Unit 12 War against peoples Flashcards
12 Introduction
The war fought on the eastern Front was a different kind or war from that fought in Western Europe - this was a war against peoples, or a race war (Mazower Dark Continent 1998)
Multi-ehnic states formed in the corridor between Germany and the USSR (east Central Europe) due to Versailles,were transformed by the end of WWII into ethnically homogenous states
12 Introduction 2
Hitler’s murderous fantasies against Jews and the creation of extermination camps has 2 schools of thought:-
Intentionalists (he intended this to happen) - Hillgruber, Hildebrand
Functionalists - (Chaotic political system of the Nazi regime (polycratic), based on a struggle for power among subordinates rather than the dominance of Hitler, generated a policy of mass extermination that Hitler simply followed through on - Mommensen, Browning
Or a synthesis of the two due to the complexity and chaos within the Nazi hierarchy, policies evolved in the field at the local level - Kershaw, Herbert
12 Introduction 2
‘The brutality of the Nazi pursuit of empire’ was the defining experience of the twentieth century; ‘such was the shock of being subjected to a regime of unprecedented and unremitting violence that in the space of eight years a sea-change took place in Europeans’ political and social attitudes, and they rediscovered the virtues of democracy’ - Mazower
Jews regarded as a ‘world enemy’ by the Nazis to be grounded into the dust (Friedlander 2007) The Nazis, unlike with other ethnic groups, very nearly accomplished the extermination of Europe’s Jewry
12.1 Precursors
Mazower’s three main points about the Nazi Party -
1) Their foreign policy was an engine for Nazi racial policy
2) Their racial policy was constantly evolving, especially in the context of European states where they encountered different races and faced new challenges
3) The fate of the Jews was part of the broader racial policy and representative of increasing Nazi radicalisation through the experience of war on the Eastern front
Racial policy central to Hitler’s empire not so in Stalin’s were central control was all
12.1.1 Nazi racial ideaology
Hitler’s Mein Kampf sets out four cornerstones of his world view:-
1) Hierarchy of races, Aryan (Germanic) culture creating, superior, Chinese and Japanese ‘culture bearing’ lesser, black and slavs lesser value, Jews, the lowest race and the embodiment of evil
2) Racial purity of prime importance for Aryans, no mixing or contamination
3) Struggle of races determines history, Germans need to prepare for a race war to expand their territory (Lebensraum)
4) Bolshevism was a Jewish conspiracy and both of them need to be eradicated
Historians of intentionalist leanings believe Mein Kampf proves their proposal - he planned it
12.1.1 Nazi racial ideology
Expansion of borders and the retaking of former German territory lost in WWI proved very popular e.g. Danzig, Sudetenland IF IT COULD BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT BLOODSHED another protracted WWI less popular
Discriminatory laws evolve, 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (remove non Aryans), Nuremberg Laws 1935 distinguish between German Reich citizens and aliens e.g. Jews, gypsies and negroes - difficult to enforce as many Aryan Germans related
12.1.1 Nazi racial ideology
Law of the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases 1933 - sterilisation of up to 350,000
Secret police, foreign diplomat and left wing reports indicate general population reluctant to support the harshest action against their Jewish neighbours. Impoverishment and restriction of movement paradoxically instead of removing poorer Jewish Germans locks them into Germany and death
12.1.2 Poland - the multo-ethnic state
Why was the promise of a Muti-ethnc state not realised?
the largest Jewish population in Europe, in three groups:-
1) Assimilated Jews who saw themselves as Polish of the Jewish faith
2) Hasidic or Orthodox Jews who wore traditional clothes spoke Yiddish and Hebrew and interested politically only in that which affected their fate
3) secular Jews (progressive) promoting a new secular Jewish culture speaking Yiddish and interested in politics. This group created a flowering of artistic and intellectual culture
12.2 Invasion
Poland’s taking was different to that which had gone before in that it was not achieved bloodlessly (more or less) but by military invasion
Annexation of non-German-speaking areas was an indicator of Hitler’s endgame - living space as was the massacre of Jews and massacre against Poles especially those who could coordinate resistance e.g. the intelligentsia - this done by both Hitler and Stalin
Poland was the result of cooperation between Hitler and Stalin, as opposed to a solo action, which would in turn give Hitler the springboard for his attack on Russia
12.2.1 Poland under the Nazis
The taking of land and property:-
Young unmarried German women sent as a spearhead (BDM) supposedly to create kindergartens and schools but some went on to clear Polish houses for German immigrants
These women seem to have had a complete lack of sympathy for the Poles, life began to mean that ‘ordinary Germans’ soon got used to not asking questions
12.2.1 Poland under the Nazis 2
Extermination became the norm for the large numbers of Poles that the Nazis hadn’t fully accounted for, especially intellectuals who could coordinate and be leaders of the resistance
AB Action (Extraordinary operation of pacification - eliminate the intellectuals and upper classes of Polish society) execute this class of Poles between 1939-40, the rest sent to perish in concentration camps
The bulk of the Poles left used to form a labour force for the Reich, some singled out for possible Germanisation
12.2.2 Poland under the Soviets
Mazower differentiates the Nazis from the Soviets due to the Nazis ‘centrality of racial thinking as well as the idea of industrialising mass murder’ , especially in the case of killing doctors, dentists, lawyers and teachers.
