history of the holocaust - midterm exam

No ghettos in france, but had nighttime curfew, forbidden to change residence so that officials could know where they were

"Aryanization" in france

The Stahlecker Report (Oct. 15, 1941)

"From the outset, it was to be expected that the Jewish problem in the Baltics was not going to be solved through pogroms alone. Yet, according to basic orders, the Security Police's cleansing activity had to aim at a complete annihilation of the Jews. Special commandos ... performed extensive executions. The operations... went smoothly..." -- SS Brigadier General Walther Stahlecker

John Demjanjuk

"ivan the terrible" ran gas chamber at Treblinka, found in ohio Ukrainian collaborator: defendant in 4 different court cases Ukrainian who emigrated to U.S. after WWII and settled in Cleveland and lived for a long time without anyone know anything about him besides that he was from Ukraine Americans identified him in a picture and he was accused of being brutal and known as "Ivan the terrible" and he was stripped of citizenship and sent to Israel and put on trial... soviet union falls apart, historians look into archives about holocaust, and collapse of USSR transformed studies of Holocaust AND of court cases More documents come to life and reveal that he wasn't at Treblinka(?) camp but he was a guard at different camps In 2008, the German government asked to prosecute him- he is extradited to Germany... trail held up form his bad health prolonging it... he is convicted, he appeals the conviction, but he ultimately dies in Germany while his appeal is in the works Question: why did men like him do these kinds of things? Some did it because they were prisoners of war... by end of 1941 Germans killed far more Soviet POWs than Jews... in a very FEW cases, Germans bedded the POWs- if the POWs were of a certain ethnicity (not Soviets) and had right political attitudes, they were often offered the chance to take special training... some saw German empire as an ally, saying Germans liberated them from the communist empire, and it was in their best interest to work with the Germans (ex: Ukrainians work with Germans because nationalists frustrated for long time that no free Ukrainian state has been created, then in 1930's, Stalin and Soviet policies wanted to integrate agricultural system of state and take land away from small holders and make large state owned farms... The horror of Collectivization (people dying of starvation and famine in Ukraine!!!)... Ukrainians see Soviet rule as a disaster for them... also, in addition to sense that Germany might be a liberator, there were also the advantages of careerism... seemed like a good idea to volunteer for the state that was now in charge... variety of motives that led people to help the Germans

Policy created by SS to go through Poland and find German Polish families who were German enough that they just needed to be brought up right in a truly German environment

"rescuing racially pure children"; kids know that German family is not their real family/parents, they're only there because of SS what is racial security- what did it mean when German troops were fighting in areas where lots of Jews live.

Himmler on "The Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East" May 1940:

- "We are interested in splitting the population of the East into as many parts and fragments as possible." - have these societies that have their own people, culture, but they want to split them because they can do what they want. - "In this way, it will be possible for us to carry out the racial sifting which must be the basis for our considerations." "For the non-German population of the Eat, there must be no higher school than 4th grade elementary school." - The goal: "Simple arithmetic up to 500, writing of one's name, the doctrine that it is a divine law to obey Germans, and to be honest and industrious, I don't think reading is necessary." "I hope that the concept of the Jews will be completely extinguished through the possibility of a large emigration of all Jews to Africa or some other colony"

Order police

- Worked in Poland & Russia - Rounded up Jews & killed them w guns - Took valuables - Told Jews they would be resettled - called "jew hunters" They begin to draft in people from army who had nothing to do with this

The french militia

-- pro vichy, pro german paramilitary force Created in 1943 to fight the French Resistance. Filled with supporters of the far right.

Concentration Camps

-e.g. Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Ravensbruck -Detention, transit; extermination capability

Labor camps (ca. 9000)

-slave labor for specific projects

Definition of Genocide, from Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, adopted by the UN (1948)

...any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, such as: (a)Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Nazi-Soviet Division of Poland

1939-1941

Relations between Hungary and Nazi Germany Important Dates

1941 hungary joins the war as a German ally March 1944: Germany occupies Hungary peacefully and then..... 1930s: Hungary's relations with Nazi Germany become ever closer (economic, political, diplomatic) 1938-1940: Hungary gaines (regains) territory because of good relatoins with Nazi Germany

Zril and Zeilek Jakab, ages 9 and 11

2 Hungarian Jewish boys From a formerly Hungarian town in Ukraine today Bilke was a town with about 1,000 Jews out of 8,000 people Picture of them was taken on May 26, 1944... a few days before, these boys and their family ordered to board a train in northeastern Hungary... train arrived at Auschwitz... picture from a few minutes after they arrived... part of a collection of photographs... not sure why it was taken... possibly given as a present to an SS officer, but we do not really know We know the scene... it is the unloading ramp at Auschwitz... although it is May/springtime, they are wearing their heavy winter coats... taken in a hurry and could not take much so they put on coats because they would need them when it became cold... they have been forced to put yellow stars on their coats by Hungarian government... this is the moment before selection, when men and women able to work (ages 16-45 or so) are selected for labor in brutal conditions, little food, and many perish from the condition... the others younger than 16 or older than 45 often sent right to the gas chambers... this picture was taken a few hours before the boys, their mother, and grandparents are sent to the gas chambers for murder

Jack Azous

A Greek Jew from the city of Salonika (Thessaloniki) Deported to Auschwitz in 1943, along with other Jews of Greece.

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise

A Jewish leader, of New York, wanted Roosevelt to speak out against Nazi's treatment of Jews. Member of the American Jewish Congress. Was apart of the mock Nazi trial in New York; one of the 20 witnesses. •President of the World Jewish Congress • •American Reform rabbi • •Friend of FDR • •Tried to spread information about genocide

Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)Created 1943

A guerilla army of the most radical nationalists Wanted to create an immediate independent Ukrainian state based on ethnic lines. Some of these men had served as auxiliary police for the Germans

Wannsee Conference

A meeting in which the "Final solution" and use of concentration camps were decided in 1942, Heydrich was the chief executor of the "Final Solution". Held in Wannsee, Berlin. -Mobile to stationary killing centers

Summary of one month for a mobile killing squad

A page from a report a leader from one of these squads puts together A document that describes on a day-by-day basis, what this particular killing squad had done, where it had been, and who/how many it had killed Ultimately produces a spreadsheet of genocide

