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... Controversies in the Capital: An Investigation and Analysis of Republican Responses to Major Political Crises By Collin Delsite PS-499 Senior Seminar Dr. Barlow 1 Introduction Americans, generally, are filled with national pride. According to an annually conducted Gallup poll, 69% of individuals surveyed in 2021 stated that they were either extremely or very proud to be American.1 Although Gallups data also shows that these numbers have fallen2 in recent years, a clear majority of the citizens surveyed still demonstrated their patriotism. The United States is colloquially known to them as the land of the free due to the democratic principles the nation was founded upon. Some examples of these include equity, fairness, respect for the rule of law, and of course, freedom. Many American citizens also express a zeal for the civil rights and liberties that are guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Combined together, these freedoms and principles could likely help explain this pride and the idea of American exceptionalism.3 But, is American democracy as ideal as some believe it to be? Despite these model examples, the American political system has experienced various levels of corruption and scandals orchestrated by public officials that contrast these values. History remembers major events such as the Credit Mobilier Scandal in the 1870s, the Teapot Dome Scandal in the 1920s, or the Lewinsky Scandal in 1998. Numerous smaller offenses, like the unethical misuse of campaign funds or political power, also seemingly surface in the news every year. While these types of scandals may draw the medias initial attention, they largely fly under the radar or are quickly forgotten due to their increased normalization and frequency. The benchmark of American political scandals materialized in 1972 during the Nixon Administration. After a 1 Jeffrey Jones, American Pride Ticks up from Last Year's Record Low, Gallup.com (Gallup, November 20, 2021), https://news.gallup.com/poll/351791/american-pride-ticks-last-year-record-low.aspx. 2 Gallups 21st century data shows that, since the poll was first conducted, American pride peaked in the immediate wake of 9/11, specifically in 2002 and 2003. From approximately 2004 to 2016, total percentages typically ranged in the eighties, but then gradually declined from 2016 to 2020. 2020 recorded the lowest overall percentage at 63%. Measurement of pride also varies on multiple factors, including partisanship and age. 3 American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different or better than any other nation in the world, and that American values, government, and history deserve an elevated level of respect. 2 botched burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters, a two-year long investigation revealed an extensive coverup that attempted to hide a massive, presidentially endorsed spying campaign. As a result, President Nixon, who once was immensely popular among the public, was eventually forced to resign or face a bipartisan impeachment. In its aftermath, the Watergate Scandal produced long-lasting effects on American society that are still prevalent today, as the public lost their optimistic faith in government and became increasingly cynical about politics. Writing for The Atlantic, reporter Alex Seitz-Wald explains that many scandals since the 1970s, both inside and outside of politics, have earned the suffix of -gate in dishonor of the 37th president.4 For example, think of the NFLs Deflategate5 and Volkswagens Dieselgate6 in 2015, or Hillary Clintons Emailgate7 in 2016. Until recently, many within the United States thought Watergate would always be the pinnacle of political corruption. However, a new political controversy recently rocked the United States in early 2021. After President Donald Trump delivered a fiery speech to a crowd at a political rally protesting the 2020 election that he had lost, hundreds of Trumps right-wing supporters invaded the United States Capitol to physically stop the Electoral College from certifying the results. Although they were unsuccessful, the January 6th Insurrection still left a final, deep stain on Trumps presidential legacy and will be remembered as one of the darkest days in American history. In the following weeks, Trump was impeached by Congress, but was narrowly acquitted after the final Senate vote closely followed party lines. Over a year later in 2022, American politics continues to 4 Alex Seitz-Wald, How to Name a Scandal: What Is a '- Gate' and What Is a '-Ghazi'? The Atlantic, January 15, 2014, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/how-to-name-a-scandal-what-is-a-nbsp-gate-and-whatis-a-ghazi/283104/. 5 Eliott C. McLaughlin, What the Heck Is Deflategate Anyway? CNN (Cable News Network, January 23, 2015), https://www.cnn.com/2015/01/22/us/nfl-patriots-deflategate-rules/. 6 Roger Parloff, How VW Paid $25 Billion for Dieselgate - and Got off Easy, Fortune, June 8, 2021, https://fortune.com/2018/02/06/volkswagen-vw-emissions-scandal-penalties/. 7 Haleema Shah, How Has 'Emailgate' Altered Perceptions of Hillary Clinton? Wisconsin Public Radio (NPR, April 18, 2019), https://www.wpr.org/how-has-emailgate-altered-perceptions-hillary-clinton. 3 flounder in a state of disarray as the country continues to recover from the messes that the Trump Administration left behind. The Insurrection clearly shows that vast changes have occurred within the American political system, and especially the Republican Party. The party that is present today is not the Grand Old Party that it once was. Many political observers believe that the party has morally corrupted itself and has been crippled by extreme polarization. These critics refer to the partys differing responses to crises as evidence: In 1974 the majority of the GOP joined the impeachment efforts against Nixon before he resigned, but in 2021, a majority of the party voted to acquit in Trumps impeachment trial. Therefore, a new question is presented: What changed within the Republican Party that resulted in two different responses to Nixon and Trump? Overview of the Nixon Administration and Events Leading up to the Watergate Scandal: The 1968 Election The 1968 presidential election occurred during one of the most turbulent periods in American history. Although inspiring, the decade of the 1960s was also defined by heavy social unrest stemming from events like the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, and the counterculture movement. Many voters had grown anxious about the general increase in crime rates and the changes occurring within the country during this time and became increasingly disenchanted with the Democratic Party, which had dominated politics for the majority of the decade. Animosity against President Johnson also grew due to the increased American involvement in Vietnam and eventually forced him to withdraw his reelection bid. As a result, the Democratic Party internally split about their choice of nominee. Richard Nixon, who held the reputation of a loser due to his 1960 presidential election and 1962 California gubernatorial loss, once again ran for president in 1968 as the Republican nominee. Appealing to these anxious and 4 angry voters, Nixon ran a campaign based on law and order and winning peace with honor in Vietnam. These campaign goals, complimented by the calm and rational appearance he projected, helped Nixon win the election over Democrat candidate Hubert Humphrey and Independent candidate George Wallace. First Term in Office: 1969-1972 During his first term, Nixon was reasonably successful and popular among the general public. Gallup poll data from this time shows that his first term average approval rating among the general public was 55.8%.8 Among Republican voters, Nixon typically hovered between 75% and 85%.9 Presidential historian and researcher Ken Hughes explains that, although Nixons political inclinations were conservative, he typically functioned as a moderate or even as a liberal Republican. This flexibility was often criticized by the conservative wing of the Republican Party but allowed him to take credit for legislation and policy implementations that would later help his reelection bid. However, Hughes also clarifies that this flexibility should not obscure Nixons actual political purpose, which was to continue to shift the country to the right after decades of control by the New Deal Coalition.10 Ultimately, Some of Nixons greatest successes in office included easing Cold War tensions through arms treaties and opening diplomatic relationships with China. Mounting Pressure, Paranoia, and the White House Tapes Although Nixon promised law and order and de-escalation in Vietnam, results did not come quickly or easily. The stress of the presidency built up within Nixon as he repeatedly faced 8 Gallup, Presidential Approval Ratings -- Gallup Historical Statistics and Trends, Gallup.com (Gallup, August 12, 2021), https://news.gallup.com/poll/116677/presidential-approval-ratings-gallup-historical-statistics-trends.aspx. 9 Gallup, Presidential Job Approval Center, Gallup.com (Gallup, November 11, 2021), https://news.gallup.com/interactives/185273/presidential-job-approval-center.aspx. 10 Ken Hughes, Richard Nixon: Impact and Legacy, The Miller Center (University of Virginia, June 16, 2020), https://millercenter.org/president/nixon/impact-and-legacy. 5 domestic and foreign crises throughout his first term. Nixon also found enemies to be everywhere, including the press, in Congress, and within the bureaucracy. These two factors caused him to become increasingly paranoid that these perceived foes were out to ruin him and eventually influenced his decision-making process. H.R. Haldeman, Nixons Chief of Staff, explained in a 1988 article that during the transitional period between the Johnson administration and inauguration, Nixon was informed that some previous presidents, including Johnson, had recording systems throughout the White House that allowed meetings and telephone calls to be taped. Nixon initially opposed the tape recorders when he entered office and ordered their removal from the White House. However, due to the mounting stress and the concern that others would distort his words against him, Nixon had new systems installed in the Oval Office in 1971. Haldeman also noted that the tapes were originally used for bona fide purposes, and that very few people outside of Nixons inner circle actually knew about their existence. The President later had tape systems installed at various other spots across the White House and at Camp David, the presidential residence in the Maryland countryside.11 These tapes would eventually contribute to Nixons demise. The Plumbers In June 1971, RAND Corporation researcher Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the public after secretly photocopying the classified document over a period of several months. The detailed historical record of the Vietnam War not only revealed that the United States had increased its involvement in the Indochina region over time, but also that previous presidents had willingly and systematically lied to the public and Congress about the scope of the 11 H.R. Haldeman, The Nixon White House Tapes: The Decision to Record Presidential Conversations, Prologue Magazine, 1988, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1988/summer/haldeman.html. 6 countrys involvement.12 Although the leak occurred during Nixons presidency, the publication did not directly implicate his administration because the Papers covered the decades before he was in office. However, the Papers release ultimately marked a turning point in Nixons presidency. Nixon, who was already heavily paranoid of others, was convinced that the leak was evidence of a left-wing conspiracy that was out to delegitimize his administration and expose his own secrets. Combined together, this paranoia and concern manifested itself into the creation of the White House Special Investigations Unit. Informally known as the Plumbers, this task force was created to stop any future information leaks and was partially financed through illegal campaign contributions to the Committee for the Reelection of the President (CRP). The Plumbers were also later employed to spy on and sabotage the presidents enemies during the latter half of 1971 and in 1972. Their illegal tactics included wiretapping phones, blackmailing opponents, and burglarizing various targets, including the office of Ellsbergs psychiatrist. However, most of their known activities diminished after the Ellsberg break-in due to growing suspicions.13 Some of the Plumbers would later conduct a botched mission that revealed the worst political scandal in American history. The Watergate Scandal: First Emergence With the 1972 election just around the corner, Nixons aides were working hard to bolster the Presidents reelection bid by any means necessary. In early 1972, a plan to break into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex was formulated by CRP leaders who were previously involved in Nixons Special Investigations Unit. Nixons saboteurs 12 Neil Sheehan, Vietnam Archive: Pentagon Study Traces 3 Decades of Growing U. S. Involvement, New York Times, June 13, 1971, https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/13/archives/vietnam-archive-pentagon-study-traces-3decades-of-growing-u-s.html. 13 Jordan Moran, Nixon and the Pentagon Papers, The Miller Center (University of Virginia, January 2, 2018), https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/first-domino-nixon-and-the-pentagon-papers. 7 first broke into the Democrat headquarters in May of that year to wiretap Committee executives phones. This first mission was successful, but it was quickly determined that a second break-in would be needed to make repairs to the listening devices. On June 17th, 1972, five men again broke into the Democrat headquarters. However, after a Watergate security guard noticed some suspicious activity, the burglars were caught and subsequently arrested by the police. In the investigation immediately following their arrests, the men were quickly linked to the CRP and the Republican Party. The White House was able to initially protect Nixon by denying any involvement in the crime and making secret hush money payments to the burglars.14 Despite growing suspicions from the media and the FBI about the break-in, Nixons reelection bid was never jeopardized. Five months later, the President won 60% of the elections popular vote and carried forty-nine out of fifty states in a landslide victory over his Democrat opponent George McGovern.15 The Scandal Escalates and Nixons Resignation After the election, the Watergate Scandal reentered the publics view as Nixons coverup began to unravel. Suspicions about the President grew in early 1973 after anonymous reports to the press and newfound financial records linked him and his administration to the break-in and other illegal activities.16 In February 1973, the Senate authorized the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities to launch a formal investigation into Nixons actions. Over the next several months the Senate hearings were broadcast gavel to gavel, which provided the 14 Tom van der Voort, Watergate: The Cover Up, The Miller Center (University of Virginia, August 19, 2021), https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/watergate/watergate-cover. 15 Max Frankel, President Won 49 States And 521 Electoral Votes, New York Times, November 9, 1972, https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/09/archives/new-jersey-pages-president-won-49-states-and-521-electoralvotes.html. 16 Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats, Washington Post, October 10, 1972, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/fbi-finds-nixon-aides-sabotageddemocrats/2012/06/06/gJQAoHIJJV_story.html. 8 American public a live feed into the investigations. Nixon continued to deny any involvement and took further steps to cover himself, including replacing aides, blackmailing others, and generally refusing to cooperate with investigations. He was not only concerned about his campaigns involvement in the break-in, but also the previous acts that his Plumbers and the CRP were involved in. Nixons secret White House recording systems were revealed for the first time via testimony in the hearings during the summer of 1973, which resulted in the committee subpoenaing the tapes for investigative purposes. A battle for the recordings ensued, as Nixon refused to release them under his executive privilege as president.17 That fall, Nixon tried to escape the probe by removing the investigations special prosecutor in hopes that the investigation would then be halted. Later known as the Saturday Night Massacre, the removals and resignations did not stop the investigation but instead marked the tipping point of the scandal and sparked the first calls for Nixons removal. Public support for Nixon had been slowly eroding throughout 1973, but the Massacre especially increased animosity against the president.18 After many of his former aides were indicted by a federal grand jury, Nixon partially complied with the subpoenas and released some edited tapes in late April 1974 to ease some tensions. However, the committee was not satisfied and continued to press for the full, unfiltered recordings. In May, the Senate Judiciary Committee began formal impeachment proceedings against the President as public and Congressional support for Nixon continued to sour. Finally, on July 24th, 1974, the legal battle finally ended after the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon that executive privilege did not shield Nixon from withholding the tapes from the Senates 17 Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. United States Senate. January 27, 2022. https://www.senate.gov/about/powers-procedures/investigations/watergate.htm. 18 Ken Gormley, The Saturday Night Massacre: How Our Constitution Trumped a Reckless President, National Constitution Center, October 20, 2015, https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/the-saturday-night-massacre-40-yearslater-how-our-constitution-trumped-a-r. 9 investigation.19 Nixon then released the full tapes, which revealed crucial conversations that directly incriminated him in the coverup. After this Congress was fully ready to impeach the President, as the Judiciary Committee had drafted and approved three articles of impeachment against him. Shortly thereafter, a small delegation of GOP members, led by Barry Goldwater, visited Nixon in the White House on August 7th to inform him that he faced an almost certain removal from office. The next day, on August 8th, 1974, Nixon announced his resignation from the presidency to the United States over a special television broadcast. Overview of the Trump Administration and Events Leading up to the Insurrection: The 2016 Election In 2016, after a long, heated campaign season, businessman Donald Trump stunned the United States by winning the presidential election over Hillary Clinton. Despite losing the popular vote by nearly three million votes, Trump won the Electoral College by a vote of 304 to 227 which allowed him to claim victory.20 This was the fifth time in American history that a candidate lost the popular vote but won the presidency through the Electoral College. The most recent circumstance before Trump occurred in the 2000 Election; George Bush lost the popular vote by 500,000 ballots, but was declared the winner after a controversial Supreme Court decision ruled in his favor.21 According to Politico, the 2016 election is considered as one of the greatest political upsets in American history a candidate with no prior public service experience ousted a heavily favored political veteran.22 However, the election was also mired in controversy due to the immense vote differential between the candidates and accusations of Russian 19 "United States v. Nixon." Oyez. Accessed April 25, 2022. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1973/73-1766. 20 Federal Elections Commission, Federal Elections 2016 (2017), https://www.fec.gov/resources/cmscontent/documents/federalelections2016.pdf. 21 On This Day, Bush v. Gore Settles 2000 Presidential Race (National Constitution Center, December 12, 2019), https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-bush-v-gore-anniversary. 22Shane Goldmacher and Ben Shreckinger, Trump Pulls Off Biggest Upset in U.S. History, Politico, November 11, 2016, https://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/election-results-2016-clinton-trump-231070. 10 interference. Retrospectively, the election win seemed to be an ominous foreshadow of Trumps presidential term to come. First Term in Office: 2017-2021 During his inauguration speech, Trump vowed a new national unity and promised that he would make America great again. To Republicans, Trump kept this promise as his administration scored many long-sought conservative policy victories in only four years. The Maclver Institute, a conservative political think tank, provides some major examples of these successes, which include: the significant rightward shift of the Supreme Court and the judicial branch, the implementation of new tax cuts, bolstering the national economy, and immigration restrictions. Judging on the substance of his policies, Maclver suggests that Trump was perhaps the most influential president for conservatives since Ronald Reagan.23 A Pew survey compliments this claim: Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 42% stated that Reagan was the best recent president in the last 40 years, 37% viewed Trump as the best, and the remaining 21% was divided among the other five recent presidents.24 However, many of the policies the Trump Administration introduced were poorly implemented and have been struck down by the courts or subsequently repealed by the Biden Administration. Therefore, although Republicans revere Trump for quickly accomplishing many conservative goals, the Presidents policy legacy will likely be regarded by history as ultimately insignificant. Instead, Trump will be remembered for the controversial and divisive nature of his presidency. 23 Dan O'Donnell, On Policy, Donald Trump Was by Far the Most Effective, Consequential Conservative since Reagan (MacIver Institute, January 20, 2021), https://www.maciverinstitute.com/2021/01/on-policy-donald-trumpwas-by-far-the-most-effective-consequential-conservative-since-reagan/. 24 Amina Dunn, Republicans View Reagan, Trump as Best Recent Presidents (Pew Research Center, December 21, 2021), https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/12/20/republicans-view-reagan-trump-as-best-recentpresidents/. 11 The Divided States of America From the campaign trail to his last day in the White House, Trump was perpetually involved in scandals or various allegations of misconduct. Because of the frequency of accusations against him it is difficult to generate a definitive list of his misdeeds, but three headlines from his presidency are easily remembered. First, throughout his term, Trump embraced an anti-politically correct attitude. The President often made racially charged, misogynistic, and other caustic comments which earned the ire of many citizens across the country. Second, after a nearly two-year long investigation, the Mueller Report confirmed in 2019 that Russia did illegally meddle in the election. It also concluded that, although the Trump campaign did not actively collude with Russia, they did welcome the illegal influence and expected to benefit from it.25 Ultimately, the probe did not uncover enough evidence to support criminal or impeachment charges against Trump, but it did hint that his campaign may have obstructed justice during the investigative process.26 Only a few months after the Mueller Report was released, a whistleblower complaint revealed that Trump withheld nearly $400 million worth of Congressionally designated military aid from Ukraine to pressure the foreign government into launching a public investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. When Congress later attempted to investigate the allegations, Trump instructed his administration to resist any requests. As a result, Trump was impeached for this quid pro quo deal and for obstruction of justice, but he was ultimately acquitted after the final Senate votes closely followed party lines. 27 25 Robert S. Mueller, Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election , Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election (2019), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-SCREPORT-MUELLER/pdf/GPO-SCREPORT-MUELLER.pdf. 26 American Bar Association, Mueller Finds No Collusion with Russia, Leaves Obstruction Question Open, March 2019, https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2019/03/mueller-concludesinvestigation/. 27 Nicholas Fandos and Michael D Shear, Trump Impeached for Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress, New York Times, February 10, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeached.html. 12 Under normal circumstances, each of these scandals would have likely ruined an individuals political career. While they did not ruin Trumps presidency, these examples, along with many other separate factors, did help create massive divisions in American society. A Pew research report indicates that, even before assuming the presidency, Trump split Republicans and Democrats more than any previous president had in the last three decades; during the transitional period in December 2016, 79% of Republicans and only 15% of Democrats approved of Trump.28 This gap only continued to widen, as Gallup reported that Trump received an average approval rating of 88% from Republicans and 7% from Democrats for the entirety of his term. Overall, Trumps total term approval average set a new record-low at 41%, which was 4% lower than the previous low-marks set by Truman and Carter.29 The Insurrection: The 2020 Election By the end of his first term, the majority of the United States had grown tired of Trump and voted him out of office in the 2020 election. Rather than concede to the winning candidate Joe Biden, Trump instead spread his Big Lie that the election was stolen from him. In 2016, despite benefitting from foreign interference himself, Trump first spread the notion that an election was rigged against him when it was not clear he would win. Many Republican voters then were willing to believe that the Democrats would tamper with an election if they were able to. So, when Trump did lose in 2020, many Republicans were already willing to doubt the outcome. Writing for The Atlantic, investigative journalist Sarah Longwell states that the beliefs about the stolen election were not necessarily fully formed thoughts for many red voters, but 28 Pew Research Center, Views of President-Elect Trump and His Administration, December 8, 2016, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/12/08/1-views-of-president-elect-trump-and-his-administration/. 29 Jeffrey M Jones, Last Trump Job Approval 34%; Average Is Record-Low 41% (Gallup, November 20, 2021), https://news.gallup.com/poll/328637/last-trump-job-approval-average-record-low.aspx. 13 rather more of an attitude. Through interviews with skeptical Trump supporters, Longwell shows that details about the election vary depending on the person, but two theories were common. Many of those who were interviewed disbelieved the election results because the total number of votes that were cast were higher than previous elections. Others thought the election was stolen after Trumps lead was erased in the middle of election night. As Longwell wrote, they went to bed with their guy in the lead and woke up to a different reality which to them was startling and deeply suspicious.30 However, facts disprove both of these theories. Data gathered by the Census Bureau shows that the voter turnout rate reached a 21st century high during the 2020 election, with 66.8% of the voting age population casting their ballots. Also, primarily due to coronavirus concerns, a majority of Americans voted by non-traditional means. 69.4% of voters nationwide cast their ballot early or by mail. Although many states allow processing to begin early, most require counting to begin on the official election day.31 Additionally, the overwhelming majority of mail-in ballots were for Joe Biden. Multiple states ordered election audits after November, but they all ultimately returned the same result: Bidens victory. Despite this, Trump continued to perpetuate that the election was stolen from him throughout his lame duck period and election protests led by his followers occurred throughout the country. The Capitol Attack On January 6th, 2021, several protests were planned in or around the National Mall as the Electoral College met to certify the election results. During the Save America rally, Trump personally appeared to deliver a speech to his followers at 12 pm. After promising to never 30. Sarah Longwell, Trump Supporters Explain Why They Believe the Big Lie, The Atlantic, April 18, 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/04/trump-voters-big-lie-stolen-election/629572/. 31. United States Census Bureau, 2020 Presidential Election Voting and Registration Tables Now Available, April 21, 2021, https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-presidential-election-voting-andregistration-tables-nowavailable.html#:~:text=APRIL%2029%2C%202021%20%E2%80%94%20The%202020,by%20the%20U.S.%20Ce nsus%20Bureau. 14 concede the election and calling on Vice-President Pence overturn the results, Trump urged the crowd to fight like hell [or they wouldnt] have a country anymore.32 After the Presidents encouragement to walk to the Capitol building, a massive crowd converged at the building. At approximately 1 pm, the crowd turned into a riot as hundreds of protestors began clashing with the heavily outnumbered Capitol police. By 2 pm, many of the rioters had broken into the building and began searching for the Electoral College to physically disrupt the certification. While Congress members hid in fear, many of the rioters looted and vandalized various offices and rooms throughout the building. During the attack, many within the Trump Administration and other government officials urged the President to intervene to stop the violence. However, Trump initially refused to do so, and instead tweeted about the event. He eventually did call in the National Guard and tweeted a video to his followers, in which he told them that they were very special and to go home in peace. The Capitol was later cleared of intruders at approximately 6 pm, and Congress reconvened later in the evening to continue the election certification process.33 The Insurrections Aftermath and Trumps Second Impeachment The Insurrection resulted in five deaths, hundreds of injuries, and damages costing millions of dollars. In the immediate aftermath, many of Trumps cabinet members were strongly urged to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.34 When these demands were not met, Congress rushed to impeach the President for the second time under the charge of incitement of an insurrection. However, despite many Republicans strongly condemning the 32 Brian Naylor, Read Trump's Jan. 6 Speech, a Key Part of Impeachment Trial (NPR, February 10, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966396848/read-trumps-jan-6-speech-a-key-part-of-impeachment-trial. 33 Kat Lonsdorf et al., A Timeline of How the Jan. 6 Attack Unfolded Including Who Said What and When. NPR January 5, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/05/1069977469/a-timeline-of-how-the-jan-6-attack-unfoldedincluding-who-said-what-and-when. 34 Section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows the Vice President and other ranking officials to declare that the President unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office and remove him from power. 15 Insurrection and Trumps actions, the Senate ultimately failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to convict and Trump was acquitted. Ten Representatives and seven Senators from the Republican Party, in their respective roles in the impeachment process, broke from the GOP and voted to impeach the President. However, despite their vote of conscience, they all later faced harsh backlash and repercussions from within their own party. Later, a bipartisan commission to investigate the Insurrection passed the House but was then blocked by Senate Republicans. Instead, the House then authorized a select committee to investigate the roots and causes of the Capitol attacks. Since then, the committee has held numerous hearings and continues to investigate today. Analysis of the Republican Partys Responses: As America continues to tune into the Insurrection hearings in 2022, echoes of Watergate can be heard again nearly fifty years later. Like Nixons probe, investigators face a former president who continually resists their legal demands as they work to uncover what Trump knew and when he knew it. Many political observers have expressed their frustration with the Republican Party for their continued support of Trump despite that he is no longer in office. Critics often consider the Watergate era as the pinnacle of the GOP because of the partys demonstrated commitment to the rule of law over partisanship. Using Watergates bipartisan impeachment effort as a comparative measure, many believe that the contemporary Republican Party is now thoroughly corrupt because this commitment apparently no longer exists. Congressional Republicans saw and heard incriminating evidence of Trumps role in the attempted subversion of democracy, but the overwhelming majority chose to do nothing and voted to acquit in the impeachment trial. With the details of each controversy in mind, my original question still remains: What changed within the Republican Party? While evidence of 16 corruption within the GOP can be easily seen today, I propose that less has changed between 1974 and 2021 than one might think. Analysis of Watergate Many historical misperceptions about Watergate story exist, especially concerning the White House tapes and the Republican support for impeachment. Nixons refusal to release the tapes can be easily explained because he knew that they would show his finger on the trigger of the smoking gun. However, the impact of the tapes had less to do with their content or the moral compass of the Republican Party and more so with the actual timing of their release to the public. In fact, the tapes did not reveal any unprecedented actions by Nixon. Previous presidents, beginning with Roosevelt in 1940, had recorded their conversations in the Oval Office.35 Other presidents besides Nixon had also utilized intelligence services for political purposes. Johnson had infamously authorized wiretaps on Martin Luther King Jr. and other opponents throughout the 1960s,36 and Kennedy used the IRS to harass conservative groups by challenging their tax statuses.37 These examples do not exonerate Nixon from his crimes, but rather show that abuses of presidential power did not originate with him. At the time of Watergate, the Republican Party was in the midst of an identity crisis. For decades prior, the Democratic Party, through their New Deal Coalition, had dominated politics. From 1932 to 1968, Democrats won seven out of nine presidential elections and sixteen out of 35 Secret White House Tapes, The Miller Center (University of Virginia, September 20, 2019), https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/secret-white-house-tapes/research-the-tapes. 36 Nicholas Horrock, Mr. Nixon Was Not the First to Use the Agency: Johnson Liked Its Reports, New York Times, February 9, 1975, https://www.nytimes.com/1975/02/09/archives/mr-nixon-was-not-the-first-to-use-theagency-johnson-liked-its.html. 37 Dena Aubin, Fact box: IRS's Rich History of Scandals, Political Abuse, Reuters, May 16, 2013, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-irs-scandals/factbox-irss-rich-history-of-scandals-political-abuseidUSBRE94F16V20130517. 17 eighteen Congressional elections.38 During the Coalitions reign, the Republican Party was primarily composed of moderates. According to historian Mark Nevin, this composition began to shift during the early 1960s. The Congressional GOPs faction of conservatives emerged during this time and first won control of the party by 1964. Although the first conservative presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater, was crushed in that years election, the conservative influence later helped Nixon secure the Republican nomination in 1968. Nixons subsequent election win signaled the initial decline of the New Deal Coalitions dominance and a hopeful end to the GOPs electoral failures, but inner-party fractures between moderates and conservatives persisted. Nixons conservative appearance but moderate functionality further fueled these tensions, but as previously mentioned, this flexibility was politically lucrative. Nevin states that Nixons popularity continued to grow throughout his first term as American political inclinations began to slowly shift rightward. Similar to Trump, Nixon developed an intensely loyal following among a group of Republican voters. This base only comprised about one quarter of red voters, but their support was vital for Congressional Republicans in the 1970s. Although Nixon had won the 1968 and 1972 elections, the GOP remained the minority party in both houses of Congress during the entirety of his presidency. Nixon loyalists contributed time, ballots, and financial support that were crucial to party success, especially as the GOP was still attempting to overcome decades of Congressional electoral defeats. It was therefore in the best interest of incumbent officeholders to appease these voters in whatever way possible to maintain their needed favor and support.39 38 United States House of Representatives, Party Government Since 1857, 2021, https://history.house.gov/Institution/Presidents-Coinciding/Party-Government/. 39 Mark Nevin, Nixon Loyalists, Barry Goldwater, and Republican Support for President Nixon during Watergate, Journal of Policy History 29, no. 3 (2017): pp. 403-406, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/664029/pdf. 18 After Nixon was first implicated in the Watergate Scandal in 1972, he expected Congressional Republicans to defend him. Nevin explains that he especially relied on Goldwater, who ardently campaigned for him in 1968. Initially, Goldwater and the GOP viewed the scandal as a minor matter that was just political theatre whipped up by Nixons opponents.40 However, after the Senate authorized the Watergate Committee to investigate Nixon in 1973, GOP Congress members and voters first began to question Nixons proclamations of innocence. Goldwater was one of the first to make public comments criticizing the Presidents response to the crisis, but he also continued to defend him. The formation of the Watergate Committee enraged Nixons loyalists. In response, they formed the National Citizens Committee for Fairness to the Presidency (NCCFP) which was akin to a super PAC. Like the name suggests, the organization believed that a political witch hunt was unfairly targeting Nixon. NCCFP members viewed their defense of the president as a mission to save America from dark political forces. Using Watergate as a litmus test for Congressional support, the NCCFP threatened to punish any Republican that dared to break away from Nixon in favor of the investigations. And, because they were a significant source of both votes and money, the GOP largely followed their demands as the Watergate coverup unraveled.41 As the scandal deepened throughout the rest of 1973, GOP members realized they had become trapped in a predicament. Pew research data shows that public opinion of Nixon and the Republican Party continued to decline as more evidence mounted against the President.42 Party leadership knew this; behind closed doors, many party members doubted Nixons innocence by late 1973 and knew that the scandal was tanking their electoral prospects in the upcoming 1974 40 Ibid, 407 41 Ibid, 410-412 42 Andrew Kohut, From the Archives: How the Watergate Crisis Eroded Public Support for Richard Nixon, Pew Research Center, August 8, 2014, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/09/25/how-the-watergate-crisiseroded-public-support-for-richard-nixon/. 19 midterms. But, Nevin explains that the NCCFPs electoral and financial influence continued to constrain the Republican Party from taking any real action. After the Saturday Night Massacre in October 1973, public calls for Nixons impeachment grew and the NCCFPs defensive efforts doubled in response. Throughout that fall and winter, GOP members began openly discussing a possible Nixon resignation. However, they shied away from supporting impeachment efforts even though Watergate continued to spiral out of the White Houses control. The Republican Party felt the first sting of the scandal at the polls in early 1974 after their candidates lost four of five special elections. Congressional Republican support for Nixon finally began to seriously erode in spring 1974 after the edited tapes were released in April and the GOP continued to suffer at the polls. Party leadership, especially Goldwater, began to seriously consider asking the President for his voluntary resignation but still hesitated to act out of caution for the NCCFP.43 Official impeachment hearings against Nixon began that May; in light of all of the accumulated evidence, some Republicans began breaking away from the rest of the party to join the impeachment effort. After the Supreme Court ruling in July though, all of the Presidents remaining Congressional support evaporated. Although Nixons loyalists continued to advocate for his innocence, the incriminating evidence against the President outweighed any remaining benefits that GOP members could possibly receive from the NCCFP.44 With these details of Watergate now in mind, it is easier to understand that the GOPs decision to support Nixons impeachment was actually primarily driven by political strategy and not just ethical convictions. Nevertheless, Republicans still did what they thought was best for the country; even after the smoking gun tapes were released, some Nixon loyalists still refuted 43 Mark Nevin, Nixon Loyalists, Barry Goldwater, and Republican Support for President Nixon during Watergate, Journal of Policy History 29, no. 3 (2017): pp. 412-417, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/664029/pdf. 44 Ibid, 420-422 20 the Presidents guilt and Congress members could have continued to rally behind Nixon. However, the tapes release actually marked the end of the GOPs game of political risk. Nixons hardcore supporters represented a sizable portion of politically active voters within the Republican Party. With the 1974 midterm elections approaching, Ken Hughes explains that GOP members of Congress needed their support to win the party primaries that spring. Despite months of mounting evidence and privately doubting Nixon, Republicans largely continued to support the President to retain his voter base. After they won their primaries, Republicans then needed to shift their focus to capturing support from median voters for the general election. These swing voters, like most citizens in 1974, were disgusted by Nixons actions. Therefore, it was politically strategic for Republicans to distance themselves from the President between the primaries and the general election to appeal to these potential ballots. Evidence of this strategy is seen in the spring and early summer of 1974, when GOP members began to split from the party to support impeachment. Their divorce conveniently occurred promptly after the primary season. The release of the full tapes after the Supreme Court decision in July then made it convenient for the rest of the Republican Party to desert Nixon.45 The Insurrection Like Watergate, the details of the Insurrection are also often misunderstood as America continues to heal itself after the Trump Administration. As previously mentioned, critics of the GOP have used Trumps acquittal as evidence of internal party corruption. Again, they are partially correct: Extreme polarization, a shift towards reactionary politics, and a shrinking voter 45 Ken Hughes, Trump's 'Smoking Gun' Tape Is Worse than Nixon's, but Congressional Republicans Have Less Incentive to Do Anything about It, The Conversation, January 6, 2022, https://theconversation.com/trumpssmoking-gun-tape-is-worse-than-nixons-but-congressional-republicans-have-less-incentive-to-do-anything-about-it152643. 21 base have all contributed to the GOPs current state of disarray.46 The Capitol attack was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated by right-wing extremists and instigated by a sitting president. Everyone, regardless of political affiliation, should be concerned by Trumps actions and their subsequent dismissal by most Congressional Republicans. Yes, some members of Congress have fallen victim to radicalization and believed that the Insurrection was justified. However, this does not mean that all Republicans who voted to acquit Trump are now right-wing extremists. Instead, it appears that the Republican Party essentially used the same political strategy in 2021 that was seen throughout the Watergate Scandal. Referring to his inner-party support, Nixon once said on one of the released White House tapes that he would rather take a dumb loyalist than a bright neuter.47 While I do not offer this quote as a malicious insult against modern conservatives, it essentially summarized Trumps base throughout his presidency. In 2016, many Congressional Republicans were hesitant to support Trump. He was loud, controversial, and a potential risk to the party. However, New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters explains that Trumps populistic attitude and demagoguery won over many frustrated Republican voters, especially the religious right and social conservatives. Like Nixons stalwarts, these two constituencies are very influential within the GOP because they contribute a considerable amount of time, money, and votes to a party that is continually shrinking. Trumps many quick conservative policy achievements translated into enthusiastic, blind support from these factions and consolidated the rest of the party to back him. Trump gave GOP voters everything they wanted; in return, he was given effectively full control of the 46 George Packer, The Corruption of the Republican Party, The Atlantic, December 18, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/how-did-republican-party-get-so-corrupt/578095/. 47 Michael Koncewicz, Introduction, in They Said No to Nixon: Republicans Who Stood Up to the President's Abuses of Power (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018), p. 8, https://www.ucpress.edu/blog/37721/august-9-1974-the-president-resigns/. 22 Republican Party.48 When Congress members realized this, many then pledged their steadfast loyalty to glean support for their own campaigns. Although he smashed institutional norms and was perpetually involved in scandals, many red voters viewed Trumps actions as an acceptable tradeoff for the advancements he made for the conservative agenda. As a result, most incumbent Republicans also looked away or excused Trump to appease their voters. Those who dared to defy Trump in any way often faced his wrath and the potential risk of losing favor within his base. The increased rates of polarization during the Trump Administration also left little incentive for GOP members to break away from the President because independents and swing voters were less likely to vote red in elections. Therefore, like Nixon in 1970s, supporting Trump was always the path of least political resistance to power for Republicans even if that path led away from democracy, decency, and the rule of law.49 In the immediate aftermath of the Insurrection, Many of Trumps staunch Congressional allies were outraged. On the night of January 6th, after the Capitol was cleared of intruders and meetings had resumed, Senator Lindsey Graham declared on the chamber floor that Trump and I, we've had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh, my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he's been a consequential president. But today, first thing you'll see all I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.50 In the days following January 6th, Republican Party leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell both sharply rebuked Trump in private for his actions. In audio recordings obtained by the New York Times, McCarthy stated he would push the President to 48 Terry Gross and Jeremy Peters, How Did the Republican Party Become the Party of Trump? NPR (WITF, February 8, 2022), https://www.npr.org/2022/02/08/1079191067/how-did-the-republican-party-become-the-partyof-trump. 49 Ken Hughes, Trump's 'Smoking Gun' Tape Is Worse than Nixon's, but Congressional Republicans Have Less Incentive to Do Anything about It, The Conversation, January 6, 2022, https://theconversation.com/trumpssmoking-gun-tape-is-worse-than-nixons-but-congressional-republicans-have-less-incentive-to-do-anything-about-it152643. 50 Lindsey Graham, Senator Graham on Capitol Security Breach and Arizona Objection, C-SPAN video, 5:51, January 6, 2021, https://www.c-span.org/video/?507698-15/senator-graham-capitol-security-breach-arizonaobjection. 23 resign, and McConnell expected the GOP to break away from Trump or support impeachment efforts against him. However, when it became clear that the Presidents popularity among red voters survived the Insurrection, all three quickly reversed their opinions within weeks out of fear of Trumps political retribution.51 Other prominent Republicans like Ted Cruz, who had previously called the Insurrection as a violent terrorist attack, also quickly changed their tone after conservative media outlets and voters disparaged them.52 McCarthy, McConnell, Graham, and Cruz all later voted against impeachment in their respective roles despite their initial acknowledgements of Trumps guilt. The ten House Republicans who broke from the party line have since struggled with the consequences of their vote to convict. Four have retired from office; six are running for reelection in 2022 with primary challengers, some of which are endorsed by Trump. All ten have been intensely harassed and criticized by Republican voters and party members.53 The seven Senators who voted to impeach have also been lambasted by Trump stalwarts but are in less immediate political danger because of their longer terms. Only one is running for reelection in 2022, and two have also retired from office since their vote.54 Some Senators, who have been ideologically swept away by the Big Lie, voted to acquit Trump based on the merits of his defense arguments. However, the change in opinion among the GOP leadership and the censured House members show that very few Republicans were willing to set aside their own political interests, even when American 51 Alexander Burns and John Martin, Ive Had It With This Guy: G.O.P. Leaders Privately Blasted Trump After Jan. 6, New York Times, April 22, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us/politics/trump-mitch-mcconnellkevin-mccarthy.html. 52 Karen Brooks Harper, Ted Cruz Called the Jan. 6 Riot a Terrorist Attack. Now He Says He Misspoke., The Texas Tribune, January 6, 2022, https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/06/ted-cruz-tucker-carlson-capitol-attack/. 53 Amber Phillips, What Happened to the 10 House Republicans Who Voted to Impeach Trump? The Washington Post, March 1, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/01/what-happened-10-house-republicanswho-voted-impeach-trump/. 54 Barbara Sprunt, 7 GOP Senators Voted to Convict Trump. Only 1 Faces Voters Next Year, NPR, February 15, 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-trial-live-updates/2021/02/15/967878039/7-gop-senatorsvoted-to-convict-trump-only-1-faces-voters-next-year. 24 democracy was threatened. Like the 1974 GOP, modern Republicans are unlikely to break away from Trump until it is politically convenient to do so. Conclusion In 1974, when it became clear that Nixon was implicated in Watergates operation and coverup, most of the Republican Party quickly abandoned their President. Facing bipartisan support for his removal, Nixon resigned before he could be formally impeached. In 2021, when Trump appeared to be the proximate cause that led to the Insurrection, many Congressional Republicans refused to condemn him and voted against his impeachment. In the aftermath of the Capitol attacks, critics of the contemporary GOP have used these differing responses as evidence of internal corruption within the Republican Party. Throughout my research, I have focused on one overarching question: what caused such a stark reversal within the party? Many of these critics consider the Watergate era Republicans as the pinnacle of the GOP because of their commitment to put principle over partisanship. However, while ethics likely did play a substantive factor in the decision to support Nixons removal, my analysis of Watergate has shown that the party was ultimately driven by political strategy. Despite eighteen months of growing evidence of the Presidents guilt, impeachment was not popular among Republican members of Congress until the summer of 1974. At that time, the GOP was attempting to overcome decades of electoral failures. Although they composed a relatively small number of the Republican voter base, Nixon loyalists provided financial support, time, and votes that were crucial for elections. Therefore, to avoid losing this needed support before the 1974 primaries, Congressional Republicans continued to support Nixon until it was no longer politically convenient for them. While there are obvious signs of corruption within the GOP today, this same basic political strategy was used by Republicans throughout Trumps term and in 2021 25 after the Insurrection. For the last five years, blindly supporting Trump has always been the path of least resistance to power for Republicans. Many within the GOP, including the partys leadership, initially acknowledged Trumps involvement in the Capitol attacks. However, after realizing that the Insurrection did not shake voters away from Trump, most Republicans withdrew their condemnations and continued to support Trump because it was still politically advantageous. Rather than preserve the integrity of American government and democracy, many GOP members continued to put their interests first. Looking Ahead in 2022 After losing a presidential election, political parties typically regroup and rebrand themselves. The Democratic Party provided the most recent example of this: after Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016, she stepped away from the partys spotlight and Democrats shifted their focus elsewhere. Following the 2020 election and subsequently the Insurrection, Republicans have yet to do this. Although Trump no longer holds a vice-like grip over the GOP like he once did, the party has yet to separate from him. Based on current trend and evaluations, it appears as if Trumpism may be here to stay. Since he has left office, Trump continues to muse running for president again in 2024. However, the 2022 midterms will be the first test since the Insurrection to truly gauge how much influence he still holds over Republican voters. The GOP has yet to present a new face of the party, and Trumps endorsement appears to be a golden ticket for Republicans running for office. Given the instability within American politics since the last election, much is at stake for both parties as we near November. If Republicans win back majorities in either chamber of Congress, I predict that Trump will run again. However, regardless which party wins, the 2022 midterms will be one of the most influential elections in American history. 26 Bibliography American Bar Association. 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... Poster presentation link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ukISXtK25OS7x6FbwrVYal8rKn3LdVr0Uhy77umRYjg/edit?usp=sharing Intelligent interfaces (AI-driven interfaces) are a promising step for interface designing. These interfaces use intelligent machine learning AI that use user models and interactions provided by the user to accurately design an interface towards the users liking. There are risks and benefits behind these interfaces so its not the best option to choose now. Everything within interface design must be considered such as age, intellect, culture, skill, health, emotional status, and mental status to understand and connect properly with the user. Improvements in Computer Interfaces and User Experiences By Ryan Geissinger CS485:01 Comp Sci ResearchElainea Neville What makes a great user-focused interface? Understand human-to-computer interactions and human-to-human interactions. With the knowledge behind what a user does and anticipate what the user will do next (through AI) is what can help better interface design. Usability is one of the important parts Build newer designs off self-learning of creating a great interface. The interface will have to analyze a users needs and gather data taken from actions performed on the interface. Good feedback is another important part since it reflects to the user what they are doing. When an interface gives a response to feedback, itll give an approach (how to do a task), give motivation (encourage completion of the task), and create a connection with the user. systems and use the design structures for future designs. To achieve better functioning designs, the system of the interface will have to be interacted so many times, actions will have to be expressed thoroughly, and updates on the system will have to happen regularly.  ...

