WW2 and Jewish Persecution

Effect of War on Jewish Persecution

• Polish Ghettos:
• After invading Poland in 1939, the Nazis set out to 'Germanise' western Poland
• Polish Jews were rounded up and transported to big cities; replaced with German settlers
• They were herded into sealed areas known as ghettos
• Those Jews that were physically fit carried out slave labour, while the old and sick were left to die of hunger and disease
• Mass Murder:
• In 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union
• Soon they found themselves in control of 3 million Soviet Jews
• German troops had orders to kill both Communists and their Jewish supporters
• Executions were carried out by a special SS unit called Einsatzgruppen
• In Germany, all Jews were required to wear a star of David on their clothing
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• Bildunterschrift: Rail tracks into Auschwitz concentration camp

Effect of War on Jewish Persecution

• The 'death' camps:
• January 1942 - senior Nazis met at Wannsee to discuss what they would call the 'Final Solution'
• Himmler was put in charge of the systematic killing of Jews in Germany and German-occupied territory
• Slave labour death camps were built at Auschwitz, Treblinka and Chelmo in Poland, among other places
• Some people were killed straight away, others forced into labour camps and some used for medical experiments
• Around 6 million Jews were sent to these camps where they worked, were gassed or shot
• There are no resources directly relating to Hitler giving the order for the 'Final Solution' to be carried out

Effect of War on Jewish Persecution

• The genocide of the Jews would have not been possible without:
• Civil service bureaucracy: collected and stored information about Jews
• Police forces in Germany and German-occupied territories: many victims were taken by the police rather than the Gestapo or SS
• The SS: Adolf Eichmann developed a system for transporting Jews to the death camps; SS Death's Head battalions and Einsatzgruppen carried out killings
• The Wehrmacht (German armed forces)
• Industry: companies like Volkswagen and Mercedes had their own slave labour camps; IG Farben the chemical giant developed the gas used to kill Jews in concentration camps
• The German people: anti-Semitism was widespread; many Germans took part in some aspect of the Holocaust, even if they did not support mass killing
• Resistance:
• Many Jews escaped from Germany before the killing started
• Some Jews managed to live in hiding in German-occupied territories
• Many Jews fought in resistance movements against the Nazis
• e.g. 1945 - Jews in Warsaw ghetto in Poland rose up against the Nazis and held out for four weeks
• Many Germans and non-Jews helped with the hiding of Jewish folk
• e.g. the industrialist Oskar Schindler protected and saved many people by getting them on his 'list' of workers