Paper 3: The Holocaust (Notes)

Chapter 1: The Holocaust: The Historiographical Debate

1. What was the Nature of the Holocaust?

The Final Solution, Holocaust or Shoah?

. The systematic attempts to exterminate all European Jews is usually referred to as the Final
Solution or the Holocaust. In Hebrew, Shoah is used which means destruction

Non-Jewish suffering

. Holocaust was not only killing of the Jews. In 1939, Hitler’s government embarked on a euthanasia
programme killing 70000 handicapped Germans by WW2

. During WW2, Nazis killed large numbers of people because of their national origins (Russians,
Ukrainians), their behaviour (criminals, homosexual), political affiliation (socialists, communists) and
their activities in war

Jewish Suffering

. Almost six million Poles died in WW2- 80% of Poland’s all Jews

. By 1945, two-third of Europe’s Jews were massacred

2. To What extend was Hitler Responsible?

In 1945 the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal presented the Holocaust as a carefully orchestrated
conspiracy, the last stage of a deliberate Nazi policy which aimed all along at the physical
annihilation of all European Jewry. The third Reich was seen as a monolithic state.

The Internationalists

. Belief that Hitler was all powerful dictator whose will was invariably translated into action

. Some historians see him conceiving the idea in 1920 and pursuing it when he came to power in
1933

. The attack on USSR in June 1941 (operation Barbarossa) was deliberate attempt to kill three birds
with same stone; win living space for Germans, destroy communism, and eliminate Jews

The Structuralists

. Structuralists believe that Hitler was weak and inefficient dictator who was controlled by the events
and by the government system rather than controlling what went on in Nazi Germany

. Functionalist, while not disputing that Hitler exerted considerable influence on the course of
events, do not believe that he was the prime mover. Hitler was powerful but this does not mean that
in practice he was always free to act as he wished, nor he initiated every development in the Third
Reich

. In a country of over 70 million, Hitler could not know let alone decide on more than a tiny fraction
of these issues
. All functionalists see Hitler as an opportunist, responding to events than taking initiative

. The killing was more the responsibility of local Nazi authorities in occupied eastern Europe and
emerged as an improvised solution to the problem of how to deal with masses of Jews sent to them
because of deportation plans

. Functionalists argue that by 1940 more than half of the Jews in Germany and Austria had fled or
been driven out. This was an odd policy to adopt if Hitler was set on genocide

Hitler’s Power

. Counter to Structuralists: Focused so much on the administrative arrangement in the Third Reich
that they lost sight of the motive force and ideological climate which informed the decisions

The lack of Written order

. Historian David Irving claimed that Hitler did not learned about the Holocaust before 7 October
1943 and that there was no written document to suggest against it

. Historians argue that is no need of a written document to begin the killings and that David did not
consider the hateful rhetoric of Hitler against Jews

3. How Responsible were Himmler, Heydrich and the SS?

. Heinrich Himmler was the head of SS who ensured that Hitler’s orders were carried out and
Reinhard Heidrich was his loyal henchmen who had considerable authority over Jewish matters

. SS was highly organised police apparatus whose members were fanatic Nazis. They played a
significant role in anti-Jewish initiatives

4. How were the German Euthanasia Programme and the Holocaust connected?

. Historians pointed out the connection between the euthanasia killings and the Holocaust- the
ideology, the decision-making process, the personal and the killing technique all seem to tie the
euthanasia programme to the Final Solution

5. How Guilty was German Army?

. It was once claimed that the German armed forces were untainted by Hitler’s racism and not
responsible for the Holocaust, but most army officials were extremely racism, antisemite and anti
USSR and were content to support the brutality of SS

6. To What Extent were the German People Responsible?

. Some people claimed that they had no knowledge of holocaust. There is no doubt that the
Holocaust was implemented with the utmost secrecy

. Several senior Nazi claimed at the Nuremberg trials in 1945-6 that even they knew nothing about
what was going on

. Daniel Goldhagen has argued that German people mostly supported the policy of mass murder

7. Was European Ant-Semitism to Blame?

. Antisemitism was a European and not just a German phenomenon

. For over 1000 years no century has passed without Jews being persecuted in some parts of Europe
. Violence against Jews was particularly widespread in Poland where 10% population was Jewish

. In 1930s, several countries in Europe passed legislation discriminating against Jews

. Lithuanians were amongst the most savage killers of Jews in summer and autumn of 1941