... Abby Madar It's Not Perfect, But It's Ours: Parasocial Relationships with LGBTQ+ Characters in Legends of Tomorrow Fanfiction I know some people who make my life better by being in it. They make me laugh, are there for me when Im sad, and inspire me to be my best authentic self. In this case, I am referring to the fictional characters in the TV series DCs Legends of Tomorrowspecifically Sara Lance and Ava Sharpe. I could also refer to my family and friends in the same way. However, the relationships I have with my family and friends are considered real, while my relationships with fictional characters typically are not. People like me spend a lot of time with fictional characters. We watch (and rewatch) the series, and we engage in fan spaces for additional content, like reading and writing fanfiction. They live in our heads as we go about our days. Still, people assert that they are not important because they are not real. Saying this invalidates the experience of everyone who has had parasocial relationships, which are one-sided emotional attachments, with fictional characters. There are certain marginalized identities, LGBTQ+ people for instance, who have also been historically invalidated and told they were not real. Someone who identifies as LGBTQ+ developing parasocial relationships with fictional LGBTQ+ characters can be a profound and empowering experience. LGBTQ+ people and their parasocial relationships with fictional characters need more exploration. Work that has already been done correctly identifies the importance of positive representation of queer identities, but does not go much further than that (Hirshfield and MetcalfStotler). I decided to analyze fanfiction alongside parasocial relationships and LGBTQ+ identity 1 and representation. My research aims to show how fanfiction can demonstrate and be used to understand parasocial relationships between LGBTQ+ fans and LGBTQ+ characters, and vice versa: how parasocial relationships prompt and affect the writing of fanfiction. Writing is a powerful outlet in which people are able to explore parasocial bonds. The overall historical and societal view on all three focuses of my research is that they are deviant. Being LGBTQ+ is viewed as an identity that deviates from the norms of being heterosexual and cisgender (Hirshfield and Metcalf-Stotler), having parasocial relationships with characters is not seen as something normal people do (Shackleford), and fanfiction is thought of as a shameful and lesser form of writing (Jenkins). I argue that none of these are true, and that while there is no normal person, anyone can benefit from emotionally connecting with characters and from writing stories about them (Shackleford et al.). Marginalized identities will often benefit the most from having such a space to express themselves. Literature Review My research centered on parasocial relationships and writing fanfiction to explore how they are emotionally fulfilling, especially to those who are already othered by society for their identity. The literature shows how relationships with fictional characters begin with an actively invested reader or viewer, and how we can use those parasocial studies to analyze and understand how that investment manifests through fanfiction. Self-Sponsored Writing Writing is the framework where we can see parasocial relationships allowing an author to explore and develop emotional wellbeing. Fanfiction, creative writing about characters or worlds 2 created by someone other than the fanfiction author, is a tool to demonstrate these very personal emotional attachments. Parasocial relationships do not require any more than an internal connection, but they can be developed even further through writing fanfiction. Fanfiction is an example of self-sponsored writingwriting that people do just because they want to, not because it is assigned for school or work (Roozen 137). These stories are often posted online to be shared with other fans on websites such as archiveofourown.org, popularly known as ao3. People write fanfiction because they have attachments to pre-existing characters. Because fanfiction authors are already passionate about their chosen characters, by choosing to write about them they can become passionate about writing itself (Jenkins 185). As people write fanfiction, they are working on their writing skills, expressing and developing their parasocial relationships, participating in the source material, and becoming part of a community of other fans and writers. All of these things create very meaningful experiences for both writers and readers. Reader/Viewer Agency Though emotional attachment to fictional characters can inspire meaning beyond the source material, many people still assume that watching television is a passive activity: that we just sit there and take in the story as it happens. People also often assume that reading is an antisocial activity because being engrossed in a book means we arent engaging with people around us. I argue that when people experience stories in an emotional or intellectual way, it requires the viewer or reader to actively engage with the material and practice social behavior. Some scholars believe that the meaning of a story entirely depends on how the reader interprets it. This is known as reader response theory. Shaghayegh Ghandehari, a translator and scholar in English literature, argues that a readers role is essential to bring meaning to any text 3 (1381). She claims that interpretations of literature are fluid, changing with each person and the time that they read the text, and therefore the meaning of the text is constantly changing as well (1387). Readers have agency that begins when they take in a story and begin to process and interpret it. With that agency, they can take their interpretation of the storysomething that is now part of them and belongs to themand create new material. Participatory Culture & Community Fan works, the new material that readers create, all depend on the ways in which people interpret the source material. Linguist Anne Freadman explains that uptake is when an original text crosses boundaries to become something different. She describes uptake as a relationship between a source and its interpretant (40). As the interpretants, fans have the active power to bring personal perspectives and ideas to the source material. By taking up the material and creating something new, they can make concrete the meaning they have interpreted from the source. When fans create new works from the basis of an outside source, they are participating in the story and any context surrounding the story (such as an active fandom). Participatory culture refers to the phenomenon of story consumers actively taking up methods of creating content alongside the traditional story creators (Potts 108). Fans create to contribute to a larger community, but more importantly they create for themselves, simply because they want to. As creators, fans simultaneously produce their own content and use things that were already created, a hybrid which Communication and English scholar Liza Potts termed produsage (109). Fan created uptakes exemplify the readers agency to interpret, modify, or add to an original text (Freadman). For underrepresented groups of people, fan uptakes can often become a place where 4 their identities can be added to a text where they were not present or not sufficiently developed. Many writers interpret, analyze, and create queer characters and relationships from the source material, regardless of whether the characters are queer in the original text. Uptakes such as fanfiction can then easily be defined by their relationship to canon, or what is considered part of the official source material. According to Cara Marta Messina, different forms of fan uptakes include canon complicit, explicit-implicit, canon resistant, and critical uptakes (151). These all show how uptake displays the writers agency in different ways. Canon complicit means creating within the existing canon, staying within the boundaries of an established story but interpreting or adding onto itmaking their own perspectives and desires present in texts adjacent to the source material. Canon resistant is changing or ignoring the existing canon, where writers imagine and create new material using the source material as a foundation or jumping off point. Explicit-implicit is when the fan makes the arguable subtext from the original explicit (152). This can often be queer subtext that perhaps was censored. Critical uptakes are the works where fans choose to focus on exploring marginalized identities with a social justice focus (151-152). Critical uptakes can expand on the representation in the source material, or they can add representation that the original text lacks. Messina writes that Fanfiction is not just about who and what are missing, but how they can be found (177). Readers and viewers use their agency to react to stories in ways that matter to them and their own values. DCs Legends of Tomorrow, LGBTQ+ Themes, and Fanfiction Viewers who value diversity, families of choice, and misfits who try their best may be drawn to programs like DCs Legends of Tomorrow. Legends first aired on The CW in January of 2016. The show features an ensemble cast of lesser-to-unknown superheroes who time travel 5 in order to help people, protect history, and save the world. After a rough start with its first season, Legends found its place as the goofiest member of The CWs DC superhero show lineup, and one that embraces outcasts. There have been 8 canonically queer characters on the show. Sara Lance is the only Legend that has been on the show since season 1, and she has always been openly bisexual. In season 3, a new recurring character named Ava Sharpe was added to the show and became Saras love interest. She was promoted to series regular in season 4, and the two women got married in season 6. Sara and Ava are queer characters that are not only present but are the leaders of the team. They are co-captains of the Legends time-ship and often act as surrogate mothers to the team. Their queerness is never a problem in the show. They have problems like one of them finds out shes a clone (which happened twice), or one has to save the other from an IKEA purgatory. Even when they travel back in time, the show typically acknowledges the contexts of homophobia and racism and represents them as ridiculous bigotry, not as a problem that the characters should internalize. The heart of the show is the found family dynamic of the superhero team because they all genuinely love and accept each other for everything they are. At the time of writing this, Legends has 14,532 works of fanfiction on archiveofourown.org and Sara and Ava as a pairing have 2,989 works. As a canon queer couple, many people enjoy writing about Sara and Ava. They create fanfiction because they enjoy Sara and Avas relationship on the show and wish to expand upon it themselves. Writers have plenty to work with: they can add onto what already exists on the show with fanfic like missing scenes, interpret how the characters were feeling in certain scenes, and extrapolate their story or dynamic onto different scenarios in alternate universe fanfiction. 6 It was surprising to me that their stories only make up about one-fifth of Legends fanfiction, because they are the main couple on the show. The fact is that it is a relationship with two women, which are unfortunately not very popular within the whole of fandom communities. According to the 2021 archiveofourown.org ship stats, of the top 100 ships with the most overall works on ao3, only 4 were female/female pairings. There were 69 male/male pairings, 17 female/male, 7 classified general, which typically denotes a non-romantic pairing, and 3 other, which means that the gender of one half of the pairing is ambiguous. Two of the other classifications were male characters paired with reader-inserts and one was a male character paired with the player character of a video game in which the player decides their characters gender. All of the characters in the general pairings were male. These statistics indicate that like society, fandom has an issue of excluding women, as only 25 of the 200 characters that comprise these relationships were women. The characters on the top 100 list were also predominantly white. 134 out of 200 were white, 53 were Asian, 4 were Latino, 1 was Black, and 8 were ambiguous. Though we can see how fanfiction and fan communities can be beneficial to those who take part in them, they have the same issues as the entertainment industry and society at large with their representation of women and people of color. This is why fanfiction that uplifts minorities are extremely important. Parasocial Phenomena Real Relationships Legends of Tomorrow is not considered real because it does not portray real-life events, but that does not lessen its impact on the fans who love it. Parasocial relationships, the onesided psychological bond that feels very psychologically real to us, just as our real-life 7 friendships and romantic relationships feel to us (Paravati et al. 69), are the primary social connections made through stories. Though not real in the sense that the relationship is not reciprocal, connections to characters are very real to people who experience them. The character does not ask anything of the reader, but the reader spends hours with the character getting to know them. We see their flaws, their insecurities, their triumphs, and their virtues. We are often allowed to get to know them better than people in our own lives, since through a narrative we are allowed a level of scrutiny that is hardly ever possible in face-to-face interactions. Story recipients are free to stare at characters reactions and to pry into their thoughts (Gonzlez Velzquez 96). Even though the relationship is one-sided, psychological experiences we have related to our parasocial relationships have been found to be very similar to the psychological experiences we have related to our traditional relationship partners, and the emotions can be almost as intense for our favorite characters as they can be for our friends and family (Paravati et al. 69). Compassion and Empathy When we feel attachment to fictional characters, we experience primarily empathy and compassion in much the same ways as we do with real people, like our friends and family. Compassion and empathy are understood as motivational state[s] with the goal of increasing the welfare of the other person (Shackleford 31). It is not just understanding or feeling the same emotions as another person, it comes with the (sometimes subconscious, especially when it comes to fictional characters) desire to help another person. Carlos Gonzlez Velzquez posits that Just like compassion motivates approach and altruistic behavior in real life, feeling compassion for a character incentivizes character involvement and thus narrative engagement as 8 a way to acquire information about the welfare of that character (93). Our continued engagement in a narrative depends on compassion as a motivator, so as long as compassion remains strong and hope exists, individuals will remain engaged (Gonzlez Velzquez 105). Parasocial relationships depend on us caring about another person, regardless of whether that person is fictional or not. Identification and Projection Attachment to fictional characters can simultaneously be the act of caring about a character as a person (or a simulation of one), and as a vessel for understanding and caring about ones own self through identification and projection. The concept of dual empathy can be described as concurrently empathizing with the character and with the self in the characters role (Shackleford 32). A characters situation might remind us of our own life, so while we feel for the character, we are also feeling for ourself. For example, a queer viewer might watch a scene where a character comes out as gay and be reminded of a time where they came out, or imagine future scenarios where they will come out. This brings up personal and intense emotions. This dual empathy is often related to various methods of identification with characters, which is Adopting the perspective of a character in a story and vicariously experiencing story events though the character (Shackleford 25). Identification can happen because the fan and character share demographic characteristics (similarity identification), the fan admires the character (affinity identification), or the fan wants to be more like the character (wishful identification) (Shackleford 36). Identification can happen in subtle or overt ways. It can be unclear at times whether strong attachment to a character happens because we relate to a 9 character, or if we project parts of our identity onto a character because we have a strong attachment to them already. Emotional Intelligence Beyond allowing us a space for introspection and self-acceptance, engaging meaningfully with characters in a narrative also allows people to develop emotional intelligence. We often experience TV show stories through the perspectives of many different characters. As humans, we have an innate desire to understand the causes of behavior (Paravati et al. 74), so as we learn about characters, we practice theory of mind (the idea that each person has a perspective) and hon[e] our social skills related to perspective-taking and empathizing (Shackleford 31). Thinking deeply and caring about characters from stories allows us to step out of our real-life emotions and engage with emotions we would not have experienced otherwise (Paravati et al. 86). Because we experience narratives as real, we take what we learn from characters and apply it to real life. The desire to analyze fictional characters can lead to a greater capacity for understanding humans and their behavior in our own lives. Emotional Support and Prosocial Behavior These relationships with characters, which are indeed real in their own right, can in fact be beneficial to both someones personal emotional wellbeing and their social relationships in real life because of the emotional work done through developing empathy towards the self and emotional intelligence towards others. These all work together to develop how we think about ourselves, other people, and the world. Through fictional characters and their stories, We take away ideas that matter about our relationships. We have space to try out new philosophies, and 10 in doing so, we find meaning for our own lives (Shackleford 22). We can discover or develop values and identities because we feel strongly about characters. On an everyday scale, parasocial relationships with characters can help us process and deal with our own emotions. Stories are often able to clarify our social worlds, presenting relationships in ways that can be more digestible and more useful than the confused and jumbled world of our own relationships and conflicts (Shackleford 19). Processing emotions can be easier to do through a vessel such as a favorite character, and empathizing with ourselves on our own is often harder than empathizing with ourself through shared experiences or emotions through a character. Identification and dual empathy contribute to the fact that Feeling similar to a character whom we admire can boost our self-esteem and help us feel closer to the ideal versions of ourselves (Paravati et al. 84). Characters can also always be present to offer support because we choose when to interact with them. Their presence and our relationship with them can lead to positive outcomes including feeling less lonely, more satisfied in life, and more in line with our ideal selves (Paravati et al. 83). Parasocial relationships with fictional characters can also inspire prosocial behavior. Caring about anyone, even if they are fictional, has psychological benefits and can affect how that person will view how to fairly treat others. Characters that people form attachments to are often complex but represent the morals of society. Characters who have prosocial beliefsmay inspire us to hold similar altruistic ideologies (Paravati et al. 84). We might see characters that we care about believing in saving the world, which can inspire us to believe in the goodness of humanity and do our own part in improving our world. Methodology 11 Research Question The research question that I set out to explore in this project was How do parasocial relationships with fictional characters develop values and identity for people who identify as LGBTQIA+, and how can we see these relationships manifest through fanfiction? My aim for the research was to understand myself more, especially as someone who has always been made to feel that I care too much about fictional characters. I also wanted to assert that people like me are not abnormal, and the fictional characters we love are emotionally important to our lives. Qualitative Research Framework I collected qualitative data from two semi-structured interviews that I conducted with two participants. I recruited participants from a Discord server for Legends of Tomorrow fanfiction writers that I was already part of. I asked for participants who identified as LGBTQ+ and wrote fanfiction about the relationship between the characters Sara Lance and Ava Sharpe. Two people were interested in being interviewed, and they were interviewed together both times. The interviews conducted over Zoom were each about 50 minutes long. Audio and video were recorded. The interviews had a casual tone as myself and my participants shared a connection with our shared passion for Legends of Tomorrow and fictional characters in general. I asked questions about their backgrounds with fandom, fanfiction, and Legends fandom specifically, questions about their writing process, their relationships with characters, and their relationship with the fan community. I asked questions inspired by my own lifeI wanted to know if they felt or acted the same way as I do when I feel very emotionally attached to characters. Between the two interviews, I asked for a sample fanfiction from my participants that I could analyze. They sent me a fanfiction that they had published on archiveofourown.org. In the follow-up 12 interview, I asked about the emotions that inspire their fanfiction, their identification with characters, and why they made certain decisions in their fanfic. I analyzed the themes of the text and their responses from the interviews to identify key points. Quotations from the interviews used in this paper may have been edited for brevity and clarity. Participants My participants, Chocolate and Alien, are both seniors in high school and nonbinary lesbians whose pronouns are they/them. They are two Legends of Tomorrow fanfiction writers who primarily write about the relationship (or ship) between the two married co-captains in the show, Sara Lance and Ava Sharpe. Fans often abbreviate this relationship to Avalance, its ship name, which is a mash-up of two characters names that typically signals a real or imagined romantic connection between characters. Chocolate and Alien are somewhat unique in the realm of fanfiction because they act as cowriters. Alien acts as the primary writer, while Chocolate supplies ideas and edits their work. Their close collaboration starts with planning their fic. They talk in depth about the show, the characters, and what new situations they can place the characters in for their fanfiction. They told me they have very long documents filled with plans for current and future fic. Analysis Writing and Collaboration Writing is the framework where I aim to show the very personal internal emotional attachments that people have with fictional characters. Fanfiction is self-sponsored writing that is not even necessarily built on a desire to write; it is built on the desires to feel closer to fictional 13 characters, to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas that emerge from close engagement with an original source. Through fanfiction, we can see the work that people put into fan spaces and the relationships that they have with characters through. Parasocial relationships do not require any more than an internal connection, but they can be developed even further through writing fanfiction. My participants decided to write fanfiction about Legends of Tomorrow because they had ideas for stories that they wanted to see with these specific characters. Alien: We got super into these characters and their stories, and we were having so many ideas, and like, staying up until 4 in the morning talking about them, so we were like: Why dont we just write these things? We have so many of these ideas lets just write them. Chocolate: We were like, why not? For me, it was also like, I want to read this fic, so why dont I be the one to write it? Alien: Sometimes its annoying to have to be the one to make it, but if no one else is, I guess Ill make it. Their writing is entirely self-sponsored. No one told them to write fanfiction, they did so because of their parasocial relationships with the characters. The motivation is to get to experience new stories for the characters that might not exist otherwise. Fanfiction is an inherently collaborative experience, even if you do not write with a coauthor like Chocolate and Alien. They collaborate with each other, but they also collaborate with the shows writers and other fans. Collaboration with each other is a reciprocal relationship where they can bounce ideas off each other and receive feedback. The collaboration with show writers and other fans that they do not have reciprocal relationships with is comparable to how parasocial relationships are not mutual, but they are still meaningful and real. They add onto or 14 change elements from the source material and read other fans writing and ideas. As the story progresses, the show writers and other fans have had more ideas that they are implementing in their own work, so fans like Chocolate and Alien continuously have new material to react to. Chocolate and Alien both said that writing fanfiction is easier than other types of writing because they have a basis that they are already familiar with and that they (usually) already enjoy. Alien noted that the characters already there and established, even if we do something really wacky with them. Its a lot easier to play around with them and figure things out, whereas other writing with original characters is a lot harder because you have to build a whole world. Fanfiction authors also know that their audience is already familiar with the characters, and that they are probably seeking out the fanfiction because they already like the characters. They do not have to establish for their reader why they should care about the characters; both reader and writer already know what make the character interesting. Characters that fans create content about are not static or confined to their portrayal from the original material. The depiction of the character varies from person to person based on individual interpretations. Because people who write fanfiction are most often part of the fan community surrounding the characters they write about, fan interpretations combine and influence each other. Chocolate talked about how the version of Sara that they most closely relate to is likely an amalgamation of canon Sara plus various fan versions of Sara. The basis for the character is the same, but fans often build beyond the source materials boundaries. Sometimes a character to the fan community becomes almost completely unrecognizable from the original, but most often a fans personal version of a character is a combination of both their canon and their fan-developed personalities. 15 Chocolate and Alien pointed out how talking about their ideas together is the easiest and most fun part of writing. Chocolate: A lot of what I do is when were just spitting out ideas. Its a lot more fun with you [Alien] because you give me feedback and add onto it. It gives it more depth than if we were working alone. Two minds working on something, youre gonna get different ideas, but we agree on stuff, so were not fighting on what were including. They [Alien] will add on another part and it makes it a better scene overall: more funny, or more heartfelt, or emotionally deeper. As a writing tutor, the idea of collaboration caught my attention. In my experience, writing is always improved by new perspectives and opinions that are brought to it by other people. Writing is not solitary. Even if there is only a single person writing it, if they want to improve a piece of writing, they collaborate with themselves by leaving and coming back to the writing with new life experiences and new states of mind. Collaboration is useful to us as social creatureswe desire connection in many different ways. Parasocial Phenomena Real Relationships Parasocial relationships reveal our ability to care about people who do not know us. We can say that these people we care about are not even real, but that distorts the truth to make parasocial relationships seem frivolous and unimportant. The truth is that the character exists, and that people care about them. The amount of people who know that a character from Legends of Tomorrow exists is larger than the amount of people who know that I, as a human being and 16 real person, exist. There are many different conditions someone could define as the state of being real. The way people define and understand their parasocial relationships with characters varies from person to person. I asked Chocolate and Alien how they thought about the characters they write aboutif they thought of them as friends, identified with them, or just really liked them. Chocolate: Id say I relate to them. I wouldnt say theyre my friend. I wanna be their friend, but its more that I relate to them, and I like who they are as a character. I relate to Zari because she likes video games and donuts. And I like that Charlie is an outcast. And Sara is, like, a badass. I just like aspects of their characters, and I like writing about them because I like to expand on those aspects. Alien: I would love to be their friend, but I relate to them, and writing about them kind of brings me closer in a way, too. And then expanding on who they are and their character beyond the show. Their responses indicated that their parasocial relationships are related to identification. They demonstrate their desire to feel close to the characters in both similarity and affinity identification aspects. They naturally find traits that they themselves share with the characters and feel a connection because of them. They admire certain traits in characters which make the character even more appealing. Admiration, connection, and identification are the types of things that typically form the basis of friendships in real life. With fanfiction, Alien said they are able to expand on their character outside the show, which extends the characters impact on their life. Fanfiction can, as Alien said, bring the author closer to the character by spending more time with them. Both Chocolate and Alien said they would like to be the characters friends but do not 17 think of them as their friends now. Perhaps they do not feel like their relationship is friendship because friendship is defined as being mutual. By this definition, we cannot be friends with people who we do not know and who are not real, but other aspects of friendship still exist in parasocial relationships. One way that parasocial relationships with fictional characters manifest themselves in the language we use to talk about characters is through the use of pet names and through ways that people mark relationships (i.e., my son, my wife). I use these terms to refer to my favorite characters, which allows me to put my feelings about characters into context of real life relationships, because I grew up seeing other fans on the internet do so. Male characters that I like are typically my son or my boy, and female characters that I like are typically, my wife, my girl, and often, the love of my life [insert characters name here]. These terms and pet names are typically said tongue-in-cheek. Chocolate said, I know Ive said stuff before like, God, I love them so muchmy wife I definitely call them pet names, just in a joking way. Sweethearts you need to share your feelings. There is a joking element because fictional characters are not actually peoples sons, daughters, or spouses, but the personal connection is real. Fandom spaces have established their own ways to talk about their parasocial relationships through internet memes. Chocolate and Alien introduced me to the concept of a comfort character. Chocolate said that a comfort character is like my favorite character but more. Like, favorite character plus. I cant describe how plus, but its there. A comfort character, then, might be a way to describe strong parasocial relationships. Saying they are a favorite character is not enough, so a comfort character is a term to make that connection stronger. Another excellent example of how people express their emotions for characters is 18 through the meme blorbo from my shows. This was a meme that was initially intended as a mocking way to describe Tumblr fandoms, but was adopted by fans as a term that seems synonymous with a parasocial relationship (Blorbo From My Shows). It denotes a special attachment to characters. Tumblr user tmanatural made a post in March 2022 that asked who was your original blorbo? Like the first ever blorbo that you felt Blorbo Induced Emotions for. The phrase Blorbo Induced Emotions, though silly, encapsulates these feelings of attachment to fictional characters that are strong and meaningful but not quite definable in the view of larger society. Pet names, markers for relationships, and the term blorbo all establish a connection that is very real to someone. Even if millions of people know a character, you can still claim a personal attachment to them by saying thats my blorbo from my show. Compassion and Empathy A popular fanfiction genre is hurt/comfort, where one character is having a hard time and another character is there to comfort them. The appeal of these stories is compassionwhen we read a sad story, we want the characters to feel better. We are invested because we want to know if they will be okay. It may seem counterintuitive that writing about characters in distress means that we care about them, but compassion is a more typical response than sadness to vicarious pain (Gonzlez Velzquez 93). The sample fanfiction that my participants provided me with is a hurt/comfort fic where Sara is comforted by Ava when she has to confront trauma in her past. This kind of fanfiction is indicative of parasocial research and how stories are motivated by compassion. I identified dual empathy in this fic where the author and the reader are both the one comforting and the one being comforted. In the story, Ava is concerned about Sara, and the story says that She wanted nothing more than to go over and hug Sara, to protect her and take the 19 pain away. Ava represents compassion and empathy as an emotional state that is motivated to alleviate another persons suffering. She cares about Sara, and we care about Sara as a character, so we want her to feel better. In that way we embody Avas role in the story. People also naturally want someone to make them feel like things are going to be okay when they are in distress, so we also embody Saras role in the story. Alien agreed with these explanations, and said, While Im causing [Sara] pain, I also really want to comfort her, too. They said Ava was a stand-in to comfort both Sara and themself when they are writing in order to deal with feeling sad. Sara is the character that they connect with the most, so they said, I project my feelings onto her, and put her through whatever so that she feels what Im feeling, and then Ava comes in to comfort her, and its kind of like, Oh yeah, Ava would comfort me, too. Or not Ava, just someone. Ava is a stand-in for the writer/reader and their desire to help Sara, and at the same time she is a sort of self-comforta representation of our own desire to be comforted when going through difficult emotions. In reading and writing hurt/comfort, we feel for characters, and we feel for ourselves. Identification and Projection Identification is an important aspect of creating a bond with a fictional character. Chocolate and Alien have expressed that they identify with characters in a variety of different ways: admiring the character, sharing traits with the character, and to an extent wanting to be more like the character. They also said they project parts of themselvesemotions they are experiencing, traits they have, and small things that they doonto characters in their fanfiction. 20 Alien: I know sometimes when I'm feeling sad or like, angsty or whatever, I'll just start writing some random angst, just to like deal with those emotionswithout dealing with them myself, I make the characters deal with them, so that I can deal with them! Chocolate: There's a lot less like, events, or putting feelings Im feeling into the characters, but like small things that I do all the time. Like I'll be doing something, and I'll be like, Oh, a character would definitely do that. These kinds of identification make the characters feel more real to them, allow them to develop deeper connections to the characters, and help them deal with their own emotions. Emotional Intelligence My participants indicated to me that the reason they enjoy writing fanfiction is the emotional work behind it. They said they are interested in why characters are the way they are and why they act the way they do. Alien said, If Im thinking about writing a fic, Ill try to get into [the characters] head as much as possible: what theyre thinking, what theyre feeling, why theyre acting the way theyre acting. These deep dives into a characters psyche are ways to develop emotional intelligence and become more understanding of human behavior. Stories allow people, both writers and readers, to try to understand experiences we have never had. Chocolate: For me, a lot of times giving characters traits like those [flaws and struggles]some of it is definitely projecting, but I also like looking at it through canon and figuring out things theyre scared of that are never explored. Like, I feel like Zari should have a lot more PTSD about guns, or being held down, or something. So, I wanted to write a fic where Zari gets like, restrained, and she has PTSD about being captured. 21 The inclination to have Zari experience emotional turmoil comes from a place of wanting to bring awareness to ways in which people struggle. We want to explore these distressed states because we want to understand how to help someone, how to prevent them from being in distress, and to help people understand that their reaction is warranted and worthy of attention. When we become more emotionally intelligent, we can become more understanding of different people and hopefully better at supporting others. Humans are inherently social creatures, so fanfiction is a way of both embodying the emotions of another and expressing your own personal relationship with a character. How we feel about ourselves and others is meaningfully developed through fanfiction and parasocial relationships. Emotional Support and Prosocial Behavior Parasocial relationships inspire internal and external emotional growth. Internally, there is a lot of emotional development that we can go through when we feel emotionally connected to a character. A story is able to give guidance that real life often does not, and it doesn't require anything from you back. Writing fanfiction can be a very effective way to process emotions. Alien: Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes it's a way for me to just like, deal with my own emotions from the perspective of a character. Cause like, I feel things weird, like it's always kind of tamped down for me until it's not. But like, I feel things still, and so writing hurt/comfort when I'm feeling those things is like, a way for me to deal with it, without like, having to deal with it in the perspective of my own life, and instead dealing with it through characters eyes. Its easier for me to relate to them and like, put my feelings into them instead of through my whole life. 22 It is easier for a lot of people to work through and understand their own emotions when they can take a step back and separate their own life from their emotions. Many people also find it easier to be kind to other people than to themselves. It can be hard to forgive ourselves for something we did that we would instantly forgive someone else for. Aliens explanation of why they chose to put Sara through the hurt she went through in their fic sets up this idea well. In the fic, Sara has to make sure her younger self gets on the boat that shipwrecks and kickstarts her whole traumatic backstory. Alien talked about why they chose to write it this way. They said they connected this with her beginning as a superhero. In the fanfiction, they wrote: You know, Sara started after what felt like an eternity. She paused, taking a deep breath before continuing, when I first started this whole hero thing, she said the word slowly, hesitantly, as if she still didnt believe that was what she was, my whole shtick was protecting women from creeps in the glades, Iwhen Sin asked why I rescued her from some guys one night, I, um, I told her that no woman should ever suffer at the hands of men. The line No woman should ever suffer at the hands of men, comes directly from the show. Alien said that Sara failing to save her 19-year-old self would add a layer of guilt for her, which would add more angst for her. Then the emotional fulfillment comes when Ava is there to reassure her that shes still good, and not the evil monster that she sometimes still thinks she is. The experiences in hurt/comfort fanfiction are often related to things like trauma, grief, or guilt. This fanfiction could potentially help someone struggling with their own guilt. If a reader or a writer of a fanfic like this had something in their life that they felt guilty about, and maybe were questioning whether they were a good person, they could more easily empathize with Sara, a character that they like, and slowly extrapolate those emotions onto themselves. It is easier to put 23 perspective to other peoples guilt, whether it is deserved or not, than it is for our own. Guilt is just one example of an emotion people can work through with an angsty fanfiction. Characters can inspire people, and can give them support when they need it. My participants often talked about projecting issues onto characters and then working through them with their fanfiction, often intentionally representing neurodiversity in their fanfic. So, if they're feeling very anxious, they might write about a character feeling anxious to help them process that emotion, make them feel like theyre not alone in feeling that way, or think about how they can get through it. Chocolate: Thats a lot of what the neurodivergent AU [Alternate Universe] is. Alien: Its us projecting. Chocolate: Yeah, its us projecting, but its also like, this stuff we deal with is not something we alone deal with. And seeingeven if its us writing itseeing our comfort characters deal with those things as well. Alien: Yeah, and then also have the support from the other characters that we might not always have. C: Yeah, knowing that its normal and that eventually one day well also have that kind of support system, its just good, its just nice. In both the show and in fanfiction that people write, the characters accept and support each other however they can. Through characters who are supported, people can imagine a future where they find people who will care for them the way characters care for each other in their favorite shows and fanfiction. However, this idea reveals that a degree of support actually is already presentthey can feel accepted and supported by the characters in the show and by the fan 24 community. If seeing a character that they can identify with makes them feel like theyre not alone, they have at least one space where they feel accepted. Characters can also support ones emotional wellbeing by just being an inspiration and example to them. Chocolate and Alien said that they draw strength from knowing that Sara has gone through many traumatic experiences and yet she is still kind, she is still a hero, and she does not let anything break her down. Alien: I definitely draw strength from characters, especially characters like Sara Lance, who have gone through so much more than any person should ever go through. When I see characters like that, who have been through hell and back, and still come out the other side human, and kind, I definitely draw strength from that, in that no matter what Im going through, I can get through it because this character has gone through it. They enjoy writing about Sara so they can explore that strength, which fortifies in themself their ability to be like her. The emotional and mental work people are doing when they have these relationships with characters happens in an internal space, but many times it also affects the real world by inspiring new or changed behaviors. Chocolate said, Ive definitely been braver or kinder because characters inspired me to be. I personally attribute a lot of my own values and morals to the way my parasocial relationships with characters made me care very deeply about the characters and what happened to them. Support for Marginalized Identities LGBTQ+ Inspiration As a marginalized identity that requires some kind of self-discovery, self-acceptance, or self-actualization, parasocial relationships and fanfiction can often benefit queer people more 25 than others. For LGBTQ+ fans, characters who represent our identities can inspire us not only to act, but also to understand ourselves. Many people realize they are queer because of watching or reading queer stories. They can also be inspired by characters (queer or not) that they admire to accept themselves, to come out, or to speak out against injustice. C: When I came out, I think I did it becauseI cant remember what I was watching, I think it might have been Criminal Mindsbut the person who was kidnapped like, fought back, and then there was this whole speech I cant remember, but it was one of the reasons that gave me the courage to come out, because if this person could be this strong in this situation, and then come out of it and still be talking like this, then I can have the strength to do this. All marginalized identities struggle with things that parasocial bonds can help with, like loneliness and confusion turning into support, acceptance, and bravery. Fanfiction can allow people to represent this. For my participants, Legends of Tomorrow sets up this idea by having a diverse cast. It is not just that marginalized identities are present; they are the focus of the show. Two married women are the captains of a time ship, and the other superheroes include BIPOC and other queer people. Neurodiversity My participants were passionate not only about LGBTQ+ representation, but also about representing neurodiversity in their fanfiction and in their interpretations of characters from the show. This is something that they brought to my attention as similar to LGBTQ+ representation. They recognize neurodiverse traits in characters even if the show does not address it. Then they specifically write these characters as neurodiverse in their fanfiction. Chocolate and Alien talked 26 about how most canon representation of neurodiverse characters is not nuanced, varied, accurate, or positive. Characters who are were not intended to be neurodiverse but can easily be interpreted as such by fans then come off as more authentic to real neurodiversity because they are not written as a caricature. Chocolate said, It feels more authentic to the experience because if you look at most autistic or ADHD characters on TV, I dont know how many there are, but they like, have to check the boxes: they have no empathy, they have like, two things that they're really interested in, that's all they ever talk about, they're really annoying. So [interpreted neurodivergence] just feels more authentic to who neurodivergent people actually are. Fanfiction can be a powerful tool for people to take their own stories into their hands to represent them when they were absent from the source material, or to attempt to fix stereotypes and misrepresentation. Interpreting characters that people love as neurodivergent, queer, or trans (all of which Chocolate and Alien do) allows people who read fanfiction about these characters to be exposed to more representations of marginalized identities. It also allows writers to normalize and accept their identities in themselves if they interpret their favorite characters as sharing those identities. This even goes beyond the characters themselves when others in the fan community support these interpretations. Community A stereotype about people who write fanfiction and people who have strong parasocial relationships with fictional characters is that they must be lonely and dont have real friends, or even that they cant make real friends, so they turn to fiction. This is first off simply false, and actually there is a compelling argument for the opposite to be true. People make friends through fanfiction and fandom because they share the same passion for characters. It is very easy to start 27 talking about the complexities of a certain character with another fan. Chocolate talked about the benefits that they found from being part of a fan community. Chocolate: You have a community of people. You could go to someone and be like, Hey, Im writing a fic with this character, do you think theyd do this or this? If Im writing something else, Im writing it for school, or because I have to. So, it feels like Im doing something for me, but Im also doing it for someone else, because someone else is going to read it, and hopefully theyll like it, and it will add one good part to their day. Parasocial relationships on their own can provide emotional support and benefits, but they can also lead to people who feel the same way about characters to bond and support each other in real life. When I asked Chocolate how they felt about the stigma surrounding fanfiction, they said, I made friends through fanfic. If anything, it brings people together. I think if people were more openminded, theyd notice its an open community where people make friends and do things they love. Conclusion Parasocial relationships, fanfiction, and LGBTQ+ identities are all stigmatized and undervalued. The benefits of what writing about characters can do for people should not be underestimated. People with parasocial relationships with characters are seen as abnormal, but they can actually benefit emotionally, mentally, and socially from these relationships. For my research, I talked to two people out of the millions whose lives have been enriched by engaging with characters and fandom. Legends of Tomorrow, its fans, and its fanfiction have been able to show people like Chocolate and Alien more acceptance, creativity, and compassion than they might be shown in real life. In turn, Chocolate and Alien give back those same qualities to 28 others, both in fandom and real life. Marginalized identities like LGBTQ+ people will often be drawn to things like fanfiction because they search for belonging in an unequal and heteronormative world. Parasocial relationships are meaningful and real because those of us who experience them are real. 29 References AO3 Ship Stats 2021. Archive of Our Own, 31 July 2021, https://archiveofourown.org/works/32940190. Blorbo From My Shows. Know Your Meme, https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/blorbo-frommy-shows. DCs Legends of Tomorrow. Created by Greg Berlanti et al., DC Entertainment, 2016-2022. Freadman, Anne. Uptake. The Rhetoric and Ideology of Genre: Strategies for Stability and Change, edited by Richard Coe et al., Hampton, 2002, pp. 39-53. Gaillet, Lyne Lewis and Michelle Eble. Interviews: Researching People. Primary Research and Writing: People, Places, and Spaces. Routledge, 2016, pp. 177-201. Ghandehari, Shaghayegh. Definition of Reader, as a Relative Concept, in Reader-Response Theories. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 70, 2013, pp. 1381-1388. Gonzlez Velzquez, Carlos. Why We Enjoy Sad Stories and Identify with Immoral Characters: The Role of Compassion. Real Characters: The Psychology of Parasocial Relationships with Media Characters, edited by Karen Shackleford, Fielding University, 2020, pp. 91116. Hirshfield, Aiden, and Melody Metcalf. What do LGBTQIA+ Characters and Representations Mean to a Marginalized Audience? Real Characters: The Psychology of Parasocial Relationships with Media Characters, edited by Karen Shackleford, Fielding University, 2020, pp. 215-233. Jenkins, Henry. Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars. Convergence Culture, New York University, 2006, pp. 169-205. 30 Messina, Cara Marta. Tracing Fan Uptakes: Tagging, Language, and Ideological Practices in The Legend of Korra Fanfictions. The Journal of Writing Analytics, vol. 3, 2019, pp. 151-182. Paravati, Elaine et al. Ups and Downs: How Emotions Make Characters Real. Real Characters: The Psychology of Parasocial Relationships with Media Characters, edited by Karen Shackleford, Fielding University, 2020, pp. 67-89. Potts, Liza. Still Flying: Writing as Participatory Activism Circulating Across the Firefly Verse. 30 Sept. 2017. Roozen, Kevin. Fan Fic-ing English Studies: A Case Study Exploring the Interplay of Vernacular Literacies and Disciplinary Engagement. Research in the Teaching of English, vol. 44, no. 2, Nov. 2009, pp. 136-169. Shackleford, Karen. Mapping the Constellation of Psychological Experiences Involved in Our Connection with Fictional Characters and Actors. Real Characters: The Psychology of Parasocial Relationships with Media Characters, edited by Karen Shackleford, Fielding University, 2020, pp. 15-42. Tmanatural. who was your original blorbo? Tumblr, 30 Mar. 2022, https://tmanatural.tumblr.com/post/680120705052033024/who-was-your-original-blorbolike-the-first-ever. 31  ...

... The Whole Thing is Hopeless: The Destruction of the Dutch Jewry Samuel Bellin Dr. Alison Fletcher 5/4/22 Bellin 2 Table of Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Chapter One: Introduction- 3 Chapter Two: Perpetrators, Direct Collaborators, and Indirect Collaborators- 40 Chapter Three: Voices- 65 Conclusion- 89 Bibliography- 95 Abstract For centuries, the Netherlands proclaimed itself to be a welcoming and open land to members of the Jewish faith. Yet, during the Nazi Holocaust, the Dutch Jewry suffered the highest death rate throughout Western Europe (75 percent). This conundrum has been termed the Dutch Paradox by scholars, who have sought to unravel this paradox. In my thesis, I argue that the majority of Dutch citizens were passively anti-Semitic and that the Dutch both collaborated directly and indirectly with the German perpetrators. I consult both primary and secondary sources in order to show how the Dutch collaborated with the Germans to exterminate the Jewry, as well as how this showcases an insidious anti-Semitism on the part of the Dutch. Bellin 3 Chapter One: Introduction Eva, Alfred, and Leah Mnzer, all together for a family picture. Eva and Leah would die at Auschwitz in 1944 after their foster father turned them in to the police. They were just 7 and 5 years old. Pictured above are the three Mnzer children: Eva, Alfred, and Leah, right after the Netherlands became occupied by the Nazis. This photo was most likely taken around 1941, right after Alfreds bris, or ritual circumcision ceremony. At the time, Eva was about 4 or 5, Leah was about 2 or 3, and Alfred had just been born. The Mnzers were the children of Polish-Jewish immigrants to the Netherlands who arrived in the late 1920s.1 What follows is the story of Eva and Leah after they were sent into hiding together to avoid being deported to the concentration camps of the east by the Nazis. 1 Eyewitness to History: Alfred (Al) Mnzer, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Accessed August 31, 2021, //www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-reflections-testimonies/eyewitness-to-history/alfred-munzer. Bellin 4 This scene begins in the Hauge, the Netherlands, 1944. The Dutch remained under Nazi occupation and hope is not within sight. Thousands of Jews throughout Dutch society have disappeared. Two young girls named Eva and Leah, aged seven and five, played with their meager dolls on the second floor of their foster home, trying to work past the unsettling feeling in their stomachs. These past few years have been chaotic, and they knew no sense of normalcy. Eva, the older of the two, tried to keep Leahs spirits up, but times have been difficult since they last saw their parents and baby brother. Both girls have been shuffled around, first to the home next door, where two devout Catholic women watched over them.2 That was not so bad, but life there was tense. The women always kept an eye on the window and did not let either girl out of their sight. Soon enough, Eva and Leah packed up again. At first, this new home appeared to be loving, but their new foster father seemed a little distant to them. As time went on, the girls felt that something was not right. Their new foster parents had disagreements frequently, and sometimes it seemed like their foster father did not want them there. One night, the argument seemed more intense than usual, and tears ensued. The girls put down their dolls and looked at each other. Fear started to envelop them as they heard screaming after a loud knock on the door. Two large men entered the house and asked the husband where the girls were in a gruff voice as they seized their foster mother. The girls panicked but did not move. They heard loud footsteps quickly coming up the stairs. Eva had enough time to tell Leah that everything was going to be alright before the men entered. When they did, they saw the large black jackboots that had made such a clamor. Both men wore military uniforms, complete with a helmet on top. They carried guns, but what frightened the girls the most was the twin S on their necks just below the chin, which resembled thunderbolts 2 Ibid. Bellin 5 of death. The two men told the girls that they are going to be taken to a place called Westerbork, where they would be with their kind. The girls did not know what that meant. Are they just taking girls away, or is it just children with darker hair perhaps, or maybe children who do not know where their parents are? The disgust and loathing in the mens eyes scared the girls even more. They packed up quickly and headed out to the car waiting in the street. Leah looked out the window at her foster father, who was in rapid conversation with one of the men. He did not make eye contact as the car moved down the street. This story above demonstrates a historical possibility of what might have happened to the Mnzer sisters. Although we do not have the specific research into what exactly happened to the Mnzer girls, we have information to imagine a scenario like the one above. We do not know whether the wife and husband fought over the issue of housing two Jewish girls. That part has been dramatized, although it may have happened. The husband denounced his wife and the girls to the Nazis, that is known. It is not known whether the police that took the girls away were Dutch police or German police, although by this point the Dutch police assisted with the roundups. Whether those who did were members of the Dutch Nazi party cannot be ascertained, yet we do know that the Dutch police were operating under the command of Nazis. Speculation is required to delve into the minds of the girls, who would not have understood exactly what was happening, yet would have known that something was very wrong. Much of what we know about the sisters came from their younger brother Alfred, who survived the Holocaust by living with an Indonesian family. Alfred described Leah as so sweet, so considerate of others. 3 The girls were most likely sent to Westerbork, the main transit camp from the Netherlands to the 3 A Life in a Box, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Accessed December 8, 2021, https://www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-reflections-testimonies/echoes-of-memory/a-life-in-a-box. Alfred was far too young to know his sisters, but he was told this information from his mom, who survived Auschwitz. Bellin 6 concentration camps of the east. Of those camps, Auschwitz was the worst, as those not fit enough to work manual labor were killed immediately. Eva and Leah were sent to Auschwitz on February 8 and killed right away on February 11, 1944.4 Eva and Leah were just two of the 100,000 plus Dutch Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust.5 Dutch Jewry before the Nazi Holocaust was about 2 percent of the population or 140,000 in total. That means roughly 75 percent of Dutch Jews were slaughtered during the Nazi Holocaust, the highest number of Jewish deaths in all of Western Europe. Why was this the case? European and Jewish scholars have attempted to figure out this so-called Dutch Paradox, the paradox that the Dutch Jewry was almost annihilated and yet the Dutch population rarely exhibited the violent anti-Semitism that was so pervasive throughout Central Europe, Germany, and Russia, where pogroms against Jews occurred frequently. Thousands of German Jews fled to the Netherlands, where they assumed they would be in less danger. The Netherlands had generally been considered a safe haven for Jews, who had lived relatively comfortably since the start of the 17th century. Dutch Jews never feared attack, unlike their Jewish brethren in the east, and were able to do well in the economic sector as well as have a voice in the government after the 19th century. If Jews had been this welcomed and integrated in the Netherlands, how could so many have died? What happened was that passive anti-Semitism persisted within the Netherlands following the German Occupation. This did not reveal itself in a mainly violent way, rather, it was displayed through the casual nature in which the Dutch collaborated with the German Occupiers. Dutch citizens actively saw what was happening to the Dutch Jewry and chose to ignore it or continue with their cooperation instead of defending their fellow citizens. In this 4 Eyewitness to History: Alfred (Al) Mnzer. Most reports put the actual number of Dutch Jews sent to concentration camps between 105,000-109,000, and that around 5,000-7,000 survived, although this number is sometimes disputed. 5 Bellin 7 thesis, I will argue that the Dutch civilians acted as direct and indirect collaborators with the German perpetrators, showing an insidious anti-Semitism that surfaced amongst the Dutch citizens during the Nazi Holocaust. Historiography The scholarship regarding the destruction of the Dutch Jewry is both numerous and holistic. Historians have grappled with the idea of the Dutch Paradox following the Nazi Holocaust in the Netherlands, and extensive research was conducted to better understand how so many Jews were killed efficiently with little protection from the government or citizens. Much of the research done has been at the hands of Dutch historians, which poses some difficulty to non-native speakers. Finding adequate translations proved to be a challenge, yet there were enough primary and secondary sources in English that allowed me to argue about the anti-Semitism of the Dutch through their direct and indirect collaboration. The foundation of the historiography of the Netherlands and the Dutch Jewry during World War II comes from Dutch historians Jacques Presser and Louis De Jong. Presser was a historian who survived the Holocaust by hiding.6 Following the end of World War II, the Dutch Government asked Presser to write an account of the war and the destruction of the Jewish population. This was done at the behest of the Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, an institution set up by the Dutch Government to learn about the horrors and atrocities of war and genocide.7 Presser spent fifteen years researching war documents before writing the monumental Ondergang. De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse jodendom, which translates to Ashes in the Wind: The Destruction of Dutch Jewry. This book was first published in 6 Arianne Baggerman and Rudolf Dekker, Jacques Presser, Egodocuments and the Personal Turn in Historiography, European Journal of Life Writing 7 (August 13, 2018): 91. https://doi.org/10.5463/ejlw.7.263. Unfortunately for Presser, his wife was killed at Sobibor concentration camp. 7 Ibid. Bellin 8 1965. Besides war documents, Presser conducted interviews with survivors and consulted diaries, letters, and memoirs.8 He did this to confront the reader continually with the experiences, thoughts, and feelings of individual persons.9 In Ashes, Presser provides a thorough history of the Dutch Jewry following the German Occupation. Presser writes in detail about the Jewish Council, the February Strike, deportations, and the different laws and measures that were passed and enforced.10 He documents individual and group stories of attempted hiding, successful hiding, persecution, life in the transit camps, and resistance to tell all aspects of the experience of Dutch Jews during the Holocaust. Throughout, Presser makes the argument that since the German machine was ostensibly no more than a controlling body, what measures were taken against the Jews invariably involved the participation of Dutch officials--from the Secretaries-General in The Hague down to the lowliest village policeman.11 Presser shows the culpability of the Dutch authorities, who collaborated with German officials to efficiently round up Jews. However, he contrasts with my argument as he did not believe that the Dutch cooperation showed a hidden anti-Semitism amongst the majority of Dutch citizens.12 He focuses more on the way that the German Occupation resulted in direct collaboration from Dutch officials, as well as the insidious nature of the German anti-Semitism that led to the destruction of so many Jews. 8 Ibid. Jacob Presser, Ashes in the Wind: The Destruction of Dutch Jewry (Amsterdam: Souvenir Press, 2010), 523, 525. 10 Jason Dawseys article helped provide additional information about the February Strike: Jason Dawsey, The Amsterdam General Strike of February 1941, The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, Accessed November 22, 2021. 11 Presser, 6. 12 Presser does conclude his magnum opus by saying, It has often been said that every Dutchman worth his salt ought to have been in the Resistance. (545) The passivity of Dutch bystanders during this time certainly stained the relationship between the surviving Dutch Jewry and the gentiles, and their lack of support and collaboration is mentioned consistently in Pressers work. It is not as anti-Semitism, but as cowardice in Pressers eyes. 9 Bellin 9 The next major work comes from Loe De Jong, who wrote multiple volumes on the Netherlands during the Second World War from 1969 through 1991. His work, titled Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog, which translates in English as The Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Second World War, is an exhaustive history of the Netherlands during the war. This series is often considered by Dutch historians to be the most comprehensive history of the Netherlands in World War II as well as the Nazi Holocaust. However, De Jong is criticized by Dutch scholars such as Ido De Haan for the moral framework, emphasizing that attitudes toward the Germans were either goed (right) or fout (wrong).13 Unfortunately, I was unable to read the entire series, owing to two key factors: I cannot read Dutch, and this is 14 volumes long, with each volume around 600-800 pages. However, almost every scholar on the Dutch paradox has quoted from some part of the series, and many discuss De Jong and his writing. An important part of this historiography is understanding and explaining the Dutch paradox, the paradox of why so many Dutch Jews were systematically murdered in a country with so little prior anti-Semitism. Many scholars have researched this topic, and it is important to understand what they researched and its connection to this thesis. The Dutch paradox was first coined by two social scientists named Wout Ultee and Henk Flap, although the debate on the matter truly began with Helen Feins Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimization during the Holocaust.14 Feins chapter on the Netherlands initially placed much of the blame on the Jewish Council as a way to explain the high death rate and did not account for the amount of integration that Jews in Dutch society had 13 Ido De Haan, The Holocaust in the Netherlands, Oxford Bibliographies, Accessed April 30, 2022. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199840731/obo-9780199840731-0050.xm l. 14 Ido De Haan, Imperialism, Colonialism, Genocide. The Dutch Case for an International History of the Holocaust, BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review, 125 (2-3) 2010: 307. Bellin 10 undertaken before the Nazi Holocaust, which would suggest a level of compliance and collaboration on the part of the Dutch citizens.15 This sparked the question of the Dutch paradox, and numerous researchers have had their say on the subject. Ultee and Flap look at the government officials, the Jewish Council, and the registration of Dutch Jews from a sociological perspective, and conclude that an answer to the paradox partially lay within the registration of the Dutch Jewry along with the collaborating nature of the Dutch government and the bystanding of Dutch citizens.16 I group bystanders alongside indirect collaborators and use psychologist Ervin Staubs definition of bystander. Staub defines bystanders as members of society who are neither perpetrators nor victims, or outside individuals, organizations, and nations.17 A large part of my argument is understanding the differences between perpetrator, direct collaborator, and indirect collaborator, and how each was individually affected by the passive anti-Semitism of the Netherlands. Similar to Ultee and Flap, political scientist Henry Mason argues that the Dutch government and bystanders were almost as responsible for the devastation of the Dutch Jewry as the German perpetrators.18 He looks at the different mechanisms employed by both the Dutch government as well as the Jewish Council to ascertain how they made it easier to find and deport Jews. Mason concludes with a comparison of Danish officials and bystanders. He argues that since the Danes were more nationally unified in their goal to save Jews, they were able to save the majority of Danish Jews, unlike the Dutch. Throughout, Mason argues against Feins claims 15 Helen Fein, Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimization during the Holocaust (New York, 1979) Chapter Three. 16 Wout Ultee & Henk Flap, De Nederlandse paradox: waarom overleefden zoveel Nederlandse joden de Tweede Wereldoorlog Diet?, published in Wippler, Reinhard, Hermanus Bernardus Gerardus Ganzeboom, and S. Lindenberg, eds. Verklarende sociologie: opstellen voor Reinhard Wippler., (Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers, 1996): 195. 17 Ervin Staub, The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1989) 67. 