imposed the penalty of imprisonment and death. Gerlach estimates that 200,000 Jews survived in hiding across Europe. Knowledge of German intentions was essential to take action, but many struggled to believe the news. Many attempted to jump from trains or flee ghettos and camps, but successfully escaping and living in hiding

16188-542: The prospect of material gain and social advancement. German SS, police, and regular army units rarely had trouble finding enough men to shoot Jewish civilians, even though punishment for refusal was absent or light. Non-German perpetrators and collaborators included Dutch, French, and Polish policemen , Romanian soldiers, foreign SS and police auxiliaries , Ukrainian Insurgent Army partisans, and some civilians. Some were coerced into committing violence against Jews, but others killed for entertainment, material rewards,

16330-507: The sect for the remainder of Teitelbaum's life, with the assistance of several Satmar functionaries. In 1974, the sect began constructing the housing project Kiryas Joel in Monroe, New York , for its members. It was accorded an independent municipal status in 1977. On August 19, 1979, Teitelbaum died of a heart attack. Teitelbaum was not survived by any children – all three of his daughters died in his lifetime. After prolonged vacillations by

16472-600: The sect issued a decree warning that university education for women is "dangerous". Written in Yiddish, the decree warns: It has lately become the new trend that girls and married women are pursuing degrees in special education [...] And so we'd like to let their parents know that it is against the Torah. The sect operates numerous community foundations. Bikur Cholim ("Visiting the sick"), established in 1957 by Teitelbaum's wife Alte Feiga, concerns itself with helping hospitalized Jews, regardless of affiliation. Rav Tuv , founded in

16614-498: The senior Nazi leadership voiced doubts about killing German Jews. Executions of German Jews in the Baltics resumed in early 1942. After the expansion of killings to target the entire Soviet Jewish population, the 3,000 men of the Einsatzgruppen proved insufficient and Himmler mobilized 21 battalions of Order Police to assist them. In addition, Wehrmacht soldiers, Waffen-SS brigades, and local auxiliaries shot many Jews. By

16756-501: The state and only legal religion of France, the Bourbon monarchy , traditional hierarchy between classes and census suffrage against popular will and the interests of the bourgeoisie and their liberal and democratic tendencies. Action Française is a French ultraconservative monarchist political movement. Its ideology was dominated by the precepts of Charles Maurras , following his adherence and his conversion of

16898-1237: The time of Moshe Teitelbaum's death, sources within the sect estimated it had 119,000 members worldwide, making it the world's largest Hasidic group. A similar figure of 120,000 was cited by sociologist Samuel Heilman . However, anthropologist Jacques Gutwirth estimated in 2004 that Satmar numbered about 50,000. As of 2006, the dynasty controlled assets worth $ 1 billion in the United States. The two largest Satmar communities are in Williamsburg and Kiryas Joel. There are also significant Satmar communities in Borough Park, Brooklyn , and in Monsey and Bloomingburg, New York . Smaller concentrations can be found elsewhere. In North America, there are institutions in Los Angeles; Lakewood, New Jersey ; and Montreal. Elsewhere, cities such as Antwerp , London, and Manchester ; and in Argentina and Australia have Satmar groups, and there are many spread throughout Israel. Aaron Teitelbaum has stated that he wants to establish

17040-672: The town of Máramarossziget , and, on 8 September 1905, he settled in Szatmárnémeti (in Yiddish: Satmar). His Sighet supporters followed him, and he began to attract a following. Hungarian journalist Dezső Schön, who researched the Teitelbaum rabbis in the 1930s, wrote that Teitelbaum started referring to himself as the "Rebbe of Satmar" at that time. Teitelbaum's power base grew with the years. In 1911, he received his first rabbinical post as chief rabbi of Ilosva . In 1921,

17182-597: The town of Senta, Serbia , where his father served as rabbi before World War II. There is a small community of Satmer gerim living in Guatemala , having rejected the Lev Tahor cult which initially converted the group before being expelled from the country. The community of about 40 families has the full backing of the Satmer community in Williamsburg . The principles of Satmar reflect Joel Teitelbaum's adherence to

