Once the war began, obtaining information became more difficult, but, nonetheless, reports were published regarding the fate of the Jews. The "Final Solution" was not openly publicized by the Nazis, and thus it took longer for information to reach the "Free World. The response of the Jews in the "Free World" must also be divided into two periods, before and after the publication of information on the "Final Solution. Unfortunately, the views on how to best achieve these goals differed and effective action was often hampered by the lack of internal unity.
Moreover, very few Jewish leaders actually realized the scope of the danger. Following the publication of the news of the "Final Solution," attempts were made to launch rescue attempts via neutral states and to send aid to Jews under Nazi rule. These attempts, which were far from adequate, were further hampered by the lack of assistance and obstruction from government channels.
Additional attempts to achieve internal unity during this period failed. Did the Jews in Europe realize what was going to happen to them? Regarding the knowledge of the "Final Solution" by its potential victims, several key points must be kept in mind. First of all, the Nazis did not publicize the "Final Solution," nor did they ever openly speak about it.
Every attempt was made to fool the victims and, thereby, prevent or minimize resistance. Thus, deportees were always told that they were going to be "resettled. Following arrival in certain concentration camps, the inmates were forced to write home about the wonderful conditions in their new place of residence. The Germans made every effort to ensure secrecy.
In addition, the notion that human beings--let alone the civilized Germans--could build camps with special apparatus for mass murder seemed unbelievable in those days. Escapees who did return to the ghetto frequently encountered disbelief when they related their experiences.
Even Jews who had heard of the camps had difficulty believing reports of what the Germans were doing there. Inasmuch as each of the Jewish communities in Europe was almost completely isolated, there was a limited number of places with available information. Thus, there is no doubt that many European Jews were not aware of the "Final Solution," a fact that has been corroborated by German documents and the testimonies of survivors.
How many Jews were able to escape from Europe prior to the Holocaust? It is difficult to arrive at an exact figure for the number of Jews who were able to escape from Europe prior to World War II, since the available statistics are incomplete. From , , German and Austrian Jews left their homes.
Some immigrated to countries later overrun by the Nazis. During the years , approximately 35, emigrated from Bohemia and Moravia Czechoslovakia.
Shanghai, the only place in the world for which one did not need an entry visa, received approximately 20, European Jews mostly of German origin who fled their homelands. Immigration figures for countries of refuge during this period are not available. In addition, many countries did not provide a breakdown of immigration statistics according to ethnic groups. It is impossible, therefore, to ascertain. Various organizations attempted to facilitate the emigration of the Jews and non-Jews persecuted as Jews from Germany.
Among the programs launched were the "Transfer Agreement" between the Jewish Agency and the German government whereby immigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer their funds to that country in conjunction with the import of German goods to Palestine. Other efforts focused on retraining prospective emigrants in order to increase the number of those eligible for visas, since some countries barred the entry of members of certain professions.
Other groups attempted to help in various phases of refugee work: selection of candidates for emigration, transportation of refugees, aid in immigrant absorption, etc. Some groups attempted to facilitate increased emigration by enlisting the aid of governments and international organizations in seeking refugee havens. The League of Nations established an agency to aid refugees but its success was extremely limited due to a lack of political power and adequate funding.
The United States and Great Britain convened a conference in at Evian, France, seeking a solution to the refugee problem. With the exception of the Dominican Republic, the nations assembled refused to change their stringent immigration regulations, which were instrumental in preventing large-scale immigration.
In , the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, which had been established at the Evian Conference, initiated negotiations with leading German officials in an attempt to arrange for the relocation of a significant portion of German Jewry. However, these talks failed. Efforts were made for the illegal entry of Jewish immigrants to Palestine as early as July , but were later halted until July Large-scale efforts were resumed under the Mosad le-Aliya Bet, Revisionist Zionists, and private parties.
Attempts were also made, with some success, to facilitate the illegal entry of refugees to various countries in Latin America. The key reason for the relatively low number of refugees leaving Europe prior to World War II was the stringent immigration policies adopted by the prospective host countries. In the United States, for example, the number of immigrants was limited to , per year, divided by country of origin.
Moreover, the entry requirements were so stringent that available quotas were often not filled. Schemes to facilitate immigration outside the quotas never materialized as the majority of the American public consistently opposed the entry of additional refugees.
Other countries, particularly those in Latin America, adopted immigration policies that were similar or even more restrictive, thus closing the doors to prospective immigrants from the Third Reich. Great Britain, while somewhat more liberal than the United States on the entry of immigrants, took measures to severely limit Jewish immigration to Palestine. In May , the British issued a "White Paper" stipulating that only 75, Jewish immigrants would be allowed to enter Palestine over the course of the next five years 10, a year, plus an additional 25, This decision prevented hundreds of thousands of Jews from escaping Europe.
