The Final Solution

Question 1

Wannsee conference

Answer 1

• 20 Jan 1942
  -decision to exterminate Jews already made June 1941, this conference decided the logistics
  -15 high ranking Nazis
  -chaired by Heydrich
  -decided the mass deportation of Jews
  -50% of jews that died in holocaust died between feb 1942- feb 1943

Question 2

anti-semitic propaganda

Answer 2

-intensified during crisis
-after stalingrad and in Autumn 1943 after allied bombing
-mass killings accelerated
-feb 1944: remaining jews in amsterdam sent to auschwitz
-summer 1944= allied landings in france meant more propaganda

Question 3

final solution towards the end of the war

Answer 3

-summer 1944: Ger facing defeat- final solution increased
-Nov 1944: Soviet armies deep in Poland, Nazis try to conceal actions e.g. crematoria at Auschwitz destroyed

Question 4

end of war/ liberation

Answer 4

-Jan 1945: Soviets liberate Auschwitz
-US & UK forces liberate Dachau, Bergen- Belsen, Buchenwald
-May 1945 Hitler commits suicide and Ger surrender

Question 5

the camp system

Answer 5

-death camps 91942-45) not the same as concentration camps
-concentration camps resulted in deaths but weren’t designed for extermination

Question 6

death camps

Answer 6

-Chelmo= first killing centre, Dec 1942 initially mobile trucks, 145k died here
-Majdanek= became a death camp 1941, 200k died here 60% Jews
-Belzec= death camp March ‘42- spring ‘43, 500k Jews
-Sobibor= agreed at Wannsee conf, 250k jews, Oct 1943= Jewish revolt led to 800 escaping and the camp was shut down after
-Treblinka, Warsaw, July 1942- Sept ‘43, 1 mill ppl, 300k jews from warsaw

Question 7

Auschwitz

Answer 7

-Cracow
-main camp
-Auschwitz 1= old army barracks
-Auschwitz 2= Birkenau, main gas chambers and crematorium
-Auschwitz 3= industrial complex, production for munitions
-1.1- 1.8 mill people died

Question 8

jewish resistance

Answer 8

-10k jewish partisans in lithuania 1942
-Hans Frank committed large forces to deal w/ 20 diff Jewish groups
-Belarus= Bielski brothers
-Jan 1943 Warsaw ghetto, only crushed in May by 2000 troops/ air strikes
-1944 crematorium 4 at Auschwitz was blown up
-smuggled out evidence to western allies

Question 9

Bielski borthers

Answer 9

-parents were killed in ghetto after Nazi occupation of the area in Poland 1941
-fled to Naloboki forest and set up camp w/ 1200 jews and sabotaged Nazis

Question 10

death marches

Answer 10

-from camp to camp as allies entered poland/ger
-freezing, death from exhaustion
-hundreds were shot by guards
-death toll 250k-400k

Question 11

responsibility

Answer 11

-Hitler= behind all the ideologies and officials acted on his ideas
-leading Nazis (himmler, heydrich, eichmann)= key architects of mass murder, they gave the orders to carry out the holocaust
-ger ppl= millions voted for the Nazis and others were forced to stay silent

Question 12

how many people died in the holocaust?

Answer 12

-6 million jews= 78% of jews in ger and occupied areas
-90-220k gypsies
-27k disabled
-millions of polish/ russian civillians