After world war I

After losing a whole generation of working men, they needed people Fears about low birth rates and declining family values Anxieties about immigrants Legal france vs real france "Laws aren't real france" Created hatred towards prime minister, leon blum (1872-1950) Prime minister of france between 1936-1938 (popular front) Prominent frnech jew, socialist, democrat Fears of degeneration focus on blum as foreign jew Example of xaiver vallat, french rightist (later commissioner for jewish affairs during ww2) on blum as prime minister (1936) "Your coming to power is undoubtedly a historic event. For the first time this old gallo roman country will be governed by a jew. I dare say out loud what the country is thinking, deep inside: it is preferable for this country to be led by a man whose origins belong to his soil, than by a cunning talmudist" France should be governed by a Frenchman, not him Key themes: "legal france" vs "Real france" Fast forward to 1940: perhaps german occupation is not a bad thing (for a while, at least) Refocus on french nation, to build it up from the bottom level it seems to be now, and over time when we are strong again, we will be able to claim our rightful place and be an equal partner to germany

The Room at the Wannsee Villa where the conference was held

After the war, the final solution would be decided on... this was the idea at first, but: In summer of 1941, Germany invades Soviet Union and in the months to follow all the way into Winter of 1941, somehow there is a process where clearly there is a general consensus that comes into being... inside the Nazi regime from top (Hitler) to the bottom (the ground), the final solution to the Jewish question would come DURING the war instead of after the war... would be fighting two wars- one against the Soviet Union (a military war) and a second war against the Jews, and they will be fought simultaneously Think of how these two things go together

Martin Sandberger (born in 1911)

Also studied law Career took off after enlisting in SS They help him become judge Lead security squad, responsible for massacre of tens of thousands of Jews His death sentence was changed to a term in prison because he knew important people and they lobby for the change in his sentence... lived out rest of his life in Germany in quiet SS are energetic SS cultivated the idea that you deal with problems on the ground and then tell superiors what you have done- don't just look for your superiors and ask what to do... safest thing to do is just kill everyone then just pass that info along Carefully vetted by SS so they have the proper views No one forces you to be in SS you volunteer for it You must have proper ideological outlook and good approach

The Villa at Wannsee: Site of the Wannsee Conference (Jan. 20, 1942)

An important conference held in outskirts of Berlin in January 1942 Many say this is where leaders came together and discussed the final solution and this is where it was decided Lasted 85 minutes

Question of liberation- were Germans really liberators of Ukraine?

Answer is clearly no... there is a region of Ukraine that is set up under Nazi authorities and it is in this area that some of Hitler's fantasies are going to be carried out (Lebensraum... more living space)... earth is so fertile in Ukraine that it is a new bread basket for the German empire... Ukraine will provide food for Germany... German settlers can come in here and set up huge plantations where the local peasants will work as forced laborers for their German masters...Germans planned to transform Ukrainian society completely... interested in ruling the area and extracting what they want from it

Murderous Objectivity

Attitude that men in SS are not meant to be frothing at the mouth all the time about who they hate... they are supposed to be "professional" about killing... they see a job, do the job, get the job done... don't rave on about it... do things with "objectivity"... you see objective enemies you kill objective enemies The SS is able to take vision and come up with things like death camps and killing squads and killing entire populations of Jews in the Ukraine

Jews who were not born in france and did not have citizenship and many french felt they shouldn't be there was taken

Auchwitz was where most french jews were taken So french police took order

Samantha Power (U.S. Ambassador of the United Nations)

Became famous from book Genocide Problem from Hell Ways people thought about the genocide throughout 20th century... she is analytic/telling a story and thinking about how people talk about genocide, but also has a moral message, being that the U.S. and any decent government out there has a duty to try to stop or prevent genocide is they can The U.S. had a moral duty beyond balancing power, strategy, etc... they had a foreign policy imperative to take care of reports or accusations of genocide and investigate if genocide was happening, a duty to rally countries together and all pursue an end to that genocide... take all means necessary including possible military action Stopping genocide was an ethical imperative that was also a foreign policy Silence and inaction is a crime and makes a country an accessory to murder... contributing to the genocide People devote their lives to promoting this idea because there is this idea that U.S. has to do something about genocide... consequence of the Holocaust What did people try to do to stop genocide during WWII (the Holocaust)

More Important Dates

Before 1918, The Kingdom of Hungary is part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1918: The Empire collapses, Hungary is on the side of the losers (with Germany), revolution breaks out 1919: communists come to power for 5 months, then counter-revolutionary nationalists regain power 1920: The Treaty of Trianon // Hungary was forced to sign a peace treaty giving up on ca. ⅔ of its former territory (Like Treaty of Versailles for Germany) Goes from being a big country to a small country

The Stahlecker Report (Oct. 15, 1941)

By October 1941 he understands his duty is complete annihilation of the Jews What exactly does this mean? Important document for understanding where the units are

extermination camps

Camps attached to concentration camps used to execute people in massive gas chambers

Ghettos set up in Poland in 1940 because assumed the Jews would be moved there

Clear that the fate of all evacuees was death... he made no provisions for Jews surviving the work in the East... no one at the meeting asked him to clarify or assumed anything else... knew it was death for Jews The rest of the meeting was devoted to technical questions Lawyers sitting around arguing the fine points such as "what is considered a mixed race" so how do they identify certain people; interested in who is in charge and will tell people what to do

The Soviet Enemy: the sub-human

Describes the people of the Soviet Union... Germans are more intelligent and can defeat these people

How did they get there?

Did anyone try to help them? Did they know what was going to happen to them? Who is responsible for their deaths?... answering these questions uncovers basic truth about holocaust in Europe... not just an unspeakable tragedy that involved Germans and Jews and transcends Europe... it is part of history for all countries in Europe... to carry out final solution they had to communicate with other governments The story of these two boys is also a more complicated story about wartime politics... collaboration between Germany and polish government to get these boys to this camp in Poland May 26, 1944... this is quite a late date considering WWII ends in summer 1945... just a year before the end of WWII. The boys are healthy, seemingly well fed in this photo... in 1944 almost all of Poland's 3 million Jews were killed or in work camps... these boys were not! This shows that Holocaust played out differently from country to country... Germany has more control over some countries (like Poland)... for others they rely on partners who may of may not have parallel ideals to Germany... in Hungary almost nothing happened to the Jews until 1944 when things began to go quickly

A mental problem related to the jewish question

Difficult to see and kill that many people. even for the nazi's.

Jewish businesses are registered. Then they are confiscated

French officials wanted to control the assets before the Germans did.

