WAR AND THE FINAL SOLUTION Pages

WAR AND THE FINAL SOLUTION 1 September 1939 – Germany invade Poland End 1941 – Germany control most of Europe and a large area of the USSR

WAR AND THE FINAL SOLUTION The war made the treatment o the Jews much worse! – Germany no longer needed to have policies that the world would agree with – 3 million Polish jews and 1 million in the USSR were under German control

GHETTOS

WHY GHETTOS? Causes: – Isolate jews from the rest of the community – Control the movements of Jewish people – Take control of valuable Jewish property. Effects – High death rate due to over crowding and poor conditions – This reinforced the propaganda about Jews being dirty and ‘sub-human’

GHETTOS After WWII started the Nazis made ghettos in captured towns and cities For example in Warsaw 380,000 Jews, 30% of the population, in 3% of the city By ,000 Jews dies of cold, hunger and disease in the ghetto

CONCENTRATION CAMPS 1933 – first camp at Dachau After 1939 the size and number of camps grew Prisoners were used as slave labour, many died from over work and starvation

BUCHENWALD 1937 – 1000 people Slave labour 1939 – 10,000 deliberate policy to work prisoners to death 1945 – 80, , 56,000 Jews died at Buchenwald

MAP OF CAMPS IN EUROPE

EINSATZGRUPPEN In 1939 and 1941 these groups of SS men followed the army into Poland and Russia, murdering and civilians who were ‘undesirable’ – Who were the undesirables in German society? By 1945, the Einsatzgruppen had killed 1.5 million Jews, gypsies and communist leaders

THE WANNSEE MEETING AND THE FINAL SOLUTION After the invasion of the soviet Union in June 1941, there were 4 million more Jews under german control – Göring argued against killing the Jews, they could be used as cheap labour – Himmler argued that the camps and ghettos were expensive to run and that the soldiers would be better used in the army Himmler’s ‘Final Solution’ won - January 1942, they met at Wannsee to work out the detail

THE FINAL SOLUTION Reinhard Heydrich was in charge of the plans All Jews to be transported to areas of Eastern Europe under German control Some of the fitter people would work on building projects – survivors killed Others sent to death camps to be gassed March 1942, the first death camp openned at Belzac in Poland

THE DEATH CAMPS

Local troops used as guards Prisoners ran the camps and the gas chambers – They were bady treated later killed Children and the sick killed first Killed using poison gas in the ‘showers’ Fit prisoners then cut of womens hair, took out gold teeth and jewellery At first bodies were buried in pits, then later burnt in cremetoria Some prisoners were used for medial experiments

SOME FRIGHTENING STATISTICS In Auschwitz in 1944, 400,000 Hungarian Jews were killed in 3 months By 1944, 90% of all Jews in Germany, Austria and Poland were dead , as the Allies came closer, prisoners were marched to camps closer to Germany 250,000 Jews are thought to have died during these ‘death marches’

EFFECTS OF THE DEATH CAMPS Millions of Jews died Other minority groups persecuted Nazis put on trial after the war as war criminals

THE OVERALL OUTCOME AND WHY? C. 6 million Jews died between – Equivalent of the whole of London today Other persecuted groups include – Homosexuals – Prostitutes – Alcoholics – Jehovas Witnesses – Disabled and mentally ill – gypsies

HOMEWORK Read pages and and add details of the increasing persecution of Jewish people to your timeline.

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