8. Did Jewish Collaborate in their own destruction?

. Arendt charged Jewish leaders with helping the process of destruction by complying with the Nazi
orders to supply names and groups of Jews for transportation to the death camps

. Isiah trunk focused on dilemma facing Jewish leaders, concluding they had little option to act
otherwise

9. To what Extent were the USA and Britain to Blame?

. The extreme view is that USA and Britain shared responsibility for the Holocaust with the Nazis

. Morse and Wyman also argued that US President and Churchill could have done far more to assist
the Jews during the war

10. To what Extent were the Christian Churches to Blame?

. The silence of Pope Pius XII who said nothing in condemnation of Holocaust despite being aware of
it, has been criticised by many historians

Chapter 2: Anti-Semitism and Nazism

1. The Roots of Anti-Semitism

Medieval Anti-Semitism

. Jews were blamed for the death of Christ and not accepting Christianity

. They were unpopular as money lenders at a time when charging interest for loans was banned by
the Christian Church

. In medieval Europe Jews were likely to be segregated in ghettos

The Situation in western Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

. By 18th and 19th centuries, many western European states gave equal rights top Jews and integrated
them in the society

. In 1871 the new German Empire extended total civil equality of Jews

The Situation in Germany and Austria-Hungary by 1900

Throughout nineteenth century, thousands of eastern European Jews moved west to Germany as
there were more economic opportunities and less discrimination

2. Racial antisemitism

There has mostly been anti-Jewish feeling prior to nineteenth century but later it became
increasingly racial
. Frenchman Count Joseph wrote essay on the Inequality of Human Race in which he argued that
various races were physically and physiologically different

. Social Darwinists were soon claiming that races and nations needed to be fit to survive and rule

. Large number of German nationalists accepted that the Germans were indeed the master race and
had an almost mystical faith in the Volk

. Eugen Durhing argued that the feelings, thinking and behaviour of humans were racially
determined and claimed that ‘scarcely human’ Jews were enemies of all nations

. Chamberlain argued that the Jews were a degenerate, evil race, conspiring to attain world
domination and threatening German greatness

The situation by 1900

. While there was a consensus that there was a Jewish problem, there was no consensus about the
solution

. In 1870s antisemitic parties were formed and contested elections. In Germany one got the majority

. By 1912 the largest single party was the Social Democrat Party which was opposed to antisemitism

The situation in 1914

. Before WW1 antisemitism in Germany was no more than in other countries

3. Hitler and Anti Semitism

The impact of the First World War

. In Aug 1914 the outbreak of first World war, Hitler volunteered to fight in the German army, and he
considered Jews and communists as reason for defeat

Chapter 3: Hitler and Nazi State

1. Hitler’s Leadership Style

Hitler comes to Power

. On Jan 30, 1933, Hitler became the leader of Nazi Party and in March 1933, they won the elections

. Nazi passed enabling law in March 1933, giving Hitler dictatorial powers

. However, Hitler could not ignore the views of octogenarian President Hindenburg or views of
conservative nationalists in both his cabinet and Army High command

. Hitler had problems with SA as many of SA members wanted to execute radical policies, but Hitler
wanted to consider the army, Hindenburg and international opinion

. After death of Hindenburg in August 1934, Hitler became Chancellor and President hence called
Fuhrer

The Fuhrer’s Power

. Hitler’s preference for his home in Bavaria instead of Capital Berlin, and his aversion to systematic
work in general and paperwork in particular, meant that decision making in Germnay was often a
chaotic process

. The fact that Hitler frequently declined to get involved in matters or took refuge behind open
ended generalities had a damaging effect on the smooth running of government

. Some functionalist historians have argued that Hitler was a weak dictator who took few decisions
and who had a difficulty getting those decisions implemented but Hitler was, in fact, far from weak

Party Versus Party

. Nazi party itself was by no means unified

. Hitler’s tendency to create new agencies, usually headed by party bigwigs, whose job was to speed
up particular projects, added to the confusion

. After 1933, Germany was divided into 35 districts each led by a Gauleiter who regarded themselves
as Hitler’s personal agents answerable only to them

. The party effectively disintegrated into its components, building up powerful party leaders, such as
Goring and Himmler, building up their own autonomous empires and largely ignoring everybody
except Hitler

2. The SS

Amidst all the confusion of state and party structures there emerged a new and powerful
organisation: the SS

