WWII Notes 14: Hitler’s Final Solution – The Holocaust

World Wars – Ms. HamerMay 19, 2010

We last left off..• September 1939 Heydrich had created The

Jewish Question in the Occupied Territories after the invasion of Poland

• Jews in Germany and Poland were transferred to concentration centers

• Einsatzgruppen were rounding up Jews in occupied regions

• Himmler ordered the construction of a camp at Auschwitz for at least 30,000 inmates

Forced Labor Jews Making a Wall Around the Krakow Ghetto

1940

• Still no “solution”• Options in early 1940:– Idea of reservations for Jews in Eastern

approved by Goering and Himmler but then dropped–Madagascar Plan• Move all of Europe’s Jews to Madagascar (had

been controlled by the French)• Would be a problem because of the Royal Navy

interfering

1941

• Still no plan• War against Soviet Union affected Nazi racial

policy– Remember the indoctrination the troops were

given upon beginning Operation Barbarossa– Were supposed to allow SS in Barbarossa

accomplish their “special tasks”

Anti-Jewish Violence in Barbarossa• Einsatzgruppen operating in USSR conducted a

massive blood bath in the Soviet Union against Russian and Ukrainian Jews

• Began experimenting:– Would shoot whole villages that were forced to dig a

trench and then were shot• The German army still saw this and SS realized that

this method was too public, sloppy, and inefficient– Tried special mobile gas vans– September 3, 1941: Auschwitz used for the first gassing

of 600 Russian prisoners

Mobile Killing Units

Being led to Babi Yar Ravine Babi Yar Ravine

Orders for a Final Solution• In the Summer of 1941 Nazis thought they

had won the war because victory over Russia seemed to be at hand– Hitler ordered a verbal order to Himmler to

find a “Final Solution” to the Jewish question• Gesamptloesung: total solution or

Endloesung: final solution• Himmler again delegated this to Heydrich

Heydrich’s Planning• Drew together lots of ideas:– Concentration camp idea (were not intended as death

camps before this though lots died there from bad treatment)

– Would be built in Eastern Europe (Poland)– Would be vernichtungslager – death camps– Jews would be “resettled” – euphemisms were used

instead of outright admittance of massacre– Would have gas installations instead of mass shootings– Systematic plan for mass murder

• Hitler was big picture man, but Heydrich worked out the details and Hitler approved

Wannsee Conference January 20, 1942

• In the official notes, the message was very vague: – Jews would be sent to work in Eastern Europe where

many would die– Some would just go to a concentration camp (elderly

primarily)– Those who didn’t die in Eastern Europe would have to

be dealt with• According to later testimony more was discussed

but either left out of the official notes or talked about after the official meeting over cognac

Wannsee Conference

In the end the Final Solution looked like:

• Series of death camps in Poland• Mothers, small children, old, and infirm would

be killed immediately by poison gas• Heydrich emphasized need for secrecy – don’t

tell German public or foreign press – also ignorance of the victim had to be maintained

• Building started Spring 1942

In the end the Final Solution looked like:

• 10% of any trainload of inmates would be selected for work

• The rest had to undress, women and girls had their hair cut, marched to “Shower Stalls”. Then people were shoved in to 1 person per square foot.

• Gas was released from above and took 10-30 minutes to kill the last person

• Spring 1942 – End of War 1945: 6 million Jews died in the death camps as well as Russians, Poles, Gypsies, and others

The Final Solution

• Selection of Jews for work or death

at Birkenau

Crematoria at Majdanek

Entrance to Auschwitz

The Final Solution

Who Knew About This?• German people knew rumors and saw their

Jewish neighbors being moved or trainloads of people passing by

• Allies had heard reports as early as the summer of 1941 from Poland and the Soviet Union– Known about the activities of the Einsatzgruppen (1-

1.5 million dead from this “mobile pogrom”)– Allied governments had issues adding up the pieces• 3 Molotov notes in 1942 mentioned atrocities, but

said they were against all Soviet people

Slave Labor at Buchenwald

The Holocaust

Who Knew About This? cont.• December 1942 (camps had been functioning since

March 1942)– Soviet foreign minister issued a statement dealing with

Nazi plans to exterminate Jews in occupied territories.– Said that millions of Jews were being concentrated for

the point of killing them– National press did not really emphasize this, but it was

published• This was overshadowed by news from the fronts

Who Knew About This? cont.• BBC broadcast a report in summer of 1942 that

700,000 Jews had been killed so far• Took until the summer of 1942 for the Allied

governments to realize that this wasn’t a “normal” pogrom

• Jewish world groups began to pressure US and British governments– Official response was: any effort on the camps would

sidetrack the Allies from the military objectives• Fear about reactions similar to those after the false

atrocity info from WWI• Not to mention anti-Semitism in British and US

governments

Allies Have to Decide What to Do

• By 1944 Allies were getting considerable info, for instance they knew what Auschwitz was, but what could they do?– Bomb camps or railway lines except:• Raids deep into Germany were extremely costly to

Allied planes• If you bombed railroads you had to do it over and

over– They decided that the best way to save Jewish lives was

to win the war as quickly as possible– If you bomb the camp you kill them anyway – who would

make this choice?

Allies Have to Decide What to Do cont.• BBC issued a warning in 1944 to anyone in Europe

helping with the deportation of Jews: You will be held accountable at the end of the war

• Allies didn’t reveal the true nature of the Holocaust to the public because to let the public know about what was happening would reveal Allied weakness in “not being able” to stop it

• Saving the Jews was not part of the war objectives of the Allied cause – just end the war quickly and that will save everyone

Estimated Deaths from the Holocaust

• An estimated 5 to 6 million Jews, including 3 million Polish Jews

• Estimates place total number of Polish deaths around 5 million – 1.8 – 2 million Christian Poles and other (non-Jewish) Poles

• 2-3 million Soviet Prisoners of War • 200,000 – 1 million (or more) Roma & Sinti (Gypsies)• 200,000 – 300,000 people with disabilities• 80,000-200,000 European Freemasons• 100,000 communists• 10,000 – 25,000 homosexual men• 2,500 – 5,000 Jehovah's Witnesses

Mass Graves at Bergen-Belsen

The Holocaust