The Judeo-Bolshevik Enemy

Fusion of Antisemitism and Anti-Communism Core idea of Nazi ideology from the beginning (This pamphlet, called The Gravediggers of Russia, is from the early 1920s) According to Nazi ideology: Jewish Bolsheviks caused the Russian revolution, destroyed traditional Russian culture, and made the Soviet Union into a base of Jewish power. In 1941, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, Nazi war planners made the Judeo-Bolshevik idea into a threat assessment. They were fighting the "Jewish Bolshevik enemy"

Reinhard Heydrich

German General of the SS Security Force who created the special strike forces to carry out Nazi plans to round up the Jews, steal their valuables, and execute them. One of the chief architects of the "Final Solution" Killed in 1942 Sent formal invitations to 15 people (top officials) to the Wannsee Conference

Einsatzgruppen - better defintion

German word for "special action squads"... really they are "mobile killing squads"... they go around to places and round civilians up and shoot them... groups created by the SS to establish security behind the lines... units move in behind the army and establish security in the areas the army has already conquered

"mission of the german people"

Germany has a destiny, these people don't; to set them like satellites into our planetary system, Germany would be like the sun; mission to bring civilization/ culture into Europe

end of SA

Good middle-class people don't like to see people getting beaten up in the streets, so the SA is marginalized, becomes much less important.

Collaboration in Hitler's Europe

Governments across Europe were emboldened by Nazi success to "remake" their own societies Nazi Germany also helped fascists across Europe defeat their political enemies, if you go country by country, details change Alliance with Nazi Germany helped allies to achieve terrirorial goals

Adolf Eichmann

He came to Hungary in March 1944 with a staff of 200 men How did 200 men convince the Hungarian government to help?

Samu Stern

Head of the Jewish Council in Hungary (Budapest) Banker, politically well connected, a leader of Hungary's Neolog Jewish community Neology= kind of like US conservative judaism The Jewish council did not circulate information about Auschwitz

Summer of 1941

Hitler declares war on the soviet union Very well thought out, and were planning even when signing peace treaty

Bolshevism

Hitler had always maintained that this was an ideology important to German civilization? Jews somehow controlled the Soviet Union... USSR is an enemy in two ways... the ideology behind USSR is a Jewish power which is in charge of millions of sub-human groups, hence a double racial threat to Germany... if allowed to expand westward, it would be the death of Germany and collapse of European culture Jewish Bolshevism, also Judeo-Bolshevism, is an anti-communist and antisemitic canard, which alleges that the Jews were the originators of the Russian Revolution in 1917, and that they held primary power among the Bolsheviks who led the revolution.

Hitler formally authorizes murder of the disabled

Hitler writes a top secret, unpublished letter that is enough for doctors to take part in the program to murder the handicapped The more research that has been done, no documents have been found that are signed by Hitler (like this one) authorizing this type of solution to exterminate the Jews Looking at a process of evolution- disturbing because a great crime must have a great moment when people come together to decide on this- if we can change that one moment, history could have been directed in a different way

A member of the SS cuts the beard of a Jewish man in Warsaw, 1939

Humiliation Physical assault But also, a symbolic act of violence because they recognize that the beard is a thing that marks him as a Jew

Result of German Friendship

Hungary is in favor with anyone that is in favor of changing the borders of Europe, so German comes saying that, and Hungary agrees that Germans shouldn't live in Czechoslovakia and see Hilter as an ally Hungary does regain some territory as Nazi Ally

Heidrich says the SS will decide on all these questions thank you for coming and that was it

IS THIS WHEN THE HOLOCAUST WAS DECIDED? When these 16 people met for just a few minutes longer than the length of our class to discuss moving Jews from France all the way to the Soviet Union... what were people saying to each other? This seems like a meeting where Heidrich is relaying a decision that was already made somewhere else... it is an informational session... there is no debate, only questions that are technical on how things will be implemented... turns out to be kind of a committee meeting where a decision made somewhere else is being explained by Heidrich... goes with debate of when Nazi policy of Final Solution emerged Process of evolution... involved a lot of people like Hitler and Heidrich at the top with top Nazis... then top commanders... involved top Nazi officials being vague on how to make policy a reality... many people involved in something that comes to this:

spreading the news of genocide

Ignacy Schwarzbart, Szmul Zygielboym (committed suicide in 1943)

example lemensraum

In 1939 when Germany occupies 2/3 of Poland, begins to try to do this re-engineering See that some of the same people are going to be in charge of running the extermination/ mass murder of Jews in Europe are thinking about the movement of populations Expel people from homes/ move people and Jews elsewhere

Helpers

In Browning's book Smaller number of people in occupied USSR who volunteered to work in units that work closely with the Germans About 25,000 people who do this total They were form eastern Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, occupied parts of USSR like Ukraine who volunteer to do this A few were ethnic Germans who live in various parts of USSR and when Germans show up, they are told they are members of master race and see it as wonderful and so they take part in this grand German thing to feel important Many others see German occupation as something that was actually an ally in their national aspirations Many people in USSR saw that German army had liberated them... controversial thing... idea in a nutshell is that just before WWII began are most difficult for USSR- famine in Ukraine, time in which Stalin got increasingly paranoid and put people on trial for sabotage and other things, by end of 1930 there are deportations form certain areas on an ethnic basis to Gulags... perception that USSR was oppressive in this way as well There were a number of states that enjoyed independence but lost it in 1940 when soviet army occupies those states and tries to Sovietize them People saw German occupation as a force that would liberate them from soviet rule and would let them flourish inside a German dominated Europe

thought of war against soviet union

In early months of 1941, Hitler and his leading party officials and leading members of general staff of army sit and discuss what a war against soviet union would involve... what is most important for our purposes is that there is a general idea that everyone shares that the war against USSR would be a different kind of war and the rules of warfare would be completely different... a war of annihilation and a war of extermination Hitler and Nazi party and racial scientists and entire regime saw it in racial terms... a sense in Nazi racial thinking that people in USSR were racially inferior to Germans As Germans look to east, they see a great expansed Slavic people who are far less cultured than the Germans are and represent a massive barbarity and would destroy European civilization is it spread beyond USSR into Europe

The "Commissar's Order" for Operation Barbarossa (6 June 1941 - a few weeks before invasion of USSR)

In the fight against Bolshevism it is not to be expected that the enemy will [respect] the principles of humanity... In particular, the political commissars can be expected [to treat] our prisoners [with] hate, cruel and inhuman. The army must be aware of the following: 1. In this battle it would be mistaken to show mercy or respect for international law. 2. The barbaric, Asiatic fighting methods are originated by the political commissars. Action must be taken against them with all severity.

