23 - The Final Solution Flashcards
What was the ‘Jewish solution’ and when was it implemented
1942
A systematic attempt to exterminate the Jewish population of occupied Europe
What did Untermenschen mean
Less than human
How did the Nazis consider Untermenschen
Slav people’s from Eastern Europe
Roma and sinti
Racial undesirables - mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, members of religious sects
After what event did persecution against Jews increase
Reichkristallnacht
What did the invasion of the USSR 1941 turn the war into
A war of racial annihilation
What happened to policies against Jews by December 1941
Nazis realised their aims cannot be achieved by deporting Jews to Madagascar, or herding them into ghettos in general government area of Poland and that radical policies were needed
When was the Wannsee conference
January 1942
What was the Wannsee conference
A conference for Nazi officials was held at a villa on the shores of lake Wannsee, near Berlin, that seems to have been the key moment in the implementation of the systematic murder of the Jews.
A meeting to inform officials of their role in the process
Who ran the Wannsee conference
Reinhard Heydrich (most senior man in SS after Himmler)
When was the decision to exterminate Jews in Europe made
Likely sometimes in summer of 194, after the invasion of the USSR has begun
What happens to treatment of Jews after the conference
Deportations of Jews to designated camps became more systematic and the mass killings of Jews accelerated
What made Nazi propaganda turn more towards anti semitism
The war turning against Germany 1942-43
What did Goebbels and other Nazi leaders make clear
No secret that the war would result in the destruction of the Jews
Although did not spell out exactly what was happening
When did the Nazis begin to close camps
What did they do w prisoners and the camps
In Nov 1944 when soviet armies had advanced deeply into Poland and were getting close to death camps
Surviving prisoners were sent on forced marches to the west
Crematoria at Auschwitz we’re blown up
When were camps liberated
Jan 1945 Auschwitz liberated by soviet forces
Other camps in Germany liberated in the coming months by British and American forces
What was the first death camp established
Chelmno
Victims killed in vans pumped with carbon monoxide gas
What was used in all death camps
Zyklon B gas
Name some specially constructed death camps
There were six
Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka Auschwitz Majdanek Chelmno
Operational in 1942-43
Vast majority of Jews sent her died in gas chambers
Which was the largest camp
Auschwitz Birkenau
Became hub of extermination programme after 1943
Unlike other camps Was also a vast industrial complex run by the SS using slave harbour
What would happen to prisoners on arrival to Auschwitz Birkenau
Prisoners would be inspected by the guards
Those deemed fit for work were sent to other parts of teh camp
The rest, mainly children women the elderly and sick were sent straight to the gas chambers
Was their Jewish resistance
Widespread
Although in the face of Nazi repression it was largely small scale and u,it alley ineffective
Examples of Jewish resistance
In eastern Euroupe partisan groups established base camps in forests, from where they could mount sabotage raid on German forces.
Revolts in some ghettos
Organised revolts in the death camps
Examples of the partisan groups that resisted
One ran by the Bielski brothers in Belarus which attracted 1200 partisans
Examples of revolts in ghettos
Bialystok
Another large rising in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943
Examples of resistance in death camps
1943 in sobibor and Treblinka
1944 in Auschwitz Jewish prisoners blew up crematorium 4
What were the death marches
From autumn 1944 with German forces in restreat from the red army, the regime organised evacuations and forced marches from the camps in the east.
Caused terrible suffering and many deaths
Many died from exposure to harsh winter weather, malnourishment, illness and exhaustion
Many were shot for being too slow
What were the death marches
From autumn 1944 with German forces in retreat from the red army, the Nazi regime organised evacuations and forced marches from camps in the east which caused suffering and many deaths.
Many died fro, exposure to harsh winter weather, malnourishment, illness and exhaustion
Many were shot by guards for being too slow
How many died on the death marches
Estimate 250,000-400,000
We’re final solution policies also directed towards non Jews
Policies were inconsistent and evidence of a systematic plan of Exeter inaction is fragmentary
What happened to gypsies
Most were rounded up and sent to concentration camps, some death camps.
There was a seperate gypsy camp at Auschwitz that housed men women and children
Some were immediately gassed and many died from the terrible conditions
About 250,000 gypsies were killed
What happened to soviet prisoners of war
Unlike western POW’s soviet prisoners of war were mostly sent to concentration camps and some death camps where they were gassed to death
How many Soviet POW’s died
Over 3 million
Other victims to concentration camps
Homosexuals
Jehovah’s Witness
Hitlers responsibility for the holocaust
Fanatical anti semitism was always a major motivation for Hitler as fuhrer
Hitler set out the framework of goals in which his subordinates operated, creating a regime in which the potential for mass killings was always present
Even tho no written order from Hitler to exterminate Jews has ever been found, leading Nazis operated in a way of ‘working towards the fuhrer’
Evidence other Nazi leaders responsible for holocaust
Nazi regime had many overlapping centres of power, and rival Nazi leaders competed for Hitlers approval
The actual implementation of the holocaust was responsibility of the SS led by Himmler and his key subordinate Heydrich
Other leaders involved, including Martin Bormann, Goering, Eichmann and Goebbels
We’re Germans as a whole responsible?
Thousand of lower level officials, soldiers and police, carried out the orders ri deport and execute millions of victims. Included on Germans in occupied territories
Few people were openly critical of Nazi decisions
