The Holocaust Flashcards
Hitler’s foreign policy goals
- Build a greater Germany
- Lebenstraum in east
- Rebuild the military
- Destroy the Versailles Treaty
- Destroy communism
Lebenstraum meaning
living space
Example of building a greater Germany
united all German speaking areas (Austria, Sudetenland)
Example of Lebenstraum
invaded Poland and Russia
Example of rebuilding the military
Luftwaffe Air Force and secret factories
Example of destroying the Versailles Treaty
annexed Austria
Example of destroying communism
Dachau for communists
Holocaust is a Greek word meaning…
sacrifice by fire
Different names and definitions of Holocaust
Historian Paul Bookbinder: complete destruction by burning.
Churchill called it crime without a name.
Now called genocide.
Genocide definition
acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Term created by Raphael Lemkim, Polish Jew survivor
Poland in Holocaust
Acquired for ruthless use in the Nazi war effort as a war resource. Germany regarded Polish pop as a supply of laborers. Polish teachers, priests, or central figures were especially targeted for immediate persecution. Bulk of country’s food sent to German home front.
Ghettos
2 million Polish Jews came under Nazi control, so Sept 1939 ghettos became marked off sections of town that served as basis for utilizing labor.
Work in the ghettos
Men and women 14-60 and children 12-14 worked 10-12 hours a day in factories. Unproductive Jews were shot first. Trolley lines ran through ghettos.
Life in the ghettos
Enclosed by fence, barbed wire and guarded. Overcrowding, starvation, diseases. Young took secret classes and smuggled food. Jews had to stay inside during curfew.
Warsaw ghetto
Largest ghetto. 350,000 Jews. 35% of city population in 2.4% of city area. July 22 1942: Warsaw Jews deported to Treblinka killing center. Only 55,000 Jews remained by Sept.
There were how many Jews in the Lodz ghetto?
160,000
Chelmno
first stationary kill center, opened in Poland Dec 8, 1941
How were people killed at Chelmno?
SS dressed as doctors ordered Jews to bathe before going to Germany for labor. Prisoners, undressed, gave up valuables, and were led onto a struck of 50-70 people in the cellar. Doors were sealed and mechanic attached tube to exhaust. Bodies driven to forest and put in graves.
How many were killed at Chelmno?
152,000 killed including 70,000 Jews and 5,000 Roma
Soviet Union
Nazis invaded Soviet Union on June 22, 1941
Einsatzgruppen
task forces or mobile Nazi death squads for mass killings. Moved behind army and killed Jews in occupied Soviet territory. Went directly into homes and communities, targeting Jewish men first. At first mass shootings, then gas vans. Residents helped Nazis by serving as auxiliary police.