6.23 The ‘final Solution’ Flashcards
When is the Wannsee conference?
Jan 1942
When is the round up of all Jews in Vichy France?
July 1942
When is the concentration of all killings at Auschwitz?
May 1943
When is the start of the deportations of Jews from Germany
June 1943
When is the mass deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz?
June 1944
When is the destruction and evacuation of Auchwitz?
Nov 1944
When is the liberation of Auschwitz?
Jan 1945
What happens April 1945
Suicide of Hitler
Liberation of Belsen and KZ Mauthausen
What was a reason for the final solution
Vast number of Jews sent to General gov in Poland was too much for the authorities to deal with
Why was the Wannasee conference delayed by a month
Soviet Union counter offensive
Attack on pearl harbour and entry of Japan and USA into the war
What was the Wannsee conference
Senior bureaucrats were informed on their roles in a decision that had already been decided (wasn’t decided at the conference) the decision being the final solution
Who was at the Wannsee conference?
15 high ranking Nazis (no Hitler or Himmler)
-chaired by Hedrich second most powerful man in the SS
-Heydrich has received orders from Goering empowering him to organise the preparations for the final solution
Deportations would be to specific areas where there was a camp system (50% of Jews that were killed died from Feb 1942-Feb 1943)
What happened to the killings of Jews as Germany started to lose the war 1942-43?
Accelerated and prioritised over military needs-Nazi propaganda becomes more hate filled than before
Describe how the intensification of Nazi propaganda ran in parallel with the periods of crisis in Germany’s war effort?
Spring 1943 Stalingrad defeat-Goebbels total war speech-massive propaganda drive
Autumn 1943: bombing roads and red army pushing back: similar surge of anti-Jewish propaganda
Summer 1944: allies land in France-another surge of anti Jewish propaganda
What did the Nazis tell the population the war while do for the Jews
Lead to there destruction (didn’t say specially final solution of systematically wipe them out)
By summer 1944 it was clear Germany would lose did it affect the final solution?
No it had the reverse effect -Nazis only closed down killing machine to conceal what they were up to when soviets were deep in Poland
What is the difference between concentration camps and death camps
Concentration camps not designed as centres for extermination death camps on the other hand build with specific purpose of killing Untermenschen
Untermenschen?
‘Sub humans’ used by Nazis to describe those they deemed as racially inferior(e.g Jews and gypsies)
What % of murdered Jews died at Auschwitz?
20%
What was zyklon B
Poisonous cyanide gas used in death camps
What other death camps were there?
Chelmno
Majdanek
Belzec
Sobibor
What happened at Chelmno death camp
First killing centre established
145,000 died
Carbon monoxide used until Zyklon B developed in 1942
What happened in Majdanek death camp?
200,000 death 60% Jewish
What happened in Belzec death camp?
500,000 Jews dead and several thousand gypsies
What happened at Sobibor death camp?
250,000 dead mostly Jews and soviet prisoners of war
How did Jews resist the Nazi persecution?
Partisan fighters established base camps deep in the forest and carried out acts of sabotage against German occupiers
Many of these groups were nationalist and communist but there was some Jewish groups
(In Belarus a group led by Bielski brothers eventually established a permanent community of 1200 partisans and a refuse for Jews escaping ghettos)
How many Jewish Parisian fighters were active in Lithuania in 1942
10,000
What is partisan fighter
a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity.
What is evidence of Jewish partisan groups being active in Poland?
General governor Hans frank had to commit large security forces to try and deal with more than 20 different Jewish partisan groups
Was there resistance from the Jews in Ghettos?
Describe them
-violent revolt against Nazis in ghetto of Bialystok
-large uprising Warsaw ghetto Jan 1943 which took SS by surprise as 80% of the Jews had already been sent to a death camp
Takes till May 1943 to strip the revolt
-in 1944 at Auschwitz Jews blew up crematorium
Describe the Nazi death marches
1944 Germans pull back as soviets advance camps were evacuated and inmates sent on long marches away from red army
Many died of illness and exhaustion as they were already malnourished
Death range 250,000-400,000 many being women
These marches continued up till the end of the war
Argument for Hitler being responsible for holocaust?
-motivated from the start by fanatic anti semitism
-dominated all aspects of power and propaganda in Germany
-all Germans supported his ideas or were incapable or opposing him because of terror and intimidation of the regime
Was it only Hitler’s responsibility?
No there were decisions by thousands of lesser Nazi officials that also played a part on mass mercer of such a large scale
What other Nazis had key roles in the holocaust
Goering
Eichmann
Speer
Goebbels
Bormann (Hitler’s private secretary)
Did large portion of the German population share in Hitler’s crimes
Yes they voted for the regime initially
What was the total death toll from the holocaust?
6mill Jews (78% in Germany and occupied territories)
90,000-220,000 Romanian gypsies
270,00 mentally and physically disabled in Euthenasia programme
5,000-15,000 homosexuals
2500-5000 Jehovah’s witnesses
