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{{Short description|Genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany}} | |||
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{{about|the state-sponsored genocide of European Jews during World War II|all peoples persecuted during this era|Holocaust victims}} | |||
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{{short description|Genocide of the European Jews by Nazi Germany and other groups}} | |||
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{{Infobox civilian attack | {{Infobox civilian attack | ||
| title |
| title = The Holocaust | ||
| partof |
| partof = ] | ||
| image |
| image = Selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 1944 (Auschwitz Album) 1b.jpg | ||
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| image_size = 240px | ||
| alt = Large number of people standing beside a railway siding with the camp gate in the background | |||
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| type = ], ], ], ], ], ], ] | |||
| caption = From the ]: ] arriving at ] in ], May 1944. Most were "selected" to go to the ]. Camp prisoners are visible in their striped uniforms.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/deportation-of-hungarian-jews |title=Deportation of Hungarian Jews |work=Timeline of Events |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate=6 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171125004028/https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/deportation-of-hungarian-jews |archive-date=25 November 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
| caption = Jews arriving at ] in ], May 1944. Most were ] to go to the ]. | |||
| location = ] and ] | |||
| location = Europe, primarily ] and the ] | |||
{{Infobox|child=yes | |||
| coordinates = | |||
| label1 = Description | |||
| date = 1941–1945 | |||
| data1 = Genocide of the European Jews}} | |||
| fatalities = ] | |||
| coordinates = | |||
| perps = ] along with ] and ] | |||
| date = 1941–1945{{sfn|Landau|2016|p=3}} | |||
}} | |||
| type = ], ] | |||
'''The Holocaust''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|ɒ|l|ə|k|ɔː|s|t|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Holocaust.wav}}, {{IPAc-en|usalso|ˈ|h|oʊ|l|ə|-}})<ref>{{cite LPD|3}}</ref> was the ] of ] during ]. Between 1941 and 1945, ] and ] systematically murdered ] across ], around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through ] and poison gas in ]s, chiefly ], ], ], ], and ] in ]. Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term ''Holocaust'' is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of these ]. | |||
| fatalities = {{plainlist| | |||
*Around 6 million ]s{{efn|name=definition}} | |||
*Other victims of Nazi persecution during the ]: 11 million<ref name=ushmm1/>}} | |||
| perps = Nazi Germany and ]<br>] | |||
| motive = ], ] | |||
{{Infobox|child=yes | |||
| label1 = Trials | |||
| data1 = ], ], ], and ]}} | |||
|}} | |||
'''The Holocaust''', also known as '''the Shoah''',{{efn|]: <big>{{lang|he|השואה}}</big>, ''HaShoah'', "the catastrophe"}} was the ] ] of the ]. Between 1941 and 1945, across ], ] and ] systematically murdered some six million ]s, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.{{efn|name=definition}}{{efn|]: "Six million Jews died in the Holocaust. ... According to the ''American Jewish Yearbook'', the Jewish population of Europe was about 9.5 million in 1933. ... By 1945, most European Jews—two out of every three—had been killed."<ref>{{cite book |title=Holocaust Encyclopedia|chapter=Remaining Jewish Population of Europe in 1945 |date= |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |chapter-url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/remaining-jewish-population-of-europe-in-1945|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613204721/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/remaining-jewish-population-of-europe-in-1945 |archivedate=13 June 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>}} The murders were carried out in ]s and ]; by a policy of ] in ]s; and in ]s and ]s in German ], chiefly ], ], ], ], ], and ] in ].<ref name=deathcamps/> | |||
The Nazis developed ] based on ] and ], and ] in early 1933. Meant to ], regardless of means, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated a nationwide ] in November 1938. After Germany ] in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ] to segregate Jews. Following the June 1941 ], 1.5 to 2 million Jews ] by German forces and local collaborators. | |||
Germany implemented the persecution in stages. Following ]'s ] on 30 January 1933, the regime built a network of concentration camps in Germany for political opponents and those deemed "undesirable", starting with ] on 22 March 1933.<ref>For the date, see {{harvnb|Marcuse|2001|p=21}}.</ref> After the passing of the ] on 24 March,{{sfn|Stackelberg|Winkle|2002|pp=141–143}} which gave Hitler ]s, the government began isolating Jews from civil society; this included ] in April 1933 and enacting the ] in September 1935. On 9–10 November 1938, eight months after Germany ], Jewish businesses and other buildings were ransacked, smashed or set on fire throughout Germany and Austria during what became known as '']'' (the "Night of Broken Glass"). After Germany ] in September 1939, triggering World War II, the regime set up ] to ] Jews from the rest of the population. Eventually thousands of camps and other detention sites were established across German-occupied Europe. | |||
Later in 1941 or early 1942, the highest levels of the German government decided to ]. Victims were deported by rail to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were killed with poison gas. Other Jews continued to be employed in ] where many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in deadly ]. Although many Jews tried to escape, surviving in hiding was difficult due to factors such as the lack of money to pay helpers and the risk of denunciation. The property, homes, and jobs belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to the German occupiers and other non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing continued at a lower rate until the ] in May 1945. | |||
The segregation of Jews in ghettos culminated in the policy of extermination the Nazis called the "]", discussed by senior Nazi officials at the ] in Berlin in January 1942. As German forces ], all anti-Jewish measures were radicalized. Under the coordination of the ], with directions from the highest leadership of the ], killings were committed within Germany itself, throughout occupied Europe, and within territories controlled by ]. Paramilitary ] called ], in cooperation with the ] and local collaborators, murdered around 1.3 million Jews in mass shootings and pogroms between 1941 and 1945. By mid-1942, victims were being deported from ghettos across Europe in sealed ] to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, they were worked to death or gassed. The killing continued until the ] in May 1945. | |||
Many ] emigrated outside of Europe after the war. A few ] faced criminal trials. Billions of dollars in ] have been paid, although falling short of the Jews' losses. The Holocaust has also been commemorated in ], and ]. It has become central to Western historical consciousness as a symbol of the ultimate human evil. | |||
The European Jews were targeted for extermination as part of a larger event during the Holocaust era, usually defined as beginning in January 1933,{{sfn|Gray|2015|p=5}} in which Germany and its collaborators ] other groups, including ] (chiefly ], ]), the ], the ], ], and ].{{efn|name=Stone2010}} The death toll of these groups is thought to rise to 11 million.<ref name=ushmm1/> | |||
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==Terminology and scope== | ==Terminology and scope== | ||
===Terminology=== | |||
{{Main|Names of the Holocaust}} | {{Main|Names of the Holocaust}} | ||
The term ''Holocaust'', derived from a Greek word meaning ']',{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=14}} has become the most common word used to describe the Nazi extermination of Jews in English and many other languages.{{efn|{{harvnb |Bartov |2023a |pp=18–19 |ps=, "Much of this debate curiously boils down to a very specific historical question, namely, did the Nazis target the Jews for genocide in a manner that was essentially different from their treatment of any other group under their rule? There can be little doubt that the Jews played a singular role in the Nazi ''imaginaire'' and that German Jewish policies distinguished them within the Nazi universe of murder and fantasy; but other groups clearly have been similarly targeted in other genocides 'the extent of the 'final solution' was ... shaped by an antisemitism that was colored by a different element over and above the racism and ethno-nationalism that explains the murder of other groups by Nazi Germany—that element being the view of 'the Jews' as an implacable, collective world enemy.' To be sure, this makes the Holocaust unique only within the context of the Nazi empire ..."}}; | |||
{{The Holocaust sidebar}} | |||
{{harvnb |Smith |2023 |p=36 |ps=, "The Holocaust is particular to Jews and yet has had increasing relevance for those who do not identify as Jewish. ... All Jews everywhere were to be murdered because of their racial heritage was 'put into state policy' on January 20, 1942 at the Wannsee conference (Bazyler 2017, 29). Witness to the genocide of the Jews is a uniquely Jewish experience, because only Jews were targeted by that policy, even if other groups were targeted for genocide under other policies. The Nazi regime committed genocide against the Roma and Sinti, governed by separate policies. They also committed war crimes against Soviet Prisoners of War under other policies. So too the mass murder of disabled and the mentally ill had their own policies. The Nazis committed multiple genocides and crimes against humanity, at the same time, sometimes in the same place, governed by different laws, policies, and practices. It is not correct to say that there were many victim types during 'the Holocaust,' if by 'the Holocaust' we mean the genocide of the Jews."}}; | |||
The term ''holocaust'', previously used in 1895 to describe the ] by ] ],{{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=1}} comes from the {{lang-el|ὁλόκαυστος|translit=holókaustos}}; {{lang|el|ὅλος}} ''hólos'', "whole" + {{lang|el|καυστός}} ''kaustós'', "burnt offering".{{efn|''Oxford Dictionaries'' (2017): "from Old French holocauste, via late Latin from Greek holokauston, from holos 'whole' + kaustos 'burnt' (from kaiein 'burn')".<ref name=OED>{{cite web |title=Holocaust |work=Oxford Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/holocaust |accessdate=4 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005101041/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/holocaust |archive-date=5 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{pb}} | |||
{{harvnb |Stone |2023 |loc=Introduction: What is the Holocaust?<!-- search "homosexuals" --> |ps=, "This is why the focus here is on the Jews. Roma, the disabled, Soviet POWs, homosexuals and other groups were victims of the Nazis, and it is entirely legitimate to study their fate alongside one another. But using the term 'Holocaust' to encompass all of these groups with the aim of being inclusive and not prioritizing one group's suffering, actually does a disservice to groups other than Jews. For the Nazis persecuted these groups for different reasons, reasons we fail to appreciate if we collapse them all together."}}; | |||
The '']'' (1904): "a sacrifice or offering entirely consumed by fire, in use among the Jews and some pagan nations. Figuratively, a great slaughter or sacrifice of life, as by fire or other accident, or in battle."<ref name=Whitney>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Whitney |editor-first=William Dwight |editor-link=William Dwight Whitney |year=1904 |title=Holocaust |encyclopedia=] |volume=4 |p=2859 |publisher= Century |oclc= 222373761 |url=https://archive.org/stream/centurydictio04whit#page/2858/mode/2up}}</ref>}} The biblical term '']'' ({{lang-he-n|שׁוֹאָה}}), meaning "destruction", became the standard ] term for the murder of the European Jews; ] is ] Holocaust Remembrance Day. According to '']'', the writer Yehuda Erez may have been the first to describe events in Germany as the ''shoah''. '']'' and then ''Haaretz'' both used the term in September 1939.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gilad |first1=Elon |title=Shoah: How a Biblical Term Became the Hebrew Word for Holocaust |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/holocaust-remembrance-day/.premium-shoah-how-a-biblical-term-became-the-hebrew-word-for-holocaust-1.5236861 |work=Haaretz |date=1 May 2019 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20191201010008/https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/holocaust-remembrance-day/.premium-shoah-how-a-biblical-term-became-the-hebrew-word-for-holocaust-1.5236861 |archivedate=1 December 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|The term ''shoah'' was used in a pamphlet in 1940, ''Sho'at Yehudei Polin'' ("Sho'ah of Polish Jews"), published by the United Aid Committee for the Jews in Poland.<ref>{{harvnb|Crowe|2008|p=1}}; {{cite web |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206419.pdf |title=Holocaust |publisher=Holocaust Resource Center, ] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205060512/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206419.pdf |archive-date=5 February 2018 |url-status=live}}{{pb}} | |||
{{harvnb |Engel |2021 |ps=, pp. 3 ("This book is about an encounter between two sets of human beings: on one hand, the people who acted on behalf of the German state, its agencies, or its almost 66 million citizens between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945; on the other, the more than 9 million Jews ...") and 5 ("Those discoveries about the encounter between the Third Reich and the Jews made that encounter stand out in the minds of many from other instances of Nazi persecution and encouraged observers to assign it its own special name.")}}; | |||
{{cite web |title=The Holocaust: Definition and Preliminary Discussion |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/the_holocaust.asp |publisher=Holocaust Resource Center, ] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626234806/http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/the_holocaust.asp |archive-date=26 June 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}<!--On 14 May 1948, during the ], ] referred to "The Nazi Holocaust, which engulfed millions of Jews in Europe".<ref>, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.</ref>--> | |||
{{harvnb |Jackson |2021 |pp=199–200 |ps=, "The Nazis killed some people almost exclusively due to their supposed genetic inferiority (the mentally and physically handicapped, Slavs, Roma); they killed others almost exclusively due to their perceived cultural decadence (communists, democrats, modernist authors and artists); but only the Jews were indicted on both grounds simultaneously and with equal vigor. ... This is not to say that Roma, communists, and others were not hated and murdered by the Nazis, but it is to note that the Jews were unique in being despised and assaulted in every dimension of their identity, corporeal and psychic."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Sahlstrom |2021 |p=291 |ps=, "the established understanding of the Holocaust today as the genocide of six million Jews"}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Bartrop |2019 |p=50 |ps=, "Given this, it must always be remembered that the Holocaust was a premeditated action by the Nazis to permanently eradicate a Jewish presence in Europe. Others—the disabled, Roma, Poles and other Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, dissenting clergy, communists, socialists, "asocials," and political opponents of all sorts—were also persecuted and in many cases murdered in huge numbers; however, it was the campaign against the Jews that was the ideological "ground zero" for Nazi racial ideology. Others besides Jews were murdered, often on a genocidal scale, and should be remembered and acknowledged: but it was only the Jews who were all to be killed as part of a calculated policy of genocide."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Beorn |2018 |p=4 |ps=, "I will use the term 'Holocaust' to refer mainly to the Nazi attempt to murder the Jews of Europe; however, I will also use the more inclusive term 'Nazi genocidal project' to capture the larger murderous vision of which the Jews were such a large part. This includes Sinti/Roma (gypsies), the handicapped, political 'enemies,' Soviet prisoners of war, and—particularly in the East—entire ethnic groups such as the Slavs. One cannot understand the Holocaust in Eastern Europe without placing it in the context of this larger Nazi genocidal project that foresaw murder and demographic engineering on a colossal scale."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Cesarani |2016 |p=xxxix |ps=, "This book deals with the fate of the Jews, not of 'other victims' of Nazi political repression and racial-biological policies. Several other groups endured social exclusion, incarceration in concentration camps, and mass murder. However, the rationale for the persecution of these groups differed radically from the intentions that underlay anti-Jewish policy. Even though homosexual men and women, Germans of African descent, and the severely mentally and physically disabled were all disparaged in Nazi racial thinking, and depicted as a threat to the strength and purity of the Volk, only the Jews were characterized as an implacable, powerful, global enemy that had to be fought at every turn and finally eliminated."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Hayes |2015 |p=xiii |ps=, "This book also reflects another of its editor's convictions: the Holocaust was National Socialist Germany's assault on the Jews of Europe. Nazism attacked many groups, but none for the same reason that it attacked the Jews, none with the same urgency, and none to the same extent."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Hayes |Roth |2010 |p=2 |ps=, "Other groups—for example, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, and Slavs—were swept up in the maelstrom of the Holocaust, but not for the same reasons as Jews and not with the same consequences ... In none of these cases, however, was the target group considered dangerous or coherent enough to warrant complete or immediate extirpation. This circumstance constitutes a significant difference from policies pursued toward the Jews, a difference that helps to clarify and define the Holocaust itself."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Stone |2010 |pp=1–2 |ps=, "For the purpose of this book, the Holocaust is understood as the genocide of the Jews ... 'Holocaust', then, refers to the genocide of the Jews, which by no means excludes an understanding that other groups—notably Romanies and Slavs—were victims of genocide."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Bloxham |2009 |p=1 |ps=, "Between 5,100,000 and 6,200,000 Jews were murdered during the Second World War, an episode the Nazis called the 'final solution of the Jewish question'. The world today knows it as the Holocaust."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Niewyk |Nicosia |2000 |ps=, pp. 45 ("The Holocaust is commonly defined as the mass murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans during World War II. Not everyone finds this a fully satisfactory definition.") and 51 ("the traditional view that it was the genocide of the Jews alone")}}}} | |||
The term ''Holocaust'' is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of other groups that the Nazis targeted,{{efn|{{harvnb |King |2023 |pp=26–27 |ps=, "Rather than one big thing, the Holocaust might now be described as an array of event categories. In ]'s terms, the Holocaust involved three separate "clusters of genocidal projects": euthanasia and "racial purification" directed against the disabled and Sinti and Roma (at the time referred to collectively as "Gypsies") within the Third Reich; the eradication of Slavic populations living in countries east of Germany; and the Final Solution proper—that is, the attempted mass murder of every Jew residing anywhere within Germany's sphere of influence (Browning 2010, 407). (The list of persecuted categories—people targeted by the Nazis in ways short of genocide—would of course be longer.)"}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Engel |2021 |p=6 |ps=, "Echoing this view, some have contended that the expression 'the Holocaust' ought to refer not only to the encounter between the Third Reich and the Jews but also to 'the horrors that Poles, other Slavs, and Gypsies endured at the hands of the Nazis' (Lukas, 1986: 220). Others have extended the term to encompass the Third Reich's treatment of homosexuals, the mentally ill or infrm, and Jehovah's Witnesses, speaking of 11 or 12 million victims of the Holocaust, half of whom were Jews. Still others have employed the word 'holocaust' also when referring to cases of mass murder not perpetrated by the Third Reich."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Kay |2021 |pp=1–2 |ps=, "For perhaps the first time, all major victim groups where the death tolls reached at least into the tens of thousands will be considered together: Jewish and non-Jewish ... it makes a great deal of sense to consider the different strands of Nazi mass killing together rather than in isolation from one another. This of course means going against the grain of most scholarship on the subject by examining the genocide of the European Jews alongside other Nazi mass-murder campaigns."}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Gerlach |2016 |pp=14–15 |ps=, "There are a number of words I will try to avoid because of the serious misconceptions they might lead to. The terms 'Holocaust' and 'Shoah' are not useful since neither has any analytical value. 'Holocaust' (derived from the Greek holókauton, or burned sacrifice) has a religious connotation unbefitting of the event it is supposed to refer to, and users of this term may mean by it either the persecution and murder of Jews alone, or Nazi German violence against any group more generally ... Importantly, 'Holocaust' and 'Shoah' have also been criticized as 'teleological and anachronistic' terms that convey a retrospective view that makes complex processes appear 'as a single event.'"}}; | |||
{{harvnb |Niewyk |Nicosia |2000 |p=51 |ps=, "The authors of this volume have adopted the third approach to a working definition: The Holocaust—that is, Nazi genocide—was the systematic, state-sponsored murder of entire groups determined by heredity. This applied to Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped. This section also makes it clear that other definitions are defended by scholars who deserve a respectful hearing."}}}} especially those targeted on a biological basis, in particular the ], as well as ] and ] and ].{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=xxix}}{{sfn|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|pp=45–52}}{{sfn|Peck|Berenbaum|2002|p=311}} All of these groups, however, were targeted for different reasons.{{sfn|Stone|2023|loc=Introduction: What is the Holocaust?<!-- search "homosexuals" -->}} By the 1970s, the adjective ''Jewish'' was dropped as redundant and Holocaust, now capitalized, became the default term for the destruction of European Jews.{{sfn|Calimani|2018|pp=70–100, 78–79, 86–87, 94–95, xxix}} The Hebrew word {{translit|he|Shoah}} ('catastrophic destruction') exclusively refers to Jewish victims.{{sfn|Hayes|Roth|2010|p=2}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=4}}{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=xxix}} The perpetrators used the phrase "]" as a euphemism for their genocide of Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=15}} | |||
==Background== | |||
On 3 October 1941 the '']'' used the phrase "before the Holocaust", apparently to refer to the situation in France,{{sfn|Fischel|2010|p=115}} and in May 1943 '']'', discussing the ], referred to the "hundreds of thousands of European Jews still surviving the Nazi Holocaust".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Meltzer |first1=Julian |title=Palestine Zionists Find Outlook Dark |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1943/05/23/archives/palestine-zionists-find-outlook-dark-they-see-little-hope-now-for.html |work=The New York Times |date=23 May 1943 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810045616/https://www.nytimes.com/1943/05/23/archives/palestine-zionists-find-outlook-dark-they-see-little-hope-now-for.html |archivedate=10 August 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1968 the ] created a new category, "Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)".{{sfn|Lustigman|Lustigman|1994|p=111}} The term was popularized in the United States by the ] mini-series ] (1978), about a fictional family of ],{{sfn|Black|2016|p=201}} and in November that year the ] was established.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|p=1133}} As non-Jewish groups began to include themselves as Holocaust victims, many Jews chose to use the term ''Shoah'' or the ] term '']''.{{sfn|Fischel|2010|p=115}}{{efn|The Hebrew word ''churban'' is used by many ] to refer to the Holocaust.{{sfn|Fischel|1998|p=46}}}} The Nazis used the phrase "]" ({{lang-de|die Endlösung der Judenfrage}}).{{sfn|Berenbaum|2006|p=xix}} | |||
] River (c. 1900) with the ], destroyed in 1938 during the ]]] | |||
] for more than two thousand years.{{sfn | Gilbert | 2015 | p=22}} Throughout the ] in Europe, Jews were subjected to ], which ].{{sfn|Bergen|2016|pp=14–17}}{{sfn|Weitz|2010|p=58}} In the nineteenth century many European countries ] in hopes that they would ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=20–21}} By the early twentieth century, most Jews in central and western Europe were well integrated into society, while in eastern Europe, where emancipation had arrived later, many Jews continued to live in ], spoke ], and practiced ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=21–22}} ] positing the existence of a ] and usually an ] emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth century due to the ] and ] that increased economic conflicts between Jews and non-Jews.{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=195}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=21–23}} Some scientists began to ] and argued that there was a ].{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=25}} Many racists argued that ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=146}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=196}} | |||
===Definition=== | |||
Most Holocaust historians define the Holocaust as the genocide of the European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945.{{efn|name=definition|Matt Brosnan (], 2018): "The Holocaust was the systematic murder of Europe's Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brosnan |first1=Matt |title=What Was The Holocaust? |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-was-the-holocaust |publisher=Imperial War Museum |date=12 June 2018 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20190302062958/https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-was-the-holocaust |archivedate=2 March 2019 |access-date=2 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{pb}} | |||
] (''Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust'', 2010): "The Holocaust refers to the Nazi objective of annihilating every Jewish man, woman, and child who fell under their control."{{sfn|Fischel|2010|p=115}}{{pb}} | |||
] (''How Was It Possible? A Holocaust Reader'', 2015): "The Holocaust, the Nazi attempt to eradicate the Jews of Europe ... Hitler's ideology depicted the Jews as uniquely dangerous to Germany and therefore uniquely destined to disappear completely from the Reich and all territories subordinate to it. The threat posted by supposedly corrupting but generally powerless Sinti and Roma was far less, and therefore addressed inconsistently in the Nazi realm. Gay men were defined as a problem only if they were German or having sex with Germans and considered 'curable' in most cases. ... Germany's murderous intent toward the handicapped ... was more comprehensive ... but here, too, implementation was uneven .... Not only were some Slavs—Slovaks, Croats, Bulgarians, some Ukrainians—allotted a favored place in Hitler's New Order, but the fate of most of the other Slavs the Nazis derided as sub-humans ... consisted of enslavement and gradual attrition, not the prompt massacre meted out to the Jews after 1941."{{sfn|Hayes|2015|pp=xiii–xiv}}{{pb}} | |||
], UK (2019): "The Holocaust (The Shoah in Hebrew) was the attempt by the Nazis and their collaborators to murder all the Jews in Europe."<ref>{{cite web |title=The Holocaust |url=https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/the-holocaust/ |publisher=Holocaust Memorial Day Trust |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190210185621/https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/the-holocaust/ | archivedate=10 February 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{pb}} | |||
Ronnie S. Landau (''The Nazi Holocaust: Its History and Meaning'', 1992): "The Holocaust involved the deliberate, systematic murder of approximately 6 million Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe between 1941 and 1945."{{sfn|Landau|2016|p=3}}{{pb}} | |||
] (''Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin'', 2010): "In this book the term ''Holocaust'' signifies the final version of the Final Solution, the German policy to eliminate the Jews of Europe by murdering them. Although Hitler certainly wished to remove the Jews from Europe in a Final Solution earlier, the Holocaust on this definition begins in summer 1941, with the shooting of Jewish women and children in the occupied Soviet Union. The term ''Holocaust'' is sometimes used in two other ways: to mean all German killing policies during the war, or to mean all oppression of Jews by the Nazi regime. In this book, ''Holocaust'' means the murder of the Jews in Europe, as carried out by the Germans by guns and gas between 1941 and 1945."{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=412}}{{pb}} | |||
] (''Histories of the Holocaust'', 2010): "'Holocaust' ... refers to the genocide of the Jews, which by no means excludes an understanding that other groups—notably Romanies and Slavs—were victims of genocide."{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=1–3}}{{pb}} | |||
] ('']'', 2017): "The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143 |title=Introduction to the Holocaust |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate=4 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171001054753/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143 |archive-date=1 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{pb}} | |||
] (2019): "The Holocaust was the murder by Nazi Germany of six million Jews."<ref>{{cite web |title=What was the Holocaust? |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about.html#learnmore |publisher=Yad Vashem |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20190302063613/https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about.html#learnmore |archivedate=2 March 2019 |url-status=live |access-date=2 March 2019 }}</ref>}} In ''Teaching the Holocaust'' (2015), Michael Gray, a specialist in Holocaust education,<ref>{{cite web |title=Senior Management Team: Dr. Michael Gray, Academic and Universities Director |url=https://www.harrowschool.org.uk/Senior-Management-Team |publisher=] |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327170557/https://www.harrowschool.org.uk/Senior-Management-Team |archivedate=27 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> offers three definitions: (a) "the persecution and murder of Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945", which views '']'' in 1938 as an early phase of the Holocaust; (b) "the systematic mass murder of the Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945", which has the disadvantage of excluding victims before 1941 but the advantage, in Gray's view, of recognizing that there was a shift in policy in 1941 toward extermination; and (c) "the persecution and murder of various groups by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945", which includes all the Nazis' victims, a definition that fails, Gray writes, to acknowledge that only the Jews were singled out for annihilation.{{sfn|Gray|2015|p=8}} | |||
{{anchor|Holocaust era}}The ] distinguishes between the Holocaust (the "systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators") and "the era of the Holocaust", which began when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933.<ref>{{harvnb|Gray|2015|pp=4–5}}; {{cite web |title=Introduction to the Holocaust|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117062227/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust|archivedate=17 November 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Victims of the Holocaust era include those the Nazis viewed as inherently inferior (chiefly ], the ] and the ]), and those targeted because of their beliefs or behavior (such as ], communists and ]).{{sfn|Gray|2015|p=4}} The persecution of these other groups was less consistent, ] writes. For example, the Nazis regarded the Slavs as "sub-human", but their treatment consisted of "enslavement and gradual attrition", while some Slavs (Hayes lists Bulgarians, Croats, Slovaks and some Ukrainians) were favored.{{sfn|Hayes|2015|pp=xiii–xiv}} Against this, Hitler regarded the Jews as what ] calls "a ''Gegenrasse'': a 'counter-race' ... not really human at all".{{efn|name=Stone2010|] (''Histories of the Holocaust'', 2010): "Europe's Romany (Gypsy) population was also the victim of genocide under the Nazis. Many other population groups, notably Poles, Ukrainians, and Soviet prisoners of war were killed in huge numbers, and smaller groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Black Germans, and homosexuals suffered terribly under Nazi rule. The evidence suggests that the Slav nations of Europe were also destined, had Germany won the war, to become victims of systematic mass murder; and even the terrible brutality of the occupation in eastern Europe, especially in Poland, can be understood as genocidal ... Part of the reason for today's understanding, though, is a correct assessment of the fact that for the Nazis the Jews were regarded in a kind of 'metaphysical' way; they were not just considered as racially inferior (like Romanies), deviants (like homosexuals) or enemy nationals standing in the way of German colonial expression (like Slavs). ... he Jews were to some extent outside of the racial scheme as defined by racial philosophers and anthropologists. They were not mere ''Untermenschen'' (sub-humans) ... but were regarded as a ''Gegenrasse'': "a 'counter-race', that is to say, not really human at all. ... 'Holocaust', then, refers to the genocide of the Jews, which by no means excludes an understanding that other groups—notably Romanies and Slavs—were victims of genocide. Indeed ... the murder of the Jews, although a project in its own right, cannot be properly historically situated without understanding the 'Nazi empire' with its grandiose demographic plans."{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=2–3}}}} Donald Niewyk and Francis Nicosia, in ''The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust'' (2000), favor a definition of the Holocaust that focuses on the Jews, Roma and handicapped: "the systematic, state-sponsored murder of entire groups determined by heredity".{{sfn|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|p=52}} | |||
==Distinctive features== | |||
===Genocidal state=== | |||
{{Further|List of Nazi concentration camps}} | |||
{{multiple image | |||
| width = 200 | |||
| direction = vertical | |||
| image1 = World War II in Europe, 1942.svg | |||
| caption1= ], 1942 | |||
| image2 = Extermination camps in occupied Poland (2007 borders).png | |||
| caption2 = ]s, ]s, and ] (2007 borders; extermination camps highlighted)}} | |||
