the holocaust part 2

final solution

•Many Jews died as a result of these practices. (concentration camps)

•But before 1941, the systematic mass murder of all Jews was not official Nazi policy.

•Beginning in 1941, however, Nazi leaders decided to implement the mass murder of Europe’s Jews.

•They referred to this plan as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” 

•It was the last stage of the Holocaust and took place from 1941 to 1945.

•Though many Jews were killed before the "Final Solution" began, the vast majority of Jewish victims were murdered during this period.

development of the final solution

Dr. David Silberklang outlines the "Final Solution," which led to of six Jews.

He highlights key steps:

pre-war separation

and anti-Jewish measures,

exploring territorial solutions,

escalating during German expansion,

killings in ,

early mass murder systems,

the "Wannsee Conference,"

and the mechanized mass murder of the war's final years.

mass murder as apart of the final solution

•There were two main methods of killing.

One method was mass shooting. German units carried out mass shootings on the outskirts of villages, towns, and cities throughout eastern Europe.

The other method was asphyxiation with poison gas. Gassing operations were conducted at killing centers and with mobile gas vans. 

mass shooting as apart of the final solution

• The Nazi regime carried out mass shootings of civilians on an unprecedented scale.

• After invading the Soviet Union in June 1941, German units began shooting local Jews, Initially targeting Jewish men, by August 1941, entire Jewish communities were massacred.

• These killings often occurred in broad daylight, witnessed by local residents.

• Mass shootings took place in over 1,500 cities, towns, and villages across Eastern Europe.

• German units moved through the region, committing horrific massacres. They typically entered towns, rounded up Jewish civilians, and took them to the outskirts.

• Victims were forced to dig mass graves or taken to pre-dug graves.

• German forces and local auxiliaries then shot men, women, and children into the pits.

• Some massacres used mobile gas vans to suffocate victims with carbon monoxide.

soviet jews

as many as 2 millions jews were murdered in mass shootings or gas vans in territoies seized from soviet forces

killing centers

•In late 1941, the Nazi regime began building specially designed, stationary killing centers  in German-occupied Poland. also called “extermination camps” or “death camps.”

The five killing centers:  Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibo, Treblinka and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

• They built these killing centers for the sole purpose of efficiently murdering Jews on a mass scale.

•The primary means of murder at the killing centers was poisonous gas released into sealed gas chambers or vans. 

deportations

•German authorities, with the help of their allies and collaborators, transported Jews from across Europe to these killing centers.

•They disguised their intentions by calling the transports to the killing centers “resettlement actions” or “evacuation transports.”

•Most of these deportations took place by train

Role of Railroad system

•In order to efficiently transport Jews to the killing centers, German authorities used the extensive European railroad system, as well as other means of transportation.

•In many cases the railcars on the trains were freight cars; in other instances they were passenger cars. 

•The conditions on deportation transports were horrific.

•German and collaborating local authorities forced Jews of all ages into overcrowded railcars.

•They often had to stand, sometimes for days, until the train reached its destination.

•The perpetrators deprived them of food, water, bathrooms, heat, and medical care.

•Jews frequently died en route from the inhumane conditions.

most were immediately killed at

•The vast majority of Jews deported to killing centers were gassed almost immediately after their arrival.

•Some Jews whom German officials believed to be healthy and strong enough were selected for forced labor. 

jews forced to assist

•At the five killing centers, German officials forced some Jewish prisoners to assist in the killing process.

•Among other tasks, these prisoners had to sort through victims’ belongings and remove victims’ bodies from the gas chambers.

•Special units disposed of the millions of corpses through mass burial, in burning pits, or by burning them in large, specially designed crematoria.

death toll of killing centers

2.7 million jew men, women, children murdered at five killing centers

what were ghettos

•Ghettos were areas of cities or towns where German occupiers forced Jews to live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

•German authorities often enclosed these areas by building walls or other barriers.

• Guards prevented Jews from leaving without permission.

•Some ghettos existed for years, but others existed only for months, weeks, or even days as holding sites prior to deportation or murder. 

•German officials first created ghettos in 1939–1940 in German-occupied Poland.

•The largest was located in the occupied Polish city of Warsaw.

•Beginning in June 1941, German officials also established them in newly conquered territories in eastern Europe following the German attack on the Soviet Union.