The countries most able to accept large numbers of refugees consistently refused to open their gates. Although a solution to the refugee problem was the agenda of the Evian Conference, only the Dominican Republic was willing to approve large-scale immigration. The United States and Great Britain proposed resettlement havens in under-developed areas e.
Guyana, formerly British Guiana, and the Philippines , but these were not suitable alternatives. Two important factors should be noted. At that time, there were no operative plans to kill the Jews. The goal was to induce them to leave, if necessary, by the use of force. It is also important to recognize the attitude of German Jewry.
While many German Jews were initially reluctant to emigrate, the majority sought to do so following Kristallnacht The Night of Broken Glass , November , Had havens been available, more people would certainly have emigrated. He considered this area the natural territory of the German people, an area to which they were entitled by right, the Lebensraum living space that Germany needed so badly for its farmers to have enough soil.
Hitler maintained that these areas were needed for the Aryan race to preserve itself and assure its dominance. There is no question that Hitler knew that, by launching the war in the East, the Nazis would be forced to deal with serious racial problems in view of the composition of the population in the Eastern areas.
Thus, the Nazis had detailed plans for the subjugation of the Slavs, who would be reduced to serfdom status and whose primary function would be to serve as a source of cheap labor for Aryan farmers. Those elements of the local population, who were of higher racial stock, would be taken to Germany where they would be raised as Aryans. In Hitler's mind, the solution of the Jewish problem was also linked to the conquest of the eastern territories.
These areas had large Jewish populations and they would have to be dealt with accordingly. While at this point there was still no operative plan for mass annihilation, it was clear to Hitler that some sort of comprehensive solution would have to be found. There was also talk of establishing a Jewish reservation either in Madagascar or near Lublin, Poland. When he made the decisive decision to invade the Soviet Union, Hitler also gave instructions to embark upon the "Final Solution," the systematic murder of European Jewry.
Was there any opposition to the Nazis within Germany? Throughout the course of the Third Reich, there were different groups who opposed the Nazi regime and certain Nazi policies.
They engaged in resistance at different times and with various methods, aims, and scope. From the beginning, leftist political groups and a number of disappointed conservatives were in opposition; at a later date, church groups, government officials, students and businessmen also joined.
After the tide of the war was reversed, elements within the military played an active role in opposing Hitler. At no point, however, was there a unified resistance movement within Germany. Despite the difficult conditions to which Jews were subjected in Nazi-occupied Europe, many engaged in armed resistance against the Nazis. This resistance can be divided into three basic types of armed activities: ghetto revolts, resistance in concentration and death camps, and partisan warfare.
The Warsaw Ghetto revolt, which lasted for about five weeks beginning on April 19, , is probably the best-known example of armed Jewish resistance, but there were many ghetto revolts in which Jews fought against the Nazis. Jewish partisan units were active in many areas, including Baranovichi, Minsk, Naliboki forest, and Vilna.
While the sum total of armed resistance efforts by Jews was not militarily overwhelming and did not play a significant role in the defeat of Nazi Germany, these acts of resistance did lead to the rescue of an undetermined number of Jews, Nazi casualties, and untold damage to German property and self-esteem.
What was the Judenrat? The Judenrat was the council of Jews, appointed by the Nazis in each Jewish community or ghetto.
According to the directive from Reinhard Heydrich of the SS on September 21, , a Judenrat was to be established in every concentration of Jews in the occupied areas of Poland. They were led by noted community leaders. Enforcement of Nazi decrees affecting Jews and administration of the affairs of the Jewish community were the responsibilities of the Judenrat. These functions placed the Judenrat in a highly responsible, but controversial position, and many of their actions continue to be the subject of debate among historians.
While the intentions of the heads of councils were rarely challenged, their tactics and methods have been questioned. Among the most controversial were Mordechai Rumkowski in Lodz and Jacob Gens in Vilna, both of whom justified the sacrifice of some Jews in order to save others.
Leaders and members of the Judenrat were guided, for the most part, by a sense of communal responsibility, but lacked the power and the means to successfully thwart Nazi plans for annihilation of all Jews.
Its activities can basically be divided into three periods: 1. September, - June 22, The IRC confined its activities to sending food packages to those in distress in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Packages were distributed in accordance with the directives of the German Red Cross. Throughout this time, the IRC complied with the German contention that those in ghettos and camps constituted a threat to the security of the Reich and, therefore, were not allowed to receive aid from the IRC. June 22, - Summer Despite numerous requests by Jewish organizations, the IRC refused to publicly protest the mass annihilation of Jews and non-Jews in the camps, or to intervene on their behalf.