The logistics of the mass murder turned Germany into what ] called a "genocidal state".{{sfn|Berenbaum|2006|p=103}} ] wrote in 1986 during the German '']''—a dispute among historians about the uniqueness of the Holocaust and its relationship with the crimes of the Soviet Union—that it was the first time a state had thrown its power behind the idea that an entire people should be wiped out.{{efn|name=Jäckel|] ('']'', 12 September 1986): "Ich behaupte ... daß der nationalsozialistische Mord an den Juden deswegen einzigartig war, weil noch nie zuvor ein Staat mit der Autorität seines verantwortlichen Führers beschlossen und angekündigt hatte, eine bestimmte Menschengruppe einschließlich der Alten, der Frauen, der Kinder und der Säuglinge möglichst restlos zu töten, und diesen Beschluß mit allen nur möglichen staatlichen Machtmitteln in die Tat umsetzte." ("I maintain ... that the National Socialist killing of the Jews was unique in that never before had a state with the authority of its leader decided and announced that a specific group of humans, including the elderly, the women, the children and the infants, would be killed as quickly as possible, and then carried out this resolution using every possible means of state power.")<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jäckel |first1=Eberhard |authorlink1=Eberhard Jäckel |title=Die elende Praxis der Untersteller |url=https://www.zeit.de/1986/38/die-elende-praxis-der-untersteller|work=Die Zeit |date=12 September 1986 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100430202957/http://www.zeit.de/1986/38/die-elende-Praxis-der-Untersteller |archivedate=30 April 2010 |page=3/8|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Anyone with three or four Jewish grandparents was to be exterminated,{{sfn|Bauer|2002|p=49}} and complex rules were devised to deal with ''Mischlinge'' ("mixed breeds").{{sfn|Friedländer|2007|pp=51–52}} Bureaucrats identified who was a Jew, confiscated property, and scheduled trains to deport them. Companies fired Jews and later used them as slave labor. Universities dismissed Jewish faculty and students. German pharmaceutical companies tested drugs on camp prisoners; other companies built the ].{{sfn|Berenbaum|2006|p=103}} As prisoners entered the death camps, they were ordered to surrender all personal property, which was catalogued and tagged before being sent to Germany for reuse or recycling.{{sfn|Arad|1999|pp=154–159}} Through a ], the German National Bank helped ] stolen from the victims.{{sfn|Fischel|1998|p=167}} | |||
===Collaboration{{anchor|Collaboration}}=== | |||
{{Main|Responsibility for the Holocaust|Collaboration with the Axis Powers|German-occupied Europe}} | |||
<!--elaborate: perpetrators, collaborators, enablers, bystanders; change heading to Perpetrators, collaborators and bystanders?-->] writes that since the opening of archives following the ] in Eastern Europe, it has become increasingly clear that the Holocaust was a pan-European phenomenon, a series of "Holocausts" impossible to conduct without the help of local collaborators. Without collaborators, the Germans could not have extended the killing across most of the continent.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=15–18}}{{efn|] (''Histories of the Holocaust'', 2010): "There was no greater symbol of the degenerate modernity that Nazism rejected than 'the Jew', especially 'the international Jew', the supposed string-puller behind the British and American democracies as well as the communist USSR ... the Jews—'rootless cosmopolitans', in the communist parlance—were quick to be targeted ... The Holocaust, then, was a transitional phenomenon, not just because Jews lived everywhere in Europe but because many European states ... took upon themselves the task of solving the Jewish question ... One could talk of a transnational Holocaust, but a more appropriate term would be Holocausts. ... As ] noted of western Europe , 'the Nazis relied on local agencies to prepare the Jews for their own destruction. Remarkably few Germans were available for such work.' In eastern Europe too, the Nazis' task would have been considerably harder were it not for local assistance."{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=17–18}}}}<ref name=USHMM1May2015>{{cite web |title=Collaboration and Complicity during the Holocaust |url=https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/collaboration-and-complicity-during-the-holocaust |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150505102726/https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/collaboration-and-complicity-during-the-holocaust |archivedate=5 May 2015 |date=1 May 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> According to ], in many parts of Europe "extreme collective violence was becoming an accepted measure of resolving identity crises".{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=130}} ] writes that non-Germans "not under German command" killed 5–6 percent of the six million, but that their involvement was crucial in other ways.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=13}} | |||
The industrialization and scale of the murder was unprecedented. Killings were systematically conducted in virtually all areas of ]—more than 20 occupied countries.{{sfn|United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|1996|p=7}} Nearly three million Jews in ] and between 700,000 and 2.5 million Jews in the ] were killed. Hundreds of thousands more died in the rest of Europe.{{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} Some Christian churches defended converted Jews, but otherwise, ] wrote in 2007: "Not one social group, not one religious community, not one scholarly institution or professional association in Germany and throughout Europe declared its solidarity with the Jews ..."{{sfn|Friedländer|2007|p=xxi}} | |||
===Medical experiments=== | |||
{{Main|Nazi human experimentation|Doctors' trial}} | |||
], Nuremberg, 9 December 1946 – 20 August 1947]] | |||
Medical experiments conducted on camp inmates by the SS were another distinctive feature.{{sfn|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|pp=229–230}} At least 7,000 prisoners were subjected to experiments; most died as a result, during the experiments or later.{{sfn|Fisher|2001|pp=410–414}} Twenty-three senior physicians and other medical personnel were charged at ], after the war, with crimes against humanity. They included the head of the German Red Cross, tenured professors, clinic directors, and biomedical researchers.{{sfn|Hanauske-Abel|1996|p=1453}} Experiments took place at ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and elsewhere. Some dealt with sterilization of men and women, the treatment of war wounds, ways to counteract chemical weapons, research into new vaccines and drugs, and the survival of harsh conditions.{{sfn|Fisher|2001|pp=410–414}} | |||
The most notorious physician was ], an SS officer who became the Auschwitz camp doctor on 30 May 1943.{{sfn|Müller-Hill|1999|p=338}} Interested in genetics{{sfn|Müller-Hill|1999|p=338}} and keen to experiment on twins, he would pick out subjects from the new arrivals during "selection" on the ramp, shouting "''Zwillinge heraus!''" (twins step forward!).{{sfn|Friedländer|2007|p=505}} They would be measured, killed, and dissected. One of Mengele's assistants said in 1946 that he was told to send organs of interest to the directors of the "Anthropological Institute in Berlin-Dahlem". This is thought to refer to Mengele's academic supervisor, ], director from October 1942 of the ] in ].<ref>{{harvnb|Müller-Hill|1999|pp=340–342}}; {{harvnb|Friedländer |2007|p=505}}.</ref>{{efn|The full extent of Mengele's work is unknown because records he sent to Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer are assumed to have been destroyed.<ref>{{harvnb|Müller-Hill|1999|p=348}}; {{harvnb|Lifton|2000|p=358}}.</ref>}}<!--add source: Mengele's experiments included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing drugs on them, freezing them, attempting to change their eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, and amputations and other surgeries.--> | |||
==Jews in Europe== | |||
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="float:right; clear:right; text-align:right; margin-left:1.5em; font-size:95%" | |||
|- | |||
! Country !! Number of Jews<br><small>(pre-war)</small> !! Source | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 185,000–192,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 55,000–70,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] ||50,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 357,000 || {{sfn|United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|1996|p=14}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] <small>(1933)</small> || 5,700 || <ref name=USHMMpopulation1933/> | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 4,500 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 2,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 330,000–350,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] <small>(1933)</small> || 523,000–525,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 77,380 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 725,000–825,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 42,500–44,500 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 91,500–95,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 168,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 140,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 3,300,000–3,500,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] <small>(1930)</small> || 756,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 3,020,000 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] <small>(1933)</small>|| 6,700 || <ref name=USHMMpopulation1933>{{cite web |title=Jewish Population of Europe in 1933 |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-population-of-europe-in-1933-population-data-by-country |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215171146/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/jewish-population-of-europe-in-1933-population-data-by-country |archivedate=15 December 2019}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 300,000 || {{sfn|United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|1996|p=14}} | |||
|- | |||
| ] || 78,000–82,242 || {{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
|} | |||
{{main|History of the Jews in Europe}} | |||
There were around 9.5 million Jews in Europe in 1933.{{sfn|United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|1996|p=13}} Most heavily concentrated in the east, the pre-war population was 3.5 million in Poland; 3 million in the Soviet Union; nearly 800,000 in Romania, and 700,000 in Hungary. Germany had over 500,000.{{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=447}} | |||
The turn of the twentieth century saw a major effort to establish a ] overseas, leading to the ] and subsequent racial apartheid regime in ].{{sfn|Weitz|2010|p=62}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=37}} ] (1914–1918) intensified nationalist and racist sentiments in Germany and other European countries.{{sfn|Weitz|2010|pp=64–65}} Jews in eastern Europe were targeted by ].{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=24}} Germany had ] and lost a ];{{sfn|Weitz|2010|pp=64–65}} opposition to the ] united Germans across the political spectrum.{{sfn|Weitz|2010|p=65}}{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=133}} The military promoted the untrue but compelling idea that, rather than being defeated on the battlefield, ] by socialists and Jews.{{sfn|Weitz|2010|p=65}}{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=135}} | |||
==Origins== | |||
===Antisemitism and the völkisch movement=== | |||
{{See also|History of the Jews in Germany|Christianity and antisemitism|Martin Luther and antisemitism|Religious antisemitism|Racial antisemitism}} | |||
Throughout the ] in Europe, Jews were subjected to ] based on Christian theology, which blamed them for killing Jesus. Even after the ], ] and ] continued to persecute Jews, accusing them of ]s and subjecting them to ]s and expulsions.<ref>{{harvnb|Jones|2006|p=148}}; {{harvnb|Bergen|2016|pp=14–17}}.</ref> The second half of the 19th century saw the emergence in the ] and ] of the ], developed by such thinkers as ] and ]. The movement embraced a ] that viewed Jews as a ] whose members were locked in mortal combat with the ] for world domination.{{sfn|Fischer|2002|pp=47–49}} These ideas became commonplace throughout Germany; the professional classes adopted an ideology that did not see humans as racial equals with equal hereditary value.{{sfn|Friedlander|1994|pp=495–496}} The Nazi Party (the ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or ]) originated as an offshoot of the ''völkisch'' movement, and it adopted that movement's antisemitism.{{sfn|Fischer|2002|p=47}} | |||
] postcard showing a ]]] | |||
===Germany after World War I, Hitler's world view=== | |||
{{Further|Aftermath of World War I|l1=Aftermath of World War I|Treaty of Versailles|l2=Treaty of Versailles|Political views of Adolf Hitler#Antisemitism and the Holocaust|l3=Adolf Hitler, antisemitism and the Holocaust|Mein Kampf|l4=Mein Kampf|Historiography of Adolf Hitler|l5=Historiography of Adolf Hitler}} | |||
After ] (1914–1918), many Germans did not accept that their country had been defeated, which gave birth to the ]. This insinuated that it was disloyal politicians, chiefly Jews and communists, who had orchestrated Germany's surrender. Inflaming the anti-Jewish sentiment was the apparent over-representation of Jews in the leadership of communist revolutionary governments in Europe, such as ], head of a short-lived revolutionary government in Bavaria. This perception contributed to the canard of ].<!--replace source--><ref>{{cite web |title=Antisemitism in History: World War I |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007166 |accessdate=1 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909064325/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007166 |archive-date=9 September 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
The ] was founded in the wake of the war,{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=197}} and ] is often cited as the main factor explaining the Holocaust.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=143}} From the beginning, the Nazis—not unlike other nation-states in Europe—dreamed of ], whom they identified as "the embodiment of everything that was wrong with ]".{{sfn|Stone|2023|loc=Introduction: What is the Holocaust?}} The Nazis defined the German nation as a ] unbounded by ]{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=57}} and sought to purge it of racially foreign and socially deficient elements.{{sfn|Weitz|2010|p=65}}{{sfn|Stone|2020|pp=61, 65}} The Nazi Party and its leader, ], were also obsessed with reversing Germany's territorial losses and acquiring additional '']'' (living space) in Eastern Europe for colonization.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=42}}{{sfn|Bergen|2016|pp=52–54}} These ideas appealed to many Germans.{{sfn|Stone|2020|pp=62–63, 65}} The Nazis promised to protect European civilization from the ] threat.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=17}} Hitler believed that Jews ], as well as the Western powers, and ].{{sfn|Evans|2019|pp=120–121, 123}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=59}}{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=18}} | |||
Early antisemites in the Nazi Party included ], publisher of the '']'', the party's newspaper, and ], who wrote antisemitic articles for it in the 1920s. Rosenberg's vision of a secretive Jewish conspiracy ruling the world would influence Hitler's views of Jews by making them the driving force behind communism.{{sfn|Yahil|1990|pp=41–43}} Central to Hitler's world view was the idea of expansion and '']'' (living space) in Eastern Europe for German ]s, a policy of what ] called "race and space". Open about his hatred of Jews, he subscribed to common antisemitic stereotypes.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|pp=52–54}} From the early 1920s onwards, he compared the Jews to germs and said they should be dealt with in the same way. He viewed ] as a Jewish doctrine, said he was fighting against "Jewish Marxism", and believed that Jews had created communism as part of a conspiracy to destroy Germany.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=56}} | |||
==Rise of Nazi Germany== | ==Rise of Nazi Germany== | ||
] from 1933 to 1941]] | |||
===Dictatorship and repression (1933–1939)=== | |||
Amidst a ] and ], the Nazi Party rapidly increased its support, reaching a high of 37 percent ],{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|pp=138–139}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=33}} by campaigning on issues such as ] and economic recovery.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=151}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=33–34}} Hitler ] in January 1933 in a backroom deal supported by right-wing politicians.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|pp=138–139}} Within months, all other political parties were banned, the regime seized control of the media,{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=39}} tens of thousands of political opponents—especially communists—were arrested, and ] for ] was set up.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=32–38}} The Nazi regime cracked down on crime and social outsiders—such as ], ], and those perceived as workshy—through a variety of measures, including imprisonment in ].{{sfn|Stone|2020|p=66}} The Nazis ] 400,000 people and subjected others to ]s for real or supposed hereditary illnesses.{{sfn|Stone|2020|p=67}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=55}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=47–48}} | |||
{{Further|Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany|Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Anti-Nazi boycott of 1933}} | |||
]: ] troopers urge a boycott outside ], Berlin, 1 April 1933. All signs read: "Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews."<ref>{{cite web |title=Boycotts |publisher=Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, ] |work=Educational Resources |url=http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Educational_Resources/Curriculum/Broken_Threads/Boycotts/boycotts.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611210724/http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Educational_Resources/Curriculum/Broken_Threads/Boycotts/boycotts.html |archivedate=11 June 2007}}</ref>]] | |||
With the appointment in January 1933 of ] as Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi's ], German leaders proclaimed the rebirth of the '']'' ("people's community").{{sfn|Fritzsche|2009|pp=}} Nazi policies divided the population into two groups: the ''Volksgenossen'' ("national comrades") who belonged to the ''Volksgemeinschaft'', and the ''Gemeinschaftsfremde'' ("community aliens") who did not. Enemies were divided into three groups: the "racial" or "blood" enemies, such as the Jews and Roma; political opponents of Nazism, such as Marxists, liberals, Christians, and the "reactionaries" viewed as wayward "national comrades"; and moral opponents, such as gay men, the work-shy, and habitual criminals. The latter two groups were to be sent to concentration camps for "re-education", with the aim of eventual absorption into the ''Volksgemeinschaft''. "Racial" enemies could never belong to the ''Volksgemeinschaft''; they were to be removed from society.{{sfn|Noakes|Pridham|1983|p=499}} | |||
Although the Nazis sought to control every aspect of public and private life,{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=35}} Nazi repression was directed almost entirely against groups perceived as outside the national community. Most Germans had little to fear provided they did not oppose the new regime.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=148}}{{sfn|Stone|2020|p=65}} The new regime built popular support through economic growth, which partly occurred through ] such as ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=39}} The annexations of ] (1938), ] (1938), and ] (1939) also increased the Nazis' popular support.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=40}} Germans were inundated with ] both against Jews{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=39}} and other groups targeted by the Nazis.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=55}} | |||
Before and after the ], the Nazis intensified their campaign of violence against opponents,{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=28–30}} setting up concentration camps for ].{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=32–38}} One of the first, at ], opened on 22 March 1933.{{sfn|Marcuse|2001|p=21}} Initially the camp contained mostly Communists and Social Democrats.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=155}} Other early prisons were consolidated by mid-1934 into purpose-built camps outside the cities, run exclusively by the SS.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=84–86}} The camps served as a deterrent by terrorizing Germans who did not support the regime.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=5}} | |||
===Persecution of Jews=== | |||
Throughout the 1930s, the legal, economic, and social rights of Jews were steadily restricted.{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|p=33}}<!--Add anti-Nazi boycott and Goebbels' response.-->On 1 April 1933, there was a ].{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|pp=19–20}} On 7 April 1933, the ] was passed, which excluded Jews and other "non-Aryans" from the civil service.{{sfn|Burleigh|Wippermann|2003|p=78}} Jews were ] from practicing law, being editors or proprietors of newspapers, joining the Journalists' Association, or owning farms.{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|pp=32–33}} In ], in March 1933, a group of men entered the courthouse and beat up Jewish lawyers; Friedländer writes that, in Dresden, Jewish lawyers and judges were dragged out of courtrooms during trials.{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|p=29}} Jewish students were restricted by quotas from attending schools and universities.{{sfn|Burleigh|Wippermann|2003|p=78}} Jewish businesses were targeted for closure or "Aryanization", the forcible sale to Germans; of the approximately 50,000 Jewish-owned businesses in Germany in 1933, about 7,000 were still Jewish-owned in April 1939. Works by Jewish composers,{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|p=134}} authors, and artists were excluded from publications, performances, and exhibitions.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=158–159, 169}} Jewish doctors were dismissed or urged to resign. The '']'' (a medical journal) reported on 6 April 1933: "Germans are to be treated by Germans only."{{sfn|Hanauske-Abel|1996|p=1459}} | |||
{{main|The Holocaust in Germany}} | |||
{{further|Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany}} | |||
The roughly 500,000 ] made up less than 1 percent of the country's population in 1933. They were wealthier on average than other Germans and largely assimilated, although a minority were recent immigrants from eastern Europe.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=7}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=43}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=96}} Various German government agencies, Nazi Party organizations, and local authorities instituted ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=39, 41}} In 1933, Jews were banned or restricted from several professions and the ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=40}} After hounding the German Jews out of public life by the end of 1934, the regime passed the ] in 1935.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=52}} The laws reserved full citizenship rights for those of "German or related blood", restricted Jews' economic activity, and criminalized new marriages and ].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=52, 60}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=41}} Jews were defined as those with three or four Jewish grandparents; many of those with partial Jewish descent were classified as '']'', with varying rights.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=106}} The regime also sought to segregate Jews with a view to their ultimate disappearance from the country.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=52}} Jewish students were gradually forced out of the school system. Some municipalities enacted restrictions governing where Jews were allowed to live or conduct business.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=42}} In 1938 and 1939, Jews were barred from additional occupations, and their businesses were expropriated to force them out of the economy.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=41}} | |||
] after its destruction during '']'']] | |||
===Sterilization Law, ''Aktion T4''{{anchor|Aktion T4}}=== | |||
{{Main|Aktion T4}} | |||
{{Further|Nazi eugenics|Erbkrank}} | |||
] is what this person with hereditary illness costs the community in his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too. Read '']'', the monthly magazine of the ] of the ]."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/archive/poster-neues-volk/ |title=Poster promoting the Nazi monthly publication ''Neues Volk'' |work=Artifact Gallery |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate=5 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006062728/https://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/archive/poster-neues-volk/ |archive-date=6 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>]] | |||
Anti-Jewish violence, largely locally organized by members of Nazi Party institutions, took primarily non-lethal forms from 1933 to 1939.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=43–44}} Jewish stores, especially in rural areas, were often boycotted or vandalized.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=44–45}} As a result of local and popular pressure, many small towns became entirely ] and as many as a third of Jewish businesses may have been forced to close.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=45}} Anti-Jewish violence was even worse in ].{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=46}} On 9–10 November 1938, the Nazis organized '']'' (Night of Broken Glass), a nationwide ]. Over 7,500 Jewish shops (out of 9,000) were looted, more than 1,000 ]s were damaged or destroyed,{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=184–185}} at least 90 Jews were murdered,{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=184, 187}} and as many as ],{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=44}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=112}} although many were released within weeks.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=200}} German Jews were ] that raised more than 1 billion ] (RM).{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=117, 119}}{{efn|name=1billion|Equivalent to $400 million at the time,{{sfn|Foreign Claims Settlement Commission|1968|p=655}} or ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|0.4|1942|r=0}}}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US}}.<ref name=inflation>{{cite web |title=Consumer Price Index, 1800– |url=https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator/consumer-price-index-1800- |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis |access-date=29 November 2019 |ref={{sfnref|Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis|2019}}}}</ref>}} | |||
The economic strains of the ] had led some members of the German medical establishment to advocate murder (euphemistically called "euthanasia") of the "incurable" mentally and physically disabled as a cost-saving measure to free up funds for the curable.{{sfn|Evans|2004|pp=377–378}} The Nazis used the phrase ''Lebensunwertes Leben'' (]).{{sfn|Lifton|2000|p=21}} On 14 July 1933, the ] (''Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses''), the Sterilization Law, was passed, allowing for compulsory sterilization.{{sfn|Hanauske-Abel|1996|p=1457}}{{sfn|Proctor|1988|pp=101–103}} ''The New York Times'' reported on 21 December that year: "400,000 Germans to be sterilized".<ref>{{cite news |last=Tolischus |first=Otto D. |date=21 December 1933 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1933/12/21/archives/400000-germans-to-be-sterilized-1700-hereditary-health-courts-will.html |title=400,000 Germans to be sterilized |work=The New York Times |accessdate=3 June 2019 }}</ref> There were 84,525 applications from doctors in the first year. The courts reached a decision in 64,499 of those cases; 56,244 were in favor of sterilization.{{sfn|Hanauske-Abel|1996|p=1458}} Estimates for the number of involuntary sterilizations during the whole of the Third Reich range from 300,000 to 400,000.{{sfn|Proctor|1988|pp=106–108}} | |||
The Nazi government wanted to ].{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=48}} By the end of 1939, most Jews who could emigrate had already done so; those who remained behind were disproportionately elderly, poor, or female and could not obtain a visa.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=49, 53}} The plurality, around 110,000, left for the United States, while smaller numbers emigrated to South America, ], ], and South Africa.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=52}} Germany collected ] of nearly 1 billion RM,{{efn|name=1billion}} mostly from Jews.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=50}} The policy of forced emigration continued into 1940.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=51}} | |||
In October 1939 Hitler signed a "euthanasia decree" backdated to 1 September 1939 that authorized '']'' ], the chief of ], and ], Hitler's personal physician, to carry out a program of involuntary "euthanasia". After the war this program came to be known as '']'',{{sfn|Burleigh|Wippermann|2003|pp=142–149}} named after ] 4, the address of a villa in the Berlin borough of ], where the various organizations involved were headquartered.{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|pp=252–261}} T4 was mainly directed at adults, but the "euthanasia" of children was also carried out.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=171}} Between 1939 and 1941, 80,000 to 100,000 mentally ill adults in institutions were killed, as were 5,000 children and 1,000 Jews, also in institutions. In addition there were specialized killing centers, where the deaths were estimated at 20,000, according to Georg Renno, the deputy director of ], one of the "euthanasia" centers, or 400,000, according to Frank Zeireis, the commandant of the Mauthausen concentration camp.{{sfn|Lifton|2000|p=142}} Overall, the number of mentally and physically handicapped murdered was about 150,000.{{sfn|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|p=48}} | |||
Besides Germany, a significant number of other European countries abandoned democracy for some kind of authoritarian or fascist rule.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=17}} Many countries, including Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, passed antisemitic legislation in the 1930s and 1940s.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=332–334}} In October 1938, ] in response to a Polish law that enabled the ] for Polish Jews living abroad.{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=49}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=109–110}} | |||
Although not ordered to take part, psychiatrists and many psychiatric institutions were involved in the planning and carrying out of ''Aktion T4'' at every stage.{{sfn|Strous|2007}} After protests from the German Catholic and Protestant churches, Hitler ordered the cancellation of the T4 program in August 1941,{{sfn|Lifton|2000|pp=90–95}} although the disabled and mentally ill continued to be killed until the end of the war.{{sfn|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|p=48}} The medical community regularly received bodies and body parts for research. ] received 1,077 bodies from executions between 1933 and 1945. The neuroscientist ] received 697 brains from one hospital between 1940 and 1944: "I accepted these brains of course. Where they came from and how they came to me was really none of my business."{{sfn|Hanauske-Abel|1996|pp=1458–1459}} | |||
==Start of World War II== | |||
===Nuremberg Laws, Jewish emigration=== | |||
]'s ]]] | |||
{{Main|Nuremberg Laws}} | |||
The German '']'' (armed forces) ] on 1 September 1939, triggering declarations of war ] and ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=56}} During the five weeks of fighting, as many as 16,000 civilians, hostages, and ] may have been shot by the German invaders;{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=57}} there was also a great deal of looting.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=98}} Special units known as '']'' followed the army to eliminate any possible resistance.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=99, 101}} Around 50,000 Polish and Polish Jewish leaders and intellectuals ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=57–58}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=102–103}} The ] was established to hold those members of the Polish intelligentsia not killed in the purges.{{sfn|Hayes|2017|p=241}} Around 400,000 Poles were expelled from the ] in western Poland to the ] occupation zone from 1939 to 1941, and the area was ] by ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=58}} | |||
{{See also|Jews escaping from German-occupied Europe to the United Kingdom}} | |||
], England, 31 March 1939, before deportation{{sfn|London|2000|p=161}}]] | |||
On 15 September 1935, the Reichstag passed the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, known as the ]. The former said that only those of "German or kindred blood" could be citizens. Anyone with three or more Jewish grandparents was classified as a Jew.<ref name=USHMMNuremberg/> The second law said: "Marriages between Jews and subjects of the state of German or related blood are forbidden." Sexual relationships between them were also criminalized; Jews were not allowed to employ German women under the age of 45 in their homes.{{sfn|Arad|Gutman|Margaliot|2014|p=78}}<ref name=USHMMNuremberg/> The laws referred to Jews but applied equally to the Roma and black Germans. Although other European countries—Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, and Vichy France—passed similar legislation,<ref name=USHMMNuremberg>{{cite web |title=Nuremberg Race Laws |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nuremberg-laws |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510205529/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nuremberg-laws |archivedate=10 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Gerlach notes that "Nazi Germany adopted more nationwide anti-Jewish laws and regulations (about 1,500) than any other state."{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=41}} | |||
The rest of Poland was ], which ] on 17 September pursuant to the ].{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=46, 73}} The Soviet Union ] to the Soviet interior, including as many as 260,000 Jews who largely survived the war.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=86}}{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=362}} Although most Jews were not communists, some accepted positions in the Soviet administration, contributing to a pre-existing perception among many non-Jews that Soviet rule was a Jewish conspiracy.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=89–90}} In 1940, Germany invaded much of western Europe including ], ], ], ], and ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=56}} In 1941, Germany ] and ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=56}} Some of these new holdings were ] while others were placed under ] or ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=57}} | |||
By the end of 1934, 50,000 German Jews had left Germany,{{sfn|Fischel|1998|p=20}} and by the end of 1938, approximately half the German Jewish population had left,{{sfn|Gilbert|2001|p=285}} among them the conductor ], who fled after being told that the hall of the ] would be burned down if he conducted a concert there.{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|p=1}} ], who was in the United States when Hitler came to power, never returned to Germany; his citizenship was revoked and he was expelled from the ] and ].{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|p=12}} Other Jewish scientists, including ], lost their teaching positions and left the country.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=16}} | |||
The war provided cover for "]", the murder of around 70,000 institutionalized Germans with mental or physical disabilities at specialized killing centers using poison gas.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=58}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=38}}{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=162}} The victims included all 4,000 to 5,000 institutionalized Jews.{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=37}} Despite efforts to maintain secrecy, knowledge of the killings leaked out and Hitler ordered a halt to the centralized killing program in August 1941.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=284}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=59}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|pp=37–38}} Decentralized killings via denial of medical care, starvation, and poisoning caused an additional 120,000 deaths by the end of the war.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=59}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=254}} Many of the same personnel and technologies were later used for the mass murder of Jews.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=207}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=40}} | |||
