Final Solution Flashcards
(7 cards)
Forced Emigration and Identification
Between 1933 and 1939, 55–60% of Jews in Germany and Austria were removed through forced emigration.
Invasions of Eastern Europe increased the Jewish population under Nazi control.
Forced Jews to wear identifying badges or armbands (e.g., yellow Star of David).
Stamped Jewish passports with a red “J”.
Forced Jews to adopt the names “Israel” (men) or “Sarah” (women).
Severe punishments like beatings, arrests were enforced for non-compliance.
Ghettos origins
Ghettos were established to control and isolate Jews and Romani people.
Ghettos date back to Venice (1514) but were expanded massively by the Nazis (over 1,143 ghettos).
Ghettos were walled-off city sections with overcrowding, disease, and starvation.
• First ghetto was established in October 1939.
• Last ghetto: Łódź, ‘liquidated’ in August 1944.
• “Liquidation” = deportation to concentration or extermination camps.
Ghettos daily life
Jews were forcibly removed from homes. They were allowed to bring limited belongings and had to carry identification.
In ghettos:
Families shared cramped, overcrowded rooms.
Malnutrition, starvation, and disease were widespread.
Some worked for the Judenrat (Jewish council) or in forced labour to receive extra rations.
A few Jews disguised themselves to escape the ghettos.
Others resisted by joining underground groups or recording abuses.
Expansion of Concentration camps
• As ghettos reached capacity, the Nazis expanded the concentration camp network to relocate Jewish populations.
• Dachau opened on the 10th of March 1933 was the first camp, initially for German political prisoners.
• Camps were heavily guarded with barbed wire, electric fences, and automatic rifles.
• Conditions were horrific: overcrowding, starvation, disease, and brutal violence were common.
Brutality
Prisoners included Jews, Romani people, LGBTQI individuals, and other so-called untermenschen.
Eicke enforced physical and psychological torture, like:
• Pointless labour
• Public executions
• Beatings for minor rule-breaking
Food was extremely limited (a small bread lump and watery soup, starvation was widespread.
Daily Life in the Camps
• Men, women, and children were separated on arrival; doctors did quick checks and asked about age and skills.
• Prisoners were registered, numbered by tattooed or sewn on, shaved, and forced to shower publicly for dehumanisation
• Most went to overcrowded barracks; elderly, children, and many women were sent straight to gas chambers.
• Barracks held 700–1200 people with ~22 toilets and poor hygiene.
• Prisoners walked naked in the cold, missing prisoners in roll calls led to beatings, shootings, or execution.
• Daily “selektions” 3 times a day to choose who would be killed.
• Beatings, starvation, injuries, and no medical care meant most died within six weeks.
Final solution
Jewish population grew, emigration and ghettos became unfeasible.
• At Wannsee conference in 1942, the Nazi’s Schutzstaffel leaders Himmler and Heydrich announced the intent to annihilate 11 million Jews, more than actually lived in Nazi-controlled lands.
This plan included the extermination of Jews, Romani, Slavs, and others.
Victims were misled with false promises like emigration, jobs
• Technologies like Zyklon B and carbon monoxide were developed for mass killings.
• Train systems and mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen) were used to transport and kill people.
• Six extermination camps in Poland were equipped with gas chambers and crematoriums to handle large-scale murder and disposal.