It maintained that any public action on behalf of those under Nazi rule would ultimately prove detrimental to their welfare. At the same time, the IRC attempted to send food parcels to those individuals whose addresses it possessed. The IRC did insist that it be allowed to visit concentration camps, and a delegation did visit the "model ghetto" of Terezin Theresienstadt.
The IRC request came following the receipt of information about the harsh living conditions in the camp. For Jews residing in the Greater German Reich and holding the status of subjects of the German Reich, the Nuremberg Laws would serve as a basis for determining who was a Jew.
In large labor columns, separated by gender, able-bodied Jews will be brought to those regions to build roads, whereby a large number will doubtlessly be lost through natural reduction. Any final remnant that survives will doubtless consist of the elements most capable of resistance.
They must be dealt with appropriately, since, representing the fruit of natural selection, they are to be regarded as the core of a new Jewish revival. Despite the euphemisms which appeared in the protocols of the meeting, the aim of the Wannsee Conference was clear to its participants: to further the coordination of a policy aimed at the physical annihilation of the European Jews. We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia.
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Browse A-Z Find articles, photos, maps, films, and more listed alphabetically. For Teachers Recommended resources and topics if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust. Wise — International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. During this period, the Nazis were planning to deport the Jews from the occupied territories to reservations in Poland or to the territory of the Soviet Union after its planned conquest. An alternative plan entailed deporting Jews to the island of Madagascar.
It should be noted that the Nazi plans did not include provisions regarding their accommodation or other living facilities, although they did go into the seizure of Jewish property. This suggests that the Nazis counted on high mortality rates among the Jews. In June , Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The army command was notified that war crimes would not be punished and that they had permission to execute all criminal suspects without trial.
By expelling, killing, or starving the population of the Soviet Union, the Germans want to create Lebensraum : a colony for Germans. Behind the German military lines, the Einsatzgruppen sprang into action. These were special killing units charged with the task of killing communist officials, partisans, and Jewish men between the ages of 15 and Their actions were officially intended to prevent resistance.
From August onwards, however, the Einsatzgruppen frequently also killed old people, women, and children. Their murders could hardly be considered 'retaliations'. The Jews in the Occupied Territories were usually ordered to report to a central point, often on the pretext of deportation, or they were rounded up during raids.
Then the Nazis would then take them to a remote place where they were executed. In alone, close to , Soviet Jews were murdered in this way. Historians disagree about the moment when Hitler decided that all European Jews should be killed. A signed order to do so does not exist.
However, based on other sources and events, there is a strong likelihood that the decision was made somewhere in the second half of Mass murder seems an extreme alternative to the previous plans for deportation. The war made it impossible to deport Jews to Madagascar, and the plan to push the Jews back further to the east could not be carried out because the victory over the Soviet Union was not forthcoming.
During the Wannsee Conference, on 20 January , Nazi officials discussed the execution of the planned murder of the eleven million Jews living in Europe. In late , the Nazis began preparing for the murder of more than two million Jews living in the General Government, the occupied part of Poland.
The Nazis also experimented with mass murder in other occupied and annexed areas of Eastern Europe. In Chelmno, they introduced the use of gas to kill Polish Jews. Here, the victims were murdered in gas chambers with diesel engine exhaust fumes immediately upon arrival.
The only purpose of the extermination camps was to kill people. Only a small number of Jews were kept alive to help with the killing process. In November , Aktion Reinhard was terminated. The camps were disassembled and the bodies of the victims were excavated and burned. The Nazis then planted trees on the grounds to wipe out their crimes. At least 1. In the middle of , the Germans began deporting Jews from the occupied territories in Western Europe.
The decision-making process and dynamics differed from one country to the next, as did the numbers of victims. There are several reasons for this difference. The Jews were crammed in overcrowded cattle wagons and transported to Eastern Europe. Most of them ended up at Auschwitz-Birkenau, but there were other concentration or extermination camps. Out of the , Dutch Jews who were murdered, 34, were killed in Sobibor.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was both a labour camp and an extermination camp. And so, upon arrival, the Jews were selected according to their age, health, and ability to work. Those who were not fit enough were gassed immediately.
The others had to do forced labour under barbaric conditions. The work was extremely hard, the little food was of poor quality, hygiene was poor, and Jews were often maltreated. Jews were brought in from other occupied parts of Europe. In and , deportations started from the occupied regions in Italy, Hungary, Greece, and the Balkans.
Only when the Allies were drawing near, by end of , did the persecution of the Jews slowly come to a halt. In the last months of the war, thousands of Jews and other prisoners died during the 'death marches' after the Germans had evacuated the concentration camps to prevent the prisoners from falling into the hands of the Allied troops. Even after liberation, people still died of malnutrition, disease, and exhaustion.
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