Policies Towards The Jews (1940-41) Flashcards
Where did the idea of deportations and ghettoisation come from?
The fact that Germany needed to deal with the huge Jewish population that had been displaced by Germanisation and military conquest
- now that WW2 was starting, the number of Jews needed to come under control was getting too big, so ghettoisation was a solution to this problem
What is a ghetto?
An area of a town or city in certain parts of Europe where Jews were imprisoned by the Nazis during WW2
How long were ghettos meant to last?
Only a temporary solution
What was persecution of Jews like just before ghettoisation?
Quite bad, use case of Wladyslav Spzilman:
. Jews can only keep a max of 2000 zloty’s, causing them to essentially lose their houses
. Banned from coffee shops, parks, public benches
. Jews needed to wear arm badges, branding them as a Jew
. Random beatings from Nazis and had to walk in the gutter
. Exploited financial situation by local population e.g having to sell your items for cheap as citizens asked cheap as they knew it was all the Jews had
When was the fire ghetto set up for Jews?
Feb 1940: in Łódź
- around 320,000 Jews lived in this city, so ‘immediate’ evacuation wasn’t possible
How were the ghettos built, where the majority of jews stayed?
Closed in, set up in 1 day by barricades, with jews having to further develop the ghetto with walls themselves
What happened to Jews that were seen as fit (minority) and not in ghettos?
Forced into labour gangs, accommodated in barrack blocks and kept under guard
Who were the Judenraete?
Jewish council who carried out Nazi policy within the ghettos in exchange for a ‘better life’, even though Hitler didn’t let them off the hook later down the line during WW2.
- also helped to provide basic community services for those in the ghettos
- they were very controversial as why should jews be willing to serve the Nazis after what they’re doing to them
Were the Jewish elders/council good or bad?
. They tried to relieve suffering but many refused to accept their help due to them being corrupt and collaborating with the Nazis
How did the Judenraete try to get around nazi regulations secretly?
. Black markets for food smuggled in from outside ghettos
. Prayers and religious festivals organised by Jewish leaders despite being forbidden
. Illegal schools and printing presses inside ghettos
What was the housing situations like in ghettos?
Ghettoed Jews had their homes (often nice ones) confiscated and were housed in much smaller flats:
- 6 people shared an average room
- 15 people loved in an average apartment
- few homes had running water
The szpilman family got off pretty nicely with just their family being in the apartment, no strangers
Why was survival so difficult in ghettos?
. Terrible lice infestations
. Diseases spread rapidly such as tuberculosis and typhoid
. Jews had to sell their valuables to survive
. Had to take part in debilitating forced labour, further economic exploitation
. Nazis massively restricted amount of food, medical supplies and other goods than entered the ghettos
. No economic links to the outside world
. Secret tactics to get food from outside such as using children to sneak into ghettos often resulted in the perpetrator getting beaten to death
By what point had Hitler taken over most of Europe in WW2?
October 1940, after many successful blitzkrieg victories in the west, defeating France and just leaving Britain left to defeat
- Hitler seemed to now have a free hand at fulfill the Lebensraum in the east
When did Hitler betray the Nazi-soviet pact?
He had always only intended on it being temporary to avoid fighting on two fronts
- June 1941 - operation Barbarossa launched
How had Jews been further isolated from German society by late 1941?
. November 1939 - Jews banned from buying radios
. 1940 - Jews excluded from wartime rationing allowances for clothes and shoes
. 1941 - Jews needed police permit to travel
. December 1941 - Jews in Germany had to wear the yellow Star of David like all the other occupied territories had been doing