18 Henry L Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations: Jews in the Occupied Netherlands, Political Science Quarterly 99, no. 2 (1984): 31543. https://doi.org/10.2307/2150408. Bellin 11 that strong national bonds between Jews and gentiles helped prevent death rates from being so high in some countries.19 Although he makes similar arguments to mine, we differ in certain regards. I argue specifically that anti-Semitism in the Netherlands was an insidious and prevalent theme following the German Occupation, whereas Mason is interested in looking at the collapse of national bonds between the Jews and gentiles as well as the bureaucratic structure of the Netherlands that allowed a massive removal of the Jewish populace to occur. Dienke Hondius, who has written much about the Dutch Paradox, argued about the amount of anti-Semitism throughout the Netherlands during and after the war.20 Hondius used archival material right after the wars end to gauge the attitude of surviving Jews who headed back to the Netherlands, along with how gentiles responded. According to Hondius, the few surviving Jews who returned were greeted harshly, largely through silence and disbelief.21 There was a temporary rise in anti-Semitism in parts of the Netherlands, whether it was in refusing to hire Jews, descriptions of Jews as cowardly, or the fact that many Dutch believed that Jews should be thankful to the Dutch gentiles for saving them.22 Hondius believes this rise in anti-Semitism and lack of empathy for the Jews emerged thanks to the Nazi strategies of dehumanizing Jews through the anti-Semitic measures passed. This, coupled with the separation of the Jews, led to a belief of superiority over Jewish citizens. His argument helped augment my last chapter and conclusion, however, we disagree on the level of anti-Semitism displayed throughout the war, with Hondius arguing that it was fairly restrained. Along the lines of Hondius work, Dutch historian Bart Van der Boom studied Dutch diaries, of both gentile and Jewish diarists, to understand what they knew about the condition of 19 Ibid., 315. Dienke Hondius, A cold reception: Holocaust survivors in the Netherlands and their return, Patterns of Prejudice 28 (1) (1994) 21 Ibid., 55-59. 22 Ibid. 20 Bellin 12 the Dutch Jewry and the Nazi Holocaust.23 The question of knowledge is important in understanding the behavior of bystanders. Van der Boom argues that the Dutch citizens were in disbelief of the things they heard, yet the majority had heard about what was going to happen to the Jewish population, especially after 1942. He looked at hundreds of diaries of gentiles to ascertain what they did and did not mention. He found that those who did mention the Jewry also talked about the extermination of the Jewish population in the east. Van der Booms research helped bolster my understanding of the gentile thought process, as well as providing helpful primary sources. Criminologist Frank Bovenkerk also wrote about the Dutch paradox. He argues that the Dutch collaborators who allowed the Holocaust machine to operate deserve to be punished, especially given the international and Dutch laws that prohibit cooperation with an occupying force.24 Bovenkerk discusses, in brief, the history of the German Occupation and goes further into a study of law to examine why more Dutch officials should have been charged with treason for their collaboration. Similarly to other authors on the Dutch paradox, Bovenkerk believes that it was the bureaucratic machine of the Dutch government that bears the responsibility and insists that the Dutch never had anything personal against the Jewry.25 He thinks that anti-Semitism is a non-factor in this regard and instead focuses more so on the government, the bystander apathy, and the flight of the Queen and other important government officials. This is an area I do not cover, although it is important to briefly mention that many Dutch citizens felt betrayed by their leaders leaving them to the mercy of the Nazis. Bovenkerk argues that this set a bad example to the citizens, who no longer had any role models to look up to. 23 Bart van der Boom, The Auschwitz Reservation: Dutch Victims and Bystanders and Their Knowledge of the Holocaust, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 31, no. 3 (December 1, 2017): 385407. https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcx042. 24 Frank Bovenkerk, The Other Side of the Anne Frank Story: The Dutch Role in the Persecution of the Jews in World War Two, Crime, Law, and Social Change 34, 2000. 25 Ibid., 240. Bellin 13 Throughout the first part of my paper, I attempt to provide a substantial history of the Dutch Jewry before the Holocaust, as well as the first years of the war before deportations began in earnest. To do this, I read Dutch historian Ivo Schffer, who wrote about the Dutch Jewry since their beginnings in the Netherlands. Schffer provides a history of Judaism in the Netherlands, as well as how Dutch Jews became so successful in the Netherlands even as a small minority. He attributes this to the grudging tolerance and acceptance of the Dutch gentiles, compounded by the religious freedom granted to Dutch Jews in 1795, making them citizens. However, enough casual anti-Semitism kept Jews together as a recognized minority, and Schffer argues that the Dutch majority wanted to keep Jews separated in a positive manner, to encourage their pluriform society.26 By doing this, Dutch Jews were unable to undergo pillarization as a group and were left out of the majority. Schffers arguments helped give me a basis for the history of the Dutch Jewry, as well as their importance in Dutch society.27 One work that has monumental importance to my argument is Ad van Liempts Hitlers Bounty Hunters.28 Van Liempt describes in great detail the men who rounded up Jews in the Netherlands in return for about fifty dollars.29 He goes through the lives of the men who made up the Colonne Henneicke, named after the leader Wim Henneicke. This group was organized by the Germans to help confiscate Jewish property, but this division quickly turned into a quasi-police force, hellbent on turning in Jews. The group, although established by a German 26 I. Schoffer, The Jews in the Netherlands: The Position of a Minority Through Three Centuries, Studia Rosenthaliana 15, no. 1 (March, 1981): 97. 27 Hans Knippenberg discusses a similar topic, and specifically looks at why the Jews never formed a pillar. Hans Knippenberg, Assimilating Jews in Dutch Nation-Building: The Missing Pillar, Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie 93 (2002). Paul Dekker and Hans Daalder similarly mention the lack of a Jewish pillar: Paul Dekker, From Pillarized Active Membership to Populist Active Citizenship: The Dutch Do Democracy, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 30, no. 1 (February 2019): 75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-00058-4., Hans Daalder, Dutch Jews in a segmented society, Acta Historiae Neerlandicae X, (1978): 191-194. 28 Ad Van Liempt, Hitlers Bounty Hunters: The Betrayal of the Jews (New York: Berg, 2005) 29 In todays American money. At the time it would have been 7.5 guilders. Bellin 14 office, was made up of Dutch citizens, many of them with no police qualifications. The group also included many Dutch Nazis. Van Liempt uses records very recently released by the Dutch War Department, and some of what he does is based on others records, interviews, and a variety of other sources. Still, Van Liempt cobbled together a disturbing picture of Dutch bounty hunters sanctioned by the Germans to round up Dutch Jews in hiding. Not only does this display the evil and greed of the members of the Colonne Henneicke, but it also shows how eager some Dutch citizens were to turn in Jews in hiding. Van Liempt argues that some of the men certainly did it for the money, but also that it was very likely that those involved in the Colonne were aware of the fate of the Jews, showing their anti-Semitism. Finally, a discussion of the primary sources involved in this thesis is necessary. I mainly looked into Etty Hillesums diaries, published as An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork.30 Hillesum has been called the adult Anne Frank because she similarly kept a diary during the German Occupation and also had a strong belief in the goodness of mankind. Hillesum barely mentioned the German Occupation until the enforcement of the Yellow Star of David, which changed her outlook. Hillesum discussed the evils of the occupation and made mention of the different anti-Semitic laws that continued to get passed. She also discussed the Jewish Council in detail, including her brief participation with the Council before she volunteered to go to Westerbork to help the prisoners there. The book changes from her diary to letters written to friends and family back in Amsterdam while she was interned in Westerbork. Hillesums diary and letters offer a view into what it must have felt like to be a Dutch Jew before deportation, as well as giving insight into life in Westerbork.31 30 Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork (New York: Holt, 1996). 31 Erich Marxs account of Westerbork also greatly helped my understanding of the transit camp: Erich Marx, Thats How it was: A Report on Westerbork and Bergen Belsen (1945), Irish Pages 9, no. 2 (2015): 72101. Bellin 15 Besides Hillesum, I also gathered several online primary sources in the form of interviews and diaries. These included the interviews of Alfred Mnzer, Dukie Gelber, Henry Fenichel, and interviews conducted via the Yad Vashem Youtube page. Although the subject of these interviews varied, they all helped contribute to the understanding of the passive anti-Semitism during the war as well as describing first-hand accounts of direct and indirect collaborators. Background: Jews in the Netherlands, 17th century-20th century The Jewish story in the Netherlands began in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Sephardic Jews from Iberia arrived in the Netherlands around the early 1600s, seeking religious freedom from the Catholic Spanish and Portuguese, whose policies were intolerant of Jewish peoples.32 The Netherlands had recently fought the Spanish and signed the Union of Utrecht which granted its independence. This treaty not only unified the northern provinces of the Netherlands against the Spanish but also allowed for personal religious freedom.33 Much of Europe remained violently anti-Semitic, as evidenced by the Hannover merchant Michael-David Mayers words to his fellow Jewish merchants: the difference between Amsterdam and the German States was comparable to that between heaven and hell.34 This paints an unrealistically optimistic portrait of early life in the Netherlands for the Jews that in reality was more complex. In the largest cities, like Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam, Jews were generally tolerated and lived in peace, albeit without civil rights.35 Jews in these areas were beneficial to the economy as traders and merchants and helped contribute to the growth of the Dutch colonies 32 Hans Knippenberg, Assimilating Jews in Dutch Nation-Building: The Missing Pillar, Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie 93 (2002): 194. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9663.00194. 33 Union of Utrecht, 1579. 34 I. Schoffer, The Jews in the Netherlands, 90. 35 Knippenberg, Assimilating Jews in Dutch Nation-Building, 194. Bellin 16 in Brazil before Portugal overtook them.36 However, in other cities like Utrecht, Jews faced more prohibitions. Jews were completely banned from Utrecht in 1546 which was upheld until the early 18th century.37 Even then, Jews were banned during an epidemic in 1712 and were not allowed reentry until 1736.38 Still, life in the Netherlands was far more tolerable than in the rest of Europe, and the Dutch Jewry thrived. Jewish immigration to the Netherlands was generally constant, although there were periods of great unrest which prompted more immigration, such as the increased pogroms in Eastern Europe in 1648 and in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.39 The majority of the Jews coming from Eastern Europe were of Ashkenazi origin. The difference between these two ethnicities is their place of origin. Ashkenazi Jews largely hail from Central Europe, whereas Sephardic Jews come from Iberia and North Africa. In the Netherlands, these differences are important to understanding the Jewish story. Jews in Dutch Society When Sephardic Jews arrived in the Netherlands around the early 17th century, they were largely left to their own devices and encouraged to keep their distance from the Dutch. Dutch Jews kept to themselves and carried on many of their customs such as speaking Yiddish and Portuguese, as well as living amongst themselves in Jewish quarters, with the largest located in Amsterdam.40 This Jewish enclave was kept in order by a group of community authorities called the Parnassim.41 The Parnassim was responsible for enforcing justice within the community, along with having the power to expel members using their small policing force. They were also 36 Wim Klooster, Communities of Port Jews and Their Contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World, Jewish History 20, no. 2 (2006): 130. 37 Utrecht - Jewish Cultural Quarter, Joods Cultureel Kwartier, Accessed September 23, 2021, https://jck.nl/en/page/utrecht. 38 Ibid. Not all Jews were expelled from Utrecht. Jewish students at the University of Utrecht proved an exception to this ban, however they were the only exceptions. 39 I. Schoffer, The Jews in the Netherlands, 88. Etty Hillesums mother was from Russia and came to the Netherlands during this time period. Hillesum will be discussed in greater depth later on. 40 Hans Knippenberg, Assimilating Jews in Dutch Nation-Building, 194. 41 I. Schoffer, The Jews in the Netherlands, 90. Bellin 17 responsible for economic relief to the members of their Kahlila, or congregation.42 As evidenced, Dutch Jews were kept apart from the rest of society throughout the first part of their history in the Netherlands. This is compounded by the fact that Dutch Jews were prohibited from marrying gentiles by law, as well as being unable to join craft guilds. According to Dutch historian Ivo Schffer, the Jews were treated like semi-foreigners, perhaps to be compared with best with apartheid, if this word is used in a politically unloaded sense of the word.43 Schffer believes that the Sephardi did their best to remain out of the negative spotlight by taking care of their own poor so as not to not draw attention and alarm their hosts.44 This isolated yet tolerable situation of the Sephardi was disturbed by the arrival of Ashkenazi Jews from Central Europe. The Ashkenazi were displaced by pogroms and anti-Semitism in Poland, Germany, and Eastern Europe. By contrast, the Netherlands was a beacon of hope. Dutch Jews were able to practice Judaism without fear of persecution along with having an already established small Jewish population that was allowed to live in peace, even though they lacked the same civil rights as Dutch citizens. Ashkenazi Jews settled in the Netherlands during and after the Thirty Years War in greater waves than the Sephardi. In most countries, this was a cause for alarm and new anti-Semitic measures, especially since almost all of the Ashkenazi were poor. 45 However, the Dutch government thought of this as a benign issue. The Sephardic Jews who already settled were more afraid of this new immigration and closed their communities and synagogues to the newcomers.46 Ashkenazi settled mainly in Amsterdam 42 The Netherlands (Holland) Virtual Jewish History Tour, Jewish Virtual Library, Accessed April 7, 2021. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-netherlands-virtual-jewish-history-tour. Part of the reason they kept their own laws was because they were treated as semi foreigners according to Schoffer, and thus were not accorded the same legal standing in a court of law. 43 I. Schoffer, The Jews in the Netherlands, 90. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid., 91. 46 Ibid. Bellin 18 and quickly outnumbered the Sephardic, although the Sephardic would remain economically superior through their connections in trade with Brazil and Portugal.47 After settling into the Netherlands, the Dutch Jewry found themselves living in a certain limbo where they played a role in the economy and yet were still not a part of the Dutch society. This began to change in 1795 after the Batavian Revolution which brought French rule to the Netherlands under Louis Bonaparte. However, Louis was merely a puppet for his brother, who truly ruled. Napoleon Bonapartes reforms included provisions for religious freedom and equal rights to all religious groups, granting Jews equal rights in the Netherlands for the first time.48 Contrary to the modern-day conception of civil rights and equality, Dutch Jews were taken aback by this new proclamation, as it meant that the tight bonds of their culture which had held them together were now in danger of breaking. Jewish identity was strained: now Jews began to forgo their Yiddish dialect in favor of the Dutch language, they went to Dutch schools, they had more mobility that allowed them to spread around the country, and they generally began to assimilate more and more into Dutch society.49 This assimilation process was not rapid and it did not occur all at once; rather, Dutch Jews (barring the wealthier Sephardi) still did not have access to guilds and merchant groups until after the industrial growth of the Netherlands in the 1870s due to anti-Semitism.50 Nevertheless, the Dutch Jews gradually gained more and more inroads into the society of the Netherlands. Jews became a part of the Dutch Assembly, as sociologist Peter Tammes says: By the end of the 19th-century Jewish representation in the Lower House had become a 47 Ibid. Ibid., 92. 49 The Ashkenazi were the Dutch Jews who spoke the most Yiddish, the Sephardic Jews generally spoke Portuguese or Spanish, A Rosenberg, The Adoption of the Dutch Language by Dutch Jewry, Studia Rosenthaliana 30, no. 1 (1996): 155. 50 Peter Tammes, and Peter Scholten, Assimilation of Ethnic-Religious Minorities in the Netherlands: A Historical-Sociological Analysis of PreWorld War II Jews and Contemporary Muslims, Social Science History 41, no. 3 (2017): 480-481. 48 Bellin 19 structural element.51 Around 50 Jews or men who were no longer practicing Judaism had been involved after 1848.52 In a more localized sense, Amsterdam Jews became a part of the city council in 1798, as well as being a part of the Provinciale Staten [Provincial Assembly] of North Holland from 1850 onward.53 The Dutch Jewry faced fewer barriers than other European Jews and were able to more or less integrate into Dutch society. This included the economic sector, where Dutch Jews did well. Even though Jews struggled to gain admittance into guilds, that did not prevent Dutch Jews from being shareholders in the East Indies Company and becoming heavily involved in the diamond industry.54 The diamond industry in the Netherlands lasted for 300 years, from the early 1600s until World War I, which quickly included Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam who had just arrived. This business was the way of life for so many Dutch Jews that it became known simply as the trade.55 Jews were able to enter the diamond industry easily because there was no guild preventing Jewish participation.56 Although the Dutch Jewry had indeed made inroads into Dutch society, they never gained enough status to have a pillar, an important part of Dutch social and religious life. The Lack of a Jewish Pillar Throughout the late 19th century and well into the 20th century, Dutch society was segregated into four distinct religious/political groupings, known as pillars. These four pillars included Calvinism (Protestantism), Catholicism, Socialism, and Liberal. Pillarization separated the Dutch as early as childhood since the religious pillars had their own private schools, and the 51 Ibid. Ibid. 53 Ibid. 54 The Netherlands (Holland) Virtual Jewish History Tour, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-netherlands-virtual-jewish-history-tour. 55 Amsterdam, City of Diamonds - Jewish Cultural Quarter, Joods Cultureel Kwartier, Accessed October 12, 2021. https://jck.nl/en/exhibition/amsterdam-city-diamonds. 56 Henritte Boas, Jews and the Amsterdam Diamond Trade, Edited by S. Lipschitz, Siegfried E. van Praag, Jozeph Michman, and Simona Edelman, Studia Rosenthaliana 26, no. 1/2 (1992): 216. At its peak, there were 2,815 Jews working in the Amsterdam diamond industry. 52 Bellin 20 Socialist and Liberal pillars used state schools.57 Besides schools, the pillars segregated society even further, with different pillars having different hospitals, social clubs, newspapers, soccer teams, political associations, and more.58 However, despite this grand division of society, Dutch Jewry never managed to gain entrance into a subsection of one of the pillars, let alone the capacity to build a Jewish pillar. The lack of a Jewish pillar, and with it, a recognized foothold in Dutch society, helped contribute to the demise of the Dutch Jewry, as the rest of Dutch society was segregated into their individual pillars. This made it easier for them to ignore their Jewish neighbors and do little to help during the Nazi Holocaust. The lack of a Jewish pillar began with schooling in the Netherlands. Jewish education was initially supervised by members of the Jewish community, but this all changed in 1796 when Dutch Jews were officially declared citizens of the Netherlands. From then on, Jews were encouraged to keep their schooling practices to themselves since the public schools were then Christian. The government enforced the rule that they speak in Dutch rather than the preferred Yiddish or even Portuguese in an attempt at assimilation.59 This contributed to the assimilation of Jews into Dutch society, yet it also paradoxically kept them aloof. Jewish schooling ended when the state refused to fund religious schools in the mid-1800s.60 The two religious pillars fought hard to get funding for their schools and succeeded in creating religiously separated schools. Unfortunately, the Jewish community lacked funds and clout, and was shuffled into the reorganized public schools of the Socialist and Liberal pillars. The Dutch Jewry held close ties with both the Socialist and Liberal pillars in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and perhaps it was because of this that the Jewry never successfully 57 Paul Dekker, From Pillarized Active Membership to Populist Active Citizenship: The Dutch Do Democracy, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 30, no. 1 (February 2019): 75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-00058-4. 58 Ibid. 59 Hans Knippenberg, Assimilating Jews in Dutch Nation-Building, 202. 60 Ibid. Bellin 21 created a Jewish pillar. Dutch Jews largely settled in the biggest cities in the Netherlands, with the majority located in Amsterdam, The Hague, and Rotterdam. 61 Even though these centralized populations of Jews made pillarization more likely, the fact that these cities were steeped in rising liberalism and secularism made a religious pillar more and more unlikely. This is coupled with the fact that Dutch Jews were split between the Socialist and Liberal pillars. The Socialist pillar represented the Dutch proletariat, whereas the Liberal pillar featured the bourgeoisie.62 Dutch political scientist Hans Daalder said that [the] Jewish verzuiling (pillar) was obviated, exactly because the Jewish bourgeoisie integrated successfully into the liberal segment, the Jewish proletariat (and also a number of Jewish intellectuals of bourgeois descent) into the socialist subculture.63 Examples of this division include the Amsterdam trade union of diamond workers, which constituted several Jewish and gentile members and represented the socialist pillar.64 Jewish figures such as Issac Levy, David Wijnkoop, and Henri Polak were influential in the creation of different Liberal and Socialist political organizations.65 Levy helped found the Liberal Union, the political faction of the Liberal pillar.66 Wijnkoop and Polak were on the other side; Wijnkoop was one of the three heads of the communist movement in the Netherlands and served as the first president. Polak helped establish the Social Democratic Labor party while also helping to found the General Dutch Diamonds Workers Union. 67 This unintentional division 61 Ibid. Dekker, From Pillarized Active Membership to Populist Active Citizenship, 3. 63 Hans Daalder, Dutch Jews in a segmented society, Acta Historiae Neerlandicae X, (1978): 191-194. 64 Hans Knippenberg, Assimilating Jews in Dutch Nation-Building, 203. 65 Ibid. 66 Ibid. 67 Jan Bank and Maaren van Buuren, Dutch Culture in a European Perspective: 1900, The Age of Bourgeois Culture (Assen, NL: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004): pg. 354. Both Polak and Wijnkoop were targeted by the Nazis in the aftermath of the German invasion, and both would die during the war years, although both died of illness rather than at the hands of the Germans (undoubtedly these illnesses were exaggerated by the stress of being hunted). Polaks wife did die at Westerbork. 62 Bellin 22 prevented the rise of both a religious pillar as well as a political pillar, keeping the Jewish population in a social limbo outside of the accepted social lines. Jews were able to interact with each pillar with little discrimination, yet they never achieved the important status of having a Jewish pillar or even being a subset of a larger pillar. What this shows is that while the religious majorities in the Netherlands were able to fight against rising secularism and maintain their religious identity, Jews were not afforded the same privileges, and were instead assimilated into Dutch society without the benefits of the other religious or political pillars. This kept the Jewish population as others, even though there were rare occurrences of overt anti-Semitism. Dutch scholar Ivo Schffer argues that despite the lack of pillarization, the pluriform nature of Dutch society allowed Jews to retain a sense of identity with each other and with society in general.68 I do not necessarily disagree with this assessment, yet he is talking about Dutch society before 1940. He admits that [t]he Dutch society, the Dutch majority, did not do much to save the Jewish minority although the prime responsibility rested with others and circumstances beyond their control forced the issue.69 Schffer did not believe that the Dutch majority was as complicit as I will later suggest and show. Still, the Dutch Jewry remained in an ambiguous position in Dutch society, as a group tolerated, yet never fully accepted into one of the main pillars that were established. Dutch Jews faced almost no violent anti-Semitism. There were instances of formal and informal segregation and anti-Semitism, yet for the most part, Dutch Jews were able to live peacefully and gain some political and social clout until the beginning of World War II. This changed after the Nazi Occupation, as the insidious anti-Semitism of the Dutch citizens and government showed itself following the German invasion. 68 69 Schffer, The Jews in the Netherlands, 99. Ibid. Bellin 23 Nazi Invasion of the Netherlands, May 10- May 14 On May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands to quickly defeat the Low Countries, including Belgium and Luxembourg, before attacking France. The Dutch military was unprepared for an invasion, as they had remained neutral in prior wars, including the Great War. The Dutch were woefully unequipped in terms of modern weapons and were also poorly trained due to recent cutbacks to the military.70 The Dutch military numbered 240,000 men on the eve of battle, many of them reservists. Still, the Dutch put up a valiant resistance under the circumstances, and frustrated the Germans, especially at the Grebbeline.71 Map showing the Grebbeline The Grebbeline was a land barrier that the Dutch army needed to hold because it provided direct access to Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the Grebbeline was too long to fully defend, and the Dutch could not repel the heavy artillery and aircraft attacks.72 The Grebbelines fall crippled Dutch defenses, yet the Dutch kept up a spirited resistance despite the odds. German military leaders understood that they needed to move quickly and had expected the invasion of the Netherlands to take a day or two at most. The unexpected determination of the underfunded and undertrained Dutch military forced the Nazis 70 Louis De Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Amsterdam: Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, 1969). 71 Allert M.A. Goossens, May 13-The Grebbeline, War over Holland, http://www.waroverholland.nl/index.php?page=13-may 72 The actual length of the Grebbeline is difficult to find, but it stretches from the Ijsselmeer Bay through Grebbeberg in Rhenen, which is on the border of Germany and the Netherlands. This puts the line, which stretches out in several different directions, anywhere from 25-45 kilometers long. Bellin 24 to unleash one of their most devastating attacks on the Netherlands: the total bombardment of Rotterdam. Rotterdam was, and remains, the second-largest city in the Netherlands behind Amsterdam, with a population of about 650,000 people. The port at Rotterdam has been a major European seaport since its opening in the 14th century and upheld its importance well into the beginning of the 1940s. Rotterdam opened the Netherlands to trade all over Europe and Asia, allowing the Dutch economy to blossom during the Dutch Golden Age (1588-1672). The port remains the largest in Europe today. The Germans understood its importance, and also knew that bombing it would send a strong message. Hitler and Hermann Goring, Hitlers deputy and right-hand man, had anticipated a swifter victory. When Dutch tenacity prolonged the fighting, Goring grew impatient and ordered General Rudolf Schmidt, Commander of the invading Germans, to attack. Schmidt delivered this ultimatum to the Dutch forces on May 14: To the Commander of Rotterdam To the Mayor and aldermen and the Governmental Authorities of Rotterdam The continuing opposition to the offensive of German troops in the open city of Rotterdam forces me to take appropriate measures should this resistance not be ceased immediately. This may well result in the complete destruction of the city. I petition you as a man of responsibility - to endeavour everything within your powers to prevent the town of having to bear such a huge price. As a token of agreement I request you to send us an authorised negotiator by return. Should within two hours after the hand-over of this ultimatum no official reply be received, I will be forced to execute the most extreme measures of destruction. The commander of the German troops.73 This demand shows the willingness of the Germans to level a major Dutch city with very little warning. Although Schmidt does threaten to destroy the city, he is reluctant to do so, as seen above. The Dutch refused their demand, largely because Schmidt had not signed the letter, 73 Allert M.A. Goossens, "Rotterdam," War Over Holland, Archived from the original on 31 October 2020. Bellin 25 showing their strong resolve.74 However, the mayor and the military officials were scared about the looming German threat and ordered the northern sector of the city to evacuate. The Dutch sent back a letter, saying that the ultimatum needed to be signed before it could be seriously considered. They sent a negotiator to Schmidt, who had already created a new ultimatum with his signature. During this time, German bombers were on hold, awaiting the news. They were supposed to hold their attack if the German command fired flares into the skies, meaning the negotiations were ongoing.75 This system had its flaws, as the area was cloudy and covered in smoke, making it difficult to see the flares. Schmidt decided to postpone the attack as the negotiations continued and the Dutch were planning on surrendering to save the city. Unfortunately, the flares signaling the bombers to wait were partially obstructed. A group of bombers saw the flares and turned around, but others failed to see the flares and began their attack. Those that attacked carpet-bombed the city center, killing 800-900, destroying close to 28,000 buildings, including homes and stores, and caused the homelessness of 80,000 people.76 Surprisingly, almost all of the 10,000 Dutch military men within the city survived the bombing. The Dutch military hierarchy was shellshocked by this ferocious bombing, and when the Germans threatened to destroy Utrecht in a similarly, General Winkelman, Commander of the Army and Navy, capitulated for the entire country.77 Fighting continued in Zealand due to the arrival of French forces. Winkelman had no control over the French, so they fought on, but they too ultimately surrendered on May 17. At this point, the Nazi forces occupied the entire country. The casualties included approximately 2,300 Dutch soldiers and 2,000 Dutch civilians. 74 Ibid. Ibid. 76 Helen Hill Miller, "Rotterdam - Reborn from Ruins," National Geographic 118 (4) October 1960: 526553. 77 Allert M.A. Goossens, Capitulation, War over Holland, http://www.waroverholland.nl/index.php?page=part-iii-capitulation 75 Bellin 26 Thousands of buildings were destroyed, and many civilians were displaced and injured during the conflict.78 Queen Wilhelmina and the heads of the Dutch government escaped the onrushing Nazi forces and were able to spend the war in Britain, setting up a government-in-exile. The brotherhood that Hitler had perceived between the two nations was not nearly as strong as he initially believed. Hitler had often thought of the Dutch as fellow members of the Aryan race, who could assist the German war effort.79 Even though the Dutch Nazi party had over 100,000 members, the country generally resisted Aryanization. Yet, the Dutch surrender after only five days of fighting helped them avoid harsher punishments during the first year of occupation than Belgium or France, who endured tougher circumstances. It also suggests a level of compliance as well as a grudging acceptance of the new order, which proved catastrophic for the Dutch Jewry. The Netherlands Under Occupation and the February Strike Queen Wilhelmina addresses the Netherlands over Radio Orange, July 1940. 78 Ibid. Samuel P. Oliner, Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe (Simon and Schuster, 1992) 33. ISBN 9781439105382. 79 Bellin 27 After the German invasion, thousands of Dutch citizens and government officials fled the country.80 With the government in exile and the nation reeling from the first attack on Dutch soil in years, Dutch citizens feared the worst. The Dutch governments refusal to return from exile led Hitler to appoint Arthur Seyes-Inquart as the Reichkommissar of the Netherlands. Seyss-Inquart was an Austrian lawyer who had helped draft the legal paperwork of the Anschluss in 1938.81 Later, as Reichskommissar, he had complete control over the new regime and answered to Hitler alone. Since the Dutch government was in exile, the Germans were able to fill top positions with German and Austrian Nazi officials, leaving the rest of the Dutch government directly under their control.82 Seyss-Inquart began his tenure with the velvet glove approach. This meant that the Dutch citizens were not to be treated too roughly. The occupying government tried to work alongside the Dutch citizens while economically linking the Netherlands as closely as possible to the Reich, but at the same time preserving their formal independence in order to maintain control over the Dutch- East Indian areas.83 Hitler saw the Netherlands as a vital source of economic strength for the Third Reich, which was fighting wars on several fronts. Throughout 1940, the Netherlands were put under civilian occupation meaning they were treated less harshly than Belgium and France which were under military occupation.84 The banning of the Dutch 80 Henry L. Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations: Jews in the Occupied Netherlands, Political Science Quarterly 99, no. 2 (1984): 320, https://doi.org/10.2307/2150408. 81 The Netherlands, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Accessed March 22, 2020. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-netherlands. 82 Ibid. 83 Gerhard Hirschfeld, Collaboration and Attentism in the Netherlands 1940-41, Journal of Contemporary History 16, no. 3 (1981): 471. 84 General Introduction Part II | Ehri Online Course in Holocaust Studies, European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, Accessed March 22, 2020. https://training.ehri-project.eu/general-introduction-part-ii. Bellin 28 Communist and Socialist parties caused members of those groups to begin a small, limited resistance against Nazi rule, yet the majority of Dutch citizens carried on with life as usual.85 Dutch Jews also hoped to go on as they normally would, since they remained unaware of future events, unlike the German Jews who fled to the Netherlands. These refugees were highly cognizant of the terror that awaited them and were more motivated to seek hiding places to survive.86 However, from September through November of 1940, the anti-Semitism of the Nazi order became apparent. Jewish newspapers were shut down in September, followed by the dismissal of all Jewish civil servants in November.87 At the end of 1940, all Jewish businesses were forced to register with the government. Following the creation of a Jewish Council by the beginning of the new year, all Dutch Jews were required to register as well. The Jewish Council was created by the Nazi-headed government and was run under the direct supervision of two prominent Dutch Jews: Professor David Cohen, and businessman Abraham Asscher. 88 Both men had previously worked for the Committee of Jewish Refugees to help displaced Jews in the Netherlands, and they were told that the newly established Jewish Council was for the benefit of Dutch Jews. However, this Council helped find and convince thousands of Dutch Jews to comply, making their information available to the Nazi bureaucracy and allowing them to easily locate Dutch Jews when the deportations began in 1942.89 At the time, many Dutch Jews were still unaware of the danger that awaited them, which mainly 85 Jason Dawsey, The Amsterdam General Strike of February 1941, The National WWII Museum | New Orleans, Accessed November 22, 2021. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/amsterdam-general-strike-february-1941. 86 Peter Tammes, Jewish Immigrants in the Netherlands during the Nazi Occupation, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 37, no. 4 (2007): 545-547. 87 Jason Dawsey, The Amsterdam General Strike of February 1941. 88 Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 326. 89 BV, DE REE Archiefsystemen, Oprichting En Organisatie van de Joodsche Raad Voor Amsterdam, NIOD Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies. Accessed November 30, 2021. https://www.archieven.nl/nl/zoeken?mivast=0&mizig=210&miadt=298&miaet=1&micode=182&minr=3027 670&miview=inv2. Bellin 29 resulted from the initial velvet glove approach that Seyss-Inquart established.90 By refraining from public shows of force and gradually oppressing the Jews instead of all at once, the Reichskommissar was able to lull Dutch Jews and civilians into a false sense of security. This changed after the February Strike and Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Before the February Strike, protests on a much smaller scale had occurred, although these were largely done in schools and universities.91 These were in response to the first anti-Jewish measures being passed. Professors and their students protested both the initial forms distributed by the Nazis, asking people if they had any Jewish heritage and then another form making sure that professors were Aryan. 92 Some of these protests included speeches, letters to the Reichskommissar, illegal newspapers started by students, and refusal to dismiss Jewish colleagues when that measure was passed later. Protests at the Universities of Leiden and Delft were so bothersome to the Germans that they closed them down.93 All across the country, student and professor-led strikes resisted these new measures. Yet, Jewish professors were still forced out all the same, despite the best efforts of the students and colleagues. Some professors resigned in sympathy, but life went on while the Jewish professors had their dismissal upgraded to suspension to appease the crowd. This change of words meant nothing to the Germans, who achieved their first goal of ridding the schools of Jews. Did these Dutch protests continue to rage when, even after months of their Jewish professors being suspended, they never came back? Unfortunately, what seems to have happened is that school closings and the forced labor of Dutch college students who refused to 90 Proof of this comes from the fact that nearly every single Dutch Jew registered when asked too. By being in the system, the Nazis were able to easily find the Dutch Jews and deport them, which, if they had known was their fate, they would have never complied. Tammes, Jewish Immigrants in the Netherlands during the Nazi Occupation, 548. 91 Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 321. 92 Presser, 20-22. 93 Ibid., 28. Bellin 30 sign a loyalty oath caused all who had been protesting to disappear gradually until by 1943 there was almost no higher education going on in the Netherlands.94 The protesting Dutch students were forced away, one way or another. Only 20 percent of Amsterdam students signed this loyalty oath, as well as only 25 percent of Delft students.95 This does not necessarily mean that these students were protesting the anti-Semitic nature of the occupiers, as they may have been unbothered by the Jewish issues and more focused on the fact that their country was no longer under their control. Given the number of protests occurring in 1940 and 1941, this seems somewhat unlikely. Still, what we see is that groups were willing to stand up for the Dutch Jewry, and they frequently protested. However, the truly insidious nature of the German plan is revealed: By rooting out the causes of discontent and protest in the Netherlands, the Communists, professors, and students, the Germans were able to silence the vocal critics, making the majority of Dutch citizens either afraid to speak out for fear of what might happen to them or forcing them to look to the government for guidance. Both of these options resulted in Dutch passivity at best, or at worst, active collaboration. Public Dutch protests reached their zenith with the February Strike of 1941, which were the only protests ever to occur on behalf of the Jewry in Europe during the Second World War, and was orchestrated entirely by Dutch Communists and Socialists, the groups most closely tied to the Jewish people. Two large incidents led to this strike, both of them occurring at the hands of Jews defending themselves. The first occurred because Dutch Nazis, drunk with power, decided to exert force and terror over local Jews by attacking a group in Amsterdam. 96 Young Jewish men fought back and killed one of the Dutch Nazis, enraging Seyss-Inquart. Dutch Jews were wary 94 Annette Richardson, Children, Youth and Schooling Disruption in the Netherlands During World War II, Groniek 148 (2000): 339, 341-342. 95 Ibid., 339. As it turns out, almost everyone who signed a loyalty oath was sent to Germany anyways. 96 Dawsey, The Amsterdam General Strike of February 1941. Bellin 31 after this senseless attack by the Dutch Nazis, so when German police entered an ice cream parlor run by German-Jewish immigrant Erich Cahn on February 19, he was afraid that they were Dutch Nazis. As a result, he released an ammonium gas which injured the German police. 97 German authorities were outraged, largely due to the false reports which alleged that he gnawed through an Aryans artery and then suck[ed] out his blood. 98 For this, Cahn was tortured and executed. This also gave Seyss-Inquart an excuse to lash out at the Jewish population, and on February 22-23, the first recorded Jewish deportations in the Netherlands began. German police rounded up young men off the streets of Amsterdam, attacking and humiliating them all the while.99 Non-Jews gathered to watch in horror, although there was little they could do. In total, 389 Amsterdam Jews got deported to Mauthausen, where almost all of them were killed by the Germans or committed suicide.100 Angered by this disgusting display of violence and deportations, Dutch workers, led by the now-illegal Dutch Communist Party, started a strike on the 25th of February. This strike is best described by journalist Salomon de Vries in his diary on that date: The news ran round through the city. The Amsterdam Dry-dock Company, the shipbuilding industry, De Vries Lenz, Fokker - they're on strike everywhere! The ferryboats aren't running! The trams aren't running! Empty streets. No trams, almost no cars. The workers and drivers of a very large number of shipping agents, large and small, had also laid down their work. Almost everywhere the shops were closed. Strike a general strike! Against the persecution of the Jews, against inhumane treatment, against the we're running the show attitude of the WA and other Mussert gangsters. 101 Anton Mussert, the man de Vries references, was the leader of the Dutch Nazis, and the WA was the paramilitary wing of the Dutch Nazis. They were the ones who started the first fighting 97 Ibid. Presser, 50. Presser got this from a primary document, however, the translation of Ondergang leaves out many of these crucial sources. 99 Ibid., 51. 100 Ibid., 52-53. 101 The February Strike, Verzets Resistance Museum, Accessed November 22, 2021. https://www.verzetsmuseum.org/en/kennisbank/the-february-strike. 98 Bellin 32 against the Dutch Jews in early February, which is part of where De Vries discerns this were running the show attitude: they were aggressive, confrontational, and unrestrained against Jews and other minorities. Dutch citizens were tired of these opportunists and traitors and showed their displeasure. Workers flooded the streets, stopping traffic while protesting. Another first-hand account comes from Mientje Meijer, a gentile seamstress, who said to her fellow employees: Ladies, all of Amsterdam has come to a standstill because theyve been rounding up Jews and taking them away. Weve got to join in. To my surprise everyone took to the streets. I thought, now Im going to be sacked, but even the boss went along! We went to the Noordermarkt and the procession just kept growing. It was overwhelming.102 Dutch gentiles were more than willing to risk losing their job and suffering physical violence to stand up for Jewish rights. The February Strike reportedly had 300,000 participants in Amsterdam on the 25th, which spread to nearby cities such as Utrecht, Haarlem, and Zaandam the next day.103 The strikers faced opposition from the Dutch SS and the Dutch police force, which were both under the control of either Dutch or German Nazis. These forces killed nine strikers and injured and arrested hundreds more.104 Another source of opposition came from the Jewish Council, who were afraid that Seyss-Inquart and other Nazis would retaliate by deporting more Jews if they did not stop the strike.105 102 Ibid. Dawsey, The Amsterdam General Strike of February 1941. Here, participating is defined as both closing down stores and factories, as well as refusing to work or shop. 104 Ibid. 105 Ibid. 103 Bellin 33 Police threatening Dutch Jews. The strike finished on February 27th, two days after it began. Eighteen protestors who had been arrested were executed a month later. Twenty-Two suspected leaders of the strike were rounded up, with some given the death penalty and others were given life in prison.106 The actual leaders of the strike, Communist Party members Jaap Brandenburg, Paul de Groot, Lou Jansen, and Jan Dieters were all forced into hiding.107 Due to this lack of leaders, the Dutch Resistance was slow to start, with the established Resistance beginning in 1943. However, the February Strike briefly instilled hope into the Dutch Jewish community. Presser notes that for many Dutch Jews, this was the greatest experience of the war.108 He goes on to say that The reason for this was simple: for once, albeit for but a little while, they did not feel that their Dutch compatriots were leaving them in the lurch [t]his group dared to brave a ruthless enemy, and was ready to Franoise Nuez, Wie Maakten de Februaristaking Mogelijk? Historiek, Accessed February 21, 2022. https://historiek.net/wie-maakten-de-februaristaking-mogelijk-ze-zijn-verzwegen-en-vergeten/76111/. 107 Ibid. 108 Presser, 56. 106 Bellin 34 sacrifice life and property-for them.109 The strike is significant, as it was the largest protest that supported the Jewish population during World War II, and one of the only ones to occur. The brutal repression of the strike by the Nazis dampened the spirit of the protestors. It also resulted in the appointment of Sybren Tulp as head of police in Amsterdam. 110 Tulp was a member of the Dutch Nazi party and an anti-Semite, who used the Dutch police to round up Jews.111 He also used his power within the police department to root out the police officers who were involved in the burgeoning resistance movement. Another important effect of the strike was the removal of the Amsterdam and Zaandam mayors, who were replaced by men picked by the Germans. Thus the Nazis controlled Amsterdam, the largest city in the Netherlands and home to almost 80,000 Jews which was over half the countrys Jewish population. The tumultuous events of February 1941 led to large-scale deportations in the Netherlands the following year. Gentiles in the Netherlands, especially the workers, ostensibly supported the Dutch Jewry at one point, as demonstrated by the February Strike. However, that does not explain why many of these same workers ignored, and in the case of the train drivers, helped deport the Dutch Jewry just a few years later. The swift and sure response from the German Occupiers certainly dissuaded future protests in support of Jews. Research suggests that the negative outcome of the strike made Dutch gentiles more willing to comply and support the new regime in fear of their lives. Does this show anti-Semitism? It seems harsh to blame those who were genuinely afraid for their lives, yet Resistance continued (albeit on a much smaller scale) showing that nothing could deter some gentiles. Others were ready to submit to the Germans and their anti-Semitic policies, which, while not readily anti-Semitic on the part of the gentiles, demonstrates a passive 109 Ibid. Anthony McElligott, Tim Kirk, and Ian Kershaw, Working Towards the Fhrer: Essays in Honour of Sir Ian Kershaw (Manchester University Press, 2003), 191. 111 Ibid,. 192-193. 110 Bellin 35 acceptance of anti-Semitic law. I suggest that this reflects an indirect collaboration on the part of gentiles later in this thesis. Deportations, 1942-1944 After the February Strike, the Nazis clamped down on the Dutch Jews, especially in Amsterdam. Dutch Jews were forced to stay in one location, with Jewish citizens segregated from the gentile population.112 Foreign-born Jews were sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the northeastern province of Drenthe in the Netherlands. Westerbork, as tragically ironic as it may seem, was set up by Dutch Jews in collaboration with the Dutch government in 1939. It initially served as a refugee camp for German Jews fleeing from Nazi Germany.113 Around 25,000 German Jews sought shelter in the Netherlands, and Dutch Jews wanted to find a place for their brethren to live safely. German Jews sometimes struggled to integrate into the Netherlands and were often more likely to be subjected to anti-Semitism than Dutch-born Jews.114 Since Westerbork was set up by the Dutch government in 1939, the German Jews in the camp remained safe, and often took administrative positions inside.115 German Jews were so prominent in Westerbork that German was the language spoken in the camp.116 The Dutch held onto Westerbork as a refugee camp even after the occupation began, but not for long. Nazi officials had been looking for a suitable place to deport Dutch Jews to the East, and Westerbork proved ideal as it already held Jewish refugees. 112 The Netherlands, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Accessed March 22, 2020. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-netherlands. 113 Erich Marx, Thats how it was: A report on Westerbork and Bergen Belsen (1945), Irish Pages 9, no. 2 (2015): 73. 114 Peter Tammes, Jewish Immigrants in the Netherlands during the Nazi Occupation, The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 37, no. 4 (2007): 545. 115 Ibid., 547. 116 Ibid. Bellin 36 Westerbork and its mostly German-Jewish population were thus handed over to Nazi officials when the Nazis started implementing the key phase of the Final Solution in July 1942.117 Seyss-Inquart and Nazi leaders in the Netherlands had been preparing for this stage of the Final Solution for Jewish destruction through a few key policies. These included the forced segregation of Jews either in Westerbork or Amsterdam, forcing Jews to wear the Star of David in April 1942, and finally, the takeover of Westerbork in July of 1942. Westerborks importance to the Nazis was instrumental in the devastation they brought upon Dutch Jewry. Since the camp already had some facilities for holding large numbers of refugees, the Germans simply had to add more barracks and put up barbed wire for security.118 Westerbork was one of the only camps with adequate washing facilities such as washrooms and a bathhouse with forty showers.119 Medical care was also provided by trained doctors and staff.120 Jews in the camps were also able to receive packages from the outside which helped prevent starvation: Our official food rations consisted of a stew at lunchtime and a dark coffee in the morning and the evening. We also received a 300g piece of bread, 10g margarine and some jam and cheese every day. Anyone trying to live on this alone would have certainly slowly died of starvation., wrote Holocaust survivor Erich Marx, who was interned at Westerbork before surviving the death camp at Bergen-Belsen, Germany.121 However, these were the only amenities available.122 The Nazis also enforced far stricter rules than the Dutch and 117 Westerbork, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Accessed September 23, 2021. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/westerbork. 118 Ibid. 119 Marx, Thats How it Was, 76. 120 Ibid. 121 Ibid. 122 Amenities are put into quotes because it is difficult to say that anything in a transit camp which takes you to your death is an amenity. It is true that this transit camp provided far more than anything the Jews would see in the East. Bellin 37 added both German and Dutch police to guard the camp. In Westerbork, Jews were often maintenance workers or industrial workers for the German war effort.123 Dutch Jews were initially rounded up in July 1942. This was heavily aided by the registration that the German occupiers ordered a year prior. Very few Dutch Jews had refused to register, and the Dutch officials who registered them often believed they could keep the Jews safe since they were in Dutch hands.124 In the summer of 1942, the German occupiers announced that the Dutch Jews were going to be transported to Westerbork, where they would wait to be transported to the east. The Germans implied that the Dutch Jews would be sent to work camps in German areas to help the war effort.125 Those who ignored the summons were rounded up by both Dutch and German police, as well as by Dutch Nazis. These Jews, along with the ones who went into hiding, were threatened with deportation to Mauthausen, which Jews knew resulted in certain death.126 By contrast, the transit camp of Westerbork taking them ostensibly to work camps in the east seemed much more preferable. Dutch Jews began arriving en masse in Westerbork in July of 1942, where they anxiously waited. According to reports, Westerbork was not as awful as other comparable camps: If it hadn't been for our loss of freedom, the ongoing horrors and our fears for the future, our stay in the camp would have been bearable, especially in comparison to so many other camps.127 Marx claimed that there were often between 6000-8000 people in the camp at a time, with about 500-800 people being sent east each week.128 These numbers were later increased to 2000-3000 a week.129 Marx noted that the Jews in Westerbork were largely unaware of their fate in the east, 123 Ibid., 77-78. Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 318. 125 Ibid. 126 General Introduction Part II | Ehri Online Course in Holocaust Studies, Accessed March 22, 2020. https://training.ehri-project.eu/general-introduction-part-ii. 127 Marx, Thats How it Was, 76. 128 Ibid., 77. 129 Ibid. 124 Bellin 38 but were convinced that it was not good, and tried to prevent themselves from going east however they could.130 How right Marx proved to be. The majority of Dutch Jews were sent east to Auschwitz and Sobibor death camps. By train, Auschwitz was 36 hours away from Westerbork, and Sobibor was 72 hours. At both of these camps, new arrivals were likely to be gassed immediately. Political scientist Henry Mason estimated that close to 72 percent of Dutch Jews at Auschwitz were gassed on arrival, and fourteen of the nineteen trains from Westerbork to Sobibor held passengers that faced the same fate.131 From July 1942 to September 1944, the trains from Westerbork and the other, smaller Dutch transit camps, Amersfoort and Vught, ran continuously. Reports are varied, but the most commonly accepted number of Dutch Jewish deaths is around 107,000. Before the war, there were around 140,000 Jews in the country, including 25,000 German and Austrian immigrants. How did the occupying Germans manage to deport and kill so many Dutch Jews in such a quick time frame? Compared to other Western European countries, this number is frighteningly high. Italy had 58,000 Jews, with 8,000 (14%) Jewish deaths. Belgium had a population of 90,000 Jews and lost 24,000 (26%) at the hands of the Nazis. France had between 300,000-330,000 Jews, with 73,000 (22-24%) killed. The percentage of Dutch Jews, by comparison, was almost three-quarters of the entire population of the Netherlands. This is comparable to the anti-Semitic regions of Eastern Europe such as Poland, which had a devastating loss of between 83-90 percent of their Jewry with between 2,770,000-3,000,000 slain out of an initial population of 3,350,000; or of Yugoslavia, 130 131 Ibid. Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 336. Bellin 39 which had 67,000 Jews slain out of an initial population of 82,000.132 Yet, as previously seen, the Netherlands had no history of pogroms and little to non-existent anti-Semitism, especially by the 20th century. Where had things gone wrong for the Dutch Jewry? We must examine the direct and indirect collaboration of the Dutch citizens and bureaucratic systems of power to show this hidden anti-Semitism. Dutch Jews awaiting transportation. 132 All figures come courtesy of the United States Holocaust Museum: Jewish Losses during the Holocaust, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-losses-during-the-holocaust-by-country. Bellin 40 Chapter Two: Perpetrators, Direct Collaborators, and Indirect Collaborators The Dutch Paradox questions why so many Jewish people died in a country that has historically had little violent anti-Semitism. An answer to this paradox partially lies within the Dutch bureaucratic systems that remained in place after the German invasion occurred. Before the Germans conquered the Netherlands, the Dutch government never sought to cause harm to their Jewish population. After the German invasion, Dutch officials were quick to do what they could to help remove the Dutch Jews. The term remove is intentionally ambiguous, as scholars have debated what exactly Dutch collaborators knew. It was certainly known that the Germans wanted Jews sent to the east to ostensibly work in labor camps. Whether the Dutch population knew that remove meant exterminate is an issue up for debate. Regardless of what they knew, the Dutch working within the systems of institutional power actively collaborated with the Germans in implementing the Final Solution. Individual members within these systems perpetrated the Final Solution such as the leaders of the Colonne Henneicke, the bounty hunters who tracked down Dutch Jews in hiding. On a large scale, however, the Dutch were split between direct and indirect collaborators. The terms perpetrator, direct collaborator, and indirect collaborator are fundamental to the arguments I will present throughout this paper. In Ervin Staubs The Roots of Evil, he defines perpetrators as decision makers who initiate, lead, give orders, and in most cases assume responsibility.133 Examples of individual perpetrators include men such as Wim Henneicke and Willem Breid, who knowingly and maliciously sought to round up as many Dutch Jews, while simultaneously forcing others to act as collaborators in their acts of violence and deceit.134 Systemic examples of perpetrators in the Netherlands include the German Zentralstelle office, responsible for rounding up Dutch Jews for deportation, and the Hausraterfassung office, 133 134 Staub, 67. Henneicke and Breid were leaders of the Colonne Henneicke, which I will discuss later. Bellin 41 initially designed to collect and sell Jewish goods left by the deported and slain Jews. This office eventually assumed the responsibility of tracking down Jews who had gone into hiding, giving Henneicke and Breid their authority. Here, the German influence empowered perpetrators in the Netherlands on both an individual and systemic scale. However, the bulk of Dutch governmental officials and systems of power were direct and indirect collaborators. According to Staub, bystanders are members of society who are neither perpetrators nor victims, or outside individuals, organizations, and nations.135 The word bystander implies that witnesses to an event either ignore it (as a passive bystander) or act against it (as an active bystander). There are numerous examples of Dutch bystanders, and one could argue that every Dutch person who did not resist the Germans in some way was a bystander. The word collaborator presents a more negative connotation, and I define it as someone who willingly works with perpetrators. I identify two types of collaborators as part of my central argument: direct collaborators that did not initiate the atrocities committed against the Dutch Jewry but collaborated with the perpetrators, and indirect collaborators that were forced into working with the perpetrators through physical, mental, or economic coercion. Subsequently, I will explore examples of direct and indirect collaborators that directly impacted the destruction of the Dutch Jewry, showcasing the insidious casual anti-Semitism of the Dutch populace that emerged following the Occupation. The Complicity of the Dutch Government The Dutch government was in chaos during the initial German invasion of May 1940. Due to their neutrality during the Great War, both the Dutch military and monarchy were unprepared for the emergence of war. The official heads of state, including Queen Wilhemina, Prime Minister Pieter Gerbrandy, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eelco Van Kleffens, and other 135 Ibid., 20. Bellin 42 top-ranking officials fled to London to set up a government in exile and continue governance as best they could.136 The bureaucracy they left behind was still intact, but without any leaders in vital positions. These vacancies were soon filled by Austrian and German Nazis loyal to Reichskommisar Seyes-Inquart. The Dutch government also left instructions for Dutch officials to remain in their offices and cooperate with their occupiers.137 If the Dutch officials had resisted, the thinking was that they would all be replaced by Germans, meaning that there would be no one who had the Netherlands best interests in office and that the situation would be even direr for the Dutch population. Leading Dutch officials wanted to have government officials stay to prevent this catastrophe from occurring, but without leadership telling them not to collaborate, Dutch officials followed German orders closely and never considered the scale of the anti-Semitic orders they were enforcing and complying with. Throughout the end of 1940 and 1941, the German occupiers had their minds set on the registration of Dutch Jews, so that all of their information was readily available meaning they could be easily mobilized and deported. This information referred to their personal history, which was compiled to see who qualified as Jewish. The Germans decreed that you were Jewish if you had at least three Jewish grandparents, or if you had two Jewish grandparents that belonged to a Jewish religious community. They later changed this to if you had one Jewish grandparent in a Jewish religious community, which applied to people who no longer considered themselves Jewish, but had at one point been a member of a Jewish religious community. This expanded the net that the Germans cast.138 136 Adrian F. Manning, The Position of the Dutch Government in London up to 1942, Journal of Contemporary History 13, no. 1 (1978): 117118. 