Section 6. The Impact Of War 1939-45

Question 1

What were the death marches?

Answer 1

-The military defeat of the third Reich did not bring a tidy end to the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust
-From Autumn 1944, as German forces pulled back, the Nazi regime carried out a frantic programme of evacuations and forced marches
-Camps were hurriedly closed down and the inmates sent on long marches westwards, away from the advancing Red army
-These death marches caused terrible suffering and loss of life. Often in freezing winter weather, people who were already malnourished and had inadequate shoes and clothing were forced to March
-Many died of illness and exhaustion. Hundreds were shot by their guards for failing to keep up the required pace. Even if they survived their first forced March from one camp to a new one, many prisoners had to repeat the awful experience all over again as that new camp was evacuated when enemy forces approached
-It is difficult to know exactly how many victims died on the death marches; estimates range from 250,000 to 400,000. Many of them were women. The death marches continued right up to the end of the war

Question 2

What was the opposition in wartime from the working class youth?

Answer 2

-During the 1930s, the Nazis had banned all independent youth groups and made membership of the Hitler Youth compulsory. However, there was a long standing tradition among working class youths to form independent youth groups
-Some, such as the ‘wild cliques’, were criminal or semi criminal in nature, whilst others, such as the wandervogel were law abiding but unconventional
-Despite the efforts of the regime, the ‘wild cliques’ were never completely suppressed and began to re emerge during the war. One such group was the Edelweiss pirates

Question 3

Who were the Edelweiss pirates?

Answer 3

-The Edelweiss pirates were groups of mostly working class young people aged 14-18 who were mainly active in the Rhineland and Ruhr areas. Their name derived from their badge, which showed an Edelweiss flower.
-According to the justice ministry report, the main ‘uniform’ of the group consisted of ‘short trousers, white socks, a check shirt, a white pullover and scarf and a windcheater. In addition they have very long hair’
-Although not overly political, the Edelweiss pirates were anti Hitler youth and tried to avoid conscription. The report also stated that “They hate all discipline and thereby place themselves in opposition to the community. However, they are not only politically hostile but, as a result of their composition, they are also criminal and anti social’

Question 4

What did the Edelweiss pirates do?

Answer 4

-The Edelweiss pirates consciously rejected the official, disciplined and militaristic culture of the Hitler youth by organising independent expeditions into the countryside, where they sang songs banned in the Hitler youth
-In the war years, there were an increasing number of clashes between Edelweiss pirates and Hitler youth groups
-In 1944, the cologne group became linked to an underground group that helped army deserters, escaped prisoners of war, forced labourers and prisoners from concentration camps. They obtained supplies by attacking military depots
-The chaos and destruction caused by bombing provided the conditions for developing underground activity

Question 5

What did Hitler and the Nazis do to the Edelweiss pirates?

Answer 5

-The gestapo and Hitler youth used their powers to crush the Edelweiss pirates. When arrests, shaving of heads and banishment to labour camps did not work, the Gestapo turned to more severe measures
-On 7th December 1942, the Gestapo broke up 28 groups in Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Essen and Wuppertal
-The leaders of the cologne Edelweiss pirates were publicly hanged in November 1944

Question 6

Who were the Swing youth?

Answer 6

-A different style of youth rebellion developed among young people from the prosperous middle class. The swing youth were motivated, according to the ministry of justice report, by ‘the desire to have a good time’
-In a conscious rejection of Nazi values, the swing youth groups listened to American and British swing and jazz music and wore English style clothes
-Swing clubs sprang up in Hamburg, Kiel, Berlin, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Dresden, Halle and Karlsruhe
-By adopting jazz music which the Nazis referred to as ‘negro music’ as the emblem of an alternative youth culture, they were placing themselves in opposition to the regime, but they were not overly political or attempting to overthrow the regime
-Nevertheless their ‘sleaziness’ and unashamed pleasure seeking offended the moral precepts of the Nazi regime and Himmler wanted to send the leaders of the movement to concentration camps for 2 to 3 years

Question 7

What was the opposition from the white rose group?

Answer 7

-Based in Munich, the white rose group was a more consciously political movement. Led by Hans and Sophie Scholl, and supported by professor Kurt Huber, the group was based at Munich university and its main target audience was the educated middle class
-A religiously mixed body, the white rose group was influenced by Catholic theologians such as Bishop Galen and emphasised the importance of individual freedom and personal responsibility in questions of morality
-This led the group to attack the Nazi treatment of the Jews and Slav peoples of Eastern Europe. During 1942-43, the group became more daring when they painted anti Nazi slogans, such as ‘Hitler mass murderer’ on buildings
-They were eventually caught by the Gestapo and executed

Question 8

What was the opposition from the Roman Catholic Church?

Answer 8

-As in the 1930s, the Christian churches were influenced in their response to the regime firstly by their desire to protect their organisations and secondly by their support for many of the regimes policies
-The Roman Catholic Church, for example, supported Germany’s war aims in 1939 and gave wholehearted support to the invasion of the USSR in 1941. It was again left to individual church men to raise their voices in protest at some aspects of Nazi policies
-Bishop Galen spoke out in a sermon in 1940 to condemn the euthanasia programme that killed 270,000 mentally physically disabled people
-His protest struck a chord with other Christian’s and led to temporary halting of the programme by the regime
-Galen himself was not persecuted by the regime for his outspoken opposition but other priests who distributed his sermon were
-3 catholic priests were executed. Apart from Galen, the other leading Catholic who spoke out against the regime was Archbishop Fringe of cologne, who condemned the killing of prisoners of war

Question 9

What was the resistance from the protestant church?

Answer 9

-The protestant confessional church of Prussia was the only Christian body in Germany to protest publicly about the treatment of the Jews. I’m 1943, a statement was read from the pulpits in Prussian churches
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who had been an outspoken critic of the regime since 1933, also called for wider Christian resistance to the treatment of Jews
-Since 1940, however, Bonhoeffer had been banned from speaking in public and his criticisms could not reach a wide audience in Germany. Bonhoeffer had become involved in the late 1930s with critics of the Nazi regime from among the elites and he had extensive contacts abroad. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and held in prison until his execution in 1943

Question 10

What was the communist opposition to the regime?

Answer 10

-The underground communist resistance had been severely weakened by the Gestapo in the 1930s but had managed to survive in some areas. The 1939 nazi soviet pact had undermined communist resistance to the regime as the KPD struggled to explain and justify this arrangement
-The invasion of the ussr in June 1941, however, has galvanised communist resistance to the regime. At the time of invasion, the KPD had 89 underground cells operating in Berlin, with other cells in Hamburg, Mannheim and central Germany
-Their main means of spreading ideas and attempting to recruit was through issuing leaflets attacking the regime
-Infiltration by the Gestapo was always a problems for these cells and, in 1942-43, the Gestapo had considerable success in destroying the communist underground network
-By the end of 1943, 22 of the communist cells in Berlin had been destroyed
-The communist underground did cling to life in some areas but, under pressure from the Gestapo and linked to the USSR, the power most Germans considered to be their main enemy, the movement had no prospect of attracting widespread support

Question 11

What were the army and civilian critics among the elites?

