23 - The 'Final Solution' Flashcards
How many people were murdered by the Nazis?
6 million
What were the origins of the final solution?
- plans to send Jews to Madagascar and Siberia had to be abandoned
- Jews in the General Government were too many for authorities to cope with
- led to the radical policies
When did the Wansee conference take place?
20th January 1942
What is the misconception regarding the Wansee conference and what was reality?
Misconception - that this is the conference where the decision to kill the Jews was made
Reality - where senior bureaucrats were informed of the decision and their roles within
When do historians agree that the official decision was made?
22nd June 1941, following the invasion of the Soviet Union
Who was involved in the Wansee Conference?
- 15 high ranking Nazi officials
- Heydrich as chairman after Goering ordered him to organise the final solution
What do historians believe about the driving force behind the final solution?
An unwritten order from Hitler
How did Wansee affect the deportation of Jews?
No longer to vague destinations in Poland, now in an organised camp system
How did the turning of war in 1942-43 impact Jewish treatment?
Anti Jewish propaganda following:
Spring 1943 - total war speech
Autumn 1943 - bombing raids
Summer 1944 - allied landings in France
What were the German population being told about the final solution?
- war would result in the destruction of Jews
- never spelled out the details but destruction highlighted
- Jewish populations of France, Italy, Greece and Slovakia were rounded up
- Vilnius and Minsk ghettos destroyed
When were Amsterdam Jews deported to Auchwitz?
February 1944
What was the correlation between the war and the final solution?
As Germany failed in war, the final solution sped up
When was the killing machine slowed down?
November 1944 when soviet armies were deep into Poland, the crematorium at Auschwitz was blown up, and survivors were sent on death marches westward
Why was destruction of the killing machine impossible?
The size of Auschwitz - Birkenau
Was the final solution ever completed?
2/3 of Europe’s Jewish population had been killed
By May 1945 the horrors of camps was being revealed, Dauchau liberated
What was the difference between extermination and concentration camps?
Concentration was not designed for mass killings
How was selection carried out?
Straight off the train people were sorted into unproductive and productive, the unproductive were sent straight to the gas chambers
How many holocaust victims died at Auschwitz?
1/5
What other death camps were key?
- Chelmno, about 40 miles from Łódź and first killing centre in December 1941, Zyklon B developed in 1942, 145,000 deaths
- Treblinka, 75 miles from Warsaw, 1 million deaths from July 1942 - September 1943
What was the significance of Auschtwiz ?
- became the hub of the killing machine
- more than a death camp, had many functions
- produced munitions and essential goods
Cultural and spiritual resistance?
- mainly within ghettos
- literary evenings, gatherings and concerts
Active / armed resistance in ghettos
- organisations formed in 100 ghettos
- designed to stage uprisings and escape
- found it difficult to smuggle weapons in
Active / armed resistance in ghettos
- organisations formed in 100 ghettos
- designed to stage uprisings and escape
- found it difficult to smuggle weapons in
Armed resistance in extermination camps
- Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz
- forced to dispose of the bodies
- some of the Sobibor and Treblinka rebels escaped
Partisans
- guerrilla fighters on occupied territory
- assassinated nazis in Eastern Europe
- 20,000 - 30,000 Jews participated
- difficult to join, had to leave families and be accepted by these groups
How many people died on the death marches?
Up to 400,000
Why did the death marches begin?
Camps were closing down and people needed to get away from the red army
What is Hitler’s responsibility for the Holocaust?
- motivated from the start by fanatical antisemitism
- dominated all aspects of propaganda and power within Germany
- all Germans supported him or were incapable of opposing him
= could not have happened without him
How were senior SS officials responsible for the holocaust?
- Heydrich responsible for Wansee
- Eichmann responsible for deportations
- Himmler head of SS
How were senior SS officials responsible for the holocaust?
- Heydrich responsible for Wansee
- Eichmann responsible for deportations
- Himmler head of SS
How were ordinary Germans responsible for the Holocaust?
- Goldhagen believed Germans were willing to not protest
- truths were kept private for their own security
- at least 100,000 ordinary Germans involved
How was the war responsible for the Holocaust?
- disrupted emigration plans
- brutalised people
- removed fear of public opinion
- encouraged extremism as made people paranoid that the enemy was inside
How were the allies responsible for the Holocaust?
- British Home Secretary knew about Auschwitz transport and ignored it
- only decided to accept 10,000 Jewish children
- attended the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games despite anti semitism