137 Pim Griffioen and Ron Zeller, The Netherlands: The greatest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe, Anne Frank Website, https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/netherlands-greatest-number-jewish-victims-wester n-europe/. 138 Presser, 35-36. Bellin 43 Almost every single Dutch Jew complied with the new registration by August of 1941, with 140,552 full Jews, along with 14,549 half Jews and 5,719 quarter Jews registered.139 Why did so many comply? There are a few reasons that can explain this. Presser argues that Dutch Jews had always lived in a well-regulated society, in which ones name stood on all sorts of index cards and registers.140 This insinuates that the Dutch Jews did not understand the gravity of registering their information and that this was normal behavior within Dutch society. Presser also conjectures that fear and defiance might have played a part, per Dutch Jewish historian Abel Herzbergs findings. 141 Both authors believed individuals remained proud of their Jewish heritage during this registration despite their fear of what might result in their compliance. However, this is mere speculation that was made by these scholars long after these events occurred.142 It seems likely that both Dutch Jews and the officials registering them may have been apprehensive. To counter this, scholars have posited that Dutch officials involved in the registration process convinced themselves that they would be protected by complying with the registration.143 The Dutch officials, put at ease with this false assumption, were thus able to convince the Jewish population that they would be safe, remaining in Dutch hands. Some of these Dutch hands were not so safe. J. L. Lentz, a dedicated Dutch civil servant and Head of the Census Office, created a system of population register in 1936 that was far more advanced than what the Netherlands had previously employed, and he won a medal for this 139 Ibid., 38. Half Jew means only two Jewish grandparents, and quarter Jew means one Jewish grandparent. As we can see here, they did distinguish some between these classifications. The given number of Dutch Jews is generally 140,000, which would account for all of the full Jews, but not half or quarter. Did that mean that the half and quarter Jews were in any less danger? Since they would have been identified on their identity cards as half or quarter (instead of the J they would have had a B I or a B II), this meant they were safer. Mason says that both mixed marriage Jews as well as half and quarter Jews very often survived, as the Nazis did not bother to kill them, although that might have been on the cards at one point, given that they were identified as part Jewish. 140 Presser, 37. 141 Ibid. 142 Ibid. 143 Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 318. Bellin 44 feat.144 This, along with the identity card that he created specifically for Jews, helped round up almost every single Dutch Jew.145 The identity card issued was so effective because it was almost impossible to forge, and everyone in the Netherlands was issued one. The Jewish identification card came with a large black J on it.146 Due to these actions, Lentz was tried and convicted of collaborating with the Germans and sentenced to three years in prison immediately after the war. Lentz was not a Nazi nor a Nazi sympathizer. During his trial, his lawyer defended him by showing that Lentz did not have pro-German sentiments and was considered a kind and humane person by co-workers and acquaintances.147 Was Lentz simply a hard worker, eager to please his new bosses? Or was he secretly glad to get rid of the Jews? Presser found a letter written from Lentz to the German authorities he had been working under, written in October of 1942, months after the initial roundups began: For my part, I would like to express appreciation of the confidence you repose in myself and my staff. Thanks to this and to your co-operation, the Census Office was able to contrive ways and means of carrying out its often difficult task [of identifying Jews].148 This shows a willingness to find Jews and to help the Germans remove them from society. All sectors of the Dutch population were told that Jews were being sent East to work in labor camps. However, Dutch historians Bart Van der Boom and Dienke Hondius argue that the Dutch were aware of the extermination taking place.149 Van der Boom used diaries of both Jews and gentiles in the Netherlands, where he discovered that at least some members of the Dutch population understood that the Jewish fate was death. To draw this conclusion he references the 144 Regina Gruter, Verkeerde Liefde Voor Bevolkingsregisters, Historisch Nieuwsblad, April 23, 2013, https://www.historischnieuwsblad.nl/fatale-liefde-voor-bevolkingsregisters/. Essentially, the system the Dutch employed was not uniform, and Lentz recreated it. 145 Presser, 37-40. 146 Ibid., Just full Jews got the J, half and quarter received a different indicator of their status. 147 Gruter, Verkeerde Liefde Voor Bevolkingsregisters. 148 Presser, 38. These are my brackets, added for clarity. 149 Van der Boom, The Auschwitz Reservation, 391-393. https://doi.org/10.1093/hgs/dcx042. Bellin 45 diaries of Etty Hillesum and Phillip Mechanicus, who were two Dutch Jews in Westerbork that wrote about their impending demise. However, Van der Boom also cites Gentile diaries, which used words such as extermination and eradication to describe the fate of the Dutch Jews.150 Concurrently, we see an important section of the government working tirelessly with the occupiers in direct collaboration. Thanks to overzealous officials like Lentz, Dutch Jews were easily identified, all at the hands of their government. Lentz may not have been explicitly an anti-Semite and Nazi, but his and others refusal to question what the Germans wanted and why certainly led to many unnecessary deaths. The Dutch Census Office, where Lentz worked, implemented German decrees as soon as they were passed, and these new measures proved detrimental to Dutch Jews. By November of 1940, the Census department complied with the German orders to have registration offices in every town with a Jewish population, with these offices staying open day and night to accomplish the task.151 Although the Dutch initially struggled with towns registering Jewish populations, Lentz blamed it on the Dutch burgomasters (mayors) not all having access to the decree, which came in a Dutch governmental weekly.152 After minimal German pressure, the burgomasters, who were ordered to check that the information received about the Jewish citizens were correct, immediately complied. Out of 1050 municipalities, 555 complied with the orders by May of 1941, with another 483 not having any Jews to register.153 This meant that only 12 did not comply, and the reasons for this are unknown, although Presser speculates that they merely lagged behind and eventually got their information in.154 By September, German officials had 150 Ibid. Presser, 37. 152 Ibid. 153 Ibid., Presser used primary sources to gather all of his information, many supplied by the Dutch State Department. Alas the translated version eschewed many of these notes and where they were specifically gathered from. 154 Ibid., This was not a form of resistance, merely a slow undertaking. 151 Bellin 46 complete access to information on who was Jewish in the Netherlands, and where they could be found. The Germans certainly thought very highly of the Dutch officials, whom they called exemplary.155 This would not be the last time that Dutch officials were praised for their efficiency by the Germans. As mentioned previously in this thesis, Seyss-Inquart and his fellow Nazis passed incisive anti-Semitic measures that were promptly followed by the Dutch government with little protest or hesitation. This included the removal of all Dutch Jews from government positions with almost no protest from gentile officials, followed by the Aryan declaration form which all non-Jews in the government had to sign.156 Government officials complied with these orders, even though these were obvious anti-Semitic measures. Further dismissal of Jews from their jobs occurred not long after. By 1942, Dutch Jews were incapable of enjoying any sort of amenities, had an enforced curfew, were only allowed to be on certain streets in certain areas, and could only attend all Jewish schools.157 Numerous measures were continuously enforced to completely dehumanize the Dutch Jewry and strip them of all civic and human rights afforded to them, and all the while, the Dutch government continued to work entirely for the German occupiers without attempting to clandestinely or publicly show support for the Jewish population. Officials most likely felt some sympathy for the Jewry, yet there was no active support within the government, and the civil servants carried on as if they were carrying out routine chores.158 This direct collaboration profoundly impacted Dutch Jews and helped the Germans achieve their hateful, anti-Semitic ends. 155 Ibid. Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 322. 157 Ibid., 323. 158 Ibid., 325. 156 Bellin 47 The Jewish Council The Jewish Council was established after periods of Jewish unrest, caused by aggressive policing methods by both the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging (NSB, also known as the Dutch Nazi Party) and German Police. The Jewish Council officially came into being on February 12 of 1941, just before the February Strike.159 The leaders of the Jewish Council were Jewish, and they were led by two prominent Dutch Jews: Abraham Asscher, a leading diamond merchant, and Professor David Cohen, a history professor.160 Rabbis of both the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Congregations were supposed to be involved as well, but they stepped down for unknown reasons. Other important Jewish leaders stepped up, and only one, Professor Frijda, refused because the council would never be more than a tool for the Germans.161 The Council took all of their orders from the Germans and was set up by the German occupiers to control the Jewry of Amsterdam at first. They were ordered to tell the Jewish community to surrender their weapons so that the Germans would not have to raid the community and take people away.162 In less than two weeks, the February Strike ensued, and German officials threatened to deport or shoot hundreds of Jews if the Jewish Council did not put an end to it.163 Asscher used his influence as a merchant to talk with industrial leaders who participated in the strike and urged them to stop to save Jewish lives, which they agreed to do.164 However, the Jewish Council was called upon continually by the Germans, and saving the Jewish population from their position got more difficult. The Jewish Council had very little say in what the Germans told them to do. The Jewish Council members were threatened repeatedly with deportations (including their family and 159 Presser, 47. Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 326. 161 Presser, 48. 162 Ibid., 48-49. 163 Ibid., 56-57. 164 Ibid. 160 Bellin 48 friends) if they did not cooperate. At first, the Jewish Council was responsible for simply disarming the Jews of Amsterdam. Their orders soon escalated to keeping all Dutch Jews in Amsterdam and forbidding them to leave.165 By complying with these demands, Asscher and Cohen thought that they were doing what they thought best for the Jewish population, especially since the Germans had already shown themselves capable of violence and destruction when necessary.166 Besides these actions, the Jewish Council also created a weekly newspaper (at the behest of the Germans) called Het Joodse Weekblad.167 This paper served as the propaganda from the Jewish Council to the Dutch Jewry. Jewish Council officials thought that they were helping the Jewish population, and the newspaper served as their advice, even though they passed down the German measures through the paper as well. Other media were forbidden from talking about the Jewish population, so Jews had to turn to Het Joodse Weekblad. The Jewish Council thus influenced most Jewish decisions until the deportations began, and even after the deportations, Het Joodse Weekblad would not print about raids occurring or deportations. Instead, it acted as a mask with advertisements for Jewish art and culture. Another act that the Jewish Council had to carry out was the distribution of yellow Stars of David, which all Dutch Jews were required to wear in public by the end of April 1942. Cohen and Asscher protested vehemently against this, in a similar manner to other orders imposed on them. However, they agreed to go along with it, as Asscher thought that the war would be over in a few months.168 How mistaken he was. By the summer of 1942, the Germans were ready to implement the Final Solution in the Netherlands and forced the Jewish Council to act as the catalyst. The Jewish Council was 165 Ibid., 65. Hans Vanderwerff, The Holocaust: Lest We Forget - Jewish Council, http://www.holocaust-lestweforget.com/jewishcouncil.html. 167 This translates to The Jewish Weekly in English. 168 Presser, 121. 166 Bellin 49 ordered to help with the registration of those who were selected for deportation, as well as sending letters to the Jews that were picked to be deported. When that did not produce a response, they were ordered to put in threatening editorials in the Jewish Weekly.169 Because very few Jews complied with these letters, the Germans dispatched Dutch and German police to round up those who refused to show up.170 The Jewish Council was initially informed by the head of the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, Ferdinand Aus der Funten, that the Jews would be sent East to work in labor camps, and that they would be in livable conditions.171 The Jewish Council was upset with this decision, and a few, notably MJ Pool, argued against cooperating anymore, as he thought they were leading ourselves to slaughter.172 Despite the anger that the Jewish Council expressed, they went ahead with the orders. Some on the Council assumed that the Germans would do the deportations themselves if the Council refused. They also thought that by assisting the Germans, they could protect important members of the Jewish community so that they could rebuild when this was all over.173 The Jewish Council determined that to save the majority of Dutch Jews, they would have to sacrifice a few thousand. This plan backfired, as the Germans kept upping the numbers of Jews sent to the transit camps, including all of the members of the Jewish Council by October 1943. Only Asscher and Cohen are reported to have survived, thanks to the fact that they were sent to Bergen-Belsen and Theresienstadt respectively.174 169 Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 329. Ibid. 171 Erik Schumacher, 1942: Oorlog op alle fronten (Spectrum: 2017). Excerpt from Historiek, Het Dilemma van de Joodse Raad, Accessed November 30, 2021, https://historiek.net/joodse-raad-tweede-wereldoorlog/67779/. 172 Ibid. 173 Ibid., The Jewish Council were secretly including themselves in this list of important Jews who had the capacity to rebuild the shattered Jewish structure, along with other important businessmen, merchants, and rabbis, presumably. 174 Bergen-Belsen was sometimes thought of as a less deadly concentration camp because it housed prisoners who were to be exchanged, meaning that the conditions were not as deplorable. That is not to take away from the horrible conditions that took place in Bergen-Belsen, where over 50,000 people died. 170 Bellin 50 Scholarly opinion on the Jewish Council is mixed due to their complicity with the Germans as well as the impossible position they were put into. Ido De Haan understands the difficult situation the Jewish Council was placed in, yet he does mention that the Jewish Council willingly put pressure on the Jewish population to acquiesce to the German demands.175 Although De Haan argues that the Jewish Council was complicit, he acknowledges that the Dutch Jewish Council was established by the Germans and was under threat from the German occupiers, whereas the French and Belgian Jewish Councils were established by Jewish initiative and were able to remain more independent from the Germans.176 Presser takes up a less accusatory but by no means sympathetic stance on the Jewish Council, particularly regarding the leaders Asscher and Cohen. Presser consistently shows them as conflicted between trying to mediate what the Germans want with what they think is best, with them repeatedly portrayed as protesting in vain and ultimately giving in to German demands. As time goes on, Presser sees their resolve weakened, especially when it came time for deportations to begin, and when the Germans ask for more and more Jews to be sent to transit camps and readied for deportations. Sam de Wolff, a Dutch Marxist and Zionist, wrote his thoughts on the Jewish Council in 1947 (referred to here as the Judenrat, the Dutch name), expressing the same mixed feelings other contemporary scholars have: No other Jewish organization was allowed by the Nazis during the war years, hence it was out of necessity that the Judenrat, with all its ugly facets, was forced upon the Jewish community. A civil court judge cannot and may not sit in judgment over the question whether or not one can speak of a special Jewish guilt. Only the Jewish people may do so. As reprehensible as the involvement of the members of the Judenrat was, and that of Asscher and Cohen in particular, it is doubtful whether the Jewish community, after all these years, still demands punishment for their involvement. Regardless the failure of the Nikolaus Wachsmann, KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps (Great Britain: Little, Brown, and Co. 2015), p.337. 175 Ido De Haan, The Holocaust In The Netherlands: National Differences in a Western European Context, Ab Imperio, no. 2 (2019): 92. doi:10.1353/imp.2019.0031. 176 Ibid. Bellin 51 Judenrat to have been of help or even of assistance to the doomed Jews in Holland, willing collaborators they were not.177 De Wolff was a politician as well as a journalist who was sent to Westerbork and survived after he was exchanged for a German prisoner of war. He understands firsthand the complicit nature of the Jewish Council, as their actions sent him and thousands of other Dutch Jews to transit camps. He knows that what Asscher, Cohen, and the other members of the Jewish Council did was reprehensible, but that they were coerced and that the situation may have been worse if left solely to the Germans. De Wolff is neither sympathetic nor in a rush to welcome them back into the Jewish community, but he is also not ready to condemn them to death, like the other Dutch collaborators. I partially agree with what scholars have been arguing about the Jewish Council, as it is a gray area. Asscher and Cohen stepped up in a time of crisis, as they thought of themselves as leaders of the Jewish community and that they could make a difference. No matter what, the Germans were going to persist in their efforts to destroy the Dutch Jewry one way or another. Did the Jewish Councils pleas to obey the Germans and it will all be for the better make things worse than if the Germans had started off using force? We will never know for sure. What we do know is that the Jewish Council played a huge role in gathering up the Dutch Jewry into one location, and repeatedly telling people that they were being sent east to the labor camps and not to worry. The contradictions to this argument appeared as soon as the infirm, the elderly, and children were requested to be sent east to do hard manual labor. However, others understood as well that the Jewish Council might not be telling the full truth. Etty Hillesum, who worked as a typist for the Jewish Council and wrote a memoir about her life during this time, had this to say on June 27th, 1942, days before the deportations truly 177 Cited by Hans Vanderwerff, The Holocaust: Lest We Forget - Jewish Coucil, http://www.holocaust-lestweforget.com/jewishcouncil.html. Bellin 52 began: The latest news is that all Jews will be transported out of Holland through Drenthe Province [where Westerbork Transit camp is located] and then on to Poland. And the English Radio has reported that 700,000 Jews perished last year alone, in Germany and the occupied territories.178 Hillesum became a famous diarist when her diaries and letters were found after her death in Auschwitz, and she gave a clear insight into what life was like both before and after the deportations began. Here, her fear is palpable, as well as a sense of doom. There was no public mention of deportations when she wrote this, but the reports that had gotten out were terrifying. Clearly, some people were aware that more than labor might be happening in the east. The Jewish Council certainly could have questioned more vehemently why certain demographics of Dutch Jews (i.e. the sick and elderly) were sent to do work. The Jewish Council failed their fellow Jews, and by thinking of some of them as disposable, opened the door for all of them to be considered that way regardless of what the Council thought. There were instances where they could have protested more yet fear for their lives took hold and forced them to continue. The Jewish Council acted as indirect collaborators in this circumstance, as they were threatened with death and forced to assist with the persecution of Dutch Jews. Although they may have had good intentions at the start, manipulation by the Germans and fear of death caused the Jewish Council to be a steady tool used for the destruction of the Dutch Jewry. The Dutch Police The Dutch police were readily used by the Germans in whatever capacity they asked, whether that was assisting in rounding Jews up or enforcing anti-Semitic laws. This included a crackdown on the few Jews who attempted to evade the identity card. According to the official police report, there were only three Jews who attempted this, and all three were caught and dealt 178 Hillesum,150. Brackets in quote are mine. Bellin 53 with. An infraction this small may have warranted a slap on the wrist or a small fine, but the Dutch police thought otherwise. Presser states that From the tone in which this matter was discussed by Dutch officials and from the way the Dutch police apprehended the culprit, we might suppose that they considered him a dangerous criminal.179 The Dutch police were not the main perpetrators nor instigators of the horrific actions occurring, yet they were at the disposal of those who did perpetrate these crimes against humanity, making them direct collaborators. By November 1941, Dutch police had been ordered by the German officials to assist in anti-Semitic activities: closing Jewish shops, searching Jewish homes, as well as attending raids.180 The Germans also set up the PBA (Police Battalion Amsterdam) which was a front for Dutch National Socialists to act as a police force and help round up Jews. Not all Dutch police acquiesced to German demands, and some resisted, either in small acts of sabotage or in refusing to capture Jews entirely. Presser speaks of 180 police officers who supported the actions of several Dutch police who refused to round up Jews because of orders from the Catholic Church, however, German pressure forced all but 23 of these men to cave in and return to work.181 The rest went underground during the war. Not all Dutch police were willing to collaborate, as evidenced by this resistance, but this was not the norm. Dutch police may have complained about their tasks involving capturing Jews who refused to report to the transit camps, yet they rarely protested. Etty Hillesum wrote briefly about a conversation she had with a Dutch policeman who guarded the transports: A young, sad Dutch police officer told me one transport night, I lose two kilos during a night like this, and all I have to do is to listen, look, and keep my mouth shut.182 This officer was certainly upset about the 179 Presser, 40. Ibid., 349. 181 Ibid., 350-352. 182 Hillesum, 294. 180 Bellin 54 weight of his actions, yet he persisted nonetheless. Many officers were in similar situations and also continued with their jobs despite the assignments given. According to reports, some 90 percent of Amsterdam police were involved in some way in the Jewish deportations. 183 Some of the primary documents that Dutch officers left are disturbing: Caught 8 Jews tonight. Later, with G. and De V., caught a further twenty-four Jews in Wesper Street. (New Date) Jew-hunt tonight; a very successful evening. Must have bagged several hundreds of them during the past few weeks. Got home at 3:30 a.m.184 We have seen examples of men standing up to the Germans, yet we also have examples of men who enjoyed the work that they were doing. Besides their cooperation with the German Police, Dutch officers assisted in leading the Dutch Jewry to their destruction as they guarded the transports to Westerbork.185 Dutch involvement went even further, according to Westerbork detainee Erich Marx: The camp was guarded by the Dutch Marechausssee [Royal Military Constabulary].186 The Marechausseee was a part military, part police force used by the Dutch government for various purposes, including guarding Royal palaces and rounding up German-Jewish refugees, and returning them to Germany after Kristallnacht to prevent further refugees from entering the country.187 Loe de Jong wrote that few police chiefs and mayors resisted any of the German demands, allowing for consistent support from the Dutch officials which helped deportations operate smoothly and efficiently.188 However, we do see examples of German frustration with the Dutch Police, as oftentimes the Dutch police worked too slowly for the liking of their occupiers. 183 Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 327. Presser, 354-355. This policeman was an auxillary policeman, a Dutchman specifically picked by the Germans because of his affiliations with the Dutch Nazi party and his anti-Semitic views. 185 Mason, Testing Human Bonds Within Nations, 327. 186 Erich Marx, Thats How it Was, 77. 187 Loe De Jong, The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II, Vol. 1, p. 496. Since this text is entirely in Dutch, I relied on Google Translate for translations, however the text stated that The police in our large municipalities do not know what their course of action should be towards these - sometimes paperless - Jews. Many can legally be deported. 188 Loe De Jong, The Kingdom of the Netherlands During World War II, Vol. 6, p. 29-36, 232-240. 184 Bellin 55 This frustration led to the dismissal of Dutch police in their role in capturing Jews at the start of 1943. Replacing them were Dutch volunteers, who the Germans found no shortage of: In Amsterdam alone, 1047 such volunteers offered their services, writes Presser.189 In the Netherlands, groups of citizens banded together under the new regime to help rid the country of Jews, oftentimes for money. The previous actions of both the government and the police allowed for these groups to go almost unchecked, as there was little resistance on a grand, unified scale. Bounty Hunters This next section relies heavily on the scholarly works of Ad Van Liempt, an investigative journalist who made it his mission to report on the activity of the Dutch bounty hunters. Many scholarly sources on the Dutch paradox, including Presser, De Jong, and De Haan, all mention the bounty hunters of the Colonne Henneicke, yet none go into great detail on the subject. Van Liempt mentions in his preface that the official documents about the political delinquents (bounty hunters) were transferred to the National Archive from the Ministry of Justice in 2000, which we can surmise meant that they were hidden from scholars for almost seven decades and were only recently made available.190 The primary sources that he uses to create this book include official police transcripts, letters, interviews, police files, and receipts of money paid to the bounty hunters who turned Jews in. These sources all contribute to the portrait of Dutch perpetrators and collaborators in the destruction of Dutch Jewry. An office was established in Amsterdam during the early days of the German Occupation which eventually served as the main office for finding and sending Dutch Jews to the transit camps. This office was called the Zentralstelle fr jdische Auswanderung, which translates to The Central Bureau for Jewish Emigration. At first, this office was simply concerned with where Jews were allowed to travel within the Netherlands, but their role grew much greater as the 189 190 Presser, 354. Van Liempt, ix. Bellin 56 implementation of the Final Solution grew nearer. The Zentralstelle (as we will call them from now on) was responsible for finding the Jews that were supposed to be sent to the transit camps. This office, run by the German occupiers, instructed the Jewish Council on how many people were to be sent for deportation. The Jewish Council then relayed these orders to the Dutch Jews when it was their time to go. Most Jews showed up when first ordered too. However, some refused and went into hiding. The Dutch Police and German Police were initially called on to find these individuals, but in 1943, Willi Lages, the German head of the Zentralstelle, turned to a new and more effective method of finding missing Jews: offering premiums to police at the Bureau of Jewish Affairs and civil servants who worked in the Zentralstelle, who were all Dutch save for one.191 These ordinary citizens took it upon themselves to hunt down missing Jews and use whatever methods available to turn in Dutch Jews, all for profit. Lages organized a group of Jewish bounty hunters out of one of the sections of the Zentralstelle: The Colonne Henneicke, a group responsible for tracking down missing Jewish goods. Colonne essentially means group or column, and Henneicke refers to Wim Henneicke, the man in charge of this group. Henneicke was a small-time criminal and auto mechanic who joined this section of the Zentralstelle known as the Hausraterfassung, an administrative center that was responsible for compiling lists of Jewish goods that were left by deported Jews. The Colonne Henneicke was the investigative division of the Hausraterfassung.192 The Hausraterfassung got almost all of their employees from unemployment offices, and they specifically chose people who were members of the Dutch Nazi Party (NSB).193 From October 1942 to March 1943, Henneicke led his group and largely used tips and violence to find missing or stolen Jewish goods, a job for which he was well suited given his connections to crime and his associates in the 191 Ibid., 18. Ibid., 21. 193 Ibid. 192 Bellin 57 Dutch underworld.194 This task was carried out efficiently by the members of the Colonne, no thanks to the fact that their salaries were paid largely by the goods they brought in. Because of this success, Lages hand-picked the Colonne Henneicke for his next, and cruelest assignment: bringing in Jews who failed to appear for deportation in exchange for kopgeld (head money), 7.50 guilders for each Jew (about $50 in today's money). Wim Henneicke, leader of the Colonne Henneicke. The members of the Colonne Henneicke were fanatical and worked diligently to round up as many Jews as they possibly could, using whatever means necessary. Within the Colonne itself, there were 54 members, many of whom were members of the NSB. The group was sometimes accompanied by Dutch police, but they largely worked based on their tips and informants. The Colonne offered a substantial amount of money for information, which meant that trusting people as a Dutch Jew became more and more difficult. When these processes went too slowly, Henneicke and others would simply patrol the streets of Amsterdam, on the lookout for any possible Jews.195 The members of the Colonne Henneicke were not the only ones to arrest Jews 194 195 Ibid., 27. Ibid., 37-38. Bellin 58 and collect money, although they did the majority of arrests. Employees in other divisions of the Hausraterfassung were sometimes authorized or ordered to make arrests, including bookkeepers and inventory takers.196 This greatly expanded how many Dutch citizens might have participated in arresting and finding Jews for money, meaning we will never be sure how many took part for sure. Van Liempt estimates that more than the 50 men were involved in some way with the Colonne, with the number probably rising into the hundreds. These men may not have repeatedly hunted down Dutch Jews like the official members of the Colonne Henneicke, but they did make arrests and turn in Jews for money. The bounty hunters did not discriminate by sex, age, or health status. Henneicke specifically had a man who would hunt for sick Jews. This practice was strongly discouraged by leaders at the Zentralstelle, most likely because the German occupiers practiced subtler means of rounding up Dutch Jews to avoid the outrage of Dutch gentiles. They got around this German guideline by assuring sick Jews that they would be sent an ambulance that would take them to a hospital for treatment. However, the ambulance carried them instead to the Dutch Theater in Amsterdam, the designated round-up point where they waited until deportation.197 Besides this deplorable practice, Van Liempt illustrates numerous instances of Henneickes men forcing Dutch families (who fostered Jewish children to keep them safe while their parents were deported or hiding) to turn in their hidden children, oftentimes under the age of six. One such story shows how low the bounty hunters would stoop to capture Jews, even children. The same man who used the ambulance to capture sick Jews also went to the house of one of his colleagues in the medical sector based on suspicions that they were hiding two young Jews. Despite the close connections he held, this bounty hunter ordered the arrest of the children, who were not 196 197 Ibid., 42-43. Ibid., 39. Bellin 59 quite three years old, as well as the detainment of his wife. The children were killed at Sobibor.198 They were not the only ones either, as Van Liempt estimates that hundreds of toddlers were captured by the Colonne Henneicke and sent east for execution.199 The Colonne Henneicke, despite being organized at first by the German officials in the Zentralstelle, was fully run and carried out by Dutch citizens, chief among them Wim Henneicke. They were used at various times as an auxiliary police force to help with large-scale raids, such as the raids of June 1943 where around 5,500 Jews were captured by members of the German Green Police with assistance from members of the Zentralstelle including the Colonne Henneicke.200 These men were not paid for their part in the raids, and soon after, returned to their normal occupation of hunting for Jews in hiding. Mention must be made of the notorious Dries Riphagen, another member of the Colonne Henneicke. Riphagen had a similar background to the leaders of the Colonne, except that he was even more steeped in crime and anti-Semitism. When the Germans came into power, Riphagen recognized his opportunity to make money and simultaneously demonstrate his rampant anti-Semitism. He established a corrupt system in which he offered to protect Jewish property for Jews going into hiding. Riphagen then turned those same Jews into authorities before they had a chance to hide, selling their goods afterward. He turned in an estimated 200 Jews through this system.201 There are documented reports of Riphagens violent anti-Semitism, showing that he was not simply in it for the money like most of the underlings in the Colonne Henneicke. In response to a Jewish man calling Riphagen a filthy pimp, Riphagen hunted him down and attacked him, as shown by an interview with a bartender who spoke with Riphagen after the 198 Ibid., 40. Ibid. 200 Ibid., 44. 201 Bart Middelburg and Ren ter Steege, Riphagen (Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 1990): 18. 199 Bellin 60 event: Now listen, I just punched that dirty k*** in the face and Im warning you again not to let that dirty k*** back in here, because Im from the SD, and if I see him here, hes a dead man.202 Riphagens greed and amoral nature allowed him to downright steal and have people killed. Ultimately, he knew that he would have to pay for his crimes, and fled the Netherlands for Spain, where he escaped capture and left again for South America. He showed his bold nature by returning to Europe several times to get his dirty money, before he eventually died in Switzerland in 1973, avoiding capture for almost twenty years.203 Dries Riphagen. Overall, the Colonne Henneicke reportedly helped capture an additional 8,500 Jews with just about 50 men working for them. The column did its work from March through October of 1943, eventually ending with the deportation of the final members of the Jewish Council: Asscher and Cohen.204 Their column was dismantled because by this point, they had captured 202 Van Liempt, 163. Riphagen mentions that he is from the SD, the Sicherheitsdienst, the intelligence wing of the SS. It is possible that he simply turned in Jews to the SD, but this threat still would have carried a lot of weight. Also, Riphagen was a pimp prior to his anti-Semitic activities. 203 Van Liempt, 164. 204 Ibid. Bellin 61 and deported almost all of the Jewish population who was not already interned at Westerbork, and their job was complete. Henneicke and the other leaders were reassigned, whereas the others largely joined Nazi organizations and continued their work in other ways, such as by tracking down resistance members.205 Why were there so many willing perpetrators who were ready to turn in and arrest their fellow citizens for money? As has been stated before, overt anti-Semitism in the Netherlands was almost nonexistent prior to the German invasion.206 To begin, we can look at the NSB, the Dutch Nazi Party, as a main source of collaboration. Both Henneicke and his comrade, Willem Bried, who handled much of the day-to-day operations, were members, and Bried was a friend of Anton Mussert, the leader of the NSB.207 Although the NSB was not founded on the same anti-Semitic policies that the German Nazi party held so closely, they came to share that same anti-Semitism, with many instances of derogatory language being used against the Jews while they were captured.208 Here, Bried showcased this aggressive language: (Bried) said to fifty-three-year-old businessman Jacob Rubens, who lived to tell the tale: If you say another word, you dirty Jew, Ill fill you full of lead. And thats not all. According to Rubens Bried had said during the arrest: Ill be straight with you, since youre going to be gassed anyway. Youre going right to Germany, and you wont be coming back.209 Being able to display this sort of blatant anti-Semitism and hatred might have been very appealing, especially for a group of men who would not have been able to showcase their hatred in other socio-political climates. Their anti-Semitism did not make them outcasts in the eyes of the German occupiers, rather it worked in their favor. 205 Ibid. Henneicke was killed by members of the Dutch Resistance in 1944. Ido De Haan, The Holocaust In The Netherlands, 86. 207 Van Liempt, 79. 208 Jews were allowed to be members of the NSB until 1939. 209 Van Liempt, 80. 206 Bellin 62 Besides anti-Semitism, money was a motivating factor for many of the men involved. The 7.50 guilders paid per Jew was certainly enticing, as well as the fact that they were paid a salary ranging from 200-250 guilders per month, which was a comfortable living at the time.210 According to a man who worked at the Bureau of Jewish Affairs (which also hunted Jews), the incentives ran up from 7.50 to almost 40 per person by the end of the Colonne Henneickes reign of terror.211 This much money was enough to move the men out of lower-class status and into a more luxurious lifestyle, all for betraying and sending their Dutch compatriots to death. Henneickes leadership and murderous determination to capture as many Jews as possible led others to follow suit. Most of his men were in their twenties and thirties, with only a few of them completing high school education. Van Liempt characterizes many of these men as impoverished individuals, who were hit hard by the Depression. As van Liempt says, Time and again, in the dossiers of Jew hunters, we find instances of out-of-work men being referred to the Hausraterfassung by the Municipal Employment office. This happened so often that it was clearly official policy.212 The incentive of money and a life lifted out of poverty was enough to convince many men to join the ranks of the Hausraterfassung, with some willing to trade peoples lives for it. However, if the bounty hunters were ever apprehensive about what they were doing, the leadership would coerce them into continuing the work. According to Van Liempt, Henneicke and Willem Bried threatened their coworkers who were showing less zeal to capture Jews, sometimes with threats of being sent to concentration camps themselves.213 This truly shows the fanatical nature of the Henneicke Colonne. Henneicke was described by many as ruthlessly 210 Ibid., 58. Ibid., 62-63. 212 Ibid., 201. 213 Ibid., 36. 211 Bellin 63 efficient and cold, willing to turn in his downstairs Jewish neighbors (which he did). He was not afraid to threaten and arrest his men along with people he had close contact with, as long as he got results. All in all, the Colonne Henneicke shows the deplorable nature of what people are willing to do to make ends meet, even sacrificing fellow Dutch citizens. This leads me to conclude that the leaders of the column, Henneicke and Breid, were active perpetrators against the Dutch Jewry as they took responsibility and led the Colonne Henneicke. That leaves the rest as direct collaborators, who chose to involve themselves with the Colonne Henneicke for anti-Semitic reasons and easy money. It is possible to argue that some bounty hunters were only indirect collaborators because they were coerced either through threats or because their economic condition forced them into a position where they had to make money unscrupulously. However, there are examples of men in other circumstances who were forced under pain of torture and death to collaborate who refused and instead joined the Resistance or fled. If money was the motivator for impoverished individuals, it was the allure of easy money and the thrill of holding power over their fellow man that gave them the ability to partake in these reprehensible actions, rather than on account of not being able to find money elsewhere. Other impoverished individuals made do without betraying their fellow Dutchmen and sending them to their doom. Dutch Railways One last, important area of direct collaboration and anti-Semitism comes from the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways), the national railways of the Netherlands. The efficiency of the Dutch Railways allowed the Germans to quickly move over 100,000 Dutch Jews from the Netherlands into the death camps of the East within two years: from the summer of 1942 to the summer of 1944. In England, the Dutch government-in-exile demanded that the Bellin 64 Dutch Railway workers go on strike, which they duly complied with. However, this action occurred in the fall of 1944, after all of the Dutch Jews had been transported to the concentration camps.214 No rail workers protested against the tasks handed down by the Germans save for one individual. He refused and was replaced by a willing driver, suffering no repercussions.215 A few others, according to the Nederlandse Spoorwegen historian Guus Veenendaal, asked G. Joustra, the chairman of the railway workers union, what they should do in their situation, to which he said it was better not to refuse what was being asked of them.216 Dutch railroad workers were switched out with their German counterparts once they reached the border of the Netherlands. Although they did not drive them directly to the camps, the Dutch railway personnel transported them from their native land, where the rail workers and Jews were recently considered to be citizens of the same status, to the land of the occupier. It seems likely that the drivers and other workers knew what was happening, based on the other reports and rumors going around at the time. Whether they chose to believe what was happening is a different case. This willed ignorance is a clear sign of anti-Semitism, as many chose to ignore the harsh reality and comply rather than do anything to protest or help the Dutch Jewry. Recently, in 2005, the Nederlandse Spoorwegen apologized for their collaboration with the Germans and their role in the deaths of over 100,000 Dutch Jews, along with the resistance members, homosexuals, disabled people, and Roma they also transported to their deaths. In 2018, the company decided that it would compensate survivors and family members with between $5,500 and-16,000 available per person.217 This small sum of money in return for the 214 Nina Siegal, Dutch Railroad Reckons With Holocaust Shame, 70 Years Later, The New York Times, September 28, 2019, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/28/world/europe/ns-dutch-railway-holocaust.html. 215 Manfred Gerstenfeld, Apoligies For Holocaust Behavior and Refusal to do so: The Dutch Case in an International Context, Jewish Political Studies Review 18, no. 3/4 (2006): 40. 216 Ibid. 217 Siegal, Dutch Railroad Reckons with Holocaust Shame. Bellin 65 lives of so many lost is hardly fair or considerate, yet the acknowledgment of their collaboration is a step in the right direction in coming to terms with their horrendous past. Chapter Three: Voices When the Netherlands and the Holocaust are brought up together, an instant connection is made to Anne Frank, the brave young diarist who continued to write while in hiding from the Nazi terror. Due to the widespread success of her diary after the war and the heartwarming messages of perseverance and positivity, The Diary of a Young Girl became an incredible success, as it was a symbol of universal suffering.218 Thanks to this success, the Netherlands gained an invincible reputation for its stance against the Nazis and many associated the Dutch during World War II as stalwarts for protecting the Jewry. 219 Yet, as we have discussed, this is a misconception. The promotion of individual success stories showing Jews being saved by gallant Dutch citizens, including the enduring popularity of Anne Frank, has allowed the Dutch citizens to hide behind this faux shield instead of confronting the fact that the majority of Dutch citizens were direct or indirect collaborators in the devastation of the Dutch Jewry. This shows the passive anti-Semitism on the part of the Dutch that allowed them to comply and cooperate with an enemy that made clear their anti-Semitic intentions.220 For this chapter, I will explore the accounts of the Dutch Jews and gentiles who collaborated, directly or indirectly, with the German occupiers, as well as those who were victimized by the actions of collaborators. I have already given an account of the State-sponsored collaboration, with the Dutch directly allowing collaboration to occur through active 218 Bovenkerk, 238. Ibid. 220 The Dutch taking credit and basing their savior mythology on Anne Frank is strange for a number of reasons. Firstly, she was German, and moved to the Netherlands as a refugee, something the Dutch Gentile and Jewish authorities disliked in principle (hence the initial building of Westerbork). Next, the man who helped the Franks find hiding was an Austrian named Miep Gies. Finally, if the Franks were betrayed, it has been theorized that it was most likely a Dutch citizen who betrayed them. 219 Bellin 66 participation on the part of the government. In this next section, I want to delve deeper into the voices of those affected by this betrayal on the part of the Dutch citizens. The government acquiesced to the demands of the Germans and allowed access to their personal information which made rounding up the Dutch Jewry that much easier. These violations convinced the Germans that the Dutch would collaborate if ordered to, which is exactly what happened with the Colonne Henniecke. The bounty hunters were active perpetrators, and they coerced direct and indirect collaboration out of ordinary Dutch citizens, sometimes leading them into committing horrific acts of treason. This next section will interpret and analyze primary source accounts of betrayal and direct and indirect collaboration by Gentiles as well as Jews who were forced into collaborating. Many of the sources come from interviews with survivors, as well as accounts that were taken from the work of scholars who had access to interviews.221 Etty Hillesum Although The Diary of a Young Girl is the most recognizable wartime diary in both the Netherlands and the world, Etty Hillesums account of her life during the German occupation of the Netherlands as well as her subsequent letters from her time in Westerbork are equally important in understanding the firsthand suffering and thoughts of Dutch Jews. Hillesums An Interrupted Life and Letters From Westerbork is a powerful, thought-provoking documentation 221 Such as Van Liempt and Van der Boom. Bellin 67 of the life of a Dutch Jew struggling to come to grips with the changing world around her while still living her life as a woman in her late twenties. Throughout the diaries, the personal growth of Hillesum, as well as the development of her religious and philosophical views, are readily apparent. Hillesum was born in the Netherlands in 1914 and was a gifted child. She came from an intellectual family that encouraged independent and unique learning, leading her to become involved with a group of leftist-leaning friends who worked closely with the resistance.222 To make money, Hillesum worked as a housekeeper, as well as giving Russian lessons to aspiring pupils.223 Throughout the first part of her diaries, the war going on around her and the gradual stripping of Jewish rights is not at the forefront of Hillesums thoughts. However, the degradation of the imposition of the Star of David on Jews had a profound impact on her: 8:00 p.m. (April 29, 1942): There seemed to be a touch of nervousness just now in his [S., her lovers] voice, when he asked me somewhat ironically on the telephone, Well, are you coming over here with your yellow star? Only a few months ago I still believed that politics did not touch me and wondered if that was unworldliness, a lack of real understanding. Now I dont ask such questions anymore. I have grown so much stronger224 This diary was written on April 29, 1942, the date that the yellow star became mandatory for Dutch Jews to wear out in public. A change in Hillesum is noticeable at this point, as she admits. At first, she was not as concerned with what was going on around her, but this new measure which stripped the individuality of Jews into an easily recognizable target made her realize the present danger she was in. The next few months show a change in Hillesum which at first seems fatalistic. A few days away from the first scheduled deportations to Westerbork, Hillesum wrote I must admit a new insight into my life and find a place for it: what is at stake is our impending destruction and annihilation, we can have no more illusions about that. They are out to destroy us 222 Hillesum, xvi-xvii. Ibid. 224 Ibid., 126. 223 Bellin 68 completely, we must accept that and go on from there.225 While writing her diary, Hillesum referred to individual German soldiers, yet never spoke about the complicity of the Dutch citizens, except in more cryptic language: I shall not be bitter if others fail to grasp what is happening to us Jews.226 These last two quotes offer us incredibly poignant insight into the thoughts of the Dutch Jewry at a critical time. Hillesum and other Jews likely began to realize the insidious nature of the German plan to relocate the Dutch Jews to the east. Yet, they are also aware of the oblivious nature of Dutch gentiles, as Hillesum understood that others fail to grasp what is happening. This shows the culpability of the Dutch as collaborators, whether they knew it at the time or not. So many Dutch gentiles worked in sectors of the government concerned with creating a registry of Dutch Jews, as well as identifying them as Jews, yet never once protested or spoke out about what they were doing. Besides the direct collaboration of these government workers, numerous degrading measures were also passed, which Hillesum mentioned frequently: Why this mood at this particular moment? Is it because so many people have had sore feet ever since they were stopped from using the trams?... Because Liesl stood in a queue and didnt get any vegetables at all?227 Here, she mentioned two anti-Semitic measures passed: the inability for Jews to use public transportation and the denial of shopping at greengrocers. Was it possible for Dutch citizens to not notice their fellow Jewish citizens subjected to anti-Semitic actions in public, and then not notice their complete removal from society itself? No, it was not possible. This was willful ignorance. As Presser strongly states, Did not the officials of Dutch municipalities collaborate in the registration of Jews and in placing the letter J on Jewish identity cards? Did not virtually all government employees sign the declaration of Aryan descent? Did not the Dutch authorities 225 Ibid., 153. Ibid., 154. 227 Ibid., 153-154. 226 Bellin 69 collaborate in dismissing Jewish civil servants? The judiciary in dispensing German justice? The Department of Social Affairs, the municipalities and the District Labour Offices in allowing themselves to be used to deport Jews to the work camps? The municipal authorities of Amsterdam in concentrating all Jews in their city? The streetcars, the railways and the police, in helping during the deportations, and the gendarmerie in guarding Westerbork camp?228 Presser concludes his deconstruction of the ways the Dutch actively collaborated by saying What non-Jew has a clear conscience? And what Jew, for that matter? 229 Clearly, Dutch gentiles witnessed a systematically organized genocide, with some taking a direct part. What Hillesum referred to are the witnesses, who chose to ignore what was going on around them. Criminologist Frank Bovenkerk posits three reasons as to why the Dutch may have been apathetic and willfully ignorant bystanders: one, there are so many other people who could do something; two, problems identifying with the Jews to sympathize; and three, difficulty in thinking that one can effectively intervene, especially given the strength of their Nazi adversaries.230 Despite the bystander nature of those around her, Hillesum refused to be bitter and instead chose to focus on the meaningfulness of life.231 Closer to the actual deportations, the acute fear of what will happen next is evident in Jewish conversation, as Hillesum is criticized for not going into hiding by other Jews: Many accuse me of indifference and passivity when I refuse to go into hiding; they say I have given up. They say everyone who can must try to stay out of their clutches, it's our bounden duty to try. But that argument is specious. For while everyone tries to save himself, vast numbers are nevertheless disappearing.232 Here is where Hillesum displayed fatalistic and depressive tendencies, yet given the situation, it is entirely appropriate. Factors not widely known at the 228 Presser, 273-274. Ibid., 274. 230 Bovenkerk, The Other Side of the Anne Frank Story, 248-249. 231 Hillesum, 154. Full quote: I shall not be bitter if others fail to grasp what is happening to us Jews. I work and continue to live with the same conviction, and I find life meaningful--yes, meaningful-- although i hardly dare say so in company these days. 232 Ibid., 176. 229 Bellin 70 time made hiding difficult; this includes the registration of Jews, the bounty hunters, and the general cooperation of the gentiles. Others are planning and ready to go into hiding, yet Hillesum had every intention of facing whatever fate has in store for her. The other factor involved in her decision to not go into hiding was Hillesums burgeoning foray back into the folds of Judaism. Hillesum said in defense of not trying to save herself, I dont feel in anybodys clutches; I feel safe in Gods arms233 Hillesum readily accepted God as an almighty protector and savior. She believed in the faith and deliverance of God, and so did not attempt to go into hiding like others in her situation. However, those Jews did not reckon with the antipathy and fear that caused so many that went into hiding to be caught, turned in by vicious, amoral bounty hunters as well as intimidated and spineless gentiles. Despite Hillesums choice to not go into hiding, she was granted a boon that so many other Amsterdam Jews desperately desired: a job working at the Jewish Council as a typist. And I have been recommended for some sort of job with the Jewish Council. They had permission to hire 180 people last week, and the desperate are thronging there in droves, Hillesum wrote, But that is as far as I am prepared to go, and beyond that I am not willing to pull any strings. In any case, the Jewish Council seems to have become a hotbed of intrigue, and resentment against this strange agency is growing by the hour. And sooner or later it will be their turn to go, anyway.234 Hillesum does not have a high opinion of the work being done by the Jewish Council, as their selective picking of who they decided went to Westerbork and who remained undoubtedly sparked anger and confusion. She did not apply for this job; a friend recommended her. As she mentioned, people were desperate to receive the deferment that working at the Jewish Council granted, even though Hillesum prophetically predicted the eventual fate of this 233 234 Ibid. Ibid., 177. Bellin 71 organization, as well as the resentment that they generated from choosing who was to be deported. Working in this job did not fill Hillesum with joy; in fact, she despised the work that she was tasked with doing and immediately recognized the larger picture: But yesterday afternoon, it struck me how depressing, dreary, demeaning, and without any real point this whole business is: I humbly beg for exemption from labor service in Germany, because I am already working for the Wehrmacht here and am indispensable. The whole thing is hopeless. 235 Although the Jewish Council liked to believe that the work they were doing was saving the Dutch Jewry, Hillesum understood that they were only delaying inevitable destruction. Perhaps Asscher and Cohen thought that they were buying time for the Dutch Jews by cooperating and asking others to cooperate in Het Joodse Weekblad.236 In this quote, we see the return of Hillesums fatalistic tendencies as well as her bitterly joking that she already (is) working for the Wehrmacht, which goes to show the cruel malevolence of the German tactics: forcing Dutch Jews to assist with the round-up of other Dutch Jews as a way of temporarily avoiding fate, then finally capturing the last Jews remaining in the Jewish Council. Hillesums devastating words on this subject ring out like an epitaph: Nothing can ever atone for the fact, of course, that one section of the Jewish population is helping to transport the majority out of the country. History will pass judgment in due course.237 Hillesum believed that the Jewish Council was partially responsible for the deportation of the Dutch Jewry, and as a firsthand witness, trusting her verdict makes sense. She bore witness to the decisions that were made, then typed them up and helped those decisions get executed. Despite this, I still believe 235 Ibid., 193. Erik Schumacher, 1942: Oorlog op alle fronten (Spectrum: 2017). Excerpt from Historiek, Het Dilemma van de Joodse Raad, Accessed November 30, 2021, https://historiek.net/joodse-raad-tweede-wereldoorlog/67779/. 237 Hillesum, 196. 236 Bellin 72 that the psychological manipulation the German occupiers employed by having the Jews bear responsibility for who got deported, as well as the complete cooperation of the Dutch government and passive bystanders, bears the brunt of responsibility for the evil that occurred. The Germans wanted the Dutch Jews to turn on each other and believed that they were the ones to blame, and the Dutch government and police were willing to help out with no questions asked. Hillesum and others were placed in impossible positions, doomed either way thanks to the perpetration of the anti-Semitic German officials as well as the direct collaboration of the passively anti-Semitic Dutch government. Hillesum quit working for the Jewish Council just two weeks after she started, and began a new job where she accompanied the first group going to Westerbork. She did this to bring whatever help she could, and in her letters, she included how she would cheer up the depressed, help the sick, and find more food for the hungry.238 Hillesum was allowed to travel between Amsterdam and Westerbork for a short time due to the nature of her work before she was finally confined to Westerbork permanently. After spending a little more than a year in Westerbork, she was chosen as one of the thousand Jews that week to go east. Little is known about what happened in the interim after she arrived in Auschwitz, other than that her mother and father were killed immediately. The Red Cross reports that Etty Hillesum was killed on November 30, 1943. Hillesums writing offers us valuable insight into the mind of a young woman facing persecution and eventual death. What we can glean from her powerful writing is how the actions of those in systems of power affected her and others last months before deportation, as well as helping us understand the desperate situation Dutch Jews found themselves in. In the end, 238 One such example comes from page 323. Etty talks about how most people in Westerbork have no love of their fellow man, and Etty feels differently: Love for ones fellow man is like an elemental glow that sustains you. The fellow man himself has hardly anything to do with it. Oh Maria, its a little bit bare of love here, and I myself feel so inexpressibly rich; I cannot explain it. Hillesum, 323. Bellin 73 Hillesum, much like Anne Frank, remained convinced of the goodness of humanity, despite all of the horrible actions of men and women around her. Alfred Mnzer Our introduction began with a retelling of how the sisters of Alfred Mnzer may have been captured by the Nazis. In it, I employed historical fiction to describe the feelings and terror innocent children could have felt in their situation. Much of what we know about the Mnzer sisters comes from Alfred Mnzer, their younger brother who survived by being hidden by a Dutch-Indonesian family. Mnzer moved to America after the war with his mother where he became a physician. In recent years, Mnzer has given talks about his early life and the hardships he and his family had to endure, including his birth: In 1941, my mother realized she was pregnant again. Her obstetrician told her it would be immoral to bring another Jewish life into the world and urged her to have an abortion. But my mother ignored the doctor's advice.239 This quote shows us how deplorable the Jewish condition was in the Netherlands. Doctors told mothers to kill their children instead of having to face life in the Netherlands, even before the announcement of the deportations East. When it came time for the Mnzer patriarch to report to the train station for transportation to Westerbork, the family solution was almost as drastic as the doctors. Simcha [Alfreds father] faked a suicide attempt in order to be committed to a psychiatric hospital near The Hague, reports the United States Holocaust Museum.240 Meanwhile, Gisele [Alfreds mother] sold the familys possessions and settled her children with friends and neighbors before joining Simcha at the hospital as a nurses assistant.241 Unfortunately, this plan failed due to the 239 Eyewitness to History: Alfred (Al) Mnzer, Accessed August 31, 2021, //www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-reflections-testimonies/eyewitness-to-history/alfred-munzer 240 Alfred (Al) Mnzer United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Accessed April 8, 2022, https://www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-survivors/volunteers/alfred-muenzer. 