The Formation of the SS

. Formed in 1925 as an elite bodyguard for Hitler and joined by Heinrich Himmler in 1929

. In 1931, he created a special security service SD to act as party’s own intelligence service

Himmler and the Police

. In the course of 1933-34 Himmler assumed control of all the political police including Gestapo in
Prussia

. By 1936 all police force were unified under Himmler’s control and he became increasingly powerful

3. Nazi Terror

. In March 1933, Himmler established the first official concentration camo at Dachau which were
guarded by SS-Death's Head units who had a complete authority over them

. In 1937, there were only 3 main camps but after overtaking of Austria and Sudetenland in 1938 led
to an increase in arrests

4. Nazi Propaganda

. Joseph Goebbels was the minister of propaganda who brought radio under Nazi control and urged
people to work for the public good and to take part in Party activities
. Mobilisation of youth was one of the main goals of National Socialism; by 1939 the Hitler Youth
movement had nearly 9m members

. Ideologically unreliable teachers at all levels were dismissed

. Aim was that German children were fit physically, disciplined and imbued with National Socialist
ideas

5. The Racial State

. A euthanasia programme began where handicapped were killed to create a stronger society

. In July 1933, the Nazi passed the law for the Prevention of Offspring with Hereditary diseases. The
law permitted the sterilisation of anyone suffering from a hereditary disease

. On the positive side, financial incentives were given to healthy parents to have more children in
order to produce the future national comrades

. Attempts were also made to restrict access to contraceptive information and devices

. The Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German Nation in October 1935
prohibited a marriage if either party was suffered from mental derangement or had a hereditary
disease

. For euthanasia, Hitler was keen to introduce it and in 1935 he told Dr Wagner that in events of the
war he would likely take up the question of euthanasia to avoid opposition

. The ‘asocial’: The Nazis took action against beggars, alcoholics, habitual criminals and homosexuals
and sent them to concentration camps and sterilise them

. Gypsies: The gypsies had long been unpopular in Germany and their persecution began after 1933.
They were treated as social outcasts. In late 1930s, thousands of gypsies were concentrated in
special camps

Chapter 4: Anti-Semitism in Action 1933-39

1. The Situation in 1933-4

Hitler and anti-Semitism: his aims in 1933

. Nazi party had not prepared a detailed step by step programme of anti-Jewish measure which
could immediately be implemented but he certainly had in mind the major lines of future action.
These included _exclusion of Jews from public office

_ a ban on Jewish German marriages

_ efforts to persuade Jews to emigrate

. Germany’s relatively weak position in international affairs in 1933 thus afforded Jews a degree of
protection

German Jews

Sixteen percent of Germany’s lawyers, 10 percent of its doctors and five percent of its newspaper
editors were Jewish
 ‘Revolution from below’

. In the first month of 1933 SA units, in particular, took violent action against the Jews

. Nazi mobs spread terror through the streets, beating Jews and sending hundreds to concentration
camps

The Jewish Boycott

. Anti-Jewish violence in Germany led many Americans to call for a boycott of German merchandise

. Hitler claimed it to be Jewish propaganda hence boycotted Jewish shops

. SA men enforced boycott by standing in front of Jewish shops but still it proved ineffective

. Some Germans insisted on shopping in Jewish shops to demonstrate their disapproval of Nazi policy

. International protests and the likely effect of further retaliation resulted in Hitler’s calling off the
boycott after only one day

The Law of the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

. Hitler while officially opposing violence supported formal anti-Semitic legislation

. Law of the Restoration of the Professional Civil service introduced ‘Aryanism’ as a prerequisite for
holding civil service positions

President Hindenburg’s opposition

. Many Germans believed that the exemption policy should exempt those who had fought in the
WW1 and Hindenburg wrote a letter to Hitler for that

Other antisemitic Measures

. A law against the overcrowding of schools severely limited Jewish enrolment in state schools

. University places for Jewish students were also restricted

. Jews were banned from joining the mandatory guilds for employees in the fields of film, theatre,
music, fine arts and journalism

Jewish Doctors

. At a cabinet meeting on 7 April 1933, Hitler specifically excluded doctors from the application of
the Aryan clause, but Nazi local authorities ignored this and ultimately, doctors were excluded too

. The pace at which Hitler’s government moved, therefore, was partly affected by grass roots
pressure