===''Anschluss''=== | |||
{{Main|Anschluss}} | |||
].]] | |||
On 12 March 1938, Germany annexed Austria. Austrian Nazis broke into Jewish shops, stole from Jewish homes and businesses, and forced Jews to perform humiliating acts such as scrubbing the streets or cleaning toilets.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=147–150}} Jewish businesses were "Aryanized", and all the legal restrictions on Jews in Germany were imposed.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=153–155}} In August that year, ] was put in charge of the ] (''Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung in Wien''). About 100,000 Austrian Jews had left the country by May 1939, including ] and his family, who moved to London.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=659–661}} The ] was held in France in July 1938 by 32 countries, as an attempt to help the increased refugees from Germany, but aside from establishing the largely ineffectual Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, little was accomplished and most countries participating did not increase the number of refugees they would accept.{{sfn|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|p=200}} | |||
===Ghettoization and resettlement=== | |||
===''Kristallnacht''=== | |||
{{further|The Holocaust in Poland}} | |||
{{Main|Kristallnacht}} | |||
], ]]] | |||
]'', November 1938]] | |||
] in the ]]] | |||
On 7 November 1938, ], a Polish Jew, shot the German diplomat ] in the German Embassy in Paris, in retaliation for the expulsion of his parents and siblings from Germany.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=181}}{{efn|The French had planned to try Grynszpan for murder, but the German invasion in 1940 interrupted the proceedings. Grynszpan was handed over to the Germans and his fate is unknown.{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|pp=301–302}} }} When vom Rath died on 9 November, the government used his death as a pretext to instigate a pogrom against the Jews. The government claimed it was spontaneous, but in fact it had been ordered and planned by Adolf Hitler and ], although with no clear goals, according to ]. The result, he writes, was "murder, rape, looting, destruction of property, and terror on an unprecedented scale".<ref>{{harvnb|Cesarani|2016|p=183}}; {{harvnb|Evans|2005|pp=581–582}}.</ref> | |||
Germany gained control of 1.7 million Jews in Poland.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=96}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=148}} The Nazis ] in the ] of the General Governorate. 45,000 Jews were deported by November and left to fend for themselves, causing many deaths.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=108}} Deportations stopped in early 1940 due to the opposition of ], the leader of the General Governorate, who did not want his fiefdom to become a dumping ground for unwanted Jews.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=107–109}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=201}} After the conquest of France, the Nazis considered ] to ], but this proved impossible.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=164}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=109, 117}} The Nazis planned that harsh conditions in these areas would kill many Jews.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=164}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=201}} In September 1939, around 7,000 Jews were killed, alongside thousands of Poles, however, they were not systematically targeted as they would be later, and open mass killings would subside until June of 1941.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=63, 437}} | |||
Known as '']'' (or "Night of Broken Glass"), the attacks on 9–10 November 1938 were partly carried out by the ] and ],{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=583–584}} but ordinary Germans joined in; in some areas, the violence began before the SS or SA arrived.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=168}} Over 7,500 Jewish shops (out of 9,000) were looted and attacked, and over 1,000 ]s damaged or destroyed. Groups of Jews were forced by the crowd to watch their synagogues burn; in ] they were made to dance around it, and in ] to kneel before it.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=184–185}} At least 90 Jews died. The damage was estimated at 39 million ]s.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=184, 187}} Cesarani writes that "he extent of the desolation stunned the population and rocked the regime."{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=183}} It also shocked the rest of the world. '']'' of London wrote on 11 November 1938: "No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults upon defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday. Either the German authorities were a party to this outbreak or their powers over public order and a hooligan minority are not what they are proudly claimed to be."<ref>{{cite news |title=A Black Day for Germany |work=The Times |issue=48149 |date=11 November 1938 |page=15}}</ref> | |||
During the invasion, synagogues were burned and thousands of Jews fled or were expelled into the Soviet occupation zone.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=87, 103}} Various anti-Jewish regulations were soon issued. In October 1939, adult Jews in the General Governorate were required to perform forced labor.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=116}} In November 1939 they were ordered to wear white armbands.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=115}} Laws decreed the seizure of most Jewish property and the takeover of Jewish-owned businesses. When Jews were forced into ghettos, they lost their homes and belongings.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=116}} | |||
Between 9 and 16 November, 30,000 Jews were sent to the ], ], and ] concentration camps.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=591}} Many were released within weeks; by early 1939, 2,000 remained in the camps.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=200}} German Jewry was held collectively responsible for restitution of the damage; they also had to pay an "atonement tax" of over a billion Reichmarks. Insurance payments for damage to their property were confiscated by the government. A decree on 12 November 1938<!--Check date.--> barred Jews from most remaining occupations.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=595–596}} ''Kristallnacht'' marked the end of any sort of public Jewish activity and culture, and Jews stepped up their efforts to leave the country.{{sfn|Ben-Rafael|Glöckner|Sternberg|2011|pp=25–26}} | |||
The first ] were established in the Wartheland and General Governorate in 1939 and 1940 on the initiative of local German administrators.{{sfn|Miron|2020|pp=247, 251, 254}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=117}} The largest ghettos, such as ] and ], were established in existing residential neighborhoods and closed by fences or walls. In many smaller ghettos, Jews were forced into poor neighborhoods but with no fence.{{sfn|Miron|2020|p=252}} Forced labor programs provided subsistence to many ghetto inhabitants, and in some cases protected them from deportation. Workshops and factories were operated inside some ghettos, while in other cases Jews left the ghetto to work outside it.{{sfn|Miron|2020|p=253}} Because the ghettos were not segregated by sex some family life continued.{{sfn|Miron|2020|pp=253–254}} A Jewish community leadership ({{lang|de|]}}) exercised some authority and tried to sustain the Jewish community while following German demands. As a survival strategy, many tried to make the ghettos useful to the occupiers as a labor reserve.{{sfn|Miron|2020|p=254}}{{sfn|Engel|2020|p=240}} Jews in western Europe were not forced into ghettos but faced discriminatory laws and confiscation of property.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=272}}{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=314–315}}{{sfn|Miron|2020|pp=247–248}} | |||
===Resettlement=== | |||
{{further|Haavara Agreement}} | |||
Before World War II, Germany considered mass deportation from Europe of German, and later European, Jewry.{{sfn|Friedländer |1997|pp=224–225}} Among the areas considered for possible resettlement were ] and, after the war began, ],{{sfn|Friedländer|1997|pp=62–63, 219, 283, 310}} ], and ].<ref>{{harvnb|Cesarani|2016|p=382}}; {{cite web |last=Cesarani |first=David |authorlink=David Cesarani |date=17 February 2011 |title=From Persecution to Genocide |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/radicalisation_01.shtml |publisher=BBC |work=History: World Wars |accessdate=25 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022182910/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/radicalisation_01.shtml |archive-date=22 October 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|] (2016): "The absence of consistency with regards to ghettos can be traced back to a fundamental confusion over means and ends. Were Jews to be expelled, placed in ghettos, or put to death? Until October 1941, the hope was that Jews would be expelled into Siberia after the end of hostilities."{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=414}}}} Palestine was the only location to which any German resettlement plan produced results, via the ] between the ] and the German government. Between November 1933 and December 1939, the agreement resulted in the emigration of about 53,000 German Jews, who were allowed to transfer ] 100 million of their assets to Palestine by buying German goods, in violation of the Jewish-led ].{{sfn|Nicosia|2008|pp=88–89}} | |||
Rape and sexual exploitation of Jewish and non-Jewish women in eastern Europe ].{{sfn|Westermann|2020|pp=127–128}} | |||
==Beginning of World War II== | |||
===Invasion of Poland=== | |||
====Einsatzgruppen, pogroms==== | |||
{{Main|l1=Invasion of Poland|Invasion of Poland|The Holocaust in Poland|l2=Holocaust in Poland|Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|l3=ghettos|German camps in occupied Poland during World War II|l4=camps}} | |||
{{Further|Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|l1=Occupation of Poland|German-occupied Poland|l2=German-occupied Poland|History of the Jews in Poland|l3=Jews in Poland|Collaboration in German-occupied Poland|l4=Collaboration in Poland|Jedwabne pogrom|l5=Jedwabne pogrom|Lviv pogroms|l6=Lviv pogroms|Szczuczyn pogrom|l7=Szczuczyn pogrom|Wąsosz pogrom|l8=Wąsosz pogrom}} | |||
{{listen | |||
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| title = Declaration of war | |||
| help = no | |||
| description = ], the British prime minister, announces war with Germany, 3 September 1939. | |||
| pos = right | |||
}} | |||
], July 1941, then ], now ]]] | |||
When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, triggering a ], it gained control of an additional two million Jews, reduced to around 1.7 – 1.8 million in the German zone when the Soviet Union ] on 17 September.<ref>{{harvnb|Browning|2004|p=12}}; {{harvnb|Crowe|2008|pp=158–159}}.</ref> The German army, the ], was accompanied by seven ] ] ("special task forces") and an ], numbering altogether 3,000 men, whose role was to deal with "all anti-German elements in hostile country behind the troops in combat". Most of the Einsatzgruppen commanders were professionals; 15 of the 25 leaders had PhDs. By 29 August, two days before the invasion, they had already drawn up a list of 30,000 people to send to concentration camps. By the first week of the invasion, 200 people were being executed every day.{{sfn|Browning|2004|pp=16–17}} | |||
==Invasion of the Soviet Union== | |||
The Germans began sending Jews from territories they had recently annexed (Austria, Czechoslovakia, and western Poland) to the central section of Poland, which they called the ].{{sfn|Black|2016|p=29}} To | |||
make it easier to control and deport them, the Jews were concentrated in ] in major cities.{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=111}} {{anchor|Reservations}}The Germans planned to set up a Jewish reservation in southeast Poland around the transit camp in ], but the "Nisko plan" failed, in part because it was opposed by ], the new Governor-General of the General Government.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=31}} In mid-October 1940 the idea was revived, this time to be located in ]. Resettlement continued until January 1941 under SS officer ], but further plans for the ] failed for logistical and political reasons.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=261–263, 266}} | |||
Germany and its allies Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Italy ] on 22 June 1941.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=67}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=201}} Although the war was launched more for strategic than ideological reasons,{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=351}} what Hitler saw as an apocalyptic battle against the forces of ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=172}} was to be carried out as a ] with ] for the ].{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=121–122}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|pp=201–202}} A quick victory was expected{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=179}} and was planned to be followed by a massive ] project to ].{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=63–64}} To increase the speed of conquest the Germans planned to feed their army by looting, exporting additional food to Germany, and to terrorize the local inhabitants with preventative killings.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=68}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=180}} The Germans foresaw that the invasion would cause a food shortfall and ] of Soviet cities and some rural areas.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=67–68}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=67}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=181–182}} Although the starvation policy was less successful than planners hoped,{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=221–222}} the residents of some cities, particularly in Ukraine, and ], as well as the Jewish ghettos, endured human-made famine, during which millions of people died of starvation.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|pp=182–183}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|pp=142, 294}} | |||
There had been anti-Jewish pogroms in Poland before the war, including in around 100 towns between 1935 and 1937,<ref>{{harvnb|Pohl|2019|p=32}}; also see {{harvnb|Gilbert|2004|pp=20–21}} and {{cite news |title=Anti-Semitic rioting spreads in Poland |work=The New York Times |date=16 May 1937 |page=30 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/05/16/archives/antisemitic-rioting-spreads-in-poland-building-is-bombed-in.html}}.</ref> and again in 1938.{{sfn|Gilbert|2004|p=22}} In June and July 1941, during the ] in Lwów (now ], Ukraine), around 6,000 Polish Jews were murdered in the streets by the ] and local people.<ref>{{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=194}}; {{harvnb|Himka|2011|pp=235–236}}.</ref>{{efn|] (''Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews'', 2010): "Pogroms that can be proved to have been initiated by the Germans were above all carried out by Einsatzgruppe C in the Ukraine. In Lvov (Lemberg), where the ] (the Soviet People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs) had shot some 3,500 prisoners at the end of June and bloodily suppressed an attempted uprising by the ], pogroms were started by the indigenous population on 30 June, the day of the city's occupation by German troops. They were probably initiated by the OUN and its militia. It is likely, however, that a special unit of the Wehrmacht played a key role in triggering this pogrom when it entered the city as an advance guard together with a battalion of Ukrainian nationalists under its command. The pogroms cost at least 4,000 lives and were finally ended by the Wehrmacht on 2 July after it had spent two days observing but not intervening. At that point, however, Einsatzgruppe C took over the organization of murderous activities: over the next few days, by way of 'retribution' for the murders committed by the NKVD, three Einsatzgruppe C commandos that had entered the city murdered 2,500 to 3,500 Jews. At the end of July, Ukrainian groups took back the initiative and were responsible for a further pogrom for which support from the German Special Purposes Commando was probably decisive once again. During the so-called 'Petljura Days' more than 2,000 Jews were murdered in Lviv."{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=194}}}} Another 2,500–3,500 Jews died in mass shootings by Einsatzgruppe C.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=194}} During the ] on 10 July 1941, a group of Poles in ] killed the town's Jewish community, many of whom were burned alive in a barn.<ref>{{harvnb|Gross|2002|pp=60–63}}; {{harvnb|Musiał|2004|p=325}}.</ref> The attack may have been engineered by the ].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=196}}{{efn|A long debate about the ] was triggered in 2001 by the publication of ]'s book '']''.<ref>{{harvnb|Polonsky|Michlic|2004|p=xiii}}; {{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=196}}.</ref>}} | |||
By mid-June 1941, about 30,000 Jews had died, 20,000 of whom had starved to death in the ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=65}} | |||
====Ghettos, Jewish councils==== | |||
{{Main|Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe|Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|List of Nazi-era ghettos}} | |||
:''Main ghettos: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] (])'' | |||
] dividing ], 24 May 1941; ] (left) is outside the ghetto.]] | |||
The Germans established ghettos in Poland, in the ] and General Government area, to confine Jews.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=29}} These were closed off from the outside world at different times and for different reasons.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|pp=216–7}} In early 1941, the Warsaw ghetto contained 445,000 people, including 130,000 from elsewhere,{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=124}} while the second largest, the ], held 160,000.{{sfn|Yahil|1990|p=165}} Although the Warsaw ghetto contained 30 percent of the city's population, it occupied only 2.5 percent of its area, averaging over nine people per room.{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|p=239}} The massive overcrowding, poor hygiene facilities and lack of food killed thousands. Over 43,000 residents died in 1941.<ref name=USHMMDepoWar>{{cite web |title=Deportations to and from the Warsaw Ghetto |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005413 |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120921004507/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005413 |archive-date=21 September 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
], a Belarusian Jew who helped Soviet prisoners escape]] | |||
According to a letter dated 21 September 1939 from SS-'']'' ], head of the ] (RSHA or Reich Security Head Office), to the Einsatzgruppen, each ghetto had to be run by a '']'', or "Jewish Council of Elders", to consist of 24 male Jews with local influence.<ref>{{harvnb|Trunk|1996|pp=1–3}}; also see {{harvnb|Browning|2004|p=26}}.</ref> ''Judenräte'' were responsible for the ghetto's day-to-day operations, including distributing food, water, heat, medical care, and shelter. The Germans also required them to confiscate property, organize forced labor, and, finally, facilitate deportations to extermination camps.{{sfn|Hilberg|1993|p=106}} The Jewish councils' basic strategy was one of trying to minimize losses by cooperating with German authorities, bribing officials, and petitioning for better conditions.<!--Check this.-->{{sfn|Hilberg|1993|p=170}} | |||
] were intended to die in large numbers. Sixty percent—3.3 million people—died, primarily of starvation,{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=125}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=72}} making them the second largest group of victims of Nazi mass killing after European Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=5}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=294}} Jewish prisoners of war and ] were systematically executed.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=231–232}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=161}} About a million civilians were killed by the Nazis during ], including more than 300,000 in Belarus.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=288}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=190}} From 1942 onwards, the Germans and their allies targeted villages suspected of supporting the partisans, burning them and killing or expelling their inhabitants.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=297–298}} During these operations, nearby small ghettos were liquidated and their inhabitants shot.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=298–299}} By 1943, anti-partisan operations aimed for the depopulation of large areas of Belarus.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=298}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|pp=182–183}} Jews and those unfit for work were typically shot on the spot with others deported.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=298–299}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=182}} Although most of those killed were not Jews,{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=190}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=298}} anti-partisan warfare often led to the deaths of Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=300, 310}} | |||
===Mass shootings of Jews{{anchor|Mass shootings|Einsatzgruppen|Mass shootings}}=== | |||
===Invasion of Norway and Denmark=== | |||
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{{Main|German occupation of Norway|l1=German occupation of Norway|The Holocaust in Norway|l2=Holocaust in Norway|German invasion of Denmark (1940)|l3=German invasion of Denmark|Rescue of the Danish Jews|l4=Rescue of the Danish Jews}} | |||
{{Further|The Holocaust in the Soviet Union|The Holocaust in Romania}} | |||
Germany invaded Norway and Denmark on 9 April 1940, during ]. Denmark was overrun so quickly that there was no time for a resistance to form. Consequently, the Danish government stayed in power and the Germans found it easier to work through it. Because of this, few measures were taken against the Danish Jews before 1942.{{sfn|McKale|2002|p=161}} By June 1940 Norway was completely occupied.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=169}} In late 1940, the country's 1,800 Jews were banned from certain occupations, and in 1941 all Jews had to register their property with the government.{{sfn|McKale|2002|p=162}} On 26 November 1942, 532 Jews were taken by police officers, at four o'clock in the morning, to Oslo harbor, where they boarded a German ship. From Germany they were sent by freight train to Auschwitz. According to ], only nine survived the war.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=14}} | |||
], mainly by local Ukrainians.{{sfn|Beorn|2020|pp=162–163}}]] | |||
The systematic murder of Jews began in the Soviet Union in 1941.{{sfnm|Kay|2021|1pp=13–14|Beorn|2018|2p=128}} During the invasion, many Jews were conscripted into the ]. Out of 10 or 15 million Soviet civilians who ], 1.6 million were Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=72–73}}{{sfn|Miron|2020|p=254}} Local inhabitants killed as many as 50,000 Jews in pogroms in Latvia, ], ], Ukraine, and the Romanian borderlands.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=69, 440}}{{sfn|Kopstein|2023|pp=105, 107–108}} Although German forces tried to incite pogroms, their role in causing violence is controversial.{{sfn|Kopstein|2023|p=107}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=202}} ] ] by April 1942.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=69}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=185}} | |||
===Invasion of France and the Low Countries=== | |||
{{main|Battle of the Netherlands|German invasion of Luxembourg|Battle of Belgium|Battle of France|The Holocaust in Belgium|l1=The Holocaust in Belgium|The Holocaust in Luxembourg|l2=in Luxembourg|The Holocaust in the Netherlands|l3=in the Netherlands|The Holocaust in France|l4=in France}} | |||
{{further|The Diary of a Young Girl|l1=The Diary of Anne Frank|Timeline of deportations of French Jews to death camps|Vel' d'Hiv Roundup}} | |||
]s in ], June 1942]] | |||
In May 1940, Germany ], ], ], and ]. After Belgium's surrender, the country was ruled by a German military governor, ], who enacted anti-Jewish measures against its 90,000 Jews, many of them refugees from Germany or Eastern Europe.{{sfn|McKale|2002|p=164}} In the Netherlands, the Germans installed ] as '']'', who began to persecute the country's 140,000 Jews. Jews were forced out of their jobs and had to register with the government. In February 1941, non-Jewish Dutch citizens staged a strike in protest that was quickly crushed.{{sfn|McKale|2002|pp=162–163}} From July 1942, over 107,000 Dutch Jews were deported; only 5,000 survived the war. Most were sent to ]; the first transport of 1,135 Jews left Holland for Auschwitz on 15 July 1942. Between 2 March and 20 July 1943, 34,313 Jews were sent in 19 transports to the ], where all but 18 are thought to have been gassed on arrival.{{sfn|Schelvis|2014|pp=xv, 198}} | |||
Prior to the invasion, the ''Einsatzgruppen'' were reorganized in preparation for mass killings and instructed to shoot Soviet officials and Jewish state and party employees.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=129}} The shootings were justified on the basis of Jews' supposed central role in supporting the communist system, but it was not initially envisioned to kill all Soviet Jews.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=190}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=66}} The occupiers relied on locals to identify Jews to be targeted.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=259–260}} The first German mass killings targeted adult male Jews who had worked as civil servants or in jobs requiring education. Tens of thousands were shot by the end of July. The vast majority of civilian victims were Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=69}} In July and August ], the leader of the ] (''Schutzstaffel''), made several visits to the ]' zones of operation, relaying orders to kill more Jews.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=132}} At this time, the killers began to murder Jewish women and children too.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=132}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=207}} Executions peaked at 40,000 a month ] in August and September and in October and November reached their height ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=69–70}} | |||
France had approximately 300,000 Jews, divided between the German-occupied north and the unoccupied collaborationist southern areas in ] (named after the town ]). The occupied regions were under the control of a military governor, and there, anti-Jewish measures were not enacted as quickly as they were in the Vichy-controlled areas.{{sfn|McKale|2002|pp=165–166}} In July 1940, the Jews in the parts of ] that had been annexed to Germany were expelled into Vichy France.{{sfn|Zuccotti|1993|p=52}} Vichy France's government implemented anti-Jewish measures in ] and the two French Protectorates of ] and ].{{sfn|Bauer|2001|pp=256–257}} Tunisia had 85,000 Jews when the Germans and Italians arrived in November 1942; an estimated 5,000 Jews were subjected to forced labor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tunisia |publisher=Yad Vashem |work=Shoah Resource Center |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205892.pdf |accessdate=20 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325211156/http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205892.pdf |archive-date=25 March 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
], Belarus]] | |||
{{anchor|Madagascar}}The fall of France gave rise to the ] in the summer of 1940, when ] in ] became the focus of discussions about deporting all European Jews there; it was thought that the area's harsh living conditions would hasten deaths.<ref>{{harvnb|Longerich|2010|pp=161–164}}; for hastening deaths, also see {{harvnb|Browning|2004|pp=88–89}}.</ref> Several Polish, French and British leaders had discussed the idea in the 1930s, as did German leaders from 1938.{{sfn|Browning|2004|pp=81–82}} ]'s office was ordered to investigate the option, but no evidence of planning exists until after the defeat of France in June 1940.{{sfn|Browning|2004|pp=82–85}} Germany's inability to defeat Britain, something that was obvious to the Germans by September 1940, prevented the movement of Jews across the seas,{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=88}} and the Foreign Ministry abandoned the plan in February 1942.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=164}} | |||
] | |||
The executions often took place a few kilometers from a town. Victims were rounded up and marched to the execution site, forced to undress, and shot into previously dug pits.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=70}} The favored technique was a shot in the back of the neck with a single bullet.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=203}} In the chaos, many victims were not killed by the gunfire but instead ]. Typically, the pits would be guarded after the execution but sometimes a few victims managed to escape afterwards.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=70}} Executions were public spectacles and the victims' property was looted both by the occupiers and local inhabitants.{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=203}} Around 200 ghettos were established in the occupied Soviet Union, with many existing only briefly before their inhabitants were executed. A few large ghettos such as Vilna, ], ], ], and ] lasted into 1943 because they became centers of production.{{sfn|Miron|2020|p=254}} | |||
Victims of mass shootings included Jews deported from elsewhere.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=79}} Besides Germany, Romania ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=372}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=207}} Romania deported about 154,000–170,000 Jews from ] to ghettos in ] from 1941 to 1943.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=36}} Jews from Transnistria were also imprisoned in these ghettos, where the total death toll may have reached 160,000.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=371}} Hungary expelled thousands of ] and foreign Jews in 1941, who were shortly thereafter ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=380}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=224}} At the beginning of September, all German Jews were required to wear a yellow star, and in October, Hitler decided to ] and ban emigration.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=75–77}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=284–285}} Between mid-October and the end of 1941, 42,000 Jews from Germany and its annexed territories and 5,000 ] were deported to Łódź, Kovno, Riga, and ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=76}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=286}} In late November, ] outside of Kovno and ] near Riga, but Himmler ordered an end to such massacres and some in the senior Nazi leadership voiced doubts about killing German Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=79}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=298–299}} Executions of German Jews in the Baltics resumed in early 1942.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=300}} | |||
===Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece=== | |||
{{Main|The Holocaust in Greece|l1=The Holocaust in Greece|The Holocaust in Serbia|l2=in Serbia|The Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia|l3=in Croatia}} | |||
] and ] in April 1941 and surrendered before the end of the month. Germany and Italy divided Greece into occupation zones but did not eliminate it as a country. Yugoslavia, home to around 80,000 Jews, was dismembered; regions in the north were annexed by Germany and regions along the coast made part of Italy. The rest of the country was divided into the ], nominally an ally of Germany, and ], which was governed by a combination of military and police administrators.{{sfn|McKale|2002|pp=192–193}} Serbia was declared free of Jews (]) in August 1942.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=134}}<ref>Jelena Subotić; ''Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism'' p. 3; Cornell University Press, 2019, {{ISBN|150174240X}}</ref> Croatia's ruling party, the ], killed the majority of the country's Jews and ] from the area local Orthodox Christian Serbs and Muslims.{{sfn|McKale|2002|pp=192–193}} On 18 April 1944 Croatia was declared as Judenfrei.<ref>, porges.net; accessed 5 May 2016.</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.porges.net/JewishHistoryOfYugoslavia.html | title = Povijest Židova Jugoslavije | language = fr | publisher = Porges.net | date = | accessdate = 12 August 2015}}</ref> Jews and Serbs alike were "hacked to death and burned in barns", according to Black. One difference between the Germans and Croatians was that the Ustashe allowed its Jewish and Serbian victims to convert to Catholicism so they could escape death.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=134}} According to Jozo Tomasevich of the 115 Jewish religious communities from Yugoslavia which exist in 1939 and 1940 only Jewish communities from ] managed to survive the war.<ref>Jozo Tomasevich; ''Rat i revolucija u Jugoslaviji : 1941-1945. : okupacija i kolaboracija'' p. 650; EPH media, Zagreb, 2010, {{ISBN|978-953-300-147-0}}</ref> | |||
After the expansion of killings to target the entire Soviet Jewish population, the 3,000 men of the ''Einsatzgruppen'' proved insufficient and Himmler mobilized 21 battalions of ] to assist them.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=132}} In addition, Wehrmacht soldiers, ] brigades, and local auxiliaries shot many Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=70}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=142}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|pp=205–206}} By the end of 1941, more than 80 percent of the Jews in central Ukraine, eastern Belarus, Russia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been shot, but less than 25 percent of those living farther west where 900,000 remained alive.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=71}} By the end of the war, around 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=128}} and as many as 225,000 Roma.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=200}} The murderers found the executions distressing and logistically inconvenient, which influenced the decision to switch to other methods of killing.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=146–147}} | |||
===Invasion of the Soviet Union=== | |||
====Reasons==== | |||
{{Main|Invasion of the Soviet Union}} | |||
{{further|Winter campaign of 1941–42}} | |||
{{wikisource|The Führer to the German People: 22 June 1941}} | |||
Germany invaded the ] on 22 June 1941, a day ] called "one of the most significant days in the history of Europe ... the beginning of a calamity that defies description".{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=155}} ] described it as "a quantum leap toward the Holocaust".{{sfn|Matthäus|2004|p=245}} German propaganda portrayed the conflict as an ideological war between German National Socialism and Jewish Bolshevism and as a racial war between the Germans and the Jewish, Romani, and Slavic '']'' ("sub-humans").{{sfn|Burleigh|2001|pp=512, 526–527}} ] writes that the war was driven primarily by the need for resources: agricultural land to feed Germany, natural resources for German industry, and control over Europe's largest oil fields. But precisely because of the Soviet Union's vast resources, "ictory would have to be swift".{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=360}} Between early fall 1941 and late spring 1942, according to Matthäus, 2 million of the 3.5 million Soviet soldiers captured by the ] (Germany's armed forces) had been executed or had died of neglect and abuse. By 1944 the Soviet death toll was at least 20 million.{{sfn|Matthäus|2007|p=219}} | |||
==Systematic deportations across Europe== | |||
====Mass shootings{{anchor|Mass shootings|Einsatzgruppen}}==== | |||
