The Holocaust

Question 1

When & what was the first solution?

Answer 1

1938-39

• To force Jews to leave the country.
• It was adopted in Austria after Nazi invasion. Jews were beaten & humiliated, forced to scrub pavements.
• The SS took expensive belongings & properties.
• Persecution led many Jews to consider emigration (emigrated within 2 yrs)

Question 2

What was the second solution?

Answer 2

• Nazis realised emigration wasn’t effective with 3.5 million Jews.
• Polish Jews concentrated into ghettos so they’d be ready for a mass decoration once a reservation was found.
• Over 140,000 died in ghettos over 3 years.

Question 3

When & what was the final solution?

Answer 3

1941-45

• Mass murder of Jews began with Nazi invasion of Soviet Union in 1941.
• Einsatzgruppen carried out mass murders, rounding up Jews & communists.
• Men, women & children taken to secluded areas, forced to dig large hole then lined on edge & shot.

Question 4

What was phase two?

Answer 4

• Jews murdered by exhaust flames in vans - greater numbers killed & had less of psychological impact on SS doing the killing.
• Exterminatiom of all Jews in General Government
• Jews deported from ghettos to a ‘train station’, stripped of clothes & possessions before put into ‘showers’ where they were murdered in gas chambers.

Question 5

Did Jews resist to the final solution?

Answer 5

Yes, at Sobibor in 1944 Jews rose up & managed to kill 11 SS guards, allowing 300 Jews to escape.

Question 6

How many Jews were murdered by death camps by end of war?

Answer 6

1.7 million.

Question 7

Who was put in charge of the mass murder of Jews in 1942?

Answer 7

Adolf Eichmann at the Wansee Conference.

Question 8

What was Auschwitz?

Answer 8

• Camp that experiments mass murder using Zyklon B gas, used to kill rodents.
• Overun with prisoners in 1941.
• People transported in trains & trucks & assessed to see if they were fit enough to be slaves (those who don’t make it send to gas chambers)