2. The Nuremberg Laws

. The Nazis had been keen on stopping marriage or sexual relations between Germans and Jews but
did not do much due to international consequences of racist measures and because government
could not agree definite criteria for determining an individual’s race

The Situation in early 1935

The laws for the protection of German Blood and the German Honour

The Nuremberg laws

_prohibited marriage and sexual relations between Jews and German

_forbade Jews to display the national flag

_ prohibited Jews from employing German females under the age of 45 as domestic
The Reich Citizenship Law

. The Reich citizenship law distinguished between citizens and subjects. Germans were fully fledged
citizens and Jews were subjects

3. The Calm Before the Storm 1936-7

. In the autumn of 1936, the SD established a separate section for Jewish affairs. As an important
first step about gathering detailed information about individual Jews and Jewish organisations. It's
Ideal solution to the Jewish question was mass emigration

4. Increasing Pressure on Jews 1937-38

The conservative Purge

. Schacht, Minister of economics, was dismissed by Hitler. He was a conservative and opposed
radical measures and so his dismiss was a bad news for Jews

The impact of Goring

. Goring now took Schacht’s responsibilities

. Decree for the Registration of Jewish Property, April 1938, excluded Jews from specified
commercial occupations

. A law of July 1938 excluded Jews from specified commercial occupations

. Jews were also banned from employment as security guards, estate agents and travel agents

The Anschluss

. The hardening of antisemitic activity was associated with and possibly accelerated by the Nazi
takeover of Austria in 1938

. Jews began selling their properties at extremely low prices by mid 1938 and began migration

5. Kristallnacht

. The violence on 9-10 November orchestrated by party activists was called the night of broken glass.
In some places Nazi members acted on their own but elsewhere, Germans joined

. Overnight close to 80 Jewish businesses were destroyed, 200 synagogues burned, hundreds of Jews
beaten up and over 90 killed
 Reaction to Kristallnacht

. Hitler seemed to be surprised by the extent of the pogrom, but Goring was worried about the
economic loss

. International opinion strongly condemned the violence

. Blaming the Jews for Kristallnacht, the government seized the money the insurance companies
were paying out for the damage inflicted on Jewish property

. In addition, the Jewish community were forced to collectively pay the fine of 1000 million

. A decree was passed on November 12 Excluding Jews from German Economic Life

Chapter 5: The Effect of War 1939-41

1. The Situation in 1939-40

. On Sep 1, 1939 Hitler invaded Poland and two days later, went to war with France and Britain and
in alliance with USSR

. In 1940, German forces over ran Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium and France and by July
1940, Hitler was the master of Europe

German Jews

. War resulted in more discriminatory measures against Jews

- driving licences, radios and telephones were confiscated

- subject to curfew

- clothing coupons were not issued, and food ration cards were stamped with large J

- forced to handover goods like bicycles and Electonics

- they were forced to work

. Goebbels wanted all Jews to wear star of David but Hitler opposed it for now

. All violations resulted in Draconian punishments including death penalty

Emigration

. The fact that most sea lanes were now closed to German vessels complicated the process of force
Jewish emigration

The French Solution

. From July 1940, 40000 Jews were deported from Alsace and Lorraine to camps in south France

. Conditions in French camps were appalling, and many Jews died of diseases

The Situation in Germany by 1940

. By Autumn 1940 Hitler had made it clear to his Gauleiters that their job was to clear their territories
of Jews and the way of execution was left to them
. Goring, however, concerned at the growing labour shortage instructed Gauleiters in February 1941
to remove some racial obstructions to restriction on the employment of Jews

The Madagascar Plan

. In the summer 1940, Heydrich asked German foreign Ministery to find a suitable dumping place for
Jews and they came up with French colony Madagascar in Africa

. According to the plan, France would cede Madagascar to Germany. The island would then become
a Jewish reservation largely administered by Jews under the jurisdiction of Himmler

. The Nazis anticipated that many Jews would die on the journey

. Due to war the plan was never realised but nevertheless, it remained the final solution until late
1940

2. The Situation in Poland 1938-41

. The German government had no clear policy for Poland before September 1939

Einsatzgruppen action

. In August 1939, a special task force of 2700 men was set up to combat all anti Reich anti German
elements in enemy territory

. Einsatzgruppen executed thousands of Polish doctors, lawyers, teachers and landowners

