"The Jewish Question" referred to the question of the role of Jewish people in society. The Nazis developed a plan to to exterminate the Jewish population and they called it The Final Solution, the answer to "The Jewish Question." The Nazis thought the Ghettos and the Special Action Groups and Order Police were too slow and inefficient. The only solution was to round up all Jews and kill them in mass numbers.
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The Special Action and Order Police were mobile firing squads designed to execute Jews.
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Extermination camps
To facilitate the Final Solution, the Nazis used these camps as mass killing centers. Chelmno was the first of these killing centers opened in 1941. The Nazis then built gas chambers which were filled with poison gas to maximize killing efficiency. Sometimes at the camps, Nazi doctors would perform medical experiments on people. |
The Jewish people rounded up by the Nazis and their allies were herded into trains and sent to concentration camps. Most Jewish people were sent to extermination camps. Some Jewish people were sent to labor camps. The people in these camps were treated like animals and were forced to work hard for long hours. Many people died due to the harsh conditions in the labor camps. The Jewish people who were sent to labor camps would ultimately be sent off to the extermination camps as well.
By 1942, the British and U.S government found out about the "The Final Solution." President Franklin D. Roosevelt thought the best way to stop this was to end the war as quickly as possible. But, some say the Allies reacted too slowly in preventing the killings. So when World War II ended in Germany on May 8th, 1945, the Allies were able to liberate all the extermination camps. Upon arriving in the Nazi death camps, the allies were horrified by the conditions the Jews were forced endure. Allied generals like Patton, forced German civilians to take a tour in the Nazi death camps and experience themselves the nightmares their government operated. |
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Important people of the Holocaust
Heinrich HimmlerAnne FrankJoseph GoebbelsAdolf Eichman |
Birth: 1900
Death: 1945 Heinrich Himmler was a leading figure in the Nazi party and was the head of the Gestapo (secret German police). He was the main architect of the Holocaust and was one of top authorities in the Nazi party. He then committed suicide. Born: 1929 Death:1945 Anne Frank was a famous Holocaust victim who became internationally recognized after her father published the "Diary of a Young Girl." It details her and her family in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She then died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration camp. Born: 1897 Death: 1945 Joseph Goebbels served as minister of propaganda in Germany and was responsible for presenting a good image of the Nazi government. Joseph Goebbels would commit suicide after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Born: 1906 Death: 1962 Adolf Eichman was one of the main organizers of the Holocaust and was responsible for the logistical management and mass deportation of Jews. He would later be captured by Mossad agents from Israel and would be executed in 1962. |