The Final Solution // Holocaust

What did it entail?

• The Holocaust was the persecution of 6 million Jews by the Nazis and it's collaborators from 1933-45. They saw the German people as superior to the Jews who to them were inferior. 
• All the way throughout the reign of the Nazis, they were always trying to isolate the Jewish people and drive them out of the country including legislation, economic boycotts and Kristallnacht.
• However, it wasn't till 1939 when Ghettos were introduced to house outcast Jews, where they lived in poor and cramped conditions.
• The Wannsee Conference in Spring 1942 saw the idea of the Final Solution brought up by Heydrich and Eichmann, in which other Nazi officials accepted, leading to the start of this mass killing operation. The SS estimated the annihilation of 11 million Jewish people, including those in unoccupied countries.  
• However mass killing started to occur in 1941, where the SS squad the Einzatgruppen began to murder Jewish people following the invasion of the Soviet Union. This was followed by the creation of Death Camps in December 1941 in Chlemno. They were to be killed in gas vans while those in 5 other camps including Belzec were to use carbon monoxide. 
• The SS and Nazi co-operators killed almost 6 million Jewish people in shootings or gas chambers put in death camps. About half of the Jews died in death camps, while the others were murdered by the firing squads in the Einzatgruppen.
• The term was made to cover up what the Nazis were actually supposedly talking about - the murder of millions of Jewish people in Europe. 
• Many people in the late 30's knew of the annihilation of the Jews, as shown in cinemas and news reels across the world. However, a large sum of those in Germany may not of known anything about the Holocaust. 

Who was involved and who wasn't?

Himmler - The head of terror within the Nazi state

Heydrich - The had of the SS and Wannsee Conference 

Eichmann - Sat alongside Heydrich at the Wannsee Conference and was Head Office in the resettlement of Jews.
Globocnik - Played a roke in Op Reinhard, which saw the extermination of over a million Polish Jews during the Holocaust.

Hitler - Head of the Nazi party and Furher of Germany during the Holocaust, may have authorised killings based on if Intentionalist or Structuralist view.  

Hoss - Commandment of Auschwitz
Eicke - Commandment of Dachau
Wirth - Inspector of euthanasia campaign and helped build Gas chambers at Belzec and Sobibor

Goebbels  - Propaganda's chief put out the negativity the Jews were having and the Nazi message of which was being made about the group. 

Why was it done?

• The Nazis did not see the Final Solution as always inevitable. This can be seen in the transportation scheme in which they would of been located to Madagascar. 
• However, due to the numerous laws such as the Nuremburg Laws against the Jews liberties and actions that happened and did not happen made the final solution occur. 
• Also, from victories in both the east and the west, some historians see the huge number of Jews taken from the countries as a way to force them into annihilation. They did try to store the Jews in ghettos such as Warsaw's, but once the number got out of hand, they had to find a solution and that was the mass killing of them.

How was it carried out?

• The Holocaust all started from 1933 when the Nazis gained power of Germany as Hitler became Furher. The Nuremburg Laws were passed meaning Jews couldn't access some parks, sports centres and German Schools. 
• This then lead to 1938, when Kristallnacht occurred, where Nazis and German people raided Jewish businesses.
• But, after 1939 is when it got real bad for the Jews of Europe. Genocide was adopted, and many handicapped Germans were killed. 1941 saw the invasion of the Soviet Union, where the Einzatgruppen began to shoot Jews from all ages. However, the inefficiency of this lead to the formation of death camps, where they were killed in gas chambers. 
• Even though the main priority was Jews, other 'undesireables' were killed in the camps in gas chambers to get them out of society.