Most historians agree that Hitler issued an ] to kill all Jews across Europe,{{sfn|Evans|2019|p=120}} but there is disagreement as to when.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=78}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=204}} Some historians cite inflammatory statements by Hitler and other Nazi leaders as well as the concurrent ], plans for ] in Poland, and the beginning of the deportation of German Jews as indicative of the final decision having been made before December 1941.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=78}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=303}} Others argue that these policies were initiatives by local leaders and that the final decision was made later.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=78}} On 5 December 1941, the Soviet Union ]. On 11 December, ] after Japan ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=79–80}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=199}} The next day, he ], referring to his ], "The world war is here; the annihilation of the Jews must be the necessary consequence."{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=199}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=306}} | |||
{{Further|The Holocaust in Russia|l1=The Holocaust in Russia|The Holocaust in Belarus|l2=in Belarus|The Holocaust in Ukraine|l3=in Ukraine|The Holocaust in Latvia|l4=in Latvia|The Holocaust in Lithuania|l5=in Lithuania|The Holocaust in Estonia|l6=in Estonia}} | |||
{{Further|Collaboration in German-occupied Soviet Union|Einsatzgruppen trial|Kaunas pogrom|War crimes of the Wehrmacht}} | |||
] ], commander of Einsatzgruppe D, pleads not guilty during the ], ], 15 September 1947. He was executed in 1951.]] | |||
It took the Nazis several months after this to organize a continent-wide genocide.{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=199}} ], head of the ] (RSHA), convened the ] on 20 January 1942. This high-level meeting was intended to coordinate anti-Jewish policy.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=84–85}} The majority of Holocaust killings were carried out in 1942, with it being the peak of the genocide, as over 3 million Jews were murdered, with 20 or 25 percent of Holocaust victims dying before early 1942 and the same number surviving by the end of the year.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=202}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=99}} | |||
As German troops advanced, the mass shooting of "anti-German elements" was assigned, as in Poland, to the ], this time under the command of ].{{sfn|Browning|2004|pp=16, 224–225}} The point of the attacks was to destroy the local Communist Party leadership and therefore the state, including "Jews in the Party and State employment", and any "radical elements".{{efn|Ten days after the invasion, ] laid out, in a memorandum, the guidelines he had issued to the Einsatzgruppen: "All the following are to be executed: Officials of the Comintern (together with professional Communist politicians in general; top and medium-level officials and radical lower-level officials of the Party, Central Committee and district and sub-district committees; People's Commissars; Jews in the Party and State employment, and other radical elements (saboteurs, propagandists, snipers, assassins, inciters etc.) ... No steps will be taken to interfere with any purges that may be initiated by anti-Communist or anti-Jewish elements ... On the contrary, these are to be secretly encouraged." Cesarani writes that it is "noteworthy that Heyrich did ''not'' want the SS to be held responsible".{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=365–366}}}} Cesarani writes that the killing of Jews was at this point a "subset" of these activities.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=367}} | |||
===Extermination camps=== | |||
] arrived in the ] (], ], and ]) with ]; ] in ] with ]; ] in the ] with ]; and ] went further south into Ukraine with the ].{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=182}} Each Einsatzgruppe numbered around 600–1,000 men, with a few women in administrative roles.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|pp=364–365}} Travelling with nine German ] and three units of the ],{{sfn|McKale|2002|p=198}} the Einsatzgruppen and their local collaborators had murdered almost 500,000 people by the winter of 1941–1942.{{sfn|Fischel|2010|p=67}}<!--check all these figures--> By the end of the war, they had killed around two million, including about 1.3 million Jews and up to a quarter of a million Roma.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=200}} According to ], the Germany army took part in these shootings as bystanders, photographers and active shooters; to justify their troops' involvement, army commanders would describe the victims as "hostages", "bandits" and "partisans".{{sfn|Wette|2006|pp=130–131}} Local populations helped by identifying and rounding up Jews, and by actively participating in the killing. In Lithuania, Latvia and western Ukraine, locals were deeply involved; Latvian and Lithuanian units participated in the murder of Jews in Belarus, and in the south, Ukrainians killed about 24,000 Jews. Some Ukrainians went to Poland to serve as guards in the camps.<!--check source and rewrite-->{{sfn|Matthäus|2004|p=268}} | |||
{{Main|Extermination camp}} | |||
] | |||
] developed from those used to kill mental patients since 1939 were assigned to the ''Einsatzgruppen'' and first used in November 1941; victims were forced into the van and killed with engine exhaust.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=279}} The first extermination camp was ] in the Wartheland, established on the initiative of the local civil administrator ] with Himmler's approval; it began operations in December 1941 using gas vans.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=74}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=209}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=290–291}} In October 1941, ] of Lublin ]{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=210}} began work planning ]—the first purpose-built extermination camp to feature stationary ]s using carbon monoxide based on the previous ] programme<ref>], ''Holocaust, the Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews'', p. 280</ref><ref name="Nazi Genocide pp. 96, 99">] ''The Origins of Nazi Genocide, From Euthanasia to the Final Solution'', pp. 96, 99</ref>—amid increasing talk among German administrators in Poland of large-scale murder of Jews in the General Governorate.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=280, 293–294, 302}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=74}} In late 1941 in ], Jews in forced-labor camps operated by the ] deemed "unfit for work" began to be sent in groups to Auschwitz where they were murdered.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=280–281, 292}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=208–209}} In early 1942, ] became the preferred killing method in extermination camps{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=281–282}} after gassing experiments were conducted on Russian POWs in late August 1941.{{sfn|Browning|2004|pp=526–527}}<ref name="Nazi Genocide pp. 96, 99"/> | |||
====Toward the Holocaust==== | |||
{{further|Babi Yar|Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre|Ponary massacre|Rumbula massacre}} | |||
]: '']'' shooting a woman and child, near ], Ukraine, 1942<ref>{{cite web |title=Einsatzgruppe member kills a Jewish woman and her child near Ivangorod, Ukraine, 1942 |url=https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/kovno/mass/photo.htm |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511140316/https://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/kovno/mass/photo.htm |archivedate=11 May 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>]] | |||
The camps were located on rail lines to make it easier to transport Jews to their deaths, but in remote places to avoid notice.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=210}} The stench caused by mass killing operations was noticeable to anyone nearby.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|pp=247, 251}} Except in the deportations from western and central Europe, people were typically deported to the camps in ]. As many as 150 people were forced into a single ]. Many died ''en route'', partly because of the low priority accorded to these transports.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=286–287}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=204}} Shortage of rail transport sometimes led to postponement or cancellation of deportations.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=283}} Upon arrival, the victims were robbed of their remaining possessions, forced to undress, had their hair cut, and were chased into the gas chamber.{{sfn|Kay|2021|pp=204–205}} Death from the gas was agonizing and could take as long as 30 minutes.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=330}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=199}} The gas chambers were primitive and sometimes malfunctioned. Some prisoners were shot because the gas chambers were not functioning.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=153–154}} At other extermination camps, nearly everyone on a transport was killed on arrival, but at Auschwitz around 20–25 percent were separated out for labor,{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=199}} although many of these prisoners died later on{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=211}} through starvation, mass shooting, torture,<ref>{{cite book |last=Borkin |first=Joseph |url=https://archive.org/details/crimepunishmento0000bork |title=The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben |publisher=Free Press |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-02-904630-2 |location=New York City |url-access=registration}}</ref> and medical experiments.<ref name="Weindling von Villiez Loewenau Farron 2016 pp. 1–6">{{cite journal |last1=Weindling |first1=Paul |last2=von Villiez |first2=Anna |last3=Loewenau |first3=Aleksandra |last4=Farron |first4=Nichola |year=2016 |title=The victims of unethical human experiments and coerced research under National Socialism |journal=Endeavour |publisher=Elsevier BV |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=1–6 |doi=10.1016/j.endeavour.2015.10.005 |issn=0160-9327 |pmc=4822534 |pmid=26749461}}</ref> | |||
Typically, victims would undress and give up their valuables before lining up beside a ditch to be shot, or they would be forced to climb into the ditch, lie on a lower layer of corpses, and wait to be killed.{{sfn|McKale|2002|p=204}} The latter was known as ''Sardinenpackung'' ("packing sardines"), a method reportedly started by SS officer ].{{sfn|Schneider|2015|p=183}} | |||
Belzec, ], and ] reported a combined revenue of RM 178.7 million from belongings stolen from their victims, far exceeding costs.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=273}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=209}} Combined, the camps required the labor of less than 3,000 Jewish prisoners, 1,000 ] (largely Ukrainian auxiliaries), and very few German guards.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=274}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=204}} About half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust died by poison gas.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=121}} Thousands of Romani people were also murdered in the extermination camps.{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=247}} Prisoner uprisings at ] and ] meant that these camps were shut down earlier than envisioned.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=111}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=208}} | |||
At first the Einsatzgruppen targeted the male Jewish intelligentsia, defined as male Jews aged 15–60 who had worked for the state and in certain professions (the commandos would describe them as "Bolshevist functionaries" and similar), but from August 1941 they began to murder women and children too.<ref>{{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=207}}; {{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|p=70}}.</ref> ] reports that on 1 August, the ] passed an order to its units: "Explicit order by RF-SS . All Jews must be shot. Drive the female Jews into the swamps."{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=281}} In a ] to party leaders, ] said he had ordered that women and children be shot, but ] and ] write that the murder of women and children began at different times in different areas, suggesting local influence.<ref>{{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=206}}; {{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|pp=71–72}}.</ref> | |||
Notable massacres include the July 1941 ] near ] (]), in which Einsatgruppe B and Lithuanian collaborators shot 72,000 Jews and 8,000 non-Jewish Lithuanians and Poles.{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=193}} In the ] (]), nearly 24,000 Jews were killed between 27 and 30 August 1941.{{sfn|Matthäus|2007|p=219}} The largest massacre was at a ravine called ] outside ] (also Soviet Ukraine), where 33,771 Jews were killed on 29–30 September 1941.<ref>{{harvnb|Matthäus|2007|p=219}}; {{harvnb|Evans|2008|pp=226–227}}; {{harvnb|Bergen|2016|pp=199–200}}.</ref> Einsatzgruppe C and the ], assisted by Ukrainian militia, carried out the killings,{{sfn|McKale|2002|p=203}} while the German ] helped round up and transport the victims to be shot.{{sfn|Fritz|2011|pp=102–104}} The Germans continued to use the ravine for mass killings throughout the war; the total killed there could be as high as 100,000.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=199}} | |||
Historians agree that there was a "gradual radicalization" between the spring and autumn of 1941 of what Longerich calls Germany's ''Judenpolitik'', but they disagree about whether a decision—''Führerentscheidung'' (Führer's decision)—to murder the European Jews was made at this point.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=304–305}}{{efn|] (2015): "The genesis of the Holocaust was lengthy and complex. The days are long gone when historians believed that it could be reduced to a single decision taken on a single day by Hitler. Instead, the Holocaust was the culmination of a dynamic murderous process, propelled by increasingly radical initiatives from above and below. During World War II, the Nazi pursuit of a Final Solution moved from increasingly lethal plans for Jewish 'reservations' to immediate extermination. There were several key periods of radicalization. The invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 marked one such moment, as mass shootings of Jewish men of military age soon grew into widespread ethnic cleansing, with daily bloodbaths of women, children, and the elderly."{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=300}}}} According to ], writing in 2004, most historians maintain that there was no order before the invasion to kill all the Soviet Jews.{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=214}} Longerich wrote in 2010 that the gradual increase in brutality and numbers killed between July and September 1941 suggests there was "no particular order"; instead it was a question of "a process of increasingly radical interpretations of orders".{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=206}} | |||
===Germany's allies=== | |||
====Romania==== | |||
{{Main|The Holocaust in Romania|Bucharest pogrom|Iaşi pogrom|1941 Odessa massacre|Dorohoi Pogrom}} | |||
{{Further|Axis powers}} | |||
], July 1941]] | |||
According to ], the murder of Jews in Romania was "essentially an independent undertaking".{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=36}} Romania implemented anti-Jewish measures in May and June 1940 as part of its efforts towards an alliance with Germany. Jews were forced from government service, pogroms were carried out, and by March 1941 all Jews had lost their jobs and had their property confiscated.{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=131–133}} In June 1941 Romania joined Germany in its ]. | |||
Thousands of Jews were killed in January and June 1941 in the ] and ].{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|pp=267–272}} According to a 2004 report by ] and others, up to 14,850 Jews died during the Iaşi pogrom.{{sfn|Friling|Ioanid|Ionescu|2004|p=126}} The Romanian military killed up to 25,000 Jews during the ] between 18 October 1941 and March 1942, assisted by gendarmes and the police.{{sfn|Friling|Ioanid|Ionescu|2004|p=150}} ], Romania's deputy prime minister, was reported to have said it was "the most favorable moment in our history" to solve the "Jewish problem".{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|p=272}} In July 1941 he said it was time for "total ethnic purification, for a revision of national life, and for purging our race of all those elements which are foreign to its soul, which have grown like mistletoes and darken our future".{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|p=269}} Romania set up concentration camps under its control in ], reportedly extremely brutal, where 154,000–170,000 Jews were deported from 1941 to 1943.<ref>{{harvnb|Black|2016|pp=131–133}}; for extreme bruality, see {{harvnb|Stone|2010|p=36}}.</ref> | |||
====Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary==== | |||
{{Further|The Holocaust in Bulgaria|l1=The Holocaust in Bulgaria|The Holocaust in Slovakia|l2=in Slovakia|The Holocaust in Hungary|l3=in Hungary}} | |||
{{multiple image | direction = vertical |align = right | width = 250 | |||
| image1 = Ľudové noviny 1941.jpg | |||
| caption1 = ''Ľudové noviny'', ] propaganda office newspaper, 21 September 1941: "We've dealt with the Jews! The strictest anti-Jewish laws are Slovakian"{{efn|"Už odbilo Židom! Najprísnejšie rasové zákony na Židov sú slovenské"}} | |||
| image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-680-8285A-26, Budapest, Festnahme von Juden.jpg | |||
| caption2 = ], Hungary, October 1944 | |||
}} | |||
Bulgaria introduced anti-Jewish measures between 1940 and 1943, which included a curfew, the requirement to wear a yellow star, restrictions on owning telephones or radios, the banning of mixed marriages (except for Jews who had converted to Christianity), and the registration of property.{{sfn|Fischel|2010|p=35}} It annexed Thrace and Macedonia, and in February 1943 agreed to a demand from Germany that it deport 20,000 Jews to the ]. All 11,000 Jews from the annexed territories were sent to their deaths, and plans were made to deport an additional 6,000–8,000 Bulgarian Jews from Sofia to meet the quota.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=392}} When the plans became public, the ] and many Bulgarians protested, and King ] canceled the deportation of Jews native to Bulgaria.{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=136–137}} Instead, they were expelled to provincial areas of the country.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=392}} | |||
Stone writes that Slovakia, led by Roman Catholic priest ] (president of the ], 1939–1945), was "one of the most loyal of the collaborationist regimes". It deported 7,500 Jews in 1938 on its own initiative; introduced anti-Jewish measures in 1940; and by the autumn of 1942 had deported around 60,000 Jews to ghettos and concentration camps in Poland. Another 2,396 were deported and 2,257 killed that autumn during an uprising, and 13,500 were deported between October 1944 and March 1945.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=33–34}} According to Stone, "the Holocaust in Slovakia was far more than a German project, even if it was carried out in the context of a 'puppet' state."{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=34–35}} | |||
<!--expand a little and link to later section-->Although Hungary expelled Jews who were not citizens from its newly annexed lands in 1941, it did not deport most of its Jews{{sfn|Black|2016|p=135}} until the German invasion of Hungary in March 1944. Between 15 May and early July 1944, 437,000 Jews were deported from Hungary, mostly to Auschwitz, where most of them were gassed; there were four transports a day, each carrying 3,000 people.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=408}} In Budapest in October and November 1944, the Hungarian ] forced 50,000 Jews ] to the Austrian border as part of a deal with Germany to supply forced labor. So many died that the marches were stopped.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=409–410}} | |||
====Italy, Finland, Japan==== | |||
{{Further|The Holocaust in Italy|l1=The Holocaust in Italy|The Holocaust in Italian Libya|l2=in Italian Libya|History of the Jews in Finland#World War II|l3=in Finland}} | |||
{{See also|Jewish settlement in the Japanese Empire#During World War II|l1=Jewish settlement in Japan}} | |||
Italy introduced some antisemitic measures, but there was less antisemitism there than in Germany, and Italian-occupied countries were generally safer for Jews than those occupied by Germany. There were no deportations of Italian Jews to Germany while Italy remained an ally. In some areas, the Italian authorities even tried to protect Jews, such as in the Croatian areas of the Balkans. But while Italian forces in Russia were not as vicious towards Jews as the Germans, they did not try to stop German atrocities either.{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=137–139}} Several forced labor camps for Jews were established in ]; almost 2,600 ] were sent to camps, where 562 died.<!--replace source--><ref>{{cite web |last=Ochayon |first=Sheryl |title=The Jews of Libya |work=The International School for Holocaust Studies |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/25/jews_libya.asp |publisher=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925162551/http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/25/jews_libya.asp |archive-date=25 September 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In Finland, the government was pressured in 1942 to hand over its 150–200 non-Finnish Jews to Germany. After opposition from both the government and public, eight non-Finnish Jews were deported in late 1942; only one survived the war.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=140}}<!--Needs to be clarified succinctly or left out (see Military history of Finland during World War II): Finnish Jews fought in the army during the period it was allied with Germany.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=140}}--> ] had little antisemitism in its society and did not persecute Jews in most of the territories it controlled. Jews in ] were confined, but despite German pressure they were not killed.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=141}} | |||
===Concentration and labor camps=== | |||
{{Further|Nazi concentration camps|List of Nazi concentration camps|Extermination through labor|Holocaust trains}} | |||
], Austria, 1942{{sfn|Orth|2009|p=181}}]] | |||
<!--Section needs a rewrite.-->Germany first used concentration camps as places of unlawful incarceration of political opponents and other "enemies of the state". Large numbers of Jews were not sent there until after '']'' in November 1938.{{sfn|Baumel|2001|p=135}} Although death rates were high, the camps were not designed as killing centers.{{sfn|Fischel|2010|pp=50–52}} After war broke out in 1939, new camps were established, some outside Germany in occupied Europe.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005144 |title=Nazi Camps |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate=5 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180619040210/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005144 |archive-date=19 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> In January 1945, the SS reports had over 700,000 prisoners in their control, of which close to half had died by the end of May 1945, according to most historians.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007387 |title=Concentration Camp System: In Depth |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate=5 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180706032827/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007387 |archive-date=6 July 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Most wartime prisoners of the camps were not Germans but belonged to countries under German occupation.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=287–288}}<!--needs another source: It is estimated that the Germans established over 42,000 detention sites throughout Europe, including ghettos, concentration camps, prisoner-of-war camps, work camps, and extermination camps.<ref name=42000facilities>{{cite web |title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum|url=https://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/encyclopedia-camps-ghettos |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914214939/https://www.ushmm.org/research/publications/encyclopedia-camps-ghettos |archivedate=14 September 2017}}</ref>--> | |||
After 1942, the economic functions of the camps, previously secondary to their penal and terror functions, came to the fore. Forced labor of camp prisoners became commonplace.{{sfn|Baumel|2001|p=135}} The guards became much more brutal, and the death rate increased as the guards not only beat and starved prisoners, but killed them more frequently.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=287–288}} '']'' ("extermination through labor") was a policy; camp inmates would literally be worked to death, or to physical exhaustion, at which point they would be gassed or shot.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=314–320}} The Germans estimated the average prisoner's lifespan in a concentration camp at three months, as a result of lack of food and clothing, constant epidemics, and frequent punishments for the most minor transgressions.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=76}} The shifts were long and often involved exposure to dangerous materials.{{sfn|Black|2016|p=104}} | |||
Transportation to and between camps was often carried out in closed freight cars with littie air or water, long delays and prisoners packed tightly.{{sfn|Friedländer|2007|p=492–494}} In mid-1942 work camps began requiring newly arrived prisoners to be placed in quarantine for four weeks.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=347}} Prisoners wore ] on their uniforms, the color denoting the reason for their incarceration. Red signified a political prisoner, ] had purple triangles, "asocials" and criminals wore black and green, and gay men wore pink.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=125–127, 623}} Jews wore ], one over another to form a six-pointed star.<ref>{{harvnb|Yahil|1990|p=134}}; {{harvnb|Wachsmann|2015|p=119}}.</ref> Prisoners in Auschwitz were ] with an identification number.<ref name=USHMMtattoos>{{cite web |title=Tattoos and Numbers: The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/tattoos-and-numbers-the-system-of-identifying-prisoners-at-auschwitz |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613215609/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/tattoos-and-numbers-the-system-of-identifying-prisoners-at-auschwitz |archivedate=13 June 2018}}</ref> | |||
==Final Solution== | |||
===Pearl Harbor, Germany declares war on America=== | |||
{{Further|Reich Chancellery meeting of 12 December 1941}} | |||
] speaking at the ] in Berlin to members of the ] about war in the Pacific, 11 December 1941{{efn|Those present included (annotated, left to right): ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].}}]] | |||
{{wikisource|Adolf Hitler's Declaration of War against the United States}} | |||
On 7 December 1941, Japanese aircraft ], an American naval base in ], Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans. The following day, ], and on 11 December, ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=80}} According to ] and ], Hitler had trusted American Jews, whom he assumed were all powerful, to keep the United States out of the war in the interests of German Jews. When America declared war, he blamed the Jews.{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|p=279}} | |||
Nearly three years earlier, on 30 January 1939, Hitler had told the ]: "if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will be not the Bolshevising of the earth, and thus a victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!"<ref>{{harvnb|Burleigh|Wippermann|2003|p=99}}; {{cite web |title=Reichstag Speech |url=https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1939-1941/hitler-speech-to-german-parliament |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190522154136/https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1939-1941/hitler-speech-to-german-parliament |archivedate=22 May 2019}}</ref> In the view of ], Hitler "announced his decision in principle" to annihilate the Jews on or around 12 December 1941, one day after his declaration of war. ] in his private apartment at the ] to senior Nazi Party leaders: the '']'', the most senior, and the '']'', the regional leaders.<ref>{{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|p=80}}, {{harvnb|Browning|2004|p=407}}</ref> The following day, ], the ], noted in his diary: | |||
{{quote|Regarding the Jewish question, the Führer is determined to clear the table. He warned the Jews that if they were to cause another world war, it would lead to their destruction. Those were not empty words. Now the world war has come. The destruction of the Jews must be its necessary consequence. We cannot be sentimental about it.{{efn|] (13 December 1941): "Regarding the Jewish question, the Fuhrer is determined to clear the table. He warned the Jews that if they were to cause another world war, it would lead to their own destruction. Those were not empty words. Now the world war has come. The destruction of the Jews must be its necessary consequence. We cannot be sentimental about it. It is not for us to feel sympathy for the Jews. We should have sympathy rather with our own German people. If the German people have to sacrifice 160,000 victims in yet another campaign in the east, then those responsible for this bloody conflict will have to pay for it with their lives."<ref>{{harvnb|Gerlach|1998|p=122}}; {{harvnb|Browning|2004|p=407}}, citing '']'', II, 2:498–499, entry of 13 December 1941.</ref>}}}} | |||
] argues that Hitler gave no order during the Reich Chancellery meeting, but he made clear that his 1939 warning to the Jews "had to be taken utterly literally", and he signaled to party leaders that they could give appropriate orders to others.{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=408}} ] interprets Hitler's speech to the party leaders as an appeal to radicalize a policy that was already being executed.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=306}} According to Gerlach, an unidentified former German '']'' officer wrote in a report in 1944, after defecting to Switzerland: "After America entered the war, the annihilation (''Ausrottung'') of all European Jews was initiated on the Führer's order."{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=82}} | |||
Four days after Hitler's meeting with party leaders, ], Governor-General of the ] area of occupied Poland, who was at the meeting, spoke to district governors: "We must put an end to the Jews, that I want to say quite openly ... if the Jewish tribe were to survive the war in Europe, while we had sacrificed our best blood for Europe's preservation, then this war would be only a partial success. Thus vis-a-vis the Jews I will in principle proceed only on the assumption that they will disappear. They must go."{{sfn|Browning|2004|pp=408–409}}{{efn|Frank continued by discussing their deportation, then asked: "But what is to happen to the Jews? ... In Berlin we were told "Why all this trouble? We cannot use them in the Ostland or the Reichskommissariat either; liquidate them yourselves!" Gentlemen, I must ask you, arm yourselves against any thoughts of compassion. We must destroy the Jews, wherever we encounter them and whenever it is possible, in order to preserve the entire structure of the Reich. ... We have an estimated 2.5 million Jews in the General Government, perhaps with the half-Jews and all that that entails some 3.5 million. We cannot shoot these 3.5 million Jews, we cannot poison them, but nonetheless we will take some kind of action that will lead to a successful destruction ... The General Government must become just as free of Jews as the Reich."<ref>{{harvnb|Browning|2004|p=409}}; {{harvnb|Arad|Gutman|Margaliot|2014|loc=}}.</ref>}} On 18 December Hitler and Himmler held a meeting to which Himmler referred in his appointment book as "''Juden frage | als Partisanen auszurotten''" ("Jewish question / to be exterminated as partisans"). Browning interprets this as a meeting to discuss how to justify and speak about the killing.{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=410}} | |||
===Wannsee Conference=== | |||
{{Further|Wannsee Conference|Final Solution to the Jewish Question}} | |||
{{multiple image | |||
| direction = vertical | |||
| align = right | |||
| width = 240 | |||
| image2 = Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz 02-2014.jpg | |||
| caption2 = Am Großen Wannsee 56–58, Berlin | |||
| image3 = Wannsee Conference - List of Jews in European countries (cropped).JPG | |||
| caption3 = Pages from the ]<ref name=protocol/> listing the number of Jews in every European country; n.b. '']'' refers to the territories that were part of Nazi Germany before 1938.}} | |||
SS-'']'' ], head of the ], convened what became known as the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942 at Am Großen Wannsee 56–58, a villa in Berlin's ] suburb.<ref name=protocol/><ref>{{harvnb|Gerlach|1998|p=759}}; {{cite web |title=Wannsee Conference and the 'Final Solution' |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/wannsee-conference-and-the-final-solution |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928142922/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005477 |archivedate=28 September 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> The meeting had been scheduled for 9 December 1941, and invitations had been sent on 29 November, but it had been postponed indefinitely. A month later, invitations were sent out again, this time for 20 January.{{sfn|Gerlach|1998|p=764}} | |||
The 15 men present at Wannsee included ] (head of Jewish affairs for the RSHA and the man who organized the deportation of Jews), ] (head of the Gestapo), and other SS and party leaders and department heads.{{efn|]: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]{{sfn|Roseman|2003|p=66}}}} Browning writes that eight of the 15 had doctorates: "Thus it was not a dimwitted crowd unable to grasp what was going to be said to them."{{sfn|Browning|2004|p=411}} Thirty copies of the minutes, known as the ], were made. Copy no. 16 was found by American prosecutors in March 1947 in a German Foreign Office folder.{{sfn|Roseman|2003|p=8}} Written by Eichmann and stamped "Top Secret", the minutes were written in "euphemistic language" on Heydrich's instructions, according to Eichmann's later testimony.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=306}} | |||
The conference had several purposes. Discussing plans for a "]" ("''Endlösung der Judenfrage''"), and a "final solution to the Jewish question in Europe" ("''Endlösung der europäischen Judenfrage''"),<ref name=protocol/> it was intended to share information and responsibility, coordinate efforts and policies ("''Parallelisierung der Linienführung''"), and ensure that authority rested with Heydrich. There was also discussion about whether to include the German ''Mischlinge'' (half-Jews).{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=84–85}} Heydrich told the meeting: "Another possible solution of the problem has now taken the place of emigration, i.e. the evacuation of the Jews to the East, provided that the Fuehrer gives the appropriate approval in advance."<ref name=protocol/> He continued: | |||
<blockquote>Under proper guidance, in the course of the final solution the Jews are to be allocated for appropriate labor in the East. Able-bodied Jews, separated according to sex, will be taken in large work columns to these areas for work on roads, in the course of which action doubtless a large portion will be eliminated by natural causes.{{pb}} The possible final remnant will, since it will undoubtedly consist of the most resistant portion, have to be treated accordingly because it is the product of natural selection and would, if released, act as the seed of a new Jewish revival (see the experience of history.) In the course of the practical execution of the final solution, Europe will be combed through from west to east. Germany proper, including the ], will have to be handled first due to the housing problem and additional social and political necessities. The evacuated Jews will first be sent, group by group, to so-called transit ghettos, from which they will be transported to the East.<ref name=protocol>Original: {{cite web |title=Besprechungsprotokoll |url=https://www.ghwk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-wannsee/dokumente/protokoll-januar1942_barrierefrei.pdf |publisher=Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202072647/https://www.ghwk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-wannsee/dokumente/protokoll-januar1942_barrierefrei.pdf |archivedate=2 February 2019|url-status=live}}{{pb}} | |||