241 Ibid. Bellin 74 ruthlessness of the German and Dutch police, who did not care who they were rounding up, even if they were psychiatric patients in a hospital: My parents only succeeded in hiding at the psychiatric hospital for three monthson New Year's Day 1943, all the Jews who had been hiding in the hospital were arrested by the SS.242 This is similar to the Colonne Henneicke bounty hunters who would capture sick and injured Dutch Jews even though German authorities disliked this practice initially. As time went on, the German opinion on the matter changed. German officials in the Netherlands established that every Jewish man, woman, and child, regardless of condition or status, was to be deported, even to the surprise of Nazi officials like Adolf Eichmann, who had not expected that many deportations to occur.243 Al Mnzer and his nanny Mima Sana. Fortunately for the youngest Mnzer, his protectors cared greatly for him and were willing to do anything to keep him safe, including his Indonesian nanny who slept with a knife in case someone tried to take him in the night.244 However, his sisters were not so lucky. Mnzers mother told him stories about how kind and sweet his sisters were, yet that did not prevent a Dutch collaborator who was supposed to protect them from betraying them. Mnzer emotionally recalls what happened to his sisters: 242 Eyewitness to History: Al Mnzer. Bovenkerk, The Other Side of the Anne Frank Story, 239. 244 Eyewitness to History: Al Mnzer. 243 Bellin 75 Sadly, my sisters met an entirely different fate. After a year with the two Catholic neighbors, they were placed in what was assumed to be a safer home. But there, the husband of the woman who had agreed to shelter my sisters denounced his wife and my sisters to the Nazis. His wife was sent to a concentration camp where she developed typhus, but survived. My sisters, however, were taken to Auschwitz where they were killed, February 11, 1944. They were seven and five years old.245 Children deemed too young or not fit enough to work in Auschwitz were killed immediately. The fates of Eva and Leah Mnzer were sealed even before they got to Westerbork, as they were essentially killed by the Dutch man who, instead of attempting to protect them like his wife, turned them in for whatever monstrous reason he had. After the War: Interviews with Surviving Dutch Jews Numerous interviews with surviving Dutch Jews have emerged long after the wars conclusion. This is largely because Dutch society as a whole struggled to come to grips with their role in an event that caused so many of their fellow citizens their lives, and for the most part, did not come to terms with what happened in the Netherlands until new scholarship in the 1980s and 1990s showed the complicity of Dutch gentiles. The return of Dutch Jews from the extermination camps after liberation prompted incomprehension and a lack of understanding from gentiles, as one surviving woman reports: For years I did not tell anyone anything about my experiences during the war. My lips were sealed. People dont understand, or they dont believe you.246 However, given the recent change in attitude in the Netherlands, survivors of the Holocaust have become more comfortable sharing their experiences. Many of the following interviews come from men and women who were children during the war. The interviews of survivors each emphasize different aspects of their experiences during the war. For instance, survivor Dukie Gelber largely spoke about the difficulties of going into hiding for his family. He talked briefly about his grandmother and aunt, who attempted to go into 245 246 Ibid. Hondius, 56. Bellin 76 hiding but were betrayed by Dutch Nazis and sent to Sobibor.247 Gelber emphasizes the lack of knowledge available in 1942, a key factor for why many did not go into hiding: We didnt know about Auschwitz. We never heard the name Treblinka, Sobibor, nothing. So we didnt know. Perhaps if they would have known about the extermination in the east they may have taken another decision, but that is hypothetical.248 The concentration camps were far in the east, in an area where Polish and Slavic Jews were being killed rapidly. Information getting back to the Netherlands took some time, although by 1943 there were reports of Dutch Nazis (such as members of the Colonne Henneicke) telling Jews that they would be going east to die. The fact that the leaders of the Jewish Council and members of the government, more knowledgeable than the rest of the Jewish population, said nothing to warn the Dutch Jewry, shows the extent of their culpability and collaboration. Their fear of the Germans, as well as their willingness to cooperate without question, led many like Gelber to follow their orders until it was too late. Still, Gelber and others clearly could not imagine what might happen. He also said that geographical isolation made hiding more difficult, as in the east and north was Germany, in the south was occupied Belgium, and in the west was the North Sea separating the Netherlands from England.249 This feeling of isolation and a lack of options seems apparent among many of the Dutch Jews, who had very little choice and very little help.250 Another survivor of the war, Henry Fenichel, talked about the collaboration of the Dutch police. When they invaded Holland, they didnt immediately round up the Jews. They were very smart about what they didBut then all of a sudden, the cop on the street corner, instead of being a Dutch cop, would be a Nazi cop or a Dutch collaborator and there were plenty of 247 Interview with Dukie Gelber, Survivor from Holland, Accessed October 8, 2021, https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/interviews/duky.html. 248 Ibid. 249 Ibid. 250 Gelber was only 7 when the occupation began, and was 12 when he was liberated from Bergen-Belsen. Bellin 77 those.251 Fenichel noticed the insidious nature of the Germans, who avoided the violent razzias that occurred in Belgium and Eastern Europe which might have sparked more outrage from the Dutch gentiles, and opted for a stealthier approach by slowly stripping Jewish rights.252 He also mentions the willingness of Dutch collaborators, who were many in number. Fenichel says that the Nazis found him and his family in hiding, and placed the blame on himself: For all I know, I was responsible for it. You know, if they come and ask a kid a question or two, I might have divulged something.253 As Van Liempt continually mentions, the Nazis were not averse to doing whatever it took to get information, even if that meant going after vulnerable children. Fenichel does not mention whether it was Dutch or German Nazis, but we know enough from both that each would use underhanded tactics to achieve their goals. Finally, a video interview of Dutch survivors talks about their wartime experience, especially with Dutch collaborators. At first, when Dutch Jews got their initial summons to report for transportation, many believed that their destination was labor camps in the east and nothing more. However, as one woman says, But later on, when they started sending orders to old people and children to report, people finally understood that they were not being sent to work-for who sends an 80-year-old to work?254 This point has been emphasized earlier, and it is important to bring it back, as this was when the Dutch Jews fully understood that they were not going to work in Germany. Did the gentiles realize this at the same time? It is hard to fully know, as many seemingly distanced themselves from the entire situation for fear of what might happen 251 DutchNews.nl., They Were Proud of What They Were Doing. A Dutch Holocaust Survivors Story, April 13, 2020, https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2020/04/they-were-proud-of-what-they-were-doing-a-dutch-holocaust-s urvivors-story/. 252 Razzias refer to violent and often public attacks or raids. 253 Ibid. 254 Yad Vashem, Holocaust Survivor Testimonies: The Netherlands, 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbDnQOqtsQs. Bellin 78 to themselves or because they felt no close connection to the Jewish population, meaning that they did not concern themselves with their problems. Dutch Jews noticed whenever gentiles did get involved. They emotionally recalled the betrayal of their friends and neighbors, as one elderly woman did in this interview: There were good Dutch people, there were very good Dutch people. But there were bad ones too. How can you sell a Jew for seven guilders?,... They kept on raising the price to encourage people to inform. But many did it for free.255 Here we see the full scope of betrayal in the Netherlands. There were collaborators solely in it for the money, however, there were also Nazi sympathizers and anti-Semites who did it because of their hatred of Jews and for no other reason. The lack of anti-Semitic activity in the Netherlands before the Holocaust does not hide that there must have been an anti-Semitic feeling amongst the gentiles, either in full-blown hatred, or more commonly, casual anti-Semitism throughout the country, which did not get fully realized until the persecution of the Jews began at the hands of outsiders. The Dutch did not start this process of Jewish elimination, but they were willing to help, and sometimes more than just help. Betrayal of the Hidden Jews Unfortunately, the Mnzer sisters were not the only ones betrayed by other Dutch citizens, including ones who were originally supposed to protect them. Besides documenting the heinous crimes of the Colonne Henneicke, Ad van Liempt also looks into the betrayal of hidden Jews in the Netherlands. He found that the Colonne oftentimes recorded how they captured Dutch Jews, written in German as Der Arier hat die Juden selbst gemeldet, which translates as the Aryan turned in the Jew himself. 256 What this refers to is the method of Dutch gentiles purposefully telling Jewish citizens that they would be safe with them, and then alerting bounty 255 256 Ibid. Van Liempt, 49. Bellin 79 hunters and turning them in for a profit or out of pure anti-Semitism. One such story refers to the wife of a sailor who took in the Wegloops, a Jewish family of five. After the war, the wife reportedly said that the Jews were making her life so difficult that she just couldnt take it anymore and turned in the family.257 Another example of a case within the Colonne Henneicke with the words Der Arier hat die Juden selbst gemeldet written on the file is with a woman in Amsterdam who sheltered six men and women, the ages ranging from a fifteen-year-old boy to an eighty-year-old woman.258 It is not known how much money this woman got for her ruthless betrayal, but it was probably a princely sum, given the willingness of the Colonne to spend a lot to get tips and information. These are examples of direct collaboration, similar to the bounty hunters, that display an intense hatred of the Jewish population. Although they did not kill them personally, they collaborated with the perpetrators and sent them to their death. One of the most horrific examples of Jewish betrayal is in the so-called Jew Trap boarding home. Here, the proprietor worked in conjunction with the bounty hunters, offering rooms while simultaneously letting Henneicke and his men know that there were Jews to be captured. A young Jewish woman named Elfriede Heinemann reported on this man after she barely escaped from his clutches.259 Her family had already hidden from an anti-Semitic landlady before this next ordeal. She managed to escape and emigrate to America, but her family was not as fortunate and died at Auschwitz. 260 This man, only known as P., claimed to have been forced into this position by members of the Colonne Henniecke, who reportedly threatened to arrest him and send him to Westerbork. P. denied receiving any money from the bounty hunters, yet he certainly kept the money he charged his Jewish tenants.261 He also admitted to calling the 257 Ibid. Van Liempt, 49-50. 259 Heinemann reported this after she escaped from the Netherlands and settled in New York. She reported this in a letter to New York authorities in a letter. 260 Van Liempt, 50-51. 261 Ibid., 51-52. 258 Bellin 80 Colonne Henneicke for the sole purpose of letting them know that he had Jews in his house, although again he blamed the duress put on him by the bounty hunters.262 P. continued to betray Dutch Jews, and was apprehended by the Special Court after the war, where he was sentenced to three years in prison for treason.263 It is worth mentioning that the records found came from the office of the bounty hunters. Is it possible that they tampered with evidence to make it look like they were less culpable, and in doing so, placed some of the blame on Dutch citizens?264 I would guess that this is unlikely to occur. Their office was disbanded on German orders once the bounty hunters captured almost all of the Dutch Jews, unlike other government offices which tried to burn evidence once it was clear that the war was almost over and the Germans had lost. Also, the heads of the Colonne Henneicke, Wim Henneicke and Willem Breid, were passionate anti-Semites who took pride in their work. It is unlikely that they would try to cover it up, however, given the amount of coercion and force they used to find Jews, it is possible that some of these cases are not as open and shut as they initially appear. Still, what we see here are the lesser-known stories of Dutch citizens betraying the Jews to make money, as well as cooperating with the Colonne Henneicke. Through their collaborative actions, Dutch citizens could profit by betraying Jews. Not all Dutch citizens participated in as despicable and calculated actions as those featured above, but there was certainly a level of apathy and cooperation throughout the population that allowed the continued deportations of Dutch Jews. Apathy and Cooperation of Dutch Citizens 262 Ibid. Ibid. 264 I am talking about the cases of Dutch citizens willingly turning Jews in to the bounty hunters, and the bounty hunters trying to shift some of the blame since they had access to the records. 263 Bellin 81 Although there are numerous instances of Dutch gentiles selflessly risking their lives for Dutch Jews, the majority of the country looked on at the continued removal of their fellow countrymen and did nothing, or worse yet, helped the Germans in acts of collaboration. Diaries recovered from the war help to show us these actions of ordinary Dutch citizens. One such diary was recovered from a Red Cross nurse who was a vehement supporter of the Germans even though she was Dutch. She had this to say following the invasion by the Germans: The way the Germans acted was so proper, so magnificent, so disciplined; they command nothing but respect. The locals could learn a lot from the Germanstheyre big and sturdy and very neat, making you think, inadvertently, some army the Dutch have! The people here are so rude and impolite, while the Germans are so proper and polite! Its easy to see the difference.265 This woman, while not outwardly anti-Semitic, professes a love of the Germans and Germanic culture similar to that of the NSB. Initially, the NSB structured themselves on the fascist policies of the Germans and Italians but did not seek to emulate their anti-Semitism until much closer to the occupation of the Netherlands.266 This unnamed woman later quotes directly from NSB policy, making it likely that she was a member of the Dutch Nazi party.267 By the time of the occupation, the NSB membership leaped from 30,000 to close to 100,000 members, many of them opportunists seeking to advance their social standing.268 Dutch Nazis are riddled all over the pages of collaboration, as they often volunteered in whatever way the German occupiers needed them. 265 Nina Siegal and Josephine Sedgwick, The Lost Diaries of War, The New York Times, April 16, 2020, sec. Arts. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/15/arts/dutch-war-diaries.html. 266 J. M. Damsma, Nazis in the Netherlands: A Social History of National Socialist collaborators, 1940-1945, PHD diss., (University of Amsterdam 2013): 10. 267 This woman remains unnamed as her family is still alive and wished for privacy on this sensitive topic. 268 Josje Damsma and Erik Schumacher,De Strijd Om Amsterdam. Een Nieuwe Benadering in Het Onderzoek Naar De NSB, BMGN - Low Countries Historical Review 124 (3) 2009: 329-48. https://doi.org/10.18352/bmgn-lchr.7009. Bellin 82 Besides members of the NSB, Dutch citizens showed their collaboration in other, less visible ways. Mirjam Bolle, a Jewish woman, recalls the difficulties of hiding, especially with sick relatives who were easy to take away to Westerbork: When the ambulance pulled up at their doorstep, neighborhood women rushed out to ask what was happening. Lea said: My aunt has become unwell, and because she cant stay with us we have to have her picked up in this way. And would you please excuse me now, for Mother isnt at home either. This is the kind of act you have to put on because it would be unwise to reveal too much. Well-intentioned gossip could fall on the wrong ears.269 Bolle and her relatives were worried about regular people gossiping and resulting in a collaborator learning about their location and turning them in. Thanks to the presence of the bloodthirsty Colonne Henneicke as well as the ultra efficient government, there were people everywhere who would have willingly turned the Jewish population in, given the opportunity. Bolle did end up getting deported to Westerbork and later Bergen-Belsen, where she was eventually released as part of an exchange with German POWs.270 This demonstrates how so many Dutch citizens could be indirect collaborators, as the wrong word to the wrong person, even if it was unintentional, could result in deportations. Simply gossipping to a friend could cost people their lives. Almost no one could be trusted, as Van Liempt shows in the case of a desperate woman, stylized as Mrs. D for privacy. Her husband was Jewish and had been sheltering his Jewish mother, meaning that he was arrested even though he was married to a non-Jew.271 Mrs. D contacted a Colonne Henneicke member named Van der Kraal, who in turn said that if she gave him names of hidden Jewish people she knew, he would help her husband (who was going to be 269 Siegal, Lost Diaries of the War. Ibid., I am not sure if she was turned in, however, her and her family were clearly found by someone who had them arrested, meaning it is very likely that she was turned in. 271 Van Liempt, 53. 270 Bellin 83 sent to Westerbork).272 Mrs. D turned in every hidden Jew she could think of, including a family that had been hiding with her. However, Van der Kral reneged on his word and did nothing for her husband, who died at the concentration camps.273 All around, people were willing to take advantage of those who were vulnerable, demonstrating the amount of anti-Semitism that permeated through the Netherlands. The apathy of Dutch citizens and their feeling of an inability to help is shown within the diary of gentile Cornelis Komen, who commented on one of the largest roundups of Dutch Jews while he and his family were away on a vacation: Many people on the train dont even know whats going on in Amsterdam. The last Jews are being up. Herded together and taken away like cattle. From hearth and home to foreign parts. First, theyre taken to Vught, then theyre transported to Poland oh, the misery these people must be going through. Separated from their wives and children. They may not be a pleasant people, but theyre still human beings. How can the Good God allow this?... in Amsterdam, the Jews are herded together like cattle. Carrying their bundles on their backs. Their blankets. They packed their things days in advance. Still, how hard their departure must have been. Parting from their familiar living rooms, their friends and acquaintances. While we are eating cherries, one basket after another. Lazing around. How lovely this place is.274 Here, we get an understanding of the suffering of the Dutch Jews from a gentile, who vividly recounts what is happening to the Jewish population, including the fact that their final destination was Poland. Other Dutch diarists reported similar things, as evidenced by Bart Van der Boom, who wrote that no fewer than sixty-seven out of 164 diarists used phrases like extermination, destruction, mass murder, slaughter, certain death, and so on. 275 Komen demonstrated some casual anti-Semitism while describing the Jews, yet he still seems to feel moved by their 272 Ibid. Ibid. 274 Siegal, Lost Diaries of the War. 275 Van der Boom, 392. The number he is talking about is the diaries he himself researched, which he says are not representative of the population as a whole due to the limited amount of people who chose to keep diaries. Most of the diaries are from affluent and well-educated people, who may have had more idea of what was going on? That is not necessarily clear, and Van der Boom argues that representation is not necessarily needed in this case. 273 Bellin 84 plight, a feeling most likely shared by other Dutch citizens. Yet he kept these thoughts to himself, hidden away in his diary. He wrote nothing that suggested that he would take any steps to help the Jewish community, instead, he is glad that it is happening to them and not his family. Komen is certainly unhappy about the deportations taking place, but not enough to truly do anything about it. He sits by passively, eating his cherries and feeling sorry. Dutch Jews awaiting orders. Sympathy there may have been for the Dutch Jews, but not from all of the bystanders. Art collector Van Rede expressed skepticism at the whole affair after interacting with German soldiers and watching Jews get ready to be deported: [Van Rede] correctly believed German rule in the Netherlands relatively mild, and found it hard to imagine the German soldiers he metdecent young menwould perpetrate such gruesome crimes elsewhere. And he more than once noted that local Jews did not behave as if they were facing mass murder. When in April 1943 he saw Jews leave for the Vught transit camp, packed as if they were going on a journey, he thought they clearly Bellin 85 were not too worried: And they usually are well informed. Are we being fed atrocity stories? They sometimes actually look happy. That is impossible, if their departure means death.276 Van Rede, similarly to Komen, shows anti-Semitism in his writing, but he seemed to have genuinely believed that the Jews would be fine and that the Germans would not exterminate them. Here is where we come to a conundrum. The Dutch, for the most part, heard about the deaths in the East, as Van der Boom says that the BBC, Radio Orange, and illegal German media all reported to some degree the Jewish deaths in the East, as well as the Allied declaration on the persecution of Jews, which was released in 1942 that mentioned the extermination of European Jewry.277 The Dutch also wrote about it in diaries and even witnessed the transportations happening. Yet, the Dutch remained passive bystanders. It starts at the top, with the government-in-exile refusing to do more for the Dutch Jewish citizens, even when directly confronted with the fate of the Dutch Jews from sources coming straight from the concentration camps.278 That, along with the fact that although the Jewish in the Netherlands were accepted into society, they were never fully assimilated into one of the large pillars of Dutch society, keeping them as eternal outsiders no matter what happened. This distance made it that much easier for Dutch citizens like Komen and Rede to look at what was happening and choose to remain passive about it. This passive stance, while on the surface benign, is completely anti-Semitic, and is reflected throughout the majority of Dutch society. The rest of Dutch society, while not many in number, did form a resistance movement. It did not truly form as a cohesive unit until April of 1943, when it was focused more on the deportations of gentiles to Germany 276 Van der Boom, 394. Ibid., 392-394 278 Bovenkerk, The Other Side of the Anne Frank Story, 242. 277 Bellin 86 for labor in factories.279 However, there was some Dutch Resistance that succeeded in saving members of the Dutch Jewry. Dutch Resistance In Jacob Pressers chapter on Jewish Resistance in the Netherlands, he says almost right away that there can be no doubt that resistance by Jews was proportionately greater than that of other Dutchman.280 Presser is undoubtedly correct in this assessment, which agrees with my argument that the Dutch willingly collaborated with the Nazis in multiple ways and were passively anti-Semitic through the war. Nevertheless, it is an unfair statement to say that all Dutch citizens were complicit with the Nazi regime. Indeed, the government, police, bounty hunters, railways, and many passive bystanders allowed and oftentimes collaborated with the Nazi perpetrators; however, that is not the case for all Dutch citizens. In fact, the Dutch have the second-highest number of names in the Righteous Among the Nations, with 5,910 Dutch citizens honored as non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust.281 This in itself is a part of the Dutch Paradox, as one would expect a country with so many honored as righteous rescuers to have a much lower death rate amongst Jews as well as fewer collaborators. Although this thesis argues that the majority of Dutch citizens were collaborators, it is important to recognize that not all Dutch citizens acted this way. Throughout the Netherlands, one major facet of resistance emerged from the Church, particularly the Catholic denomination. The Church was one of the few major organizations that outwardly decried the deportation of Jews, as well as the actions of those who supported the Nazi 279 Pim Griffioen and Ron Zeller, The Netherlands: The greatest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe, Anne Frank Website, September 28, 2018, https://www.annefrank.org/en/anne-frank/go-in-depth/netherlands-greatest-number-jewish-victims-wester n-europe/. 280 Presser, 279. 281 About the Righteous, Accessed April 25, 2022. https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/about-the-righteous.html. This number is as of January 1, 2021. Bellin 87 regime.282 They helped set up networks to allow Jews to go into hiding in safe homes and connect them with people who could take care of them. Researcher Robert Braun discovered that Jews in Catholic regions of the country, as well as Jews near Catholic Churches even in Protestant regions, were more likely to be rescued and protected.283 Part of this can be chalked down to the Catholic Churchs overwhelming disapproval of Nazis. At one point, the Dutch Church strongly discouraged Dutch Catholics from joining the NSB. Some Catholic priests directly tried to help, with one named B.J. Ader who traveled to Amsterdam from the distant Northwest to convince Jewish doctors to go with him in hiding.284 The majority of the Northern regions of the Netherlands are rural, Catholic areas, which had strong community ties and bonds. This helped prevent people from turning each other in, unlike in the larger, secular cities.285 Some people were inspired by the priests to help rescue Jews. A young couple from the Hague, Berendina Eman and Hein Sietsma organized a group of gentiles to help take care of and hide 60 Jews from the Nazis.286 The men in the group disguised themselves as clergymen, since clergymen were exempt from forced labor, and tried to rescue Jews. Sietsma was later arrested for his actions and sent to Dachau concentration camp, where he died.287 Christians were not the only ones to group up and attempt to rescue the Dutch Jewry. Four groups, two Christian organizations, and two run by students helped rescue close to 1,100 Jewish children across the Netherlands during the Holocaust.288 One of these groups was the 282 Robert Braun, Religious Minorities and Resistance to Genocide: The Collective Rescue of Jews in the Netherlands during the Holocaust, American Political Science Association 110, No. 1 (February 2016): 130. 283 Ibid., 140. 284 Yad Vashem, Rescue and Righteous Among the Nations in Holland, Accessed April 25, 2022. https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/resources/rescue-and-righteous-among-the-nations-in-holland.html. 285 Ibid. 286 IHRA, Yad Vashem and the Netherlands Sign Agreement for Contribution to Digitization of Righteous Among the Nations Material, Accessed April 25, 2022. https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/news-archive/yad-vashem-and-netherlands-sign-agreement-con tribution-digitization-righteous-among. 287 Ibid. 288 Yad Vashem, Rescue and Righteous Among the Nations in Holland. Bellin 88 Children Committee, a group formed by Utrecht students and partially funded by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht. 289 A socialist teacher and conscientious objector named Joop Westerweel is also frequently mentioned for his actions in rescuing Dutch Jews.290 Westerweel answered a call to help a group of Dutch Jews named the halutzim, or pioneers, a group of young Jews whose aim was to eventually settle in Palestine. He helped find hiding places for them and helped some cross into France and Belgium, where they would be safer.291 Unfortunately, Westerweel was caught trying to smuggle two girls across the border to Belgium.292 Westerweel was tortured and, when he refused to give up information about the pioneers, he was executed. It is estimated that Westerweel helped over 200 Jews get into safe locations. Another famous Resistance member was Willem Arondeus, a homosexual artist. Arondeus joined the Resistance early on. He helped falsify identity papers for Dutch Jews so they could avoid deportation.293 On March 27, 1943, Arondeus led a group that set fire to the registration building in Amsterdam, which destroyed thousands of records.294 However, he and his group were betrayed, and Arondeus and eleven others were executed. Willem Arondeus, Resistance fighter. The Dutch Resistance efforts during the war consisted of different groups of people, however, they were largely spearheaded by Jewish, Communist, and Socialist sectors of the Dutch populace. The repercussions of the February Strike damaged the burgeoning 289 Ben Braber, Deportation (July 1942 September 1944), In This Cannot Happen Here, Integration and Jewish Resistance in the Netherlands, 1940-1945, (Amsterdam University Press, 2013): 124. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wp7hh.10. 290 Presser, 282-283. 291 Ibid. 292 Yad Vashem, Rescue and Righteous Among the Nations in Holland. 293 Willem Arondeus, Accessed April 25, 2022. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/id-card/willem-arondeus. 294 Ibid. Bellin 89 resistance, as many influential leaders were either killed or forced into hiding. Another aspect of the strike being crushed was that it scared people who may have been willing to help. This is compounded by the fact that in the Netherlands, unlike in France and Belgium, rescuers who were caught helping Jews could be executed or sent to the concentration camps, where survival was slim. Those who chose to rescue and support the Dutch Jewry were truly incredible and brave humans, who sacrificed their lives to try and save others. Ultimately, around 45,000 Dutch citizens participated in the Resistance (or 4 percent of the total population), with 10,000 losing their lives.295 However, many people not directly affected by the Nazi decrees chose to do nothing, which explains Pressers quote as to why the Resistance was made up of so many Jews. As he says, there was no branch of the Dutch Resistance in which Jewish men and women were not active in.296 Although the Dutch gentiles did often support, indirectly or directly with the perpetration of the Dutch Jewry, there was a small number who risked their lives with Jewish compatriots to save other Dutch Jews. Conclusion After the liberation of the Netherlands was completed in May 1945, the 5,000 Dutch Jews who survived the horrors of the concentration camps started returning home. They were not expecting to receive the treatment that occurred once they returned. Dutch historian Dienke Hondius specifically looked into the attitudes of Dutch citizens towards the returning Dutch Jewry, and what he found showed ignorance and rising anti-Semitism by Dutch gentiles, who were not sympathetic when the Jewish population returned. Some Jews were greeted with appalling selfishness on the part of the Dutch gentiles: Rita Koopman described how she went to reclaim her fur coat. The first thing this woman said, was: Well, quite a lot of your kind 295 J.H.M De Groen et al., Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Male and Female Dutch Resistance Veterans of World War II in Relation to Trait Anxiety and Depression, Psychological Reports 74, no. 1 (1994): 277. 296 Presser, 283. Bellin 90 came back. Just be happy that you were not here! We were so hungry!297 This statement showcases the cluelessness that the surviving Dutch Jews were faced with on return. Nothing about listening or empathizing with the survivors of an incredibly traumatic incident, just an ill-informed and anti-Semitic sentiment that tried to downplay the destruction of the Jewry and instead focus on the Dutch starvation. The Hongerwinter, or Dutch Famine of 1944-45, was an incredibly traumatic event in its own right, which caused the deaths of close to 20,000 Dutch citizens as well as malnutrition that had negative effects on future generations.298 However, it does not compare to the sheer scale and devastation wrought by the Holocaust. Besides facing insensitivity and selfishness, the Dutch Jewry was expected to be thankful to their saviors, the Dutch majority. An unbelievably tone-deaf writer in the July 1945 issue of De Patriot, a resistance magazine, had this to say about the Jews postwar: all the Jews who have come out of hiding owe their lives to Dutch people who sheltered them for humanitarian reasonsThe returning Jews may thank God for this assistance, and feel humbledNow the Jews must abstain from excesses, and they should be constantly aware that they need to be thankful. They should demonstrate their gratitude by assuming responsibility for making amends to those who became victims themselves for helping Jews. They may thank God for their survival. It is also possible to lose ones sympathyTruly, they are not the only ones who had a hard time and suffered.299 Clearly, some Dutch citizens considered themselves to be the real victims in this situation, and truly wanted the Jews to make amends for the Dutch gentiles who sacrificed themselves to save the Jewry. The Jews are made out to be a burden to the Dutch. This fully encapsulates the passive anti-Semitic feeling that permeated the Netherlands throughout the Occupation, and borders on active anti-Semitism. Another example of insensitivity and disrespect occurred when the Dutch Theater, which had housed thousands of Jews awaiting 297 Hondius, A Cold Reception, 57. Laura C. Schulz, The Dutch Hunger Winter and the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 39 (2010): 1675758. 299 Hondius, A Cold Reception, 59. 298 Bellin 91 deportation to Westerbork, was reopened in November 1945.300 The remaining Dutch Jews were deeply offended by this and fought to have it shut down.301 It took thirteen years before the Amsterdam city council established a commemorative site for victims of the Holocaust there instead.302 Anti-Semitic feeling was rising within the Netherlands postwar as evidenced by these reluctant and downright disrespectful actions on the part of Dutch gentiles. Because of this, the main literature on this subject, Pressers Ashes in the Wind, was commissioned in 1950 by the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies.303 These sort of interactions that Rita Koopman and others experienced following liberation demonstrate the anti-Semitism that was apparent throughout the Occupation of the Netherlands and even afterward. The Netherlands proclaimed itself to be a tolerant and welcoming country for centuries, especially to those of the Jewish faith. Although Jews were never entirely assimilated into the fabric of Dutch society, anti-Semitism was rare and almost completely non-violent, allowing Jews to become fairly successful within societal, political, and economic spheres. However, Hondius notes that there was certainly a distinction between who was Jewish and who was non-Jewish within the Netherlands: In spite of the general integration of Dutch Jews into society, the awareness of a distance between the Jews and non-Jews was clearly present, and became explicit, for example, in remarks about the strangeness of Jewish religious customs, and also about the necessity for non-Jews to show extra caution when doing business 300 Kata Bohus, Atina Grossmann, Werner Hanak, and Mirjam Wenzel, Our Courage Jews in Europe 194548., (Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2020): 278. 301 Ibid. 302 Ibid. 303 Arianne Baggerman and Rudolf Dekker, Jacques Presser, Egodocuments and the Personal Turn in Historiography, European Journal of Life Writing 7 August 2018: CP90110. https://doi.org/10.5463/ejlw.7.263. Pressers The Destruction of the Dutch Jewry is considered to be the seminal work on this subject, along with Loe De Jongs broader and more encompassing The History of the Netherlands During the Second World War. Bellin 92 with Jews.304 Here, it is shown that the Dutch gentiles were wary of their Jewish neighbors prior to the Holocaust. The German Occupation presented the opportunity for the full extent of the Dutch insidious anti-Semitism to show itself: Dutch citizens, except for the leaders of the Colonne Henneick, were not perpetrators of the atrocities, yet they were direct and indirect collaborators with the Germans. Dutch citizens supported the German actions through active collaboration and also through passive bystanding. One might counter this statement by suggesting that passive bystanding is not as awful as it is made out in this argument. Some might defend it, for the reasons being that Dutch citizens had plenty to worry about besides what was happening to the Jewish population; it was not their responsibility, it was the fault of the government and police; and since some Dutch citizens did not actively support German actions, how was them not helping Dutch Jews just as bad? In this thesis, I argue that since the Dutch population had some idea of what was going on, based on the gentiles diaries, as well as the numerous reports given by the news and the Jews who escaped, they chose to ignore the gradual stripping of Jewish rights and ultimately the deportations that happened in broad daylight. As Otto Bene, the representative in the Netherlands for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, The Dutch population as a whole is against the transports, but from the outside, publicly, it shows a general lack of interest in them.305 The Dutch citizens, for the most part, could not be bothered to help their struggling Jewish compatriots. This demonstrates passive anti-Semitism in its own right. Dutch gentiles saw the oppression taking place, and many simply thought it is what it is and did nothing more. 304 305 Hondius, A Cold Reception, 48. Hondius, A Cold Reception, 51. Bellin 93 Over 100,000 Dutch Jews were deported and sent to concentration camps, where almost all of them were exterminated. Dutch citizens, while not the instigators, were direct and indirect collaborators with the Germans, and allowed the destruction of the Dutch Jewry to occur. This collaboration shows a level of anti-Semitism that was not thought to be present in Dutch society. However, the war brought out this hidden anti-Semitism and it manifested itself in direct ways such as the tracking down of Jewish individuals by the government and police, the selling and betrayal of Jews by citizens, and the transportation of Jews by the Dutch Railways. Indirect collaboration showed a level of anti-Semitism as well, as it consisted of citizens ignoring the crisis occurring all around them. Overall, the Dutch citizens passively stood by, and in some cases directly helped remove the Jewish population from the Netherlands, demonstrating an anti-Semitic attitude when confronted with three options: Resist, which a small percentage chose, collaborate, which some did, or do nothing, damning the Jewish citizens with their inaction, which most did. There is much that has unfortunately been omitted in this argument. This is an incredibly broad, far-reaching topic that merits as much research and discussion as possible. I am aware that the argument made throughout is controversial and may seem unduly harsh on the citizens of the Netherlands during this period. As I have repeatedly stated throughout, the fault rests first and foremost with the German aggressors, who systematically planned the destruction of the Dutch and European Jewry. This is a fact. What is controversial is the role that the Dutch played in assisting with this destruction. How culpable is someone through indirect collaboration, especially considering the coercion and lack of options many felt they had? After the war, several indirect collaborators were tried and sentenced to prison. Asscher and Cohen, leaders of the Jewish Council, were both removed from the Jewish community, with many wanting to press Bellin 94 charges against them.306 Based on this, indirect collaborators, whether coerced or not, are criminals in the eyes of the court and community. Many government officials, while ordered to remain in their posts and not provoke the wrath of the Occupiers, did violate a document written by Prime Minister Gerbrandy (in exile at the time) in 1943 which explicitly stated that government officials should not cooperate with the occupying force in the destruction of the Dutch Jewry.307 This announcement came years after the initial Occupation and after the majority of Dutch Jews had been removed. Yet, what is shown is thousands of government officials committing treason. Almost none of them were tried, except for more visible figures like J. L. Lentz, creator of the registration system. In the eyes of the Dutch government, all of these officials should have been tried for helping the occupying force.308 They were not, as running the country afterward would have been impossible, which goes to show the full weight of the collaboration and anti-Semitic feeling that allowed so many to ignore what they saw in front of their own eyes. 306 They were denied the ability to hold any Jewish related office and were effectively kicked out of the Jewish community. Asscher even chose to not be buried in a Jewish cemetery. 307 Bovenkerk, The Other Side of the Anne Frank Story, 241. 308 Ibid. Bellin 95 Bibliography Primary Sources: Constitution.org. Union of Utrecht 1579 https://constitution.org/1-Constitution/cons/dutch/Union_Utrecht_1579.html DutchNews. They Were Proud of What They Were Doing. A Dutch Holocaust Survivors Story, April 13, 2020. https://www.dutchnews.nl/features/2020/04/they-were-proud-of-what-they-were-doing-adutch-holocaust-survivors-story/ Hillesum, Etty. 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... Title: Lacing Identity: Corsets in Mid-Victorian Britain Senior Thesis at Juniata College Date: December 17, 2021 Author: Becky Mason Thesis Advisor: Dr. Alison Fletcher Acknowledgement Dr. Alison Fletcher and Dr. Belle Tuten, thank you for scrutinizing my thesis, teaching me how to be a better historian, and supporting me as I evolved into a better person as a result of their influence. Thank you to Zeke Kinclaith for being my personal writing coach and for attempting to teach me sentence construction. Jordan Wilson, my wonderful friend who taught me both the concept of time and the fact that I can't just say 'would' when I need to fix my tense. Thank you to all of my pals who allowed me to info dump about underwear with them for far longer than any sane person should. Thank you to my mother, who is the driving force behind where I am now. Without all their unwavering support for my minor corset fixation, I would not have been able to do this. Abstract Shapewear is an important part of creating a fashionable silhouette and reflects what society at the time views as beautiful. My thesis will cover corsets in the midVictorian period (1850-1879) in Britain. Corsets were carefully constructed undergarments made and mainly worn by women. This thesis claims that corsets were important tools for Victorian women, because they lessened class divisions, were a socially acceptable form of sexual expression, and allowed women control of their image. Using the scholarly work of Valerie Steele, I acknowledge that the corset has been viewed as an object of oppression, but that was due to anti-corset propaganda by Victorian doctors and politicians who sought to control womens bodies and expression of identity. Although corsets were worn by men, toddlers, and pregnant women during 1 the Victorian era, this thesis focuses on the interaction between women (not currently pregnant) and corsets. Introduction Corsets were an essential structural garment for women in Europe during the mid-Victorian century (1850s-1870s). The Victorian poet, Philippe Perrot, expostulated, on the soft wax of the human body, each society stamps its impress.1 Pressing firmly against the body, rounding every curve of a womans body, hiding away the breasts and hips in the perfect package, the corset epitomized Perrots point. The women who wore corsets faced malice from male authority in a display of patriarchal dominance. This was because wearing and producing corsets had the ability to empower women by expressing individuality and identity. Corsets were attacked in the Victorian media, and women who were too fashionable or not fashionable enough were labeled as moral failures due to vanity. Negative rhetoric surrounded the public view of corsets.2 Corsets were more accessible than previous fashion trends, because they were cheap and could be worn by women across the socioeconomic spectrum. Women also used corsets as a tool to reflect the image they wished to show society. There are limited garments remaining from the 1850s-1870s due to the decay of organic fabrics caused by the passage of time and alterations made to the garments. Many garments were passed down through generations or altered to match the 1 Fontanel, Beatrice. Support and Seduction: The History of Corsets and Bras. New York: Abradale, 2001.7. 2 There was a brief period in the early Victorian era where grown men wore corsets, this was a part of the dandy trend. Some young children, boys, and girls would have worn corsets but it was still relatively rare. Corsets were worn mostly by women for a significant portion of history. 2 changing fashion standards and the body of the new wearer. Garments were usually altered and/or passed down to younger family members for purposes beyond daily wear. Additionally, the corsets that are still in existence are often highly decorative, expensive garments, and do not represent those worn by the larger population of lower to working class women who made simple garments. Most working-class garments were passed down to the point of disrepair or were made of lower quality materials that fell apart.3 In addition, most of the available garments that survive the passage of time tended to be smaller, because smaller corsets have less material to alter and could not be worn by a larger cohort. The abundance of smaller corsets and the lack of larger sizes has perpetuated the myth of how waists were shaped to unrealistic tiny proportions by the wearing of a corset. Corsets were offered at a wide range of sizes and would be padded at the hips and breasts to create an exaggerated image. Historiography It's vital to uncover both minor specialized trends and overarching fashion when researching fashion history. The length of time, cost, and regions involved may be used to distinguish between fads and fashion. On the other hand, there are gray areas. Fads are temporary styles that linger for a few months. Fashion trends, on the other hand, refer to a style or characteristic that has been popular for years or decades. Original sources, particularly from fashion journals, medical journals, and essays on the clothing reform movement, were utilized in my research. I looked at corset advertisements, fashion drawings, and corset literature between the 1850s and 1870s from British 3 Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. London: Batsford, 2008. 6. 3 publications or authors. Various secondary sources and primary sources contradict other assertions while investigating corsets, prompting the historian's utmost caution and critical thought. According to Bowman's Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion from Roman Times to the Modern Era, wearing a corset made physical labor impossible. According to another source, Steele's The Corset: A Cultural History, the corset boosted the body's capacity to do heavy labor. Sexist bias is at the core for many of these discrepancies from unsuspicious historians believing biased Victorian writers set against corsets for perceived attacks on motherhood. Mel Davies, for example, highlights the corset's dangers to a woman's body, suggesting that it might destroy the uterus and cause major health problems based on a handful of Victorian medical journals. Other researchers investigated Davies' assertion that tight lacing caused or contributed to increased infertility during the Victorian era and found faults in his argument. He defends a sexist perspective on the corset. He briefly claims that the corset benefited the masculine figure, but that the same garment was harmful to women. This sends the implication that people with uteruses are weak and fragile which furthers the false dichotomy between men and women on a physiological level.4 Davies wrote this work before historians began researching the sexual influences in history. I looked for publications that talked about corsets in general, but more specifically for ones that included sociological analysis or information about how the garment was made and used throughout the Victorian era. I highlighted facts from the 1850s through the 1870s as I read these works. I'd then look for footnotes in these areas to dig deeper 4 Davies, Mel. Corsets and Conception: Fashion and Demographic Trends in the Nineteenth Century. Comparative Studies in Society and History 24, no. 4 (1982): 61141. 4 into the evidence supporting the claims. Medical analysis of wearing the corset had such a wide range in the literature of perceived positive and negative consequences, so I developed a separate set of notes for discussions regarding tightlacing and medical implications of the corset. Tightlacing is the technique of pulling the laces as tight as possible and squeezing in the natural waist. Modern historians do not pay enough attention to how the corset was worn since it is more sensational to focus on tightlacing. Even while tightlacing was an uncommon practice throughout the mid-Victorian period, it is commonly connected with corsets collectively in scholarly sources. Corset laces may be adjusted on a spectrum of loose to tight to aid the women's goal for her specific activity. A loosely laced corset allows for flexibility and support during intense labor. The current concept of widespread tightlacing was created by males who intended to condemn corsetry while simultaneously undervaluing women's thoughts. In several primary documents Victorian doctors accuse women who wear corsets of being vain and unintelligent for their choice to wear a corset. Even though a direct comparison isn't feasible, historians use modern tightlacers as a proxy for how all women were affected by corsets. A modern woman intensely squeezing her waist does not accurately reflect the effect of a comfortably laced corset on a working-class woman. Valerie Steeles body of work was highly influential to my research because of her work to reframe the previous understanding of Victorian corsets and the corset's role in sexual and gender identity.5 Valerie Steele wrote The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism, The Corset: A Cultural History, and Men and Women: Dressing the Part. 5 Whyte, William. The English Historical Review 118, no. 478 (2003): 107980. 1079. 5 Steele has written extensively about the corset's democratizing effects and how it was employed by women from all walks of life to meet their demands. Corset advertisements, ladies fainting from corsets, and corsets in marriages were all examined by Steele. Steele critiques earlier historians' use of Victorian medical literature, pointing out how they mirror Victorian doctors' worries about motherhood.6 These are based on original sources from the United Kingdom and France. Madame Roxy Caplin's Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body was what prompted me to read it. Valerie Steele strives to portray the corset in a more positive light, as a tool for self-expression. Steele uses Catherine Jung as evidence in her book The Corset a Cultural History. According to Steele, x-rays indicated altered ribs and organs that were attributed to Catherine Jung. Jung was an exceedingly tight-lacer, with a fifteen-inch waist, which was not a common method during the Victorian period.7 Steele emphasizes that Jung appears to be in good condition and that the alteration does not appear to be maladaptive. Jung's proportions would have been out of place in the 1850s-1870s, according to primary sources from British corset advertising.8 Victorian corsets with fifteen-inch waists are rare. Tightlacing was designed to emphasize the hourglass figure. It was largely worn by wealthy young ladies who wanted to make a statement on 6 Prescott, Heather Munro. Review of The Corset: A Cultural History. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 57, no. 3 (2002): 363-364. muse.jhu.edu/article/15349. 7 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History, 68. 8 Ibid. 6 important occasions, not a daily practice. Tightlacing was not something a Victorian woman would do on a regular basis.9 Muriel Barbier and Shazia Boucher of the Department of Art History at the Ecole du Louvre wrote The Story of Lingerie, discussing corset advertisements, the aesthetic impact of the corset on the body, and the moral framework that the Victorians held for the corset. The Story of Lingerie covers several time periods but does not delve into depth on specific historical context, limiting its use in historical study to overarching themes rather than specific analysis. The book does however examine primary sources on clothing reform from the Victorian era that was useful to my research. The research of young women and corsets was helpful in developing a case for sex and identity. This resource is quite useful for deciphering underpants as iconography in both observation and foreplay. Leigh Summers wrote Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, body language, and culture are all important factors to consider. Dr. Leigh Summers, the Director of the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery and Museum, is a historian and author who specializes in fashion, the body, and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset delves into the role of women in corset manufacturing, the economic significance of their labor, and the accolades they earned. Leigh Summers talks about how women from all walks of life got their corsets and what that meant for the wearer in their community. 9 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 10. 7 Corset definition The study of Corsetry is an expansive topic covering stays, corsets, girdles, waspies, bustiers, farthingales, panniers, crinolines, and other shapewear. Shapewear changes the natural silhouette of the body to conform to contemporary fashion standards. The corset (Fig.1 ) provided the structure needed to achieve the desirable hourglass silhouette that was fashionable in the mid-Victorian period.10 Corsets emphasized the bust and hips by supporting the breast while smoothing the abdomen to minimize the waist and transferring the weight of the hoop skirts and petticoats, like an exoskeleton.11 The corset can impose fashion on the natural body; the corset limits the natural sags and rolls of the body and forms the torso into the ideal Victorian form.12 Corsets were typically boned with cotton or silk fabric.13 In the Victorian era, boning in corsets was made of whalebone or steel.14 Whale boning was made of baleen, a comb-like strip in the jaw of some whales used for filtering fish out of water.15 Metal boning needed casing on the ends to prevent ripping or stabbing the fabric.16 Metal 10 Fischer, Anette. 2015. Sewing for Fashion Designers. London: Laurence King Publishing. 103. In Les Dessous travers les ges (Underwear throughout the ages) , Armand Silvestre describes a good corset in the following terms: the top must be sufficiently widely cut to support the breasts without crushing them, the armholes should be well-formed; the lining of the fabric should be fine, well-inserted and flexible [] finally, it should follow the lower body and finish on the hips at a firm point of arrival and follow the natural direction of the womans side. Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. New York: Parkstone International, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central. 23. 12 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie 17. 13 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty. 8. 14 Victorian corset makers were looking for other materials to make corset bones. Mr. Dixon proposed a corset boned with cork. This did not seem to catch on. Hygiene of Stays. The Lancet. Vol. 1. March 23, 1872. 421. 15 Cynthia Overbeck Bix. 2012. Petticoats and Frock Coats: Revolution and Victorian-Age Fashions From the 1770s to the 1860s. Dressing a Nation: The History of U.S. Fashion. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books. 36. 16 Fischer, Anette. 2015. Sewing for Fashion Designers. London: Laurence King Publishing. 104. 11 8 eyelets, or grommets, reinforced the holes in the lacing , making corsets possible. It was impossible to make a corset without metal eyelets, because the metal eyelets prevented the fabric from ripping from the necessary tension.17 The pronounced hourglass figure was not easily achievable for most women without the use of a corset.18 The hourglass figure is characterized by the shape of the body when the breasts and hips are large and full with a smaller waist with few rolls. The corset was worn over a knee length cotton or linen chemise. Hoop skirts and petticoats were worn around the hips over the corset to create the popular silhouette of the bell skirt. The hoop skirt replaced the previous abundance of crinolines and petticoats which led to fewer waistbands enhancing the hourglass silhouette.19 The initial hoops in hoop skirts were composed of canes of whalebone strips put into the muslin petticoats casings and were later made of watch spring steel rings fastened to vertical tapes, protected by rubber.20 Hoops made it easier for women to walk, but their skirts became troublesome in shared public spaces such as sidewalks for whoever was near them.21 17 Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword History. 2018. 8. 19 Payne, Blanche. History of Costume, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century. New York, New York: Harper & Row, 1965. 508. 20 Ibid. 21 Payne, Blanche. History of Costume, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century. 93. 18 9 Figure 1: Fischer, Anette. 2015. Sewing for Fashion Designers. London: Laurence King Publishing. 103. My Experience Wearing a Corset I was eight years old when I went to a civil war reenactment. I lost my mind during the Victorian fashion show looking at beautiful gowns, enormous hoops, and charming aprons. I pretended to be a Project Runway judge (a show I had been watching since I was two) as I took in every moment of the historical show. My sister and I are the fifth in a line of women textile artists passed down from grandmother to grandchild. Fashion has connected me to the strength and skill of the women who came before me. From the moment that I saw the show, I found a way to combine my love of fashion and history and I was enthusiastic to learn more. Two years later I competed in the 4-H Ohio state fair for living history as a character I created, the daughter of a union soldier, and presented on Victorian handbags. Interest in fashion history led me to volunteering for the Cincinnati Museum Center Youth program in high school. I had the opportunity to work with replica and real Victorian garments. I dressed as a Victorian Cincinnatian in petticoats and bonnet. I read stories of the danger and discomfort of corsets, and rather than dissuade me, they made me wonder why corsets had been regularly worn for decades. I would interrogate the adult worker who was allowed to 10 wear the corset about how she felt, and all she said was that she made her stand up straight and that she could not put on her shoes. Around 2020 I discovered women on social media sites wearing corsets instead of bras. The women described experiences like mine and how much better they felt. After that I stumbled into queer women filming sexually expressive videos featuring the corset. This drove my desire to learn more about corsets, because I am a chronically ill dyslexic bisexual woman with PTSD. Women creating art for women is an attempt to develop the female gaze and a female sexual identity outside of men. I see corsets on drag performers and burlesque artists, performing acts of gender and sexual liberation. These shows often feature the removal of the corset to tease the audience and reveal a surprise to the audience. The sexual performance of removing the corset can be found in the modern and Victorian era. There has been a movement for an aesthetic lifestyle such as cottage core mainly adopted by lesbians and other queer people. It is all about returning to vintage and natural spaces in a soft pastoral way. Corsets have been a cornerstone of the aesthetic movement as a way for modern women to emphasize their feminine body while providing support for physical work, either in the garden or in the woods. I have back pain, sore shoulders, and terrible posture. I definitely fit the stereotype of young gay people sitting in a serpentine position for long periods of time. From a young age, I had large breasts. By the time I was in middle school, the typical clothes stores did not sell bras my size. I hate bras. My favorite moment in the day is when I return home or to my car and can finally remove my uncomfortable and worn 11 34G bra. I cannot just not wear a bra unless I want to look unprofessional or draw the attention of staring eyes as I jiggle up and down stairs. I have a scar on my chest from chafing and constricting garments and have had bruises on my sides under my arms caused by a brutal strapless bra. I thought there had to be a better option. As I conducted my research, I read conflicting accounts of what the body could do in a corset and what wearing a corset was like. Some said you cannot bend your back or touch your toes, others said it strengthens the body and was not a significant limit to mobility. Some said you cannot breathe in a corset, and you feel like you are being strangled, others described a weightless support and comfortable protection. I will never be able to understand the real experiences of women living in the Victorian era in a corset, but I can understand what its like to have a womans body in a corset. I ordered a c.1860 Julia Corset, size medium sewn to measurements, in natural coutil with a busk opening from Period Corsets.22 When the corset finally arrived, I sprinted to my dorm room to put it on. I hastily unpackaged my corset. It took about four tries before I correctly laced the back. After struggling with clasping the busk I loosely tightened the laces, and I felt the pressure lift off my lower back instantly. I waist trained for a week by wearing it loosely for an hour on the first day in a relaxed position and slowly wore it for longer periods, before attempting to wear it every day. This is so your muscles have time to adjust and do not ache and the corset can form to the body. I was surprised that I could easily touch my toes and move with ease. While walking I noticed I felt taller. I stand at 22 "C. 1860 Julia Corset." Period Corsets. https://www.periodcorsets.com/corsets/1860-julia-corset. 12 a meager five foot one and three-fourths inches, but in the corset, I stand up straighter than I normally do and my height measures to just under 5 foot 3 inches, a dramatic change for me. I need all the height I can get. It did take some practice to figure out how to get in and out of the corset. The middle clasp gave me special trouble because it was bent inward during shipping. The material is soft and durable, and the steel bones are thin and flexible. The bones on the back are noticeably less flexible than the bones than run up and down the breasts.23 Normally when I wear a bra, if I stand straight and look down, I cannot see my toes. In a corset when I look down my chin and lips hit my chest. I have fantastic cleavage. Im a bouncy person, I do little dances when Im happy. I must try not to unless I want to deal with comments on how my breasts move when I bounce. My breasts do not significantly jiggle in the corset. I don't like it when I am being myself and enjoying life and I am sexualized. I still get comments about my breasts, but they are normally directed at the corset which does not bother me as much. Because I am trying to analyze my body in the corset, I have been overly conscious of my breathing. I can breathe normally. I am just more directly aware of how my body moves. Since I started wearing the corset, I have noticed that most people look at my chest before my eyes. Most people seem to notice I look different but are not willing to ask what's going on with my chest. My friends were given full approval to analyze how I 23 It was important to buy a corset with steel bones instead of plastic, as plastic does not give as much support as metal boning and can bend under the heat of the body and potentially break more often than metal boning. 