Poland’s Defeat

. By the end of September 1939, Poland was defeated

. At first, military authorities ruled this area but by early October 1939, Himmler was appointed
Commissar for the Consolidation of German Nationhood responsible for settling Germans in the
conquered territories

Poland Divided

. Germany incorporated directly into Reich about half of the conquered Polish land

. The remaining Polish land was known as ‘General Government’ which would become dumping
place for Poles, Jews and Gypsies under German control and serving German needs

. Hitler considered Poles as an inferior race, simply as a source of cheap labour, and the sooner
Polish territories was colonised by German settlers the better

. Hitler’s priority was settling some 20000 Germans from the USSR, Estonia and Latvia in the
incorporated territories

. To make room for the ethnic Germans, Himmler set about deporting Poles and Jews from the
incorporated land to the General Government

. By the end of 1940 some 300000 Poles and Jews had been deported from the incorporated
territories

The General Government

. In October 1939, Hans Frank became governor of the General Government, but he had little real
power as SS operated in his area on its own
. The SS eliminated all potential rebels like doctors, teachers, lawyers etc

. From October 1939 all Poles aged between 18 to 60 were subject to compulsory public labour

. By the summer of 1941, there were about three million foreign workers in Germany, the majority
of whom were Poles

3. Polish Jews

. In 1939 Jews comprised some 10% of Polish population and they possessed a strong religious and
ethnic consciousness

Hitler’s aim in 1939-40

. Control of so many Jews meant that the Nazis now had the real prospect of ridding Europe of the
Jewish menace however there is no hard evidence that Hitler contemplated genocide before 1941

. Hitler still had to consider the views of USA and USSR because Hitler believed that Jews were all-
powerful in USSR and a genocidal onslaught against the Polish Jews might well have sparked a war
with USSR before Germany was ready for it

. It might also have driven USA in the Britain’s camp and he still hoped for a negotiated peace with
Britain

The Lublin reservation

. Leading Nazis quickly realised that there was a possibility of creating a vast reservation for all
European Jews in the General Government

. By the end of Sep 1939, it was decided that Jews should be sent to the Lublin district, the furthest
corner of the German empire

. Implementation of the plan was delayed for a time, partly to await Britain and France’s response to
peace deals

. Adolf Eichmann without proper authorisation started the transportation to Lublin but complaints
from army about the resulting chaos halted it on Oct 26, 1939

Opposition to Lublin Plan

. In Nov, Jews were forced to wear star of David

. In Dec, they were prevented from changing their abode without permission

. Two years forced labour was made compulsory for all Jewish males

. Frank had no wish for General Government to be the dumping ground for everyone’s Jews and he
complained to Goring about it

. Goring, concerned at the economic disruption caused by deportation, ordered to end it except
what Frank approved

Himmler, whose aim was to settle Germans in Poland, agreed hesitantly

. But small-scale evacuations continued

By March 1941. However, transportation problems resulted in all resettlement plans to be

. Concentration of Jews in Polish cities before evacuation in further East became a Nazi policy in
September 1939 however the exact nature of ghettoisation policy from 1939-41 have been
subjected to conflicting interpretations

. Intentionalists think the policy was a conscious preliminary step for total annihilation

. Functionalists believe that Nazi leadership had not really thought through its policies

Ghettoisation

. In 1939 the most major Polish cities already had large Jewish populations and most cities had
Jewish areas

. The German process of forced ghettoisation began to be implemented during 1940 and one reason
was to avoid spread of diseases

. The first Jewish sealed Ghetto was established in Lodz

. Any Jew caught trying to escape the Ghetto faced death penalty

. On Heydrich’s orders, Jews had to establish their own councils in the ghettos

. Their task was listing the number of Jews in the ghetto and their assets, and another was to recruit
workers for forced labour

. In Warsaw, SS officials tried to establish one Ghetto in 1939 but were put off by German military
authorities

. Not until March 1940 was the Jewish council in Warsaw told to begin at its own expense of a 2.2-
metre-high wall

. Once economic ties were cut from the outside world, it led to hunger and spread of diseases and
lack of heating fuel

. Many of the Jews from the Ghettos were sent to work in labour camps away from the families

5. Euthanasia

. In the war situation, the killings of severely handicapped patients would help to conserve precious
resources

. Hitler also, in order to create a healthy race, wanted to purge handicapped people from the
German gene pool

. The euthanasia programme was a carefully planned operation with clear objectives