English: {{cite web |title=Wannsee Protocol, January 20, 1942 |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/wannsee.asp |website=The Avalon Project |publisher=Yale Law School |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180816163214/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/wannsee.asp |archivedate=16 August 2018|url-status=live}}{{pb}} | |||
German: {{cite web |url=http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wannsee-Protokoll |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060622052218/http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wannsee-Protokoll|archive-date=22 June 2006 |title=Wannsee-Protokoll |work=EuroDocs |publisher=Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
These evacuations were regarded as provisional or "temporary solutions" ("''Ausweichmöglichkeiten''").{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=307}}{{efn|]: "Diese Aktionen sind jedoch lediglich als Ausweichmöglichkeiten anzusprechen, doch werden hier bereits jene praktischen Erfahrungen gesammelt, die im Hinblick auf die kommende Endlösung der Judenfrage von wichtiger Bedeutung sind."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wannsee-Protokoll |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060622052218/http://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Wannsee-Protokoll |url-status=live |archive-date=22 June 2006 |title=Wannsee-Protokoll |work=EuroDocs |publisher=Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University}}</ref>{{pb}} | |||
Translation, ]: "These actions are, however, only to be considered provisional, but practical experience is already being collected which is of the greatest importance in relation to the future final solution of the Jewish question."<ref name=protocol/>}} The final solution would encompass the 11{{nbsp}}million Jews living not only in territories controlled by Germany, but elsewhere in Europe and adjacent territories, such as Britain, Ireland, Switzerland, Turkey, Sweden, Portugal, Spain, and Hungary, "dependent on military developments".{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=307}} There was little doubt what the final solution was, writes ]: "the Jews were to be annihilated by a combination of forced labour and mass murder."{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=308}} | |||
===Extermination camps{{anchor|Extermination camps}}=== | |||
{{Main|Extermination camp}} | |||
At the end of 1941 in occupied Poland, the Germans began building additional camps or expanding existing ones. ], for example, was expanded in October 1941 by building ] a few kilometers away.<ref name=deathcamps/> By the spring or summer of 1942, gas chambers had been installed in these new facilities, except for Chełmno, which used gas vans. | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="float:center |
{| class="wikitable" style="float:center; margin-left:1.0em" | ||
|+Major extermination camps{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} | |||
|- | |- | ||
!scope="col"| Camp | |||
! Camp !! Location<br />(]) !! Deaths !! Gas<br>chambers !! Gas<br>vans !! Construction<br>began !! Mass gassing<br>began !! Source<br>(]) | |||
!scope="col"| Location | |||
!scope="col"| Number of Jews killed | |||
!scope="col"| Killing technology | |||
!scope="col"| Planning began | |||
!scope="col"| Mass gassing duration | |||
|- | |- | ||
|scope="row"| ] | |||
| ] || ] || 1,082,000<br><small>(all Auschwitz camps;<br>includes 960,000 Jews)</small>{{efn|] used timetables of train arrivals combined with deportation records to calculate that, of the 1.3 million deported to Auschwitz, 1,082,000 died there between 1940 and 1945, a figure (rounded up to 1.1 million) that he regarded as a minimum.{{sfn|Piper|2000|pp=226–227, 230–231}}}} || {{ya|text=4}}{{efn|] contained crematorium I, which stopped operating in July 1943.{{sfn|Piper|2000|p=133}} ] contained crematoria II–V.{{sfn|Piper|2000|pp=144, 155–156}}}} || || October 1941<br><small>(built as POW camp)</small>{{sfn|Strzelecka|Setkiewicz|2000|pp=81–82}} ||c. 20 March 1942<ref>{{harvnb|Czech|2000|p=143}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|2000|p=134, footnote 422}}, citing ], ''The Auschwitz Chronicle'', p. 146.</ref>{{efn|] also had a gas chamber; gassing there, of non-Jewish Poles and Soviet POWs, began in August 1941.<!--add source-->}} || <ref name=yvAuschwitz>{{cite web |title= Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp |work= About the Holocaust |url= http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/final-solution/auschwitz |publisher= Yad Vashem |accessdate= 2 October 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171005190544/http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/final-solution/auschwitz |archive-date= 5 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
| ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || 150,000{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || July 1941{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} <!-- construction in November 1941{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=209}} --> || 8 December 1941 – April 1943 and April–July 1944{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=74, 120}} | |||
|- | |- | ||
|scope="row"| ] | |||
| ] || ] || 600,000<ref name=yvBelzec/> || {{ya}} || ||1 November 1941{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=74}} || 17 March 1942{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=74}}||<ref name=yvBelzec>{{cite web |title=Belzec |url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205981.pdf |work=Holocaust Resource Center |publisher=Yad Vashem |accessdate=29 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006110928/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205981.pdf |archive-date=6 October 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
| ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || 440,823–596,200{{sfn|Lehnstaedt|2021|p=63}} || Stationary ], engine exhaust{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} ||October 1941{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=74, 120}} || 17 March 1942 – December 1942{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=74, 120}} | |||
|- | |- | ||
|scope="row"| ] | |||
| ] || ] || 320,000<ref name=yvChelmno/> || || {{ya}} || || 8 December 1941<ref>{{harvnb|Wachsmann|2015|p=301}}; {{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|p=74}}.</ref>||<ref name=yvChelmno>{{cite web |title=Chelmno |work=Holocaust Resource Center |url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%202494.pdf |publisher=Yad Vashem |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201234425/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%202494.pdf |archive-date=1 February 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
| ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || 170,618–238,900{{sfn|Lehnstaedt|2021|p=63}} || Stationary ], engine exhaust{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || Late 1941 or March 1942{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=93–94, 120}} || May 1942 – October 1942{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=93–94, 120}} | |||
|- | |- | ||
|scope="row"| ] | |||
| ]|| ] || 78,000{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=637}} || {{ya}}|| || 7 October 1941 <small><br>(built as POW camp)</small>{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=286}} ||October 1942{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=330}} || <ref name=yvMaj>{{cite web |title=Majdanek |url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206622.pdf |work=Holocaust Resource Center |publisher=Yad Vashem |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127031515/http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206622.pdf |archive-date=27 November 2007 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
| ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || 780,863–951,800{{sfn|Lehnstaedt|2021|p=63}} || Stationary ], engine exhaust{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || April 1942{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} <!-- construction in May<ref name=Treblinkadates>{{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|p=94}}; also see {{harvnb|Cesarani|2016|p=504}}.</ref> --> || 23 July 1942 – October 1943{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} | |||
|- | |- | ||
|scope="row"| ] | |||
| ]|| ] || 250,000<ref name=yvSob/> || {{ya}}|| || February 1942{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=93–94}} || May 1942{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=93–94}} || <ref name=yvSob>{{cite web |title= Sobibor |work= Holocaust Resource Center |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206030.pdf |publisher= Yad Vashem |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140123185124/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206030.pdf |archive-date= 23 January 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
| ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || 900,000–1,000,000{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || Stationary ], ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || September 1941<br /><small>(built as POW camp)</small>{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=281–282}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} || February 1942 – October 1944{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=120}} | |||
|- | |||
| ]|| ] || 870,000<ref name=yvTreb/> || {{ya}} || || May 1942<ref name=Treblinkadates>{{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|p=94}}; also see {{harvnb|Cesarani|2016|p=504}}.</ref> || 23 July 1942<ref name=Treblinkadates/> || <ref name=yvTreb>{{cite web |title= Treblinka |work= Holocaust Resource Center |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205886.pdf |publisher= Yad Vashem |accessdate= 29 May 2017 }}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
| '''Total''' || ||'''3,218,000''' || || | |||
|} | |} | ||
===Liquidation of the ghettos in Poland=== | |||
Other camps sometimes described as extermination camps include ], a camp near ] in the occupied Soviet Union, where 65,000 are thought to have died, mostly by shooting but also in gas vans;<ref name=yvMaly>{{cite web |title= Maly Trostinets |work= Holocaust Resource Center |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206636.pdf |publisher= Yad Vashem |accessdate= 29 May 2017 |archive-url= https://www.webcitation.org/6H6l4jr9f?url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206636.pdf |archive-date=3 June 2013 |url-status=live}}; {{harvnb|Heberer|2008|p=131}}; {{harvnb|Lehnstaedt|2016|p=30}}.</ref> ] in Austria;{{sfn|Fischel|2010|pp=57–58}} ], near ], Poland;{{sfn|Fischel|1998|p=81}} and ] and ] in Germany. The camps in Austria, Germany and Poland all had gas chambers to kill inmates deemed unable to work.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005220 | title=Gassing operations | website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150208103605/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005220 | archive-date=8 February 2015 | url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
{{further|Operation Reinhard}} | |||
] at ], ], and ] from January 1942 to February 1943]] | |||
<!-- ] to ], 1943]] --> | |||
Plans to kill most of the Jews in the General Governorate were affected by various goals of the SS, military, and civil administration to reduce the amount of food consumed by Jews, enable a slight increase in rations to non-Jewish Poles, and combat the ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=91}} In March 1942, killings began in Belzec, targeting Jews from Lublin who were not capable of work. This action reportedly reduced the black market and was deemed a success to be replicated elsewhere.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=243}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=200}} By mid-1942, Nazi leaders decided to allow only 300,000 Jews to survive in the General Governorate by the end of the year for forced labor;{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=91}} for the most part, only those working in ] were spared.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=342}} The majority of ghettos were liquidated in mass executions nearby, especially if they were not near a train station. Larger ghettos were more commonly liquidated during multiple deportations to extermination camps.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=220}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=200}} During this campaign, 1.5 million ] were murdered in the largest killing operation of the Holocaust.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=340}} | |||
In order to reduce resistance, the ghetto would be raided without warning, usually in the early morning, and the extent of the operation would be concealed as long as possible.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=339}} ] would cordon off the ghetto while the ] and ] carried out the action.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=338}} In addition to local non-Jewish collaborators, the Jewish councils and ] were often ordered to assist with liquidation actions, although these Jews were in most cases murdered later.{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=209}} Chaotic, capriciously executed selections determined who would be loaded onto the trains. Many Jews were shot during the action, often leaving ghettos strewn with corpses. Jewish forced laborers had to clean it up and collect any valuables from the victims.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=339}} | |||
====Gas vans==== | |||
] became significant as a symbol of ].{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=209}}]] | |||
{{main|Gas van}} | |||
The Warsaw Ghetto ] between 22 July and 12 September. Of the original population of 350,000 Jews, 250,000 were killed at Treblinka, 11,000 were deported to labor camps, 10,000 were shot in the ghetto, 35,000 were allowed to remain in the ghetto after a final selection, and around 20,000 or 25,000 managed to hide in the ghetto. Misdirection efforts convinced many Jews that they could avoid deportation until it was too late.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=335–336}} During a six-week period beginning in August, 300,000 Jews from the ] were sent to Treblinka.{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=203}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=337}} | |||
Chełmno, with gas vans only, had its roots in the ] euthanasia program.{{sfn|Montague|2012|pp=14–16, 64–65}} In December 1939 and January 1940, gas vans equipped with gas cylinders and a sealed compartment had been used to kill the disabled and mentally ill in occupied Poland.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=160}} As the mass shootings continued in Russia, Himmler and his subordinates in the field feared that the murders were causing psychological problems for the SS,{{sfn|Fischel|1998|pp=42–43}} and began searching for more efficient methods. In December 1941, similar vans, using exhaust fumes rather than bottled gas, were introduced into the camp at Chełmno,{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=74}} Victims were asphyxiated while being driven to prepared burial pits in the nearby forests, where the corpses were unloaded and buried.{{sfn|Montague|2012|pp=76–85}} The vans were also used in the occupied Soviet Union, for example in smaller clearing actions in the ],{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=513}} and in Yugoslavia.{{sfn|Arad|2009|p=138}} Apparently, as with the mass shootings, the vans caused emotional problems for the operators, and the small number of victims the vans could handle made them ineffective.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gas vans |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206236.pdf |publisher=Yad Vashem |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20031127114228/https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206236.pdf |archivedate=27 November 2003}}</ref> | |||
At the same time as the mass killing of Jews in the General Governorate, Jews who were in ghettos to the west and east were targeted. Tens of thousands of Jews were deported from ghettos in the Warthegau and East Upper Silesia to Chełmno and Auschwitz.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=343}} 300,000 Jews—largely skilled laborers—were shot in ], ], and southwestern Belarus.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=93, 249}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=352}} Deportations and mass executions in the ] and Galicia killed many Jews.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=338, 352–353}} Although there was practically no resistance in the General Governorate in 1942, some Soviet Jews improvised weapons, attacked those attempting to liquidate the ghetto, and set it on fire.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=341, 353–354}} These ] were only undertaken when the inhabitants began to believe that their death was certain.{{sfn|Engel|2020|pp=241–242}} In 1943, larger uprisings in ], ], and ] necessitated the use of heavy weapons.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=110}} The uprising in Warsaw prompted the Nazi leadership to liquidate additional ghettos and labor camps in German-occupied Poland with their inhabitants massacred, such as the ], or deported to extermination camps for fear of additional Jewish resistance developing.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=378–380}} Nevertheless, in early 1944, more than 70,000 Jews were performing forced labor in the General Governorate.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=214}} | |||
====Gas chambers==== | |||
{{main|Gas chamber}} | |||
{{multiple image | direction = vertical |align = right | width = 240 | |||
| image1 = Auschwitz-birkenau-main track.jpg | |||
| caption1 = ] gatehouse, shot from inside the camp; the trains delivered victims very close to the gas chambers. | |||
| image2 = Auschwitz Resistance 282 cropped.JPG | |||
| caption2 = Women on their way to the gas chamber, near Crematorium V, Auschwitz II, August 1944. The ] reportedly smuggled the film, known as the ], out of the camp in a toothpaste tube.{{sfn|Didi-Huberman|2008|pp=16–17}} | |||
}} | |||
] writes that over three million Jews were murdered in 1942, the year that "marked the peak" of the mass murder.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=99}} At least 1.4 million of these were in the General Government area of Poland.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=99, note 165}} Victims usually arrived at the extermination camps by freight train.{{sfn|Fischel|1998|pp=81–85}} Almost all arrivals at Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka were sent directly to the gas chambers,{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=69–70}} with individuals occasionally selected to replace dead workers.<ref>{{harvnb|Crowe|2008|p=243}}; {{harvnb|Arad|1999|p=98}}.</ref> At Auschwitz, about 20 percent of Jews were selected to work.{{sfn|Piper|2000|pp=219–220}} Those selected for death at all camps were told to undress and hand their valuables to camp workers.{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|pp=287–288}} They were then herded naked into the gas chambers. To prevent panic, they were told the gas chambers were showers or delousing chambers.{{sfn|Piper|1998b|p=173}} | |||
===Deportations from elsewhere=== | |||
At Auschwitz, after the chambers were filled, the doors were shut and pellets of ] were dropped into the chambers through vents,{{sfn|Piper|1998b|p=162}} releasing toxic ].{{sfn|Piper|1998b|p=157}} Those inside died within 20 minutes; the speed of death depended on how close the inmate was standing to a gas vent, according to the commandant ], who estimated that about one-third of the victims died immediately.{{sfn|Piper|1998b|p=170}} Johann Kremer, an SS doctor who oversaw the gassings, testified that: "Shouting and screaming of the victims could be heard through the opening and it was clear that they fought for their lives."{{sfn|Piper|1998b|p=163}} The gas was then pumped out, and the ]—work groups of mostly Jewish prisoners—carried out the bodies, extracted gold fillings, cut off women's hair, and removed jewellery, artificial limbs and glasses.{{sfn|Piper|1998b|pp=170–172}} At Auschwitz, the bodies were at first buried in deep pits and covered with lime, but between September and November 1942, on the orders of Himmler,<!--check Himmler--> 100,000 bodies were dug up and burned. In early 1943, new gas chambers and crematoria were built to accommodate the numbers.{{sfn|Piper|1998b|pp=163–164}} | |||
], ] to the ] of the ], 25 April 1942.]] | |||
Unlike the killing areas in the east, the deportation from elsewhere in Europe was centrally organized from Berlin, although it depended on the outcome of negotiations with allied governments and popular responses to deportation.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=99}} Beginning in late 1941, local administrators responded to the deportation of Jews to their area by massacring local Jews in order to free up space in ghettos for the deportees.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=299–300, 331}} If the deported Jews did not die of harsh conditions, they were killed later in extermination camps.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=321}} Jews deported to Auschwitz were initially entered into the camp; the practice of conducting selections and murdering many prisoners upon arrival began in July 1942.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=97}} In May and June, German and Slovak Jews deported to Lublin began to be sent directly to extermination camps.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=97}} | |||
In Western Europe, almost all Jewish deaths occurred after deportation.{{sfn|Welch|2020|p=460}} The occupiers often relied on local policemen to arrest Jews, limiting the number who were deported.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=375–376}} In 1942, nearly 100,000 Jews were deported ], ], and ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=96–97}} Only 25 percent of the Jews in France were killed;{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=366}} most of them were either non-citizens or recent immigrants. ] and ] saved hundreds of Jews by hiding them in the basements of the ] and other resistance efforts in France.<ref name="lep1">{{cite news |last1=De Bengy |first1=Raphael |title=Mohamed Mesli : « Mon père, l'imam sauveur de juifs » |trans-title=Mohamed Mesli: "My father, the imam who saved the Jews" |url=https://www.leparisien.fr/week-end/mohamed-mesli-mon-pere-l-imam-sauveur-de-juifs-18-02-2015-4543709.php |work=] |access-date=26 May 2024 |language=fr-FR |date=18 February 2015}}</ref>{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=95–96, 387}} The death rate in the Netherlands was higher than neighboring countries, which scholars have attributed to difficulty in hiding or increased collaboration of the Dutch police.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=257}} | |||
<!--rewrite-->Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka, relatively small compared to Auschwitz, are known as the ] camps, named after the operation to murder the Jews in the General Government area of occupied Poland.<ref>{{harvnb|Cesarani|2016|pp=479–480}}; for size, {{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=330}}.</ref> Between March 1942 and November 1943, around 1,526,500 Jews were gassed in the three Operation Reinhard camps in gas chambers using the exhaust fumes of stationary diesel engines.{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=69–70}}<!--check figure--><ref name=deathcamps>{{cite web | url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005145 | title=Killing Centers: An Overview | website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914220116/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005145 | archive-date=14 September 2017 | url-status=live}}</ref> Gold fillings were pulled from the corpses before burial, but the women's hair was cut before death. At Treblinka, to calm the victims, the arrival platform was made to look like a train station, complete with fake clock.<!--check source-->{{sfn|Fischel|1998|pp=83–85}} Most of the victims at these camps were buried in pits at first. Sobibór and Bełżec began exhuming and burning bodies in late 1942, to hide the evidence, as did Treblinka in March 1943. The bodies were burned in open fire pits and the remaining bones crushed into powder.{{sfn|Arad|1999|pp=170–171}} | |||
The German government sought the deportation of Jews from allied countries.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=97}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=324, 360}} The first to ], which ] to Poland ] to October 1942.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=33–34}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=373, 379}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=325–326}} The ] had already ] the majority of its Jewish population (along with a ]),{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=35}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=306, 368, 372}} and later deported several thousand Jews in 1942 and 1943.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=366, 389}} Bulgaria deported 11,000 Jews from ] and ], who were murdered at Treblinka, but ].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=392}} Romania and Hungary did not send any Jews, which were the largest surviving populations after 1942.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=97, 102, 371–372}} Prior to the ] in September 1943, there were no serious attempt to deport Italian Jews, and Italy refused to allow the deportation of Jews in many ].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=396}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=387}} Nazi Germany did not attempt the destruction of the ]{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=105}} and the ].{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=115–116, 382}} | |||
===Jewish resistance===<!-- | |||
Create section on resistance throughout Europe.--> | |||
{{Main|Warsaw Ghetto Uprising|Jewish resistance in German-occupied Europe|Jewish Combat Organization|Miła 18|Jewish Military Union|Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye}} | |||
{{multiple image | direction = vertical |align = left | width = 240 | |||
| image1 = Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 08.jpg | |||
| caption1 = ] photograph: captured insurgents from the ], May 1943; the woman on the right is Hasia Szylgold-Szpiro.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jews captured by Waffen SS soldiers during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/museum_photos/02/08.asp |publisher=Yad Vashem |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009033921/https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/museum_photos/02/08.asp |archivedate=9 October 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
| image2 = Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 06b.jpg | |||
| caption2 = Another Stroop report image of the aftermath of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; the SS man on the right with the gun is ]. | |||
}} | |||
There was almost no resistance in the ghettos in Poland until the end of 1942, according to ].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=340–341}} ] accounted for this by evoking the ]: appealing to oppressors and complying with orders might avoid inflaming the situation until the onslaught abated.{{sfn|Hilberg|2003|pp=1112–1128}} ] noted that it was only during the three months after the deportations of July–September 1942 that agreement on the need for armed resistance was reached.<ref>{{harvnb|Snyder|2010|p=283}}; {{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=341}}.</ref> | |||
==Perpetrators and beneficiaries== | |||
Several resistance groups were formed, such as the ] (ŻOB) and ] (ŻZW) in the ] and the ] in Vilna.<!--Check/add sources.-->{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=82–85}} Over 100 revolts and uprisings occurred in at least 19 ghettos and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. The best known is the ] in April 1943, when the Germans arrived to send the remaining inhabitants to extermination camps. They had to retreat on 19 April from the ŻOB and ŻZW fighters, and later that day returned under the command of SS General ] (author of the ] about the uprising).{{sfn|Engelking|Leociak|2009|pp=775–777}} Around 1,000 poorly armed fighters held the SS at bay for four weeks.{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=83–84}} According to Polish and Jewish accounts, hundreds or thousands of Germans were killed,{{sfn|Gutman|1994|p=243}} while the Germans reported 16 dead.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=269}} The Germans reported 14,000 Jews killed—7000 during the fighting and 7000 sent to Treblinka{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=616}}—and between 53,000{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=636}} and 56,000 deported.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=269}} | |||
{{further|Responsibility for the Holocaust}} | |||
] guards and female staff auxiliaries enjoying themselves on vacation in ]]] | |||
An estimated 200,000 to 250,000 Germans were directly involved in killing Jews, and if one includes all those involved in the organization of extermination, the number rises to 500,000.{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=2}} Genocide required the active and tacit consent of millions of Germans and non-Germans.{{sfn|Westermann|2020|p=117}}{{sfn|Burzlaff|2020|p=1055}} The motivation of ] varied and has led to historiographical debate.{{sfn|Westermann|2020|p=117}}{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=264}} Studies of the SS officials who organized the Holocaust have found that most had strong ideological commitment to Nazism.{{sfn|Westermann|2020|pp=124–125}}{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=265}} In addition to ideological factors, many perpetrators were motivated by the prospect of material gain and social advancement.{{sfn|Westermann|2020|p=121}}{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=269}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=213}} German SS, police, and regular army units rarely had trouble finding enough men to shoot Jewish civilians, even though punishment for refusal was absent or light.{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=211}}{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=280}} | |||
Non-German perpetrators and collaborators included Dutch, French, and ], Romanian soldiers, ], ] partisans, and some civilians.{{sfn|Westermann|2020|p=117}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=260}}{{sfn|Burzlaff|2020|pp=1064, 1066}} Some were coerced into committing violence against Jews, but others killed for entertainment, material rewards, the possibility of better treatment from the occupiers, or ideological motivations such as nationalism and anti-communism.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=281}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=259, 264}}{{sfn|Burzlaff|2020|p=1067}} According to historian ], non-Germans "not under German command" caused 5 to 6 percent of the Jewish deaths, and their involvement was crucial in other ways.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=13}} | |||
'']'', a ] newspaper, wrote in May 1943: "From behind the screen of smoke and fire, in which the ranks of fighting Jewish partisans are dying, the legend of the exceptional fighting qualities of the Germans is being undermined. How infamous 'victory' appears when it is won only by burning and pulling down a whole district of the capital ... The fighting Jews have won for us what is most important: the truth about the weakness of the Germans."{{sfn|Engelking|Leociak|2009|pp=793}} | |||
Millions of Germans and others benefited from the genocide.{{sfn|Westermann|2020|p=117}} Corruption was rampant in the SS despite the proceeds of the Holocaust being designated as state property.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|pp=340, 376–377}} Different German state agencies vied to receive property stolen from Jews murdered at the death camps.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=379}} Many workers were able to obtain better jobs vacated by murdered Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=340}} Businessmen benefitted from eliminating their Jewish competitors or taking over Jewish-owned businesses.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=450}} Others took over housing and possessions that had belonged to Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=349}} Some Poles living near the extermination camps later dug up human remains in search of valuables.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=349}}{{sfn|Beorn|2020|p=166}} The property of deported Jews was also appropriated by Germany's allies and collaborating governments. Even ]s such as ] and ] were able to successfully lay claim to Jewish property.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=334–335}} In the decades after the war, Swiss banks ] for harboring gold deposited by Nazis who had stolen it during the Holocaust, as well as profiting from unclaimed deposits made by Holocaust victims.{{sfn|Messenger|2020|p=383}} | |||
During a revolt in Treblinka on 2 August 1943, inmates killed five or six guards and set fire to camp buildings; several managed to escape.<ref>{{harvnb|Arad|1999|pp=286, 293–294}}; {{harvnb|Fischel|1998|p=99}}.</ref> In the ] on 16 August 1943, Jewish insurgents fought for five days when the Germans announced mass deportations.{{sfn|Fischel|1998|pp=95–96}} On 14 October 1943, Jewish prisoners in Sobibór, including Jewish-Soviet prisoners of war, attempted an escape,{{sfn|Fischel|1998|p=98}} killing 11 SS officers and a couple of Ukrainian camp guards.{{sfn|Arad|1999|p=337}} Around 300 escaped, but 100 were recaptured and shot.<ref>{{harvnb|Arad|1999|p=341}}; {{harvnb|Fischel|1998|p=98}}.</ref> On 7 October 1944, 300 Jewish members of the '']'' at Auschwitz, who learned they were about to be killed, attacked their guards and blew up crematorium IV. Three SS officers were killed, one of whom was stuffed into an oven, as was a German ]. None of the ''Sonderkommando'' rebels survived the uprising.{{sfn|Langbein|1998|pp=500–501}} | |||
==Forced labor== | |||
Estimates of Jewish participation in partisan units throughout Europe range from 20,000 to 100,000.{{sfn|Kennedy|2007|p=780}} In the occupied Polish and Soviet territories, thousands of Jews fled into the swamps or forests and joined the partisans,{{sfn|Fischel|1998|pp=100–101}} although the partisan movements did not always welcome them.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=648}} An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 joined the ] movement.{{sfn|Tec|2001|p=546}} One of the famous Jewish groups was the ] in Belarus, led by the Bielski brothers.{{sfn|Fischel|1998|pp=100–101}} Jews also joined Polish forces, including the ]. According to Timothy Snyder, "more Jews fought in the ] of August 1944 than in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943."{{sfn|Snyder|2010|p=302}}{{efn|] were active in the ].{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=273}} ] Jews formed the '']'' (Jewish Army), which participated in armed resistance under a Zionist flag, smuggled Jews out of the country,{{sfn|Zuccotti|1993|p=274}} and participated in the liberation of Paris and other cities.{{sfn|Zuccotti|1993|p=275}} As many as 1.5 million Jewish soldiers fought in the ] armies, including 500,000 in the ], 550,000 in the ], 100,000 in the Polish army, and 30,000 in the British army. About 200,000 Jewish soldiers serving in the Red Army died in the war, either in combat or after capture.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish Soldiers in the Allied Armies |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/combat-resistance/jewish-soldiers |publisher=Yad Vashem |work=About the Holocaust |accessdate=29 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330015742/http://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/combat-resistance/jewish-soldiers |archive-date=30 March 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The ], a unit of 5,000 Jewish volunteers from the ], fought in the British Army.{{sfn|Laqueur|2001|p=351}}}} | |||
{{further|Forced labor in Nazi Germany}} | |||
], Belarus, forced to clean a street, July 1941]] | |||
]}} badge at work at ]werke in Auschwitz]] | |||
