chapter twenty Flashcards
in October 1940 hitler won a series of Blitzkrieg victories in the west defeating france and leaving Britain island , france cam under a
nazi puppet regime ruled from the town of Vichy
in august 1939 hitler and Stalin had concluded the nazi soviet pact which guaranteed ussr would not intervene when germany invaded Poland , the pact was only ever intended to be
a temporary truce
in June 1941 hitler launched
operation Barbarossa
- German armies swept across USSR occupying vast territories in eastern Poland , the Baltic states , western Russia and Ukraine
the German invasion deep into the western parts of the USSR in 1941 immediately brought
3 million soviet jews inti German rule
before the invasion had been launched Hitler issued the instruction to
’ eliminate ‘ the ‘ Bolshevik Jewish intellengentisa ‘
the nazis made it clear in numerous directives that the war was to be one of ‘extermination’ of germanys racial enemies , there was no explicit hitler order in
june 1941 to kill all the jews of the soviet union
there was however an atmosphere in which troops saw killing as part of the overall mission
this was made clear in July 1941 when Goering issued a general order to kill communist commisonars and
jewish sympathisers
the war with soviet Russia intensified the pressure on hitler to deal with the ‘jewish question’ in germany and occupied terrortories
a series of measure had further isolated jews from German society by late 1941
- radio sets were confiscated from jews in November 1939 jews were banned from buying radios and a month later chocolate
- in 1940 jews were excluded from the wartime rationing allowances for clothing and shoes , in July and order limited them to entering shops at restricted times only , in berlin it was 4pm-5pm
- in 1941 , regulations were tightened up to require jews to have a police permit to travel , and order in December 1941 compelled jews in germnay to wear the yellow Star of David as was already the case with jews in the occupied territories
one solution the regime reached to deal with displacement was the creation of
jewish ghettos
in February 1940 the first ghetto was set up in
Lodz
the second biggest city in Poland
about 32,000 jews living in the city
the nazis considered their ‘ immediate evacuation ‘ to be possible the majority of jews were
accommodated in a closed ghetto set ip in a single day by barricades
later the jews had to build a surrounding wall
the remaining jews were formed inti labour gangs accommodated in
barrack blocks and kept under guard
- the jewish council of elders was given repsonisbilty for food health finance security accommodation and registration
jews sent to the ghettos had their homes confiscated , most jews had to
sell their valuables to survive
there was further economic exploitation in the form of forced labour , the nazis further restricted the amount of food medical supplies and
other goods that entered the overcrowded ghettos
conditions in ghettos were terrible with on average
six people sharing a room
15 people in an apartment
few homes had running water
no economic links outside world
basic necessities scarce
lice infestation
diseases spread rapidly
- fever , typhus , typhoid and tuberclouis
the jewish authorities worked within the regulations laid down by the nazis but also tried to get around them where possible , there was a
black market for food smuggled in from outside
jewish leaders organised prayers and religious festivals depute the fact they were
strictly forbidden by the nazis
the ghettos had illegal schools and even illegal printing presses , most jewish elders in positions of authority in the ghettos acted
responsibly and did their best to relive suffering , although some were accused of corruption or collaboration with the nazis
as German forces overran the western terrortories of the USSR in June and July 1941 ‘ special groups ; the
Einsatzgruppen , were sent to eliminate communist officials , red army commissars , partisans and the ‘ Jewish Bolshevik intelligentsia ‘
the activities of the Einsatzgruppen went far beyond their original remit , they carried out numerous mass killings of soviet jews in the second half of 1941 and possibly
half a million soviet jews were killed by the Einsatzgruppen in June and July 1941
the Einsatzgruppen were temporary units made up of police and regular troops commanded by men from the gestapo , the SD and the criminal police under the overall direction of the
SS
Einsatzgruppen had been in operation before 1941 , Heydrick and RSHA had organised special groups in 1938 and 1939 to secure
government buildings and to seize official files at the time of the Anschluss with Austria and when germany occupied Prague
special groups were used extensively in support of military operations in the invasion of Poland in 1939 when they were involved in a ‘ special actions ‘ against Jews and many Poles especially
communists and the ‘ intellgensia’
many local volunteers were often recruited to assist them
the Einsatzgruppen played an important role in the ethnic cleansing of the terrortoties in western Poland that were incorporated
into greater germnay
key responsibilities of the Einsatzgruppen included
the mass shootings of jews
forcing jews into ghettos in cities
it is estimated that x jews were killed in Poland in 1939
7000
and in total it is believed that the Einsatzgruppen in Poland killed x people including jews and members of the ‘intellgensia’
15,000
four Einsatzgruppen of between 600 and 1000 men followed behind the first
wave of the German army as it swept into the soviet union
’ special group A ‘ led the way , followed by a second sweep by special groups B , C and D as more
areas deeper into the USSR were overrun
the Einsatzgruppen were supported by police reserve units , police battalion 309 carried out a massacre in
Bialystok in eastern Poland on 27 June 1941
the police battalions included many ordinary men conscripted into the police rather than
the regular army
the total number of men involved in the mass killing of jews and communist party officials now rose to
40,000 men
Jewish men were routinely being shot with the extra manpower ; jewish women and children were now also to be
shot
the Einsatzgruppen were also supported by auxiliary groups that they had recruited from the
local populations such as Ukraine and Latvia
there were many eager volunteers
some groups restricted their killings of jews to the ‘intellengensia’ and partisans , In other areas the
Einsatzgruppen and local volunteers set about killing as many jews as possible
in the baltic states special group A shot x jews in 1941
25,000
in the same period , special group B shot x
45,000
