Why Did The Holocaust Happen And Who Was Responsible? Flashcards
From emigration to extermination - invasion of Russia in 1941
It was seen as a racial war launched by the SS Einsatzgruppen. These SS units were responsible for rounding up local Jews and murdering them by mass shootings. During the winter of 1941-1942 it is estimated that they rounded up and killed 700,000 Jews in western Russia.
Wannsee conference 20 January 1942
A meeting chaired by Reinyard Heydrich and organised by Adolf Eichmann, outlining the details of the plan to use gas to kill Europe’s 11 million Jews.
Development of camps during 1942
During the course of 1942 a number of camps were developed into mass extermination camps in Poland, most notably Auschwitz, Sobibor and Treblinka. Most Jews were cleared from the ghettos and transported by train in appalling conditions to their death via gas chambers. It is believed that of the 3 million Polish Jews, only 4000 survived the war.
Why were the Gypsies persecuted?
They had been viewed as ‘outsiders’ for several reasons: 1) they were non-Christian and had their own custom, 2) they were non-White as they had originated from India, 3) their traveller lifestyle with no regular employment was resented.
How did the gypsies suffer from Nazi discrimination?
1) they were defined by the Nazis like the Jews as ‘infallibly of alien blood’.
2) Himmler issued, in 1938 a directive titled ‘the struggle against the gypsy plague, which ordered the registration of gypsies in racial terms.
3) notoriously, the first case of mass murder through gassing was committed in January 1940 on gypsy children at Buchenwald.
Who was responsible - intentionalists
Hitler remains the key. He is seen as having committed himself to the extermination of Jews in his political career. This was led by a consistent gradualist policy which led logically from the persecution of 1933 to the gates of Auschwitz. In a nutshell, the holocaust happened because Hitler willed it.
Who was responsible - structuralists
Rejects long-term plan for mass extermination. Schleunes argues that there was no direct path because there was a lack of clear objectives. The Final Solution came to be implemented as a result of the chaotic nature of government within the regime. As a result, various institutions and individuals improvised a policy to deal with the human and military situation in Eastern Europe.
Conclusion
1) initial arrangements for the Final Solution were haphazard. The nazis did not have any clear arrangement for the Jews.
2) no written order for the killing of Jews by Hitler can be found, although in January 1944 Himmler publicly stated that Hitler had given him a ‘fuhrer order’ to fire priority to the Jewish question.
3) probably around autumn 1941 it was decided by the top Nazi leadership to launch an extermination policy which was agreed at the Wannsee conference in 1942.
From emigration to extermination - how did nazi anti-semitism degenerate into genocide?
Germany’s victory over Poland in 1939 meant that they were inheriting 3 million Jews. The beginning of a war made emigration of Jews to independent countries more difficult. Plans to resettle the Jews out strain on food supplies and the transport system. This meant that the Nazi leadership in Poland were compelled to create a number of Jewish Ghettos.
