History Exam Year 11 Semester 2 (Part 2)

Nazi Germany - 1933-1945 The Nazi Regime

The Reichstag Fire

• 27 Feb 1933 - one week before election

• Evidence suggests it was the work of a distributed Dutch Communist - Marinus van der Lubbe (detained in Reichstag during blaze)

2 major consequences of the fire (Nazis)

• unleashed a massive attack on the German communists - Nazis played on theme of a communist conspiracy against the state

  • communist publications banned, almost 4000 arrests took place, including arrests of a communist members of the Reichstag.

  • KPD not blamed → needed for election campaign to whip up fear + be focused of of Nazi propaganda, split vote of working class. 

    • Introduction of new laws 

    • if communists were eliminated early SPD would ⬆

• now had the freedom to round up political opponents

Decree for the Protection of the People and State

• Pres. von Hindenburg introduced → he was persuaded that the communist plot succeeded

• Article 48 → decree suspended sections of const. that guaranteed basic rights of citizens e.g. freedom of speech, press, assembly, privacy post/telephone

  • police could arrest + detain without trial

• lasted 12 years - until collapse of 1933 onwards permanent state of emergency → allowed regime the ‘legal’ authority to carry out acts of terror persecuction against German people.

Impacts of the decree

• Basis of the totalitarian state est. - decree legal - issued according to the constitution 

  • regular use of Article 48 as a precedent 

• Articles 114 (personal liberty = inviolable),115,117,118,123,124,153 (the right of private property is guaranteed) of const. of the German Reich are cancelled until further notice → decreed death penalty for many crimes 

• many of Hitler’s conservative allies did not object, believing in Communist threat

  • (failure to realise the Nazis can use their powers on them)

March 1933 election

• 5 March 1933 - called reelection to win majority

• Nazis ⬆rep. in Reichstag from 196 to 288 seats

• Coalition Ally (German Nat. People’s Party won 52 seats)

• Of 647 seats, gov. held 340 (working majority)

• Feb 4 → Hitler got Hindenburg to pass decree ensuring free + peaceful election (election meetings had to be notified 48 hours in advance → police could prohibit any election meeting where danger to public security)

Aftermath of election

• 17 Feb → Goering told police to only place police restrictions on communists (must be dealt with severely)

  • “I shall cover for police officers who use firearms in the discharge of their duties, regardless of the consequences of their firearms.”

• 22 Feb → Nazi SA given free rein as official police force disrupted + heat up opponents. 

The Enabling Act

• passed 23 March 1933 after 2/3 vote in Reichstag 

  • AKA Law for the Removal of the Distress of People + state

• Allowed Hitler cabinet to make laws w/o Reichstag approval even if they broke the const. 

  • gave gov. almost unlimited power for 4 years

How did the act pass?

• Political pressure → SA surrounded parliament + intimidated members 

• Suppression of opposition → communist deputies arrested/banned from voting

• Promise to Catholics → Hitler promised to respect the Catholic Church to win support from the Centre Party

Before + After

Before: 

• reichstag responsible for making + approving laws 

• Chancellor needed majority support

• opposition parties could debate question (limit gov. power)

After 

• Hitler + Nazis could make laws w.o Reichstag

• Parliament lost authority + became rubber stamp for Nazi decisions

• Political opposition = banned, Nazi = only legal party

Consequences of the Enabling Act

• End of Democracy

  • Germany became dictatorship - of the 444 deputies present, 94 voted against (all SPD)

• Banning parties 

  • By July 1933: over 30 political parties dissolved/banned

• Centralised Power 

  • state gov. lost authority as power shifted

  • 1934 - all 18 German state parliaments abolished

Impact on German society

• trade unions disbanded → workers had to join Nazi - controlle org. 