Answer 11

-The plot to overthrow Hitler in 1938 by members of the army high command and senior civil servants was never activated and therefore remained undiscovered by the Gestapo
-Those involved continued to oppose the regime. There was, however, no unity of purpose among those who opposed Hitler’s policies. Some acted from a deeply felt moral conviction that the Nazi regime was evil, while others acted out of patriotism and the belief that Hitler was leading Germany to destruction
-Some were democrats, while others were traditional, aristocratic conservatives who wanted a return to an authoritarian, non nazi style of government

Question 12

What was the Kreisau Circle?

Answer 12

-Many of the diverse views of the elite who opposed Nazism could be found within the Kreisau circle. Kreisau was the home of Count Helmut Von Moltke, one of the leading figures within the group, which also included other aristocrats, lawyers, SPD politicians and churchmen such as Bonhoeffer
-The common denominator linking this diverse group was a belief in personal freedom and individual responsibility
-Described as the ‘intellectual power house of the non communist opposition’ in Nazi Germany, the Kreisau circle held 3 meetings in 1942-43 before the group was broken up by the Gestapo

Question 13

What were assassination attempts?

Answer 13

-Among those who had been involved in the 1938 plot, General Beck, Karl Goerdeler and Ulrich von Hassell continued to discuss acting against the regime.
-They had links to Bonhoeffer and General Hans oster. At first, Beck and Goerdeler concentrated on trying to persuade senior army generals to arrest Hitler
-They also made contact, through a meeting between Bonhoeffer and Bishop Bell of Chichester, with the British government, hoping for a commitment to a negotiated peace of Hitler was removed
-None of these moves was effective and, in 1943, the conspirators decided that their only option was to assassinate Hitler. The loss of the German army at Stalingrad, due largely to Hitler’s refusal to allow a retreat, confirmed that Hitler was leading Germany to a disaster

Question 14

When was the first assassination attempt?

Answer 14

-A first assassination attempt was made in March 1943 when a bomb was placed on Hitler’s plane. This failed to explode. Although the plot was not discovered, the arrest of Bonhoeffer and other members of the Kreisau circle in April 1943 was a warning that the Gestapo was getting close to uncovering the full extent of the conspiracy
-In 1943, the conspiracy was joined by Colonel Claus von Stauffenbeeg, who actually succeeded in planting a bomb at Hitler’s headquarters in East Prussia in July 1944

Question 15

What were the plans for a military coup?

Answer 15

-Plans were made for a military coup- condemned Operation Valkyrie- to take over Berlin after Hitler was assassinated. If the assassination attempt had been successful, the conspirators would have established a provisional government consisting of conservatives, centre party, SPD and non party representatives, which would then have tried to open immediate peace negotiation with the Western allies
-The bomb exploded, but Hitler escaped with minor injuries. The planned coup did not materialise because of confusion among the conspirators, who failed to seize control of the radio stations
-A broadcast by Hitler to prove that he was still alive was confirmation that the plot had failed
-In the wake of this failed assassination, Himmler was placed in charge of rounding up the conspirators
-The SS cast their net wide, arresting 7000 people and executing 5746
-Beck committed suicide and Stauffenberg was shot. The failure of the plot led to the army losing the last vestiges of its independence from the regime as it was effectively placed under SS control

Question 16

What was the impact of rationing in the war on Germany?

Answer 16

-One of the critical factors in maintaining civilian morale was the availability of vital foodstuffs and other commodities. Shortages and the inadequacies of the rationing system during ww1 were one of the main causes of growing war weariness in 1917 and 1918, and the Nazi regime was determined not to make the same mistakes at the Kaiser’s government
-Decrees establishing a food rationing system were issued in august 1939, even before the war began.
-Clothing was not initially inflicted in the rationing scheme but permits were needed to purchase clothes. This caused panic buying before the regulations took effect and led to the inclusion of clothing in the rationing scheme in November 1939
-The allocation of food rations was based on age, occupation and race. Those who were employed in Manual labour received more than those who had more sedentary occupations
-Jews received smaller rations. There were special allocations for groups such as pregnant women, nursing mothers and the sick
-The allocations established at the beginning of the war remained largely unchanged during the first 2 years of the war

Question 17

What happened with Nazis asking civilians to ration?

Answer 17

-The Nazi regime was reluctant to ask the civilian population to make significant reductions in their consumption at the beginning of the war for fear that this might provoke anti war feelings
-Nevertheless, civilian consumption was cut more in Germany than in Britain at the start of the war. The regime was able to exploit the newly occupied countries for food supplies for the German people and, while the Nazi soviet pact was in force, there were also imports of grain from the Soviet Union
-On the whole, therefore, the rationing system worked efficiently and there were no serious food shortages between 1939 and 1941. Shortages of coal, shoes, soap and washing powder, however did cause discontent from time to time

Question 18

What happened with rationing after the invasion of the Soviet Union?

Answer 18

-After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, some rations were reduced. The meat ration, for example, was cut from 500g per person per week to 400g, then cut again
-In the later years of the war, meat coild not be eaten every day and other goods were in very short supply. By the end of the war, especially in industrial cities, food supplies had become very precarious and unpredictable and many Germans were experiencing malnutrition
-In the countryside, farmers had access to food they could grow themselves but they also experienced shortages of animal feed, fuel and replacement tools, which limited their ability to produce food

Question 19

What was the impact of propaganda and indoctrination on morale?

Answer 19

-Maintaining the morale of Germans was a high priority for the regime. Goebells had developed a highly sophisticated propaganda system, which controlled the flow of information to the German people. The regime also used its secret police system, the SD and gestapo, to monitor the public mood and effectiveness of propaganda
-The SD reports provide a valuable source of information for historians about German morale at different states of the war

Question 20

What events happened in phase 1: Blitzkrieg, September 1939-June 1941?

Answer 20

After defeating Poland in the east, German forces achieved a series of quick victories against various European countries

Question 21

What was the public mood during phase 1 of the war?

Answer 21

-The public mood in Germany in the first 21 months of the war was volatile and propaganda was not always effective in lifting morale, even though Goebells understood that maintaining morale was vital to the success of the nazi war effort
-Quick and relatively easy victories in the early stages of the war were a cause for celebration: edited newsreels showed German forces sweeping aside inferior opposition as they achieved stunning victories
-Hitler was presented as the military genius who was responsible for these victories and his speeches, broadcast on the radio, were vital in bolstering morale
-Between January 1940 and June 1941, Hitler made 9 major speeches. At this stage of the war, propaganda led people to be optimistic and believe that the war would be over soon
-When the defeat of France in June 1940 did not bring immediate peace, Britain was blamed for prolonging the war

Question 22

What happened during phase 2: the spreading war, June- December 1941?