The Soviets tended to murder according to class and imprison Polish officers to obtain intelligence on their behaviour, then on 5 March the ‘Beria memorandum’ it effected the slaughter of 14,500 men in Kalinin, Katyn and Kharkiv on the basis that they were ‘sworn enemies of Soviet power’ and could create resistance
12.2.2 Poland under the Soviets 2
Polish women deportees see other ethnic minorities of their homeland as disloyal, but reserved particular disgust for the Russian women
They maintained their femininity and assertion of feminine roles contrary to what some historians thinking that wartime experience was crucial to the advancement of women’s rights
12.3 From expulsion to extermination
Why extermination -
The heads of fiefdoms e.g. Hans Frank, refused to have his Pau (administrative area) turned into a dumping ground for the racially undesirable and the Madagascar scenario had become unrealistic therefore a solution is looked for in the east
The returning point was operation Barbarossa when things did not go to plan and the sheer number of captives rise
Extermination camps created in Poland, this was unique because it ‘demonstrated the superior genocidal efficiency of an operation conducted by a modern bureaucracy with industrial equipment (Mazower) - modernity
12.3.1 Operation Barberossa
One reason was an attempt to force Britain to come to terms with the Nazis (Hack) though Mackie suggests that it was economically motivated as the Nazis needed to exploit the USSR for its resources
Mazower - Opearton Barbarossa was the second part of Hitler’s race war part of the ‘Generalplan Ost’ somewhere to dump their unwanted populations including the Jews
It was also a good start to crushing Bolshevism
12.3.1 Operation Barberossa 2
6th June 1941 Hitler issues the ‘Commissar Order’ prepares the Wehrmacht for action and orders the execution of Red Army Political Commissars who resisted the army’s advance
The Einsatzgruppen (death squads) would then be handed any that did not resist for execution
General Hadler’s affidavit (a whitewash) at Nuremberg attempts to relieve the Wehrmacht of responsibility for the brutality carried out in the war in the east. However, General Lemelsen’s order to desist from this and regain discipline exists, directly challenging this, describing the ruthless behaviour of ordinary German soldiers who shot POW’s and civilians indiscriminately
Einsatzgruppen eventually widened their remit from executing Jews in leading positions to, eventually women children and entire communities (Russian 2003)
12.3.2 The Final Solution
There was no single order issued by Nazi officials to exterminate Soviet Jewry, nor any singe order giving directions to murder all Jews in areas under German control or influence
Most historians now agree that that both merged out of a general murderous climate, cultivated by Hitler’s exterminatory rhetoric, and spurred on by the power-hungry leaders a number of agencies involved - polycratic
Madagascar was to be a punishing environment in which the Jews would not survive
Germans regarded Jews as expendable, large numbers were worked to death in labour detachments, others murdered while being used as playthings (Roseman 2003)
12.3.2The Final Solution 2
Autumn 1941 - gas vans start being used on Polish Jews at Balzec and Chelmno for exterminations. Nazis had learned two lessons from Soviet massacres 1) shooting inefficient, 2) secrecy was all important
20 January 1942 - The Wannsee protocol, final solution. All Jews of Europe targeted 11 million, Polish Jews the majority of whom were unfit for work to be the first to die, this to result in the complete elimination of Polish Jewry
12.3.3 Victims
Other social groups - mentally ill, physically disabled, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses some of these also subjected to. elimination programmes
1939 official euthanasia programme of mentally ill and disabled Germans, Catholic Church intervention results in a halt to the action
Generalplan Ost - racial reorganisation of Eastern Europe which envisaged the elimination of several Slavic peoples - the precursor to which was the extermination of their intelligentsia though some historians propose that the Nazis would compromise with Slavs when circumstances demand it, but never with the Jews
12.4 Retreat, retaliation, reorganisation
Ethnic Germans begin fleeing the captured land as the Soviet Army advances (and Polish reassertion) also whole populations are forced to move in order to consolidate national borders in the interests of national security. Jews move westwards as there is nothing to go back to
Towns renamed back to Polish, former symbols of ethnic diversity destroyed e.g. synagogues, mosques and Lutheran churches
12.4 Retreat, retaliation, reorganisation 2
Population reorganisation paves the way for the imposition of communist regimes in central-eastern European states. People loose faith in state institutions as looting and forcing people from their homes goes on under new masters, expulsion with wealth redistribution wakens resistance
Polish appalled when British accept reports that Germans were responsible for Katyn to appease Stalin. The inaction of the Red Army during the Warsaw uprising was one of the worst betrayals
Soviets deport 40,000 Poles who they see as a threat to gulags as they advance through Poland, Stalin is able to alter borders in favour of the USSR
2.4 Retreat, retaliation, reorganisation 3
Soviets embark on ethnic cleansing, 7 million ethnic Germans exiled from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Romania, former East Prussians who had been on land for centuries become the Vertriebene - ‘those driven out’
1 million Poles driven from their territory (now in the USSR) Land now a 90% homogeneous state