• German authorities and their allies and collaborators also established ghettos in other parts of Europe. 

purpose of gettos + forced labour

originally established the ghettos to isolate and control the large local Jewish populations in occupied eastern Europe.

• Initially, they concentrated Jewish residents from within a city and the surrounding area or region.

•However, beginning in 1941, German officials also deported Jews from other parts of Europe (including Germany) to some of these ghettos. 

•Jewish forced labor became a central feature of life in many ghettos.

•In theory, it was supposed to help pay for the administration of the ghetto as well as support the German war effort.

•Sometimes, factories and workshops were established nearby in order to exploit the imprisoned Jews for forced labor.

•The labor was often manual and grueling. 

life in ghettos

•Life in the ghettos was miserable and dangerous, There was little food and limited sanitation or medical care.

•Hundreds of thousands of people died by starvation; rampant disease; exposure to extreme temperatures; as well as exhaustion from forced labor.

•Germans also murdered the imprisoned Jews through brutal beatings, torture, arbitrary shootings, and other forms of arbitrary violence. 

jewish reisitance

•Jews in the ghettos sought to maintain a sense of dignity and community.

•Schools, libraries, communal welfare services, and religious institutions provided some measure of connection among residents.

•Attempts to document life in the ghettos, such as clandestine photography, are powerful examples of spiritual resistance. 

•Many ghettos also had underground movements that carried out armed resistance. The most famous of these is the Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943.  

liquidating the ghettos

•Beginning in 1941–1942, Germans and their allies and collaborators murdered ghetto residents en masse.

• They called this process “liquidation.” It was part of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.”

•The majority of Jews in the ghettos were murdered either in mass shootings at nearby killing sites or after deportation to killing centers.

•Most of the killing centers were deliberately located near the large ghettos of German-occupied Poland or on easily-accessible railway routes. 

Who was responsible for carrying out the holocaust?

•Many people .

•At the highest level, Adolf Hitler inspired, ordered, approved, and supported the genocide of Europe’s Jews.

he didnt lay out an exact plan for the implementation of the Final Solution.

•Other Nazi leaders were the ones who directly coordinated, planned, and implemented the mass murder.  

•However, millions of Germans and other Europeans participated in the Holocaust.

• Without their involvement, the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe would not have been possible.

•Nazi leaders relied upon German institutions and organizations; other Axis powers; local bureaucracies and institutions; and individuals. 

German institutions, organizations and individuals

relied on many German institutions and organizations to help them carry out the Holocaust.

•These organizations included the Nazi Party, the SA (Stormtroopers or Brownshirts), and the SS (Schutzstaffel, Protection Squadron).

•Once the war began, the SS and its police affiliates became especially deadly.

•Other German institutions involved in carrying out the Final Solution included the German military

; the German national railway and healthcare systems;

the German civil service and criminal justice systems;

and German businesses, insurance companies, and banks. 

members of these institutions: countless German soldiers, policemen, civil servants,  lawyers, judges, businessmen, engineers, and doctors and nurses chose to implement the regime’s policies.

•

ordinary germans in the holocaust

Ordinary Germans also participated in the Holocaust in a variety of ways.

•Some Germans cheered as Jews were beaten or humiliated. Others denounced Jews for disobeying racist laws and regulations.

•Many Germans bought, took, or looted their Jewish neighbors' belongings and property.

• These Germans’ participation in the Holocaust was motivated by enthusiasm, careerism, fear, greed, self-interest, antisemitism, and political ideals, among other factors. 

ppl accross europe during the holocaust

•Throughout Europe, individuals who had no governmental or institutional affiliation and did not directly participate in murdering Jews also contributed to the Holocaust. 

•One of the deadliest things that neighbors, acquaintances, colleagues, and even friends could do was denounce Jews to Nazi German authorities. An unknown number chose to do so. 

•They revealed Jews’ hiding places, unmasked false Christian identities, and otherwise identified Jews to Nazi officials.

•In doing so, they brought about their deaths. 

•These individuals’ motivations were wide-ranging: fear, self-interest, greed, revenge, antisemitism, and political and ideological beliefs.

bystanders

•Individuals (bystanders) also profited from the Holocaust. Non-Jews sometimes moved into Jews’ homes, took over Jewish-owned businesses, and stole Jews’ possessions and valuables.