. Suspecting that the programme might be unpopular, Hitler insisted that it be treated as a top
secret

. The first killings of adult patients began in Sep 1939 in Poland where they were simply shot by SS

. Hitler concerned about negative world and German opinion resisted all attempts to introduce a
euthanasia law

. A central office was officially established in Berlin at Tiergarten Strasse No. 4 soon known as T-4
Chapter 6: The Final Solution 1941-5

1. Operation Barbarossa

. On 22 June 1941 Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa: the attack on USSR

. He always wanted this war as victory would provide the opportunity to destroy ‘Jewish Bolshevism’

. As German troops penetrated deeper into Russia, special units of police and SS waged
unprecedented campaign of murder against communists and Jews

Hitler’s Orders Before June 1941

. Historian Reichard Breitman claimed that Hitler made the fateful decision to exterminate all
European Jews not later than January 1941

. But given lack of proof, most Holocaust historian think that the genocide decision came later than
Breitman claims

. On 3 March 1941 Hitler issued a secret directive to his Army High command insisting ‘the Bolshevik
intelligentsia’ in USSR must be eliminated

. In early March the Army High command accepted that the SS should be entrusted with ‘special
task’

New Orders

. On 2 July Heydrich issued written instructions to the Einsatzgruppen commanders to execute all
Jews and pogroms by local people were to be encouraged

. On July 17 Heydrich issued an order that ‘all Jews’ among Russian prisoners of war were to be
executed by the SS

. Nevertheless, Alfred Rosenberg, head of the occupied Soviet territory was still not preparing for
genocide. For him the final solution was still the resettlement of the Jews

. There is also evidence that not even Himmler was preparing for genocide. A July 1941 plan suggests
that while he expected a brief period of killing, he then envisaged massive population movement

2. The Final Solution

. By September 1941 the mass slaughter of Russian Jews well under way

The euphoria of victory

. It is possible that Hitler gave a general order to kill all Jews in July 1941

. Construction of Polish death camps began in the autumn of 1941

. Goring did not initiate but only signed this authorisation which was actually prepared by Heydrich’s
office

. The 31 July document suggests that Heydrich now knew he faced a new and awesome task that
dwarfed even the Einsatzgruppen massacres

Desperation rather than elation

. They think that Hitler’s decision came later, either in Oct or Sep 1941, and had little to do with the
euphoria of victory

. Burrin and Kershaw believe that Hitler decided total genocide out of desperation than elation

July or September-October 1941?

. In Browning’s view, Hitler gave two exterminating orders; one about Russian Jews in July 1941 and
other later in 1941 affecting rest of European Jewry

. Most holocaust Historians accept Burrin’s view that the precise timing of Final solution between 18
September and 18 October

Hitler’s Decision

. By the summer of 1941 millions of Jews were under his control and limited possibilities for Jewish
emigration had constricted further

. The slaughter of Soviet Jews would enable Hitler to break out the vicious cycle in which military
success brought more Jews under German control

. Moreover, he was no longer concerned with the USA’s opinion. By September 1941 the USA was
involved in a naval war with Germany in the Atlantic and also giving considerable economic aid to
both Britain and the USSR

. It is possible that Hitler authorised Himmler to produce a solution to the Jewish question without
enquiring too closely into what would be involved. The SS was most certainly left to work out its own
killing scheme

3. The Final Solution in USSR

. By the mid-August 1941, Einsatzgruppen interpreted their task as the extermination of the Jews

. Perhaps the most notorious killing took place outside Kiev in September 1941

. The mass shootings of Jews had the support of the army authorities

. After 1945 the Wehrmacht tried to hide the fact that it was involved in the Holocaust

4. The Fate of German Jews

. From August 1941, it became illegal for the 300000 or so Jews still living in Germany to emigrate
voluntarily

. On 1 September all Jews were forced to wear in public the yellow Star of David

. The only Jews to be exempted were Jews living in mixed German-Jewish marriages, Jews of foreign
nationality and Jews over 65

Lodz

. The fate of the 20000 Jews who were deported to Lodz in October 1941 was not pleasant. Some
deemed incapable of working were killed on arrival. The rest were dumped in overcrowded ghettos

5. Gassing
. Until the winter of 1941-42 the main method of eliminating Jews was mass shooting but these
brutal massacres were hard to conceal