• censorship ⬆newspapers + radios controlled by Nazis

• people encouraged to report on neighbours + colleagues who criticised the regime

• affected every part of life 

• ended democracy in germany

• centralised authority + removed opposition

The Day Of Potsdam

• 21 March 1933 (significant heritage date)

• The ceremony to open the First Reichstag of the 3rd Reich → to prevent Nazis as legit. gov + heir to previous periods in Germany

• Potsdam → city of Frederick the Great 

  • set the message the Nazis were his heir (greater period of greatness)

Potsdam Ceremony

• attended by Hitler, hindenburg, leadership of German army

• held in Garrison Church

• Hindenburg, “ liberate us from selfishness and party strife and bring us together to bless a proud and free Germany united within herself”

• broadcasted through Germany → symbolic, orchestrated → Nazis respected traditional values

24th March 1933

• 3rd Reich legally gathered @ Kroll Opera House, Berlin

• Hitler introduced Enabling Act 

  • Reichstag burnt = Germany didn’t need democracy

• symbolic handshake → uniting new with old

• First concentration camp for political opponents set up @ Dachau Concentration Camp

Voting for dictatorship

• 81 communists elected not  present @ Opera House (arrested/fled)

• SA troops → ‘ we want the bill or fire and murder,’

• Needed 432 votes

  • they got 441

  • defied by the SPD + Otto Wels (‘no Enabling Law gives you the power to destry ideas that are eternal and indestructable.") → 94 voted against

• By conceding, many believed they could still influence the future act

Enabling Act Examples

• Article 2 → Reich Laws resolved upon by the Reich gov. may deviate from Reich Const. provided they do not deal with the inst. of the Reichstag. 

• Article 3 → Reich Laws, resolved upon by the Reich Gov are issued by the Reich Chancellor. Unless otherwise stipulated, they become effective on the day following their promulgation

The SA and Hitler’s dilemma

• SA’s influence 

  • >2 million members 

  • seen as unruly and a threat to the German Army and political stability

• Hitler’s concerns

  • needed the support of the Army and conservatuve politicians 

  • worried Röhm and SA would challenge authority

  • Hitler sought to spark an agreement w/ army to eliminate threat

The Night of Long Knives

30 June - 2 July 1934 (Röhm Purge, Operation Hummingbird)

• Hitler ordered a series of political murders

• Main targets → leaders of the SA, political rivals + critics also killed

• At least 85 killed, but could be several hundred to 1000

murders cemented agreement between Nazis and Army 

• enabled Hitler to become Fuhrer + claim absolute power

Key Events

• Purge Unleashed 30 June 1934

  • SA leaders → e.g. Ernst Röhm arrested + persecuted

• June 1934 (planning begins secretly)

• 1 July 1934 → wider killings

  • other pol. opponents e.g. chancellor von Schleicher murdered 

• 2 July 1934 → aftermath

  • Hitler claims responsibility, justifies killings

Motivations behind the purge

• Eliminate rivals 

  • Hitler wanted to remove those who were a threat to his leadership esp. w/in Naziparty + army

• Gain army support: destroying SA = trust of German Army (rumours that they planned to overthrow the gov) (Hitler wanted army to be the ‘sole bearer of arms"‘) army was only power that could defeat Hitler

• Legalise violence: Hitler could use violence to achieve aims w/ little opposition

Impact - Hitler’s power consolidated

• SA’s power broken, Army pledged loyalty to Hitler

• “I became the supreme judge of the German people.”

• German cabinet retroactively legalised murders, showing collapse o frule of law (“emergency action to save nation”)

• >1000 people arrested, SS rose in prominence

Propaganda

• Controlling the Narrative

  • Joseph Goebells spun purge as necessary act to save Germany and many accepted Hitler’s justification believing he had stopped a coup.

• “Hitler saved Germany from Chaos” newspaper headline July 1934

• marked shift from political manouvering to open violence

  • dictatorship

Public Reaction

• Hindenburg died 1934 August, Hitler prepared: abolished title “Pres,” + combined Pres and Chanc.

  • Fuhrer → august 19, 1934 → plebiscite vote confirmed change

• SS became ind. of SA gave advantage in control of police.

Hindenburg

• told Hitler that unless gov. resolved tension, he would hang power + martial law + hang gov to army → Hitler could not wait any longer → 21 June gave approval for action

• his death removed last obstacle to Hitler’s total control of state

Gleichschaltung

• process of bringing diff. aspects of German nation under control of Nazi Party, aligning all institutions w/ ideology

• Word = process of coordination

• Nazis in power, now Germany to be transformed (Nazified)

• WR: mistake: left key areas of state under control of people who declined republic

  • not in Nazi → every aspect = controlled

• process of becoming a totalitarian state.