Answer 22

-Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941 and occupied vast areas of territory, but in December 1941, the Red army launched a counter attack against the Germans, which halted the German advance
-Germany declared war on the USA in December 1941. The hope of another short victorious war was over. Nazi Germany now faced a world war against the grand alliance of the USSR, USA and Britain

Question 23

What was the public mood during phase 2 of the war?

Answer 23

-The invasion of the USSR was presented as a crusade against ‘Jewish Bolshevism’ and the success of German forces in forcing the Red army to retreat endangered a feeling of optimism
-However, the SD reported peoples fears that the war would go on for years. Although Nazi propaganda downplayed the extent of Soviet success, letters home from soldiers at the front undermined the propaganda
-Soldiers talked of the harsh winter conditions and the seemingly limitless Soviet supply of manpower and military equipment. The hopes of a quick and east victory were dissipated
-Other scapegoats were needed to explain the spreading of war in 1941, as Germany declared war on the USA. Behind the British, the Soviet and the American enemies, according to the propaganda, lay a Jewish international conspiracy to destroy the third Reich and the Aryan race
-There was a marked increase in anti Semitic propaganda during the war

Question 24

What were the events in phase 3: the turning the tide, January 1942-January 1943?

Answer 24

-German losses in the USSR started to mount in the harsh winter conditions

Question 25

What was the public mood in Germany during phase 3 of the war?

Answer 25

-Rising casualty figures and letters home from soldiers serving on the eastern front gradually awakened the civilian population to the realities of the war they were engaged in. When Goebells broadcast an appeal for people to collect winter clothing for soliders on the eastern front, the mood of disillusionment deepened
-Although an SD report in January 1942 stated that ‘Faith in thr Fuhrer is unshakeable’, the scepticism about propaganda, which was remarked upon in this report, was an early sign that confidence in the regime was beginning to erode
-The defeat at Stalingrad was a major turning point in the war, both militarily and on the home front. It signalled a defeat for Nazi propaganda as much as a defeat for its armed forces
-News of the defeat was such a shock to public morale because Goebells has built up unrealistic expectations of Nazi victory and concealed the truth about the desperate situation of German forces there
-War Weariness now became much more evident. Criticism of the propaganda emanating from the regime increased and the Hitler myth began to lose some its potency
-On the other hand, there was undoubtedly a deep well of patriotism and willingness to endure hardship on which the regime could draw as it belatedly attempted to gear the nation up for total war

Question 26

What events happened during phase 4: February 1943-May 1945: ‘Total war’ and the defeat of Germany?

Answer 26

-In February 1943, Goebells declared that Germany was engaged in a ‘total war’
-The British and Americans attempted to cripple Germany’s war effort through unrelenting bombings against German cities
-The D-day landings in Normandy in June 1944 opened up a second front in Western Europe and by early 1945 Allied forces had entered Germany itself
-Berlin was captured by soviet forces in April 1945 and Germany conceded unconditional surrender to the allies on 8th May 1945

Question 27

What was the public mood in Germany in 1943?

Answer 27

-By the early months of 1943 it had become clear that Germany was involved in a struggle for survival. Goebells made an important speech at the sports palace in Berlin in February 1943 in which he called for the nation to engage in total war
-Goebells ‘total war’ speech appears to have struck a chord with many people. His call for radical measures to mobilise the population and the economy were generally welcomed and the main criticism was that these measures were being introduced too late
-The aftermath of the defeat at Stalingrad, therefore, was a crucial time for the Nazi regime
-However, no longer could Hitler be portrayed as a military genius, although attempts were made to shift the blame onto incompetent military commanders. With Hitler appearing less frequently in public, the Hitler myth also started to decline

Question 28

What was the public mood in Germany in 1944?

Answer 28

-By the spring of 1944, morale had declined even further. News of almost continuous retreat by German forces on the Eastern front, the failure of the U-boat campaign to bring Britain to its knees and heavy allied bombing raids on German cities had led to a ‘a downbeat mood among the population’
-The allied landings in Normandy on D-day in June 1944 brought a temporary lifting of morale. This was partly due to the feeling that the final settling of accounts with the British and Americans was now at hand, and partly to Goebells trying to counter defeatism with talk of plans for retaliation with secret weapons
-The use of V1 and V2 missiles in 1944-45 did temporarily raise spirits but, neither militarily nor in terms of public opinion, could these weapons alter the course of events
-By the end of august 1944, after Paris had been liberated and German forces had suffered further reverses in the East, defeat began to be accepted as inevitable
-An SD report in August 1944 stated that ‘most compatriots, even those whose beliefs has hitherto been unshakeable, have lost all faith in the fuhrer’
-The final months of the war saw growing cynicism about nazi propaganda. The ‘Hitler myth’, which Goebells claimed as his greatest achievement, crumbled away in the final months of the war

Question 29

What happened with bombing in Germany?

Answer 29

-A new phase in the air war began at the end of March 1942 when the British Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out a major bombing raid on the city of Lübeck. This was the start of the allied mass bombing campaign jn which the RAF attacked German cities by night and the United States Army air forces attacked by day, often with 1000 aircraft at a time
-In 1943, the bombing campaign reached an even greater intensity, with 43 German cities being attacked between March and July
-Hamburg was bombed 7 times between 25th July and 3rd august. All of Germany’s main industrial and port cities were attacked but there was a high concentration of raids on cities in the Rhineland and Ruhr areas

Question 30

What was the impact of bombing on morale?

Answer 30

-Official reports on the impact of bombing on morale, while detailing the horrific scenes of death and destruction, spoke of the resilience of the civilian population and their continuing support for the regime
-The police report from Hamburg, after the raid of 27-28th July 1943, stated that “the behaviour of the population at no time and nowhere displayed signs of panic and was worthy of the greatness of this sacrafice”
-An SD report on the impact of the raid on Lübeck in March 1942 noted that ‘the population of Lübeck showed a really remarkable composure, despite the extreme destruction and loss of life’
-This report went on to say that ‘it was a sign of the calm, determined attitude and the unbroken spirit of the people of Lübeck that on the very next day numerous tradespeople demonstrated their unbroken spirit by opening their shops’
-Personak reminiscences of people who experienced at first hand the horrors of the bombing raids paint a rather different picture

Question 31

What happened as morale fell after bombing?