17324-428: The trains. Many Jews were shot during the action, often leaving ghettos strewn with corpses. Jewish forced laborers had to clean it up and collect any valuables from the victims. The Warsaw Ghetto was cleared between 22 July and 12 September. Of the original population of 350,000 Jews, 250,000 were killed at Treblinka, 11,000 were deported to labor camps, 10,000 were shot in the ghetto, 35,000 were allowed to remain in

17466-675: The two brothers ensued. Aaron resided in Kiryas Joel, where he was considered the local authority, while Zalman held sway in Williamsburg. Following Moshe Teitelbaum's death in 2006, both groups of followers announced that their candidate was named successor in his will, and they were both declared Rebbes. Zalman and Aaron were engaged in prolonged judicial disputes as to who should control the Congregation's assets in Brooklyn. The sect has effectively split into two independent ones. At

17608-401: The victims were robbed of their remaining possessions, forced to undress, had their hair cut, and were chased into the gas chamber. Death from the gas was agonizing and could take as long as 30 minutes. The gas chambers were primitive and sometimes malfunctioned. Some prisoners were shot because the gas chambers were not functioning. At other extermination camps, nearly everyone on a transport

17750-454: The victims' property was looted both by the occupiers and local inhabitants. Around 200 ghettos were established in the occupied Soviet Union, with many existing only briefly before their inhabitants were executed. A few large ghettos such as Vilna, Kovno , Riga , Białystok , and Lwów lasted into 1943 because they became centers of production. Victims of mass shootings included Jews deported from elsewhere. Besides Germany, Romania killed

17892-683: The west and east were targeted. Tens of thousands of Jews were deported from ghettos in the Warthegau and East Upper Silesia to Chełmno and Auschwitz. 300,000 Jews—largely skilled laborers—were shot in Volhynia , Podolia , and southwestern Belarus. Deportations and mass executions in the Bialystok District and Galicia killed many Jews. Although there was practically no resistance in the General Governorate in 1942, some Soviet Jews improvised weapons, attacked those attempting to liquidate

18034-576: The worst-treated groups except for Roma and Jews. Soviet and Polish forced laborers endured inadequate food and medical treatment, long hours, and abuse by employers. Hundreds of thousands died. Many others were forced to work for the occupiers without leaving their country of residence. Some of Germany's allies, including Slovakia and Hungary, agreed to deport Jews to protect non-Jews from German demands for forced labor. East European women were also kidnapped, via lapanka , to serve as sex slaves of German soldiers in military and camp brothels despite

18176-588: Was Chełmno in the Wartheland, established on the initiative of the local civil administrator Arthur Greiser with Himmler's approval; it began operations in December 1941 using gas vans. In October 1941, Higher SS and Police Leader of Lublin Odilo Globocnik began work planning Belzec —the first purpose-built extermination camp to feature stationary gas chambers using carbon monoxide based on

18318-512: Was an avowed anti-modernist: He sharply denounced Avraham Mordechai Alter , Rebbe of Ger , for introducing secular studies and allowing girls to attend school , and criticized modern medicine, believing the treatments recorded in the Talmud to be superior. Though personal relations between Spira and Joel Teitelbaum were tense, his ideological stance had a strong influence over the younger rabbi. Aviezer Ravitzky believed it remained unacknowledged in

18460-519: Was an ultraconservative movement in Germany prominent during the Weimar Republic —between World War I and the Nazi seizure of power —with intellectual exponents such as Oswald Spengler , Carl Schmitt , and Ernst Jünger . Plunged into what historian Fritz Stern has named a deep "cultural despair," uprooted as they felt within the rationalism and scientism of the modern world, theorists of

18602-540: Was appointed chancellor in January 1933 in a backroom deal supported by right-wing politicians. Within months, all other political parties were banned, the regime seized control of the media, tens of thousands of political opponents—especially communists—were arrested, and a system of camps for extrajudicial imprisonment was set up. The Nazi regime cracked down on crime and social outsiders—such as Roma and Sinti , homosexual men , and those perceived as workshy—through

