In What Ways did the Nazis Attempt to eliminate all Jews from Germany?

Coursework Question 3

From 1941 onwards, the Nazis used a number of methods to eliminate all Jews from Europe. Before 1941 the Nazis tried to move Jews out of Germany into other countries like Poland. This was called the first solution and this changed during the war. This changed because when Germany invaded Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia they inherited an additional 3.5 million Jews, and with another 3 million other Jews living in Germany, it meant that Hitler and the Nazis were now sharing their countries with 6.5 million Jews. This made it basically impossible for Hitler to carry on sending Jews to other countries. As a result of this Hitler organised a meeting in Wansee, which was called the Wansee conference. At the Wansee conference the final solution was agreed. The final solution was to send Jews and other small minority groups such as homosexuals and gypsies to extermination camps. This meant that Hitler had decided to wipe out all the Jews.

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Work/slave camps; also known as concentration camps were built to imprison Jews. In the camps the Jews were made to work extremely hard and they were fed very little. Only the strong fit Jewish people were sent to the camps. They decided who to put in the concentration camps when the S.S made the prisoners strip, run around and there would be doctors there which would examine them to decide whether they were fit enough to work or whether they should be taken and killed or sent to extermination camps. Most people made to work in the concentration camps often died of exhaustion or they were taken to the pits where the S.S shot them with machine guns, however with the limited food they were given many died of starvation. In the camps the S.S guards would use the Jews in the camps to test out what the best soldiers’ boots to wear were, they would do this by making the Jews wear different boots and then making them run around until they dropped to the floor with exhaustion. If they were to exhausted they were then shot if the guards thought they were unfit to work.

The Jews and other small minority groups that weren’t sent to concentration camps were sent to extermination camps. Auschwitz was the biggest extermination camp, it was built in Poland and the commandment of the camp was Rudolf Hoess. In the extermination camps there were two main ways of mass murder; one was that they were lined up together and then the S.S shot them with machine guns. The method of mass murder which killed the most prisoners was where they were gassed in gas chambers with a poisonous gas called Cyclon B. German doctors took the opportunity to do experiments on Jewish prisoners before they entered the chambers. The Jews were unable to protest and Dr Josef Mengele carried out operations and experiments on without the use of anaesthetics. Before entering the gas chambers the Jews were told to strip as they were going to have a shower. Once they were in the chambers the lights were turned off and gas came through holes in the walls. The guards waited thirty minutes before entering the chambers to avoid breathing in the poisonous gas themselves. When the guards who were often jewish entered the chambers they collected all gold rings and gold teeth. After that the Jews were burnt to discard evidence in crematoria that was built.

Prisoners were brought in on railways; they were built for the purpose of being able to gather great numbers of Jews into the camps at one time. They built the railways away from the main stations to prevent the German people getting on the trains that were going to the different camps. Inside the camps the prisoners were made to wear blue and grey striped uniforms. The Jews and communists were made to wear different badges on their uniforms. Jews were made to wear star shaped badges to discriminate them from the other minor minority groups.

Himmler and Heydrich played a main part in the attempt to eliminate Jews from Europe. Himmler was the leader of the S.S and he went on to control the Gestapo as well as the S.S. He was also in charge of all the extermination camps and he was greatly feared in Germany. Heydrich was made head of the Gestapo which made him Himmler’s deputy. Heydrich was assassinated in 1942 and later in 1945 Himmler committed suicide.

The mass murder of the Jews has became known has the Holocaust and this was the Nazis main attempt to eliminate all Jews from Germany.