13 look and move in my corset which led to my friend texting me the line, sleek. elegant. aerodynamic. unbothered. in your lane. a queen. I was told by many that I seem taller and that I appear both comfortable and yet regal. The audience of peers would gather around ready to tease while I learned how to bend and move in the corset during the initial adjustment period. The first time wearing around friends they teased as I attempted to lounge in my typical laidback position and totally failed. I stopped slumping and began to sit up straight but proper posture was less of a chore when wearing a corset. My professors who were told about my research commented on the immediate change in my posture and gate. On a trip where I drove to Taco Bell my friends joked that since I got my corset, I had totally lost any fear of death and that I was too confident for my own good. My observers shared the analysis; I appear more comfortable, elegant, and confident. The women in my life that like boobies will not stop hitting on me when I wear my corset. Queer women have been left out of history and women were subjugated in historical contexts. Modern queer women dressing in vintage fashion is a way of reclining the history that left you out.24 Gay women in corsets living their life, in the way that makes them feel free allows them to reclaiming history. They develop a space without fear or judgement. Cottage core builds the ethos of nostalgia for a history that never existed, a history inclusive of queer, women, disabled, and people of color.25 24 Men have even participated in the trend in a reinterpretation of dandyism. It is still mostly a Eurocentric beauty standard, but Afro cottage core creators have adopted the aesthetic. The Paradox of Cottagecore | Rejecting Hustle Culture 332,070 ViewsMay 1, 2021. Produced by Susannah Mccullough. Directed by Dera Minoff. Performed by Alani Waters. Youtube. May 1, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YRl4Kdnl2E&t. 0:11. 25 14 Instead of focusing on the modern real and loud tragedies queer women face they can run to the escape of quiet joy.26 Modern women wearing corsets is a tool for reframing history to be liberating. How to put on a corset A corset needs to be put on the right way in order to support the body and make it comfortable and safe. I learned quickly that if I rushed a step in this process, I would need to readjust my corset throughout the day. The first step is to put on a tank top or t-shirt in order to absorb sweat and cushion the corset and torso from each other. The cushion prevents circulation restrictions and gives the body necessary wiggle room. You button the busk and make sure the corset is straight. Swoop and scoop the boobs up and into the corset. A large mirror was helpful for the next step, pull the laces, from top to bottom ending by pulling the middle loops in an X across the back and tie a basic knot. If the laces are long, you can tuck the excess into the bottom of the corset. How corsets were made Women began leaving the home and entering the workforce in the Victorian era. Many women found employment making corsets in the Victorian era. Initially, women were not allowed to be corsetieres, because it was believed women were too weak to cut the whalebone, and then to push the strips of whalebone into the canvas (or 26 Unlike lesbian period pieces, we can see two women dressed in pretty corsets and dresses fall in love without the brutal tragic ending queer joy over queer tragedy. Corsets have become a traditional object for that escape. Transcendentalism and the individual running from industrialism is an idea brought from the Victorian era. The industrial revolution that created the corset, is rejected now by wearing the corset. Cottage core is not about rejecting the actual technology but using technology to connect rather than divide. 15 canvas-like) casing of the garment.27 That was disproved by women doing the work. Women took over corset making from tailors and specialized in corset construction. They would not sew multiple garments- they had specialized skills of corset production. For example, one corset maker would be in charge of hemming, and another would solely work on boning the corsets. By the mid-Victorian period, corset shops boasted their ability to have only women attendants to help with fittings.28 There were ways for women to make money, but they were all positions connected to and subjugated by the male family members.29 Women could only work with social approval if they were married, or the employment was connected to a male family member. Corset production was a major economic industry. Britain created three million corsets and imported two million corsets from France and Germany in 1868.30 In the early 1860s, corset sales in the British market hit twelve million a year according to Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine in 1864.31 Corsets were worn by more women and thus had a large economic impact. Since the beginning, corset design was mainly dominated by men, but by the 1870s, there were a growing number of women designing corsets. Patents by women were supports, and patents by men were cages. The corset patents created by men were heavily reinforced and broadcast a fear of female sexual freedom. These patents 27 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 22. Ibid. 29 Ibid. 30 Davies, Mel. Corsets and Conception: Fashion and Demographic Trends in the Nineteenth Century. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 619. 31 Davies, Mel. Corsets and Conception: Fashion and Demographic Trends in the Nineteenth Century. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 620. 28 16 reflect corsets as a means of containment.32 Patents written by women, to the contrary, strove for comfort and flexibility. Women had a significant number of patents from 18501900 with an increase in 1860. Corset designers like Madame Roxy Caplin took great care to assess and meet the needs of the feminine body. Women were featured and celebrated in new ways thanks to work related to the corset in the mid-Victorian period. At international trade exhibitions, women corsetieres were labeled as inventors, designers, or manufacturers in official exhibition catalogues. The catalogue of London's great exhibition of works of industry of all nations: eight women corsetieres in a field of nineteen competitors participate.33 Women were valued and awarded, such as the ladies outfitter of London, Josephine Sykes, who won awards for her display of corsets at the Philadelphia 30 international exhibition of 1876. 34 Recognition at this level was relatively uncommon for women and had significant societal value. In Britain, corsets were made in bulk sizes that were then tailored to fit the specific buyer.35 Contemporary myths spread saying corsets compressed the waist to seventeen - twenty-two inch waist, when realistically, corset production covered a range of sizes and styles.36 Sizes typically ranged from eighteen - thirty inches at the true waist, but there were offered sizes outside of the eighteen - thirty inches range.37 Mass 32 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 27. Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 30. 34 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 31. 35 America also had premade corsets and France was known for bespoke corsets. 36 Bowman, Karen. Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman times to the Modern Era. 97. 37 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 44. 33 17 producing garments was easier, and more women had access to corsets in the 1850s and beyond.38 Sewing garments was made far more efficient by advancements in the industrial revolution. Ranged sizes were the beginning of the evolution from custom clothing to ready-to-wear.39 Corsets could be altered and fitted to give women the ability to change their figure. A woman had the option to push in or pad out, depending on which feature she wished to alter.40 Corset prices had a wide range but were still accessible to lower-class women.41 Working class women were known to buy or make their own corsets. Sometimes their employer would give them a used corset.42 Middle class women would pass down corsets to their employees; there were some cases where the upper-class ladies would scold the women who received their old garments.43 They attacked the women for dressing above their station, but this was a poor attempt to redefine the class divides that were breaking down.44 There were several texts written to help women sew their own corset. These can be found in independent books or in fashion magazines. Some women preferred to make their own corsets rather than buy one, because it could be created to match their specific preferences. 38 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 36. Fontanel, Beatrice. Support and Seduction: The History of Corsets and Bras. 53. 40 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 171. 41 In 1855, some 10,000 workers in Paris specialized in the production of corsets. In 1861 it was estimated that the number of corsets sold annually in Paris was 1,200,000. The cheapest corsets for workers and peasants cost from 3 to 20 francs each; by comparison, silk corsets cost from 25 to 60 francs, and some corsets decorated with handmade lace sold for 200 francs. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 44. 42 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 10. 43 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 15. 44 Ibid. 39 18 Color is a tool for expression; the social interpretation of color can be used to send a message to the viewer. The color of the fabric of the corset bore great importance to the sexually linked with the user. White was the ideal as pure and proper, especially if the fabric was soft.45 Virginity, innocence, and sexual desirability was associated with white. Red was for private bedroom time with the husband. It was only acceptable if the woman was of high moral societal standards as well. In this situation, she could afford to degrade her high standing because of the privileges afforded to her by her status. The color black was not acceptable, because it was seen as low-class and impure, the exact opposite of the color white. Other colors, like yellow, green, or blue, were not common and were only accessible to high class women. Working class and low-class women would usually only access natural colors or brown corsets. This is one way the lower-class was excluded from sexual expression. Lower-class women cannot be carnal red, innocent white, or feminine pink; in the bedroom they can only be brown. Wealthy women could afford deviation because their social power was secured. Corsets gained popularity as more women entered the workforce. While it was mostly accepted that more women were leaving the home, the corset attracted the fears of uneasy men.46 Corsets were seen as an attack of motherhood and the domestic sphere. If women gained autonomy, mens position would be threatened. Corsets were a symbol of control, men needed to control the corset in order to control women. If gained symbolic possession of the corset, then she would own her body and life. 45 46 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 457. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 76. 19 Women in Britain Victorian women were meant to be domestic and gentle which reflects maternal standards.47 They were also seen as highly moral and self- sacrificing which was used to show how men were supposedly stronger than women. Women were expected to be silent with little to no public expression.48 At the time, masculinity was superior to all things feminine, and there was a natural social order dictating the constructs of genders. Women, as equals, in British society was a new feminist idea that was beginning to develop. There was a spreading belief that independent rights would lead to more intimate relationships between men and women specifically intellectually, emotionally, and sexually.49 Wife and mother were highly valued roles for women, expected to work for order and duty.50 Despite this, women were stereotyped as irrational and innocent. Wives were protected by their husbands, in theory at least and women were dependent on men.51 The men controlled property, had sole custody of children, and were exclusively capable of legally ending marriages. The wifes body and belongings were all under control of the man.52 Women having control was seen as a threat to the unity of the household.53 It was a severely unbalanced power dynamic. After the Married Womens Property Act 1882, married women could own and control property. 54 During 47 Davidoff, Leonore, and Catherine Hall. Family Fortunes. The University of Chicago Press, 1987. 25. Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England." Princeton University Press, 1989. 27. 49 Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England." 48. 50 Davidoff, Leonore, and Catherine Hall. Family Fortunes. 27. 51 Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England." 26. 52 Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England." 22. 53 Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England."46. 54 Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England." 22. 48 20 the Mid-Victorian era women could not be autonomous and independent, because they could not control any property. There were sexual double standards for men and women. If a wife cheated on the husband, he could divorce her, but the opposite cannot be said. It was more socially acceptable for sexual misconduct from men than women.55 Parliament was particularly concerned about poor women's sexual activity. Female sexuality was feared because it was viewed as evil and against Christian morality. The push for marriage, property, and divorce reform began in the mid 1850s and continued through the Victorian period. The husband was expected to protect the wife, so the law did little to protect women.56 In addition, the laws were mainly created by men and so they were more likely to favor men over women. Eventually the laws changed to protect women across the economic spectrum, but that took considerable time. Dress Reform Movement The Victorian dress reform movement (also known as the rational dress movement) of the middle and late Victorian era, proposed, designed, and wore clothing that was more practical and comfortable than the fashion of the time. Dress reformists were mostly middle-class women who participated in the first wave of feminism in the Western world lasting from the 1850s until the 1890s. The movement arose with calls for temperance, women's education, suffrage, and moral purity during the Progressive Era. Dress reform advocated for freedom from the "dictates of fashion," the need to 55 56 Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England." 40. Shanley, Mary Lyndon. "Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England." 29. 21 "adequately cover the limbs as well as the torso," and the promotion of "logical dress." Reformers wanted to popularize smaller and shorter skirts, less embellishments on garments, no longer tightlacing, and womens bloomers (Turkish style pants).57 The reform of women's undergarments, which could be altered without exposing the user to societal mockery, was the movement's greatest triumph. Dress reformers were also effective in convincing women to wear simpler clothing for physical activities such as biking, swimming and labor. In response to dress reformers, Eliza Hawcis wrote The Art of Beauty in 1878 that reinforced the popular view that the unsupported body was slovenly. Defendants of the corset asserted that it was necessary to have a smooth foundation for the proper appearance of the outer garments. When there was a less significant difference in fashion between the upper- and lower-class in fashion, garments like the corset are the only divider from the lowest of the low. Good fashion and therefore good morals were impossible without the corset. Changes in shapewear Fashion and society work together hand in hand. Regency fashion continued to influence the Victorian period, and important elements of Edwardian fashion were created by Victorians. Fashion constantly changes and engages in a cycle of remix and creation reflecting the societal standards of the time. The rise and falls of trends led to bleeding lines that defy hard boundaries. As a new silhouette emerges, it is simplistic 57 Riegel, Robert E. Womens Clothes and Womens Rights. American Quarterly 15, no. 3 (1963): 390401.391. 22 with Embellishments added once the shape is well established in the public zeitgeist.58 The embellishments revive the silhouette till the silhouette evolves into a new shape and the cycle starts anew. Often, the new shape references a previous era like a rebirth of ideas. The nuance in the cycle reflects the latest technologies, changing beauty standards, the creator of the individual garment, who wears the creation, and biological/environmental forces.59 The cycle repeats: the new changes in the cycle reflect the immediate context. The mid-Victorian corset changed with evolving standards and technological inventions and was based on earlier garments. Before the popularization of the corset, stays were the most common shapewear. While both corsets and stays were laced boned garments meant to create a fashionable silhouette, the stay flattened the breasts against the body and corsets lifted the breast. Stays were for a flat and straight silhouette. The expected appearance of women in the Victorian era changed in the early to mid-period. By the 1850s it was desired to have breasts that stick out and up from the chest. The mid-Victorian era had comparatively dramatic proportions for the silhouette. Tiny waists and giant skirts are iconic for the Victorian period. Dramatically small waists were the ideal beauty standards during this time. This was possibly due to the combination of corsets and hoop skirts. A study of portraits and model plates by J. Richardson and A. L. Kroeber measured the proportion of women in art through the 58 Blum, Stella. Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harpers Bazar, 1867-1898. New York: Dover Publications, 1974. Vi. 59 Ibid. 23 decades.60 This does not reflect the actual waist sizes of real women, but the created images reflect the ideal beauty standards. People perfect the image they present to the world in photos or paintings, and this is true for Victorians. If perfection for women meant a tiny waist, portraits featured tiny waists. Table 1: Davies, Mel. Corsets and Conception: Fashion and Demographic Trends in the Nineteenth Century. Comparative Studies in Society and History 24, no. 4 (1982): 61141. 619. Corsets were for a curved hourglass silhouette. From the 1840s through the rest of the period flat pleats and cartridge pleats were used to create even more voluminous skirts.61 In the 1840s corded stays with shoulder straps became shorter and were phased out in favor of the archetypal corset.62 Waist-constricting strapless corsets 60 Davies, Mel. Corsets and Conception: Fashion and Demographic Trends in the Nineteenth Century. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 618. 61 Bowman, Karen. Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman times to the Modern Era. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, 2016. 91 62 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty. 8. 24 that extended from the bosom to the hip became popular in the 1850s and 1860s.63 Early corsets were laced in the back and a busk made of wood, whale bone, or steel inserted down the center front.64 The slot-and-stud fastening for the two-part busk was patented by Joseph Cooper in 1848 and was used in nearly every corset in the following decade.65 The explosion of embellished garments was possibly due to the Industrial Revolution amping up fabric production. Inventions, such as the cotton gin, led to an increase in cheaper fabrics being brought to marketplaces. The industrial revolution ramped up fabric production which made the excess of embellishments and large skirts possible.66 Even though the corset was not made for public view, it followed fashion trends. If simple dresses were in style, corsets were simplistic. If ruffles or ribbons were popular, they were implemented onto the corset. Embellishments on underwear suggests that the clothes were for the delight of the wearer and not the viewer. Corsets were not machine stitched before 1851.67 In 1846, Elias Howe patented the sewing machine and made a mass producible model by 1855.68 Sewing machines were in regular use by 1857 which sped up production and made trimming less laborious and therefore cheaper.69 Finishing consumes 90% of the time required to make a garment (hems, trims, and cutting thread ends.) Detail work was much easier 63 Ibid. Ibid. 65 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. Yale University Press, 2011. 43. 66 Payne, Blanche. History of Costume, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century. 509. 67 Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. 2008. 68 Payne, Blanche. History of Costume, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century 509. 69 Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2002. 33. 64 25 with a machine because it took significantly less time to sew a garment. New clothes became cheaper leading to women having a larger wardrobe by the 1860s.70 Hand sewn garments declined since the invention of the sewing machine. New materials were also used to construct corsets in 1851. A rubber boned corset was exhibited at the Universal Exhibition in London.71 In the mid- 1850s, necklines for day wear met the base of the neck and evening gowns would reveal the decolletage and the shoulders.72 Hoop skirts, originally called the artificial crinoline, were also created and popularized.73 In 1856, the caged crinoline was also popular. The caged crinoline was made of thick cloth tapes holding nine to eighteen steel hoops together.74 As the 1860s stitched forward, the front boning phased out for a divided busk of steel which was set with a row of hook and eyes (Fig. 11-12).75 Busks were invented in 1829 by Jean-Julien Josselin, but there was a delay in the use of the creation.76 The invention meant it was easier for a woman to dress and undress herself rather than asking a maid or family member for aid.77 No longer needing assistance to get dressed allowed for independence in dressing and the removal of the corset, because women 70 Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. 45 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 99. 72 Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. 35. 73 Ibid. 74 Cynthia Overbeck Bix. 2012. Petticoats and Frock Coats: Revolution and Victorian-Age Fashions From the 1770s to the 1860s.37. 75 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty. 8. 76 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 43. 77 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty. 8. 71 26 needed the help from a partner.78 The 1860s were at the height of the hoop skirt trend, when skirts reached the largest circumference dictating a need for corsets capable of supporting the massive skirts. It was common for skirts to be three-five yards around the hem.79 Because of the large skirt, the waist looked much smaller by comparison.80 Less bulk around the waist meant there was less pressure to tight-lace the corset, because the wearer could appear to have a small waist and be comfortable at the same time. The 1867 international exhibition in Paris had a huge impact on the global fashion scene. Americans and Europeans alike traveled to France returning with trunks of fine French fashion to spread at home. There was a massive interest in French fashion. 81 Francomania consumed American boutiques. Imported dresses, fabrics, laces, and ribbons flew off the shelves into the hands of women who could not go to Paris themselves. After 1868, skirts became a simple cone shape significantly less voluminous than the previous bell shape.82 By the late 1860s, the bustle, sometimes called the Parisian bustle had usurped the crinoline causing a renewed interest in the curve of the hips.83 Fabric was drawn from the front and gathered in the back and constructed with goring.84 78 In the 1850s front button bodices became popular in part due to improvements in button making. Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. 35. 79 Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. 34. 80 Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. 36. 81 Blum, Stella. Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harpers Bazar, 1867-1898. V. 82 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 37. 83 Ibid. Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. 48. 84 Payne, Blanche. History of Costume, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century. 516. 27 Once again new technology supported the changes in fashion. Edwin Izod in 1868 created the steam molding process.85 The first step was to create an ideal torso made of metal, shaped to mold the corset to the perfect form. The corset went around the metal torso and was heated to the point the garment would maintain the correct shape. The Queen magazine (started in 1861) wrote, Izod also claimed that the molded corsets were inspired by Hogarths theoretical Line of Beauty which he discussed in his treatise Analysis of Beauty (1753). 86 There is a cyclical nature in fashion: a century later, the body desired by Hogarth was desired by the Victorians. The steam molding process was consciously made to create the image of the perfect body according to Victorian standards. There were several changes in fashion during the 1860s, day necklines rose, and the evening neckline changed to a plunging v in the back and front. The chemise, worn under the corset, was tight against the body by adding darts.87 The corset remained crucial to the desired hourglass silhouette in the 1870s; however, by the mid- 1870s, a longer torso was fashionable, so corsets extended lower on the body and over the hips (Fig. 13-18).88 The hourglass silhouette was still desired- just an elongated torso compared to the past decade, and the silhouette was achieved with sleeker skirts with volume in the back rather than all around. This style was known as the cuirass bodice. Corsets currently were tight against the body from the bosom to around the hips 85 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 46. Wosk, Julie. Women and the Machine: Representations from the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. 62. 87 Payne, Blanche. History of Costume, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Twentieth Century. 519. 88 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty.51 86 28 resembling armor. The cuirass bodice was very useful in supporting princess dresses. The previous silhouette was bell shaped, and now the silhouette is tubular. The spoon busk was another invention in the textile arts in 1873.89 Spoon busks were better shaped to follow the anatomy of the body and have a snug fit around the waist. Steel bones narrowed at the top and widened down to a pear-shaped bottom.90 In addition, suspenders were added to the corset. First appearing in Paris Grande Opera Bouffe rather than using garters or ribbons to hold the stockings, suspenders attached the stockings to the bottom of the corset.91 The suspenders were deemed far more comfortable than garters and became widely popular. Over time the corset was thrown aside due to changes in what was fashionable and health concerns.92 Several patents from the 1870s written by men utilized newly invented hardening machines and hydraulic pressure for durability for corsets made of hide.93 Fashion continued to change. Eventually, women stopped wearing corsets around the 1920s. The abandonment of the corset was likely not due to public outcry or physical harm but from changing beauty standards.94 As the corset was cast aside women picked up other structural garments to take its place. Garments are meant to 89 This was one of several undergarment inventions from this time. Another invention supported by the corset was elastic suspenders. In 1878, a belt that was worn over the corset that fastened to the tops of stockings. Suspenders also helped to secure the corset. This replaced garters. Garters were going out of fashion because it was believed that the reduced circulation was bad for womens health. Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty.51. 90 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty. 51. 91 Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919. 64. 92 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty.147. 93 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2001. 28. 94 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 472. 29 fulfill the current beauty standard and show the current time and culture on the body.95 This becomes foundational and literal with undergarments. Corset example An example of an 1860 corset is the red and black lasting corset from the Symington Collection at Leicestershire County Council Museum (Fig. 2-5).96 The corset is made of cotton and a wooden busk wrapped in either wool or wash leather inserted down the center. The corded sides are made from either wool or twine. The materials were not documented, so historians speculate the materials based on other known corsets. The garment was secured by lacing the center back which meant the wearer would need help to get in or out. The lacing allowed for minor adjustments as the body changed. Because of the stitching on the side, the garment appears to have been made to a standard size and then altered to fit and then finished. The alteration is evident by the side back seams where the cord slots were sewn, but the cords were not inserted. Red was a sexy color to the Victorians and the added lace where the garment meets the bust further adds to the sex appeal. The sexy black lines from just to the side of the apex of the breast to the point that connects to the middle of the thigh slims the figure 95 Evidence that opinions on the corset were changing within the fashionable world can be found in a fascinating interview with Madame Rjane in Figaro-Modes (15 April 1903). The actress was asked about her fashion preferences, such as her favorite couturier. But when the interviewer asked about her favorite corset, she replied: No need. Another actress, Eve Lavallire, also maintained: I dont wear corsets. These women appear in their photographs to be corseted. Yet they apparently believed that it was better to seem to have a naturally perfect figure than to admit the necessity of artificial assistance. Over the course of the following decades, the corset did not so much disappear as become transformed, first into girdles, bustiers and brassires; and then more radicallyit became internalized through diet and exercise. The hard body replaced the boned corset. Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 473. 96 Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. 43. 30 and moves the viewers eye up and down the body toward the parts of the body that were sexualized by the Victorians. Figure 2: Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. London: Batsford, 2008. 42. 31 Figure 3: Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. London: Batsford, 2008. 43. Figure 4: Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. London: Batsford, 2008. 44. Figure 5: Salen, Jill. Corsets: Historic Patterns and Techniques. London: Batsford, 2008. 45 Class in fashion 32 Fashion was no longer just for the elite. Before the mid-Victorian period, strict class divides were reflected through popular fashion. The silhouette of a peasant woman and the silhouette of a bourgeoisie woman was drastically different as well as the use of different types of fabric color and number of undergarments. Due to changing fashion trends and technological advancements, the markers of class were lessened to the number of embellishments, the quality of fabric, and construction. The sewing machine and the Industrial Revolution made socially elevated fashion accessible and led to the fashion scene being more democratic. Victorian women could all dress in a manner comparable to the high class. Refined fashion was desired by the growing American middle-class, and they looked to the wealthy Europeans for the latest fashion trends.97 Popular costume was reflecting the shifting socio-economic and political structure of society by turning fashion away from aristocratic body towards a feminine ideal aided by class instead of caused by class.98 Corsets signified decency that could be appropriated by women of the laboring class.99 In turn, corsets weakened class boundaries and strengthened gender signifiers.100 The socio-economic status was reflected in corsets by the quality of material and how often garments were replaced or bought new. Wealthy women would have nicer fabrics and higher quality materials like whalebone instead of metal. Wealthy people 97 Blum, Stella. Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harper's Bazaar, 1867-1898. V. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. Yale University Press, 2011.36. 99 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. Yale University Press, 2011.49. 100 Especially impoverished white women and enslaved African women were shown in streetwear of petticoats and chemises to emphasize their low social position. During this period, apart from the hem of a petticoat in the 1870s, these garments were meant to only be seen in private when dressing and undressing. Lynch, Annette, and Strauss, Mitchell D., eds. Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Blue Ridge Summit: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central.l. 70. 98 33 could afford to replace worn garments at a higher rate than the poor. It was more common for the lower class to alter garments repeatedly while the rich discarded garments when it no longer fitted or was showing its age. Generally, working class women needed a greater range of motion, so they did not lace their corset as tight as a stylish wealthy woman.101 Corsets were worn by those who previously might have been excluded from traditional markers of wealth and femininity. Women across the spectrum were lacing into a corset in the Victorian era. Farm workers, servants, or wealthy wives these women chose to wear corsets daily.102 Corsets were not rigid, and having adjustable laces allowed women the freedom to wear them in different ways. Any woman without a corset was seen as loose and slovenly. A tightly laced corset supported the British Victorian standard of women to be dependent on men due to the limitations on flexibility. Middle- and working-class women performed housework and other labor in corsets as though to elevate themselves and marry wealthy men.103 The middle-class was growing in this period which made middle-class women a relevant market for the fashion industry.104 Middle-class women especially laced on the tighter side to follow the fashion trends and replicate the upper-class status they wished to achieve. 101 Cynthia Overbeck Bix. 2012. Petticoats and Frock Coats: Revolution and Victorian-Age Fashions From the 1770s to the 1860s. 35. 102 Ibid. 103 Cynthia Overbeck Bix. Petticoats and Frock Coats: Revolution and Victorian-Age Fashions From the 1770s to the 1860s. 36. 104 Davidoff, Leonore, and Catherine Hall. Family Fortunes. 19. 34 As early as 1824, poor sex workers in London wore corsets.105 Corsets were far more favored by the working-class English than the working-class French. This was possible since France was famous for bespoke corsets while in England and America mass produced corsets were tailored to fit. Making them a cheaper option. According to one study, 33% of working-class French wives owned corsets in the period between 1850 and 1874.106 In the United States, both free and enslaved black women wore corsets in the 1800s as well. Black women who were enslaved would wear corsets if they worked in the household but not if they work in the fields.107 British womens prisons, workhouses, and asylums offered a selective size range of corsets, because the corset was seen as an important part of womens comfort.108 Those places did not care for many comforts, so the corset must have been highly valued by women for their expression of humanity. This availability of corsets was fairly common, George Roberts, who operated a successful warehouse in London, noted in his catalogue produced for distribution at Englands Great Exhibition of 1851, that contracts for schools and charitable institutions were promptly filled at wholesale prices. 109 These corsets were dull brown with no embellishments, closed down the front, and were not designed to be tight-laced.110 The design of the garment reflected low criminal status and sublimated femininity. It was a way for the women, who were stripped of much of their identity, to present themselves in a higher status. Corsets were thought to provide a great value for 105 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 49. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 49. 107 Ibid. 108 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture.16. 109 Examples of these corsets can be found in The Symington Museum in Leicestershire Ibid. 110 Ibid. 106 35 ladies. There is poor evidence to support the belief that women could not move or work in a corset. Corsets were an aid in physical labor due to the extra back support while lifting and repeated bending.111 Corset makers were aware of their market. Thus, corsets were specifically advertised as being both cheap and durable and reminds us that Thorstein Veblen, an American economist, was quite incorrect when he argued that corsets prevented women from working.112 Additionally, working class women used the corset as a tool to improve her sex appeal without being seen as a scarlet woman and to enable her marry above her station, in the Victorian era.113 This is especially significant since social barriers between classes were significant divides.114 Corsets helped women transcend these barriers. Tight lacing was just another way for women wearing corsets to send a message. Many modern audiences believe that corsets were forced on to women against their will and comfort.115 Victorian women were treated as slaves to fashion, masochists, or fools by both Victorian doctors and modern historians.116 Victorian women wore corsets, largely, because it improved their personal beauty and comfort. The choice to wear a corset was based on the wearers intended activity or company. If a woman was attending an elegant evening out, a tight corset was appropriate.117 If a woman was 111 Cynthia Overbeck Bix. 2012. Petticoats and Frock Coats: Revolution and Victorian-Age Fashions From the 1770s to the 1860s. 35. 112 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 466. 113 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 9. 114 Davidoff, Leonore, and Catherine Hall. Family Fortunes. 23. 115 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 44. 116 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 463. 117 In the second half of the 1870s when dresses became a tighter silhouette the tea gown would gain increasing favor. In previous decades the gown was only for boudoir but over time it was typical to wear a tea gown to breakfast or in the morning with friends and family. This is also why tea gowns had more elaborate designs in the mid to late 1870s. 36 being physically active, she might wear a corset meant for said activity. For example, in the late 1860s the bathing corset was invented. The Bathing corset was made to be worn beneath a bathing costume to control the bosom and was deemed a less constrictive means of support popularly known as bathing stays soon followed. As one 1877 magazine states: An enterprising firm has just patented some bathing-stays, which French women much appreciate, whether for swimming or merely plunging in the water, for they support the figure without interfering with their ease of movement.118 Women were not expected to always wear corsets, and tea gowns were designed to be worn at home without a corset while a lady relaxed.119 Corsets and colonialism During the Victorian era, British influence and control was spreading around the globe. The explosion of British expansion was beginning, and it would not take off in a big way until later. Middle- and upper-class British women had a role to play in sustaining British imperialism in places like India, Africa, Australia, and the Pacific by bringing corsets through their travel. These women were mainly there to spread the British empire, and the association with corsets for moral control were tools for confirming Evangelical beliefs.120 Colonial administrators worried that British women throughout the empire maintained the prestige of British authority by their behavior and demeanor. Corsets assured the British women that they were respectable and moral Harris, Kristina. Victorian & Edwardian Fashions for Women, 1840 to 1919.65. 118 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty. 100. Quote from 41 cassells family magazine (1877). London: Cassell Petter & Galpin, p. 626. 119 Mimi, Matthews. A Victorian Ladys Guide to Fashion and Beauty.87. 120 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture.17. 37 Christians. There were a few corsets designed for tropical heat with perforated gossamer.121 The English corset company, Dickens and Jones, produced corsets for the British colonies, and their advertisements expostulate the Specialite corset led the way all the world over, to womens greatest ambition - a good figure with a corseted sylph with crown, wings, and petticoats, hovering beside and above Earth with ribbons from her hands going across the empire with women only in corsets.122 The imagery sends the strong message that corsets were a tool for the British empire and respectability. The corset in the colonial context became a symbol for British moral control. British men were worried about the respectability and control of British women in the colonial context, and the corset was a tool for maintaining those moral standards abroad. In 1850, a correspondent reported for the domestic economist that British women in India still wore corsets that were not suited for tropical climates as voluntary victims of fashion.123 While the reporter found it an unbelievable choice, women across Europe wrote in sharing they conceive the discomfort, in many cases of absolute suffering that (was) undergone by many of their own sex in the east, who clothed themselves as they do in Europe.124 These British women did not remove their corsets. Many high- and middle-class ladies thought it was ridiculous to not wear a corset based on the societal standards of Europe during the Mid- 19th century. Corset advertisements 121 Ibid. Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture.17. 123 Ibid. 124 Ibid. 122 38 Several advertisements from the time period showcase the concerns of women at the time: fashion advertisements from several manufacturers exhibit the concerns of the buyers, mainly sizing options, comfort, function, color, and cost. Corsets were made to support women performing a variety of tasks. It may surprise modern viewers to see a corset ad featuring a woman playing tennis.125 Side to side measurements can be easily adjusted to fit a range of body types, so concern regarding sizing is dependent upon the less flexible length measurement. By the late 1870s, there was emerging emphasis on health concerns due to dramatic media coverage spurred by the tight lacing trend. Victorian corsets were made to last. In regard to cost, the quality of the garment ensured which corsets were a worthwhile purchase. Corset bones were less likely to break than stay bones. Many corset advertisements offered rewards for broken bones after regular use after less than a year's time to emphasize their confidence that the bones will not snap, bend, or break.126 If the garment had aged tremendously, the bones would wear out or rust. Purchased corsets sometimes came with extra bones to replace the old ones, just in case.127 Shielding at stress points (hips or abdomen) was advertised as added protection for the body.128 Fashion advertisements answer the questions and concerns of the buyers, mainly sizing options, health, function, and cost. Support for function should come 125 Warner Bros. Coraline Corsets. 2017. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Adam Matthew Digital. Ibid. 127 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History.73. 128 Ibid. 126 39 before cost in advertisements. All the advertising makes the same arguments as current brasier advertisements do. Some corset advertising at the back of Victorian fashion magazines contained prose that highlighted the garment's quality and use.129 Corsets were viewed as taboo and something to be hidden. Until the 1870s, the images for corset advertisements were corsets floating in a void, like shells with no filling.130 They were accompanied with flowers and little baby angels, or putti figures, in romantic spaces. Putti are used to symbolize the heavenly setting a corset could bring as well as love brought by cupids and healthy babies. It was thought that corsets led to unhealthy pregnancies, so the puttis subtly helped assuage that fear. By the 1870s, some women were shown from the waist up in corsets with idealized hair and poses that accentuated the corsets shape, like having the arms up around the head. The women were shown undressing and lounging in a domestic state. They were also shown sleeping or playing with puppies, kittens, or babies.131 The advertisements reflected the normalized romanticizing and sexualized handling of the corset which marked the beginning of the end for the corset in the cycle of fashion. Corset advertisements placed women in these dream states, because it represented how women believed the corset could positively impact their lives. The corset could mean a better life with an upward moving marriage or preventing the effects of time on the natural body.132 Alongside bountiful vegetation, these advertisements stressed fertility and abundance.133 129 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 290. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 44. 131 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 461. 132 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 467. 133 Ibid. 130 40 Corset publications Several fashion magazines from the mid- Victorian era showcased European fashion. Some of these publications include Godeys Ladys Book, Petersons Magazine, Harpers Bazar, La Mode Illustree, Salon De La Mode, Dames Et Des Demoiselles, Lart Et La Mode, Der Bazar, Frank Leslie's Ladies Magazine, Harper's Weekly, and The Standard Designer.134 Elite Victorian women read these to know how to stay with the fashion trends. They featured articles and fashion prints most popular of the time period. In Britain, Comics were published in other non-fashion magazines to satirize womens fashion as ridiculous and frivolous. Comics in Punch Magazine were a very popular example that would poke fun at skirt size or corsets. An example, of such a comic is the tight-lacing caricature labeled as Fashionable Suicide.135 Images like the one below (Fig. 6) are absurd to push the idea of corsets as an absurd fashion trend. 134 Harpers bazaar-- European fashion for American audience Blum, Stella. Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harpers Bazar, 1867-1898. VI. 135 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 67. 41 Figure 6: Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. Yale University Press, 2011.68. An important writer about corsets was Madame Roxy Caplin. She was Englands most famous and best corsetiere. Madame Roxy Caplin won several awards for her corsetry designs and took the prize medal at the great exhibition of 1851.136 She was a doctor's wife who helped her understand the physiological impact of her designs. Caplin designed for the body and not the fashion, and she held both a medical perspective and a woman's perspective on corsetry. Madame Roxy Caplin understood a woman's body and needs unlike male designers. She designed for the specific needs of a woman in every stage of her life- from young woman, to pregnant, to postpartum.137 Madame Roxy Caplin wrote several texts on the topic of corsets. She goes into the specific needs of the stages of womens life, infancy, one to twelve, twelve to eighteen, gestation, middle 136 137 Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 31. Summers, Leigh. Bound to Please: A History of the Victorian Corset. Dress, Body, Culture. 31. 42 age, old age, and women with spinal deformities. She wrote a book read by women across Britain, Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. Figure 7: Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. London, 1856. viii. The first image in Caplins book depicts Grecian woman dressed in a toga with an unsupported breast on display (Fig. 7). Grecian woman imagery was likely selected, because dress reformers would recall the supposedly simple Roman fashion and reflect on the idea of how Roman women did not need corsets to be moral women.138 The references to togas against corsets was shown in the Godeys Ladys Book and magazine in 1869. The writer put corsets and togas in direct opposition. In the flowing robes of the Vesta, the Juno and Diana, every part is light and graceful.139 The idealization of ancient Greek figures due to neoclassicism in the period was a tool for dismissing the corset and modern fashion. The toga was also worn in a time when anatomy and the needs of the body were not as well understood as in the Victorian time. Caplins book focuses on the function of clothing for the body and not embellishment- health over fashion. Her book mainly discussed how a corset should accommodate the physical needs of different women. Caplin was mindful of the proportions and balance of the body in accordance with the changes a body undergoes throughout ones life. 138 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 171. Uhle, Chas P., Dr. "Health Department Women's Dress." Godeys Ladys Book and Magazine 78-79 (1869). 282. 139 43 Caplin was critical of Victorian medical writing and claimed that the principal writers upon the subject of corsets have been medical men, who, great as is their knowledge of their part of the question, certainly know nothing of ours; and hence what they have written has been almost entirely without practical utility.140 Caplin specifically addresses Dr. Copelands medical dictionary and how it stated the medical harm caused by the corset.141 Caplin suggests that, because it is evident that Dr. Copeland does not know where the bones are inserted in the corset or how the garment functions, he can't really understand the corset in relation to the body. Because Caplin understood how to make corsets and her husband taught her about anatomy, she was better positioned to understand the effects of the corset on the body. Caplin also argued it was more productive to promote medical improvement in a way that society would accept, because no woman was going to give up her corset. The only way to make a healthy corset was for medical men and staymakers to work together to improve the corset and make a corset fit the body rather than the opposite according to Caplin. Many cultures use fashion to add and change the natural beauty of the body. While many articles in the Victorian period were written to criticize fashion, they never suggested a true alternative or means of improvement. Many moralists, monks, and European writers argue that popular fashion is wrong, but they never say what is right. 142 The writers criticized what women wear with ease but failed to make a clear 140 Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. London, 1856. viii. 141 James Copland (17911870) was a well-known Scottish physician and medical writer. 142 Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body.2. 44 statement on what should be worn instead. The corset does improve the body, can correct posture and spinal issues, and provides muscles with support. In order from left to right: Figure 8: Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. London, 1856. 2. Figure 9: Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. London, 1856. 4. Figure 10: Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. London, 1856. 6. Caplin calls on Mr. Walker's three types of female beauty, nutritious beauty as Venus, intellectual beauty as Minerva, and locomotive beauty as Diana.143 Minerva (Fig. 8) is represented with a large head and a petite frame. Venus (Fig. 9) is depicted with a larger and longer torso with broad waist and hips. Diana (Fig. 10) is portrayed with a short torso, long and muscular limbs, and a small head. These were considered 143 Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. 3. 45 the three forms of perfection, and it was wrong to change them, because the forms were already perfect. Therefore, the proportions must be studied and adapt the dress to the perfect body rather than change to a societal definition of beauty.144 Caplin challenged that these popular statues are the image of beauty, because they are stuck in a curved position. A malformed spine would have to be considered beautiful, even if a person was never able to stand straight. The triple goddess designates the three types of women allowed in the patriarchy- the maiden or the virgin, the mother, and the old crone. The maiden or the virgin is used for sexual pleasure, the mother is used for birthing and raising children. The old crone is allowed authority over the younger women if she has succeeded in her previous roles of maiden and mother according to patriarchal terms or she is ousted by society and ignored. The triple goddess archetype is uprooted by the wearing of corsets. Motherhood and sexual desirability of the maiden are seen as polar opposites. Motherhood is meant to mean the end of a woman being a virgin and sexually idealized. Within the patriarchy, once a woman has had children her body is a means of production. The corset upsets this balance, because a woman can accentuate her sex appeal with the corset and present a youthful figure. Understanding of the triple goddess can be seen in the Victorian era. Caplin wrote about the Grecian goddesses Venus, Minerva, Diana. Venus is the youthful and sexual Maiden. Minerva is the goddess of wisdom, justice, and victory and has the qualities of the mother. Diana, the 144 It is worth mentioning that all three goddesses are shown as white, able, relatively skinny, young, and classically feminine and there are many more ways for women to be beautiful. 46 goddess of wild animals and the hunt, is similar to the old crone because of her wild independence and role in aiding conception and delivery. Caplins credibility is based around understanding women in society and the feminine body. According to Caplin, women's bodies differ from men. Women have a lower center of gravity with shorter legs, broad hips, closer knees, and smaller support for the body. Because of these differences, support for the body is essential for the sake of making daily activity like walking easier. The biological difference in the body needs to be accounted for in dress making. Health is beauty- illness is macabre. Caplin refutes the idea that corsets are physically damaging, because if they were, women would have stopped wearing them. When properly fitted and constructed, a corset benefits the body. Corsets allow women to become closer to natural perfection by supporting the weakness of a womans body.145 Anyone harmed by corsets is at fault for following temporary fashion and changing nature- these women are the ones guilty of vanity. Sensible women wear a corset that fits the body and is constructed well. Because of their views, women rejected medical advice from men. If women were comfortable and healthy in a corset, what reason would they have to believe the medical man with no understanding of the garment and the differences between man and woman? Caplin is distinctly against tight lacing. because it is ill advised to go against nature, and there are negative consequences to forcing the body to fit the corset instead of focusing on 145 Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. 36. 47 supporting the needs of the body. Corsets are meant to add to the strength of the body and not to take over the muscle and strength of the natural body. The fit on corsets was incredibly important both for comfort and style. If the corset was not made for the body, there will be discomfort due to the corset working against the body and the lack of support to the bust. The desired silhouette is not achieved when the corset is ill-fitted. In an advertisement for Thomsons Glove-Fitting Corset published in the Englishwomans Domestic Magazine (January 1868), it states, no dress, however well made, can fit properly if the corset does not.146 The smooth torso and defined figure was not achievable if the corset and the natural body were not unified. Corset Myths Myths about corsets have been perpetuated by modern historians being uncritical of bias in primary resources.147 Many primary documents from the period made claims, especially medical claims, that were not credible. However, the bias has been passed down through time. Uncritical handling of biased advertisements to statements that defy modern logic being treated as fact without consideration of evidence. A common myth about Victorian women and corsetry is that they removed ribs to achieve a slim waist. Surgeries on the abdomen would have been incredibly difficult and risky during the Victorian era. Infection was a deadly factor, and no one would take the risk for simply beauty modification reasons. Most surgeries were on 146 147 Waugh, Norah. Corsets and Crinolines. New York: Routledge/Theatre Arts, 1991. 105. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 72. 48 patients who were close to death anyway, thus the risk was worth taking in those instances. The idea that ribs were removed was caused by sensationalized media that was thoughtlessly repeated by historians.148 Uncritical historians led to lies being treated as irrefutable truths Corset Bias The Victorian era was self-diagnosed with five morals: plagues, corsets, tobacco, gambling, strong drink, and illegal speculation.149 A type of underwear was compared to disease, addiction, and crime. Men did not force women to wear corsets. In fact, male authority figures, including many doctors, opposed corsetry.150 As women leaned into extravagant fashion, men in authority tried to pull them down. In the mid- Victorian era, Anglo Saxon anti-corset leagues were formed to promote practical clothing but they mainly advocated against corsets and led corset opposition.151 It was common to read headlines along the lines of an 1871 Metropolitan magazine headline the size of the waist is more important than the size of the brain.152 Writing against corsets was about controlling womens bodies and maintaining tradition.153 Women maintaining their youth was a threat to men. Anti-corset writer, J.J. Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher from the previous century, 1700s, said, I agree that a drooping breast or a swollen belly is very 148 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 73. Fontanel, Beatrice. Support and Seduction: The History of Corsets and Bras. 53. 150 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History.35. 151 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 39. 152 Bowman, Karen. Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman times to the Modern Era. 100. 153 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 39. 149 49 unattractive in a twenty-year-old, but it is no longer shocking in a thirty-year-old. 154 It was viewed as unnatural for a woman to maintain her youthful beauty with age. The corset is an object symbolic in the Madonna whore complex. The corset accentuates the feminine body and insists on a sexual identity. Corsets were a powerful symbol for women, because they were seen as socially acceptable and were not a diminishing factor to a womans relationship with God. Combined sexual desire and motherhood broke the societal understanding of womens sexuality. By minimizing the waist and accentuating breasts and hips, a woman can match the feminine ideal both sexuality and fecundity.155 Corsets made a womans body scream sexual difference by highlighting the sexually dimorphic curves.156 Even as a womans body changed from age and multiple pregnancies, the corset allowed a woman to present the curves of a young, fertile, and sexual maiden. Corsets could aid the fantasy of internal youth and beauty. The Lancet, on April 24, 1869, published an article by Dr. Duffin from Kings College Hospital describing deformed kidneys in a young woman.157 The twenty-six-year-old had double floating kidneys. This condition was when the kidney was higher in the torso than its supposed to be. Two French doctors found thirty women and five men with the deformity. Out of 35 observations collected by Dr. Fritz, of Paris, 30 were in females. Floating kidney is most common on the right side. Cruveilhier 154 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 171. Wosk, Julie. Women and the Machine: Representations from the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age. 62. 156 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 463. 157 Duffin, Dr. "King's College Hospital A Case of Floating Kidney." The Lancet. Vol 1 (1869). 565. 155 50 seems to think that the use of the corset in the female, and men wearing too tight clothes, are the main causes of the displacement.158 Doctors theorized the condition was caused by corsets and tight clothes. A year before, the Lancet would publish the death of a New York woman from apoplexy of the lungs caused by regular tightlacing.159 In 1879, The British Medical Journal published the preaching of The Rev. H. R. Haweis against tightlacing. He argued against the practice, but he does not denote a difference between tight lacing and corsets as a whole other than that his riding belt are much less harmful than the old-fashioned laced stays.160 The dress reform movement claimed success because the average waist grew to twenty-five inches, but this reflects the changing beauty standards more than a submission to authority. The reverend Haweis was labeled as understanding leading doctors and preached Death from natural causes! Lay no such flattering unction to your sole. Death from rut in the liver and corn on the heart, produced by tight-lacing.' Many believed that it was a Christian failing to tight-lace, because the practice was viewed as vain and physically damaging. The medical journal published the work of a Christian leader instead of a writer with a medical background because the public debate of corsets and tight lacing were moral in origin and not medical. Medical publications frequently made comparisons between medical equipment (prosthesis and spinal correctors) and corsets. These medical professionals use the methods and language of the very garment they dismissed as harmful. Medical 158 Medical News. The Lancet. Vol 1 (1868). 675. Ibid. 160 Tight-Lacing. The British Medical Journal 1, no. 954 (1879): 559559. 159 51 professionals would constrict to the body in the same way as the corset but the effect on the body was supposedly different. Doctors could appropriate the language of corsets in one breath and disavow corsets in the next. The main contributor to the belief that corsets were bad for the health of women was the biased writing by doctors from the period. It is not hard to find stories of young women dying and corsets being to blame. Anytime a young skinny woman died unexpectedly, the doctors searched for deformed organs, and the corset was blamed for the tragedy.161 In 1859, a widely circulated report said, a young woman, whose thin waist was admired by all her rivals, died two days after the ball her family decided to find out the cause of her sudden death at such a young age and had an autopsy performed. The findings were rather surprising: the liver had been pierced by three of the girls ribs!162 This testament was not alone. A newspaper reported in 1859 a twenty-three-year-old Parisian woman had a thirteen-inch waist at a ball and died two days later from her liver being punctured by three ribs after extreme stomach pains. Her autopsy reported that her stomach was nearly severed in half leaving a canal only as narrow as a ravens feather.163 Cases like this are known as tightlaced livers. Specimen livers were divided down the middle contributing to tight lacing of corsets. Male deaths were not subjected to nearly as much scrutiny. Doctors treated vanity as a deadly disease caused by corsets. Corsets were the demons affecting women's bodies. 