Embedded Files
Adolf Hitler was the architect of the murderous Nazi regime. But Hitler did not mastermind every atrocity. His destructive dreams took shape through the actions of a vast army of followers, who often took things into their own hands. (2)
Forced ghettoisation was a large escalation from the pre-war anti-Jewish policy in Germany. Prior to the war, the Nazis had focused on encouraging Jews to emigrate from the Greater German Reich through their antisemitic policies and actions. By 1939 in Poland, the Nazis escalated their actions and segregated and imprisoned Jews for future deportation. Later, in 1941, this option was realised to be infeasible, and so the Nazis created extermination camps to liquidate the populations of the ghettos instead.
In 1941 approximately 338,000 Jews remained in Greater Germany. Until this point, Hitler had been reluctant to deport Jews in the German Reich until the war was over because of a fear of resistance and retaliation from the German population. But, in the autumn of 1941, key Nazi figures contributed to mounting pressure on Hitler to deport the German Jews. This pressure culminated in Hitler ordering the deportation of all Jews still in the 'Greater German Reich and Protectorate' between 15-17 September 1941.
On 20 January 1942, leading Nazi officials met in Wannsee, a southwestern suburb of Berlin. The Wannsee Conference had been called to discuss and coordinate a cheaper, more efficient, and permanent solution to the Nazis’ ‘Jewish problem’. The conference was attended by senior government and SS officials, and coordinated by Reinhard Heydrich. At the meeting, Heydrich gave a review of the Nazis’ Jewish policy, highlighting the recent (September-October 1941) removal of the Jews from the German Reich, and framing it as a temporary solution to the larger Jewish problem.
The final plan for the eleven million Jews remaining in Europe, as laid out by Heydrich, was to utilise them for work in the east on road works. Those who could not work, or became unable to work after a period of time, would be subject to special treatment. The Nazis used the term ‘special treatment’ as a euphemism for murder.
Whilst the exact methods of mass murder were not laid out in this meeting, it played a significant role in coordinating the Nazis’ genocidal actions. The policy of annihilation to be taken against Jews was made extremely clear by the Nazi leadership. By the end of 1942, six extermination camps were in operation. (3)
These extermination camps were:
Chełmno (in operation December 1941-January 1945)
Bełżec (in operation March-December 1942)
Sobibór (in operation May-July 1942 and October 1942-October 1943)
Treblinka (in operation July 1942-August 1943)
Majdanek (in operation September 1942-July 1944)
Auschwitz-Birkenau (in operation March 1942-January 1945)
In extermination camps, victims were murdered by being poisoned by gas. The process of murder was developed and adapted as each camp was built. For example, initially, at Chełmno, gas vans were used, but as the purpose-built extermination camps were established stationary gas chambers were found to be more effective.
In 1945, one of history’s most notorious figures committed suicide by ingesting cyanide. Heinrich Himmler, known for his role in the implementation of the “Final Solution,” is remembered for his heinous acts across Europe during World War II.
After the war, Allied powers came together to form the International Military Tribunal. From 1945 to 1946, Nazi leaders stood trial for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
A look back at the Nuremberg Trials of high-ranking Nazis by a Holocaust survivor, by the son of Hitler's deputy in Poland and by the daughter of a defense lawyer.
In the history of the Holocaust, the term collaboration refers to acts of cooperation with the Nazis, which helped them to carry out their racist policies – including the mass extermination of Jews and other victims. Without the help and support of collaborators, the Nazis would not have been able to murder as many Jews as quickly as they did. (4)
German citizens’ collaboration with the Nazis was widespread. The oppressive nature of the Nazi state meant that it was difficult not to be complicit in Nazi activities at some level – although some people played a much more active role in helping the Nazis to achieve their aims than others. (5) Collaboration took many different forms. Some types of collaboration were less extreme such as informing on neighbours to the Gestapo, or continuing to work in the Civil Service implementing Nazi policy. More extreme forms of collaboration included working as a death camp guard, or the actions of collaborationist governments, such as the Ustaša regime in Croatia. (4)
The Einsatzgruppen were special action units known mainly for their role in the systematic murder of the Jews in the Nazi occupied Soviet territories During the Holocaust. In this short animated video we learn about the formation of these units, their scope of operation following the German invasion of the Soviet Union as part of "Operation Barbarossa," and their development over time.
In the Holocaust era, countless ordinary people acted in ways that aided and hindered the persecution and murder of Jews and other targeted groups within Nazi Germany and across Europe.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum hosted a discussion to answer one of the most vexing questions of the Holocaust: How Did Ordinary Citizens Become Murderers?
Newsreels of the court proceedings were screened across the Allied nations and Germany. Those watching this footage had never seen anything like it before. These evidence films featured graphic scenes from the concentration camps during the Holocaust, as the camps were discovered by the Allied armies.
Resources
Resources
In, "Teaching about the Perpetrators: A Case Study", ISHS staff member Dr Noa Mkayton broaches the difficult subject of the perpetrators in the Holocaust. Dr Mkayton stresses the dangers in seeing perpetrators purely as otherworldy "monsters".
Taking the case study of Paul Salitter, a German Police officer tasked with escorting a transport of some 1,000 Jews to their deaths, we see a fairly ordinary person, oblivious to the moral ramifications of his actions.
The search for perpetrators continues, but as nearly all have died, only a small minority will ever have been brought to justice.
Ordinary Men is the story of Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the German Order Police, which was responsible for mass shootings and roundups of Jewish people for deportation to Nazi death camps in 1942. It argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but ordinary middle-aged men who committed these atrocities out of the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions.
Teaching Resources
Teaching Resources
This film outlines the path by which the Nazis and their collaborators led a state to war and to the murder of millions of people. By providing a concise overview of the Holocaust and those involved, this resource is intended to provoke reflection and discussion about the role of ordinary people, institutions, and nations between 1918 and 1945.
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