3 - bombing, antisemitism & genocide

Question 1

Allied bombing

Answer 1

• began in 1940 (more frequent & intense by 1942)
• many moved from cities to rural areas
• attack on Hamburg (1943) killed 30,000
• govt forced to build emergency accommodation
• raids on Dresden (1945) killed 150,000 & destroyed 70% of properties
• nearly as many civilians were killed by bombing as the number of soldiers killed fighting

Question 2

When did Allied bombing begin?

Answer 2

1940

Question 3

Dresden bombing (1945)

Answer 3

• up to 150,000 killed
• 70% property destroyed

Question 4

impact of Allied bombing

Answer 4

• economic production figures show that blanket-bombing Germany failed
• bombing prevented Germany from reaching full economic potential
• caused industrial destruction
• breakdown in communications
• Germany forced to move workers to construct anti-aircraft batteries & underground sites (further limited production)

Question 5

morale after Allied bombing

Answer 5

• 1943, awareness that defeat was likely
• morale remained high & people continued to fight until the end of the war (May 1945)

Question 6

reasons why morale remained high & German people continued to fight until the end of the war

Answer 6

• some shared Hitler’s belief that he would establish a 1000-year Reich
• Gestapo forced people to keep fighting
• some believed Germany would develop a super-weapon & win the war
• bombing united people (as with Britain)

Question 7

How many Jewish people did the German occupation of Poland in 1939 bring under Nazi control?

Answer 7

3 million

Question 8

1941 anti-semitism

Answer 8

• June 1941 (following Barbarossa) -> SS rounded up Jewish people
• mass shootings & murdered 700,000 Jewish people (1941-42)
• from Sept 1941 -> had to wear Star of David so they could be easily identified
• fighting war & having to deal with no. of Jewish people = ‘final solution’

Question 9

The Final Solution

Answer 9

• agreed at Wannsee Conference (Jan 1942)
• policy changed from resettlement to extermination
• set up extermination centres at Auschwitz, Sobibor & Treblinka
• Jews moved from ghettoes to death camps (like an industry, located near railway lines to speed up transport)
• 1943 -> Warsaw ghetto destroyed & inhabitants sent to death camps
• 1944 -> Jews from all over conquered lands sent to death camps (away from Germany)

Question 10

When was the final solution agreed?

Answer 10

January 1942

Question 11

When was the Warsaw ghetto destroyed?

Answer 11

1943

Question 12

How many Jewish people were killed in total?

Answer 12

6 million
(along with political opponents; gay people; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Sinti, Roma & Gypsy people; anti-socials & Russian prisoners of war)

Question 13

arguments that the final solution was planned

Answer 13

• Hitler was committed to the extermination of Jewish people from early in his career
• followed consistent policy of gradually increasing persecution
• Holocaust intended because many Germans took part in it

Question 14

arguments that the final solution was not planned

Answer 14

• implementation was haphazard
• no written orders for the killing of Jewish people
• policy only decided at the end of 1941 & agreed at Wannsee in Germany 1942