The epicenter of Genocide

It is in these regions that the question of how to deal with Jews and the genocide going on is dealt with most greatly and most significantly

Reserve Police Battalion 101 in Lukow, Poland (1942)

Jews are made to look like religious Jews how Germans want them to- this is meant to be humiliating to the Jews The Germans look elated on the far left, then next to him a blank faced man, and on the right a bemused expression- hard to tell what they are thinking... but they are doing the violent things we read about

October 1944: Nazi Germany sets up fascist puppet regime

Locally encouraged local pro-german groups to expand discrimination towards Jews, new laws passed, forced into ghettos in Hungary, and in May-July 1944 440,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz Happened extremely quickly, every day from May to July had 7000-10,000 Jews a day, and no day did a train not go

Top Hungarian Collaborators

László Endre, Official in Interior Ministry Andor Jaross, Minister of Interior Worked together with Adolf Eichmann

Drancy Internment Camp

Major internment camp for Jews from France. Established 1941 At first, the French ran it. After 1943, the Germans did. Almost 65,000 Jews passed through Drancy between 1941 and 1944 on the way to Auschwitz. Only ca. 2000 of them survived.

Every Jewish survived only survived because at AT LEAST one point, someone or some several people who were not Jewish (Poles and Ukrainians) did something to help them- impossible to survive without some act from some non Jewish person in some way

Many forms- a warning about plans for a ghetto or raid is passed along so people in hiding would at least know they had to move and give them a chance at survival, local people/Poles may guide or smuggle Jews from ghettos into safety hiding places, food provided to Jews, most important and difficult and dangerous activities involved sheltering Jews and interacting with people who were passing as non Jewish -Anti-Semitic stereotypes clearly developed over centuries in German and Polish context of what a true Jew looks like- facial features, hair... if people did not look the part of being Jewish they could pass as non Jewish sometimes... also language is a big part... Jews in Eastern Poland spoke Yiddish, and Poles spoke Polish... two different types of languages... very possible to be completely fluent in Polish, but if born with Yiddish as primary language, there was something in your voice/accent that gave it away even when speaking perfect Polish - Sheltering... Every Jew is hiding needed a place of refuge... shelter involved a lot of difficulties... food was strictly rationed in Poland so how can you obtain food for a hidden Jew without attracting attention? Food had to be obtained in very careful ways. What if someone you were hiding became ill? Do you trust the doctor you know enough with the knowledge that if the doctor turns you in you will be arrested or sent to work camps with your whole family? Dangerous for entire family. What if that person dies? How do you bury their body? What kind of person does this? Anything we can say about the people who engage in rescue? Most people who do it do it more than once- rare to find a case of someone who helps someone one time then never helps someone again. Feel inclined to do it frequently. You cannot divide people by their politics, though (no more likely to be rescuers just by their political beliefs before the war)... many people who were super anti-Nazi did nothing! So nothing to do with it. Religion does not say much either. Rescuers are puzzles- individual people who make individual decisions that often board no relation to what they did before the war or what they may do after the war- just feels morally right for them.

Some of the discussions about the way in which the war would be fought:

March of 1941, Germany met with armed forced, made great impression on people that were there "there's going to be a cruel war coming; in this war, 20 million Slavs and Jews are going to perish because of war and food perishes", going to be such a brutal war there is international law governing how war should be fought, but Hitler said that international law does not apply to war in the east at all

Ukrainian Auxiliary Police

Men who volunteered (Ukrainian speaking people), felt that what they were doing was good for Ukrainian state, volunteered to help the Germans, including shooting thousands and thousands and thousands of Jews This opens up a big theme for us- influence of Germany in Nazi-ruled European countries Especially complex here- politically and morally Nazi occupation is different in some places

General Government in lower part of Poland- administrative area, where most radical policies against Jews are developed

Most of the ghettos in Poland are set up there Most of death camps set up there, see radical policies develop

The grand resettlement action

Nazi plans to resettle ethnic Germans from all over northeastern and southeastern Europe

Einsatzgruppen

Nazi strike forces that killed innocent Jews with their infamous "death squads" (Mobile Killing Squads) Einsatzgruppen, (German: "deployment groups") units of the Nazi security forces composed of members of the SS, the Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo; "Security Police"), and the Ordnungspolizei(Orpo; "Order Police") that acted as mobile killing units during the German invasions of Poland(1939) and the Soviet Union (1941). Originally created in advance of the occupation of the Sudetenland and Austria prior to the outbreak of World War II, these units received orders to confiscate political and governmental materials and to identify and arrest political enemies, including Jews, Freemasons, members of the Communist Party, religious leaders, and those suspected of political opposition to the Nazi regime.

March 1944: Germany occupies Hungary peacefully

No shots fired, and many people were willing to accept without too much trouble Germany involved for military reasons Knew this would be front lines, so wanted to set up there Saw Hungary with economic resources and wanted to mobilize it Main reason wasn't about Hungary being a safe haven for many Jews there, but that did bother them that there were so many Jews alive in the center of Europe However, actual reason for taking Hungary was about mobilizing resources and not about Jews After coming in, they transform the political government, force left wing party to shut down and force cabinet's ministers to let far right ministers come in, shut down newspapers, forced opposition politicians into retirement, no violence

Lemensraum

Only an adequately large space on this earth assures a nation of freedom on existence... Nazis should strive to eliminate disproportion between our population and our area, viewing this latter as a source of food as well as basis for power politics"- Hitler Germany had a destiny to expand, expand primarily to the east. All the area out there should be like a frontier where Germans should settle All Germans in the world should somehow be unified; those living outside should be brought into Germany, or Germany was going to expand to include them Nazis were arrogant in role that Germany should play, would just move people around to racially re-engineer the societies/ people who live in certain places

Einsatzgruppe D (Vinnytsia, Ukraine, 1941)

Otto Ohlendorf commanded Einsatzgruppe D At his trial in 1947-48, Ohlendorf said: "the Einsatzgruppen had the mission to protect the rear of the troops by killing the Jews, Romani, Communist functionaries, active Communists, uncooperative Slavs, and all persons who would endanger security." 1M deaths total

Expulsion of Poles from German-annexed Poland (1940)

Over 600,000 were forced to resettle German execution of polish hostages (1940) Execution of Poles (1939)

