Removal of up to 45 million surplus slavs poles

“Removal” of up to 45 million “surplus” Slavs (Poles, Russians, Ukrainians,
Belarusans)
 Jarausch pp. 352-6 on GPO & ethnic cleansing Slavs
 But also Jews
o
Nazi antisemitism
Mass shootings: “Murder by bullets”
 Targets: Racial & political enemies | “Judeo-Bolsheviks”
 Perpetrators: Einsatzgruppen (EGN)
o
Mobile killing squads
o
4 groups followed Wehrmacht

 e.g. Einsatzkommando 3a of EGN A killed 137,346 Jews Jul.-Nov. 1941 in 112
Aktions | 71 locations 9 SELECT POPLE WERE DOING THE HORRID JOB)
 End 1941: up to 1.8 million
o
Numbers… (NAZIS KEPT RECORDS)
Picture:
Babi Yar (womans revine), Kiev Ukraine 33,741 Sept. 29-30, 1941
Streamlining the Killing

Difficult to do everything

Limits of shooting, ghettos, starvation as policy choices

Other options? Gassing at death camps
 The Final Solution for ALL European Jews from 1942
 Wannsee Jan. 1942
 Early 1942 (vansig conference of how to be killed): 75 % of Jews who would be
murdered were still alive
 Early 1943 : 75% who would be murdered were dead
The 6 Death Camps
 Death vs. concentration camps
 Gas to kill Jews (comes slowly, trial and error, large impact & minimal human
power)
o Experiments from 1941
 T4 program (experiments w/ carbon monoxide and then perfected)
 Soviet POWs: Auschwitz (Insecticide Zyklon B only at Aushwitz and
Majdanek)
 Jews at Chelmno (carbon monoxide in gas vans)
Concentration Camps
Route to the Death Camps
 West Epn Jews -> Ghettos EEp first Or straight to death camps (too many people
to kill & they need their labour capacity)
o “Resettlement to the East” deception: Valuables must be registered.
 Length of time in ghettos?
o Balancing labour needs with genocide goals
 Selection ramps at (some) camps
o
Labour or immediate death (age, health, gender)
 Peak killing years 1942-43
o Birkenau (Auschwitz II): 4 gas chambers 20,000 / day
 ~ 3 million

Hungary is having its own problems with far right movements. About 400,000 Jews
being deported June 1944
Sources for Genocide
Material history
o e.g. gas chambers, crematoria, corpses
Survivor testimonies
o Diaries
o
Memoirs
o
But Auschwitz vs. Belzec
Witness testimonies
o e.g. Train conductors, staff at camps, local residents
Perpetrator & collaborator testimonies
o Postwar trial
Deportation lists
o Train records, registered property, confiscated belongings
Warsaw ghetto archives
Aid & rescue groups
Nazi photographs
Nazi documents
o e.g. EGN “Incident reports” re: mass
CONCLUSIONS

~ 6 million

Perpetrators: Nazis +
 Collaborators

Bystanders?!
 Historiography
HI 250 Bloodlands
HI 364 The Holocaust
HI 288/388 Poland travel course
Lecture Outline

 End of War
o Jarausch ch. 14, “Bitter Victory” (review; it’s good!)
 Postwar Reconstruction
o Jarauch ch. 15, “Democratic Renewal”
o Denazification + political & economic rebuilding
o
Role of USA
The Last Days (Review)
 Nazis squeezed from West & East
 Hitler suicide Apr. 30
 Soviets in Berlin May 1945
 Surrender May 8: “Victory in Europe” Day
Picture:
Soviet flag over the Reichstag, central Berlin 1945
Ubiquitous devastation”
 1945 vs. 1918