. The initial gassing experimentations occurred in the Warthegau

. In early November, Chelmno near Lodz was made a pure killing centre

. At Auschwitz, the first gassing experiments on Russian prisoners of war took place in September
1941

6. The Wannsee Conference

. The Wannsee conference held on January 21, 1942, was intended to resolve the logistical
arrangements for a programme aimed at a complete solution of the Jewish question

. The meeting chaired by Heydrich formulated common procedures whereby all 11 million Jews were
to be rounded up and ‘resettled’ in the east

. The significance of the Wannsee Conference was not that it was the starting point of the Final
solution

. It was however the moment when it was endorsed by a broad segment of the German government

. The conference failed to agree on the status and treatment of half Jews, with the result that most
half Jews and Jews in mixed marriages were not deported

7. Operation Reinhard

. The mass gassing of 2 million Jews in the General Government which gathered momentum in 1942,
is usually known as Operation Reinhard named after Reinhard Heydrich

The Operation Reinhard Camps

. Belzec was the first functional Operation Reinhard camp

. Camp 1 contained reception area with two barracks

. Camp 2 contained the three small gas chambers

Organisation

. With responsibility for clearing the ghettos and for organising the transportation of the Polish Jews
to the death camps lay the SS, the Jewish councils had the job of finding people for resettlement

. Families were usually separated and 150 people crammed into closed freight cars without food,
water or toilet facilities

. Once the transports arrived at Belzec, Sobibor or Treblinka, the camp authorities aimed to kill all
but a few of the deportees within two hours

. The deportees save a few selected to serve as work-Jews, were then quickly marched to camp 1,
given welcoming speech and were told they would be transported to Ukraine

. The bodies were initially dumped into burial ditches but due to stench, they were soon cremated

The Victims
. While most of the victims of Operation Reinhard were Polish Jews, Jews from Germany and
western Europe were sometimes transported to the three death camps

. A semi-permanent Jewish work force of as many as 1000 inmates was employed in the various
steps of the killing process

. By the end of 1942, Himmler’s goal of exterminating all the Polish Jews had been largely achieved

. In Belzec, December 1942, gas chambers were closed. The gas chambers at Auschwitz were now
adequate to kill the rest of Europe’s Jews

8. Economic Considerations

. The killing had a serious impact on Germany’s war efforts

. Transportation added extra pressure on railways and hindered military transportation

. Killing affected Germany’s potential labour pool

Economic Concerns

. German authorities in the General government realised that by killing Jews, Germany was
weakening itself economically

. Leading Nazis like Goring and Speer, also argued against the mass killing destroying skilled and
productive labour force

. Some SS officials shared the economic concern

. As a result of protests by army, industry, civilian authorities and SS, there were phases during which
the extermination programme was slowed to permit the exploitation of Jewish labour

Majdanek

. In the autumn of 1942 Hitler ordered the evacuation of even those Jews in reserved occupations
who played a vital role in the German war effort

. Nevertheless, in 1941-2 two camps, Majdanek and Auschwitz, were created to serve a dual purpose

. On the other hand, they were created to serve dual purpose; labour camps and extermination
centres

9. Auschwitz

. Situated 250km from Warsaw originally created as a camp for Polish prisoners in 1940

. In late summer of 1941, the camp commander was summoned to Berlin and told by Himmler that
Auschwitz was to be principal centre for killing Jews

The End of Auschwitz

. In November 1944, Himmler issued an order forbidding the further annihilation of Jews maybe
because of shortage of labour

11. The Situation in 1945

As Soviet army advanced, the Germans were forced to abandon their labour camps in the east and
move their inmates to camps further west
. At least a third of the 700000 inmates recorded in January 1945 probably lost their lives on the
marches

. The destruction of road and rail links meant that it proved difficult to feed the prisoners

Chapter 7: Responsibilty for the Holocaust?