Beginning in 1938—especially in Germany and its annexed territories—many Jews were drafted into ] and segregated work details. These camps were often of a temporary nature and typically overseen by civilian authorities. Initially, mortality did not increase dramatically.{{sfn|Dean|2020|pp=265, 267}}{{sfn|Spoerer|2020|pp=141–143}} After mid-1941, conditions for Jewish forced laborers drastically worsened and death rates increased; even ] deliberately subjected workers to murderous conditions.{{sfn|Spoerer|2020|pp=142–143}} Beginning in 1941 and increasingly as time went on, Jews capable of employment were separated from others—who were usually killed.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=196–197}}{{sfn|Spoerer|2020|p=142}} They were typically employed in non-skilled jobs and could be replaced easily if non-Jewish workers were available, but those in skilled positions had a higher chance of survival.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=207}}{{sfn|Spoerer|2020|p=143}} Although conditions varied widely between camps, Jewish forced laborers were typically treated worse than non-Jewish prisoners and suffered much higher mortality rates.{{sfn|Dean|2020|p=270}} | |||
===Polish resistance, flow of information about the mass murder=== | |||
{{Further|Polish resistance movement in World War II|Home Army}} | |||
{{See also|The Black Book of Polish Jewry|The Black Book of Poland|Raczyński's Note|Pilecki's Report|Auschwitz Protocols|The New York Times#World War II|Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust}} | |||
]]] | |||
The ] in London learned about Auschwitz from the ], who from late 1940 "received a continual flow of information" about the camp, according to historian ].{{sfn|Fleming|2014a|p=35}} This was in large measure thanks to Captain ] of the Polish ], who allowed himself to be arrested in September 1940 and sent there. An inmate until he escaped in April 1943, his mission was to set up a resistance movement (]), prepare to take over the camp, and smuggle out information about it.<ref>{{harvnb|Bartrop|2016|pp=210–211}}; {{harvnb|Fleming|2014b|p=131}}.</ref> | |||
In mid-1943, Himmler sought to bring surviving Jewish forced laborers under the control of the SS in the concentration camp system.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=379, 383}}{{sfn|Dean|2020|pp=271–272}}{{efn|The ] system administered by the ] (SS-WVHA){{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=290}} was ] from other forced-labor camps{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=456}}{{sfn|Dean|2020|p=274}} and from the single-purpose extermination camps.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=293}}}} Some of the forced-labor camps for Jews and some ghettos, such as Kovno, were designated concentration camps, while others were dissolved and surviving prisoners sent to a concentration camp.{{sfn|Dean|2020|pp=265, 272}} Despite many deaths, as many as 200,000 Jews survived the war inside the concentration camps.{{sfn|Dean|2020|p=265}} Although most Holocaust victims were never imprisoned in a concentration camp, the image of these camps is a popular symbol of the Holocaust.{{sfn|Dean|2020|pp=264–265}} | |||
On 6 January 1942, the Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs, ], sent out diplomatic notes about German atrocities. The notes were based on reports about mass graves and bodies surfacing from pits and quarries in areas the ] had liberated, as well as witness reports from German-occupied areas.<!--replace source-->{{sfn|Spector|1990|p=158}} The following month, ] escaped from the Chełmno concentration camp in Poland and passed information about it to the ] group in the Warsaw Ghetto. His report, known by his pseudonym as the ], had reached London by June 1942.<ref name=yvChelmno/><ref>{{cite web|title=Grojanowski Report|work=Shoah Resource Center|url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206317.pdf|publisher=Yad Vashem|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206123556/http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%206317.pdf|archive-date=6 February 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> Also in 1942, ] sent information to the Allies after being smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto twice.<!--check--><ref>{{harvnb|Crowe|2008|p=354}}; {{harvnb|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|p=183}}.</ref><!--replace source: On 27 April 1942, ] sent out another note about atrocities.{{sfn|Spector|1990|p=158}}--> By late July or early August 1942, Polish leaders in Warsaw had learned about the mass killing of Jews in Auschwitz, according to Fleming.{{sfn|Fleming|2014a|p=35}}{{efn|] (2014): "As is evidenced by the reports that reached Warsaw, the resistance movement in the camp was well aware of what was happening to the Jews, and in a report dated 1 July 1942 advised that from June 1941 Soviet prisoners of war were taken straight from trains to the gas chambers. This report also noted that through 1942 around 30,000 Jewish men and 15,000 Jewish women and children had arrived at ], most of whom—including all the children—were gassed immediately. The exact date that this information was received in Warsaw is not known, but it was included as an attachment to an internal Home Army report ... on 28 September 1942 and the Underground leadership in Warsaw incorporated this information into the situation report for the period from 26 August to 10 October 1942. ... did not reach London until late winter 1943."{{sfn|Fleming|2014b|p=140}}}} The Polish Interior Ministry prepared a report, ''Sprawozdanie 6/42'',<ref>{{harvnb|Fleming|2014a|p=35}}; {{harvnb|Fleming|2014b|p=144}}.</ref> which said at the end: | |||
Including the Soviet prisoners of war, 13 million people were brought to Germany for forced labor.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=194}} The largest nationalities were Soviet and Polish{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=187}} and they were the worst-treated groups except for Roma and Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=189}} Soviet and Polish forced laborers endured inadequate food and medical treatment, long hours, and abuse by employers. Hundreds of thousands died.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=189–190}} Many others were forced to work for the occupiers without leaving their country of residence.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=195}} Some of Germany's allies, including Slovakia and Hungary, agreed to deport Jews to protect non-Jews from German demands for forced labor.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=392–393}} East European women were also kidnapped, via '']'', to serve as sex slaves of German soldiers in ] and ]<ref name="Herbermann">{{cite book |author1=Nanda Herbermann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JM3AdnmE18C&q=%22it+is+impossible+to+speak+of+free+will+when+considering+the+circumstances%22&pg=PA34 |title=The Blessed Abyss |author2=Hester Baer |author3=Elizabeth Roberts Baer |publisher=] Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-8143-2920-9 |location=Detroit |pages=33–34 |format=] |access-date=January 12, 2011}} </ref><ref name="Lenten">{{cite book |last=Lenten |first=Ronit |title=Israel and the Daughters of the Shoah: Reoccupying the Territories of Silence |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2000 |isbn=1-57181-775-1 |pages=33–34}}.</ref><ref name="polityka">{{cite news |last1=Ostrowska |first1=Joanna |last2=Zaremba |first2=Marcin |date=May 30, 2009 |title=Do burdelu, marsz! |language=pl |trans-title=To the brothel, march! |volume=22 |page= |pages=70–72 |work=] |number=2707 |url=https://www.polityka.pl/archiwumpolityki/1912104,1,do-burdelu-marsz.read |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205003034/http://archiwum.polityka.pl/art/do-burdelu-marsz,424445.html |archive-date=2010-12-05}}</ref> despite the prohibition of relationships, including fraternization, between German and foreign workers,<ref>{{cite web |title='Sonderbehandlung erfolgt durch Strang' |trans-title=Special treatment is done by train |language=de |url=https://www.ns-archiv.de/imt/ps3001-ps3200/3040-ps.php |work=ns-archiv.de}}</ref><ref name="hertzstein2">{{cite book |last=Hertzstein |first=Robert Edwin |title=The War That Hitler Won: The Most Infamous Propaganda Campaign in History |year=1978 |publisher=] |isbn=9780399118456}}</ref> which imposed the penalty of imprisonment<ref name="hertzstein2"/> and death.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Gellately |author-link=Robert Gellately |date=2001 |title=Backing Hitler: Consent and Coercion in Nazi Germany |publisher=] |page=155 |isbn=9780191676697 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205609.001.0001}}</ref><ref name="Majer2">{{cite book |last=Majer |first=Diemut |date=2014 |title="Non-Germans" Under the Third Reich |publisher=] |isbn=978-0896728370 |page=369}}</ref> | |||
<blockquote>There are different methods of execution. People are shot by firing squads, killed by an "air hammer" /Hammerluft/, and poisoned by gas in special gas chambers. Prisoners condemned to death by the Gestapo are murdered by the first two methods. The third method, the gas chamber, is employed for those who are ill or incapable of work and those who have been brought in transports especially for the purpose /Soviet prisoners of war, and, recently Jews/.{{sfn|Fleming|2014a|p=35}}</blockquote> | |||
==Escape and hiding== | |||
]'' by the ], addressed to the ], 10 December 1942]] | |||
]]] | |||
''Sprawozdanie 6/42'' was sent to Polish officials in London by courier and had reached them by 12 November 1942, where it was translated into English and added to another, "Report on Conditions in Poland", dated 27 November. Fleming writes that the latter was sent to the Polish Embassy in the United States.{{sfn|Fleming|2014a|pp=35–36}} On 10 December 1942, the Polish Foreign Affairs Minister, ], addressed the ] on the killings; the address was distributed with the title '']''. He told them about the use of poison gas; about Treblinka, Bełżec and Sobibór; that the Polish underground had referred to them as extermination camps; and that tens of thousands of Jews had been killed in Bełżec in March and April 1942.{{sfn|Zimmerman|2015|p=181}} One in three Jews in Poland were already dead, he estimated, from a population of 3,130,000.{{sfn|Zimmerman|2015|pp=181–182}} Raczyński's address was covered by the ''New York Times'' and ''The Times'' of London.<!--Lower case for NYT is intentional.--> ] received it, and ] presented it to the British cabinet. On 17 December 1942, 11 Allies issued the ] condemning the "bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination".<ref>{{harvnb|Zimmerman|2015|p=182}}; {{cite newspaper | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1942/12/18/archives/11-allies-condemn-nazi-war-on-jews-united-nations-issue-joint.html |url-access=subscription | title = 11 Allies Condemn Nazi War on Jews | date = 18 December 1942 | newspaper = The New York Times}}{{pb}} | |||
{{further|Rescue of Jews during the Holocaust}} | |||
{{cite newspaper | last=Frankel | first=Max | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/news/150th-anniversary-1851-2001-turning-away-from-the-holocaust.html | title=150th Anniversary: 1851–2001; Turning Away From the Holocaust | date=14 November 2001 | newspaper=The New York Times | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223063405/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/news/150th-anniversary-1851-2001-turning-away-from-the-holocaust.html | archive-date=23 December 2017 | url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Gerlach estimates that 200,000 Jews survived in hiding across Europe.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=117}} ] was essential to take action, but many struggled to believe the news.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=424–425}} Many attempted to jump from trains or flee ghettos and camps, but successfully escaping and living in hiding was extremely difficult and often unsuccessful.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=236}}{{sfn|Burzlaff|2020|p=1064}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=413}} | |||
The British and American governments were reluctant to publicize the intelligence they had received.<!--Check this: Although the information was felt to be correct, the stories were so extreme that they feared the public would discount them as exaggerations and that the credibility of both governments would be undermined.{{sfn|Novick|2000|p=23}}--> A ] memo, written by ], a BBC broadcaster and senior Foreign Office adviser on Hungary, stated in 1942: "We shouldn't mention the Jews at all." The British government's view was that the Hungarian people's antisemitism would make them distrust the Allies if their broadcasts focused on the Jews.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Thomson |first1=Mike |title=Could the BBC have done more to help Hungarian Jews? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20267659 |work=BBC News |date=13 November 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722192836/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-20267659 |archivedate=22 July 2018|url-status=live}}{{pb}} | |||
Also see {{harvnb|Fleming|2014b|p=368, note 4}}, who cites Thomson.</ref> The US government similarly feared turning the war into one about the Jews; antisemitism and isolationism were common in the US before its entry into the war.<!--Update source.-->{{sfn|Novick|2000|pp=27–28}} Although governments and the German public appear to have understood what was happening, it seems the Jews themselves did not. According to ], "estimonies left by Jews from all over occupied Europe indicate that, in contradistinction to vast segments of surrounding society, the victims did not understand what was ultimately in store for them." In Western Europe, he writes, Jewish communities seem to have failed to piece the information together, while in Eastern Europe, they could not accept that the stories they had heard from elsewhere would end up applying to them too.{{sfn|Friedländer|2010|p=23}} | |||
The support, or at least absence of active opposition, of the local population was essential but often lacking in Eastern Europe.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=236–237}} Those in hiding depended on the assistance of non-Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=419}} Having money,{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=420}} social connections with non-Jews, a non-Jewish appearance, perfect command of the local language, determination, and luck played a major role in determining survival.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=423}} Jews in hiding were hunted down with the assistance of local collaborators and rewards offered for their denunciation.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=382}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=260}}{{sfn|Burzlaff|2020|p=1066}} The death penalty was sometimes enforced on people hiding them, especially in eastern Europe.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=360}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=206}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=269}} Rescuers' motivations varied on a spectrum from altruism to expecting sex or material gain; it was not uncommon for helpers to betray or murder Jews if their money ran out.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=269–270}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=206}}{{sfn|Burzlaff|2020|pp=1065, 1075}} Gerlach argues that hundreds of thousands of Jews may have died because of rumors or denunciations, and many others never attempted to escape because of a belief it was hopeless.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=417}} | |||
===Holocaust in Hungary=== | |||
{{further|The Holocaust in Hungary|Hungary in World War II|Operation Margarethe}} | |||
{{multiple image | direction = vertical |align = right | width = 250 | |||
| image1 = Selection on the ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, 1944 (Auschwitz Album) 3a.jpg | |||
| caption1 = Jews from ] on the selection ramp at ], c. May 1944. Women and children are lined up on one side, men on the other, waiting for the SS to determine who was fit for work. About 20 percent at Auschwitz were selected for work and the rest gassed.{{sfn|Piper|2000|loc=photographs between pp. 112 and 113}}}} | |||
The SS liquidated most of the Jewish ghettos of the ] area of Poland in 1942–1943 and shipped their populations to the camps for extermination.<ref>{{harvnb|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|pp=256–257}}; {{harvnb|Longerich|2010|pp=330–339, 375–379}}.</ref> The only exception was the ], which was not liquidated until mid-1944.{{sfn|Dwork|van Pelt|2003|pp=256–257}} About 42,000 Jews in the General Government were shot during ] (''Aktion Erntefest'') on 3–4 November 1943.<ref>{{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|p=112}}; {{cite web |title=Operation 'Harvest Festival' |url= http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005222 |encyclopedia= Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170310224217/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005222 |archive-date= 10 March 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> At the same time, rail shipments were arriving regularly from western and southern Europe at the extermination camps.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=360–365}}<!--check: Few Jews were shipped from the occupied Soviet territories to the camps: the killing of Jews in this zone had been left in the hands of the SS Einsatzgruppen, aided by locally recruited auxiliaries.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=345–353}}{{efn|One exception was the area around Bialystok, where over 100,000 Jews were deported to extermination camps, most to Treblinka but a few to Auschwitz.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=352–353}}}}--> Shipments of Jews to the camps had priority on the German railways over anything but the army's needs, and continued even in the face of the increasingly dire military situation at the end of 1942.<!--replace source-->{{sfn|Yahil|1990|pp=376–378}} Army leaders and economic managers complained about this diversion of resources and the killing of skilled Jewish workers,{{sfn|Kwiet|2004|pp=61, 69–71, 76–77}} but Nazi leaders rated ideological imperatives above economic considerations.{{sfn|Kwiet|2004|pp=77–78}} | |||
] in ] in most European countries, and often were overrepresented.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=290}} Jews were not always welcome, particularly in nationalist resistance groups—some of which killed Jews.{{sfn|Cesarani|2016|p=648}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=242}} Particularly in Belarus, with its favorable geography of dense forests, many Jews joined the ]—an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 across the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=237, 242–243}} An additional 10,000 to 13,000 Jewish non-combatants lived in ] in Eastern European forests, of which the most well known was the ].{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=243}}{{sfn|Burzlaff|2020|p=1074}} | |||
By 1943 it was evident to the armed forces leadership that Germany was losing the war.{{sfn|Fischer|1998|pp=536–538}} The mass murder continued nevertheless, reaching a "frenetic" pace in 1944{{sfn|Black|2016|p=108}} when Auschwitz gassed nearly 500,000 people.<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000|p=11}}; also see {{cite web |title= Killing Centers |url= http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007327 |encyclopedia= Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher= United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate= 29 May 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170506031425/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007327 |archive-date= 6 May 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> On 19 March 1944, Hitler ordered the ] and dispatched Adolf Eichmann to Budapest to supervise the deportation of the country's Jews.{{sfn|Braham|2000|pp=62, 64–65}} From 22 March Jews were required to wear the yellow star; were forbidden from owning cars, bicycles, radios or telephones; and were later forced into ghettos.{{sfn|Braham|2011|p=45}} Between 15 May and 9 July, 437,000 Jews were deported from Hungary to Auschwitz II-Birkenau, almost all sent directly to the gas chambers.{{efn|Longerich (2010) gives the figure as 437,000; Braham (2011) and the USHMM as 440,000.<ref>{{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=408}}; {{harvnb|Braham|2011|p=45}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Deportation of Hungarian Jews |url=https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/deportation-of-hungarian-jews |publisher=United States Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171125004028/https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/deportation-of-hungarian-jews|archivedate=25 November 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>}} A month before the deportations began, Eichmann offered through an intermediary, ], to exchange one million Jews for 10,000 trucks and other goods from the Allies, which he said the Germans would undertake not to use on the Western front; Eichmann reportedly called the offer "]".<ref>{{harvnb|Bauer|1994|pp=163–164}}; for "blood for goods", see {{harvnb|Fischel|2010|p=}}.</ref> The British got wind of the proposal and scuppered it by leaking it to the press. ''The Times'' called it "a new level of fantasy and self-deception".<ref>{{harvnb|Bauer|1994|p=192}}; {{cite news |title=A Monstrous 'Offer'|work=The Times |issue=49913 |date=20 July 1994 |page=2}}</ref><!--add Bauer or another source discussing that Himmler may have been behind this; also add that the crematoria at Auschwitz couldn't cope with the numbers.--> | |||
==International reactions== | |||
===Death marches=== | |||
{{ |
{{main|International response to the Holocaust}} | ||
By mid-1944 Jewish communities within easy reach of the Nazi regime had largely been exterminated.{{sfn|Black|2016|pp=107–109}} On 5 May 1944 Himmler told Army officers that "the Jewish question has in general been solved in Germany and in the countries occupied by Germany."{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=695}} As the Soviet armed forces advanced, the camps in eastern Poland were closed down, and efforts were made to conceal what had happened. The gas chambers were dismantled, the crematoria dynamited, and the mass graves dug up and corpses cremated.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=410–412}}<!--add murders--> From January to April 1945, the SS sent inmates westward on "death marches" to camps in Germany and Austria.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=415–418}}<ref name=MapUSHMM>{{cite web |title=Major death marches and evacuations, 1944–1945 |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005162&MediaId=382 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120816055537/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005162&MediaId=382 |archive-date=16 August 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> In January 1945, the Germans held records of 714,000 inmates in concentration camps; by May, 250,000 (35 percent) had died during death marches.{{sfn|Blatman|2011|pp=1–2}} Already sick after months or years of violence and starvation, they were marched to train stations and transported for days at a time without food or shelter in open freight cars, then forced to march again at the other end to the new camp. Some went by truck or wagons; others were marched the entire distance to the new camp. Those who lagged behind or fell were shot.<ref>{{harvnb|Friedländer|2007|pp=648–650}}; for trucks or wagons, {{harvnb|Blatman|2011|p=11}}.</ref> | |||
The Nazi leaders knew that their actions would bring international condemnation.{{sfn|Evans|2019|p=140}} On 26 June 1942, ] in all languages publicized ] by the ] and other resistance groups and transmitted by the ], documenting the killing of 700,000 Jews in Poland. In December 1942, ], then known as the United Nations, adopted a ] condemning the systematic murder of Jews.{{sfn|Láníček|2012|pp=74–75, 81}} Most neutral countries in Europe maintained a pro-German foreign policy during the war. Nevertheless, some Jews were able to escape to neutral countries, whose policies ranged from rescue to non-action.{{sfn|Messenger|2020|p=393}} | |||
===Liberation=== | |||
{{Main|Death of Adolf Hitler|German Instrument of Surrender|Victory in Europe Day|End of World War II in Europe}} | |||
] after the camp's liberation by the British ], April 1945]] | |||
The first major camp to be encountered by Allied troops, ], was discovered by the advancing Soviets, along with its gas chambers, on 25 July 1944.<ref>{{harvnb|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|p=165}}; for gas chambers, see {{harvnb|Friedländer|2007|p=627}} and {{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=411}}.</ref> Treblinka, Sobibór, and Bełżec were never liberated, but were destroyed by the Germans in 1943.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=411}} Auschwitz was liberated, also by the Soviets, on 27 January 1945, where they found 7,000 inmates in the three main camps and 500 in subcamps.{{sfn|Stone|2015|p=41}} ] was liberated by the Americans on 11 April;{{sfn|Stone|2015|pp=72–73}} ] by the British on 15 April;{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=417}} ] by the Americans on 29 April;{{sfn|Marcuse|2001|p=50}} ] by the Soviets on 30 April;{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=577}} and ] by the Americans on 5 May.{{sfn|Gilbert|1985|pp=808–809}} The Red Cross took control of ] on 3 May, days before the Soviets arrived.{{sfn|Niewyk|Nicosia|2000|p=167}} | |||
During the war the ] (JDC) raised $70 million and in the years after the war it raised $300 million. This money was spent aiding emigrants and providing direct relief in the form of parcels and other assistance to Jews living under German occupation, and after the war to ]. The United States banned sending relief into German-occupied Europe after entering the war, but the JDC continued to do so. From 1939 to 1944, 81,000 European Jews emigrated with the JDC's assistance.<ref>{{cite web |title=American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Refugee Aid |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/american-jewish-joint-distribution-committee-and-refugee-aid |website=] |access-date=28 April 2023 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929065825/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/american-jewish-joint-distribution-committee-and-refugee-aid |archive-date=29 September 2023}}</ref> | |||
The British ] found around 60,000 prisoners (90 percent Jews) when they liberated Bergen-Belsen,{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=417}}<ref name=11thUSHMM>{{cite web |title=The 11th Armoured Division (Great Britain) |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006188 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120816011400/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006188 |archive-date=16 August 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> as well as 13,000 unburied corpses; another 10,000 people died from ] or malnutrition over the following weeks.<ref name=BBUSHMM>{{cite web |title=Bergen-Belsen |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120815232046/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005224 |archive-date=15 August 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> The BBC's war correspondent ] described the scenes that greeted him and the British Army at Belsen, in a report so graphic the BBC declined to broadcast it for four days, and did so, on 19 April, only after Dimbleby threatened to resign.{{sfn|Bell|2017|p=100}} He said he had "never seen British soldiers so moved to cold fury":{{sfn|Reynolds|2014|pp=277–278}} | |||
Throughout the war, no detailed photo intelligence study was carried out on any of the major concentration or extermination camps.{{sfn|Neufeld|Berenbaum|2000|p=55}} Appeals from Jewish representatives to the American and British governments to bomb rail lines leading to the camps or crematoriums was rejected, with little to no input from the War Departments of the United States or United Kingdom.{{sfn|Neufeld|Berenbaum|2000|p=61}} However, ] on whether a military response would have impacted on the Holocaust.{{sfn|Neufeld|Berenbaum|2000|p=2}} | |||
{{quote|Here over an acre of ground lay dead and dying people. You could not see which was which. ... The living lay with their heads against the corpses and around them moved the awful, ghostly procession of emaciated, aimless people, with nothing to do and with no hope of life, unable to move out of your way, unable to look at the terrible sights around them ... Babies had been born here, tiny wizened things that could not live. A mother, driven mad, screamed at a British sentry to give her milk for her child, and thrust the tiny mite into his arms. ... He opened the bundle and found the baby had been dead for days. This day at Belsen was the most horrible of my life.|author=Richard Dimbleby, 15 April 1945<ref>{{cite web |title=Introductory remarks at the screening of the film ''The Relief of Belsen'' |url=https://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2011/Remarks%20by%20mark%20Lyall%20Grant.shtml |publisher=The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502102052/https://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/2011/Remarks%20by%20mark%20Lyall%20Grant.shtml |archivedate=2 May 2019 |date=2 May 2011|url-status=live}}{{pb}} | |||
{{cite news |title=Dimbleby: My father's Belsen report sends 'shivers up my spine' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p02p6rsm |publisher=BBC |date=15 April 2015}}{{pb}} | |||
{{cite news|title=Audio slideshow: Liberation of Belsen |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/4445811.stm |work=BBC News |date=15 April 2005 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213180129/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/4445811.stm |archivedate=13 February 2009|url-status=live}}</ref>}} | |||
==Second half of the war== | |||
===Death toll=== | |||
===Continuing killings=== | |||
{{see also|Jewish population by country}} | |||
], annexed by Hungary in 1938,{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=408}} on the selection ramp at ] in May or June 1944. Men are lined up to the right, women and children to the left. About 25 percent were selected for work and the rest gassed.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=199}}]] | |||
{|class="sortable wikitable" style="float:right; clear:right; text-align:right; margin-left:1.5em; font-size:90%" | |||
|- | |||
! Country !! Death toll of Jews{{efn|"Estimate of Jews killed in the Holocaust, by country of residence at the time of deportation or death". Figures from Harvey Schulweis,{{sfn|Schulweis|2015|p=xii}} citing ],{{sfn|Benz|1991|pp=15–16, 229–230, 238, 330, 351, 379}} ],{{sfn|Ancel|2011|p=558}} and ].{{sfn|Arad|2009|pp=521–525}}}} | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 591 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 65,459 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ]<!--dablink intended--> || 272,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 28,518 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 11,393 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 32,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 143,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 116 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 76,134 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 165,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 59,195 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 502,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 6,513 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 1,200 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 102,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 758 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 2,100,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left| ] || 220,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left | ] || 10,700 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left |]<!--dablink intended--> || 2,100,000 | |||
|- | |||
|align=left | '''Total''' || '''5,896,577''' | |||
|} | |||
The Jews killed represented around one third of world Jewry{{sfn|Gilbert|2001|p=291}} and about two-thirds of European Jewry, based on an estimate of 9.7 million Jews in Europe at the start of the war.<ref>{{harvnb|Fischel|1998|p=87}}; {{harvnb|Bauer|Rozett|1990|p=1799}}.</ref> According to the ] Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem, "ll the serious research" confirms that between five and six million Jews died.<ref name=YadVashemfigures/> Early postwar calculations were 4.2 to 4.5 million from ];{{sfn|Michman|2012|p=197}} 5.1 million from ]; and 5.95 million from ].{{sfn|Bauer|Rozett|1990|p=1797}} In 1990 ] and Robert Rozett estimated 5.59–5.86 million,{{sfn|Bauer|Rozett|1990|p=1799}} and in 1991 ] suggested 5.29 to just over 6 million.{{sfn|Benz|1991|p=17}}{{efn|]: "There is no precise figure for the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust. The figure commonly used is the six million quoted by Adolf Eichmann, a senior SS official. All the serious research confirms that the number of victims was between five and six million. Early calculations range from 5.1 million (Professor ]) to 5.95 million (Jacob Leschinsky). More recent research, by Professor ] and Dr. Robert Rozett in the '']'', estimates the Jewish losses at 5.59–5.86 million, and a study headed by Dr. ] presents a range from 5.29 million to six million.{{pb}}"The main sources for these statistics are comparisons of prewar censuses with postwar censuses and population estimates. Nazi documentation containing partial data on various deportations and murders is also used. We estimate that Yad Vashem currently has somewhat more than 4.2 million names of victims that are accessible."<ref name=YadVashemfigures>{{cite web |title=FAQ: How many Jews were murdered in the Holocaust? |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/faq.asp |publisher=Yad Vashem |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111122446/https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/faq.asp|archivedate=11 January 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>}} The figures include over one million children.<!--replace/add source--><ref>{{cite web |title=Children during the Holocaust |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005142 |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009144440/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005142 |archivedate=9 October 2017}}</ref> Much of the uncertainty stems from the lack of a reliable figure for the number of Jews in Europe in 1939, border changes that make double-counting of victims difficult to avoid, lack of accurate records from the perpetrators, and uncertainty about whether to include post-liberation deaths caused by the persecution.{{sfn|Michman|2012|p=197}} | |||
After German military defeats in 1943, it became increasingly evident that Germany would lose the war.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=266}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=196}} In early 1943, 45,000 Jews ] from ], primarily ], to Auschwitz, where nearly all were killed.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=391}} After ] in late 1943, Germany deported several thousand Jews from Italy and the former Italian occupation zones of France, Yugoslavia, Albania, and ], with limited success.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=402–403}}{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=113}} Attempts to continue deportations in Western Europe after 1942 often failed because of Jews going into hiding and the increasing recalcitrance of local authorities.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=102}} ] with the help of the ] in the face of a half-hearted German deportation effort in late 1943.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=302}} Additional killings in 1943 and 1944 eliminated all remaining ghettos and most surviving Jews in Eastern Europe.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=128}} Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were shut down and ].{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=410–412}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=221}} | |||
The death camps in occupied Poland accounted for half the number of Jews killed.<!--add source--> At ] the Jewish death toll was 960,000;<ref>{{harvnb|Piper|2000|pp=230–231}}; also see {{harvnb|Piper|1998a|p=62}}.</ref> ] 870,000;<ref name=yvTreb/> ] 600,000<ref name="yvBelzec"/> ] 320,000;<ref name="yvChelmno"/> ] 250,000;<ref name="yvSob" /> and ] 79,000.<ref name="yvMaj" /> | |||
