Holocaust Study Notes
→ What is the final solution for the Jewish Question?
Death camps:
1946: Nürnberg Trials → Denazification
- 1930s: Germany was most progressive nation on earth
- 1935 Nürnberg Laws: Stripped Rights
- “Jews” could not be German and were described as “other” and “Untermensch”
- 1938:
- Jews had to wear yellow star of davids
- Homosexuals had to wear a pink triangle at all times on their clothes
- Excluding them from the rest of society
- Kristallnacht (Night of broken glass)
- Boat: Spirit of the St. Louis - Refugees from Germany turned away from United States and Canada
- 1939 WWII starts
- Hans Frank wanted Europe to be “Judenfrei”, Jew free
- 2 Methods:
- Export the Jews to Madagascar → Britain was to not let that happen due to situation of War
- Convert Jews to Christianity
- Aktion 14f13
- Disabled people were forced to be sterilized
- “Inconvenient” because very expensive
- Every person that was mentally unfit was executed, gassed
- 1941: Operation Barbarossa
→ What is the final solution for the Jewish Question?
- Wannsee Conference:
- Adolf Eichmann
- Reinhardt Heydrich
- Heinrich Himmler, created the Einsatzgruppen (Schutzstaffel, SS)
- Holocaust by bullets, very easy to recruit locals, Hiwis (thrilled by Nazi invasion and the idea of “getting rid” of all the jews)
- Himmler: How can we expect the members of the SS not to be traumatized by the executions? Execution more humane towards executors rather than victims
Death camps:
- Auschwitz I → Barracks
- at first strictly a concentration camp, slave labour and terrible conditions for prisoners, however not a death camp
- Prisoners were claimed to be given “special treatment”, asked to pack up suitcases, thought they would be moved to a different land. Asked to pack up suitcases (2 each) and label them
- Trainride under horrific conditions: no Air, no Food, no Water for 2 days, many people did not survive
- Arrival: Separation by Gender, Doctor to judge whether people were able to work in the gas chamber
- Auschwitz II → Birkenau
- 2 gas chambers to start with, later to be extended to 5
- 1.6 Million people murdered in two years.
- Auschwitz III → Chemical plants
1946: Nürnberg Trials → Denazification
- New charge was invented: Crime against Humanity
- Joseph Mengele escaped
- Hitler committed suicide
- Eichmann escaped to South America, eventually got caught
- Hans Frank got hanged in Auschwitz
3, 2, 1
3 WordsCrimes - Against - Humanity
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2 Questions
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1 Metaphorethe prisoners were animals of no value to the Nazis
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