• e.g. abolition of other political parties, (Law Against Formation of New Parties 1933)

  • Control of media, education, culture, propaganda, censorhip

  • est. of HY, German Labour Front

Totalitarianism - historical debate

• Germany = repressive dictatorship + terror

• hitler’s movement relied on a degree of popular appeal

characteristics of a totalitarian state

• single leader

• individual is subordinated to the will of nation

• official ideology

• total control over economy + mass communications + armed forces

Nazi ideology + women

• Traditional Roles reinforced

  • aimed to push women back into traditional roles as wives + mothers, stripping away many rights gained WR

• Control + Indoctrination 

  • women were mobilised for Nazi projects, expected to raise children loyal to regime, with personal ambitions discouraged in favour of nations

Weimar vs Nazi Germany

Weimar

• women gained right to vote + more legal rights - post WW1, entered workforce, universities (>35% uni. students in early 1930s)

• 1932 women made up 10% of Reichstag representatives

• ~100000 became teachers

Nazi 

• women encouraged to leave jobs + focus on home + family

• marriage loans = >700 000 granted 1933-1937 → women left jobs to marry

• 1937, 1.5 million women left workforce

• idealised rural, ‘aryan’ motherhood, discouraged urban modern lifestyle

Ideal Aryan Family

• celebrated by Nazi propaganda

  • strong, healthy, rural, loyal, blonde, trad. clothing, connected to land

• symbolic of racial purity + Nazi values

• ideal Aryan family by Wolfgang Willrich*****

Volksgemeinschaft

• people’s community

• exclusion of Jews, communists, “undesirables”

• role of propaganda in promoting unity

• social policies; strength through joy, motherhood incentives, HY

• Gender roles + expectations

• built pride 

Herrenvolk

• Master Race → placing aryans at the top of a racial hierarchy

• Anti-Semitic Jew Laws

• eugenics, racial purity campaigns

• lebensraum, racial policies in occupied territories

Key organisations for Women

NS-Frauenschaft

• National Socialist Woman’s League promoted Nazi values + organised women’s activities

Deutsches Frauenwerk

• trained women in household management + child rearing

League of German Girls

• BDM indoctrinated girls with Nazi beliefs and prepared them for motherhood

Muttekreuz: Mother’s Cross

• rewarded for women for having manychildren

  • bronze = 4, silver = 6, gold = 8

• purpose = increase Aryan population + promote motherhood as a national duty

• controlled women’s lives, using them for prop. 

• Rewards focused on honour, nat. pride, not material gain

  • self-sacrifice = valued for war economy. 

Women in the workplace

• contradictions in policy = rhetoric, women in work ⬆during regime+ war

  • economic needs vs ideology: while focus on family + home encouraged, economic necessity meant many women returned / remained in workforce, and higher education, contr. initial policies

key statistics

• number of women in employment: ⬆ 11.6 million (1933)- 14.6 million (1939)

• by 1939: - women made up ~37% workforce

During WW2,~50% of workers in agriculture were women

Women in higher education

• Nazis tried to restrict women’s uni. access → education was ‘unfeminine.’

• Before 1933, 20% uni students = women

• nazi regime restricted women’s access to uni, enrolments ⬇by 50% by 1939 (men also affected)

  • this increased by 50% during war

• women’s experiences varied: losing/gaining freedom

• practical needs = contradictions

The Three K’s

Church, Children, Cooking

“take hold of kettle, broom and pan, then you’ll surely get a man!”

Goebells: “the mission of women is to be beautiful and to bring children into the world.”

women discouraged from staying slim so that no childbirth problems

Nazis considered making law all families should have +4 children 

unmarried women could volunteer to have a baby for an aryan member of SS, some introduced rent, water help for families

The Role of Women in NG and Europe

• abortion + contraception banned in France → fear

• 1943 law considered that if +4 children, father had to be released to have other children

WEimar Germany + Women

• 100 000 female teachers, 3000 female doctors, 13000 female musicians

• no. of women in workplace never fell more than 14 million despite Nazi regime image

Law for the Encouragement of Marriage

1933-37:gave newly wed couples 1000 mark loan over 9 months allowing them to keep 250 marks/child

