Policies Towards The Jews 1940-41 Flashcards
What did the invasion of the USSR mean Jews?
In October 1940, Hitler started detailed planning for the conquest of the USSR, and, in June 1941, he launched Operation Barbarossa. The German invasion deep into the western parts of the USSR in 1941 immediately brought more than 3 million Soviet Jews under German rule. Before the invasion had even been launched, Hitler issued the instruction to ‘eliminate’ the ‘Bolshevik-Jewish intelligentsia’. The Nazis made it clear in numerous directives that the war was to be one of ‘extermination’ of Germany’s 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.
What did Goering issue in July 1941?
(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 commissars (party officials assigned to the Red Army) and Jewish sympathisers.
What other measures were taken to isolate Jews from society?
The war with Soviet Russia intensified the pressure on Hitler to deal with the ‘Jewish question’ in Germany as well as j. The occupied territories. A series of measures had further isolated Jews from German society further by late 1941:
- Radio sets were confiscated from Jews. In November 1939, Jews were banned from buying radios. A month later, they were banned from buying chocolate.
- In 1940, Jews were excluded from the wartime rationing allowances for clothing and shoes. In July, an order limited them to entering shops at restricted times only - in Berlin it was from 4pm to 5pm.
- In 1941, regulations were tightened up to require Jews to have a police permit to travel. An order in December 1941 compelled Jews in Germany to wear the yellow Star of David, as was already the case with Jews in the occupied territories.
What was one solution that Nazis turned to sort out the mass Jewish population?
They turned to the creation of Jewish ghetoos. In February 1940, the first ghetto was set up in Lodz, the second biggest city in Poland. About 320,000 Jews were living in the city. The Nazis considered their ‘immediate evacuation’ to be impossible. The majority of Jews were accommodated in a closed ghetto, set up in a single day by barricades - later the Jews had to build a surrounding wall. The remaining Jews were formed into labour gangs, accommodated in barrack blocks and kept under guard. The Jewish Council of Elders was given responsibility for food, health, finance, security accommodation and registration.
What was the economic exploitation like?
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.
What were the conditions like?
The Nazis massively restricted the amount of food, medical supplies and other goods that entered the overcrowded ghettos. Conditions in the ghettos were terrible. Six people shared an average room; 15 people lived in an average apartment. Few homes had running water. With no economic links to the out outside world, basic necessities such as food and fuel were scarce. There were terrible lice infestations and diseases spread rapidly, including spotted fever, typhus, typhoid and tuberculosis.
What did the black market scene look like?
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, despite the fact that 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 relieve suffering, although some were accused of corruption or collaboration with the Nazis.
The Warsaw ghetto
- Largest ghetto established in Poland was in the capital city, Warsaw. Governor Hans Frank ordered the Jews to build a high wall around the Jewish Quarter in October 1940, forming the Warsaw ghetto.
- Jews also had to pay for its construction cost. In November, the ghetto was sealed off completely from the rest of the city.
- More than 40,000 Jews were concentrated there and over the following months, many more Jews and Gypsies were forced out of the countryside into the ghetto.
- Richer Jews were housed in the ‘small ghetto’; the mass of ordinary people were squeezed into the so-called ‘large ghetto’, which was not large at all; became desperately overcrowded.
- Food rations in the large ghetto were at starvation levels. Germans in occupied Poland were consuming an average of 2310 calories per day, close to 2500 calories a day for an adult man recommended by present day nutritionists. In Warsaw in 1940, Poles received 634 calories a day. The figure for Jews was 300.
- Malnutrition and overcrowding led to outbreaks of killer diseases, above all typhus. More than 100,000 people died in the ghetto in 1940-41. Later, almost all the remainder died in the death camps after mass deportations to Aushwitz during Operation Reinhard, which began in 1942.
- The Nazis never saw the ghettos as a long term solution to the ‘Jewish problem’. The conditions in the ghettos and work gangs did however give some insight into the fate that was intended for the Jews. The ghettos were designed to ensure that Jews died in large numbers of starvation, cold and disease. Many were worked to death carrying out forced labour for the Nazis. In total, around 500,000 Jews died in the ghettos.