Answer 31

-As morale fell the regime took an increasingly repressive line with those who expressed ‘defeatist’ remarks. The definition of ‘defeatist’ included any remark that was critical of the leadership or showed a loss of faith in Germany’s ability to win the war
-Goebells attempted to keep up morale in the face of the air raids with talk of retaliation using secret weapons that were being developed. Germany’s civilian population did display resilience in defiance of the bombing but, as the raids continued, there was a serious erosion of civilian morale.
-The experience of sheer terror as many of Germany’s cities were consumed by firestorms, the growing shortages and lengthening queues, the loss of sleep as night were disrupted by air raid warnings- all contributed to a growing sense of exhaustion

Question 32

What was the aim of the bombing?

Answer 32

The mass bombing of German cities was designed by the allies to break the wil of the civilian population to carry on supporting the war. Despite the growing war weariness, workers continued to turn up for work and, at least until the end of 1944, production was maintained
-There was undoubtedly pressure from a repressive regime to keep their heads down and not openly oppose the war
-There was a,so, however, a need for people whose lives were being disrupted on a daily basis to try and find some stability in whatever war they could
-Maintaining a daily routine of work was one way of achieving this. Bombing wore down the civilian population but it did not break their will completely

Question 33

What happened to the civilian population at the end of the war?

Answer 33

-For the civilian German population, the last months of the war brought unrelenting misery. Millions of Germans living in Poland, east Prussia and Czechoslovakia were driven out by hostile local people and forced to trek westwards in advance of the soviet forces
-As soviet forces entered Germany itself in January 1945, 3.5 million Germans fled their homes to escape the fighting. They could expect no help from the army as it was also retreating nor could many find berths on trains or ships, since priority was given to the transport of military supplies
-Responsibility for the evacuations rested with local Gauleiters, many of whom delayed the order to leave until the very last minute. The result was that people were forced to walk hundreds of miles facing cold, hunger, disease and attacks by allied forces
-Estimates of the numbers who died on these marches vary from around 500,000 to over 1 million

Question 34

What happened to Germans who fled when they finally reached Western Germany?

Answer 34

-When the survivors finally reached the western part of Germany, they found cities devastated by bombing and a civilian population facing severe hardships.
-Heavy bombing of cities and the added pressure of evacuees from the east left at least a quarter of the civilian population homeless
-Transport systems had ceased to function, electricity and gas supplies had been cut, water and sewage systems were seriously damaged and epidemic diseases were beginning to appear. Food supplies were running low and there was a serious risk of starvation in some areas

Question 35

What happened to civilian morale at the end of the war?

Answer 35

-Unsurprisingly, civilian morale collapsed. The civilian population was exhausted and suffering severe hardship but there were few signs of outward resistance, still less of a rebellion
-On the whole, the German population reacted passively and with resignation to the final collapse of the regime and Germany’s occupation by foreign forces, bound together in a ‘community of fate’.
-Once Germany was defeated and occupied, however, the Nazi regime collapsed quickly. As the historian Richard Bessel has written, ‘When it came, the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship was remarkable in its speed and thoroughness. Seemingly overnight the hold of the regime evaporated’

Question 36

What was the changing impact of the war on the elites in German society?

Answer 36

-Among the elites there were diverse views regarding the Nazi regime and various reasons for opposing it. Some felt a moral conviction that the Nazi regime was evil. Others were patriotic about their country but believed that Hitler was leading Germany to destruction
-Some were democrats, while others were traditional, aristocratic conservatives who wanted a return to an authoritarian, non Nazi style of government
-Many of those who opposed Nazism did so because they believed in personal freedom and individual responsibility. For some, like the aristocratic Helmut Von Moltke, the dismal treatment of others when they were still living quite comfortable lives was deeply disturbing

Question 37

What was the impact of war on workers at the start of the war?

Answer 37

-In his ‘Decree on the conversion of the whole German economy onto a war footing’ of September 3rd 1939, Hitler imposed wage reductions and a ban on the payment of bonuses for overtime, Sunday work and night shift working
-This caused widespread discontent among the labour force, which was reflected in an increased level of absenteeism. Consequently, in October 1939, the regime relented. Wage levels were restored to their pre war levels and the payment of bonuses was reintroduced, but wage rates were not allowed to increase

Question 38

What was the impact of the war on workers in 1943-44?

Answer 38

-Total war measures began ti impact on workers during 1943 and 1944. In august 1944, a total ban on holidays was imposed, the working week was increased to 60 hours and extra payments for working overtime were abolished
-This increased pressure did result in some rise in absenteeism but employers had a number of disciplinary measures at their disposal. Workers could have reserved status removed, which would result in conscription into the armed forces and, possibly, a posting to the eastern front
-Employers could also allocate extra food rations to those employees who had good attendance records and impose fines for absenteeism and bad timekeeping
-The regime also had at its disposal the DAF factory cell system, in which workers were divided into groups under a loyal nazi party member who was responsible for the attendance of workers in his cell
-The regime also used incentives to workers to raise productivity. Many plants swicyjdd from an hourly paid system to a system of piecework under which workers could earn more if they produced more
-The increase in working hours and the pressure to produce more had an impact on workers health and welfare. Accidents at work increased and workers health deteriorated

Question 39

What was the changing impact of the war on women in German society?

Answer 39

-Women bore the brunt of the hardships endured on the home front. As housewives, married women were obliged to spend time queuing for supplies of vital foodstuffs when shortages occured. As mothers, women had to shoulder even more of the task of childcare when their husbands were away in the armed forces
-As workers, women played an increasingly vital role in the German war economy.
-By May 1939, as a result of the 4 year plan, the number of women in paid employment had increased; there were 6.4 million married women in employment and women as a whole made up 37.4% of the industrial labour force
-The need to increase armaments production at a time when many male workers had been conscripted into the armed forces led to pressure for more women to be employed in industry. There was, however, tension between nazi ideology and the needs of the war economy
-When Hitler was advised, in the summer of 1940, that industry needed more women workers, he refused to sanction this on the grounds that women should primarily be devoted to child bearing and rearing
-Although the regime had taken powers to conscript workers into essential war work, these powers were used very sparingly in relation to women. By June 1940, only 250,000 women had been conscripted and those who were conscripted were merely transferred from the production of consumer goods to war work
-With working hours in factories increasing due to the pressures of wartime production, there was even more pressure for married women with children to give up employment. The result was that the number of women workers in industry actually declined between 1939 and 1941. A growing number of women, however, worked in agriculture

Question 40

What happened in June 1941 with women?

Answer 40

-In June 1941, Goering issued a decree that all female workers who were in receipt of family allowance and had given up paid employment but had not produced children should be forced to register for work or lose their allowance
-This was the first tentative step towards the conscription of female labour but in practice had only limited effect since it only applied to those women who had been employed previously
-It did not apply to married women who had never worked outside the home. Since this group of women was overwhelmingly middle class, whereas those who had been previously employed were mainly from thr working class, Goering’s decree stoked io class resentments. As a result of this decree, only 130,000 extra women were sent up to the armaments factories

Question 41

What was the effect of the defeat at Stalingrad on women in the workforce?

