How and why were the Nazis able to carry out "the Final Solution to the Jewish problem in Europe" between 1939 and 1945?

James Noton 11G

How and why were the Nazis able to carry out “the Final Solution to the Jewish problem in Europe” between 1939 and 1945?

A decision was taken in Germany to embark on a final solution, a last attempt to rid the country of Jews. All the Jews in the part of Europe controlled by the Nazis were to be exterminated. Hitler hated the Jews (Anti-Semitism) and blamed them for Germanys defeat in WW1. Jews had been hated in medieval Europe during the enlightenment. They were even blamed for the crucifixion of Jesus. In the 1930s, before the war had begun, there was discrimination against the Jews as well as some violence. The most famous was the ‘Night of the Broken Glass’ (Kristallnacht). Nazi Stormtroopers set all synagogues in Germany on fire, windows of Jewish shops were smashed, and thousands of Jews were arrested. It was a warning to Jews in Germany and Austria to leave as soon as possible. All this led up to a ultimate effort to wipe out the whole of the Jewish population.

After the German invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the Second World War even more Jews came under German control. Adolf Eichmann, a leading Nazi, was put in charge of ‘Jewish resettlement’. Between 1939 and 1940 Jews were rounded up and sent to an area called Lublin in Poland after it was invaded. This idea of reservation was soon dropped however and they began to be moved into ghettos. Jews were expelled from their homes, and from towns and villages where their families had lived for generations. Carrying items of their past lives with them, they were marched or shipped in freight cars to the ghettos. Many died on the way from hunger, exhaustion, or murder. The first ghetto was set up in the city of Lodz, Poland. The order establishing it made it clear that this was only one step toward the Nazis' final goal. The order came from SS Brigadier General Friedrich Uebelhoer. The largest of the ghetto towns was in Warsaw. They were located in the oldest, most run-down sections of town. The buildings were in bad condition, often near collapse. Where running water and sanitary facilities existed, the overcrowding soon made them break down. Walls and barbed wire surrounded them. The ghettos were like captive cities. Each ghetto had a Jewish council that was responsible for shelter, hygiene, and manufacture. There were about seven people living in each room. They were given 300 calories of food a day. Most flats were unheated. People caught typhus, which was carried in bad drinking water. Anyone who left the ghetto was executed.In 1941 and 1942 the German army invaded the USSR, followed by the SS Einsatzgruppe. This was a force that murdered all the Jews it could find. It was soon occupied with continual shootings. The massacres usually took place in ditches near cities and towns. Occasionally, soldiers or local residents witnessed them. Before long, rumors of the killings were heard all over the world. Altogether it murdered over two million people. Initially this method of extermination only took place in Russia but it was soon used for all Jews under German control.

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Between 1942-5 Jews were rounded up in Germany, Eastern Europe, France and every other part of nazi controlled Europe. They were sent to death camps set in remote areas in Eastern Europe. The process of murdering Jews was well organized, efficient and structured. Trains continuously came into the death camps from all parts of Europe that were occupied by the Nazis. Railway trucks were prepared and timetables drawn up. Administrators, police, soldiers and ordinary people all helped to do this. Camps were even more crowded and brutal than the ghettos. Jews were sent into gas chambers that could kill 2000 people at a time. The Jews had their head shaved, the hair used for stuffing pillows. They had any gold teeth taken out which could be melted and converted to gold. They were all stripped naked and some were even given a piece of rock, which had a soapy covering so they genuinely thought they were going for a shower. The ‘shower’ was packed and instead of water deadly poisonous gas was released for 30 seconds. After about 20 minutes when the screaming stopped the Nazis knew that they were all dead. It was cheaper and much more effective. Mass graves were built and they were all flung inside or they were incinerated but that was more expensive. The first people to suffer were usually women, children, or older men, who could not work; Jews capable of labor stayed in shops or plants, but they too were eventually killed. From the Warsaw ghetto alone, more than 300,000 were exterminated. Auschwitz was used as a death camp as well as a slave labour camp. Prisoners worked in the fields around Auschwitz. The guards were told to ‘Work them to death’. Prisoners died through disease, exhaustion or lack of food. The killing speeded up in 1944 when the Nazis realised they were losing the war. At Auschwitz 10,000 were killed per day. The camps were liberated in 1945. Hitler committed suicide on 30 April and the killing ended at the same time as the war on 8 May 1945.

Why were the Nazis able to carry out the Final Solution? Firstly nobody really knew what was happening because the extermination camps were kept a strongly guarded secret. The SS leader, Heinrich Himler, considered that the final solution should always be kept secret. To describe what was happening to the Jews terms like ‘resettled’, ‘evacuated’ or ‘deported’ were used. Himmler’s deputy, Heydrich, gave orders in 1941 that the photographing or filming of the killing of Jews was restricted to anyone except officials and the results would be top secret. Nazis denied after the war that the holocaust ever happened.