161 Bowman, Karen. Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman times to the Modern Era.98. 162 Fontanel, Beatrice. Support and Seduction: The History of Corsets and Bras. 53. 163 Bowman, Karen. Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman times to the Modern Era.98. 52 Doctors from the time claimed corsets caused multiple bodily issues.164 An incomplete list of illnesses blamed on corsets are: apoplexy, asthma, chlorosis, consumption, cough, diseases of the kidney, displacement of the bones of the chest, disturbance of the circulation, disturbance of the functions of the diaphragm, dropsy of the belly, epilepsy, fainting, hemorrhoids, hernia of the bladder, hunchback, hysteria, impediment to the action of the lungs, impediments in the action of the heart, inability to suckle in consequence of pressure on the breasts, sagging breasts, inadequate nipples, inclination of the mouth of the uterus towards the sacrum, inflammation of the liver, leucorrhea, loss of appetite, lung abscesses, melancholy, miscarriages, pain in the stomach, premature labor, scirrhous, in the mammary glands, and ultimately cancer, sores on the chest, sterility, swollen feet, ugly children, unhealthy children, want of energy, and weakening of the thorax.165 Many of these issues affect places on the body that are not covered by the corset or are related to motherhood. Corsets were blamed for maternal troubles. The Parisian, Pierre Boitard, wrote a very vain woman who delivered only crippled infants because she crippled them in her womb to keep a slim waist in Manuel-physiologie De La Bonne Compagnie.166 The desire for control over her body was blamed for her dead children. If a woman wanted to look desirable based on societal standards, she ruined her chances of motherhood. The fear that corsets negatively affected fertility still exists in the modern era.167 164 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie.170. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 67. 166 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 76. 167 Davies, Mel. Corsets and Conception: Fashion and Demographic Trends in the Nineteenth Century. Comparative Studies in Society and History. 165 53 The argument by Victorian doctors against the corset was disputed by the medical benefits of supporting the abdomen.168 Doctors still said corsets were harmful, and women still wore corsets.169 One example of anti-corset text is Madre Natura versus the Moloch of Fashion published in 1874 by the illustrator and Victorian writer, under the pseudonym Luke Limner (real name John Leighton.) He credited corsets for the cause of ninety-seven diseases according to the testimony of eminent medical men'' examples are Pains in the head...according to Bonnaud to sickly and short life [according to] Camper.170 Doctors would say women were failing as mothers because of the vain desire to wear a corset. In 1998, modern tightlacer, Colleen Ruby Gau wore 1870-style corsets laced three inches less than the natural waist measurements. Colleen Ruby Gau was studied with modern medical tools. Her study revealed losing 9% of the lungs' tidal volume as measured by spirometer, with the range from 2% to 29% which diminished lung capacity and is significant in understanding the effect of a tightlaced corset, but not a corset tightened to properly fit.171 When a woman wears a tight corset, the accessory respiratory muscles are used for breathing preventing deep breaths in a similar way to pregnant women and obese people also breathe from the upper- diaphragm.172 There is little doubt that a tightly laced corset has a considerable effect, but using one corset as representative of all corsets is a gross simplification. 168 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 171. Modern doctors recommend corsets as treatment for scoliosis. 170 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 67. 171 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 69. 172 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 70. 169 54 Another dramatic association with the corset is fainting women. Most modern readers hear corsets and think of a woman tightly laced to the point they lose their breath and gracefully falling in the arms of a man or on to a chaise lounge or fainting couch. While some reports may directly support the accusation, the handle of events were more about romanticizing feminine weakness.173 When a woman faints, she supports the idea that women are weak which was romanticized as swooning. It was perceived that the lady had been squeezed by a man to death. Steele presents the argument for fainting as the eroticized enactment of feminine death even though she personally was unconvinced.174 The continuous fear and aggression towards the corset steams from women gaining control of their bodies by subtly taking it from the men. Corsets are used as an expression of bodily autonomy. The physical ailments were blamed on corset for vanity and moral failing. Corsets symbol Mid Victorian Britain had prudish standards for womens sexuality. Corsets changed the body to draw attention to the parts of the body most associated with maternity (large bust and rounded hips) and lifted and shaped the torso to hide the signs of a natural body aging and sagging.175 Corsets were seen as a necessary part of a proper womans ensemble. The corset truly makes the phrase straight laced literal. The stiff boning was viewed as a signifier of moral fortitude.176 Some misogynists viewed 173 Ibid. Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 71. 175 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 194. 176 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 215. 174 55 the womans body as weak and in need of support. Doctors, hygienists, and later feminist saw it as unnatural to change the shape of the body and believed it was harmful physically and mentally.177 In their minds, corsets were erotic and imoral.178 Corsets, and fashion at large, were an acceptable form of self-expression as long as that expression did not deviate too far from social expectations.179 Victorian womens fashion was deeply moralized. Women with tiny, corseted waists or large crinolines were accused of being vain. If a woman followed the fashion trends she was labeled as vain and empty.180 Women who dressed poorly or who didnt lace their corsets very tight were considered morally promiscuous and socially inferior. In 1864, a Godeys Ladys Book and Magazine article stated that it was reasoned that the choice to not wear a corset reflected promiscuous behavior when the general licentiousness of manners and morals was accompanied by a corresponding indecency of dress.181 This led to a society where women were once again expected to tread a fine line where any decision was met with ridicule. The corset, as well as the decision to wear one and how to wear it, was not immune to the mentality that a woman can be blamed or considered wrong no matter what she does. The corset (in both the Victorian era and now) is a significant sexual symbol that can put women in either a submissive role or a dominant role. Some scholars and 177 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 24. Wosk, Julie. Women and the Machine: Representations from the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age. 62. 179 Prescott, Heather Munro. Review of The Corset: A Cultural History. 180 Mitchell, Rebecca. Fashioning the Victorians: A Critical Sourcebook. Dress, Body, Culture. 93. 181 Wosk, Julie. Women and the Machine: Representations from the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age. 63. 178 56 corseted women postulate that wearing a corset is a pleasurable and sensual experience.182 Tight lacing can even be read in a fetishist's lens as a masochistic pushing of physical limits. Though most women did not purposefully use corsets as a fetish object, it is conjecture against the idea that the corset is sexually oppressive. The consensual control of the body can be a sexually liberating practice. Sexual meaning of corsets Corsets as a garment and a symbol have different meanings for each viewer and wearer. For women, corsets became a socially acceptable way of expressing sexual individuality. The corset was sexualized for the same reason any underwear is sexualized- it is the last layer before nudity, but it reveals more than what is acceptable for daily life.183 It builds excitement in the undressing process and the mystery and reveal is erotic. In the Mid- Victorian era, nudity was more common than in the past. British Victorian idealized Greek statues that showed nude and undressing figures normalizing the sexual stimuli. A woman in a corset and a petticoat was not a public image. Concealment is the key to what is considered intimate and exciting across time. The act of undressing can act as a foreplay. Typically, sex is preceded by getting naked. It was common for a woman to need help dressing and undressing, especially if the corset did not feature a busk. This means the husband would touch the wife, and stimulating touches built the anticipation, like unwrapping a present. The act of unlacing became publicly sexualized. Unlacing 182 183 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 219. Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 451. 57 transformed into a metaphor for the loss of virginity.184 The image of unlacing the corset in an erotic context can be seen as far back as the 1830s.185 The corset maintained the virginal body, and the process of a man removing the garment became highly erotic. The act of deflowering the woman was performed by inserting the laces through the holes of the corset.186 Even a man removing the hook and eyes on a busk was sexualized. Corsets are not only a visual stimulus for mens sexual arousal, but also a tactile stimulus for women.187 The corset became crucial for marital sexual relations during the 1860s. Gustave Droze wrote Monsieur, Madame et Bb (Man, Woman and Baby) with the argument that, lacing a womans corset seemed to inspire limitless emotions in a man who could observe the waist contracting and the silhouette taking shape under his own hands. In this way the corset allowed the man to shape a woman as he wished.188 The sexual contentment, Gustave Droze believed, led to married bliss. For some women, the corset brings more internalized attention to her body with defined curves and edges. Valerie Steele argued, that wearing a corset means being an adult woman with a sexual role to play in marriage. Some go as far as to say that wearing a corset is extremely pleasurable, and therefore sensual, for a woman.189 The garment made sex more pleasurable for the woman because of the sense of control. There are theories about the kinky implication of corsets and the physical restriction is a form of Victorian 184 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 154. Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 455. 186 Ibid. 187 Kidwell, Claudia Brush., and Valerie Steele. Men and Women: Dressing the Part. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. 55. 188 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 219. 189 Barbier, Muriel, and Boucher, Shazia. The Story of Lingerie. 219. 185 58 BDSM. Corsets have always been erotic, but the subversive sexual connotation developed later. The connection of eroticism and pain originated from men looking back on history rather than Victorian women.190 Newspapers during the 1860s vocalize disdain for the expansive Hoopskirt. One Dundee newspaper reported on 15 august 1862: Crinoline has gone on expanding...till it has reached todays preposterous dimensions...You may reason with a lady about the expense of the fashion...You may as well talk to a stone.191 The writer expostulates his reasons for the large skirts mainly the overall impracticality (weight, requires slow motions, and needs large spaces) and how it makes women unapproachable. How monstrous and indelicate it looks on others; you may point out how uncomfortable it is to walk by her side.192 The quote suggests that at least some men were disapproving of the Victorian fashion trends that did not center male pleasure. Men could not get close enough to women to casually touch them. Because hoop skirts were more comfortable due to the corset, the dismissal of the corset would make it easier to grope women. By wearing a corset, a woman of any background could achieve the societal standard of beauty and represent herself as a sexually empowered woman. The comparison to armor was commonly made. The English especially believed that a straight-laced woman was not loose. Yet, Victorian women (women in Great Britain, France, and the United States) understood that the corset also functioned as an adjunct 190 Steele, Valerie. The Corset: Fashion and Eroticism. 450. Bowman, Karen. Corsets and Codpieces: A History of Outrageous Fashion, from Roman times to the Modern Era. 89. 192 Ibid. 191 59 to female sexual beauty. By simultaneously constructing an image of irreproachable propriety and one of blatant sexual allure, the corset allowed women to articulate sexual subjectivity in a socially acceptable way.193 Conclusion Corsets provided erotic and societal empowerment for Victorian women. Although shapewear changed significantly from 1850-1870, the significance was unchanging. Victorian women were tightly controlled, and the corset put them in control of their body. Women could express themselves and ignore the moralized hate thrown by authority for personal empowerment. Corsets were a way for British women in the mid-nineteenth century to display their sexual empowerment when they lacked other options. Corset construction was influenced by the Industrial Revolution and other developments in time. Corsets were made cheaper and faster, and corsets met the demands of women from all walks of life. Corsets were worn by women in British colonies to maintain their respectability and to carry on traditional British gender expression. Corset advertisements and publications centered on sexuality and women's experiences about their bodies. Corsets were targeted under the guise of vanity and physical harm, both of which were associated with anxieties of attacks on traditional women's roles. Victorian corset inspired apparel is now used to represent gender and sexual identity in the current period. 193 Steele, Valerie. The Corset a Cultural History. 35. 60 I felt comfortable wearing a corset, and I was excited by the choice to wear a corset. Empowerment through fashion is all about freedom of choice. The clothes we wear are a strong way of projecting identity, both now and in the Victorian era. Fashion can be a tool to express identity and support the lifestyle of the wearer. Women should dress in a way that best allows them to feel most themselves and move through the world with ease. Fashion is an often-overlooked form of personal identification. Wearing what you want is a feminist act because it denies patriarchal pressures to conform and places the wearer in a position of power instead of allowing others to dictate what you do with your body. Freedom in fashion is a crucial way to reach bodily autonomy. 61 Images of corsets Figure 11: Corset from 1865.Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Fashions A Pictorial Archive. Dover Publication, 1999. 6. Figure 12: Corset from 1867. Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Fashions A Pictorial Archive. Dover Publication, 1999. 8. 62 Figure 13: Corset from 1870. Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Fashions A Pictorial Archive. Dover Publication, 1999. 13. Figure 14: Corsets from 1871. Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Goods and Merchandise 2300 Illustrations. Dover Publication, 1997. 36 Figure 15: Corset from 1872. Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Fashions A Pictorial Archive. Dover Publication, 1999. 15. 63 Figure 16: Corset from 1877. Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Fashions A Pictorial Archive. Dover Publication, 1999. 20. Figure 17: Corset from 1878. Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Fashions A Pictorial Archive. Dover Publication, 1999. 21. 64 65 Figure 18: Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Goods and Merchandise 2300 Illustrations. Dover Publication, 1997. 104. Figure 19: Grafton, Carol Belanger. Victorian Goods and Merchandise 2300 Illustrations. Dover Publication, 1997. 105. 66 Glossary Bone/Boning- flexible supports sewn into a garment to support the silhouette, historically made of metal or whalebone. The name came from the original whalebones used in corsetry. Busk- a long flat support (wood, horn, or metal) inserted in the center of corsets or stays made of wood steel, bone, or ivory. Cartridge pleat- several small, rounded folds together in a tight wave pattern. Casing- a cover. Chemise- a knee length cotton or linen undershirt meant to absorb sweat and cushion the corset and torso from each other, prevent circulation restrictions and give the body necessary wiggle room. Corded- strips of fabric in a cord shape that are more flexible than boning but are nor as structured or supportive. Darts- a sewn fold that shapes a garment, it is folded in an acute angle Embellishments- Added details or decoration added to a garment for aesthetic purposes. Eyelets- a small ring of metal around a small hole that has a cord or string threaded through it. Eyelets are one piece of metal while grommets are made of two pieces of metal. 67 Flat pleat- now also commonly known as knife pleats or accordion pleats, the fabric will lie flat with the under-pleat half that of the over pleat. Goring- A slash in a skirt filled with a triangular piece of fabric, this adds width to the bottom hem, used to create a flared end, many can be used in one garment. Hoop skirt- an undergarment, a series of metal hoops worn in a skirt in a bell shape. Could create a voluminous skirt with much less fabric. Lacing- when a string or ribbon are threaded through a series of holes in a garment to create an adjustable closure. Petticoat- an under garment, a second skirt worn under another dress of skirt. It was light and loose and was often layered with other undergarments. It provided additional volume and smoothed the seam of other undergarments so they would not show through the outerwear. Pleat- a fold in the fabric held by stitching at one end near a seam Seam- a place on the garment where two fabrics are stitched together. Usually, the thread can be seen to show the location of the seam. Silhouette- the overall shape of the body created by the garment. True waist- smallest circumference of the torso. Wash leather- soft leather typically made of sheepskin meant to be absorbent. 68 Primary Sources: Blum, Stella. Victorian Fashions and Costumes from Harpers Bazar, 1867-1898. New York: Dover Publications, 1974. Caplin, Roxey Ann. Health and Beauty; Or, Corsets and Clothing, Constructed in Accordance with the Physiological Laws of the Human Body. London, 1856. Chicago Corset Co. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Adam Matthew Digital, 2017. Duffin, Dr. "King's College Hospital A Case of Floating Kidney." The Lancet 1 (1869). Gernsheim, Alison. 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... Daniel OMalley Professor Barlow May 6th, 20201 The Prevalence of Right-Wing Extremism and the Internets Effect on it 1 6800385.1 Abstract The internet and social media have allowed people to access large quantities of information easily. Instead of using it to look into different views, people have used it to filter opposing views and find information that reinforces their beliefs. The internet, new types of media like talk radio and social media have allowed for more extreme voices to be heard and make an impact on society, which means politicians are more likely to focus on what these extreme voices are saying. This paper will focus on how right-wing extremism has become an increasingly dangerous threat with the rise of social media and the internet, the types of extremist figures and groups on social media, who is most likely to be radicalized, possible solutions to prevent extremism, the history of polarization as well as the history of right-wing extremism and its underestimated impact throughout U.S. history, which allowed social media and the internet to spread extremist content. There are certainly examples of left-wing extremism, but this paper will focus on right-wing extremism because of its breadth and its organization. The main research question of this paper is if social media has made right wing extremism worse or has it simply amplified voices and opinions that have long existed among the right-wing. Extremism is defined as the fact of someone having beliefs that most people think are unreasonable and unacceptable (Cambridge). Introduction Most academics look back fondly on the post-World War II period as the least polarized era in U.S. history. Many academics often blame the rise of polarization and fringe figures gaining political power on the internet, social media and talk radio. While it is true that the internet has given voice to extreme figures and made them mainstream, what often gets overlooked is that when the U.S. was less polarized, it was often done at the expense of tolerating racism. What is not taken into consideration is that just because extreme voices have a platform, that does not mean 2 6800385.1 they did not exist before. Academia has overestimated the number of moderates on the right and underestimated the number of extreme voices. The internet has simply given these figures a platform and has allowed them to effectively organize. Analysis When discussing extremism and social media, the theory of selective exposure is an important concept into understanding why people can be drawn into extremist content and refuse to change their views no matter what evidence they are given. Selective exposure is the theory that people will look for information that reinforces their views. Most people of a specific ideology will seek out information that supports their beliefs and will avoid anything that conflicts with their views. The rise of the internet has made it easier to seek out information that confirms a persons belief and ignore information that contradicts it. Research has shown that the more ability someone has to avoid information that goes against their beliefs, the more likely they are to do it (Mutz & Martin, 2001). Some studies have shown that people with more extreme views are more likely to engage in selective exposure (Almoqbel et al). The future of using technology for political information was successfully predicted by some in a 2001 article titled Facilitating Communication Across Lines of Political Difference: The Role of Mass Media. The article stated people were increasingly choosing news sources that confirmed their views. The article also discussed how people were increasingly choosing to spend time with people who they agreed with. Nearly every political scientist agrees that exposure to different political opinions is good for society and increases the quality of discourse. It allows people to have their views challenged and potentially gain access to information and other ways of thinking they may not have otherwise encountered. Academics have said that the media is good for relaying information, 3 6800385.1 but it is not good for public discourse and that face to face is the best option for discourse (Mutz & Martin). The conventional view used to be that the media did not affect ones political affiliation in part due to the lack of alternate options and the little research was done on the topic (Klapper). Political commentator and centrist Nick Cohen believes that while extremism on the left is a problem, its worse on the right. He believes the fight against the radical right is a fight for liberal democracy. He argues that while American universities need to improve on free speech issues and that the mainstream media should not look down on anyone who is not a leftist, they did not have the power like Trump did to change the Constitution. He believed Trump showed no care for checks or balances. He argues that only a hand of full of Republicans like Mitt Romney were willing to fight back against Trump (Cohen). Right wing extremism has been increasing around the world and many groups have used the internet to radicalize people. In theory, the internet should allow people to expose themselves to different viewpoints but often the opposite occurs. Increased online activity often results in the likelihood of attending a protest. The number of social media conversations have also been linked to arrests at protests that result in arson and vandalism. Talking with people who share your worldview online can often excuse criminal behavior and make it seem acceptable (Garrett). This article identifies some ways to reduce hostility, mainly increasing group activities between those of different political beliefs. It also mentioned that in controlled environments, there have been instances where studies that have shown that online interaction can reduce political hostility towards the other side. Unfortunately, getting each side to engage in civilized debate as social media activity is often unrestrained and allows people to remain anonymous. Interactions are often quick and usually ends up reinforcing negative prejudices. A negative interaction online has been shown to increase that persons negative perception of that group. In this article, 4 6800385.1 extremism is defined as a belief that ingroup survival is inseparable from a need for hostile action against an outgroup. (Garrett). The article also mentions that in Western countries with large Muslim presence, there is usually a large anti-Muslim sentiment. Both right-wing and pro-Islamist State extremist groups often excuse their behavior by saying that they do it to fight the other extremist side. (Garrett) Right-wing extremism was a problem even before the internet. The 1964 essay The Paranoid Style in American Politics discusses right wing extremists using language that is often seen today when discussing Trump and todays GOP. The Barry Goldwater movement was mentioned as being able to stir the passions of a small minority. He mentions the conspiracy theories of those believing the government is attempting to poison the country through the water supply, which was a precursor to Alex Jones Infowars website and conspiracy theories. Senator Joseph McCarthys crusade against communism was mentioned and how McCarthy made accusations that the government had been infiltrated by communists. McCarthys accusations against then Secretary of State George C. Marshall that he was a communist in 1951 was based on McCarthy claiming that Marshall was betraying American interests after World War II with the Marshall Plan. Hofstadter points out that extremist movements are nothing new, as leaders of the Populist Party in 1895 said that a conspiracy was entered to between the gold gamblers of America and Europe; a Newspaper from Texas claimed the Monarchs and the Pope were trying to destroy America. The difference between movements in the 1800s and right-wing movements from the 1960s on are that earlier movements had spokesmen that believed they were fighting threats to their way of life while the modern conservative movement has felt that America has been taken away from them, and that this is the fault of socialists, communists, cosmopolitans and intellectuals. The enemies of the right in the 1960s and today are more vivid, such as President 5 6800385.1 Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower in the 1960s and the Clintons and Obama today. The right started to draw on World War II and the Korean War for their conspiracy theories. The three elements of right-wing conspiracy theories in the 1960s was that Franklin D Roosevelts New Deal was meant to undermine capitalism and the New Deals goal was to have the government control the economy and then create a path to communism. The second element is that since Pearl Harbor, the government was infiltrated by communists and that American policy was purposely selling out American interests. The final element was that the country was infiltrated by communist agents, and that education, religion, the media, press were trying to brainwash Americans. These elements influence the far right today and it is easier than ever to spread these messages (Hofstadter). Robert H. Welch Jr had a strong influence on right wing extremism in the 1960s with the founding of the John Birch Society. The John Birch Society was founded in 1958. Welch claimed communists forced the banks to close in 1933, helped the Soviet Union get recognized by the U.S., increased debate over segregation, won control over the media and schools, and had taken over the Supreme Court (Hofstadter). They were terrified of the Soviet Union and communism. Welch had called Eisenhower a member of the Communist Party. He said that there could be as many as 1 million secret communist spies in the U.S and that 50%-70% of the government was infiltrated by communists. They were highly supportive of Goldwater in 1964 and some members were delegates in the 1964 Republican National Convention. Goldwater was worried about denouncing Birch as he believed Birch made up a large portion of the GOP. The John Birch Society was very critical of the Civil Rights Movement and accused it of being created by communists. The societys views were seen as so extreme that even William F. Buckley, Jr., a traditional conservative and found of the conservative magazine the National Review, denounced Birch (Buckley). 6 6800385.1 A 1968 study gives further insight on the outlook of right-wing extremism at the time. The study mentions groups that were considered extremist at the time such as the John Birch Society. Like far-right groups today, the author mentions that these extremist groups believed that their enemies are engaged in a conspiracy to destroy them and that they have prominence in American society, similar to the QAnon conspiracy theories of today. They believe the federal government, political parties, schools and press are controlled by liberals and communists. However, the study concluded that this line thinking was not the mainline of thinking among conservatives. The author of the paper mentions the far-right goals of the time, such as the impeachment of Earl Warren. Most of those on the far right were rural, less educated, and had lower income. What makes this notable is that these groups did not have the means to spread their conspiracy theories or had representation in the traditional media, but can do so easily now though social media (Schoenberger). Those who are deeply conservative or have fringe views usually belong to the Religious Right, whose power grew in the 1960s and 1970s. Before the Religious Right, those who were extremely conservative and religious did not align themselves with one party, but as Republicans became primarily conservative, they aligned themselves with Republicans. Barry Goldwaters 1964 campaign is frequently discussed when talking about the rise of the modern conservative movement and right-wing extremism and he used Southern Blue-Collar Christians to garner support. This strategy continued with George Wallaces failed 1968 presidential bid, but Richard Nixon used that voting bloc to help him win re-election in 1972. Conservative, Southern, Christian White males make up the majority of the Religious Right. By the 1970s, Conservatism started to become religious and focus on issues like banning abortions, opposing gay rights, limiting sex education and supporting prayer in school. These types of conservatives supported Barry 7 6800385.1 Goldwater, and many were supporters of the John Birch Society. There were also adamantly against the separation of church and state. Despite these beliefs, they have been able to align themselves with libertarians in the Republican Party (Harp). The Religious Right existed before the 1970s, but they did not have policy influence due to religious conservative figures being split between both parties and most were not involved in politics and unorganized before. Ronald Reagan appealed to them in order to get elected. The legalization of abortion through the Supreme Court decision in Roe V. Wade and the cultural changes of the 1960s such as womens liberation, gay rights, school prayer and the sexual revolution were factors that led those previously involved with the Democratic Party to leave the party and engage more actively in politics. Many Evangelical Christian were not registered to vote before 1980 and many who were registered voted for Carter in 1976 due to his religious and Southern roots but felt let down by his policies. They saw societal changes in America as a major decline in the morality of the country. The Moral Majority led by Jerry Falwell responded to these changes. Many members were Evangelicals, and a large faction were fundamentalist Christians who believed the Bible was infallible. The Moral Majority started to expand into the media such as radio and television shows during the 1970s. They believed and still believe that there is a war on Christianity. Other Christian denominations who were not as conservative were still sympathetic to the Moral Majority, such as conservative Protestants or Catholics. They would often promote that they were protecting the family in order to appeal to the middle. They tied abortion and gays rights as an attack on the nuclear family. Phyllis Schlafly was a conservative woman who was part of the Moral Majority and campaigned against the Equal Rights Amendment, which evangelicals also ruled as an attack on the family. Homosexuals were portrayed as pedophiles. Many Moral Majority 8 6800385.1 members had previously expressed disapproval of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The Moral Majority was also against welfare spending and described themselves as patriotic. They were very enthusiastic about the 1980 Presidential election of Ronald Reagan and helped mobilize voters. However, Reagan ended disappointing many in the Moral Majority. While he spoke with many religious leaders and was publicly friendly with them, frequently invoking God, such as telling Jerry Falwell at the 1980 Republican National Convention I know you cant endorse me, he was quoted as saying. But . . . I want you to know that I endorse you., Reagans main concern was on the economy. Racism by the Religious Right was accepted in some circles past the 1980s. Some religious colleges such as Bob Jones University, a school where many prominent conservative politicians had spoken at, had discriminated on the basis of race claiming the Bible instructed to do so, an example being the ban of interracial dating. The IRS worked to have their tax-exempt status removed which angered some on the Religious Right (Banwart). The fact that a religious school visited frequently by prominent Republicans engaged in blatant racism should show the tolerance of extremism that was on display by the Republican Party. 1980 was considered the year of the rise of the religious right and was a contribution in the twelve (12) states that switched from Carter to Reagan. Reagan did have strong conservative evangelicals serve in his administration. Evangelicals could not turn to Democrats if they were unsatisfied with Reagan, as Democrats campaigned against them. (Miller). The Religious Right still makes up a large faction of the Republican Party today. A majority of Republicans opposed Lawrence v Texas in 2003, which said states could not criminalize homosexuality, which enraged many Evangelicals. Despite Trump engaging in extramarital affairs and being openly profane, the Religious Right has embraced him and often had approval rating in the high 70s-low 80s from Evangelicals. 9 6800385.1 Richard Nixon used the Southern Strategy in his campaign and appealed to peoples racial fears about crime and the 1960s. His strategy was very similar to how the right portrays left wing extremism today (Rosenberg). The media in the 1960s often overreported on violence by the Black Panthers and feminists, making all liberals seem like radicals which Nixon used to his advantage. Roger Ailes helped work with Nixon to make him look like he was one of the people and not an elitist. Nixon campaigns ads used videos of crime and scary music. Nixon would often allow protestors into his rally and let them cause chaos in order to make them look insane. Nixon would have his staff write letters to the media disguised as people from middle America and lambast the media for criticizing him. After his nomination of former segregationist G. Harrold Carswell the Supreme Court failed, he blamed it on Southern bias (Surgue). It is not difficult to imagine that Richard Nixons political career would have probably survived during Watergate if Fox News was around then. It took a year of investigations and a lot of evidence for his supporters and members of Congress to turn against him. Nixon still had his supporters after Watergate, which included a majority of Republicans. Powerful conservative activists were pressuring members of Congress to not vote to impeach Nixon. After Nixon was impeached, only 31% of Republicans agreed with it (DeVeaux). Nixon blamed the liberal media for Watergate and tried to spin it as a hit job, tactics Trump would later use. Nixon said liberals and the Eastern establishment were to blame. Pat Buchanan criticized what he referred to as the Big Media and said that the Media favored liberal causes such as the Civil Rights and the anti-war movements (New York Times 1974). Conservatives in 1974 saw the press as trying to overturn the election. Conservative radio personalities warned of the liberal media becoming out of control. They claimed liberals were worried about their hold on political power (Hemmer). Republicans thought what Nixon did was small and not worth the fuss. Nixon had told his staff that conservatives needed to create their own 10 6800385.1 establishment and own news. Nixons attacks on the media and his portrayed of anyone against him as elitist were similar tactics other conservatives and Trump would use in order to create mistrust in the media (Schwarz). Jesse Helms, a notorious southern Republican Senator and racist was a precursor to todays extremism and is the prime example of why Congress is not necessarily worse today. He was considered the most conservative and far right senator during his time as senator. Helms helped shape Southern Republican politics in the second half of the 20th century with views rooted in private enterprise and racially coded language. In his radio shows from the 1950s to the 1960s, Helms would use overt racist language and criticized interracial marriage and integration. He also invited KKK members onto his radio show. Helms believed the media was liberally biased and painted himself as an outsider to the liberal elite. Helms constantly criticized Martin Luther King and would later filibuster the legislation making his birthday a national holiday. Helms is often compared to other segregationists of his day like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace. Helms was a Democrat until 1970, although he had ultra conservative views before then (Gifford). A Time Magazine profile from 1981 on Helms describes how he rose from what was once considered a fringe figure to one of Ronald Reagans closet allies. Some conservatives considered Helms too radical while there were many conservatives who considered him a hero for his uncompromising attitude. Robert Ajemian describes him not so much a conservative as a right wing radical (Ajemian). Helms was also noted as being uncharismatic, which differs from many extremists. Helms helped create the Congressional Club, which helped pay off Congressional debts. Helms and Richard Viguerie used political mail to speak directly to their constituents. Viguerie said Were years ahead of the Democrats in the technology (Ajemian). Helms racism was much 11 6800385.1 worse than Trumps statements he has made running for office and as President, and shows that right wing radicalism was a part of the Republican Party decades before Trump. Trumps and the right-wing medias campaigning tactics and smear campaigns are nothing new. Lee Atwater was a Republican strategist notorious for his brutal campaign tactics. He worked with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush during his 1988 campaign for President. Atwater said that Republicans used the Southern Strategy to get voters. Atwater was interviewed in 1981 and described the Southern Strategy. He said that politicians used to be able to be openly racist in the 1950s. By the 1960s, that was socially unacceptable, so they had to resort to using phrases such as busing and state rights. By the 1980s, this changed to economic issues. You start out in 1954 by saying, Nigger, nigger, nigger. By 1968 you cant say niggerthat hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states rights, and all that stuff, and youre getting so abstract. Now, youre talking about cutting taxes, and all these things youre talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites. We want to cut this, is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than Nigger, nigger. Atwaters name was not used in the quote until the mid1990s after he died. For years, it was thought of by some as an urban legend. Atwater denied he was racist and said the Southern Strategy would end racism in the South and most political issues will become economic. He was wrong, as one recent study showed that people who had conservative opinions on race were twice as likely to be Southern. He was named head of Republican National Committee in 1988 (Perlstein). He was best known for the Willie Horton ad during the 1988 Presidential Campaign while working for George H. W. Bush. The ad criticized Democratic Candidate Michael Dukakis for being soft on crime by showcasing his past approvals of weekend furlough, which led to first degree murder by Willie Horton, who was African 12 6800385.1 American committing armed robbery and rape. The ad was accused of being a racial dog whistle. Another famous ad was the Revolving Door ad was an ad of actors portrayed as prisoners going through a revolving door symbolizing Dukakis policy of releasing criminals early. Atwater helped create modern mudslinging campaign tactics. He had accused past Democratic candidates of having mental health issues, buying the black vote and fathering illegitimate children, all of which were lies. Atwater said these tactics were specifically useful in the South (Zurawik). Right wing media has allowed for revisionist history on certain issues to occur, with Robert Bork being a prime example. The biggest misconception of the last 40 years from the right was that Robert Borks character was unfairly assassinated during his 1987 Supreme Court nomination. Republicans made this comparison during Brett Kavanaughs hearing and successfully made it look like Democrats had a history of smearing Republican Supreme Court candidates for political reasons. Bork became a folk hero to the right and was admired by figures like Rush Limbaugh. Borking is a term used to describe character assassination. The Right used Bork as an excuse for rushing Barretts confirmation, saying that Democrats started the process of politicized Supreme Court nominations. Nominations would often be nearly unanimously confirmed no matter the political party. However, Bork could be described as an extremist. He defended forced sterilization policies at companies, was in favor of the poll tax, argued homosexuality and birth control could be criminalized, was fine with forced school prayer, was against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and gender equality. Senator Ted Kennedy gave a famous speech where he said Borks nomination would lead to the rise of back-alley abortions and the return of segregation (Coaston) Trump and the Rights support for populist candidates had been clear since 1992, when Pat Buchanan challenged George H. W. Bush in the presidential primaries by running on social conservatism and being anti-establishment. George H. W. Bush presidential campaign was more 13 6800385.1 conservative as a result, and to energize the base and Buchanan was allowed to speak at the 1992 Republican National Convention, and gave his speech, where he spoke out against gay rights, secularism and abortion rights. Buchanans speech was considered by some to be one of the most polarizing speeches at a political convention. Buchanan was disliked by the Republican establishment and was later banned from speaking at other events (Nagourney). The internet and social media would have most likely increased Buchanans chances of winning even further, as Buchanan would have had an easier time spreading his message and gaining new supporters. Figures more extreme than Trump have taken public office. David Duke, a former neoNazi and KKK member won a race in 1989 and ran for Louisiana governor in 1991. He was denounced by both Reagan and Bush. Duke lost the election but was still able to get 39% of the vote, including 55% of the white vote. Duke ran as a political outsider and on anti-globalism. Many of his supporters feared affirmative action programs. The media effort to mention his bigoted remarks backfired, as the bonds between Duke and his supporters grew (Maginis). Some Republican voters voted for Duke mainly because they believed the Democrat opponent was worse and that Duke would not actually be able to accomplish any of his harmful ideas, similar to why some conservatives who hated Trump still choose him over Biden and Clinton. A Neo Nazi and KKK member gaining such large support shows how big a factor extremism was even before the internet. The current polarization and division in congress can be in part attributed to Newt Gingrich. Many of the smear tactics and other tactics used by the right during the 1990s were adopted by Gingrich. Gingrich is most famous for using these tactics to the 1994 Republican Revolution that gave Republicans control of the House for the first time in decades. 14 6800385.1 Gingrich was known for telling younger Republicans that they had to be nasty. When Gingrich was elected to the House, he wanted to end the bipartisan coalitions. He also criticized the moderates in the Republican Party. Gingrich would call Democrats un-American and communists. He and twelve (12) other members of the House first gained notoriety for causing disruptions. His goal was to be in the news as often as possible. Gingrich wanted to paint Republicans as good and Democrats as radical and evil. Gingrich had Republicans block everything Bill Clinton put out, correctly believing Democrats would be blamed for this. Many Freshman Republican candidates were similar to Gingrich (Coppins). Gingrich hoped to get America so disgusted with Congress that they would think anything would be better than the current leadership. He wanted to get the Democratic majority to overreact which would enrage moderate Republicans. Gingrich focused on fundraising. Gingrich wanted to nationalize elections, which would make party trump individual characteristics. He helped centralize power and reduced the authority of committee chairs, committees and caucuses. Gingrich saw his biggest obstacles being Congressional staff members who were experts in certain fields. Gingrich did his best to fire as many of those people as possible by slashing the budgets and staff of House committees (Cottle). Rush Limbaugh also deserves blame for the polarization in todays politics and conservative politicians listening to fringe voices. Limbaugh had large influence in the Republican Party and would pressure Republicans to take hardline conservative stances. Limbaugh insulted his opponents viciously. Limbaugh was extremely partisan and often hypocritical. Limbaugh would say things like White kids were in danger of being harmed in Obamas America. Rush Limbaugh was able to portray himself as a man of the people who were forgotten by the media and come across as funny and relatable. Limbaughs show was one of the most listened too in America and had over 20 million listeners at its peak. Limbaugh at times would be purposely 15 6800385.1 provocative. Politicians often hoped Limbaugh would speak fondly of them (Friedersdorf). Obama staff members called him the driving force of the Republican Party. He called a Georgetown law student advocating for birth control a slut in 2012. Limbaughs rise was in part due to Reagan removing the 1987 Fairness Doctrine which said TV and radio must present both sides of controversial issues, which allowed Limbaugh to say whatever he wanted. Limbaugh would downplay the 2017 Unite the Right Rally and 2021 Capital Attacks. Limbaugh helped amplify the views of the partys base which the establishment discounted. Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio were able to give those outside the mainstream of conservatism a voice and give their opinion on policy, voice support for fringe candidates and help them spread their message and organize (Early and Mathias). Fox News has changed politics for the worse and can also be blamed for fringe figures taking over the Republican Party. Roger Aisles and Rupert Murdoch founded Fox News in 1996. Fox averages more views a night than CNN and MSNBC combined. It was created in part to support the belief that the media was unbalanced and that conservatives were not heard. Conservatives now have a bigger platform to share their views. Fox News wanted their personalities to be well known and their shows to be entertainment. Republican politicians now need to go on Fox and gain support of their viewers if they want to have a shot at being elected. Ailes created Fox because he felt like there needed to be a counter to Nixons impeachment in the 1970s which would have protected him if Fox News existed in the 1970s. Fox focuses on stories that cause outrage and fear mongering, such as the war on Christmas, Obama being born outside the U.S. or would refuse to cover the downsides of the war in Iraq. Some political scientists estimate that people and polices are 3 to 8 percent more conservative than they would otherwise 16 6800385.1 be with Fox and without Fox, Al Gore would have most likely won the 2000 Election without the existence of Fox News (Farhi and McCarthy). Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson has been advertising the Great Replacement Theory, which extremist conservatives believe is the left attempt to replace the white population through nonwhite immigration. Carlson is Foxs highest rated show. There is danger that people like Carlson and other figures mentioned throughout this paper are normalizing this type of hate. The anti-immigration website VDARE, which has posted material from White Nationalists, praised Carlsons segment. The website was founded by Peter Brimelow, who was once a mainstream conservative and was famous for his hard right stance on immigration. He had previously described the increase of nonwhite immigrants as a threat to the culture of the U.S. In his bestseller in 1995, "Alien Nation: Common Sense about America's Immigration Disaster", he said the government is trying to prove they are not like Adolf Hitler which ended immigration quotas and allowed white people to be replaced. He argued immigration had to be restricted to preserve white culture (Hemmer). The right has increasingly used internet memes to sway public opinion. During Trumps rise, memes with racist connotations became popular such as the Pepe the Frog meme. The Reddit community The Donald, Gab, and 4chan were often used to spread extremist content (Zannettou). The internet has been used to reinforce opinions. People involved in online social networks are usually interacting with people who think similarly. People feel more comfortable reading news sources that reinforces their beliefs. People in online politics groups are less likely to be exposed to political information that goes against their beliefs then people in nonpolitical groups (Kitchens et al). 17 6800385.1 The book "The Revolt of the Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium," discusses how the public has been using social media to attack dominant institutions. The author says the public is not the people, as they are not represented by an opinion poll. He says the public are people who are interested enough in an issue to get involved, so the public are different people in each issue. He says social media has empowered the public and gotten rid of the mainstream medias influence. The Twitter mob and Facebook protestor have replaced people like Walter Cronkite. He says the public tries to tear things down instead of build things up. They want institutions, public figures, governments, parties and programs to be destroyed. He does place blame on the establishment for making big promises and being tone death. A critic of the book said that some people think today is worse due to the revolution of rising expectations which says that progress leads to expectations of continued progress. With the internet and more people having college degrees, the establishment seems less impressive and less distant (Smith). The internets impact on conservatism and fringe figures rising can be seen with the Tea Party. The Tea Party was a more recent movement that garnered attention. The Tea Party Movement rose after Obama bailed out investment banks with federal funds. The Tea Party Movement gained many seats in Congress in 2010. The Tea Party focused on economic issues rather than moral issues, although most members still have conservative Christian views. One notable aspect of the movement was that they used tactics similar to the ones of the radical right from the 1950s. They did not use nuance in their arguments and instead used anti-communist rhetoric. The protests were often carnival like in nature, with posters of Obama often having a Hitler mustache. The Tea Party does not try to fit in with the mainstream. Tea Party members were able to create websites and voice their opinions and messages loudly because of the internet (Harp). During this time, the Obama birther conspiracy theories emerged. These theories were constantly 18 6800385.1 promoted by Trump and conservative personalities like Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage. The issue was one of the biggest sources of traffic on the internet for those on the right (Zurcher). Republican members of Congress were often bombarded with that issue at town halls. The Republican Establishment were hesitant to disown that part because they believed they made up a significant portion of their base. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists spread the Birther lie. Trump claimed that credible sources had told him Obamas birth certificate was fake (Crary). When Obama did release his birth certificate, conspiracy theorists said it was fake, and spread other theories like Obama being a Muslim. Around 33%-58% of Republicans believed Obamas birth certificate was fake, and around 20% of Americans believed Obama was not born in the U.S. (Thrush). Before the internet and rise of conservative media, this theory would not have gained mainstream attention, but because the internet allowed it to spread, the media was forced to report on it. One of the most recent examples of right-wing violence was the 2017 Unite the Right Rally. The Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville 2017 gives important insight to extremism. The rally took place after the removal of confederate monuments were ordered and extremist groups like the KKK, neo-Nazis and other alt right groups attended to protest the removal. A counter protestor, Heather Hayes was killed at the protest. President Donald Trump said there were very fine people on both sides at the rally (Tien et al). Right wing media has denied that Trump called people at the rally very fine people and have said that there were actually peaceful conservatives at the event. They argue his quote was taken out of context and that he condemned Neo Nazis. In reality, Trump had said the night before there were some good people protesting, but at the rally that night, there was the infamous tiki torch march with chants of Jews will not replace us. Trump later said there were some people 19 6800385.1 simply protesting taking down of the Robert Lee statue, but the rally was advertised as a white supremacist rally beforehand. White supremacist Jason Kessler obtained the permit for the rally. Many Trump supporters rewrote the story about what Trump said and were in denial. They have gaslighted many other people into believing the lie through stories and articles on the internet from websites like Breitbart (Kleefeld). Many members of the Alt-Right attended the Unite the Right Rally. The alt- right is a farright belief that white culture and identity is being threatened by policies like social justice, political correctness and multi-culturalism. The Alt-Right is made up of people who advocate for ethnic separation and are very active on the internet. They claim they do not want violence. They have claimed that nonprivileged whites are victims of government policies such as affirmative action, sanctuary cities, and the erasing of their history. They believe their struggles with mental health issues, suicide and job security are not understood by progressives. Many of those who attended the rally were young white males. The factions of the Alt-Right that includes the KKK and neo-Nazis is minor. The major faction does not believe themselves to be white supremacists. Members of the Alt-Right like Richard Spencer believe they are preserving European culture. They claim to love the United States and are promoting free speech on college campuses and social media. Many members advocate open discussion of their ideas. They despise political correctness, the white establishment and the Democratic Party. Trumps 2016 campaign excited many Alt Right groups and put members into the mainstream. The rally against political correctness has gained traction among young libertarians, many of whom would not typically be associated with the alt right. Milo Yiannopoulos, a member of the Alt Right who gained a large following is a gay man and he claims people join the alt right for a desire to break the rules and be rebellious. He says they are not particularly conservative. They view themselves as breaking social norms like 20 6800385.1 the hippies of the 1960s. It is common for them to post provocative memes with pop culture references to make themselves seem more relatable (Phillips and Yi) Establishment Republicans and intellectuals proved during Trumps election that they did not have a grip on the ideology of their base and underestimated the bases willingness to follow a populist candidate. Most of the general population viewed Trump unfavorably. In 2016, some surveys had 45% of Republicans believing Obama was a Muslim and 28% saying he was foreign born, indicating a large percentage of the base had fringe conspiracy beliefs. Criticism from Trump by the media would often make his supporters more supportive of Trump, as they believed the media was out to get him. Many Trump supporters related to Trump with his constant bashing of Globalism. His supporters also felt that their way of life was being destroyed and felt abandoned by the corporate world, media and both political parties, and despised political correctness. They thought Trump was being authentic when he insulted opponents. Trump supporters who did admit he was racist, crazy, unqualified; or corrupt did not mind these flaws in Trump. Trump was very popular among Evangelicals, despite bragging about having multiple affairs, the Hollywood Access Tape, and his sex life as they saw him as someone who would appoint judges to fit their agenda. Trumps constant bashing of the Republican establishment made many members of his base feel like he was one of them. Trumps base has disdain for the GOP establishment, viewing them as elitist (Jacobson). The recent attacks on the Capital that occurred on January 6th are yet another an example of the rise in right-wing extremism. Right Wing militias and other extremist groups viewed their insurrection attempt as vital to saving America and urged other members to keep the fight going through online interactions. Members of these groups livestreamed themselves on social media attacking the capital. Other members also said they wanted to murder members of Congress 21 6800385.1 including Vice President Pence, Mitt Romney and the Capital Police. They then spread rumors that it was the left wing who started the attacks. Members of Congress like Matt Gaetz repeated this claim. To mainstream Republicans, the events were shocking, however most researchers said the events were incredibly predictable. There had been discussions in online communities about overwhelming the police. QAnons constant threats of overthrowing the government played a role in the incitement as well as the language President Trump used. The riot was incited from the baseless lies that the election was stolen from Trump. The vast majority of Trump supporters and Republicans believed Biden did not legitimately win the election, with around 60-80% (Associated Press) believing Biden did not win. Some researchers have said what once seemed like online fringe voices have now seem to overwhelm the discourse in political discussion (Nguyen et Scott). What is disturbing about the Capital Riots is that in addition to militia members, many of those arrested were normal Trump supporters who were middle aged and middle class without obvious associations with extremist groups. The vast majority of those arrested were not previously involved with far-right groups, with only 11% being involved in a far right group. 40% of those arrested were business owners or had white collar jobs. More than half came from counties that Biden won (Pape and Ruby). Breitbart is a once fringe website that has become mainstream in conservative circles and is read by high profile figures such as Donald Trump. Breitbart often demonizes immigrants and portrays all Muslims as extremists and terrorists. Breitbart previously had a section of their website titled Black Crime and have stated that Blacks are committing crimes against white Americans at a rising rate. The comment section is often overtly racist, and commentators complain about black culture and often compare blacks to chimpanzees. Editors like Katie McHugh had called Native Americans savages and called for a ban on all Muslims. Steve Bannon had publicly denied 22 6800385.1 that they were trying to appeal to racists, however investigations proved that was not true. Former editor Milo Yiannopolous was friends with white nationalists like Richard Spencer. Yiannopolous had written a story about the alt right and had reached out to white nationalist Devin Saucier to edit it. He also worked with the editor of the neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer. (Barnes). Breitbart is one of the most popular news sources on Facebook and is in the top 200 most popular websites in the U.S. (Piggott). In 2017, Editor Alex Marlow admitted that Breitbart thought the sexual abuse allegations against Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore from a woman who claimed Roy Moore dated her when she was 14 and he was 30 were credible, but they still purposely tried to discredit her. Breitbart were staunch defenders of Moore, who advocated for criminalizing homosexuality, claimed America deserved 9/11, advocated for removing all Amendments after the 10th, believed protesting against the national anthem is illegal and does not believe Muslims should serve in Congress. Moore barely lost the election to Doug Jones and would have won despite holding far right views if not for these allegations. Trump and other ultra conservatives endorsed Moore even after the sexual abuse allegations (French) Alex Jones is a far-right conspiracy theorist know for launching the website Infowars. Infowars receives more visits on the internet than the Economist or Newsweek. Trump has been on Joness shows and has told him he has done excellent work. Jones has spread conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook School Shooting and the moon landing were fake, the government were attempting to turn frogs gay, 9/11, Oklahoma City Bombing and the Boston Bombing were carried out by the government (Gold and Lima). Jones has doxed families of the victims and sent some child pornography (Garber). The conspiracy theory group QAnon has been increasing its influence since 2017 through the internet. A mysterious figure named Q has posted anonymous online posts. He claims to be 23 6800385.1 a highly ranked government official. Most of his posts are vague, which Q members interpret differently. It expanded from the 2016 Pizzagate conspiracy theory that state that Hillary Clinton and other Democrats were running a child sex trafficking ring under a pizza shop. QAnon believes that the world is ruled by the Deep State, and they believe most politicians and actors are part of it. They believe they worship Satan and abuse children. They cover this up through the media. Many members of QAnon talk about taking the red pill which has woken them up to the world. They believe in an event called the Storm led by Donald Trump that will defeat the pedophiles. Trump refused to denounce QAnon, claiming he did not know anything about it, but that they were against pedophilia. They believe that Trump had a plan to arrest everyone in the government. QAnon has been able to appeal to those who are not religious, as it involves other aspects like COVID, the Vatican or immigration. Members of QAnon post videos on YouTube about these theories and YouTubes search algorithm will then direct them to more extremist content. The FBI has warned that QAnon will very likely motivate extremists. Polls suggest that around 23 million Americans hold a somewhat favorable view of QAnon. QAnon uses many old conspiracy theories such as Jews having a secret plan to take over the world and use figures like George Soros as fuel for their theories. People with fringe beliefs often find their friends and family wanting little to do with them, which isolates them further in the community. It will be difficult to stop QAnon, since members would need to admit the errors of their ways and getting people to admit their wrong is not easy. The author Loxton Daniel, discourages shaming people (Loxton). Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green had previously expressed support for QAnon. She also expressed beliefs that school shootings and 9/11 were fake, and that the California wildfires were caused by Jewish Space Lasers (Chait). 24 6800385.1 The Republican Party does not have a desire to change or become less extreme despite losing control of Congress in 2020. The partys base is hesitant to change. Members of Congress who voted to impeach Trump were censured by their state parties and Trump is still popular with many Republicans. Republicans do not believe they need to make changes to win and they might be right, considering that Trump was very close to winning in a few swing states. States are making it harder for people to vote. (Bacon Jr). State politics are even more extreme than politics in Congress, as Republicans have more power at the state level. The minority party typically does not have tools like the filibuster at the state level and Republicans usually have large majorities, which allows them to gerrymander and restrict voting. The attack on voting rights increased after the 2010 midterms. Media organizations typically report mostly on federal policy as opposed to state level, which means Republicans do not have to worry about backlash. The Republican establishment is weak at the local level. At the state level, its easier for politicians to come and go, so Trump and his team invested a lot in states to have pro-Trump officials. Republicans like Senator Mitt Romney are relatively rare today, as most have been voted out of office and Trump Republicans make up the majority. Most pro-Trump officials are at the state level. Research by political scientist Jake Grumbach shows the biggest predictor if a state took anti-democratic steps, such as gerrymandering or making it difficult for people to vote were if Republicans controlled the state legislature and governors office. (Bacon Jr). Republicans have been upfront that they do not want certain people voting. Many have said they want to make voting difficult or else Republicans will have a difficult time winning elections. The Supreme Court is uninterested in voting rights and often vote in favor of states having voting restrictions. The Supreme Court said gerrymandering was allowed even if done for partisan reasons. Republicans have more advanced 25 6800385.1 technology now to map out districts. Republicans are responding to the lie that the election was filled with fraud to make it more difficult to vote (Levine). Right wing militias have used the internet to their advantage to organize and plan violence. The militia movement started under Republican President George H. W. Bush after he mentioned of a New World Order for the post-Cold War world. By 1992, calls of a leaderless resistance or fighters who do not report to anyone began being used by movements (SPLC Timeline). The threat of militia groups has increased since Trumps rise. They have caused violence at protests and attempted to kidnap elected officials. Some militias threaten more violence than they actually commit while other militias are more violent and extreme. Militias have been protesting COVID restrictions and Black Lives Matter Protests, as they view these things as threats to their liberty. Some law enforcement has friendly attitudes toward militias, which encourages these groups. Militia movements used to be anti-federal government but were largely supportive of Trumps presidency. These groups prepare and train for war. They have social media accounts which often have a false view of American History. Militias are responsible for more political violence than any other group. Militias are increasingly using social media sites to communicate their next protests. The Three Percenters is a militia named after the myth that only 3% of the 13 colonies fought against the British. They became prominent after Obamas won in 2008, with their goal being to fight tyranny. There are adamantly against gun control. Another prominent militia group is the Oath Keepers who name themselves after the oath to protect the U.S. from foreign and domestic enemies. They were also formed after Obama was elected. They focus on recruiting former and active police and military personal. These groups believe that the government is aligning itself with a new world order. Members of the previous two groups often show up to 26 6800385.1 events armed. The majority of violence comes from right-wing street fights. Many of these members are young, masculine males. They also know how to use public relation and social media and making themselves seem reasonable on social media and beyond. The Proud Boys are one of the most extreme militias. Many members have hatred for liberals and are part of the group to simply provoke the left. They were founded by Vice co-founder Gavin McInnes. Members constantly make internet jokes and use humor, which undermines the violence they are capable of. Many members were encouraged by Trumps remarks at the 2020 presidential debate where he told members to stand back, stand by and used that phrase on merchandise. Members threatened a second civil war if Trump did not win. Another group, Patriot Prayer was founded specifically to combat ANTIFA. The Group shot pepper spray and paintballs at protestors at a rally in support of Black Lives Matter in August 2020. These members believe feminism and communism are serious threats to America. Members wear shirts that say RWDS, which stands for right wing death squads. Many white nationalists have spoken at their events despite members denying being racist (Coaston). The Boogaloo Boys are a libertarian group that is preparing for the next Civil War. They often use memes and post on 4chan and reddit to recruit members and appeal to libertarians. These groups often form alliances with one another. Many of these groups said they would be at the polling station armed to protect voters when in reality it can be seen as intimidation. Many of them felt that Trumps accusations that the election as rigged was justification for their response (Stall et al). Right Wing militias first formed in the 1990s. Militia groups in the 1990s main concerns were abortion, gay marriage, immigration, free trade and gun control (Jones). Timothy McVeigh, who was responsible for the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, and he was sympathetic to militia groups. By 2017, militia groups number were estimated to number approximately 500, which 27 6800385.1 doubled the number in 2008. The increase in membership after Obamas victory was due in part of fear of a black man being in charge of the federal government. Many militia movements have a deep hatred of Islam, which is attractive to some veterans returning to war. The DHS released a report detailing this risk in 2010 but was disowned due to the political risks. The FBI constantly investigates militia members in police forces but have to avoid telling the police in order to make sure the members are not tipped off (PBS). While there are examples of far-left violence such as ANTIFA, the right is much more organized. Right wing attacks have grown in number since 2007. They increased under Obama and increased further under Trump. Muslims and Jews were often targeted. White supremacist Dylan Roof killed nine African Americans in a church in Charleston and spread his beliefs on the internet. Many of these groups are trying to not appear like the traditional skinhead white supremacist. The rise can be blamed in part due to the internet and social media, where members communicate on where to organize, travel, raise funds, recruit new members, training which can reach a large segment of the population. Members on Twitter use hashtags to reach out to people. Members also believe the U.S. is letting in too many immigrants (Jones). Ruby Ridge and Waco were the biggest incidents that inspired militia groups to form. Ruby Ridge was an 11-day siege that began when white supremacist Randy Weaver did not appear at a court date for firearm charges and the United States Marshall Service attempted to arrest him, which he and his family resisted. His wife and 14-year-old son were killed. Weaver eventually surrendered. The FBI and other government agencies handling of the situation was criticized. Weaver sued the government and eventually won a court settlement of $3.1 million. The Ruby Ride engagement was criticized as being unconstitutional. Some members of the FBI attempted a coverup, which they later served time in prison for. Many conservative groups including those on 28 6800385.1 the far right believed an innocent family was being persecuted by the government. Many members feared that people who wanted to live off the grid would be next. Many far-right groups believed the government would come in helicopters and put them in concentration camps. Some members made maps of where the camps would be. This led to an increase hatred of the federal government. These groups took advantage of the rise of the internet in the 1990s to spread their message and recruit members (Wilson). The Waco Siege was a 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidian religious cult and FBI members. David Koresh was the leader. The siege resulted in the death of 76 members from a fire, 25 of which were children. The cause of the fire is still disputed. For some on the right, Waco was the story of government overreach. There are those who believe the government acted too aggressively and should have been patient. The American Public saw a split after the Oklahoma City Bombing, as McVeigh was angry about what happened at Waco and Ruby Ridge which made some in the public turn a critical eye. The FBI changed their rules of engagement because of the backlash and no longer allowed shooting on sight. The FBI has since become more patient with standoffs with militia groups (Burton). The militia movement peaked in the 1990s in terms of membership and violence, although it has approached those highs under Obama and Trump. The militia movement in the 1990s were angry at the government for Waco but they were weakened by the early 2000s. In the 1990s racial hatred was not militia groups focus, but with Obama, a racial element seemed to gain traction in their hatred of him. The peak of right-wing terrorist attacks was in the 1990s. Militia groups died down by the end of the 1990s, as many of their predictions did not come true such as Y2K and George W Bushs victory in 2000 made them less hostile. Guns and ammo sales increased sharply after Obama was elected. Militia groups often see increase when a liberal is elected, or societal change occurs. Many members did not believe 29 6800385.1 Obama was born in America. Commentators on Fox News started to spew sympathy for militia movements in 2009. The internet has made it easier to target specific people and places as well as give information on weapons (SPLC). Most people are unaware of the threat right wing extremism poses to society, and believe the left is more dangerous. Many members of militia groups have a deep hatred for the government. Anti-abortion attacks are often targets of right wing extremists, with around 200 attacks in the last 45 years. most of these attacks were lone wolf attacks (Frostenson). The rise of the internet has increased the likelihood of lone wolf attacks as terrorists like Dylan Roof who worked alone. The passage of NAFTA and gun control helped energize militias. (ADL). The New York Times did a case study on a former follower of alt right figures named Caleb Cain. This case study is useful in showing how people can be sucked into right wing extremism and how he got out. There is an increased risk of adolescents being radicalized by extreme content. Those who get exposed to this content often describe it as thrilling. The content is usually provocative (Pauwels and Hardeyn). Cain did not have many friends growing up and never felt like he fit in. He starts to find people who are like him on the internet and goes on the internet. He was only mildly political, was anti authority, listened to punk rock like the Dead Kennedys, and was atheist. He thought it was cool to have a black president in Obama. Watching YouTube videos made him feel rebellious. He still did not fit in when he went to college and dropped out. He went to live with his grandparents without a job and did not have a purpose in his life, feeling depressed. He started looking at self-help videos, one of which was Stefan Molyneux, who is a libertarian Canadian. Listening to him made Cain feel better, as Molyneux said that the struggles young men go through is not their fault and society is to blame. He was interactive with fans and talked about his life with his wife and daughter. Stefan helped him improve his life. 30 6800385.1 Guillaume Chaslot was in charge of creating the YouTube recommendations which had it so that you were recommended a video based on how much you watched a previous video, which has led people to an echo chamber of political videos, which happened to Cain. Over time he took on radical beliefs. Stefan would complain that men were treated worse than women and would rant about his hatred of feminism. Cain gained a hatred for SJWs also known as social justice warriors and felt like these people were trying to make everything politically correct in things he loved like video games after criticism was depicted at the industry for its treatment and over sexualization of women, this became known as Gamergate. Women who advocated for change were called whores, received death threats and online campaigns were launched against them. Gamers gained hatred for the media because they believed their way of life was threatened. They complained how SJWs were ruining other things like comic books or Star Wars. These people were not traditional Republicans or Democrats. Many of them were pro-marijuana or gay marriage legalization, but they felt like white straight men were being targeted just for being white. Conservative figures often release videos of the truth, such as the truth about MLK or the truth about Travon Martin. It made their audience members feel like they were chasing truth. Cain then gets a recommendation for Milo Yiannopoulos, who as mentioned previously, is a gay internet and an internet troll with a hatred of Muslims. Milo spoke out against safe spaces and coddling of students on college campuses. Cain then gets recommended to a Steven Crowder video, a comedian who hates feminists and Black Lives Matter. These figures have around twice as many subscribers as news organizations like the New York Times. Crowder was the first upfront conservative to be recommended. He starts looking up Crowder videos, which then leads him to Gavin McInnes, who looks like a hipster. All of these figures consider themselves edgy. McInnes complains about crime committed by African Americans. He then gets recommended to Lauren 31 6800385.1 Southern who is a young Canadian libertarian who was known for interrupting feminist marches. She described rape culture as a myth. All of this feels like the same as punk rock content he used to be into and felt like a counterculture. They believe they were fighting against the liberal, elite globalist society. Then came the rise of Donald Trump, who felt like a combination of all these figures. Cain hated Republicans but loved Trump. He would watch social justice warrior cringe compilations videos on YouTube and see videos of liberals beating up Trump voters, which made him hate liberals. He started to call himself a nationalist. He then sees a video of Richard Spencer, and found himself defending Spencer, and started saying things like his Nazi salute was not actually a Nazi salute and even if it was it was his freedom to be a Nazi. The other figures mentioned previously are not as bad a Spencer, but they do start calling themselves alt right. He then gets recommended a Jared Taylor video. He was a well-spoken man who made racism look respectable and would defend race realism, which said things like Whites have higher IQs than Blacks which is why they are living in poverty. He frames these views as secret knowledge. Cain started to argue with people in real life. He started worrying about white people being replaced after immigrants like Southern, Milo and Stefan warned about it. He said the New Zealand shooters manifesto was what he believed in. What changed his views was listening to a liberal YouTuber called Destiny who would annihilate his opponents in debates. When his opponent would say something ridiculous, he would not move on and instead prove them wrong. He started debating YouTubers he was a fan of and would often prove them wrong. For example, he was pitted against Lauren Southern who would often complain about the economy but was also against immigration which was beneficial to the economy. He then had more videos from Destiny being recommended to him. He then gets recommended to a video from a YouTuber named Contra Points, who is a former academic. She 32 6800385.1 points out that the SJW is a stereotypical figure of a liberal who most liberals dislike. She is a liberal who debates people, but her content is different. She says the best way to convince people who are not on their side is to understand where they are coming from and why they believe what they believe. Her goal is not to humiliate her opponent. Her content was also interesting and edgy. She knew what she was talking about which made her realize how wrong his heroes were. He then discovered a Yotube channel named Breadtube, which mocked the far right. He talks about how to help people with far-right crazy beliefs and empathize with them. He says how they understand how these figures look like the average person who cares about common sense. Its hard for people to admit they were wrong after spending years believing these things. These YouTubers would talk about even more crazier alt right figures, and these figures would talk about how they knew how to work YouTube, build audiences and appeal to people. The alt right rabbit hole has been successful because they are bringing in young people by being edgy and using humor (Rabbithole). Many independents claim to be independent due to the belief that politics is too ugly and polarized today and that they do not want to associate with either side. The number of Americans identifying as independent has risen over the last 40 years, with around 40% today. However, most independents are actually not independent and lean heavily towards a side and vote for that side nearly as much as partisans. They usually describe themselves as independent to avoid the negative stigma of being labeled partisan. Most Americans do agree that politics is too polarized today, including Democrats and Republicans. More people hide their political beliefs and are less willing to engage in civic discussion which is critical for a healthy country. They are less likely to become actively involved in the party, which results in die hard nominating ideologically extreme candidates and are more extreme than the candidates they are supposed to be representing. A prime example of this was the shy Trump supporter, who might have agreed with Trumps policies but 33 6800385.1 abhorred the rhetoric of him and his supporters and did not voice their opinions due to the fear of being shamed (Skelley). The book If Then discusses how television advertising in the 1950s would lead to the polarization of politics today. Republicans and Dwight Eisenhower successfully used advertising in the 1952 Presidential Election while Adlai Stevenson was hesitant to use advertising and appear on television as he viewed it as undignified to the office. Stevenson was mocked as an egghead by Republicans, showing how personality instead of character would become important in politics. This would foreshadow Republicans better use of technology compared to Democrats (Lepore). Ezra Kleins book Why Were Polarized talks about how the two political parties became what they are today and the effects of the internet on polarization. Before 1950, there was little difference between the Republican and Democratic Party. It was more common to have a wide variety of opinions. The Democratic Party could have the left wing in Hubert Humphrey and also have the most conservative Senator, Strom Thurmond. Parties were not split between conservative and liberal. Barry Goldwaters 1964 campaign was a factor in removing the moderate wing of the Republican Party. Positive feelings for the opposing political party have dropped dramatically in the last 40 years. Ticket splitting was once common, but it is now rare for voters to engage in it. Klein mentions the fact that liberal Democrats would work with Southern Democrats who were racist in exchange for control of Congress which meant the South could legalize white supremacy. This time is remembered as a golden age of American politics in terms of lack of polarization, yet this was mainly because Democrats allowed the Dixiecrats to enforce segregation. The least polarized era in Congress had compromises on basic racial issues that the overwhelming majority of Americans would find awful today, such as striking down anti-lynching laws. Klein argues that 34 6800385.1 should be considered more extreme. Liberal democrats ignored racism and compromised with segregationists. Violent political disagreements occurred, but they were not within party (Klein). Klein also debunks that just because political parties are sorted by political beliefs does not mean things are more extreme. He gives the example of half the country opposing the legalization of marijuana, and each party has equal number of members from each group which leaves America unsorted. However, if everyone who wants it outlawed moves to the Republican Party and everyone who wants it moved to the Democratic Party, both parties are sorted out but no ones opinion has actually changed. Issue based polarization can lead to political identity polarization. Goldwaters campaign allowed for racial conservatives to cluster around a party, and it can be argued that led disagreements to deepen. Polarization leads to more polarization, but not necessarily extremism. Fewer people today are in the middle (Klein). Klein mentions that Washington was considered moderate in the mid twentieth century, but that this is a myth. He argues that the Vietnam War, McCarthyism and draft dodgers were all major issues facing the country. The Vietnam War and Joseph McCarthy were generally supported by the population especially conservatives, but today are looked upon poorly even by conservatives. Political leaders were assassinated, and civil rights leaders were beaten by the police. Protestors who were often young college students were commonly beaten and shot in the 1960s, such as the Kent State Shooting. Conservatives generally blamed the protestors for their deaths or injuries (Klein).The moderate majority is mentioned by Klein as something most political pundits use to describe America as moderate but moderates often hold more extreme views. Pollsters will describe some respondents as supporting universal healthcare but then wanting draconian measures placed against gays. What is considered extreme changes over time. A hundred years ago, people would view our current acceptance of people of color and gays as 35 6800385.1 extreme, and we would view their ideas as extreme. Klein also argues that peoples political identity has become their social identity. What helps defuse unfriendliness is if you view their social identity as similar, such as people of different political ideologies bonding over their favorite football team. Klein points out that Donald Trump read the market of polarization in the 2010s. Conservative politics were becoming more extreme in response to Obama. Trump had been spreading conspiracy theories that Obama was not born in the U.S. Trumps victory unleashed conservatives like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham proclaiming that the America they are familiar with has changed due to immigration and discrimination against whites. This view is largely shared even among millennial whites. Both parties are having an increasingly mistaken view of the demographic of the other party, this was especially common among people who consume political content. Unfortunately, it serves in the best interest of political outlets to exaggerate their political opponents flaws, as this gives them more engagement (Klein). Klein then discusses the internets effect on polarization. Most people do not use the internet to get new information but instead use it to choose where to get their information. Political scientist Markus Prior has said that internet has given rise to other information besides politics, which has widened the interested/uninterested divide. People interested in politics know more while those who know little know less than 60 years ago. The rise of technology allowed newspapers to be sent to people all over the country, which meant presses wanted to be nonpartisan to offer broad appeal. The internet changed the formula where news sites are now trying to be the most appealing to a specific group of people. People who are interested in politics are almost always rooting for a side, which means they are more invested and will be engaged because they care. The news media had less information about its audience before the internet and audience 36 6800385.1 analytics. The creation of Nielsen ratings made it so that the news needed to put out information the audience wanted to hear in order to get ratings. The internet has allowed people to find each other online and form communities through message boards. Many people feel like they have found others who share their identity. In some ways, the rise of social media has simply shown what is already there. Media outlets before the internet were run by white men, and they mainly had stories that seemed important to their identities. If the George Floyd protests happened before the rise of social media and the internet, it is unlikely this would have attracted the level of media attention (Klein). As mentioned before, YouTubes search algorithm has been a problem for online radicalization. Conservative content and Trump videos often lead to alt right content. This becomes the identity of many of those who are radicalized. Many alt right YouTube stars are funny and charismatic which creates loyal audiences. The internet has turned away from creating a community to forming a common enemy. Part of this is that making a mutual enemy can bond people. This has resulted in some strange alliances between groups like Libertarians and Evangelical conservatives who have a common enemy in the radical left. Attempts have been made to see if reading news from the other side moderated their views or caused reflection. The opposite occurred, as respondents became more partisan when they read opposite news coverage. Professor Christopher Bail has explained that a liberal seeing a tweet from Trump slamming Joe Biden will not make the liberal think Trump has made good points. They will spend their time trying to come up with why Trump is wrong or simply ignore him. Political media and social media are not designed for positive interactions. Most media is written for the side that agrees with them. Politicians tweet and send messages to their supporters rather than trying to convince people with opposing views to vote for them (Klein). 37 6800385.1 A polarized media can polarize the country if their audience is small, but they have the right audience. An example of this how is Trump became obsessed with Hunter Biden and Ukraine that was pushed by Fox News and other right wing news sites, which Trump got his information from. Politics is driven by the powerful, and those people listen to the polarized media as they believe that represents the country, as the media voice is loud. When you are only hearing the perspective from a certain news group, that will make a politician believe that perspective is the majority of their bases opinion and they will voice opinions and implement policies based on that perspective to get votes. The country then has to choose between more polarized sides as the larger the difference between the two parties becomes, the more even those not interested in politics feel the need to choose a side. This in turns polarizes them. More campaigns have also changed from trying to persuade swing voters to trying to fire up the base. Voters today almost always have their mind made up. Before the 1980s, party nominations were controlled by party bosses. Now control is given over to party primaries, which has made it easier for extremists to win as the process favors candidates with enthusiastic supporters. Congressionally, things have gotten more extreme as well. It is more common for candidates to run on their primary opponent not being conservative enough. Conservatives are worried about being upset in the primaries, so they take on more hardened positions. This has occurred on the left somewhat, with Hillary Clinton becoming more liberal in 2016, and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez upset primary win being examples. However, conservatives have a less ideologically diverse group of voters which makes it easier for them to adapt ultra conservative positions. The methods of campaign tactics and polarization that I have been criticizing in this paper do occur on the left, it is because of the lefts diverse group of voters that Democrats do not engage in these tactics nearly as much as Republicans. The methods of campaign tactics and polarization that I have been criticizing in this paper do occur on the left, it 38 6800385.1 is because of the lefts diverse group of voters that Democrats do not engage in these tactics nearly as much as Republicans. The Republican Party has more conservatives than Democrats do liberals. Despite slightly more people identifying themselves as Republicans, far more people identify as conservative in the U.S. at around 35% compared to liberals at around 26%. This is another reason why there is more extremism on the right, as the U.S. is simply more conservative. Only around 51% of Democrats identify as liberal compared to 73% of Republicans identifying as conservative. Independents and moderates also generally side with conservatives (Saad). It has become common for the leader of the party to disagree with what other candidates say, which often excites voters and makes them vote for an antiestablishment candidate. Trumps victory was won in large part because of people who hated Hillary or the Democrats agenda. Moderate candidates and extreme candidates have an equal chance of being elected today while in the past a moderate candidate was much more likely to be elected. People are willing to vote for candidates they do not like in order to beat the other side. Now when a party nominates anyone, they have the guaranteed support of nearly that entire party, no matter how extreme. Coupled with the fact that parties have lost control on who they nominate, this has led the country on a dangerous path. The National Review editor Richard Lowry had opposed Trump because he believed Trump did not think constitutionally, wrote egregious things on Twitter and did not respect the separation of powers. He still has the same views today, but in his mind, Trumps polices outweigh the negatives. An example of the increased partisanship was the Merrick Garland Supreme Court nomination. After Antonin Scalia died, Republicans refused to nominate or hold a hearing on Merrick Garland due to Mitch McConnell claiming that it was an election year. In 2020, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, McConnell and Republicans nominated Amy Barrett despite it being an 39 6800385.1 election year. Supreme Court Justices today are far more likely to vote for the ideology of the president who appointed them then they were 30 years ago. It used to be more common for politicians to care about their local district, as a Democrat might vote for a Republican sponsored bill, but the bill help their state. This is untrue today, as people know more about national politics and less about local politics. Earmarks were discarded in 2011 due to being seen as corrupt, but they did help bring about bipartisanship. Politics used to be less competitive, which Klein argues might have been a good thing despite conventional wisdom stating otherwise. Control of Congress was often one sided. However, the last four decades has seen control of Congress go back and forth. It was common for compromise because the minority wanted to work with the majority who they assumed would be in power for years. In the past, if winning the majority in Congress was impossible, then winning reelection happened by bringing money to their district and passing bills sponsored by them. To do this, a good relationship with the majority party is crucial which eliminated the incentive engage in obstruction. Now that the partys power continues to change, they are more willing to fight with each other. When it seems possible to gain power cooperating no longer seems necessary because voters are more likely to make a change if nothing gets done. The goal becomes to defeat your colleagues. Thomas Mann and Norm Ornstein, both center right and center left scholars described the Republican Party as extreme in 2012. They described the party as against compromise, dismissive of facts and science. By 2015, the GOP was listening to the Tea Party, and State politics had become more polarized than Congress. Ornstein said Trump was the logical next step for the party and not an outlier. Trump is a candidate obsessed with conspiracy theories and locking up his opponents. The Republican Party lack diversity to cancel out the extreme voices within the party. 40 6800385.1 The sorting of ideology by political parties has made Democrats more diverse while Republicans are too similar. Democrats need to win broad appeal in order to gain power, despite the perception of Democrats being intolerant of other ideas. Republicans have been able to get to voters purely through ideology. Conservatism is a group identity, not an ideology, which is why they are able to support Trump despite having beliefs and actions that contradict traditional conservatism. An experiment showed that people who identified as strongly conservative switched positions the most easily based off what Trump said. Conservatives have a far less diverse range of news sources and are far more likely to have one main news source such as Fox News. Conservative news media is deeply partisan and can be described as propaganda. Conservative media thrives in being hostile to the mainstream. Rush Limbaugh called the media, scientific community, academia and government the four corners of deceit. Republicans are able to run more extreme campaigns because they win over land rather than people meaning that the majority of states and counties are generally Republican, but these places are usually less populated. While the majority of the population might not agree with them, they live in condensed areas which gives them limited power. Many Trump voters felt that Trump was their last chance to take their country back and save America. They like Trump because he is a fighter, and they believe they have been too nice in the past. However, increased polarization is not necessarily bad. Polarization would have resulted in no civil rights legislation. Polarization is the logical conclusion of the internet (Klein). Trump was able to get the support of Americans who do not care about issues like gay marriage or other issues that anger social conservatives, but instead people who hate political correctness and what they view as social justice warriors or SJWs, and other issues like false rape allegations. Some of these people are fine with pornography, sex before marriage, violence in movies and video games, gay marriage and marijuana legalization. Many of these people are 41 6800385.1 libertarians and have been nicknamed by some as Barstool Conservatives or South Park Conservatives. This group is younger, mostly male. While they may view some social conservatives as insane, they do not view them with the hatred they feel for some on the left. Given the choice between siding with the stereotypical easily offended liberal college student or the ultra-religious conservative who believes in conspiracy theories, they will usually side against the liberal (Wather). There are many people who are not conservative who worry about cancel culture. Cancel culture is the idea liberal people have the power to get people who do not agree with removed from their jobs. Republicans have done a good job of making it seem like out-ofcontrol liberals will try to get someone fired over the smallest thing. Republicans had similar complaints about activist judges in the 2000s, politically correct college students in the 80s and 90s and outside agitators in the 60s. Conservatives often use this language to appear less bigoted. They warn about children being forced to change their gender, those who follow the Constitution, or free thinking will be cancelled. A lot of the ultra-radical ideas Republicans accuse Democrats of having are actually divisive in the Democratic party, such as the negatives of capitalism, defunding the police or the debate if there are more than two gender identities. Cancel culture is often used by conservatives to describe things they do not like. Swing voters might resonate with the GOPs message if they believe cancel culture goes too far (Bacon Jr). For a moderate Republican today, Trump was still closer to their political beliefs than Hillary or even Biden. They want conservative judges and tax cuts. There are those who hate Trump but hate Democrats more which meant they still voted for Trump, due to the perception that Democrats are too far left. They might hate Trump but like his policy. What gives right wing extremists and those with fringe beliefs power is when moderates decide that fringe figures are more tolerable or like their policies more than Democrats. On their own, the far right should have little power, but moderates 42 6800385.1 acceptance of fringe figures and beliefs gives extremists no reason to change and helps them win elections. Conclusion The internet has allowed for fringe voices to become mainstream. People who would not have previously been radicalized before the internet are now more likely to with social media, the internet and YouTube. Extremist figures are often able to come across as charming, relatable and edgy which attracts a lot of viewers. What led to this however was Americas history and the prevalence of right wing extremism. The number of extremists and ultraconservatives have been underestimated in the Republican Party and there are those in the media and academia who overestimate the stereotypical suburban socially liberal fiscally conservative Republican. This can be seen throughout the 20th century with the GOPs use of the Southern Strategy. The establishment, both conservative and liberal often live in an ivory tower and are concerned about issues most Americans do not care about. This can be seen with some liberals focus on gender pronouns which most Americans do not care about and are instead focused on their livelihoods. Additionally, sometimes a broken clock is right twice a day. One of the reasons conservative media is able to get an audience in the first place is due to a poorly researched or wrong stories written by a mainstream outlet and a good story written by a fringe outlet. This can be seen with the Andrew Cuomo nursing home scandal. The media must be accurate in order to maintain credibility. Additionally, there are times when those on the left legitimately go too far, which does turn off moderates an example being the violence that occurred in the summer of 2020 in response to police brutality. Many moderate Republicans who refused to vote for Trump have left the Republican Party, so there are few factions within the Republican 43 6800385.1 Party that can get it to change. Many moderates often try and make themselves feel better by saying their Republican friends and family do not believe the insanity, but they are most likely lying to themselves. Politics today areas polarized as ever. However, the height of unity and less polarization was the period where progress was not made. What is considered the golden age of American democracy was less liberal than it is today. Trumps most insane beliefs were considered mainstream not long ago. The percent of people supporting interracial marriage was under 50% until 1996 (Miltmore). Liberals in Congress were fine with compromising on racism and the number of open white supremacists and KKK members in Congress were much higher 60 years ago compared to today. Extremism and the number of extremists today is not necessarily worse, extremists just have a bigger voice and have revealed themselves. The best way to curb extremism is with face-to-face debates. However, deradicalization is very difficult. Getting people to hear the other side is difficult. People are hesitant to admit their wrong and do not want to admit they have been wrong for years. Many extremists will say any source that does not fit their views as fake news. 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... Industrial Augmented Reality: Mobile or Web? Jacob Gibson 11/10/2020 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Abstract 2 Introduction 2 Background Industry 4.0 Industrial Augmented Reality 4 4 5 Goals Android App Comparison and Metrics 5 5 6 Accomplishments and Results Android App Comparison of the Apps Usability/Accessibility Metrics Ease of Development Performance Metrics 7 7 9 9 10 11 Conclusions and Further Work 11 References 13 2 Abstract As the world moves to Industry 4.0, Augmented Reality (AR) applications will move to the forefront of the way people work, shop, and play. In accordance with that, applications like Siemens Teamcenter Visualization that are currently used to review product designs and model factory floors will need to be updated to provide that AR functionality. First, I create an Android AR app that can stream data from a Teamcenter Visualization instance running on a desktop to an Android phone. Next, I investigate the other plausible route for an AR upgrade to Teamcenter Visualization - a web app utilizing Siemens PLM VisWeb. Finally, I compare the two based on usability, accessibility, ease of development, and performance metrics. Ultimately, I provide guidance as to whether the mobile or web platform is currently the most suited to AR development. Introduction Siemens is a global company focused on industry, energy, and healthcare. It is the largest manufacturer in Europe, but it also produces a large array of software in its Digital Industries Software division. The CAD software they create is used by engineers, architects, and other professionals all around the world. One such software is Siemens Teamcenter Visualization (TcVis). Used by 24 of the top 25 automotive manufacturers and 9 of the top 10 aerospace manufacturers, TcVis is an application that provides digital markup and visualization features for the product lifecycle. Users can access 2D and 3D design data, collaborate with other users, and even view that data in Virtual Reality (VR). These powerful tools allow users to create and analyze digital prototypes that surpass physical prototypes in cost, time, and quality. Users can also visualize digital twins of existing objects, which can be combined with VR and collaboration features to do things like maintenance training in a safe learning environment. 3 Moving forward, Siemens would like to add AR capabilities to Teamcenter Visualization to enable even more use cases for the application. As technologies improve and manufacturers adopt things like AI, machine learning, and IoT, quality becomes an even more complex goal to attain. Businesses aiming for quality will need to have greater speed, transparency, and accuracy that is hard to attain with the technologies they are using today (Radziwill, 6). AR can solve many of these problems by providing an accurate, fast, and easy to use way to visualize products in any stage of the product lifecycle. Hence, adding AR capabilities to TcVis would add an incredible amount of value to the app. Given that Teamcenter Visualization can have very high graphical requirements, it was decided that the best AR solution would be a web or standalone app that can connect to an instance of Teamcenter Visualization that acts as a server. A distributed system like this is common in AR apps due to the relative weakness of mobile devices compared to desktop applications (Lima, 2). A working prototype for the web app already exists in the form of Siemens PLM VisWebs AR features. This app could be used as the basis for web app metrics, but a standalone app needed to be created. The app needed to be able to connect to an instance of Teamcenter Visualization over a TCP connection, display the streamed data in AR, and react to changes in the Teamcenter Visualization instance in real time. I detail the goals and results of this step of research in its corresponding sections under Goals and Accomplishments and Results. In the next phase of the research, the two apps needed to be analyzed on the bases of usability, accessibility, ease of development, and performance. Usability and Accessibility were chosen so that the app can be used by as many people and in as many ways as possible. Given that the app will be primarily controlled through the Teamcenter Visualization instance running on a desktop, this metric considers things like available platforms and possible input methods. Ease of Development is the most minor of the metrics chosen, but valuable 4 information nonetheless. This metric considers things like the language the app is written in, how easily it interfaces with existing libraries, and available development environm ents. Finally, the Performance metric aims to guide Siemens to the app that will provide the most perceived value to their customers. The two apps will be measured on things like frames per second, latency from the desktop to the phone, etc. Background Industry 4.0 The rise of Internet of Things (IoT) in the world is leading to what many experts are calling Industry 4.0. As the world embraces IoT, the entire product lifecycle will be augmented. Producers will have access to powerful new design and manufacturing options enabled by more efficient factories and big data. Consumers, on the other hand, will have access to total customization in the products they consume. In an IoT factory, every stage of production will have access to knowledge of every other stage. Every designer, assembler, and warehouse worker will be able to see where each product came from and where each is headed at any time. This tight integration will allow factories to shift from the mass production of generalized goods to the mass production of specialized goods (Becker, 2). For example, a consumer looking for a new pair of shoes could log on to the companys website, design a shoe with the exact colors and look that they desire, and purchase that shoe for no extra cost over a standard model. Better yet, a consumer in the market for a new car could select the exact parts they wanted in their car before the car is even made. These changes may seem like a sci-fi future today, but these changes are coming sooner than one would expect. In fact, many shoe manufacturers are already offering totally customizable shoes and many factories are already accepting IoT devices for monitoring and maintenance. It will be important, then, that software stays on pace with these changes and 5 provides the new solutions that producers and consumers will need in Industry 4.0. Central to those new needs is VR and AR (Becker, 5). Producers need these immersive tools to better monitor their factories and analyze the products that their users are creating, while consumers will need these tools to visualize the product theyre buying in the environment around them. For example, AR technology enables a consumer to try on a shoe right in their living room or see a new car in their driveway. Siemens Teamcenter Visualization already has powerful VR functionality but will certainly benefit from getting in on the ground floor of Industrial AR tools. Industrial Augmented Reality Industrial Augmented Reality (IAR) is a subset of AR defined as Augmented Reality for product design, manufacturing, training, maintenance, and logistics (Bttner, 1). Pokmon Go is a common example of commercial or recreational AR, and while impressive in its own right, it lacks many of the features that IAR provides. IAR places the focus on precision, accuracy, and performance above all else. There has already been a wealth of research done into IAR applications, but most of it tends to focus on AR projections and AR head-mounted-displays (Bttner, 3). This research aims to show the viability of mobile IAR, but the web app and Android app both allow for head-mounted-display IAR. Additionally, most prior IAR research has been into modeling factories and increasing worker performance (Bttner, 4). There is a noted void of IAR for product lifecycle management in both academia and industry, which is something this research aims to fill. Goals Android App The prototype Android App created in this research must meet the following criteria: 6 Connect to a Teamcenter Visualization instance over TCP. The Teamcenter Visualization instance will act as a server and send a bytestream of the currently rendered model to the Android app. The Android app will render that streamed model in the Augmented Reality scene. Include Augmented Reality functionality. The app will utilize the Android ARCore API to render an AR scene. Direct Model libraries will then be integrated with the ARCore rendering to allow for the easy addition of streamed data f rom Teamcenter Visualization. Allow for basic tracking of the streamed model through the placement of anchors. These anchors will be placed on a flat surface in the AR scene by tapping the screen. Once an anchor has been placed, the streamed model will stick to that point until a new anchor is placed. Ensure that all Teamcenter Visualization functionality will be properly streamed to the Android app. Teamcenter Visualizations powerful functionalities should be sent to the Android app for free. This means that an AR user could easily add measurements, markups, cross sections, etc. to their model and see the altered model in real time on the app. This goal is here to ensure all of the changes these functions create on the model are captured in the UPCS stream and sent along to the app. Hence, changes made here will actually be made to Teamcenter Visualization and not the Android app. Comparison and Metrics The following comparisons will be made, and metrics will be collected between the apps: Usability and Accessibility. The two apps will be compared on basic usability and ease of set-up. Both will initially have very minimal user interfaces, so this comparison will also include a survey of the different devices each app would be available on. Ease of Development. The two apps will be compared from a coding perspective. This will include things like the programming language used and the development 7 environment required. Furthermore, the apps will be compared on how easy or hard it would be to integrate existing Siemens rendering libraries. Performance. Finally, the apps will be compared on a few performance metrics. Particularly, the framerate of the apps will be measured with a variety of models to see which performs better with different kinds of data on a real phone. Additionally, the latency between the phone and desktop will be measured for each solution with a variety of models. Accomplishments and Results Android App The app created has met all but the last of its goals. The app started off as a Siemenss Direct Model renderer that connected to a simplified Teamcenter Visualization viewer called RxDr. This simplified viewer has the same rendering capabilities and code as Teamcenter Visualization, but without all the extra features on top like measurement, cross section, etc. RxDr was used to provide a more lightweight development environment, as the developer did not need to run a full Teamcenter Visualization instance. The app creates a TCP connection with the RxDr server and then receives data over a UPCS stream. This same connection can relatively easily be created with a Teamcenter Visualization instance by moving the RxDr code into a new module in the Teamcenter Visualization code. Hence, the first goal has been met. 8 Next, the Direct Model rendering used in the initial app would need to be integrated with the OpenGL ES rendering of an Android ARCore app so that the app could leverage all of the ARCore functionality. Luckily, Direct Model is also built on OpenGL ES rendering and so the integration of the two went very smoothly. The app uses ARCore rendering as the base, and then adds the Direct Model rendering on top, completing the second goal. After that, the app would need to have some basic tracking. Eventually, the app will utilize industrial-strength tracking through the VisionLib library. Using VisionLib, the app will be able to map the AR model onto a physical version of that same model in the real world, allowing users to digitally edit the virtual version and see their changes overlaid on the physical version in AR. As a proof of concept and as a form of tracking for users without a physical version of their model, the app here will implement ARCores anchor-based tracking. ARCore will pick up on flat surfaces around the user, after which the user can click any point on the surface to anchor the model. The model will snap to that location and remain there until the user taps again to move the anchor somewhere else. Even if the anchor moves off of the screen, ARCore will remember where the anchor was and find it again when that point returns on screen. This basic tracking satisfies the third goal of this research. The final goal, streaming all Teamcenter Visualization functionality to the app, has not yet been reached. Originally, this goal seemed relatively straightforward. The code in RxDr that 9 handled the TCP connection and UPCS stream needed to be ported into TcVis in a new module. The new module, VP Augmented Reality, was created but it turned out that porting the code over was a more involved process than originally thought. In RxDr, the streaming code could rather easily be added to the basic rendering the app provides. Unfortunately, TcViss complexity means that theres a lot more to be done than just porting the code. A new ribbon would need to be made in the UI, the new module would need to get many more interfaces than RxDr needed, and some of the code would need to be updated for the latest version of Direct Model. In total, this process would probably take a full-time developer a little less than a month. Comparison of the Apps Of course, this research is most relevant to Siemens so that the management can determine the best course of action moving forward. Thus, its important to compare the Android AR and VisWeb AR solutions. Below, the apps are compared on the criteria of Usability/Accessibility, Ease of Development, and Performance. Usability/Accessibility Metrics One of the most important differences between the two apps is the platforms that they can be run on. The app created in this research runs on Android, so it can be used on any Android device such as mobile phones, tablets, and even certain AR Head Mounted Displays. VisWeb AR, on the other hand, uses WebXR. This means that it can be used by any device that has access to a browser with WebXR support. Many tablets and mobile phones have access to such browsers, and its possible that some Head Mounted Displays could as well. Plus, WebXR is available on both iOS and Android, widening the potential userbase further. The apps also have some user interaction differences. Currently, both apps can detect flat surfaces and place the model on top of the surface. The models can also be anchored at any point on the surface. In the Android app, the user can then rotate and resize the model on 10 their desktop server and the changes will be sent to the app. In VisWeb, on the other hand, the user can use two fingers in a pinching motion to resize the model the same way a user could zoom on a webpage or photo. These interactions highlight a key difference between the two apps the Android app tends to rely on the server for user interaction while the VisWeb user interacts with the app directly. While this seems like a clear win for VisWeb, its a bit of a doubleedged sword. In VisWeb, every bit of functionality needs to be added to the app directly, while the Android app gets all the TcVis functionality for free through the desktop server. The user could perform any bit of TcVis functionality on the server for example a cross section and the user will see that cross section in AR automatically. Overall, the VisWeb solution currently wins out in terms of Usability and Accessibility. WebXR makes it accessible on more platforms than just Android devices, and it currently has more user interaction in the actual AR app instead of on the desktop server. Despite this, the Android app still has potential, and a possible UI solution is explored in the Future Work section. Ease of Development As mentioned in the Usability/Accessibility section, Android has a development advantage in that it will get access to TcVis functionality automatically. Android also has a few other benefits over VisWeb in terms of ease of development. Since the Android app runs on C++, existing Siemens libraries can relatively easily be integrated into the app. Contrast this with PLM VisWeb, where existing libraries need to be ported over into JavaScript calls that the app can use. Another helpful advantage for Android is that both ARCore and Siemenss Direct Model render using OpenGL ES. This made the integration of the two very smooth, but unfortunately VisWeb doesnt have the same benefit. WebXR is also built on top of OpenGL ES, but VisWeb itself doesnt use Direct Model for its rendering at this time. Eventually, Direct Model may make it into VisWeb, but until it does the Android app will have that advantage. 11 While VisWeb won out in terms of Usability and Accessibility, the Android app is the clear winner in terms of Ease of Development. Given the same investment, I believe the Android app could be developed more quickly than the VisWeb. Performance Metrics Unfortunately, this research was concluded before Performance Metrics could be collected. The necessary changes to collect metrics like framerate and server latency havent yet been added to either solution, but its also being worked toward for both solutions. Additionally, the COVID pandemic created challenges f or the developers to test both solutions on the same device. While there arent any performance comparisons between the two apps yet, it will be interesting to see if there are differences between the two. WebXR uses WebGL to render its graphics, which is itself based on OpenGL ES. WebGL is the preferred method for mobile realtime processing due to its similarities to OpenGL ES, so we can expect similar performance in terms of raw rendering capabilities (Ioni, 4). WebXR also uses ARCore behind the scenes when used on an Android device, so both apps will use the same AR API when tested on a single device. The difference will lie in the extra efficiency that WebXR or Direct Model can provide, if any. Conclusions and Further Work Overall, this research was very successful. The prototype created provides a great potential starting point for Siemens AR that relies on desktop Teamcenter Visualization. It has superior ease of development over the VisWeb solution, worse usability and accessibility, and unknown but most likely similar performance. Of course, there is still plenty of room for the app to grow and for this research to continue in the coming months. 12 The first area of growth would be to carry out the performance comparison between the apps. This work is already underway and both teams are working together to get access to a tablet to test both solutions on. In total, it would take a full-time developer to complete the performance comparison in around a week, making this next step attainable relatively soon. Next up would be to finish up the final goal of this research. Connecting the Android app to Teamcenter Visualization would be a huge step forward for the prototype, but as said in the Accomplishments and Results section, would take a full-time developer around a month to complete. Hopefully, project management will see the progress made so far and the performance comparison and put more resources on the project. As of now, this project is only worked on in free time at the end of each Agile iteration, so being accepted by the project management would be a great boon to the projects speed. After doing the performance comparison and connecting the app to TcVis, we would like to add scene authoring to the app. With scene authoring, users could add buttons and other controls to TcVis on the desktop, and then see those controls in AR on the app. This functionality would add a wide variety of UI options for the user and truly transition the app from a prototype to a realized product. Below is a mockup of the scene authoring using simple buttons that make the disc in the brake assembly spin or stop. 13 References Becker, Christian, et. al. A Survey on Human Machine Interaction in Industry 4.0. Feb. 2020. 45 pages. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2002.01025.pdf Bttner, Sebastian, et. al. The Design Space of Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications for Assistive Environments in Manufacturing: A Visual Approach. June 2017. 8 pages. https://thomaskosch.com/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/buettner2017design.pdf Ioni, Cristian and Brbulescu, Alexandru. Real-time Video Processing in Web Applications. Sept. 2015. 4 pages. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1712/1712.02438.pdf Lima, Joo Paulo, Teichrieb, Veronica, and Kelner, Judith. A Standalone Markerless 3D Tracker for Handheld Augmented Reality. Feb. 2009. 15 pages. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0902/0902.2187.pdf Radziwill, Nicole. Lets Get Digital: The many ways the fourth industrial revolution is reshaping the way we think about quality. Oct. 2018. 10 pages. https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1810/1810.07829.pdf ARCore (Version 1.20.0) [Software Development Kit]. Retrieved from https://developers.google.com/ar/develop WebXR (Version 20200724) [Application Programming Interface] Retrieved from https://www.w3.org/TR/webxr/  ...