Lecture 9: The Holocaust 23 April 2013 HIST2134 The Third Reich through Documents,

Holocaust Holokautoma (Greek): “a completely (holos) burnt (kaustos) sacrificial offering” Holocaust (Greek-English): “Violent death of large number of people” Shoa (Hebrew): “calamity” / “destruction” Churban Europa (Hebrew): “European destruction” Final Solution: NS term

3 Phases 1) Anti-Semitic radicalization, ) Systematic genocide in the Soviet Union, since summer ) Mass extermination program, spring

Radicalization, (1) Unrealistic NS plans:  ‘Selling’ of Jews & ‘Madagascar Plan’ Realistic NS plans:  Slave Labour & physical elimination ↓ Two main motivating factors:  1) Murder of German mentally handicapped (s. end 1939): Regarded by NS as practicable and morally acceptable ‘final solution’  2) Hitler’s decision for war on SU (Dec 1940): Millions of Jews expected to come under German control ↓  ► Final Solution

Radicalization, (2) German-occupied Poland: Persecution of 3 million Polish ‘Eastern Jews’ (Ostjuden) Expulsion of Jews + imprisonment in ghettoes Forced labour of Jews in work camps Deportation of German Jews to Poland  Lack of any clear or comprehensive Holocaust program

Systematic genocide, s (1) Coordinated by: Reich Central Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt – RSHA ): Gestapo, criminal police, SD, SS Executed by: 4 specially created RSHA ‘Special Units’ (Einsatzgruppen A-D): Members of Waffen-SS, Gestapo, criminal police, civilian order police

Systematic genocide, s (2) German-occupied parts of Soviet Union: Mass arrests + shootings of ca. 500,000 Jews by RSHA Special Units (Einsatzgruppen) ‘Local initiatives’ to liquidate large numbers of Jews  General confusion how to deal with 3,1 million SU Jews  Lack of comprehensive Holocaust program to exterminate SU + other European Jews

Mass Extermination, German-occupied Eastern Europe: Removal of German Jews to Eastern Europe (s. fall 1941) ‘Wannsee Conference’ (20 Jan 1942) : → Organisation of ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ by RSHA (Heydrich) → Transportation of all European Jews to East → Forced labor with insufficient nourishment → Systematic killing in gas chambers  Holocaust: Jews systematically killed in extermination camps

Mass murder (1) RSHA Special Units (Einsatzgruppen) for killing operations (until 1942) → Very primitive method with strong psychological impact on murderers → Public opinion in occupied European countries opposed

Mass murder (2) Centralised, industrialised mass murdering in special extermination camps (after 1942) Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Sobibor, Belzec: Killing by gas → Murdering a step-by-step process → Less psychological impact on murderers

Jews as victims From 18 countries, esp. from Eastern Europe: Poland: 2,7 million Soviet Union: 2,1 million Hungary: 500,000 Rumania: 210,000 Czechoslovakia: 140,000 Germany: 165,000 = 5,1 – 6,2 millions Jewish victims of Holocaust

Intentionalist, programmatist, Hitlerist school Hitler’s ‘big plan’ or program Hitler’s early speeches + writings regarded as ‘serious intentions’ But: Hardly any evidence of a ‘big plan’ before 1941 No concrete ‘Holocaust’ order of Hitler ever discovered Hitler easy alibi for NS institutions + leaders involved in Holocaust

Structuralist, functionalist school Hitler a ‘weak’ dictator in polycracy No concrete order of Hitler ever discovered Hitler’s ideological intentions interpreted + developed + realized by government, army, bureaucracy, SD/SS But: Difficult to reconstruct exact decision-making processes inside the NS polycracy Hitler’s ideological intentions probably underestimated

Integrated school (1) Hitler’s role in Holocaust: No ‘weak’ but also no omnipotent dictator Hitler without ‘big plan’ or program for Holocaust Hitler’s intentions as basic factor: Created brutal climate Radicalisation without Hitler’s direct influence But: Hitler’s omnipresent & indirect influence

Integrated school (2) Active participation of 4 power groups: SS/SD, bureaucracy, army, leading industrialists ‘Final Solution’: ‘Local initiatives’ + centrally coordinated actions by RSHA (less by Hitler) ‘Eliminationist’ Anti-Semitism in power groups unlikely and over-generalised (D.J. Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, 1996)