•Most often individuals contributed to the Holocaust through inaction and indifference to the plight of their Jewish neighbors.

Who were the other victims of nazi persecution and mass murder?

• In the 1930s, the regime targeted a variety of alleged domestic enemies within German society.

•As the Nazis extended their reach during World War II, millions of other Europeans were also subjected to Nazi brutality.

•The Nazis classified Jews as the priority “enemy.” However, they also targeted other groups as threats to the health, unity, and security of the German people.

• Jehovah’s Witnesses, political opponets, homosexuality, persons accused of being professional or habitual criminals, and so-called asocials (vagabonds, beggars, prostitutes, pimps, and alcoholics), disabilites, groups considered of racial enemies

other targeted groups by nazi (polital opponets)

The first group targeted by the Nazi regime consisted of political opponents.

• These included officials and members of other political parties and trade union activists.

• Political opponents also included people simply suspected of opposing or criticizing the Nazi regime. 

•Political enemies were the first to be incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps.

jeohvahs witness were in prisns bc?

•Jehovah’s Witnesses were also incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps.

•They were arrested because they refused to swear loyalty to the government or serve in the German military.

homos in prison

•These included men accused of homosexuality, persons accused of being professional or habitual criminals, and so-called asocials (such as people identified as vagabonds, beggars, prostitutes, pimps, and alcoholics).

•Tens of thousands of these victims were incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps.

•The regime also forcibly sterilized and persecuted black Germans. 

disabled attacks by nazis + groups considered of racial enemies

•People with disabilities were also victimized by the Nazi regime.

•Before World War II, Germans considered to have supposedly unhealthy hereditary conditions were forcibly sterilized. (disabled)

•Once the war began, Nazi policy radicalized.

•People with disabilities, especially those living in institutions, were considered both a genetic and a financial burden on Germany.

•These people were targeted for murder in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

•

The Nazi regime employed extreme measures against groups considered to be racial, civilizational, or ideological enemies.

•This included Roma (Gypsies), Poles (especially the Polish intelligentsia and elites), Soviet officials, and Soviet prisoners of war.

• The Nazis perpetrated mass murder against these groups.

how did it end

•The Holocaust ended in May 1945 when the Allied Powers defeated Nazi Germany in World War II.

•As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives, they overran concentration camps. 

•There they liberated the surviving prisoners, many of whom were Jews.

death marches

while taking back land The Allies also encountered and liberated the survivors of so-called death marches.

• These forced marches consisted of groups of Jewish and non-Jewish concentration camp inmates who had been evacuated on foot from camps under SS guard. 

did liberation bring closure

no •Many Holocaust survivors faced ongoing threats of violent antisemitism and displacement as they sought to build new lives.

•Many had lost family members, while others searched for years to locate missing parents, children, and siblings.

how did some jews survie

•But, in every case, survival was only possible because of an extraordinary set of circumstances, choices, help from others (both Jewish and non-Jewish), and sheer luck. 

•Some Jews survived the Holocaust by escaping German-controlled Europe.

•Before World War II began, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated from Nazi Germany despite significant immigration barriers.

•Those who immigrated to Canada, the United States, Great Britain, and other areas that remained beyond German control were safe from Nazi violence.

•A smaller number of Jews survived inside German-controlled Europe.

•They often did so with the help of rescuers. 

•Rescue efforts ranged from the isolated actions of individuals to organized networks, both small and large.

• Throughout Europe, there were non-Jews who took grave risks to help their Jewish neighbors, friends, and strangers survive.

•For example, they found hiding places for Jews, procured false papers that offered protective Christian identities, or provided them with food and supplies.

some Jews managed, against enormous odds, to survive imprisonment in concentration camps, ghettos, and even killing centers. 

aftermath

•While the Holocaust ended with the war, the legacy of terror and genocide did not.

•By the end of World War II, six million Jews and millions of others were dead.

•Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators had devastated or completely destroyed thousands of Jewish communities across Europe. 

 those Jews who survived were often confronted with the traumatic reality of having lost their entire families and communities.

•Some were able to go home and chose to rebuild their lives in Europe.

•Many others were afraid to do so because of postwar violence and antisemitism.

displaced persons

•In the immediate postwar period, those who could not or would not return home often found themselves living in displaced persons camps.

• There, many had to wait years before they were able to immigrate to new homes.