(over 800 000 newly weds took offer)

(germany would need more soldiers + mums, if lebensraum continued, needed people to populate those areas)

Unions

• The Labour Front (DAF) - nazi organisation replaced trade unions, which were banned. It set wages + nearly always followed wishes of employers rather than employees

• Strength through Joy - scheme gave workers rewards for their work - evening classes, holidays, to support Führer + thank him to keep people happy after abolishing trade unions

• Beauty of Labour - help Germans to see work = good, encouraged factory owners to improve conditions for workers. Improved conditions in some work places w/ improved canteens, toilets, sport facilities

Positive Christianity

• Catholics - 32% of population

• Protestants - 58% pop.

• Hitler wanted to replace churches with a state religion reflecting Nazi values.

The Hitler Youth

• 1922(officially 1926)

• Reich leader Baldur von Schirach of the Hitler Youth from March 1931, and membership and reform increase

• many killed in street brawls - frequent 1926-33.

• 1935 Nuremberg Rally - 54000 HY paraded to see Hitler

  • youth marches → flag is greater than death”

• Law on the Hitler Youth 1936 - Article 1: All German youth in the territory of the German Reich is brought together in the HY.

• academic standard deteriorated

• 7 million joined movement

League of German Girls

• July 1930

• both supported party activities by handling out electoral materials and taking part in marches and rallies

• 1.5 million girls in 1935

• @ 18, girls could join Faith and Beauty, emphasis on training women for domestic sphere. +childbirth

Hitler Youth numbers statistics

• 1932 - 200 000 members

• 1938 - 7.1 million members (77.2% of population)

• boy scouts and scouting groups closed down

• 1936 - law passed making membership of Hitler Youth compulsory for 14-18 y/olds

  • 700 000 youth leaders

Pimpf (Little Fellows)

• boys 6-10 y/o encouraged to join Pimpf (Little Fellows)

Jungvolk

• ages 10-14

• long jump 2.75m, run 60m in 12 seconds

• hiking, map and compass reading, meaning of Nazism as future leaders

• Blood and Honour dagger to mark entry into HY program @ 14 

The White Rose

• after being a Nazi, they eventaully disapproved of it. Sophie + Hans Scholl at University of Munich

• printed  6 different pamphlets demanding an end to the regime and painted slogans on walls in munich. 

• “we will not be silent the white rose will not leave you in peace”

• aimed to achieve a “renewal from within of the severely wounded German spirit,” aware that only military force could end Nazi domination. 

• caught by university janitor February 1943, executed Feb 22. 

• 80 others arrested + punished for associations w. W.R 

Edelweiss Pirates

• groups of (16-18y/o) youth who opposed Nazis form 1936

• not a specific movement (e.g. Köln,) but association of groups joined under common symbol Edelweiss flower

• evaded service in Reich Labour Service + army, many engaged in active defiance: assisting deserters…

• 1936-1939 - corruption, small scale nuisance, but during war, Nazis became suspicious that they were working with Allies

• dealt with by going to concentration camps 2-3 years, Heydrich: “intervene brutally”

• 1944 → 13 hanged in cologne w/o trial, 6 had been EP members 

Lebensraum 

‘living space,’

• key idea of Nazi ideology, arguing Germans needed ⬆territory to survive +thrive

• concept was not new, Hitler + Nazis used it to justify expansionism into Eastern Europe

Misapplied Darwinism

• Geographer Ratzel believed geography shaped people’s dvlpmnt, claiming Germany needed more space to solve overpopulation and secure resources

• Many Germans saw eastern Europe as”natural” Lebensraum, → land ruch in resources but they argued it was misused by so-called “inferior” peoples

• argued + justified in Mein Kampf

Lebensraum in Nazi ideology

• shaped domestic + foreign policy 

• framed not just as economic necessity but as a racial struggle 

• “Aryan race” superior, Slavic people, Jews, + others = subhuman, who should be displaced/enslaved/exterminated. 

Lebensraum in action

1935: Germany publicly announces the intent +to rearm military (against ToV)

1936: Germany occupies Rhineland

March 1938: Coup d’état of Austria by Germany under Nazi Party

September 1938: Germany looks to German speaking areas of Czech. (~3 million people) inSudetenland.