Ordinary People? Helpers, Bystanders, and Rescuers

Penalty for shooting a single German officer in occupied areas was a massive roundup of people and shooting all of them Penalties stated for offering to help Jews is death- something that is put up on posters, proclaimed by local German officials, and something people definitely remember in years after the war... but remember, local people bravely resisted the Nazi occupation in different ways... hide Jews, store supplies, provide information... underground armies provide great support... penalty of death for helping Jews, true, but people were willing to run the risk of death for other things What opens this up to is, in many of these areas, popular sense that this was not deserved? The German invasion and German war against Jews presented many people in Poland and Ukraine with the want to take Jewish property... extended beyond the people who wanted to commit violence against Jews... even for people not involved with deportations and shootings, those people still interested in taking property... people would go through the graves and look for items of value that may have been buried with the Jews that were shot intro the trenches... people resist giving property back to survivors when they return to their homes after the war... Polish peasants digging in graves in Treblinka to find gold or jewelry (there is a book written about this by Jan Gross called Golden Harvest)... Jan Gross found that this is a photograph of people taken looking to dig through the graves in Treblinka in search of gold or other forms of wealth that may have been buried beneath the earth... an indication of the widespread belief that Jewish property was theirs to be taken... idea that if this is going on, it was right for them to take the Jews' properties since they will not be coming back and not need it anymore

Reichskommisar Erich Koch, the top Nazi official in Ukraine

Quite blunt about the Germans' purpose for going to Ukraine... not interest in dreams of liberation for Ukrainians... just in them as workers and their land for food and that's it Attitudes of people for German occupation transform themselves very quickly... at first see German occupation as a liberation... material conditions did improve somewhat initially (because Germans not as efficient at demanding things of peasants right away)... then they get better at it and things get worse for Ukrainians... Germans also use extreme violence to deal with the public, creating policies like massive on the spot reprisals so if there was an act of violence against German officer, lots of people would be round up and shot to get back at the public... also lots of them are being deported form Ukraine to work in Germany, so more anti-sentiment toward Germany comes from this...

March 1944

Red Army advances put Hungary near the front line

The Kindertransport

Referring to a rescue operation carried out primarily by British organizations for Jewish children from Greater Germany, following the Kristallnacht pogrom and the British government's allowing 10,000 children to enter Great Britain : Arrival of Jewish refugee children (London, 1939)

ARChiTECTS OF THE FINAL SOLUTION

Reinhard Heydrich: Second-most important leader of the SS Heinrich Himmler: Reichsführer SS

Didn't Anyone Try to Stop It?

Rescuers in Hungary Raoul Wallenberg, Sweish diplomat stationed in Budapest Sára Salkaházi, Catholic religious sister

Persecuting Polish Jews as "Jews"

Ritual forms of humiliation- Polish Jews blamed for causing the war

rivne

Rivne was captured by Nazi Germany, which later established the city as the administrative centre of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. At the time, roughly half of Rivne's inhabitants were Jewish; of these, about 23,000 were taken to a pine grove in Sosenki and killed between November 6 and 8. Half were jewish, others were polish/ukranians Zionist youth group Germans began to escalate the violence beginning in rivne The killings of 23 thousand people took 2 days The mass shootings of jews in ukraine 1941-1944

The Helpers (Part II)

Roughly 25,000 people volunteered for police services in Nazi occupied countries in first few months of their occupation... big role in the final solution Show Polish Jews, often carried out most brutal actions of deporting Jews to death camps Important role that has to do with organization and a psychological component Volunteers were also shooters in murder squads going through USSR; took part in massacres... in many cases shooters in SS units had auxiliary police shooting with them as well and were then involved in these massacres Guards at concentration camps and death camps are also from auxiliary police... Ukrainian auxiliary police during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

SS Commandants of the Death Camps

Rudolf Hoess, Commandant of Auschwitz Franz Stangl, Commandant of Treblinka

Who is Responsible?

SS Officers and german policy members, as they decided to kill Jews from everywhere Wouldn't have been possible if Hungarian officials and police didn't actively take part in finding, registered, concentrating, and forcing them into trains. Their goal was eventually the same as germans The monument to the hungrian occupation

What becomes more important after Nazi's come to power is the SS. Once Nazi's come to power, step up all police activity against all threats about political regime, open up concentration camps, expand political forces (secret police)

SS thinks of itself as a racial elite, knights in shining armor, had a castle where leaders would meet at round table

Example: maurice papon

Secretary general for police in bordeaux in world war 2 Took part in depotantion of ca. 1700 jews to the drancy internment camp Enjoyed a long career in police administration and politics after 1945 Tried and convicted in a french court for "crimes against humanity" in 1998

Henry Morgenthau, Jr.

Secretary of the Treasury during World War II in the cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt • Urged FDR to take more aggressive action against Nazi atrocities

German police round up Jewish men or forced labor (Warsaw, 1940)

Shooting groups of Polish Jews Attacking people who can be seen as potential terrorists Tremendous amount of theft

Collaborative regime is called Vichy France

Slogan: Work, family, country France fought a war with germany less than 30 years ago, and an entire generation of french men died Showed old man ww1 hero, 80+ years old marshall ??? to be head of state New regime promised to work closely Liberty leading the people French revolution made the emancipation of jews possible Napoleon extrends jewish emancipation across europe German jews first preference was france

The T4 Project- Hadamar (1940)

Smoke coming from crematory where handicapped are killed Project comes up with innovations that are extremely suggestive to the occupation on Poland Disabled people in Germany were transferred to the killing centers Victims were deceived as much as possible until the last minute- effort into persuading the handicapped and their families that were devised to placate the people being killed- devises arrived at to deceive people about their fate up until the last moment- makes things move more smoothly Victims are murdered with gas (carbon monoxide at first)... it was assumed by the people who devised this program that it was quiet, quick, and more humane, and psychologically easier because did not require face to face killing Cremated to dispose of bodies immediately Experiments with gas vans- people put onto vans, exhaust pipes pointed into van, people inside die, and then bodies are cleared from the bus... it was found that this in itself did not solve all problems especially not the physiological issues- trucks get stuck, people scream, screams are heard by men fixing the truck and was not easy to hear, then clearing out the bodies was difficult as well because bodies filled with blood, urine, excrements... this solution did not solve problems and so camps come into play

Solving the "Jewish Question" in Hungary

Some Hungarians believed more had to be done to "solve" the "Jewish Question" in Hungary 1938-1944: A series of anti-Jewish laws, decrees, orders Grassroots response: antisemitic sign in a Hungarian shop. This means it is advertising itself as a "non-Jewish" business

By summer 1940, there were 1M Poles in Germany

Some on farms Some in factories Some were rented by the SS to be house servants

treaty of non-aggression between Germany & the Soviet Union

Soviet and Germany would not go to war together, and would divide up land For two years, (1939-1941), Germany takes 2/3 of Poland and claims it to be Germany. The rest of Poland is under Soviet rule, and Ukraine, other surrounding countries are under Soviet policy

Otto Ohlendorf (born in 1907)

Studied law After Nazis came to power he worked in different institutes... worked in think tanks in Berlin and became top person in SS Did a lot of planning for post war economy Promoted entrepreneurial activity Put on trial after war and hung in 1941

The Holocuast in Europe: France

Terrorized Jewish population, rounded up Jewish population and took them from French border to a camp in Poland Germany defeated France in lightning war in 1940

Final Solution

The Final Solution or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question was a Nazi plan for the extermination of the Jews during World War II. The "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" was the official code name for the murder of all Jews within reach, which was not limited to the European continent.