Answer 41

-The defeat at Stalingrad in January 1943 meant that the total mobilisation of labour had become essential. The decree that same month, which forced all women aged 17-45 to register for work, appeared to show that Hitler had abandoned his ideological objection to the employment of married women
-In fact, Hitler had merely been persuaded to modify his views. It was at his insistence that older women were exempted from labour registration and there were many other exemptions. Pregnant women, mothers with 2 or more children and farmers wives were not obliged to register
-Once again, working class women resented the number of exemptions and lack of consistency in implementing the decree. By June 1943, fewer than half a million extra women had joined the industrial labour force

Question 42

What happened in November 1943 for women in the workforce?

Answer 42

-In November 1943, Hitler was asked to approve the raising of the upper age limit for women to register for work to 50 years of age. He refused, but, by the summer of 1944, the situation had become so grave that he was eventually persuaded to agree to this measure
-More and more women were recruited and, by 1945, women comprised 60% of the labour force

Question 43

What roles were women assigned to within the armed forces?

Answer 43

-Women were also increasingly assigned to auxiliary roles within the armed forces, despite Hitler’s misgivings. In 1943, women began to replace men in servicing anti aircraft guns and, in 1944, women began to operate searchlights
-By the end of the war, some 50,000 women were involved in anti aircraft operations and another 30,000 worked on searchlights
-In the summer of 1944, the army established an auxiliary corps fof women serving with the armed forces and, by January 1945, there were 470,000 female auxiliaries
-Many of them had been conscripted. Their duties were mainly secretarial and working on radio and telephone communications but, in many cases, this involved serving at the front line
-The militarisation of women was taken further in the final stages of the war when womens battalions of the army were established and women were trained for combat roles

Question 44

What was the changing impact of war on the youth in German society?

Answer 44

-Membership of the Hitler youth and BDM had become compulsory for all young people in 1939. The Nazis treated the welfare and indoctrination of youth as a high priority and believed that young people could contribute to the war effort
-The regime did not, however, consider it necessary in the early stages of the war to conscript the young. Hitler youth activities continued much as in peace time with a greater emphasis on preparing boys for their future role as soldiers, through training in field craft and shooting practice
-Hitler youth members were also sent to help with the harvest and all young people were expected to participate in collecting money for the winger aid programme

Question 45

What was the impact of the transition towards total war on the youth?

Answer 45

-The transition towards total war had an impact on young people. Even before 1942, the age at which young men became subject to military conscription had been reduced. In 1940, a youth was liable to be called into the armed forces at the age of 19
-In 1941, the age was reduced to 18 and in 1943 to 17. There was also an increase in the demands placed upon younger teenagers. In 1942, 600,000 boys and 1.4 million girls had been organised through their youth organisations to help with gathering the harvest
-The Hitler youth placed more emphasis on military training at camps where 17 year old youths wojld attend 3 week courses under army and waffen SS instructors
-By November 1942, 120 of these camps had been established. In January 1943, as part of the implementation of total war policies, 16 and 17 year old schoolboys were conscripted as Luftwaffe and naval auxiliaries and deployed on air defence duties
-Whole school classes were conscripted en bloc and the boys continued their education under visiting teachers

Question 46

How were the youth used towards the end of the war?

Answer 46

-Young people were increasingly militarised in the final stages of the war. The age at which youths could be conscripted into the armed forces was further reduced to 16 in 1945
-Conscription into the volkssturm (home guard) was also introduced, in September 1944, for 16-60 year olds who were not fit for active service
-The young men dug anti tank ditches and were trained to use anti tank weapons. By the end of the war, boys as young as 12 were being conscripted into the volk strum
-In 1943, a special Hitler youth divison of the Waffen SS was set up for 16-18 year old boys selected by Hitler youth group leaders. This division was sent to France in 1944 and saw action in the battle of Normandy

Question 47

How was the German economy mobilised for war?

Answer 47

-Germany had been preparing for war since the launch of the four year plan in 1936. On 3rd September 1939, Hitler issued a decree for the conversion of the whole German economy onto a war footing
-Despite this, the German economy did not reach a state of full mobilisation until 1942. The result was that in the years 1939-41. Germany’s armed forces suffered from shortages of weapons and equipment. These supply problems did not hamper Germany in the early stages of the war since the campaign against Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France all achieved quick successes through the highly effective use of Blitzkrieg tactics
-By 1941, however, as German forces became stretched with the war in the Mediterranean and the start of operation Barbarossa, the supply problems began to hinder the German war effort

Question 48

What were the reasons for supply problems by 1941?

Answer 48

-There were a number of reasons for these problems. Although the German economy had effectively been placed on a war footing from 1936, Hitler had not anticipated that war would begin in 1939
-He fully expected Britain and France to accept the german invasion of Poland- just as they had conceded his demands over Austria and Czechoslovakia- and that the war would not begin until he launched operation Barbarossa in 1941
-Economic and military planning had been based on these assumptions, with the luftwaffe expansion due to be completed in 1942 and the build up of the navy to be completed in 1944-45
-Moreover, the four year plan concentrated in the early stages on building up Germany’s productive potential through increasing iron and steel production, investing in machine tools and developing artificial alternatives to oil and rubber
-Once this productive potential had been expanded, the full scale production of armaments could begin. The outbreak of war in September 1939 came as a surprise to these disrupted plans

Question 49

What did German armaments production also suffer from?

Answer 49

-German armaments production also suffered from structural weaknesses. Different branches of the armed forces demanded highly specialised equipment of very high quality
-The production of many different types of weapons was expensive and required highly skilled labour
-Even though the proportion of the labour force in armaments production increased from 21% to 55% between September 1939 and January 1941, the supply of weapons grew very slowly
-Mass production of more standardised weapons would have been cheaper and capable of producing the quantities of equipment required, but many German firms were not set up in this way
-Moreover, the military designed and ordered many different versions of the same weapons, making standardisation almost impossible to achieve

Question 50

What was at the heart of the production problems during the war?

Answer 50

-At the heart of these production problems was a political problem. Goering, who was in charge of the four year plan, lacked the technical and economic knowledge needed to do his job effectively.
-He had very poor relations with the military leaders and the leaders of large companies and banks, and he was busy building up his own economic empire. The war economy needed greater centralised coordination buy Goering was incapable of providing this
-In 1939 and 1940, his failings were masked by the successes of the German armed forces in battle but, by 1941, the weaknesses of the four year plan and Goering’s management of it became increasingly apparent
-Albert Speer, who was appointed as armaments minister in 1942, described Goering’s years in charge as an ‘era of incompetence, arrogance and egotism’

Question 51

What was the work of Albert Speer?