Munich Agreement 

• both French + British leadership believed peace could only be saved by transferring Sudetenland to Germany w/ signing of Munich Agreement September 30,1938

• key stipulation: Germany would not invade any more of Czechoslovakia

• Czech. gov. not involved in negotiations

Appeasement

• the policy of acceding to the demandsof a potentially hostile nationin the hope of maintaining peace. The act of appeasing 

• Britain + france’s policy of appeasement = hitler’s policy of appeasement meant Hitler could expand w/o war, reinforcing belief of Lebensraum

Following the Munich Agreement

• early 1939, all of modern Czech Rep. becomes annexed becoming Proctecorate of Bohemia and Moravia” → this act marked end of appeasement process

Polish Invasion - Catalyst of WW2

• Germany rearmed in 1936

• Hitler still needed to fulfill Lebensraum meant Germany still invaded Poland 1 September 1939, triggering WW2 → great britain + france declare war on germany

• justified as necessary for Germans space and security

Molotor-Ribbentrop Pact

• August 1939 → NG and S.Union signed agreement pledged neither side would attack the other. 

• pledged secretly to divide Eastern Europe between them, allowing hitler to invade poland without fear of SU intervention

• temporarily secured Soviet neutrality, alowing Germany to attack Poland w/o fear of 2 fromt war

Lebensraum + war

• shaped Nazi strategy

• invasion of USSR 1941 (Operation Barbarossa_ explicitly framed as a conquets for land + resources (tied to racial ieology + planned destruction of millions of Slavs + Jews)

• connected to Generalplana Ost - genocidal policy, feeding directly into Holocaust

Major Causes of WW2

• Treaty of Versailles

• The Great Depression

• Rise of fascism + nationalism in Europe + japan

• The rise of Hitler + Nazism

• failure of League of Nations

• The Failure of Appeasement (1935 - Germany publicly announces intent to rearm military, Germany occupies Rhineland)

• Dolschtosslegende

Schutzstaffel 

• 1933 - 50 000 SS members

• 1935 - 200 000 men

• “elite” racial community → “a state within a state”

• My honour is loyalty

• acted independently of gov. party, SS carried out policies of Nazi state

• responsible for 

  • deportation of people, racial policies carried out in conquered territories, illegal use of prisoners of war, enslavement of foreign labour

• proved loyalty to killing Ernst Rohm

Einsatzgruppen

Panzer division

• SS killing squads - operated in occupied territories responsible for resettlement + extermination program

• deadly, highly effective

The Waffen SS

• combat arm of the SS, initially resistedby Wehrmacht, assuming that they were the sole bearer of arms

• 1942-1943, grew rapidly

  • 40 divisions with 900000 men serving

• under command of Wehrmacht in field

Gestapo + propaganda

• responsible for internal security of Reich, to ‘investiage and suppress all anti-state activities,’

• propaganda created image Gestapo could detect all opposition, anyone could be arrested etc for ‘refusal to work’ ‘ spreading religious propaganda.’

• based around Decree for PoP+S

• “as long as the Gestapo carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally.” - Dr Werner

Gestapo IRL

• confirmed that Gestapo were only around 45000 people, depended highly on denunciations +reports from ordinary Germans (more common in larger towns)

• 60-90% of cases began this way

• e.g. Würzburg, there were 174 cases of race defilement of which 1% were detected by Gestapo

concentration camp - origin

• 1933 → used to detain political opponents @ Dachau + Oranienburg, run by SA, then SS (membership reached 240 000 by 1939) (Order of the Death’s Head)

• 1934-1939 >200000 people passed through concentration camps

• 1939 - 21 000 in 6 main camps

• post 1939, camp system expanded east e.g. Auschwitz 1940

• “annihilation through work”

• IG Farben Chemical Company 

supplied poison gas for camps, set up synthetic ribber plant near Auschwitz 1942, staffed by camps

Treatment of Homosexuals (pink triangle)

• under section 175 of Criminal code, homosexuality was illegal

• >100 000 men arrested, 15000 went to concentration camps (mostly males), death rate = 60%

• section of gestapo investigated men who thought to be homosexual

• w/in SS, HH = death penalty for homosexuality

• Hermann Göring used false accusation to remove Gen. von Fritsch head of army 1938