Kiev (the Babi Yar massacre)

The Germans entered Kiev on September 19, 1941 In the first few days, there were two explosions caused by mines and bombs left by the Soviet army before it retreated. One destroyed German HQ; the other, part of the city center. The Germans used this as a pretext to murder all the Jews left in Kiev. On September 29-30, the Germans (with some Ukrainian auxiliary police) shot 33,771 Jews in a ravine called Babi Yar. This was one of the largest single mass murders of WWII.

Arrow Cross

The Hungarian version of the German Nazi party that played a huge role in deporting many of Hungary's Jews.

the SA

The SA — Sturmabteilung, meaning 'assault division' — also known as the Brownshirts or Storm Troopers, was a violent paramilitary group attached to the Nazi Party in pre-World War Two Germany. The SA was instrumental in the Nazi's rise to power and played a diminished role during the Second World War. The Brownshirts are infamous for their operation outside of the law and their violent intimidation of Germany's leftists and Jewish population. It was the SA's thuggish vigilantism, independence from the regular army, and anti-capitalist sentiments of its leader, Ernst Röhm, that were ultimately its undoing.

Interwar Poland

The Second Polish Republic, commonly known as interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland in the period between the First and Second World Wars (1918-1939). Officially known as the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), the state was re-established in 1918, in the aftermath of World War I. The Second Republic ceased to exist in 1939, when Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and the Slovak Republic, marking the beginning of the European theatre of World War II

Consequence #1:

The Treaty of Trianon (1920)- Hungary loses territory

Ghettos - a temporary solution

The Warsaw ghetto from the "Polish side" Bookmark until such time it is possible to move them somewhere else

The french resistance

The french underground grew over time and became especially active in the second half of the war Sheltered jews in some cases but also tended to make distinction between native born jews and foreign born jews The resistance saw their mission in national terms: how to defend the french nation?

Compulsory work service

The germans used forced labor from all over europe to help their war effort This included rounding up French men and women for deportation to labor camps in Germany. This was extremely unpopular in France and helped build support for resistance.

The "Reichenau Order" (Oct. 1941)

The most important objective of this campaign against the Jewish-Bolshevik system is the complete destruction of its sources of power and the extermination of the Asiatic influence in European civilization. ... In this eastern theatre, the soldier is not only a man fighting in accordance with the rules of the art of war, but also the ruthless standard bearer of a national conception. ... For this reason the soldier must learn fully to appreciate the necessity for the severe but just retribution that must be meted out to the subhuman species of Jewry.

Municipal Orders Discriminating Against Jews (before 1944)

The sign reads"it is forbidden for Jews to enter the grounds of the beach" Even before Germans, prejudice against Jews existed

Action Reinhard

The squares of the camps and the stars are ghettos? These are the death camps involved in what the men of police battalion we read about are doing Antion Reinhard are the camps those men are involved in Time to address the Final Solution in Poland... people would be transported to camps in Poland and killed... some people left in ghettos as a workforce... this operation is called Antion Reinhard because Reinhard was assassinated and Himmler and SS decided to name it after him to honor him, in a way

Der untermensch

The subhuman

Peasants sometimes gave help to Germans on hunts for any last remaining Jews who were hiding On some occasions peasants would organize to hunt Jews themselves- track them down and turn them over to the Germans

There IS local activity to contribute to the Germans' plan Were there no people who helped Jews in this extreme situation? Yes there was. Despite all these factors, a number of people in Ukraine and Poland did put forth effort to help the Jews

The SS

There are ordinary men, then ideological killers... the ordinary men are sent there and given a context to figure out what they are doing There were laws in Nazi Germany that did not apply to SS at all It was not just a police force- it was a political and politicized police force... not meant to be objective or just police officers... have toe valuate security risks to Germany quickly and decisively... evaluate real threats and what were called "objective threats"... who could potentially threaten Germany... the SS men were trained to evaluate these threats according to ideological means Punish potential crimes committed by POTENTIAL enemies... Jews are potential enemies... they must defend against their potential crimes Their goal is to create permanent security for Germany and by permanent security, we mean getting rid of existing threats and possible threats int eh future SS evaluates threats not to individuals, but to the German people... the German people is an organic whole, and threats are like a bacteria or virus that affects the whole

physical problems related to the jewish question

There was a disposal of bodies, 1 million corpses became a problem.

The "selection" at Auschwitz (photo) of Hungarian Jews

Those selected to work and those selected for gas chambers, all elderly, mothers, and children killed

Where does the Final Solution come from?

To exterminate the Jews from Europe Nazi policies always more radical in places they just acquired (like in Poland in 1939?) How policy evolves... let's look at that as well as the question of decision making and what happens once the German regime decides to invade the Soviet Union in 1941

Otto Ohlendorf

Typical leader of mobile killing squad (Einsatzgruppen)

Otto Ohlendorf

Typical leader of mobile killing squad (Einsatzgruppen) He is a highly educated, highly capable bureaucrat Very well trained He is put on trial in Nuremburg Trials and tells of what he did in war and was willing to talk about what these people did

France: the ideals of the french revolution?