Answer 51

-Hitler had recognised the need for more rationalisation of industrial production in the summer of 1941 but his order to do this was not accompanied by any action to resolve the underlying problems of the lack of central control and interference of the military in civilian production
-Indeed, when in 1941 Fritz Todt, the then armaments minister complained to Hitler about the shortage of vital equipment and supplies in the Russian campaign, Hitler chose to ignore him
-Only after Tody was killed in a plane crash in February 1942 and was replaced by Albert Speer, was effective action taken to achieve the necessary changes
-Speer was given full executive powers to establish a central planning agency and was able, with Hitler’s support, to coordinate and control the whole production process without interference from the military and with the full cooperation of private companies

Question 52

What was the rationalisation of production?

Answer 52

Under speer’s direction, rationalisation of the production of armaments involved:
-Central coordination of the allocation of labour, equipment and materials to armaments factories
-The concentration of production in fewer factories and on a narrower range of standardised products
-Greater use of mass production techniques
-More shift working to keep factories operating 24 hours a day

Question 53

What was the ‘production miracle’?

Answer 53

-Speer’s innovations resulted in what many have described as a ‘production miracle’. Between 1941 and 1943, German aircraft production increased by 200%, whilst tank production increased by 250%
-The production of the messerschmitt Bf 109, one of Germany’s main fighter aircraft, was concentrated in 3 factories rather than the seven used previously
-Despite the reduction in factory space, rationalised production methods meant that the production of this aircraft increased from 180 per month to 1000 per month

Question 54

What was the economic impact of allied bombing?

Answer 54

-Between 1942 and 1945, the British and Americans carried out a sustained bombing offensive against Germany’s industrial capacity and civilian morale. The gains in production achieved by Speer in 1943 and 1944 occured despite the damage inflicted by the air raids
-Undoubtedly, the bombing had an impact on production since supply lines were damaged, factories had to be dispersed and worker morale was affected
-In January 1945, officials at the ministry of armaments calculated that the bombing had resulted in 35% fewer tanks, 31% fewer aircraft and 42% fewer lorries being produced than would have otherwise been the case
-Moreover, the intense bombing campaign of January to May 1945 caused an actual recursion in the amount of armaments that were produced

Question 55

What happened with the mobilisation of the labour force?

Answer 55

-The outbreak of war led to an increase in the number of men conscripted into the armed forces. At the same time, there was a need to increase the production of armaments. With a limited supply of male labour in Germany, these 2 demands could only be achieved by using the available labour force in the most efficient way possible and by using foreign labour
-Large number of non essential workers were released for military service. There was also a reduction of workers employed in consumer goods industries with a consequent rise in the numbers employed in munitions
-The full scale conscription of labour into essential war work, however, was not implemented in the first 2 years of the war

Question 56

What was the effect of the German reverse outside Moscow in December 1941 on the mobilisation of the labour force?

Answer 56

-The German reverse outside Moscow in December 1941 brought the labour supply issue to a head. Efforts to take labour away from civilian work to concentrate on armaments production had been frustrated by opposition from local Gauleiters, anxious to keep employment within their own areas
-Since Hitler was opposed to the increased use of women in industry, the shortage of labour posed a serious threat to the plans to increase production of vital war materials
-Part of the answer to this question was found in the increased use of foreign labour

Question 57

What was the effect of the defeat at Stalingrad on the mobilisation of the labour force?

Answer 57

-The defeat at Stalingrad in January 1943 led to even more drastic measures to increase the labour supply. Even before the surrender of German forces, on 13th January 1943 Hitler issued a decree for the comprehensive deployment of men and women for reich defence tasks
-This established a small committee to oversee the mobilisation of labour for the war effort. Under this decree, all men aged 16-65 and women aged 17-45 had to register for work with their local labour office.
-It was also decreed that small businesses that were not essential for the war effort should be closed and their employees transferred to more essential work
-In terms of labour, this was the point at which the demands of total war began to have a significant impact. A rigorous ‘comb-through’ exercise was conducted to identify men who could be released from employment for military service and conscription of labour began to become a reality.
-Ideological considerations, however, still prevented the Nazi regime from treating women workers the same as males

Question 58

How did the Germans use foreign labour during the war?

Answer 58

-From June 1940 until the spring of 1942, foreign workers in german industry were mainly recruited from occupied countries in western europe. After the invasion of the USSR, however, there was a dramatic increase in the number of prisoners of war and, in October 1941, Hitler agreed that Russian prisoners of war could be used as slave labour
-By December 1941, there were some 4 million foreign workers employed in Germany. In March 1942, Hitler established the Plenipotentiary general for labour allocation to organise centralised control over the procurement and allocation of foreign labour
-This department was headed by Fritz Sauckel, a Gauleiter who used ruthless force to increase the number of foreign workers
-From 1942 to 1945, Sauckel succeeded in rounding up and transporting to Germany 2.8 million workers from Eastern Europe. Millions of prisoners of war were also forced to work in Germany. It has been calculated that, by 1944, there were 7 million foreign workers in Germany and another 7 million people in the occupied countries doing work for the Germans

Question 59

What were conditions for foreign workers like?

Answer 59

-Conditions for foreign workers was harsh. Wages were low, living conditions were harsh and discipline severe. Whereas volunteer ‘guest workers’ from Western Europe were given the same wages and conditions as German workers, the forced labourers from the east were paid half this amount
-Prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates were also used as slave labour, without any payment and on starvation rations
-

Question 60

What were conditions for foreign workers in Germany like?

Answer 60

-Conditions for foreign workers were harsh. Wages were low, living conditions were harsh and discipline was severe. Whereas volunteer ‘guest workers’ from Western Europe were given the same wages and conditions as German workers, the forced labourers from the east were paid about half this amount
-Prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates were also used as slave labour, without any payment and on starvation rations
-All the large German corporations, such as Thyssen, Krupp and I.G Farben, used foreign forced labour during the war years and most German factories had some foreign labourers
-It has been estimated that, by 1944, foreign labour made up a quarter of the German labour force

Question 61

What were the origins of the ‘final solution’?

