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HIST2134 The Third Reich through Documents, 1933-1945

HIST2134 The Third Reich through Documents, 1933-1945. Lecture 9 : The Holocaust 23 April 2013. Holocaust. Holokautoma (Greek): “ a completely ( holos ) burnt ( kaustos ) sacrificial offering” Holocaust (Greek-English): “Violent death of large number of people”

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HIST2134 The Third Reich through Documents, 1933-1945

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  1. HIST2134The Third Reich through Documents, 1933-1945 Lecture 9: The Holocaust 23 April 2013

  2. Holocaust • Holokautoma (Greek): “a completely (holos) burnt (kaustos) sacrificial offering” • Holocaust (Greek-English): “Violent death of large number of people” • Shoa (Hebrew): “calamity” / “destruction” • Churban Europa (Hebrew): “European destruction” • Final Solution: NS term

  3. 3 Phases 1) Anti-Semitic radicalization, 1939-41 2) Systematic genocide in the Soviet Union, since summer 1941 3) Mass extermination program, spring 1942-45

  4. Radicalization, 1939-41 (1) Unrealistic NS plans: • ‘Selling’ of Jews & ‘Madagascar Plan’ Realistic NS plans: • Slave Labour & physical elimination ↓ Two main motivating factors: • 1) Murder of German mentally handicapped (s. end 1939): Regarded by NS as practicable and morally acceptable ‘final solution’ • 2) Hitler’s decision for war on SU (Dec 1940): Millions of Jews expected to come under German control ↓ • ► Final Solution

  5. Radicalization, 1939-41 (2) German-occupied Poland: • Persecution of 3 million Polish ‘Eastern Jews’ (Ostjuden) • Expulsion of Jews + imprisonment in ghettoes • Forced labour of Jews in work camps • Deportation of German Jews to Poland  Lack of any clear or comprehensive Holocaust program

  6. Systematic genocide, s. 1941 (1) • Coordinated by: Reich Central Security Office(Reichssicherheitshauptamt – RSHA ): Gestapo, criminal police, SD, SS • Executed by: 4 specially created RSHA ‘Special Units’ (Einsatzgruppen A-D): Members of Waffen-SS, Gestapo, criminal police, civilian order police

  7. Systematic genocide, s. 1941 (2) German-occupied parts of Soviet Union: • Mass arrests + shootings of ca. 500,000 Jews by RSHA Special Units (Einsatzgruppen) • ‘Local initiatives’ to liquidate large numbers of Jews  General confusion how to deal with 3,1 million SU Jews  Lack of comprehensive Holocaust program to exterminate SU + other European Jews

  8. Mass Extermination, 1942-45 German-occupied Eastern Europe: • Removal of German Jews to Eastern Europe (s. fall 1941) • ‘Wannsee Conference’ (20 Jan 1942): → Organisation of ‘Final Solutionof the Jewish Question’ by RSHA (Heydrich) → Transportation of all European Jews to East → Forced labor with insufficient nourishment →Systematic killing in gas chambers  Holocaust: Jews systematically killed in extermination camps

  9. Mass murder (1) RSHA Special Units (Einsatzgruppen) for killing operations (until 1942) → Very primitive method with strong psychological impact on murderers → Public opinion in occupied European countries opposed

  10. Mass murder (2) Centralised, industrialised mass murdering in special extermination camps (after 1942) • Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Sobibor, Belzec: Killing by gas → Murdering a step-by-step process → Less psychological impact on murderers

  11. Jews as victims From 18 countries, esp. from Eastern Europe: • Poland: 2,7 million • Soviet Union: 2,1 million • Hungary: 500,000 • Rumania: 210,000 • Czechoslovakia: 140,000 • Germany: 165,000 = 5,1 – 6,2 millions Jewish victims of Holocaust

  12. Hitler’s ‘big plan’ or program Hitler’s early speeches + writings regarded as ‘serious intentions’ But: Hardly any evidence of a ‘big plan’ before 1941 No concrete ‘Holocaust’ order of Hitler ever discovered Hitler easy alibi for NS institutions + leaders involved in Holocaust Intentionalist, programmatist, Hitlerist school

  13. Hitler a ‘weak’ dictator in polycracy No concrete order of Hitler ever discovered Hitler’s ideological intentions interpreted + developed + realized by government, army, bureaucracy, SD/SS But: Difficult to reconstruct exact decision-making processes inside the NS polycracy Hitler’s ideological intentions probably underestimated Structuralist, functionalist school

  14. Integrated school (1) Hitler’s role in Holocaust: • No ‘weak’ but also no omnipotent dictator • Hitler without ‘big plan’ or program for Holocaust • Hitler’s intentions as basic factor: Created brutal climate • Radicalisation without Hitler’s direct influence • But: Hitler’s omnipresent & indirect influence

  15. Integrated school (2) • Active participation of 4 power groups: SS/SD, bureaucracy, army, leading industrialists • ‘Final Solution’: ‘Local initiatives’ + centrally coordinated actions by RSHA (less by Hitler) • ‘Eliminationist’ Anti-Semitism in power groups unlikely and over-generalised (D.J. Goldhagen, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, 1996)

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