Sinti/Romani

• untermenschen

• disliked → not racially german, seen as anti-social, unproductive nomadic lifestyle and challenged Volksgemeinschaft

• 1939 → 1 million gypsies lived in Europe

• 1940 → all German gypsies deported to new Poland camps 

• 1945 → 200 000 killed total

Lebensunwerten Lebens

• ‘life unworthy of living’ → killed if certified doctors told them to be

• program began 1939 → Hitler signed personal order that began process of killing 5000 mentally + physically disabled children 

• killed using carbonmonoxide gas + lethal doses of medication, fake death certificates issued (flu, pneumonia) + letter of sympathy

Public scrutiny with Lebensunwerten Lemens

• suspicion increased in 1941 - news of euthanasia program leaked out. Clemens von Galen denounced program in sermons + Hitler cancelled program (after 70 000 dead)

• August 1942 → killings began again in secret, not gassed but lethal injection/drug overdose @ number of clinics, requiring cooperation of doctors

• 1945 → 275 000 killed

Anti-socials

• people who were seen as biologically/racially inferior, morally degenerate, socially disruptive, economically unproductive, non conforming (e.g. homeless, alcoholics, u/e, criminals)

• launched public campaigns against ‘aliens to community,’

• 1937 - Decree issued on crime prevention directed @ antisocirlas

• >100000arrested + imprisoned w/o trial

• many picked up in arrests, deported to camps treated as lowest status prisoners

Jehovah’s Witnesses

• persecuted for: resistance, commitment to peace, international connections,

• refused to accept Nazis total power, believing they were first answerable to God, refusal to work in war(refused to ‘Heil Hitler’)

• 1934 → . 6000 Jehovah’s witnesses in concentration camps,

• 1945 → >1400 murdered in camps

• 250 executed for refusing to fight, banned 1933

Nuremberg Laws

• announced @ annual party rally @ Nuremberg September 1935

• forbade marriage between Germans + Jews, no citizenship

• later defined what was meant by the term ‘Jew’, identified by blood by grandparents, not religion ‘anyone who is descended from at least 3 grandparents who are racially full Jews, or descended from Jewish parents.’

1936 Berlin Games

• campaign + propagnda against Jews ceased wanting to present the best possible face to outside world to counter international complaints

• Jesse Owens - Hitler refused to shake his hand

1937 - Nuremberg Laws

• campaign ⬆w/ greater ferocity, attacks legitimised by the state,

• Jews forced from economic life, jewish businesses had to be registered, “aryanisation”

• not allowed to enter theatres, restaurants, public parks, holiday resorts

• red J stamped on passports

• banned from public parks swimming pools, signs appeared

Name Law - 1938 

• new law introduced: required Jews to have Israel (men)/Sarah (women) middle name

The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour 

15 September 1935

• Marriage between Jews + citizens of German/kindred blood are forbidden, no sexual relations, Jews shall not employ female citizens of German/kindred blood as dom. servants 

• purity of German blood = essential to further existence of nation, Reichstag voted unanimously for this law

The Reich Citizenship Law

15th September 1935

• A citizen of the Reich is that subject who is German/kindred blood… the right to citizenship is acquired by the granting of Reich citizenship papers

Der Stürmer

• put out each week by Nazi sadist + pornographer Julius Streicher, each edition had graphic drawings, full of stories 

• 700 000 circulation

• Hitler - only newspaper he read top to bottom

• produced a school reading book for children; The Poisonus Mushroom, “face of the devil,” “fat” “huge crooked nose”

  • eugenics used as justification

10 stages of Genocide

• Classification

• Symbolisation - stars of David

• Discrimination

• Dehumanisation - “vermin”

• Organisation

• Polarisation

• Preparation, “Final Solution”

• Persecution

• Extermination

• Denial

Kristallnacht 1938

• 30 000 Jews arrested + sent to con. camps

• police + officials did nothing - violence w/o repercussion

• When people are constantly told that they are superior, eventually they act on it.