Answer 61

-The origins of the ‘final solution’ were complex and deep rooted. Hitler’s ideological goals were fixed before 1933; if the Nazis ever came to power, it was certain that the Jewish people faced harmful consequences.
-Reichkristallnacht in November 1938 opened the way for increasingly violent persecution. For the Holocaust to take place, however, the Second World War was an essential precondition
-Hitler himself explicitly linked the war in Europe with the fate of the Jews. When the decision was taken, late in 1940, to turn the eastwards against the Soviet Union, it was clear that this would be a war of racial annihilation
-By the end of 1941, the Nazi regime had to face the fact that the complete conquest of the Soviet Union had not been achieved and that final victory would have to wait until the summer of 1942 at the earliest
-Some of the Previous plans to send millions of deported Jews to be resettled on the island of Madagascar or in Siberia had to be abandoned.
-It was also clear by then that the vast number of Jews already deported to the general government area of Poland were too many for the authorities there to cope with
-It was the urgency of the problems facing the Nazi regime late in 1941 that led to radical new policies

Question 62

Why was the Wannsee conference a key moment?

Answer 62

-The key moment in the implementation of systematic murder was the Wannsee conference on 20th January 1942. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in December 1941; invitations went out in November
-The timetable had to be pushed back due to the military crisis caused by the Soviet counter offensive at Moscow in the first week of December, followed by pearl harbour and the entry into the war of Japan and the USA
-New invitations went out on January 6th for the meeting to be held 2 weeks later

Question 63

What was the importance of the Wannsee conference?

Answer 63

-The importance of the Wannsee conference is frequently misrepresented as the occasion when the final decision was taken to exterminate Europe’s Jews. In reality, Wannsee was a meeting to inform senior bureaucrats of their roles in implementing a decision that had already been taken
-Most historians now agree that the decision came fairly soon after the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22nd June. Exactly what that decision was, however, is still a matter of controversy and debate.

Question 64

What was the Wannsee conference?

Answer 64

-The top secret meeting at Wannsee comprised 15 high ranking Nazi officials. Hitler and Himmler were not in attendance. The chairman was Reinhard Heydrich, the most powerful man in the SS after Heinrich Himmler
-Heydrich had received orders from Hermann Goering, empowering him to organise the preparations for the ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jewish question’
-Some historians believe that the driving force was an unwritten order from Hitler. Others have speculated that Heydrich was involved in ‘empire building’, acting on his own initiative to enhance his power and authority

Question 65

What happened after the Wannsee conference?

Answer 65

-What happened after Wannsee seemed to prove that the purpose of the meeting was to clarify the previously confused situation concerning deportations to the east
-Heydrich considered the meeting a great success. The civilian authorities had all been willing to follow the lead of the RSHA (Reich security head office) and not make objections
-The deportation of Jews was no longer vague destinations to somewhere in Poland, but specific areas where there was an organised camp system
-The way was open to coordinate and accelerate mass killings. More than half of all Jews to die in the Holocaust were exterminated between February 1942 and feb 1943

Question 66

What happened with the ‘final solution’ during 1942-43?

Answer 66

-When the war turned against Germany in 1942-33, it might have been expected that the Nazi regime would slacken its attempts to exterminate the Jews and focus their efforts on fighting the allies
-In fact, the mass killings were accelerated and given higher priority than military needs. Nazi propaganda became even more hate filled than before

Question 67

What was the timeline of the intensification of Nazi propaganda war against the Jews?

Answer 67

-Spring 1943: After the German surrender at Stalingrad in February 1943, Joseph Goebells delivered the epic ‘total war’ speech in Berlin in mid February, followed by a massive propaganda drive in Nazi press
-Autumn 1943: When Germany suffered from mass bombing raids and the Red army was beginning to push back German forces in the east, another similar surge of anti Jewish propaganda occurred
-Summer 1944: At the time of the allied landings in France, there was another surge

Question 68

What speeches and articles were used to promote the ‘final solution’?

Answer 68

-Numerous articles and speeches by Goebells and other nazi leaders emphasised the idea that the war would result in destruction of the jews. The Nazi regime did not spell out what was actually taking place in the ‘final solution’, but the general threat of destruction was hammered out repeatedly
-The radical propaganda was reflected in the urgency of Nazi actions. Mass killings were accelerated. The Jewish populations of states such as France, Italy, Greece and Slovakia were rounded up for deportation
-The Jewish ghettos at Minsk and Vilnius were destroyed. In February 1944, the remaining Jews of amsterdam were deported to Aushwitz.

Question 69

What was clear by the summer of 1944 and what was the effect on the ‘final solution’?

Answer 69

-By summer 1944, it was clear that Germany faced inevitable defeat in the war, but this realisation did not cause the ‘final solution’ to be abandoned- it had the reverse effect
-Only in November 1944, when the soviet armies had advanced deep into Poland, did the Nazis move close down the killing machine and try to conceal what they had been up to
-The crematoria at Auschwitz were blown up and hastily covered over. The surviving prisoners were pressed into forced marches westwards, away from the Red army
-These efforts at concealment were half hearted and futile. The sheer size of the complex at Aushwitz Birkenau made total destruction impossible

Question 70

Was the ‘final solution’ ever completed?

Answer 70

-The implementation of the ‘final solution’ was never completed. In January 1945, soviet forces advancing westwards through Poland liberated Auschwitz
-In the months that followed, allied armies drove deeper into the reich. In the west, American forces liberated Dachau and Mauthausen. In the north, British forces liberated Bergen Belsen and Buchenwald
-By May 1945, Hitler was dead, Germany had surrendered and the full horror of the camps was finally becoming apparent

Question 71

What was the camp system?

Answer 71

-It is important not to confuse the death camps in operation from 1942 to 1945 with the wider system of concentration camps for political prisoners that had existed from the early third Reich, commencing with Dachau, near Munich, in 1933
-There were ‘ordinary’ concentration camps near almost every main population centre in Germany: Dachau, Sachsenhausen near Berlin, Bergen-Belsen near Hannover, Buchenwald near Weimar, and so on
-After the Anschluss, Mauthausen was built near Linz in upper Austria
-Concentration camps were brutal places, but they were not designed as centres of extermination. They housed political prisoners of all kinds, from Catholics to homosexuals, from socialists to petty criminals
-Most Germans knew at least a little about the concentration camps. Some approved of their existence, satisfied with the punishment of ‘social deviants’. Most people feared the camps.

Question 72

What happened with the system of camps in eastern occupied territory?

Answer 72

-The system of camps in the eastern occupied territories that came into operation from the end of 1941 was on an enormous scale and fulfilled many different functions
-Extermination was at the heart of the system: these were death camps built for the specific purpose of killing untermenschen such as Jews and other ‘racial undesirables’
-The railway entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau has become the ultimate emotive symbol of this process, the place where new arrivals were unloaded from trains and those deemed ‘unproductive’ were selected for immediate transfer to the gas chambers
-But Auschwitz took time to build up its factory of death. Only about 1 fifth of the victims of the Holocaust died there. Other death camps also had a key role in the system

Question 73

What other death camps were there?