Secondly there was the con trick of ‘Resettlement’, which helped the Final Solution stay undercover. The Nazis publicised this as much as possible. The Jews did not know what was going to happen to them until it was too late. The Germans had been trained by Nazi propaganda to not treat Jews like human beings. Propaganda films misleadingly depicted the camps as pleasant and welcoming places to live. The signs at the entrances of the gas chambers simply said ‘Baths’. They were not creepy looking at all. Tidy lawns were nearby with flower borders. The credulous Jews thought they were merely being taken to the baths for de lousing, soft music playing. Some Jews were given postcards to send home which said on them, “We are doing very well here. We have work and we are well treated. We await your arrival.”

Furthermore the war situation accelerated events. Whether Hitler planned the killing of the Jews from the start or whether it was caused by the war is unsure. Some argue that Hitler’s ideas written in Mein Kampf were directly responsible for the mass killing of the Jews, and that this was his ultimate plan. Other people argue that the influence of war was more important than Hitler’s intentions. The Nazis had put themselves in a position that led directly to genocide. Whether or not Hitler always wanted to exterminate the Jewish people, we can certainly see that the war acted as a catalyst. It speeded up the actions taken against the Jews and led to the holocaust directly.

Finally there was lack of resistance. The response of the Jews during the discrimination were widely mixed. Although there wasn’t a very large one there was a few Jewish resistance’s, there was 20 revolts in the ghettos and 5 in the concentration camps. There was resistance movements, which included groups which attacked German soldiers, destroyed German military stores and communications. In Poland there was at least 28 groups of Jewish fighters. Although the groups main aim was survival they were also trying to get the Germans to come to some sought of stop to this mistreatment but there attempted came to no avail and didn’t really threaten the Nazis in any way involving the Holocaust. During the roundups in Poland and Russia there were occasions when Jews resisted but very few escaped as the odds were against them. Most were caught and slaughtered. If people did know anything they may have been too scared to complain. Germans who did ask what was happening were informed the British were spreading rumours. Escaped Jews formed some resistance groups. Occasionally the locals aided them. Other times they were betrayed. They blew up railway lines and attacked Germans soldiers but the Germans took terrible revenge, often murdering innocent people. As the Allies were getting ready to invade in 1944 Jews were active in the underground groups that disrupted German communications in France. In some ghettos the Jewish leaders thought that by assisting the Nazis and manufacturing goods for them in their workshops they were protecting their people. In other ghettos such as Warsaw there were countless acts of resistance. The Warsaw Uprising is probably the most famous Jewish resistance. In April 1943, 2,000 armed SS troops entered the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, but there was a revelation awaiting the SS. They were surprised to find lightly equipped Jews engaged them in combat. This was the first act of organized resistance and inspired other groups to do so. From this point onwards resistances became more and more of an occurring thing as there was revolts in Mir ghetto, Tuchin ghetto, Lvov ghetto and 4 concentration camps. The second group of people who didn’t resist were the Germans. The lack of a powerful resistance movement to Hitler in Germany meant that there was no real threat to the final solution. In July 1944 Hitler survived an assassination attempt. The scheme members were all slaughtered. There was no disruption to the Final Solution. Nazis like Albert Speer who did not like what was happening kept quiet, as they were too frightened to say anything. The final group of people that didn’t intervene enough was the Allies. I think this is the most important factor that allowed Hitler to carry out the Final solution. There was no effort from them to stop it whereas if they had made an attempt I do not think the Nazis would not have been able to get away with it. They knew about Auschwitz as early as 1942 and in 1943 they said that people guilty of war crimes would face the most relentless penalty after the war had ended. However they should have made an attempt at bombing the camps or the railway lines leading to them. London, Washington and Moscow all felt that effort should be put into defeating Hitler. They thought this would be the best way to end the suffering of the Jews but it evidently was not. The control of the nazi state was massive allowing the process to go unchallenged.

The Final Solution is an example of racially prejudiced hatred. It started in Hitler’s mind and because of the power he brandished and a thoroughly well thought-out organisation (the SS) he could carry it out. The war situation accelerated the decision to kill the Jews and allowed it to be done undercover. The little resistance that came about was unsuccessful in stopping the process. The procedure of extermination was well-planned, professional and concerned huge resources of time, money and manpower. Major causes of the crime were the five-year occupation of Europe by Hitler, his loathing of Jews and his more enthusiastic lieutenants in the SS.