Question 3: In what ways did the Nazis attempt to eliminate Jews in Europe from 1941 onward?
Adolf Hitler’s hatred for the Jews throughout his life triggered the biggest world war. It started out passive, but progressed to be one of the most horrendous mass slaughters against a race the world has ever seen. Hitler’s decision to eliminate all Jews came about in January 1942 at the wansee conference, attended by 15 Nazi senior bureaucrats led by reinhard heinrich head of the SS and Gestapo. The meeting was based around ‘the final solution’ a plan which would exterminate all the Jewish citizens in Europe. A couple of months after the meeting, the first gas chamber was installed at Auschwitz. The decision came about after Germany thought they were winning the war and the Jews were no longer needed.
The USSR brought lots of Jews under Nazi control, especially the disabled and gypsy Jews. The Einsatzgruppen was set up by Reinhard Heydrich and were the squad in charge of the slaughters of the ‘undesirables’. The Einsatzgruppen were a specialized German force who were mobile killing units and went into action behind German lines on the Eastern Front, killing innocent Jews. There were four groups of Einsatzgruppen and they were A, B, C and D. They were all posted in different areas behind the Eastern Front group A being the most feared. The Einsatzgruppen would transport all the Jews they came across to deserted places, and make them dig mass graves and undress. They would then line them all up and shoot a bullet through their back. They did it this way to save the Einsatzgruppen trauma. Previous to this murder was not used, however it was not passive. Ghettos were used to segregate the Jews and other undesirables from ‘pure blood’ German citizens. Half a million people died from the poor conditions of the ghettos and from the diseases lurking.
