THE 'FINAL SOLUTION'

Question 1

WHAT were the actions towards Jewish people 1940-41?

Answer 1

Confused and uncontrolled. There was a mix of mass killings, ghettoisation and deportations

Question 2

WHEN was the Wannsee Conference?

Answer 2

January 1942

Question 3

WHAT was the Wannsee Conference?

Answer 3

A meeting to inform senior bureaucrats of their roles in implementing the decision to murder Jewish people in Europe (not the occasion where the decision was made)

Question 4

WHO was involved in the Wannsee Conference?

Answer 4

• 15 high-ranking Nazi officials
• Reinhard Heydrich was chairman
• Hitler and Himmler were not in attendance

Question 5

WHAT were the consequences of the Wannsee Conference?

Answer 5

Jewish people were now to be deported to specific areas where there was an organised camp system, accelerating the mass killings

Question 6

WHAT was Operation Reinhard?

Answer 6

The codename for the plan to murder all Jewish people in Poland, using death camps.

Question 7

HOW did the war turning against Germany affect the pace of the Nazi’s mass killings?

Answer 7

It accelerated the murder, the Nazis giving them a higher priority over military needs.

Question 8

WHEN did the Nazis start to shut down and conceal the mass killings?

Answer 8

November 1944, when the Soviets were advancing deep into Poland

Question 9

WHEN was the liberation of Auschwitz?

Answer 9

January 1945

Question 10

WHAT was the first established killing centre in Poland and WHEN was it set up?

Answer 10

Chelmno was the first established and it was created in December 1941

Question 11

WHAT are some examples of death camps in Poland?

Answer 11

Chelmno, Belzec, Treblinka and Auschwitz

Question 12

HOW MANY people were murdered in Treblinka death camp?

Answer 12

Almost a million

Question 13

WHEN was Auschwitz established as a major killing centre?

Answer 13

1943

Question 14

WHAT was the significance of Auschwitz death camp?

Answer 14

• Became the hub of the Nazi killing machine
• From 1943, most other camps weere shut down and people were to be transported to Auschwitz instead

Question 15

WHAT fraction of Holocaust victims died in Auschwitz?

Answer 15

1/5

Question 16

WHAT are some ways that Jewish people resisted the Nazis during the Holocaust?

Answer 16

• Groups of partisan fighters across Eastern Europe worked to sabotage German occupiers
• Revolts in ghettos and camps
• A network of Jewish organisations smuggled details of the mass killings to the Allies

Question 17

WHO were the Bielski brothers?

Answer 17

Partisan fighters who created a resistance group during the war, housing Jewish escapees and leading sabotage missions against Nazi forces

Question 18

WHAT is an example of Jewish resistance in a ghetto?

Answer 18

A large rising took place in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, lasting several months. The Nazis had to used significant force to crush it.

Question 19

WHAT is an example of Jewish resistance in Auschwitz?

Answer 19

In 1944, Jewish prisoners blew up Crematorium 4

Question 20

WHY did the news of the mass murders reaching the Allies during the war have little effect on the Holocaust?

Answer 20

• Western governments found it difficult to take in the full horror
• It wass difficult to take practical action against it

Question 21

WHEN did the death marches begin?

Answer 21

Autumn 1944

Question 22

HOW MANY people are thought to have died on the death marches?

Answer 22

250,000 - 400,000

Question 23

WHY were the death marches so horrific?

Answer 23

• They occurred during the freezing winter
• People were already malnourished from the camps
• Many died of illness/exhaustion

Question 24

WHAT is the intentionalist debate for the Holocaust?

Answer 24

• Hitler was motivated from the start
• All Germans either supported his anti-Semitic ideas or were incapable of opposing them due to terror/intimidation

Question 25

WHAT is the problem with the intentionalist debate regarding the Holocaust?

Answer 25

It is too simplistic: Hitler was not an all-powerful dictator, the terror system was not effective enough to crush all opposition and thousands were involved in the mass killings.

Question 26

WHAT is the structuralist debate for the Holocaust?

Answer 26

• Millions of ordinary people wwere involved in acts of persecution, deportation and killings
• Overlapping centres of power meant that men like Himmler and Heydrich significantly shaped the mass murders
• Thousands of lesser officials carried out orders enabling or implementing the Holocaust