Answer 73

-Chelmno (Kulmhof), about 40 miles from Łódź, was the first killing centre to be established, in December 1941. Killings were first carried out by mobile gas vans using carbon monoxide. The use of Zyklon B was developed later in early 1942. About 145,000 died there. Chelmno was situated in a part of Poland designated for ‘Germanisation’ but other death camps were built further east, outside the German Reich
-Majdanek, near Lublin, was built late in 1940 as an ordinary concentration camp. From late 1941, it became a death camp about 200,000 people died there, 60% of them Jews, the others soviet prisoners of war or polish political prisoners
-Belzee, near Lviv, was originally a labour camp but was used as a death camp from March 1942 until the spring of 1943, when the camp was closed down. More than half a million Jews were killed there, together with several thousand gypsies
-Sobibor was built near Lublin as part of the construction programme agreed upon at the Wannsee conference. About 250,000 victims died there, mostly Jews and Soviet prisoners of war. In October 1943, a Jewish revolt led to the escape of 800 prisoners. The camp was closed down on Himmler’s orders soon afterwards
-Treblinka, about 75 miles from Warsaw, was constructed for the purpose of mass killing. From July 1942 until operations ceased in September 1943, almost 1 million people were murdered there, first about 300,000 Jews from Warsaw and later Jews from all over central europe

Question 74

What was Auschwitz?

Answer 74

-In 1943 and 1944, Auschwitz, a few miles west of Crakow, became the hub of the vast killing machine established by the Nazis
-The development of Auschwitz took a considerable time. Until mid 1943, the main killing centres were at camps such as Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinka. Most of these camps were closed down after the Jewish populations in their vicinity had been killed
-Auschwitz was more than a death camp. It was a huge sprawling complex of buildings with many different functions. Auschwitz I, in the old Habsburg army barracks, remained active, but was overshadowed by Auschwitz II, the huge camp at Birkenau, the arrival centre for transports from the west and the place where the main gas chambers and crematoria were situated
-Auschwitz III, on the other side of the railway tracks at Monowitz, was a huge industrial complex, producing munitions and other essential goods for the war effort.
-In outlying districts, a chain of smaller satellite camps contained industrial enterprises run by the SS and were dependant upon forced labour provided from Auschwitz

Question 75

What happened with Jewish resistance to the idea of the ‘final solution’?

Answer 75

-One of the persistent myths about the Holocaust is the theme of victimhood and Jewish passivity-the idea that the victims of the Nazis invariably accepted their fate with docility and resignation
-In reality, there was extensive Jewish resistance. The Nazi authorities went to great lengths to prevent this, both by intimidation and by concealing what was actually happening until the last possible moment
-This only had partial success and there were many instances of protest. The fact that resistance could only ever be small in scale and had no chance at all of lasting success should not obscure the fact that it was there

Question 76

What happened across Eastern Europe with resistance?

Answer 76

-Across eastern europe, groups of partisan fighters established base camps deep in the forests and carried out acts of sabotage against the German occupiers
-Many of these groups were nationalist or communist, but there were also numerous Jewish groups. About 10,000 partisans were active in Lithuania in early 1942
-In the general government of poland, the Nazi governor, Hans Frank, had to commit large security forces to try to deal with more than 20 different Jewish partisan groups
-In Belarus, from autumn 1941 onwards, a Jewish resistance group led by the Bielski brothers eventually became a permanent community of 1200 partisans
-In addition to acts of sabotage, the Bielski group also provided a refuge for Jews escaping from the ghettos

Question 77

What was Jewish resistance like in ghettos and camps?

Answer 77

-There were also sporadic revolts in ghettos and camps. One violent rising against the Nazis took place in the ghetto of Bialystok. A larger rising broke out in the Warsaw ghetto in January 1943, which took the SS by surprise as 80% of the Jews in warsaw had already been sent to the death camp at Treblinka
-The first attempts to crush the rising failed. It was only in May 1943 that the last resistance in the Warsaw ghetto was finally crushed by 2000 German troops, using heavy weapons and supported by air strikes
-There were organised revolts in the Sobibor and Treblinka death camps in 1943. At Auschwitz Birkenau in 1944, Jewish prisoners blew up crematorium 4
-A network of Jewish organisations smuggled detailed evidence to inform the western allies about the Nazi extermination programme
-Messages were passed successfully to western embassies, but had little impact, partly because western governments found it difficult to take in the full horror of what was happening partly because it was so difficult to take any practical action to stop it

Question 78

Who was responsible for the Holocaust?

Answer 78

-Hitler’s responsibility for the Holocaust is often thought of in simplistic terms:
-He was motivated from the start by fanatical anti semitism
-He dominated all aspects of power and propaganda in Germany
-All Germans either supported his ideas or were incapable of opposing him because of terror and intimidation by Hitler’s regime
-Thereofore, the Holocaust was ‘Hitler’s war against the Jews’; without Hitler it could never have happened. There is a lot of truth in this, but the ‘final solution’ involved much more than one man
-Industrialised murder on such a huge scale required actions and decisions by many nazi leaders and by thousands of lesser officials
-Millions of ordinary people were involved in acts of persecution, deportations or mass killings

Question 79

How could it be said Hitler was responsible for the Holocaust?

Answer 79

-At one extreme, it can be argued that the Holocaust was entirely the responsibility of Adolf Hitler. The trouble with this argument is that it is based on simplistic assumptions about the Nazi dictatorship- that Hitler was an all powerful dictator and that any kind of opposition to nazi policies could be crushed with ease
-Historians are agreed that the Nazi regime was not like that at all. In many ways, the Nazi regime depended on a mixture of ‘chaos and consent’. However central Hitler’s role had been, the responsibility could not have been Hitler’s alone

Question 80

Why would Hitler not be entirely responsible of the Holocaust?

Answer 80

-The Nazi regime had many overlapping centres of power and many rival Nazi leaders competing for Hitler’s approval. Men like Himmler, Heydrich and Eichmann, at the head of the enormous bureacratic machinery of the SS, were key architects of mass murder
-Other leading Nazis were responsible too, including Hermann Goering, Martin Bormann, the propaganda minister Joseph Goebells and Albert Speer as the overlord of Germany’s war industries and the use of forced labour
-In the middle and lower levels of the Nazi regime, thousands of lesser officials carried out the orders that meant persecution deportation and death for Holocaust victims. All shared at least some of the responsibility

Question 81

How could it be argued german people were responsible for genocide?

Answer 81

-At the opposite extreme, it can be argued that the German people as a whole were responsible for genocide. This view suggests that there was some kind of national defect in the Germans that made them vote for Hitler and then become his ‘willing executioners’
-It can be argued that the ‘German people’ was not one indoctrinated mass, but consisted of countless diverse elements, many of them opponents of everything the Nazis stood for, and that many well intentioned Germans found themselves compelled against their will to compromise or to keep silent.
-Even so, large numbers of ordinary Germans shared in the responsibility for Nazi crimes