8.5 The journey to the ‘Final Solution’;

Question 1

When was the Wannsee conference

Answer 1

January 1942

Question 2

What happened at the Wannsee conference

Answer 2

Those who attended were informed of the plan to kill all Jewish people left in Europe (11 million people) by working them to death, using poison gas or shooting

Question 3

What was the final solution

Answer 3

The term used by the Nazis to refer to their plan to destroy Europe’s Jewish population between 1942 and 1945

Question 4

Why did persecution of the Jews begin in the Middle Ages

Answer 4

• Jewish people blamed for the death of Jesus and the outbreak of Black Death in the 1300s
• 1290: King Edward I expelled all Jews from England, they were banned from returning for the next 350 years

Question 5

What did German writer William Marr say in the 1800s?

Answer 5

• Jews would soon illegally take control of all Germany’s highest political positions
• Marr first used the term ‘antisemitism’

Question 6

What were the protocols of Zion

Answer 6

False documents published in Russia that told of a secret Jewish plot to take over the world, they were later proved fake but still distributed worldwide

Question 7

What happened to Jewish people in the late 1880s and early 1900s

Answer 7

• several massacres in Russia
• antisemitism was widespread in many European countries
• Jewish people had no state of their own and were viewed with suspicion and mistrust

Question 8

What happened to Jewish people escaping Nazi germany

Answer 8

• they left to live in nearby countries such as Holland and Belgium
• Germany invaded those countries during the Second World War
• Jewish people became trapped under Hitler’s rule all over Europe

Question 9

What were the execution squads used by the Nazis called and what did they do

Answer 9

• Einsatzgruppen
• went out into the countryside and shot or gassed as many Jews as they could find

Question 10

What happened to Jewish people before the end of 1941

Answer 10

• bricked into ghettos in the major cities
• forced to work in labour camps

Question 11

What were the six large death camps (extermination camps) built in response to the Wannsee conference

Answer 11

• Auschwitz-Birkenau
• Belzec
• Chelmno
• Majdanek
• Sobibor
• Treblinka

Question 12

How did Jewish people fight back in ghettos?

Answer 12

• secret schools, theatres, places of worship set up
• 1943: Jews rebelled against German soldiers in Warsaw ghetto in Poland
• it took 43 days for Germans to regain control. They arrested and executed all involved and burned down the ghetto

Question 13

Give an example of a rebellion in a death camp

Answer 13

• in Treblinka, 1943, one of the prisoners managed to get into the weapons store and handed out guns and grenades
• after setting the camp on fire, 150 prisoners managed to escape, killing 15 guards in the process
• Nazis soon regained control and many escapees were killed

Question 14

Who helped with the ‘Final Solution’ other than loyal Nazis

Answer 14

• railway workers who loaded Jews onto cattle trucks
• office clerks, typists, telephone operators
• policemen, soldiers
• around 150 companies used Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners as slaves to build their goods
• other firms competed for the contract to design and build the gas chambers and ovens
• ordinary people knew too from newspaper headlines

Question 15

Did the British and American governments know about the death camps

Answer 15

• most historians agree that they knew what was happening but decided against taking any action
• it was suggested that the Allied governments should bomb the death camp, but the idea was rejected because they decided bomber planes should only be used to bomb German military targets (eg factories)