chapter twenty three

Question 1

in 1942 the nazi regime implemented it’d so called final solution to the

Answer 1

jewish question
ie a systematic attempt to exterminate the jewish population of occupied Europe

Question 2

by the end of the war between 5 and 6 million jews had been

Answer 2

murdered

Question 3

the nazis also targeted other racial groups which in their view were classified as

Answer 3

untermenschen - less than human
including slav peoples from Eastern Europe , Roma and sinti
and those considered racial undesirables - the mentally and phsycially disabled , homosexuals and members of religious sects

Question 4

a conference for nazi officials that was held at a villa on the shores of lake Wannsee near Berlin , seems too have been a key moment int he implementation of the systematic murder of jews - this took place in

Answer 4

January 1942

Question 5

the Wannsee conference was led by

Answer 5

reinhard Heydrich , the most senior man in the SS after himmler

Question 6

the decision to exterminate Europe jews was probably taken at some time in the summer of

Answer 6

1941 , after the invasion of the USSR had begun

Question 7

the Wannsee conference therefore was a meeting to inform officials of

Answer 7

their roles in the process

Question 8

after the conference the deportations of jews to designated camps became more

Answer 8

systematic and the mass killings of jews accelerated

Question 9

as the war turned against Germany in 1942-43 nazi propaganda became more focused on

Answer 9

anti semitism

Question 10

goebbels and other nazi leaders made no secret of their aim that the war would result in the destruction of the

Answer 10

jews , although they did not spell out exactly what was happening

Question 11

the jewish populations of occupied countries were rounded up and deported to death camps in Eastern Europe usually with

Answer 11

the co operation of civil authorities in those countries

Question 12

only in novemeber 1944 when soviet armies had advanced deeply into Poland and were getting close to the death camps did they nazis begin to

Answer 12

close down the camps and try to cancel what they had been doing

Question 13

surviving prisoners were sent on forced marches to the west and the cremotoria at

Answer 13

auschwitz was blown up

Question 14

in January 1945 soviet forces liberated

Answer 14

auschwitz

Question 15

other concentration camps in Germany itself were liberated in the coming months by

Answer 15

British and american forces

Question 16

concentration camps had existed in Germany itself since

Answer 16

1933

Question 17

they were brutal places to house political prisoners but they were not designated to

Answer 17

exterminate large numbers of people

Question 18

chelmno was the first death camo to be established , victims were first killed in vans pumped with carbon monoxide gas , later

Answer 18

zyklon B gas was used in all death camos

Question 19

Belzec , Soibbor and Treblinka were specially constructed as death camps , they were operational in 1942-3 the vast majority of jews sent there

Answer 19

died in gas chambers

Question 20

the largest of the camps was auschwitz-birkenau which became the hub of the extermination programme after 1943 . unlike the other death camos it was also a vast

Answer 20

industrial complex run by the SS using slave labour

Question 21

on arrival at auschwitz-birkenau prisoners would be inspected by the guards ; this deemed fit for work were sent to other parts of the camp while the rest -

Answer 21

mainly children , women with small children , the elderly and the sick - were sent straight to gas chambers

Question 22

from the end of 1941 , the nazis built a number of camps in occupied eastern Europe that were specifically designed to

Answer 22

facilitate the mass extermination of jews

Question 23

there were six of these death camps;

Answer 23

Auschwitz
chelmno
Majdanek
Belzec
Sobibor
Treblinka

Question 24

there was widespread jewish resistance although in the face of nazi repression , it was largely

Answer 24

small scale and ultimately ineffective

Question 25

in Eastern Europe partisan groups established base camos in forests from where they could mount sabotage raids on German forces , on elf these groups was led by the

Answer 25

Bielski brothers in Belarus which attracted 1200 partisans

Question 26

there were revolts in some ghettos including the ghetto of

Answer 26

Bialystok and another larger rising in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943

Question 27

there were organised revolts in the death camos of Sobibor and Treblinka in 1943 and at

Answer 27

auschwitz birkenau in 1944 , jewish prisoners blew up crematorium 4

Question 28

from autumn 1944 with German forces in retreat from the red army , the nazi regime organised evacuations and forced

Answer 28

marches from the camps in the east which caused terrible suffering and ,and deaths

Question 29

many died from exposure to harsh winter weather , malnourishment , illness and exhaustion . many more were shot by guards for being to slow estimates of the number killed on death marches range from

Answer 29

250,000 to 400,000

Question 30

between 5 and 6 million jews died in the holocaust but there were many other victims of

Answer 30

the nazis

Question 31

like the jews , gypsies and slavs were also classed as

Answer 31

untermenschen and were treated accordingly

Question 32

however policies towards these groups were inconsistent and evidence of a

Answer 32

systematic plan of extermination is fragmentary

Question 33

most gypsises were rounded up and sent to concentration camps , some to death campos , there was a separate gypsy camp at

Answer 33

auschwitz that housed thousands of men , women and children although some were immediately gassed , most died from the terrible conditions in which they lived around 250,000 gypsises were killed

Question 34

unlike western POW soviets POW were not sent to POW camps but most were sent to concentration camos and some to

Answer 34

death camps where they were gassed to death over 3 million died

Question 35

there were other victims to such as the many thousands of homosexuals and

Answer 35

Jehovah witnesses who died in concentration camps

Question 36

was hitler responsible for the holocaust ?

Answer 36

- fanatical anti semitism was always a major motivation for hitler as fruhrer - hitler who set the framework of goals in which his subordinates operated , creating a regime in which the potential for mass killings was always present - even though there was no written order from hitler to exterminate the jews has even been found , leading nazis operated in a system in which they were working towards the fruhrer

Question 37

were other nazi leaders responsible for the holocaust ?

Answer 37

- nazi regime had many overlapping centres of power and rival nazi leaders competed for hitlers approval - the actual implementation of the holocaust was the responsibility of the SS led by Himmler and his key subordinate Heydrich - other leading Nazis were also involved such as Bormann,Goering,Eichmann and Goebbels

Question 38

were germans as a whole responsible for the holocaust ?

Answer 38

- thousands of lower level officials , soldiers and police carried out the orders to deport and execute the millions of victims , these included many non germans in the occupied territories - hitler and his subordinates tried to keep the holocaust secret but some knowledge of the mass killings in the USSR was widespread in Germany - although the German people as a whole were not responsible for the decision to exterminate the jews dew were openly critical of the nazi actions and many were directly involved