East Vs West Flashcards
In Eastern Europe nazis herded jews into closed areas or ghettos usually established in the most deprived parts of cities and towns eg in Poland the Jews in the ghettos suffered from overcrowding, hunger and persecution.
In the Soviet Union the Nazis murdered the Jews prior to the establishment of ghettos. Those that survived the initial waves of attacker’s were then sent away to ghettos.
Even in Hungary occupied only in 1944, occupied on in 1944 dozens of such area were established by the Germans who used them as assembly points for the Jews that were deported to the camps in the east.
In Western Europe by contrast the Nazis her ally used legal means to isolate the Jews , they revoked their civil rights , confiscated their property and later persecuted and expelled them
Why the difference?
From Nazi ideology perceived inhabitants of Western Europe to being closed to aryan and higher on the Nazi racial hierarchy also out of concern for the reaction of the local population the Germans avoided acts of high profile violence in the west that took place elsewhere
They saw inhabitants of Eastern Europe as inferior intended to become future slaves of the Reich. Consequently, the Nazis felt at liberty to persecute the Jews far more harshly implementing their brutality immediately following occupation
Despite the differences their fates would ultimately be the same !!!
