Jewish persecution: War and Genocide 1939-45 Flashcards
What did Hitler say in his notorious reichstag speech Jan 1939
He warned that any future war could lead to “ the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe”
What restrictions were placed on Jews in September 1939?
Radio sets were removed from German Jews, a curfew imposed and denied rations for clothing, footwear and certain foodstuffs
What Ghettos were Jews sent to in January 1940(3)?
Warsaw, Lvov and Lodz where used as slave labour
When and where was the first sealed Ghetto established?
Lodz April 1940
When were he first ghettos established?
October 1939
What were ghettoes initially set up for?
temporary holding bays while the NAzis decided what to do w Jews but lasted much longer
How bad was overcrowding in ghettos?
Warsaw held 500 000 people but was only 3.5 square miles in size
Jewish populations from all over Europe packed into v limited areas of main polish cities
In Ghettos there was the rapid spread of diseases like hat
Typhus and Tuberculosis
What was heating like in ghettos?
Limited access to fuel caused hardship and deaths during harsh polish winters
How many died in the Warsaw Ghetto between 1940-42?
100 000
Tell me about the Warsaw Ghetto
100 000 ppl died in it from 1940-42
It held 500 000 people whilst only being 3.5sq miles in size
How many Jewish people died in Ghettos due to disease, malnutrition and ill treatment?
about 450 000
What put 3million Jews under Nazi control?
Germany;s rapid victory in Poland autumn 1939
What did Himmler do after the invasion of Poland to the Jews
Ordered the deportation of Jews from Northwest Poland to Nazi-occupied Poland
What was Himmler’s role in regards to JEws
He was he Reich Commissar for Strengthening the German Race
How many Ghettos did the Nazis establish and where during WW2?
Established over 300 ghettoes in Poland, Romania, Czechoclovakia, USSR and Hungary
What did the Jewish Council in Ghettoes have to do
manage the ghettoes and decide who was to be deported from ghettoes to extermination camps
Who was the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto and what did he do when put on the Jewish Council?
Adam Czerniakow, committed suicide rather than consign others to death
What was the Madagascar Plan of 1940
IDea to solve the ‘Jewish question’.
Involved resettling europe’s J pop onto Madagascar Island, essentially making a big ghetto
Why was the Madagascar plan stopped?
Royal Navy blocked G’s access to seas
When was operation Barbarossa
22 June 1941
Within 8mts of Op Barbarossa, how many Js murdered?
700 000
What was a decisive development in the racial war and hastened a more radical approach to the J question?
Invasion of Russia that brought millions of Js under Nazi rule
What did Heydrich signal to Einsatzgruppen commanders in June 1941?
mass killings of Soviet Jews was the prelude to the destruction of European Jewry as a whole
When and who to did Heydrich signal that the mass killings of Soviet Jews was a prelude to the destruction of European Jewry?
June 1941, Heydrich signalled this to Einsatzgruppen commanders
What were the Einsatzgruppen?
Mobile killing squads of SS men, numbering 4000
What did the Einsatzgruppen do?
moved in behind advancing armies, rounding up and executing Jews and communists in mass shootings
What was one of the worst Einsatzgruppen atrocities?
The massacre of the Ukrainian village Babi Yar in September 1941 where 34 000 Jews were murdered in one week
When and what was the Wannsee Conference?
January 1942 the Wannsee Conference took place in Berlin, oversaw by Reynhardt Heydrich and attended by 15 leading Nazis who agreed upon plans to exterminate Europe’s 11million Jews
Who was Reynhardt Heydrich?
Head of the security police and SS
When was the solution to the ‘Jewish Question’ decided?
Jan 1942 at the Wannsee Conference
Who attended the Wannsee conference
Reps of the SS, NAzi party and various Reich ministries
what were the extermination camps
where Jews could be sent to be killed with gas chambers with ovens to destroy the bodies
almost all in Poland and process under Eichmann’s control
who gained from J persecution eg.
banks and businesses
IG färben which provided the gas Zyklon B for the death camps
Why did people not act against anti-semitism (5)
- not believe true art death camps
- J ppl unpopular w mant Jews
- fear of Gestapo and SS
- some gained from J persecution
- felt powerless
Eg. ghetto to death camp
Auschwitz expanded to incl a sub-camp Brikenau where gas chambers and crematoria installed
Give 3 egs of death camps
Treblinka, Sobibor and Chelmo
When were first death camps built
Spring 1942 though Auschwitz-Birkenau not ready until 1943
who and how many died at Auschwitz
1million Jews died at Auschwitz as well as 100 000 Roma people
Out of the 3million Polish Jews, how many survived WW2?
4000
How many European Jews died in total
6 million
Why and when were the death camps forced to close
After summer ‘44 often because of inmate revolts or advancing Soviet army
What and when did Himmler order to try win a degree of clemency with the Allies
November 1944 Himmler ordered an end to the genocide of the Jews and the destruction of gas chambers and crematoria
what were ‘death marches’
With war entering final stage SS desperately tried to move death camp inmates to more securely held territory
Death marches stats
Overall 59 death marches, about 50% people who took part in which died
What was the most famous death march
Auschwitz to Wodzoslav January 1945, 66 000 marched and 25% died en route
How many Jews were there in G 1933 vs 1945
1933 600 000 js in G
1945 25 000 Js in G
Entire Jewish communities disappeared acrosss Germany and Eastern europe
Who was one of the last to speak out an=gainst anti-semitism
Pastor Martin Niemoller