• marks the shift from discrimination to persecution

Jews did not leave because:

• laws tightened, violence ⬆, life became unbearable for Jewish families 

• few countries accepted refugees

  • USA immigrant quotas

  • AUS → “we do not have a racial problem, nor do we wish to introduc one” 

The Jews of Poland

• Ghettoisation → separation of Jews from normal community → Jewish communities who lived in Poland for 8 centuries were forced to move

• largest camp: 400 000 Jews confined to area of Warsaw City

• 40 000 starved to death 1941

• most polish Jews moved to extermination camps 

• 2.6/3million dead by 1945

• "Goebells, “one simply cannot be sentimental about these things.”

Einsatzgruppen (Special Action Units)

• 1941 - special units formed to kill undesirables in occupied east territory

• formed under authority of Reinhard Heydritch

• Each had up to 800 men 

• operated w/ absolute authority, no attempt to conceal activities (photos of work)

• victims: Russian Jews, Commissars

• 1 year → Ez killed 1.4 million Jews + Russians

• September 1941 → Babi Yar near Kiev, Russia → 33 000 killed in 2 days

• actions accepted + supported by army

Planning the Final Solution

• September 1941 - law passed forcing Jews to wear Star of David

• Jews ⬆visibility = ⬆momentum for expulsion = ⬆radical

• May 1941 - decision to transport Jews east

• May 1942 → Jews had to hand over pets

• May 1943 → Germany declared “Judenfrei” because they had “resettled”

The Wannsee Conference

• 31 July 1941 → Reinhard Heydrich + Göring drew up arrangmeets for overall solution to “Jewish problem”

• Jan 1942 → Heydrich called a secret conference of 15 senior gov. + SS officials @ Wannsee to discuss details of Final Solution to find ways to expand slaughter + make killing efficient

• considered: transportation issues, most effective killing method, dealing with them upon arrival @ camps

• Eichmann → The talk was of killing elimination, annihilation"‘

The death camps

• 1941-1942 conc. camps built in occupied easter europe (e.g. Auschwitz)

• 1942 → Jews transported east in cattle trains to be killed.used as slave labourers before being killed 

• 1942 - 1944 , killings ⬆ as russians overran camps, but thousands moved back to Germany to be killed

Auschwitz-Birkenau

• close to railway

• opened to service IG Farben synth. rubber plant

• June 1941 - became extermination camp\1942-1944 → 1.1 million people killed in gas chambers

• “shower rooms” able to kill 2000 at once

The Gas

prussic acid gas with IG Farben, Zyklon B

that used forced labour from camps

even though they could have been used for labour, ideology prevailed, forcing them to be killed

• 400 000 killed by one consignment of Zyklon B gas filling 20 trucks in 2 months before camp closed Nov. 1944

The retreat

• Germans truedto destroy evidence of crimes, marching camp survivors back to Germany (found by US and Brit troops)

Bergen-Belsen Camp

• liberated April 1945

• 60 000 prisoners found malnourished with typhus etc

• ~10 000 died in weeks of liberation

• Hitler’s original idea was to drive Jews out of Germany, turned into extermination 

Jewish Sonderkommando

after gassing stopped: 

• wearing masks, gumboots, carrying hoses, removed blood + defacations, dragged clawing dead apart w/ nooses + hooks, looking for gold, removed teeth, hard (regarded as strategic materials)

• journey by lift/rail wagons to furnaces

Intentionalist argument

• Karl Dietrich Bracher, Eberhard Jäckel

• mass extermination of Jews always intended, Hitler meant everything he said, intentionally pursued

• plans were disguised in documentation; “resettlement,” “evacuation,” “special solution/treatment/tasks”

• “there had never been any ideological deviation or wavering determination. In the end, only the question of opportunity mattered.” - Lucy Dawidowicz in “war against the Jews” 

Structuralist argument

• examination of structures of systems @ work to gain understanding of Nazi state

• Holocaust is best understood by looking @ the way the Nazi state + power structures operated and how this resulted in ⬆radicalisation of measures against Jews ending in genocide - decision emerged out of changing circumstances brought out by war iwth Rssia , unchanging anti-semitic views

• “The FS was not so much willed + decreed by Hitler as improvised by the bureaucrats; competing for favour in Hitler’s eyes, they devised a solution to their leader’s “Jewish problem” as a means of shoring up their own position w/in corridors of power.” 

• extreme action = recognition, working towards Fuhrer concept - Ian Kershaw