policies to untermenschen in wartime

Question 1

when did the final solution start and what was the aim?

Answer 1

1942
- aimed to exterminate all Jews in Europe

Question 2

what does Untermenschen mean?

Answer 2

‘less than human’

Question 3

final solution; 1933-39

Answer 3

• persecution of Jews increased
• Reichkristallnacht in November 1938

Question 4

final solution; 1941

Answer 4

• invasion of USSR made the war a racial war
• December; Nazis realised they couldn’t deport Jews to Madagascar or use ghettos and needed a bigger, more radical plan

Question 5

Wannsee Conference

Answer 5

• January 1942
• led by Reinhard Heydrich
• used to inform officials on their roles in the final solution

Question 6

final solution; 1942-43

Answer 6

• propaganda more anti-semitic
• mass deporting to death camps

Question 7

when and why did the death camps close down?

Answer 7

• Nov 1944 soviet armies were too close to death camps in Poland so remaining prisoners were sent on death marches
• Jan 1945, Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz
• other camps liberated by Britain and America in the following months

Question 8

Jewish resistance

Answer 8

• small scale and ineffective
• revolts in ghettos (Warsaw 1943)
• partisan groups raided German forces
• organised revolts in death camps (blew up a crematorium)

Question 9

others in death camps

Answer 9

• gypsies, had a separate camp in Auschwitz for them, around 250, 000 killed at these camps
• many homosexuals and Jehovah Witnesses killed in camps.

Question 10

why was hitler not a dictator in 1933?

Answer 10

hindenburg had authority and the nazis were a minority in the cabinet

Question 11

when was the reichstag dissolved?

Answer 11

February 1933

Question 12

when was the reichstag fire

Answer 12

27th february 1933

Question 13

why is the reichstag fire significant?

Answer 13

nazis blamed the communists as part of a plot to start a revolution and led to hindenburg allowing hitler to pass the emergency decree

Question 14

when was the decree for the protection of the people and the state passed and what was it?

Answer 14

28th feb 1933
- gave police increased powers to arrest and meant many political opponents could be arrested

Question 15

march 1933 reichstag election

Answer 15

• nazis won 43.9% of the vote

Question 16

when was the first concentration camp established?

Answer 16

8th march 1933

Question 17

when was the enabling act passed?

Answer 17

24th march 1933

Question 18

what was the enabling act?

Answer 18

gave hitler the power to issue decrees without the support of the Reichstag and without needing Hindenburg’s approval

Question 19

early nazi terror

Answer 19

• had control over the police and judges
• SA expanded
• violence against KPD, SPD and unions
• political opponents in concentration camps

Question 20

what was the pact of 1933?

Answer 20

Hitler met with army officers to assure them the Nazis were not a threat