Jewish persecution & the holocaust

The progression of antisemitism

• Germans → thought of Jews as not proper citizens

→ encouraged by NAzi’s total control of media → used for propaganda against Jews

• NAzi’s also controlled education → children got similar msg

• Many resisted but the period of indoctrination may help explain behaviour of Germans

• Jewish people were dehumanised

Concentration camps

• 1st concentration camps in Germany = established after Hitler became chancellor in Jan 1933

• Weeks after Nazi empowerment - detention camps to imprison political opponents were established

• People set to these camps for being Jewish during Kristallnacht

Purpose of concentration camps

MAIN PURPOSE

• imprison people who Nazi’s saw as a security threat ← were imprisoned for indefinite amounts of time

• Eliminate individuals & small groups via murder

• Exploit forced labour of prisoner population ← peupose grew out of labor shortage

• As war went on → ppl in camps were used for medical experiments - unethical

Building the camps

• when o Germany invaded Poland → had 8 camps

→ after invasion + start of war → 6 more created

• initially, ppl in camps = sent to work with annhilation

• BUT numbers in camps grew → more methods required

The final solution

• after German invasion of USSr in 1941 → Nazis look over area of traditional Jewish settlement with up to 4 million Jews

• Nazi leaders created → “final solution” to what was called ‘Jewish question’

→ Nazi germany became devoted to final solution

• more concentration camps built → some had gas chambers

• Jews all over Europe were arrested, listed, transported on trains & murdered/worked to death