1. Hitler’s Responsibility

. Few historians now think that Hitler envisaged and planned the Final Solution from 1933 onwards

. Only in retrospect have the antisemitic measures before 1941 acquired the appearance of being
part of a systematic escalation of persecution that intended to end in extermination

. His attitude served as legitimizing authority

. If he wanted genocide, why would he support the policy of encouraging Jews to migrate

. If he simply waited for the right opportunity, why was there a 30-month stay of execution for the
polish Jews

. Given Hitler’s hatred of Jews, the potential for a war of racial destruction was always there

. Operation Barbarossa provided Hitler with both the opportunity and justification

. No order signed by Hitler containing an explicit command to exterminate the Jews has so far come
to light

2. Himmler, Heydrich and the SS

. Himmler was able to commit SS resources and manpower to planning, constructing and operating
the death camps, and SS units were also responsible for much of the killing in the USSR

Other leading Nazis

. Goring who had overall responsibility for the Jewish question until 1941, may have done so more to
enhance their own prestige and extend their own authority than for any great conviction

. Some like Albert Speer claimed ignorance of the Holocaust

The Euthanasia Connection

. The success of the euthanasia programme convinced Nazi leaders that mass murder was technically
possible

. The T-4 programme also showed that individuals largely selected at random, would carry out mass
killings without scruple

6. European Responsibility

. All the German satellites in central and eastern Europe, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, Hungary and
Bulgaria, had extreme right-wing governments, each of which introduced measures against Jews for
two purposes

- They pleased Hitler

- They placated powerful, indigenous anti-Semitic groups which modelled themselves on the
Nazi party
. The pro-German leaders of Croatia happily introduced discriminatory legislation against Jews was
encouraged even if not specifically ordered

. Bulgaria refused to hand over Jews who were Bulgarian citizens

. Until 1944 the Hungarian government was deaf to Germany’s deportation requests

. However, many Hungarians were antisemitic, Hungarian labour battalions before 1944, and
Hungarian troops willingly participated in the massacre of Soviet Jews

. In July Admiral Horthy, concerned about Western reaction, suspended deportations

. No collaborative governments in Nazi occupied Poland and the USSR to facilitate Holocaust

. Moat Poles do seem to have been indifferent to Jewish suffering

. France had a strong antisemitic tradition

. Danish political leaders were adamantly opposed to all aspects of Nazi antisemitism

. The Nazis encountered serious obstacles in Italy where antisemitism had never been very strong
and where most of the 50000 Jews were fully integrated inti Italian society

. In 1938 he did issue a number of anti-Jewish laws

. The actions of Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey show few instances of real concerns for the
Jews

. In an attempt to protect the 200 000 Jews still remaining in Budapest, they issued thousands of
letters of protection intended to safeguard the bearers

. In Finland where Nazis had no real power, none of the country’s 2000 Jews was killed

7. Jewish Responsibility

. Historian Raul Hilberg blamed the Jews and their leaders for not offering more in the way of
resistance

. Certainly, much of the Holocaust process depended on Jewish participation

. Jewish councils played a particularly important role in the German system

. The situation was similar in the camps where German authorities entrusted supervisory and
disciplinary functions to Jewish prisoners

. In defence, until mid-1942 most Jews were not fully aware of what was happening in the east

. The main charge against Jewish leaders is that they adopted the wrong tactics

. Some even claimed that Jewish resistance was proportionately higher than that of most other Nazi
victims

. Worth noting that 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war died in German custody either being shot,
starved or worked to death

. The most serios resistance came in Warsaw ghetto in April-May 1943

. The 60 000 or so survivors what to expect and some preparations to fight

. Successful armed resistance in the camps was virtually impossible as most inmates were weakened
by diseases and starvation

. Those hoping to conspire needed precise information about camp organisation

. More and more people could not be trusted

The Responsibility of Palestinian and American Jews

. After 1945, some European Jews bitterly criticized their brethren in Palestine and the USA for not
doing more to help them

. American Jewish leaders have been criticized for not pressurizing the US government to do more to
help

8. Allied Responsibility

. Despite German efforts to maintain secrecy, word about the Holocaust quickly leaked to the
outside word

. Some 70% of Jews had escaped Third Reich before September 1939

. More US newspaper editors were similarly sceptical. Aware of exaggerated British propaganda
stories in the First World War they were reluctant to accept as gospel truth second and third hand
reports

. The allies lacked military capacity to bomb Auschwitz plus it remained a secret for quite long

. Even if it had been successfully bombed, Germans would have found other ways of killings

Palestine

. Britain has been particularly condemned for its unwillingness to allow more Jews to settle in
Palestine

. After 1936, aware that any further great influx of Jews into Palestine would alienate both the native
Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states

9. Papal Responsibility

. Serious charges been levied against Pius XII who became Pope in 1939

. It is difficult to defend Pope’s silence

. Over 90% of Germans were church going Christians yet they were unconcerned about the plight of
Jews