“In completion of the task which was entrusted to you… on] January 24, 1939, of solving the Jewish question… …in the most convenient way possible… I [now] charge you with making all necessary preparations… for an overall solution of the Jewish question…I further charge you with submitting to me promptly an overall plan… for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.” 31 July 1941, Hermann Goering orders to Reinhard Heydrich of the SS. What is this message really saying?

The Final Solution Lesson Objectives To understand how Jewish people were treated during the war years escalated from persecution to extermination.

Discrimination

Laws Discrimination

Nuremberg Rally, 1935: Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honour – forbids marriage and sex between Aryans and Jews. Reich citizenship Law – deprives Jews of German citizenship. April 1938 – all property over 5000RM had to be registered. June – October – Jewish doctors and dentists could no longer treat Aryans and Jewish passports had to be stamped with a J.

Violence on Laws Discrimination Laws Discrimination

Kristallnacht: 9-10 November 1938: Thousands of Jewish businesses attacked. 91 Jews murdered. 20,000 sent to camps. Jews forced to pay 1 billion RM for the damage caused.

Violence Laws Discrimination

Violence Laws Discrimination

Violence Laws Discrimination What effect do you think the outbreak of war would have on Jewish people in Germany?

The outbreak of war changed Nazi attitudes in 4 ways  Removal of the Jews – emigration was now more difficult.  Actions could be more extreme as did not need to worry about opinions of other countries – who could stop them?  As Germany successfully occupied more territory number of Jews under Nazi control increased(also removed possible land for them to emigrate to).  Previous solutions to the ‘Jewish problem’ seemed increasingly inadequate.

September 1939: Conquest of Poland. Millions of Jews under Nazi control – slave labour and ghettos.

Ghettos Jewish reservations in towns Surrounded by walls Largest ghetto was in Warsaw( 55,000 died) Appalling conditions

The second idea was special murder squads Following the German army into battle were the Einsatzgruppen – Death Squads. Local people supported these killing squads, one of the main tasks of which was to kill all Jewish men, women and children in the areas that were being conquered. By December 1941, over 500,000 Soviet Jews had been murdered. However, for the Nazis leadership, conventional killing methods were insufficient and inefficient.

August Himmler visited the east and witnessed the killings – concerned for the ‘psychological burden’ on the killers – easier methods of killing developed.

And lastly they decided on the Final Solution On 20 January 1942, 15 leading officials of the Nazi state met at a villa in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin, to discuss the ‘Final solution of the Jewish Question’. The ’Final solution’ was a code name for the murder of all the Jews of Europe. The people present at the conference were to discuss how to make mass murder happen in an organised and methodical way.

And lastly they decided on the Final Solution The 'Wannsee protocol', the Nazis listed the Jews living in all of the countries of Europe. Have you noticed that Jews of England are included?

Wannsee 20 Jan 1942 "Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labour in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes. The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly, because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as the seed of a new Jewish revival"

Decisions made at Wannsee The SS decided gassing would be more efficient. Killing camps were to be built in Poland where Jews were to be exterminated. Gas chambers and crematoria built at camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka. Carbon monoxide and Zyklon B gases were used By time the camps were liberated by the Allies in 1945 up to 6 million Jews had been killed.

How did the Nazi’s treat Jews between 1933 and 1945 Plot on the Graph: Good Bad

How did the treatment of the Jews change between ?