Unity of the french stability and nation would crumble if ideals were promoted The french reich tended to associate the threats from the revolution to the jews - more antisemitism Prominent french antisemitic magazine, caption says "their country" No where is their country, they want the whole world as their country "ruthless, borderless" The dreyfus affair Last decade of 19C in France Cap. alfred dreyfus stripped of his rank Pro-dreyfus protest by famous french writer, emile zola

Not only that Germany has a mission in the East to restore populations, but as Germany began to think about upcoming war (military planners already strategizing during truce with Soviets), and decide that the war is going to be new and different; war of annihilation, extermination

War between two different races, race war All of the fears are that sub-human people are going to take over Germany, which inspire German troops

Gave Adolf Eichmann the job of managing deportations to death camps

We learn that the main reason he wanted this meeting was to make it clear that a new general solution to the Jewish question had been found... old policy of forcing Jews to emigrate (leave Germany) was replaced by the Evacuation of All Jews to the East... he said Jews would work until they died; the ones who survived this work would be "dealt with"... evacuation for work in the east

USSR GERMANY

We see there is a trend, but difficult to see where the tipping point is... first they round up Jewish men and murder majority of Jewish men in towns... still setting up ghettos and move the Jews to the ghettos and shoot the men outside of town/outside the ghettos Not clear if a direct order to do this, but eventually there is just a consensus that this is what they are supposed to be doing... start to kill men, women, children, elderly, as well... now it is genocide... the deliberate murdering of a people Sometime by August/September, the killing squads are killing ALL Jews not just men They continue to call them partisans Their actions are considered top secret, but word eventually gets out... and their actions are observed by soldiers... this was completely apart from what Germans soldiers in army actually did, is what they said... but this was not the case... army always knew about what they were doing... no friction between army and security services These actions are systematic... it is happening all over USSR

Creation of Death Camps

What's interesting is that within the hierarchy of, especially the SS, there is kind of a debate about the effect on the men whoa re carrying out this work- concern that men doing killing on this scale for a long amount of time will not be able to continue for much longer Heinrich Himmler claims to be deeply disturbed by the mass killing he witnesses in Poland... worried about the effect it has on the men whoa re expected to do this everyday Worried about brutalization... was the wave of mass killings brutalizing the men and making them incapable of doing anything else The effect it is having on Germans is the concern here- not whether to stop what they are doing because it is so violent Killing of the sort we studied last time continues, but at the same time there is a concern that expanding this kind of policy outside of war zone would be difficult without rethinking how killing would be done Concern on the part of SS that solving the Jewish problem in Poland required different types of methods... A more humane mass killing to lessen the effect it has on the Germans doing the killing T4 Project= culmination of policies to murder the handicapped... if we recall, he said that techniques that were devised to make killing of handicapped go smoothly gained attention, and people involved were drafted and resent to Poland to apply what they learned from their experiences to a new situation... killing people more efficiently and humanely looks like an attractive alternative in Poland to help with the brutalization of Germans doing the killing everyday

Consequence #2:

White Terror - Jews are scapegoats White terror = counter-revolutionary violence against persons associated with (or suspected of associating with) the Bolshevik revolution 1919-ca.1921 Targeted socialists, communists, and Jews Jews targeted whether or not they were actually involved in any way with Bolshevism There were ca. 3000 people killed during the White Terror, half Jews Ca. 70,000 were imprisoned on suspicion of associating with the Revolution

Hungarian Jews Ordered to Wear Yellow Stars

Within days of the German occupation, the Hungarian government issues order requiring all Hungarian Jews to identify themselves and to register their propertyFew weeks after, ghettos are set up The sign reads "Jewish Quarter. Christians are forbidden to enter" NB: Unlike Poland, ghettos in Hungary existed for only a few weeks at a time It was not a concrete fence, wooden fences because they would be transported soon Decree comes in May to deport Jews from the ghettos Hungarian police ordering Jews of a small town to board the train for Auschwitz Jewish possessions stored in empty synagogue, owners have been deported Christian population of a small Hungarian ghetto looting after the Jews have been deported Photo: an elderly woman looting a Hungarian ghetto after the Jews have been deported

National Resistance Movements and the Jews

Yes there was resistance to the Nazis First movement- Polish Home Army (organized fighting force)... what was left over of polish army after it was defeated and took cashes of weapons underground... received some support including money (from polish government which was exiled to London at the time).... Well-organized social network... most effective armed organization that offers real armed resistance to Nazis... greatest achievement was in 1944 there was a massive uprising in city of Warsaw when soviet army was advancing... Polish army was going to kick German out of Warsaw to show Soviets that they liberated themselves, but Germans take them down and destroy most of the city with the uprising Second movement- Ukrainian Insurgent Army- creation of Ukrainian nationalists who wanted their own state; they are radicals, some actually served German occupiers as policemen, others had not and wanted immediate action to create a national territory... wanted to eliminate their three enemies (Germans, Soviets, and Polish people)... wanted a purely Ukrainian state... active in fighting against Germany at end of war and then civil war against Poles Both of these groups are nationalist groups- believe what they are doing is for the good of their ethnic nations Saw Jews as another ethnic group needing to be removed to create pure ethnic populations (Ukraine especially... Polish not as much)... Poles see it as fighting for Poland and Jews can deal with their own problem and not going to waste resources to fight them and their issues... Ukrainians see Jews as an ethnic enemy POINT IS THAT THERE ARE ACTIVE AND ARMED RESISTANCE AGAINST NAZI RULE... REQUIRING GREAT BRAVE BEHAVIOR

Did They Know What Would Happen to Them?

Yes, they knew they would roughly be killed there

Bloodlands-

a particular part of Europe where the majority of the victims of the Holocaust were killed (its where most of the killing was done)... moral questions take on a special importance in this particular region (do I help, what do I do, who is responsible, etc)... Holocaust takes on its greatest intensity here, the epicenter of violence and genocide... the center of the Holocaust

Enemies of the organic Volk...

a very organic type of language, Germans are like a body and you should wipe a disease out and kill the bacteria... you don't MANAGE the problem, you root out every last threat to the body... you root out every Jew to get rid of the issue/the weak people in society

why lemensraum

because During WWI, what led to German defeat was that Germany was blockaded, led to shortages of materials you need to keep economy going during wartime (food, materials, things to keep army going); Britain/ France had access to these but Germany did not Was a lot of thinking among Germans about how to deal with this problem; came up with fact that Eastern Europe should play a role during a future war (their raw materials, their economies should be harnessed to make Germany sufficient) Germany should be able to draw on all resources of Eastern Europe Sense that Germany should exploit materials at will, never consulted with people that lived there; just bringing culture to them and taking things from them

Szmalcownik

blackmailers; people who threatened to turn Jews over to the Germans unless they (the Jews) paid money

american antisemitism

charles lingbergh america first

Sept. 1939, Germany invaded Poland

dared England, France to do something to stop him they realized that if they caved in here it would continue, so invasion of Poland became start of war

think that a racial war against Communism and Bolshevism can blend in with a war against Jews; behind every communist there is a Jew

even if we don't know all the details about how this will be carried out, Hitler knows it'll be an apocalyptic war Hitler's prophecy: if there is going to be a world war, historical moment, point in world history- Germany is going to win and defeat everyone. It's not going to be a small war, will be an absolute transforming moment in human history.

