Q U E S T I O N : D I D H I T L E R , F R O M T H E V E R Y B E G I N N I N G , P L A N T O E X T E R M I N A T E A L L O F T H E J E W S I N E U R O P E ?

THE THREE SOLUTIONS

Myra Berkovits and Pat Holland

THE FIRST SOLUTION – 1850 - 1930

• Jews were allowed to leave Germany. • Expulsion of the Jews was not new in European

history. • Emigration from Germany was voluntary if the

Jews could find a country to accept them. • Paul de Lagarde, an anti-Semitic, 1885, and

Henry Handlon Beamish, 1920s, suggested that the Jews be removed to Madagascar. • The British thought the Jews could be settled in

Uganda. • Others recommended places in South America.

EXPULSION

• Br

Madagascar?Uganda?Palestine?South America?

HITLER LEANED TOWARD MADAGASCAR BECAUSE…

1. Germans occupied France in 1940 and controlled the island. The island was accessible.

2. Jews would lose German citizenship and be out of sight.

3. Jews would be hostages which would ensure the good behavior of Jews in the United States.

4. Jewish assets would pay for the evacuation but the SS would control the area.

5. The British fleet would move the Jews after Hitler conquered the British (Operation Sea Lion).

AlbertEinstein(math)Arturo Toscanini (music)

Enrico Fermi(physics)

The first solution was individualistic and voluntary.

SOME WHO EMIGRATED:

THE OTHER OPTION WAS POLAND

As the Jews left, Germany became more and more an area of the elderly and poor. Host areas drew young people in good health with training in farming or manual trades with capital.

By 1939, three-fourths of theJews in Germany were over 40. September 1,In 1939, the Germans attackedPoland.

THE SECOND SOLUTION ISOLATE THE JEWS IN ONE AREA OF A CITY

VENICE “GETO”

• In 1516, seven hundred Jews were forced to move to a part of Venice, that was an abandoned site of a 14th-century foundry that produced cannons. The word ”geto," that was used throughout Europe for the neighborhoods of isolated minority groups, originated in Venice.”Geto” is old Venetian dialect for "foundry.”

• Like most of the islands that make up Venice, the “geto” was totally surrounded by water. It’s two access points were controlled at night and early morning by heavy gates manned by Christian guards (paid for by the Jews), both protecting and segregating its inhabitants.

• Within one century, the community grew to more than 5,000, representing many languages and cultures. Although the original “geto” was periodically expanded, land was limited and quarters always cramped.

JEWISH IDENTIFICATION

GHETTOS

A way to abolish Jewish communities of fewer than 500 people was too establish areas for Jews to live in larger cities away from the non-Jewish population. They were usually:• governed by Judenrat (Jewish Council), the body of persons

representing the Jews and obliged to accept orders of German agencies

• surrounded by walls• in the poorest area of a town or city• an apartment shared by several families• overcrowded and therefore a major source of epidemics• occupied by families who began to hunger as a way of life• holding areas• maintained a curfew for residentsEven though the intent of ghettoization was the same in all locations, they differed in may ways, including the degree of isolation.

GHETTO LOCATIONS

The first ghetto was established in Poland on October 28, 1939 in Piotrkow.• Other more well know ghettos were:

• Lodz ghetto

• Warsaw ghetto

• Theresienstadt ghetto

WARSAW GHETTO

THE FINAL SOLUTION

Germany attacked Russia (Operation Barbarossa) on June 22, 1941.Hitler during that summer gave the order to Himmler for the “Final Solution” of the Jewish question with stipulations that the SS must carry out the order.Himmler sent the order to the four Einsatzkommandos (Special Task Forces).

MURDER NAZI-STYLE

Hitler believed early in “positive eugenics.” This meant that many of the weak, handicapped, mentally retarded, homosexuals, and aged in Germany had already been killed by 1939.

At first, the killing was done in hospitals with hypodermics, but this was too slow. Carbon monoxide was faster. German hospitals had a special room for “medical murder” (25 doctors and attendants were tried at Nuremburg).

Doctor Mengele did medicalexperiments on Jews at Auschwitz. Hewas also called “The Angel of Death”.

THE EINSATZGRUPPEN (KILLING SQUADS)

The Einsatzgruppen arrived in a village, and through local help, rounded up all of the Jews in the village. Jews dug their own graves or stood by a large ditch and were machined gunned or killed by hand-grenades. This affected the soldiers and used up precious bullets needed on the front lines. A new, more efficient method was necessary.

• Men were executed first.• Orphaned children, the hospitalized, and women second• This method was too slow.

The Einsatzgruppen then brought in carbon monoxide vans (ambulances) during the summer of 1941. This was a more efficient method.

http://youtube/2Q9geHKo1II Video: Ambulance

EINSATZGRUPPEN EXECUTIONS

• There were approximately 2,700 men in the killing squads. The estimate of deaths is 2,000,000 men, women, and children.

“WOE UNTO THEM THAT CALL EVIL GOOD, AND GOOD EVIL, "ISAIAH 5:20

Einsatzgruppen,Hitler’s willing executioners:

This “Aktion” took place outside of the Mizoc Ghetto, October 14, 1942.

A FASTER METHOD WAS NECESSARY

There were six extermination camps: 1. Auschwitz (2 mil.) 2. Sobibor (250,000) 3. Majdanik (1,380,000) 4. Treblinka (800,000) 5. Belzek (600,000) 6. Chelmno (340,000)

Auschwitz was many camps—Birkenau (entrance below), Bruno, and others.

The Auschwitz site was chosen for an extermination area because it was served by 40 train tracks.

Jews were rounded up in an “Aktion” and taken to the trains.

THE GERMAN TOURIST AGENCY ARRANGED FOR TRAVEL TO THE CAMPS FOR WHICH THE JEWS HAD TO PAY.

Mauthausen in Austria, was a forced labor camp. Inmates broke stones for roads, etc.

There were camps specifically designed for labor (Mauthausen), experimentations (Dachau), women (Ravensbruk), and the elite/artists/ and children (Thereisenstadt)

10% WERE SPARED FOR LABOR

•Work Camps• Transit Camps• Concentration Camps•Death Camps

For example Ravensbruk, in Germany was specifically for women to work. Rape was commonplace amongst the victims and perpetrators.

GENDER SPECIFIC CAMPS

CAMP NEIGHBORS Did those around the camps know what was

happening?

YES!The light of the fires lit up the sky day and night.They could smell the bodies burning.Hair is lighter than air and got on people’s clothes and in their food.Farmers used the ashes on their crops for fertilizer.People serviced the camps.

Majanek’s Memorial

• Inside of this Memorial is a mound of human ashes waiting to be recycled.

QUESTIONS

Did the United States know about the camps during the war? Yes, FDR, the State Department, the Jews, newspapers, and others knew about the camps.

Did Americans liberate the six extermination camps?

No, the Russians liberated those camps. Americans never saw them until Poland was liberated from Russia.

Do all survivors have tattoos?

No—it depends on the camp.

Did all Jews who were killed go to the ovens?

No—some were buried, some burned in open pits, and others died of starvation, diseases and malnutrition.

Did the Nazis devise the idea of wearing a yellow star?

No. The idea had been around during the Middle Ages.