The largest murder action after 1942 was that against the Hungarian Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=103}} After the ] in 1944, the Hungarian government cooperated closely in the ], mostly to Auschwitz.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=114, 368}}{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=408}}{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=193}} The expropriation of Jewish property was useful to achieve Hungarian economic goals and sending the Jews as forced laborers avoided the need to send non-Jewish Hungarians.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=114}} Those who survived the selection were forced to provide construction and manufacturing labor as part of ] to increase the production of ].{{sfn|Spoerer|2020|p=142}}{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=457}} Although the Nazis' goal of eliminating any Jewish population from Germany had largely been achieved in 1943, it was reversed in 1944 as a result of the importation of these Jews for labor.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=188}} | |||
Death rates were heavily dependent on the survival of European states to protect their Jewish citizens.{{sfn|Snyder|2012|pp=164–165}} In countries allied to Germany, the control over Jewish citizens was sometimes seen as a matter of sovereignty; the continuous presence of state institutions prevented the Jewish communities' complete destruction.{{sfn|Snyder|2012|pp=164–165}}<!--check--> In occupied countries, the survival of the state was likewise correlated with lower Jewish death rates: 75 percent of Jews died in the Netherlands, as did 99 percent of Jews who were in Estonia when the Germans arrived—the Nazis declared Estonia '']'' ("free of Jews") in January 1942 at the ]—while 75 percent survived in France and 99 percent in Denmark.<ref>For Netherlands, . Yad Vashem.{{pb}} | |||
For France, {{harvnb|Gerlach|2016|p=14}}; for Denmark and Estonia, {{harvnb|Snyder|2015|p=212}}; for Estonia (Estland) and the Wannsee Conference, see {{cite web |title=Besprechungsprotokoll |url=https://www.ghwk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-wannsee/dokumente/protokoll-januar1942_barrierefrei.pdf |publisher=Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz |page=171 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202072647/https://www.ghwk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-wannsee/dokumente/protokoll-januar1942_barrierefrei.pdf |archivedate=2 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Death marches and liberation=== | |||
The survival of Jews in countries where states survived demonstrates, writes ], "that there were limits to German power", and that the influence of non-Germans—governments and others—was "crucial".{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=13}} Jews who lived where pre-war statehood was destroyed (Poland and the Baltic states) or displaced (western USSR) were at the mercy of both German power and sometimes hostile local populations. Almost all Jews living in German-occupied Poland, Baltic states and the USSR were killed, with a 5 percent chance of survival on average.{{sfn|Snyder|2012|pp=164–165}}<!--There were 3,020,000 Jews in the Soviet Union in 1939, and the losses were 1–1.1 million.{{sfn|Bauer|Rozett|1990|pp=1799–1802}}.--> Of Poland's 3.3 million Jews, about 90 percent were killed.{{sfn|Polonsky|2001|p=488}} | |||
] after the camp's liberation, April 1945]] | |||
Following Allied advances, the SS deported concentration camp prisoners to camps in Germany and Austria, starting in mid-1944 from the Baltics.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=414–418}} Weak and sick prisoners were often killed in the camp and others were forced to travel by rail or on foot, usually with no or inadequate food.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=414}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=234}} Those who could not keep up were shot.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=415}} The evacuations were ordered partly to retain the prisoners as forced labor and partly to avoid allowing any prisoners to fall into enemy hands.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=116}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=234}} In October and November 1944, 90,000 Jews were deported from Budapest to the Austrian border.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=409–410}}{{sfn|Dean|2020|p=272}} The transfer of prisoners from Auschwitz began in mid-1944, the gas chambers were shut down and destroyed after October, and in January most of the remaining 67,000 Auschwitz prisoners were sent on a death march westwards.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=415}}{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=233}} | |||
==Other victims of Nazi persecution== | |||
===Soviet civilians and POWs=== | |||
{{Further|German mistreatment of Soviet prisoners of war|German occupation of Byelorussia during World War II|Reichskommissariat Ukraine|Hunger Plan}} | |||
], Austria]] | |||
The Nazis regarded the ]s as '']'' (subhuman).{{sfn|Hayes|2015|pp=xiii–xiv}} German troops destroyed villages throughout the Soviet Union,{{sfn|Fritz|2011|pp=333–334}} rounded up civilians for forced labor in Germany, and caused famine by taking foodstuffs.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|pp=214–215}} In ], Germany imposed a regime that deported around 380,000 people for slave labor and killed hundreds of thousands. Over 600 villages had their populations killed, and at least 5,295 Belarusian settlements were destroyed. According to ], of the nine million people in Soviet Belarus in 1941, "around 1.6 million were killed by the Germans in actions away from battlefields, including about 700,000 prisoners of war, 500,000 Jews, and 320,000 people counted as partisans (the vast majority of whom were unarmed civilians)."{{sfn|Snyder|2010|pp=250–251}} The ] estimates that 3.3 million of 5.7 million Soviet POWs died in German custody.<!--replace source--><ref>{{cite web |title=Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007178 |accessdate=1 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120822091145/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007178 |archive-date=22 August 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> The death rates decreased as the POWs were needed to help the German war effort; by 1943, half a million had been deployed as slave labor.{{sfn|Berenbaum|2006|p=125}} Adolf Hitler ordered the destruction of ], along with all of its inhabitants.<ref>], ] (2001). ''The Oxford Companion to World War II.'' Oxford University Press. p. 88. {{ISBN|0-19-860446-7}}</ref> These intentions were part of the genocidal '']'', which called for the extermination, ], expulsion into areas east of the ] and enslavement of most or all Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians for the purpose of providing more ] for the German people.<ref>] (2010). ''''. Basic Books. p. 160. {{ISBN|0465002390}}</ref> | |||
In January 1945, more than 700,000 people were imprisoned in the concentration camp system, of whom as many as a third died before the end of the war.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=117}} At this time, most concentration camp prisoners were Soviet and Polish civilians, either arrested for real or supposed resistance or for attempting to escape forced labor.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=117}} The death marches led to the breakdown of supplies for the camps that continued to exist, causing additional deaths.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=414}} Although there was no systematic killing of Jews during the death marches,{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=235}} around 70,000 to 100,000 Jews died in the last months of the war.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=418}} Many of the death march survivors ended up in other concentration camps that were liberated in 1945 during the ]. The liberators found piles of corpses that they had to bulldoze into mass graves.{{sfn|Stone|2020|p=69}}{{sfn|Priemel|2020|p=178}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=215}} Some survivors were freed there{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=215}} and others had been liberated by the Red Army during its march westwards.{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=214}} | |||
{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; width:20%; margin-left:1.5em; margin-right:0em; font-size:90%;" | |||
|- | |||
!Group!!Estimate killed!!Source | |||
|- | |||
|Soviet civilians (excl. 1.3 million Jews) | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|5.7 million|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name="ushmm1">{{Cite web |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution |title=Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial and Museum |date=4 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190309193501/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution |archive-date=9 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
|Soviet POWs (incl. c. 50,000 Jewish soldiers) | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|3 million|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name=ushmm1/> | |||
|- | |||
|Non-Jewish Poles | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|c. 1.8 million|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name=ushmm1/><ref name=PolishVictims>Also see {{cite web |title=Polish Victims |website=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=] |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473 |accessdate=1 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507145904/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005473 |archive-date=7 May 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
|Serb civilians | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|312,000|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name="ushmm1"/> | |||
|- | |||
|Disabled | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|Up to 250,000|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name="ushmm1"/> | |||
|- | |||
|Roma | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|196,000–220,000|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name="ushmm1"/> | |||
|- | |||
|{{nobreak|Jehovah's Witnesses}} | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|c. 1,900 || style="text-align:left;" | <ref name=ushmm1/><ref name=USHMMJW/> | |||
|- | |||
|Criminals and "asocials" | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|at least 70,000|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name=ushmm1/> | |||
|- | |||
|Gay men | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|Hundreds; unknown|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name=ushmm1/><ref name=USHMMgays/> | |||
|- | |||
|Political opponents, resistance | |||
| style="text-align:left;"|Unknown|| style="text-align:left;" |<ref name=ushmm1/> | |||
|} | |||
== |
==Death toll== | ||
{{main|Holocaust victims}} | |||
{{Main|Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|Generalplan Ost}} | |||
[[File:Holocaust death rate.svg|thumb|Holocaust deaths as an approximate percentage of the 1939 Jewish population: | |||
Social contact between Poles and Germans in the occupied areas was forbidden,{{sfn|Gellately|2001|p=155}} and Hitler made clear that Polish workers were to be kept in what ] called a "permanent condition of inferiority".{{sfn|Gellately|2001|p=153}} In a memorandum to Hitler dated 25 May 1940, "A Few Thoughts on the Treatment of the Ethnically Alien Population in the East", Himmler stated that it was in German interests to foster divisions between the ethnic groups in the East. He wanted to restrict non-Germans in the conquered territories to an elementary-school education that would teach them how to write their names, count up to 500, work hard, and obey Germans.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|pp=450–452}} The Polish political class became the target of a campaign of murder (] and ]).{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=112}} Between 1.8 and 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished at German hands during the course of the war; about four-fifths were ethnic Poles and the rest Ukrainians and Belarusians.<ref name=PolishVictims/> At least 200,000 died in concentration camps, around 146,000 in Auschwitz. Others died in massacres or in uprisings such as the ], where 120,000–200,000 were killed.{{sfn|Piotrowski|1998|p=295}}<!--Add source: During the occupation, the Germans adopted a policy of restricting food and medical services, as well as degrading sanitation and public hygiene. The death rate rose from 13 per 1000 before the war to 18 per 1000 during the war.--> Polish children were also ] to be "Germanized".{{sfn|Stargardt|2010|pp=226–227}} | |||
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Around six million Jews were killed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Landau |first=Ronnie S. |url=https://archive.org/details/the-nazi-holocaust-its-history-and-meaning-9780755624225-9780857728432_compress |title=The Nazi Holocaust: Its History and Meaning |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-85772-843-2 |edition=3rd |pages=3, 124, 126, 265–266 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Benz |first=Wolfgang |author-link=Wolfgang Benz |url=https://archive.org/details/9783406811081 |title=Der Holocaust |publisher=] |year=2023 |isbn=978-3-406-80881-4 |edition=10th |location=Munich, Germany |pages=14, 111–112 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Herf |first=Jeffrey C. |author-link=Jeffrey Herf |url=https://archive.org/details/the-routledge-history-of-antisemitism-1138369446-9781138369443_compress |title=The Routledge History of Antisemitism |publisher=] |year=2024 |isbn=978-1-138-36944-3 |editor-last=Weitzman |editor-first=Mark |edition=1st |location=Abingdon and New York |pages=278 |language=en |chapter=The Long Term and the Short Term: Antisemitism and the Holocaust |doi=10.4324/9780429428616 |editor-last2=Williams |editor-first2=Robert J. |editor-last3=Wald |editor-first3=James}}</ref> Of the six million victims, most of those killed were from Eastern Europe, and with half from Poland alone.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|p=1}}{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=155}} Around 1.3 million Jews who had once lived under Nazi rule or in one of Germany's allies survived the war.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=404}} One-third of the Jewish population worldwide, and two-thirds of European Jews, had been wiped out.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jewish Population of Europe in 1945 |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/remaining-jewish-population-of-europe-in-1945 |website=] |access-date=10 May 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Death rates varied widely due to a variety of factors and approached 100 percent in some areas.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=407}} Some reasons why survival chances varied was the availability of emigration{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=407–408}} and protection from Germany's allies—which saved around 600,000 Jews.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=118, 409–410}} ] and the elderly faced even lower survival rates than adults.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=428–429}} It is considered to be the single largest genocide in human history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rosenberg |first=Alan |date=1979 |title=The Genocidal Universe: A Framework for Understanding the Holocaust |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41442658 |journal=European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=29–34 |jstor=41442658 |issn=0014-3006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Richie |first=Alexandra |date=2024-01-27 |title=The Origins of International Holocaust Remembrance Day |url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/origins-international-holocaust-remembrance-day |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans |language=en}}</ref> | |||
The deadliest phase of the Holocaust was ], which was marked by the introduction of extermination camps. Roughly two million Jews were killed from March 1942 to November 1943. Around 1.47 million Jews were murdered in just 100 days from late July to early November 1942, a rate approximately 83% higher than the commonly suggested figure for the ].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stone |first=Lewi |date=2019 |title=Quantifying the Holocaust: Hyperintense kill rates during the Nazi genocide |journal=] |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=eaau7292 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.aau7292 |pmid=30613773 |pmc=6314819 |bibcode=2019SciA....5.7292S |issn=2375-2548}}</ref> Between July to October 1942, two million Jews were murdered, including Operation Reinhard and other killings, with over three million Jews killed in 1942 alone, as stated by historian ].{{Sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=100}} On the other hand, historian ] states that over two million Jews were murdered from late July to mid-November, stating that "these three-and-a-half months were the most intense, the deadliest of the entire Holocaust".{{sfn|Kay|2021|p=207}} It was the fastest rate of genocidal killing in history.{{sfn|Stone|2023|p=191}} | |||
===Roma=== | |||
{{Main|Porajmos|l1=Pořajmos|Antiziganism|l2=Antiziganism|Auschwitz concentration camp#Gypsy family camp|l3=Auschwitz#Gypsy family camp}} | |||
Germany and its allies killed up to 220,000 ], around 25 percent of the community in Europe,<ref name=RomaUSHMM>{{cite web |title=Genocide of European Roma (Gypsies) |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005219 |accessdate=1 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120902233609/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005219 |archive-date=2 September 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> in what the Romani people call the '']''.<ref>{{harvnb|Huttenbach|2016|p=31}}; {{harvnb|Hancock|2004|p=385}} (Hancock writes ''Porrajmos'').</ref> ], head of the ''Rassenhygienische und Bevolkerungsbiologische Forschungsstelle'' called them "a peculiar form of the human species who are incapable of development and came about by mutation".{{sfn|Bauer|1998|p=442}} In May 1942 they were placed under similar laws to the Jews, Bauer writes, and in December Himmler ordered that "Gypsy Mischlinge , Roma Gypsies, and members of the clans of Balkan origins who are not of German blood" be sent to Auschwitz, unless they had served in the Wehrmacht.<ref>{{harvnb|Bauer|1998|p=444}}; also see {{harvnb|Longerich|2010|p=50}}.</ref> Himmler adjusted the order on 15 November 1943; in the occupied Soviet areas, "sedentary Gypsies and part-Gypsies are to be treated as citizens of the country. Nomadic Gypsies and part-Gypsies are to be placed on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."{{sfn|Bauer|1998|p=445}} ] writes that this adjustment reflected Nazi ideology that the Roma, originally an Aryan population, had been "spoiled" by non-Romani blood.{{sfn|Bauer|1998|p=446}} In Belgium, France and the Netherlands, the Roma were subject to restrictions on movement and confinement to collection camps,{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=419}} while in Eastern Europe they were sent to concentration camps, where large numbers were murdered.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=419–421}} In the camps, they were usually counted among the asocials and required to wear brown or ]s on their prison clothes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Teleki |first1=László |title=The Fate of the Roma during the Holocaust: The Untold Story |url=https://www.un.org/en/holocaustremembrance/docs/pdf/Volume%20I/The_Fate_of_Roma.pdf |publisher=The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme |page=92}}</ref> During the invasion of the Soviet Union, they were targeted by the Einsatzgruppen, although to a lesser extent than the Jews;{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=288}} up to 1,000 are thought to have been murdered by Einsatzgruppen H in Slovakia.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=419}} After the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, 1,000 Roma were deported to Auschwitz.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=114}} The Roma were also targeted by Germany's allies, such as the ] in Croatia, where a large number were killed in the ];{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=419}} the total killed in Croatia numbered around 28,000.{{sfn|Bloxham|2009|p=119}} | |||
On 3 November 1943, around 18,400 Jews were murdered at ] over the course of nine hours, in what was the largest number ever killed in a death camp on a single day.{{sfn|Stone|2023|p=210}} It was part of ], the murder of some 43,000 Jews, the single largest massacre of Jews by German forces, occurring from 3 to 4 November 1943.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Aktion "Erntefest" (Operation "Harvest Festival") |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/aktion-erntefest-operation-harvest-festival |access-date=12 April 2024 |website=] |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604185359/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/aktion-erntefest-operation-harvest-festival |archive-date=4 June 2024}}</ref> | |||
===Political and religious opponents=== | |||
{{Further|German resistance to Nazism|Religion in Nazi Germany|Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi Germany|Declaration of Facts}} | |||
German communists, socialists and trade unionists were among the earliest opponents of the Nazis<!--replace source--><ref>{{cite web |title=Non-Jewish Resistance |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007332 |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate=29 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111120214424/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007332 |archive-date=20 November 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> and among the first to be sent to concentration camps.{{sfn|Wachsmann|2015|p=125}} '']'' ("Night and Fog"), a directive from Hitler in December 1941, resulted in the ] of political activists throughout the German-occupied territories.{{sfn|Fischel|2010|p=184}} Because they refused to pledge allegiance to the Nazi party or serve in the military, ] were sent to concentration camps, where they were identified by purple triangles and given the option of renouncing their faith and submitting to the state's authority.{{sfn|Milton|2001|pp=346–349}} The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that between 2,700 and 3,300 were sent to the camps, where 1,400 died.<ref name=USHMMJW>{{cite web |title=Jehovah's Witnesses |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006187 |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |accessdate=29 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170411222547/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006187 |archive-date=11 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> According to German historian Detlef Garbe, "no other religious movement resisted the pressure to conform to National Socialism with comparable unanimity and steadfastness."{{sfn|Garbe|2001|p=251}} | |||
Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and POWs; estimated by Gerlach at 6 to 8 million, at more than 10 million by ]<ref>{{cite book |author1=Martin Gilbert |author1-link=Martin Gilbert |title=The Holocaust: The Human Tragedy |date=2014 |publisher=Rosetta Books |isbn=978-0-7953-3719-2 |chapter=Epilogue - "I will tell the world" |quote=As well as the six million Jews who were murdered, more than ten million other non-combatants were killed by the Nazis.}}</ref> and at over 11 million by the ].<ref>{{cite web |website=] |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution |title=Documenting numbers of victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution}}; give a total of 17 million (including more than 5 million Jews).</ref> In some countries, such as Hungary, Jews were a majority of civilian deaths; in Poland, they were either a majority{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=3}} or about half.{{sfn|Bergen|2016|p=155}} In other countries such as the Soviet Union, France, Greece, and Yugoslavia, non-Jewish civilian losses outnumbered Jewish deaths.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|p=3}} | |||
===Gay men=== | |||
{{Further|Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust|Institut für Sexualwissenschaft|Pink triangle}} | |||
Around 100,000 gay men were arrested in Germany and 50,000 jailed between 1933 and 1945; 5,000–15,000 are thought to have been sent to concentration camps, where they were identified by a ] on their camp clothes. It is not known how many died.<ref name=USHMMgays/> Hundreds were ], sometimes "voluntarily" to avoid criminal sentences.{{sfn|Giles|1992|pp=45–7}} In 1936 Himmler created the ].{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=237}} The police closed ]s and shut down gay publications.<ref name=USHMMgays>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 |title=Persecution of Homosexuals in the Third Reich |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612135957/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005261 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> Lesbians were left relatively unaffected; the Nazis saw them as "asocials", rather than sexual deviants.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005478 |title=Lesbians and the Third Reich |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612140447/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005478 |archive-date=12 June 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
== |
==Aftermath and legacy== | ||
{{Main|Aftermath of the Holocaust}} | |||
{{Further|Persecution of black people in Nazi Germany|Rhineland Bastard}} | |||
The number of Afro-Germans in Germany when the Nazis came to power is variously estimated at 5,000–25,000.{{sfn|Lusane|2003|pp=97–8}} It is not clear whether these figures included Asians. Although blacks in Germany and German-occupied Europe, including prisoners of war, were subjected to incarceration, sterilization and murder, there was no programme to kill them as a group.<ref>{{cite web |title= Blacks during the Holocaust |url= http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005479 |encyclopedia= Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher= United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |accessdate= 29 May 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170426164033/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005479 |archive-date=26 April 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
===Return home and emigration=== | |||
==Aftermath== | |||
<!-- ], late 1940s|alt=People collecting bread in a cafeteria]] --> | |||
{{Main|Aftermath of the Holocaust|Responsibility for the Holocaust|List of major perpetrators of the Holocaust|Displaced persons camps in post-World War II Europe|Stunde Null}} | |||
After liberation, many Jews attempted to return home. Limited success in finding relatives, the refusal of many non-Jews to return property,{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=273–274}} and violent attacks such as the ] convinced many survivors to leave eastern Europe.{{sfn|Beorn|2018|pp=275–276}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=215}} Antisemitism was reported to increase in several countries after the war, in part due to conflicts over property restitution.{{sfn|Gerlach|2016|pp=353–355}} When the war ended, there were less than 28,000 German Jews and 60,000 non-German Jews in Germany. By 1947, the number of Jews in Germany had increased to 250,000 owing to emigration from eastern Europe allowed by the communist authorities; Jews made up around 25 percent of the population of ].{{sfn|Kochavi|2010|p=509}} Although many survivors were in poor health, they attempted to organize self-government in these camps, including education and rehabilitation efforts.{{sfn|Kochavi|2010|pp=512–513}} Due to the reluctance of other countries to allow their immigration, many survivors remained in Germany until the establishment of Israel in 1948.{{sfn|Kochavi|2010|p=509}} Others moved to the United States around 1950 due to loosened immigration restrictions.{{sfn|Kochavi|2010|p=521}} | |||
=== |
===Criminal trials=== | ||
{{ |
{{further|Category:Holocaust trials}} | ||
], November 1945|alt=Rows of men sitting on benches]] | |||
{{Further|Dachau trials|Auschwitz trial|Majdanek trials||Trial of Adolf Eichmann|Belzec trial|Frankfurt Auschwitz trials|Sobibor trial|Treblinka trials|Category:Holocaust trials}} | |||
Most Holocaust perpetrators were never put on trial for their crimes.{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=214}} During and after World War II, many European countries launched ] that affected possibly as much as 2–3 percent of the population of Europe, although most of the resulting trials did not emphasize crimes against Jews.{{sfn|Priemel|2020|p=174}} Nazi atrocities led to the United Nations' ] in 1948, but it was not used in Holocaust trials due to the ] of criminal laws.{{sfn|Wittmann|2010|p=524}} | |||
], 1945–1946.<br /> | |||
<small>(Front row, left to right)</small>: ], ], ], ]<br /><small>(Second row, left to right)</small>: ], ], ], ]]] | |||
The ] were a series of ]s, held after the war by the ] in ], Germany, to prosecute the German leadership. The first was the 1945–1946 trial of 22 political and military leaders before the International Military Tribunal.<!--replace source--><ref>. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.</ref> ], ], and ] had committed suicide several months earlier.{{sfn|Biddiss|2001|p=643}} The prosecution entered indictments against 24 men (two of the indictments were dropped before the end of the trial){{efn|] committed suicide in prison, and ] was judged unfit for trial.{{sfn|Biddiss|2001|p=643}}}} and seven organizations: the Reich Cabinet, the ] (SS), ] (SD), the ], the ] (SA) and the "General Staff and High Command". The indictments were for participation in a ] for the accomplishment of a ]; planning, initiating and waging ] and other crimes against peace; ]s; and ]. The tribunal passed judgements ranging from acquittal to death by hanging.{{sfn|Biddiss|2001|pp=643–644}} Eleven defendants were executed, including ], ], ], and ]. Ribbentrop, the judgement declared, "played an important part in Hitler's 'final solution of the Jewish question'".{{sfn|Conot|1984|p=495}} | |||
In 1945 and 1946, the ] tried ] primarily for ], which the prosecution argued was the root of Nazi criminality;{{sfn|Priemel|2020|p=176}} nevertheless, the systematic murder of Jews came to take center stage.{{sfn|Priemel|2020|p=177}} This trial and others held by the Allies in occupied Germany—the United States Army alone charged 1,676 defendants in 462 war crimes trials{{sfn|Wittmann|2010|p=525}}—were widely perceived as an unjust form of political revenge by the German public.{{sfn|Wittmann|2010|p=534}} ] later investigated 100,000 people and tried more than 6,000 defendants, mainly low-level perpetrators.{{sfn|Priemel|2020|p=184}}{{sfn|Wittmann|2010|pp=534–535}} The high-level organizer ] was kidnapped and ] in 1961. Instead of convicting Eichmann on the basis of documentary evidence, Israeli prosecutors asked many Holocaust survivors to testify, a strategy that increased publicity but has proven controversial.{{sfn|Priemel|2020|pp=182–183}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|pp=215–216}} | |||
] took place between 1946 and 1949, which tried another 185 defendants.{{sfn|Biddiss|2001|p=646}} West Germany initially tried few ex-Nazis, but after the 1958 ], the government set up a governmental agency to investigate crimes.{{sfn|Crowe|2008|p=412}} Other trials of Nazis and collaborators took place in Western and Eastern Europe. In 1960 ] agents captured ] in Argentina and brought him to Israel to stand trial on 15 indictments, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. He was convicted in December 1961 and executed in June 1962. Eichmann's trial and death revived interest in war criminals and the Holocaust in general.{{sfn|Crowe|2008|pp=430–433}} | |||
===Reparations=== | ===Reparations=== | ||
{{Main|Wiedergutmachung|Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany|List of companies involved in the Holocaust|Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce|German collective guilt}} | |||
]e'', ], 2011]] | |||
<!--Needs more sources; also add something about Jews returning to their homes in previously occupied countries: Jewish survivors of the Holocaust called themselves ] ("the surviving remnant") and many ended up in ]. Many survivors in displaced persons camps lived under ] in horrific conditions.<ref>. As cited in United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, "Resources", </ref><ref>"President Orders Eisenhower to End New Abuse of Jews, He Acts on Harrison Report, Which Likens Our Treatment to That of the Nazis", '']'', 30 September 1945</ref><ref>Robert L. Hilliard, "Surviving the Americans: The Continued Struggle of the Jews After Liberation" (New York: ], 1997) p. 214</ref>--> | |||
The government of ] requested $1.5 billion from the ] in March 1951 to finance the rehabilitation of 500,000 Jewish survivors, arguing that Germany had stolen $6 billion from the European Jews. Israelis were divided about the idea of taking money from Germany. The ] (known as the Claims Conference) was opened in New York, and after negotiations the claim was reduced to {{nowrap|$845 million}}.<ref name=YVReparations>{{cite web |url=http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205817.pdf |title=Reparations and Restitutions |work=Shoah Resource Center |publisher=Yad Vashem |accessdate=5 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516212256/http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205817.pdf |archive-date=16 May 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Zweig|2001|pp=531–532}} | |||
Historians estimate that property losses to Jews of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Poland, and Hungary amounted to around 10 billion in 1944 dollars,{{sfn|Goschler|Ther|2007|p=7}} or ${{Inflation|US|start_year=1944|value=10|r=-1}} billion in {{Inflation/year|US}}.<ref name=inflation/> This estimate does not include the value of labor extracted.{{sfn|Hayes|2010|p=548}} Overall, the amount of Jewish property looted by the Nazis was about 10 percent of the total stolen from occupied countries.{{sfn|Hayes|2010|p=548}} Efforts by survivors to receive reparations for their losses began immediately after World War II. There was an additional wave of restitution efforts in the 1990s connected to the ] in eastern Europe.{{sfn|Goschler|Ther|2007|pp=13–14}} | |||
West Germany allocated another $125 million for reparations in 1988. Companies such as ], ], ], ], ], and ] faced lawsuits for their use of ].<ref name=YVReparations/> In response, Germany set up the ] in 2000, which paid €4.45 billion to former slave laborers (up to €7,670 each).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/leistungen/direktleistungen/leistungsprogramm/index.html.en |title=Payment Programme of the Foundation EVZ |publisher=] |accessdate=5 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005014933/http://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/leistungen/direktleistungen/leistungsprogramm/index.html.en |archive-date=5 October 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2013 Germany agreed to provide €772 million to fund nursing care, social services, and medication for 56,000 Holocaust survivors around the world.<ref>{{cite news |author=Staff |title=Holocaust Reparations: Germany to Pay 772 Million Euros to Survivors |date=29 May 2013 |newspaper=Spiegel Online International |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-to-pay-772-million-euros-in-reparations-to-holocaust-survivors-a-902528.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141213061723/http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-to-pay-772-million-euros-in-reparations-to-holocaust-survivors-a-902528.html |archive-date=13 December 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> The French state-owned railway company, the ], agreed in 2014 to pay $60 million to Jewish-American survivors, around $100,000 each, for its role in the ] to extermination camps between 1942 and 1944.<ref>{{harvnb|Bazyler|2005|p=173}}; {{cite news |author=Staff |title=Pour le rôle de la SNCF dans la Shoah, Paris va verser 100 000 euros à chaque déporté américain |newspaper=Le Monde/Agence France-Presse |url=http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2014/12/05/etats-unis-paris-va-indemniser-les-victimes-de-la-shoah-transportees-par-la-sncf_4535530_3222.html |date=5 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205193821/http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2014/12/05/etats-unis-paris-va-indemniser-les-victimes-de-la-shoah-transportees-par-la-sncf_4535530_3222.html |archive-date=5 December 2014 |url-status=live}}{{pb}} | |||