Zoffia Kossak-Szczucka...

founder of underground group typing to home army called Zegota... intention of helping to hide Jews... very important Polish Catholic writer... wrote a famous statement in 1942, condemning German murders and complicity of Poles in it, yet words full of contradictions that are hard to explain... "the dying Jews are surrounded by pilots washing their hands... the silence cannot be tolerated any longer... no matter the reasons for it the silence is a disgrace" (silence of no one doing anything to help them)... but goes on and says "our feelings towards Jews have not changed... still considered enemies of Poland... they hate us more than they hate Germans..." (this basic set of ideas has not changed for her) "knowing all of this, does it relieve us of the duty to condemn these crimes... MAYBE LOOK UP QUOTE SINCE HE WON'T STOP SAYING IT..." as we watch this happen and become indifferent it becomes poisoning for us... Christian people should not kill our neighbors... doing nothing to stop it makes us morally more corroded... condemns what is going on around her and calls it out, says the fact that Poles are not helping is a sin and corrupting the Polish nation and making them worse Christians, but also believes the Jews are a problem and an enemy to Poland and her opinion about that has not changed... so many ideas in ONE PERSON'S head... interesting to think about...

Hiwis

german word for volunteers

why did Hitler dislike the Soviet Union?

hated Bolshevism and Communism, and considered Soviet Union to be the ground zero; super power that was head of governments he despises Russians, Ukrainians, Polish "Slavs" (racial term) They represented everything Germany didn't like

Marshal Philippe Pétain

head of a puppet government in southern france, stopped germans at battle of verdun, disgraced later as he collabed with them

solution to mental & physical problems of mass murder

ind more efficient ways of killing. This conference brings together the main idea guys behind mass executions -They decide to establish concentration centers(camps) -They estimate how many Jews will be killed and where -Jews were shipped, instead of going to where they lived.

1941

invasion of soviet union

concentration camps were made out of two groups

labor & extermination

monastic state of teutonic knights

main thing to know is there's a Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights- holy order of warrior priests who went out into Eastern Europe where people were uncivilized, un-Christian and brought Christianity and culture to people who were savages holy mission Germans had to fashion a leading role for themselves in Europe historical mission, Hitler as a Crusading knight

SS were

political police

The purpose of the police (Heinrich Himmler)...

real and potential enemies... the first thing Nazi party did was eliminate other parties (socialists and communists)... it is the spirit behind those parties that want to harm or damage or exterminate Germany so the goal is not just to look at possible manifestations, but for every expression of the Jewish spirit... that is the real/potential enemy

Nazi Propaganda Poster in Lithuania

saying Stalin and Jews oppressed them and it was their job to take on the Jewish Bolshevik enemy

Polish men and women are recruited for forced labor on a farm in Germany; taken away, given routine medical inspections

taken away from families

"War of Extermination"/Annihilation

this is a war of extermination between two ideologies- ours and theirs. If bolshevism won it would destroy us therefore we cannot spare the enemy... Bolsheviks need to be annihilated... rule of eye for an eye is too lenient... we must destroy them completely and cannot imagine a peace with them... they must be thoroughly annihilated"

how long was Poland's war with Germany

very short

Invasion of the Soviet Union/Operation Barbarossa

was a massive blitzkrieg attack in the 1941. Stalin was surprised because he was in the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Operation Barbarossa; the brunt of the Nazi attack landed on people that were not Russian but had been taken over by Soviet Forces. In late 1941 we see German army conquer much of western USSR and make it to the yellow line which is farthest the make it through USSR in WWII We see town of Stalingrad where war was essentially lost on the German side We also see the paths of special action squads that move from town to town... is there a moment you can discern a pattern/figure out when these men understood that what they were supposed to do was kill every Jew they could find

1933

year nazi's came into power in germany

Josef MengeleSS Officer and Doctor

•"The Angel of Death" • •SS garrison physician at Auschwitz • •Carried out cruel medical "experiments" on prisoners • •Led selections of new prisoner arrivals for labor or death • •Symbol of the brutality and sadism of the SS

"Hitler the Liberator"

•At first, many Ukrainians believed that Germany had come to liberate them from Stalin and Soviet rule. • •They remembered that the German army had (briefly) occupied Ukraine in 1918. At that time, the Germans had fought the Soviets and supported Ukrainian nationalism. • •They also remembered the massive famine of 1933, which was only eight years earlier. • •At first, the Germans reached out to Ukrainian nationalists and tried to recruit them.

Kurt Daluege, Head of the Order Police

•Daluege was an SS-Obergruppenführer. He had joined the SS in 1930 at Hitler's personal request and was very loyal to Hitler. • •He was in charge of all regular police in Germany or stationed outside Germany (like in Poland).

The "Hunger Plan:"Economic Management Plan for Occupied Ukraine

•From the protocols of several meetings. •#1: •The war can only be continued if the entire Wehrmacht is fed from Russia in the third year of the war. If we take what we need out of the country, there can be no doubt that tens of millions of people will die of starvation •#2: •Many ten of millions of people in this country will become superfluous and will die or must emigrate to Siberia. Attempts to rescue the population there from death through starvation by obtaining surpluses from the black earth zone [...] prevent the possibility of Germany holding out till the end of the war.

Some Basic Aspects of Genocide as a Concept

•Genocide can happen under the "cover" of war, but it is different from war. •Genocide is different from the violence that happens in civil wars or other kinds of armed political conflicts. •The victims of genocide are killed because of who they are; not what they do. •These ideas are fiercely debated by scholars of genocide and by people working in international law.

Martin Sandberger

•Lawyer by training • •Joined the SS in 1936 • •Became a prominent legal expert and judge in Nazi Germany • •Commanded a mobile killing squad, which was responsible for killing tens of thousands of Jews in the Soviet Union

ACTUAL Otto Ohlendorf

•Studied economics and law and became an economics expert •Joined the SS in 1926 •Commanding officer of Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing group) D, which was responsible for murdering over 90,000 Jews in the Soviet Unionq

Adolf Eichmann actual

•The "banality of evil" • •Headed sub-department of RSHA in charge of Jewish affairs and evacution • •Co-ordinated transportation for trains carrying Jewish prisoners across Europe to Auschwitz and other camps. • •The epitome of a "desk murderer."