20 - Policies against the Jews 1940-41 Flashcards
What was the Nazi Soviet Pact?
- non aggression pact, not an alliance
- invasion of Poland together
- Poland stranded
The Invasion of Poland
- NSP signed August 1939
- invasion 1st September 1939
- war declared 3rd September
- Russia invades 17th September
- Poland surrenders 29th
What was Operation Barbarossa?
- June 1941
- invasion of the USSR, Baltics, western Russia and Ukraine
- brought 3 million Soviet Jews under control
What was Warthegau?
Territory annexed and Germanised, with Poles deported and Germans imported. Nazi legislation discriminated against Polish Life, led by Arthur Greiser
What was General Government?
Area not annexed, but controlled by Germany. Poles exploited and reduced to slave labour, controlled by Hans Frank
What was Occupied Soviet area?
Area controlled by the USSR until invasion in June 1941
What impact did the invasion of the USSR have on policy?
By late 1941:
- Jews radios were confiscated, had been banned from purchasing Nov 1939
- late 1939 banned from buying chocolate
- 1940, Jews excluded from wartime rations for clothing and shoes, only allowed to enter shops from 4-5pm
- December 1941, German Jews ordered to wear the Star of David as already the case in occupied territory
The Łódź Ghetto
- second largest city in Poland
- ghetto set up in February 1940
- at the time, there was 320,000 Jews living in the city
What were the conditions of the Ghettos?
- 6 people in a room, 15 people per apartment
- few homes had running water
- no economic links to outside world so food and fuel was scarce
- disease such as typhus, fever, tuberculosis
Where were the Ghettos located?
- Poland: Warsaw, Łódź, Radom, Stanislawow
- Czechslovakia: Terezin
- Latvia: Riga
- Lithuania: Kaunas
- Hungary: Sopron
What were the conditions of Warsaw?
- Hans Frank ordered the Jews to build a large wall around the Jewish Quarter October 1940
- upon construction, 400,000 Jews
What was the daily calorie intake of people by 1940?
- Germans in Poland, 2310
- Warsaw Poles, 634
- Warsaw Jews, 300
How many Jews died in Ghettos overall?
500,000
How many people died in Warsaw in 1940-41?
100,000
Who were the Einsatzgruppen?
Special forces tasked with the annihilation of Jews, gypsies and Soviet Political officers, created by Himmler and Heydrich