18744-411: Was common . Germany and its allies Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Italy invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Although the war was launched more for strategic than ideological reasons, what Hitler saw as an apocalyptic battle against the forces of Jewish Bolshevism was to be carried out as a war of extermination with complete disregard for the laws and customs of war . A quick victory

18886-706: Was content'; the title is from Exodus 2:21 ). The book contained three segments; the first was devoted to Teitelbaum's interpretation of an Aggadatic text from the Ketubot in the Talmud, the Midrash of the Three Oaths . It discusses the meaning of a phrase quoted three times in the Song of Songs ( 2:7 , 3:5 , 8:4 ): "I adjure you [...] that ye awaken not, nor stir up love until it please." The passage explains it as

19028-421: Was elected as chief rabbi of Szatmárnémeti itself. The appointment resulted in bitter strife within the Jewish community, and he only accepted the post in 1934. Teitelbaum rose to become a prominent figure in ultra-Orthodox circles, leading an uncompromisingly conservative line against modernization. Among other issues, he was a fierce opponent of Zionism and Agudath Israel . The Jewish population of Hungary

19170-606: Was established to hold those members of the Polish intelligentsia not killed in the purges. Around 400,000 Poles were expelled from the Wartheland in western Poland to the General Governorate occupation zone from 1939 to 1941, and the area was resettled by ethnic Germans from eastern Europe . The rest of Poland was occupied by the Soviet Union , which invaded Poland from the east on 17 September pursuant to

19312-403: Was expected and was planned to be followed by a massive demographic engineering project to remove 31 million people and replace them with German settlers . To increase the speed of conquest the Germans planned to feed their army by looting, exporting additional food to Germany, and to terrorize the local inhabitants with preventative killings. The Germans foresaw that the invasion would cause

19454-460: Was extremely difficult and often unsuccessful. The support, or at least absence of active opposition, of the local population was essential but often lacking in Eastern Europe. Those in hiding depended on the assistance of non-Jews. Having money, social connections with non-Jews, a non-Jewish appearance, perfect command of the local language, determination, and luck played a major role in determining survival. Jews in hiding were hunted down with

19596-535: Was killed on arrival, but at Auschwitz around 20–25 percent were separated out for labor, although many of these prisoners died later on through starvation, mass shooting, torture, and medical experiments. Belzec, Sobibor , and Treblinka reported a combined revenue of RM 178.7 million from belongings stolen from their victims, far exceeding costs. Combined, the camps required the labor of less than 3,000 Jewish prisoners, 1,000 Trawniki men (largely Ukrainian auxiliaries), and very few German guards. About half of

19738-419: Was noticeable to anyone nearby. Except in the deportations from western and central Europe, people were typically deported to the camps in overcrowded cattle cars . As many as 150 people were forced into a single boxcar . Many died en route , partly because of the low priority accorded to these transports. Shortage of rail transport sometimes led to postponement or cancellation of deportations. Upon arrival,

19880-455: Was registered as a religious corporation . Teitelbaum appointed Leopold Friedman (1904–1972), a former bank director, as the congregation's president, while he was declared supreme spiritual authority. After Friedman's death, he was replaced by Leopold (Leibish) Lefkowitz (1920–1998). Teitelbaum's policy was to maintain complete independence by refusing to affiliate with, or receive financial aid from, any other Jewish group; his Hasidim established

20022-486: Was spared wholesale destruction by the Holocaust until 1944. On 19 March 1944, the German Army occupied the country, and deportations to the concentration camps ensued. Teitelbaum sought to re-assure the frightened people who, for the most part, weren't able to leave Hungary, saying that by the merit of their religiosity, they would be saved. However, when the Germans invaded, he was saved by his devoted followers, who paid

20164-496: Was the genocide of European Jews during World War II . Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe , around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps , chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau , Treblinka , Belzec , Sobibor , and Chełmno in occupied Poland . Separate Nazi persecutions killed

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