{{cite news |last=Davies |first= Lizzie |date=17 February 2009 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/17/france-admits-deporting-jews |title=France responsible for sending Jews to concentration camps, says court |newspaper=The Guardian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010004913/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/feb/17/france-admits-deporting-jews |archive-date=10 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Between 1945 and 2018, ] in restitution and compensation to Holocaust survivors and heirs. In 1952, West Germany negotiated ] to pay ] 3 billion (around $714 million) to Israel and DM 450 million (around $107 million) to the ].<ref>{{cite web |title=The JUST Act Report: Germany |url=https://www.state.gov/reports/just-act-report-to-congress/germany/ |website=] |access-date=2 May 2023}}</ref> Germany paid pensions and other reparations for harm done to some Holocaust survivors.{{sfn|Hayes|2010|pp=549–550}} Other countries have paid restitution for assets stolen from Jews from these countries. Most Western European countries restored some property to Jews after the war, while communist countries ] many formerly Jewish assets, meaning that the overall amount restored to Jews has been lower in those countries.{{sfn|Bazyler ''et al.''|2019|pp=482–483}}{{sfn|Hayes|2010|p=552}} Poland is the only member of the ] that never passed any restitution legislation.{{sfn|Bazyler ''et al.''|2019|p=487}} Many restitution programs fell short of restoration of prewar assets, and in particular, large amounts of immovable property was never returned to survivors or their heirs.{{sfn|Bazyler ''et al.''|2019|p=485}}{{sfn|Hayes|2010|p=556}} | |||
===''Historikerstreit'', uniqueness question{{anchor|Uniqueness question}}=== | |||
{{Further|Bitburg controversy|Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism}} | |||
]'', Berlin, 2008]] | |||
<!--Mention Broszat–Friedländer correspondence: ''Reworking the Past Hitler, The Holocaust and the Historians''.-->In the early decades of ], scholars approached the Holocaust as a genocide that was unique in its reach and specificity; as ] put it, "he world of Auschwitz was, in truth, a new planet."{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=206}} This approach was questioned in the 1980s during the West German '']'' ("historians' dispute"), an attempt to re-position the Holocaust within German historiography.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=207}}{{efn|The debate was preceded by the 40th anniversary in May 1985 of the end of World War II, and by President ]'s visit that month to a German military cemetery at the suggestion of Chancellor ], leading to the so-called ].<ref>{{harvnb|Evans|1987|pp=789–790}}; {{harvnb|Piper|1993|p=273}}.</ref>}} | |||
===Remembrance and historiography=== | |||
] triggered the ''Historikerstreit'' in June 1986 with an article in the conservative newspaper '']'': "The past that will not pass: A speech that could be written but no longer delivered".<ref name=Nolte6June1986>{{cite news |last1=Nolte |first1=Ernst |authorlink=Ernst Nolte |title=Vergangenheit, die nicht vergehen will: Eine Rede, die geschrieben, aber nicht gehalten werden konnte |url=https://www.staff.uni-giessen.de/~g31130/PDF/Nationalismus/ErnstNolte.pdf |work=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |date=6 June 1986}}{{pb}} | |||
] in Berlin, 2016|alt=A memorial of many square concrete blocks]] | |||
{{harvnb|Knowlton|Cates|1993|pp=18–23}}; partly reproduced in (translation), German History in Documents and Images.</ref>{{sfn|Evans|1987|p=764}}{{efn|Nolte had delivered a similar lecture to the Carl-Friedrich-Siemens-Stiftung in Munich, published in abridged form as "Die negative Lebendigkeiet des Dritten Reiches. Eine Frage aus dem Blickwinkel des Jahres 1980" in the ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' on 24 July 1980.{{sfn|Knowlton|Cates|1993|p=15}}{{pb}} | |||
The speech that could not be delivered referred to a lecture Nolte had planned to give to the ''Römerberg-Gesprächen'' (Römerberg Colloquium) in Frankfurt; he said his invitation had been withdrawn, which the organizers disputed.{{sfn|Evans|1987|p=764, note 10}} At that point, his lecture had the title "The Past That Will Not Pass: To Debate or to Draw the Line?".{{sfn|Piper|1993|p=23}}}} Rather than being studied in the same way as any other historical event, Nolte wrote, the Nazi era was suspended like a sword over Germany's present. He compared the idea of "the guilt of the Germans" to the Nazi idea of "the guilt of the Jews", and argued that the focus on the Final Solution overlooked the Nazi's euthanasia program and treatment of Soviet POWs, as well as post-war issues such as the wars in ] and ]. Comparing ] to the ], he suggested that the Holocaust was a response to Hitler's fear of the Soviet Union: "Did the Gulag Archipelago not precede Auschwitz? Was the ] not the logical and factual ''prius'' of the 'racial murder' of National Socialism? ... Was Auschwitz perhaps rooted in a past that would not pass?"{{efn|"War nicht der 'Archipel Gulag' ursprünglicher als 'Auschwitz'? War nicht der 'Klassenmord' der Bolschewiki das logische und faktische Prius des 'Rassenmords' der Nationalsozialisten? Sind Hitlers geheimste Handlungen nicht gerade auch dadurch zu erklären, daß er den 'Rattenkäfig' nicht vergessen hatte? Rührte Auschwitz vielleicht in seinen Ursprüngen aus einer Vergangenheit her, die nicht vergehen wollte?"<ref name=Nolte6June1986/>}} | |||
In the decades after the war, Holocaust memory was largely confined to the survivors and their communities.{{sfn|Assmann|2010|p=97}} The popularity of Holocaust memory peaked in the 1990s after the fall of Communism, and became central to Western historical consciousness{{sfn|Assmann|2010|pp=98, 107}}{{sfn|Rosenfeld|2015|pp=15, 346}} as a symbol of the ultimate human evil.{{sfn|Assmann|2010|p=110}} Genocide scholar ] asserted that "the Holocaust has gradually supplanted genocide as modernity's icon of evil",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moses |first=A. Dirk |author-link=A. Dirk Moses |title=The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-107-10358-0 |edition=1st |pages=481–482 |language=en}}</ref> while political scientist ] declared that "the Holocaust, perhaps more than any other event in the past century, represents the pinnacle of evil".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Straus |first=Scott |author-link=Scott Straus |url=https://archive.org/details/genocide-the-power-and-problems-of-a-concept-9780228009511_compress_202404 |title=Genocide: The Power and Problems of a Concept |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-2280-0951-1 |editor-last=Graziosi |editor-first=Andrea |pages=240 |language=en |editor-last2=Sysyn |editor-first2=Frank E.}}</ref> The Holocaust has been described as "perhaps the most savage and significant single crime in recorded history" and that of the most barbaric events in the twentieth century "the Holocaust probably ranks as the very worst".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Landau |first=Ronnie S. |url=https://archive.org/details/the-nazi-holocaust-its-history-and-meaning-9780755624225-9780857728432_compress |title=The Nazi Holocaust: Its History and Meaning |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-85772-843-2 |edition=3rd |pages=3, 287 |language=en}}</ref> Renowned German historian ] described it as the "singularly most monstrous crime committed in the history of mankind".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benz |first=Wolfgang |author-link=Wolfgang Benz |url=https://archive.org/details/holocaustgermanh0000benz |title=The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-231-11215-7 |edition=1st |location=New York |pages=2 |language=en}}</ref> ], in which its advocates argue promotes citizenship while reducing prejudice generally, became widespread at the same time.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=288}}{{sfn|Sutcliffe|2022|p=8}} ] is commemorated each year on 27 January, while some other countries have set a ].{{sfn|Assmann|2010|p=104}} It has been commemorated in ], ], and speeches, as well as ].{{sfn|Rosenfeld|2015|p=14}} ] is a ] in some countries;{{sfn|Priemel|2020|p=185}} while denials of the Holocaust have been promoted by various Middle Eastern governments, figures and media. | |||
], ], Jerusalem, 2011]] | |||
Although many are convinced that ] to be drawn from the Holocaust, whether this is the case and what these lessons are is disputed.{{sfn|Rosenfeld|2015|p=93}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|pp=190–191}}{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=288}} Communist states marginalized the topic of antisemitic persecution while eliding their nationals' collaboration with Nazism, a tendency that continued into the post-communist era.{{sfn|Rosenfeld|2015|p=22}}{{sfn|Bartov|2023b|p=191}} In West Germany, a self-critical memory of the Holocaust developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and spread to some other western European countries.{{sfn|Kansteiner|2017|pp=306–307}} The national memories of the Holocaust were extended to the European Union as a whole, in which Holocaust memory has provided both shared history and an emotional rationale for committing to ]. Participation in this memory is required of countries ].{{sfn|Kansteiner|2017|p=308}}{{sfn|Assmann|2010|pp=100, 102–103}} In contrast to Europe, in the United States the memory of the Holocaust tends to be more abstract and universalized.{{sfn|Assmann|2010|p=103}} During South African ], the Holocaust was evoked widely and divergently, by ] and non-Jews alike.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gilbert |first=Shirli |date=2010 |title=Jews and the Racial State: Legacies of the Holocaust in Apartheid South Africa, 1945–60 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/423230 |journal=Jewish Social Studies |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=32 |doi=10.2979/jewisocistud.16.3.32}}</ref> Whether Holocaust memory actually promotes human rights is disputed.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=288}}{{sfn|Kansteiner|2017|p=305}} In Israel, the memory of the Holocaust has been used at times to justify the use of force and violation of international human rights norms, in particular as part of the ].{{sfn|Kansteiner|2017|p=308}} | |||
Nolte's arguments were viewed as an attempt to normalize the Holocaust; one of the debate's key questions, according to historian Ernst Piper, was whether history should "'historicize' or 'moralize'".{{sfn|Piper|1993|p=274}} Addressing Nolte's argument in September 1986 in the left-leaning '']'', ] responded that "never before had a state, with the authority of its leader, decided and announced that a specific group of humans, including the elderly, women, children and infants, would be killed as quickly as possible, then carried out this resolution using every possible means of state power."{{efn|name=Jäckel}} In her book '']'' (1993), ] viewed Nolte's "invalid historical comparisons" as a form of ] "designed to help Germans embrace their past by telling them that their country's actions were no different than those of countless others ..."{{sfn|Lipstadt|1994|p=213}} | |||
The Holocaust is the most well-known genocide in history, and is considered to be the single most infamous case of genocide in ] as well.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lieberman |first=Benjamin |title=The Holocaust and Genocides in Europe |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4411-4655-7 |edition=1st |pages=9, 138, 161, 230 |language=en}}</ref> It is the single most documented and studied genocide in history.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rummel |first=R.J. |author-link=R. J. Rummel |date=1998 |title=The Holocaust in Comparative and Historical Perspective |url=https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/HOLO.PAPER.HTM |journal=The Journal of Social Issues |volume=3 |issue=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Aharon |first=Eldad Ben |url=https://www.prif.org/fileadmin/HSFK/hsfk_publikationen/PRIF0620.pdf |title=How Do We Remember the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust? A Global View of an Integrated Memory of Perpetrators, Victims and Third-party Countries |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-946459-59-0 |location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=3 |language=en}}</ref> It is also seen as the archetype of genocide and the benchmark in ].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Holocaust and Other Genocides: An Introduction |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-90-8964-381-0 |editor-last=Boender |editor-first=Barbara |edition=1st |location=Amsterdam |pages=7–10 |language=en |editor-last2=ten Have |editor-first2=Wichert}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Moses |first=A. Dirk |author-link=A. Dirk Moses |title=The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-107-10358-0 |edition=1st |pages=18–19, 34, 204, 396, 452, 480 |language=en}}</ref> | |||
Despite the criticism of Nolte, ] wrote in 2010 that the ''Historikerstreit'' put "the question of comparison" on the agenda.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=207}} He argued that the idea of the Holocaust as unique has been overtaken by attempts to place it within the context of ], ], and the Nazis' intentions for post-war "demographic reordering", particularly the '']'', the plan to kill tens of millions of Slavs to create living space for Germans.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=211–212}} Jäckel's position continued nevertheless to inform the views of many specialists. ] argued in 2015: | |||
The ] is massive, encompassing thousands of books.{{sfn|Stone|2010|p=6}} The tendency to see the ] continues to be popular among the broader public after being largely rejected by historians.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=206–207}}{{sfn|Rosenfeld|2015|p=119}}{{sfn|Sutcliffe|2022|p=2}} Scholar ] points out how the Holocaust was unique in that it was "the industrial killing of millions of human beings in factories of death, ordered by a modern state, organized by a conscientious bureaucracy, and supported by a law-abiding, patriotic "civilized" society."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bartov |first=Omer |author-link=Omer Bartov |title=Germany's War and the Holocaust |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0801486814 |pages=135 |language=en}}</ref> Another debate concerns whether the Holocaust emerged from ] or was an aberration of it.{{sfn|Stone|2010|pp=163, 219, 239}} | |||
{{quote|Thus although the Nazi 'Final Solution' was one genocide among many, it had features that made it stand out from all the rest as well. Unlike all the others it was bounded neither by space nor by time. It was launched not against a local or regional obstacle, but at a world-enemy seen as operating on a global scale. It was bound to an even larger plan of racial reordering and reconstruction involving further genocidal killing on an almost unimaginable scale, aimed, however, at clearing the way in a particular region – Eastern Europe – for a further struggle against the Jews and those the Nazis regarded as their puppets. It was set in motion by ideologues who saw world history in racial terms. It was, in part, carried out by industrial methods. These things all make it unique. |author=Richard Evans |source="Was the 'Final Solution' Unique?", ''The Third Reich in History and Memory''.{{sfn|Evans|2015|p=385}}}} | |||
The Jewish population still remains below pre-Holocaust levels. According to the ], the world Jewish population reached 15.2 million by the end of 2020 – approximately 1.4 million less than on the eve of the Holocaust in 1939, when the number was 16.6 million.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-25 |title=World Jewish population nears pre-Holocaust numbers at 15.2 million |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-705065 |access-date=2024-06-30 |website=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com |language=en}}</ref> | |||
===Awareness=== | |||
In September 2018, an online ]–] poll of 7,092 adults in seven European countries—Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, and Sweden—found that one in 20 had never heard of the Holocaust. The figure included one in five people in France aged 18–34. Four in 10 Austrians said they knew "just a little" about it; 12 percent of young people there said they had never heard of it.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Allen |title=A Shadow Over Europe |url=http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/ |publisher=CNN |date=November 2018 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181127064644/http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/11/europe/antisemitism-poll-2018-intl/ |archivedate=27 November 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> A 2018 survey in the United States found that 22 percent of 1,350 adults said they had never heard of it, while 41 percent of Americans and 66 percent of ] did not know what Auschwitz was.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Survey by Claims Conference Finds Significant Lack of Holocaust Knowledge in the United States |url=http://www.claimscon.org/study |publisher=Claims Conference |date=2018|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20180412152716/http://www.claimscon.org/study|archivedate=12 April 2018|url-status=live}}{{pb}} | |||
{{cite news |last1=Astor |first1=Maggie |title=Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html |work=The New York Times |date=12 April 2018 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20180418071414/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/us/holocaust-education.html |archivedate=18 April 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2019 a survey of 1,100 Canadians found that 49 percent could not name any of the concentration camps.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stober |first1=Eric |title=Nearly half of Canadians can't name a single concentration camp: survey |url=https://globalnews.ca/news/4893788/holocaust-survey-canada/ |work=Global News |date=26 January 2019 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127053753/https://globalnews.ca/news/4893788/holocaust-survey-canada/ |archivedate=27 January 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
== |
==Notes== | ||
{{notelist}} | |||
{{See also category|The Holocaust by country}} | |||
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==References== | ||
{{reflist|20em}} | |||
===Notes=== | |||
{{notelist|26em}} | |||
===Citations=== | |||
{{reflist|26em}} | |||
===Works cited=== | ===Works cited=== | ||
====Books==== | |||
{{Refbegin|26em|indent=yes}}<!-- | |||
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Amar |first=Tarik Cyril |title=The Paradox of Ukrainian Lviv: A Borderland City between Stalinists, Nazis, and Nationalists |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, NY |year= 2015 |isbn=1501700839}}--> | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Bartrop |first=Paul R. |authorlink=Paul R. Bartrop |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kU6fDwAAQBAJ |title=The Holocaust: The Basics |date=2019 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-351-32989-7 |language=en}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Bartov |first=Omer |authorlink=Omer Bartov |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ci3WEAAAQBAJ |title=Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis |date=2023a |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-350-33234-8 |language=en}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Bazyler |first1=Michael J. |last2=Boyd |first2=Kathryn Lee |last3=Nelson |first3=Kristen L. |author1-link=Michael Bazyler |title=Searching for Justice After the Holocaust: Fulfilling the Terezin Declaration and Immovable Property Restitution |date=2019 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-092306-8 |language=en |ref={{sfnref|Bazyler et al.|2019}}}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Arad |first=Yitzhak |authorlink=Yitzhak Arad |author-mask=3 |title= The Holocaust in the Soviet Union |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, NE |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8032-4519-8}} | |||
*{{cite book |last1=Beorn |first1=Waitman Wade |author1-link=Waitman Wade Beorn |title=The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution |date=2018 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-4742-3219-7 |language=en}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Bergen |first=Doris |author-link=Doris Bergen |year=2016 |title=War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-4422-4228-9}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Bloxham |first=Donald |author-link=Donald Bloxham |year=2009 |title=The Final Solution: A Genocide |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-955034-0}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Calimani |first=Anna Vera Sullam |title=I Nomi dello sterminio: Definizioni di una tragedia |language=it |trans-title=The Names of Extermination: Definitions of a Tragedy |publisher=Marietti 1820 |year=2018 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QegCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT6 |isbn=978-8-821-19615-7}} | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bauer |first=Yehuda |authorlink=Yehuda Bauer |title=Forms of Jewish Resistance |year=1997 |origyear=1979 |editor1-last=Niewyk |editor1-first=Donald L. |encyclopedia=The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation |location=Boston |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=0-669-41700-9 |pages=116–132}}--> | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Browning |first=Christopher R. |author-link=Christopher Browning |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9Wg4gjtP3cC |title=The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939–March 1942 |date=2004 |publisher=] and ] |isbn=978-0-8032-0392-1 |language=en}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Bauer |first=Yehuda |authorlink=Yehuda Bauer |chapter=Gypsies |year=1998 |origyear=1994 |editor1-last=Gutman |editor1-first=Yisrael |editor1-link=Yisrael Gutman |editor2-last=Berenbaum |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Berenbaum |title=Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofauschwi00gutm_1 |url-access=limited |location=Bloomington, IN |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-20884-X |pages=–455}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Cesarani |first=David |author-link=David Cesarani |year=2016 |title=] |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-230-76891-8}} | |||
* {{Cite book |last=Engel |first=David |authorlink=David Engel (historian) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aI8kEAAAQBAJ |title=The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews |date=2021 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-429-77837-7 |language=en}} | |||
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* {{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |title=Never Again: A History of the Holocaust |publisher=RosettaBooks |year=2015 |orig-year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7953-4674-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWhsDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT22}} | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Bauer |first1=Yehuda |authorlink1=Yehuda Bauer |last2=Rozett |first2=Robert |title=Appendix 6: Estimated Losses in the Holocaust |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Holocaust |editor=Gutman, Israel |editorlink=Israel Gutman |volume=4 |pages= |publisher=Macmillan Library Reference |location=New York |year=1990 |isbn=0-02-896090-4|url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofho0000unse_l4l4/page/1797 }} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Gerlach |first=Christian|author-link=Christian Gerlach |year=2016 |title=The Extermination of the European Jews |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-521-70689-6}} | |||
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: {{cite book |last1=Ben-Rafael |first1= Eliezer |last2=Glöckner |first2= Olaf |last3= Sternberg |first3=Yitzhak |title=Jews and Jewish Education in Germany Today |location=Leiden |publisher=Brill |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-04-25329-2}} | |||
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* {{cite book |last1=Russell |first1=Nestar |title=Understanding Willing Participants |volume=2: Milgram's Obedience Experiments and the Holocaust |date=2018 |publisher=Springer |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-97999-1 |isbn=978-3-319-97999-1 |s2cid=151138604 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-97999-1 |language=en}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Bloxham |first=Donald |authorlink=Donald Bloxham |year=2009 |title=The Final Solution: A Genocide |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-955034-0}} | |||
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: {{cite book|last=Browning |first=Christopher |authorlink=Christopher Browning |year=2004 |title=The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942 |location=Lincoln and Jerusalem |publisher=University of Nebraska Press and Yad Vashem |isbn=978-0803213272|url=https://archive.org/details/originsoffinalso00brow }} | |||
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: {{cite book |last1=Didi-Huberman |first1=Georges |authorlink=Georges Didi-Huberman |title=Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz |date=2008 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-226-14816-8}} | |||
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: {{cite book |last=Evans |first=Richard J. |authorlink=Richard J. Evans |author-mask=3 |year=2015 |title=The Third Reich in History and Memory | publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |chapter=Is the "Final Solution" Unique?|isbn=978-0190228392}} Revised and extended from Richard Evans (2011). "Wie einzigartig war die Ermordung der Juden durch die Nationalsocialisten?" in Günter Morsch and Bertrand Perz (eds). ''Neue Studien zu nationalsozialistischen Massentötungen durch Giftgas: Historische Bedeutung, technische Entwicklung, revisionistische Leugnung''. Berlin: Metropol Verlag, pp. 1–10. {{isbn|978-3940938992}} | |||
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: Knowlton, James and Cates, Truett (translators, 1993). {{cite book |title=Forever in the Shadow of Hitler?: Original Documents of the Historikerstreit, the Controversy Concerning the Singularity of the Holocaust|year=1993 |publisher=Humanities Press |location=Atlantic Highlands, NJ |isbn=978-0391038110|ref={{sfnref|Knowlton|Cates|1993}}}}<!-- | |||
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: {{cite book |last=Langbein |first=Hermann |authorlink=Hermann Langbein |year=1998 |origyear=1994 |editor1-last=Gutman |editor1-first=Yisrael |editor1-link=Yisrael Gutman |editor2-last=Berenbaum |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Berenbaum |title=Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofauschwi00gutm_1 |url-access=limited |location=Bloomington, IN |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-20884-X |chapter=The Auschwitz Underground|pages=–502}} | |||
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: {{cite encyclopedia |last=Laqueur |first=Walter |title=Jewish Brigade |editor1-last=Laqueur|editor1-first=Walter|editor2-last=Baumel|editor2-first=Judith Tydor |year=2001 |page=351 |encyclopedia=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-08432-3}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Lehnstaedt |first1=Stephan |title=Occupation in the East: The Daily Lives of German Occupiers in Warsaw and Minsk, 1939–1944 |date=2016 |orig-year=2010 |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=New York and Oxford |isbn=978-1-78533-323-1}}<!-- | |||
: {{cite news |last=Lichtblau |first=Eric |date=1 March 2013 |title=The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/sunday-review/the-holocaust-just-got-more-shocking.html |accessdate=2 March 2013}}--> | |||
: {{cite book |last=Lifton |first=Robert J. |authorlink=Robert Jay Lifton |year=2000 |origyear=1986 |title=The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide |edition=2000 |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-04905-9|url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/nazidoctorsmedic0000lift }} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Lipstadt |first=Deborah| author-link1=Deborah Lipstadt |year=1994 |orig-year=1993 |title=Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory | title-link=Denying the Holocaust |location=New York | publisher=Penguin Books | isbn=0-452-27274-2}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=London |first1=Louise |title=Whitehall and the Jews, 1933–1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees and the Holocaust |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0521631877}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Longerich |first=Peter |authorlink=Peter Longerich |year=2010 |title=Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280436-5 |location=Oxford, UK}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Longerich |first=Peter |authorlink=Peter Longerich |author-mask=3 |year=2012 |title=Heinrich Himmler |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-959232-6}} | |||
: {{cite book|last=Lusane|first=Clarence|authorlink=Clarence Lusane|year=2003|title=Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experience of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans and African Americans in the Nazi Era|location=London; New York|publisher=Routledge|ref=harv}} | |||
: {{cite journal|last1=Lustigman|first1=Marsha|last2=Lustigman|first2=Michael M.|date=16 October 1994|title=Bibliographic Classification of Documents Dealing with the Subject 'Holocaust'|publisher=5th ASIS SIG/CR Classification Research Workshop|location=Alexandria, VA|pages=111–120|url=https://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/acro/article/viewFile/13780/11894 |doi=10.7152/acro.v5i1.13780|doi-broken-date=2020-04-25}} | |||
<!--: {{cite book |last=Maier |first=Charles S. |authorlink=Charles S. Maier |year=1997 |origyear=1988 |title=The Unmasterable Past: History, Holocaust, and German National Identity |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |edition=Reprint |isbn=0-674-92977-2}}--> | |||
: {{cite book |last=Marcuse |first=Harold |authorlink=Harold Marcuse |year=2001 |title=Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933–2001 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-55204-4}} | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia|last=Matthäus |first=Jürgen |authorlink=Jürgen Matthäus |editor-last=Browning |editor-first=Christopher |editorlink=Christopher Browning |year=2004 |title=Operation Barbarossa and the Onset of the Holocaust, June–December 1941 |encyclopedia=The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942 |location=Lincoln, NE |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |pages=244–308 |isbn=0-8032-1327-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/originsoffinalso00brow/page/244}} | |||
: {{cite journal |last1=Matthäus |first1=Jürgen |authorlink=Jürgen Matthäus |author-mask=3 | title=Controlled Escalation: Himmler's Men in the Summer of 1941 and the Holocaust in the Occupied Soviet Territories |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |date=Fall 2007 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=218–242 |doi=10.1093/hgs/dcm037|ref=harv}}<!-- | |||
: {{cite book |last=Mazower |first=Mark |authorlink=Mark Mazower |year=2008 |title=Hitler's Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe |location=New York |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-1-59420-188-2}}--> | |||
: {{cite book |last=McKale |first=Donald M. |year=2002 |title=Hitler's Shadow War: The Holocaust and World War II |publisher=Cooper Square Press |location=New York |isbn=0-8154-1211-8|url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/hitlersshadowwar0000mcka }} | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia |last=Michman |first=Dan |title=Jews |encyclopedia=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=2012 |origyear=2010 |editor1=Hayes, Peter |editor1-link=Peter Hayes (historian) |editor2=Roth, John K. |editor2-link=John K. Roth |pages=185–202 |isbn=978-0-19-966882-3}} | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia |last=Milton |first=Sybil |title=Jehovah's Witnesses |editor1-last=Laqueur|editor1-first=Walter|editor2-last=Baumel|editor2-first=Judith Tydor |year=2001 |pages=346–350 |encyclopedia=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-08432-3}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Montague |first=Patrick |year=2012 |title=Chelmno and the Holocaust: A History of Hitler's First Death Camp |location=Chapel Hill, NC |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-3527-2}} | |||
: {{cite journal|last=Müller-Hill |first=Benno |authorlink=Benno Müller-Hill |year=1999| title=The Blood from Auschwitz and the Silence of the Scholars |journal=History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences |volume=21 |issue=3 |pages=331–365 |jstor=23332180 |pmid=11197188}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Musiał |first1=Bogdan |editor1-last=Polonsky |editor1-first=Anthony |editor2-last=Michlic |editor2-first=Joanna B. |title=The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland |url=https://archive.org/details/neighborsrespond00polo |url-access=limited |date=2004 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton and Oxford |isbn=0-691-11643-1 |pages=–343|chapter=The Pogrom in Jedwabne: Critical Remarks about Jan T. Gross's ''Neighbors''}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Nicosia |first=Francis R. |year=2008 |title=Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-521-88392-4|ref=harv}} | |||
: {{cite book|last1=Niewyk |first1=Donald L. |last2=Nicosia |first2=Francis R. |year=2000 |title=The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-11200-9|url=https://archive.org/details/columbiaguidetot00niew }} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Noakes |first1=Jeremy |last2=Pridham |first2=Geoffrey |year=1983 |title=Nazism: A History in Documents and Eyewitness Accounts, 1919–1945 |publisher=Schocken Books |location=New York |oclc= 809750541}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Novick |first=Peter |title=The Holocaust in American Life |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=New York |year=2000 |origyear=1999 |isbn=0-618-08232-8}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Orth |first1=Karin |editor1-last=Megargee |editor1-first=Geoffrey P.|editor1-link=Geoffrey P. Megargee |title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945|volume=1A |date=2009 |publisher=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington and Indianapolis |isbn=978-0-253-35328-3 |pages=181–196|chapter=Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Inspectorate of Concentration Camps/Business Administration Main Office}} | |||
: {{cite book|last=Piotrowski|first=Tadeusz|authorlink=Tadeusz Piotrowski (sociologist)|year=1998|title=Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration With Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947|location=Jefferson, NC|publisher=McFarland & Company|ref=harv}} | |||
:{{cite book |last=Piper |first=Ernst |title=Forever in the Shadow of Hitler?: Original Documents of the Historikerstreit, the Controversy Concerning the Singularity of the Holocaust |translator-last1=Knowlton |translator-first1=James |translator-last2=Cates |translator-first2=Truett |date=1993 |publisher=Humanities Press |location=Atlantic Highlands, NJ |chapter=Afterward to the ''Historikerstreit''|pages=272–275|isbn=978-0391038110|ref=harv}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Piper |first=Franciszek |authorlink=Franciszek Piper |chapter=The Number of Victims |year=1998a |origyear=1994 |editor1-last=Gutman |editor1-first=Yisrael |editor1-link=Yisrael Gutman |editor2-last=Berenbaum |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Berenbaum |title=Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofauschwi00gutm_1 |url-access=limited |location=Bloomington, IN |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-20884-X |pages=–80}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Piper |first=Franciszek |authorlink=Franciszek Piper |author-mask=3 |chapter=Gas chambers and Crematoria |year=1998b |origyear=1994 |editor1-last=Gutman |editor1-first=Yisrael |editor1-link=Yisrael Gutman |editor2-last=Berenbaum |editor2-first=Michael |editor2-link=Michael Berenbaum |title=Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp |url=https://archive.org/details/anatomyofauschwi00gutm_1 |url-access=limited |location=Bloomington, IN |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=0-253-20884-X |pages=–182}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Piper|first=Franciszek|editor-last1=Długoborski |author-mask=3 |editor-first1=Wacław |editor-last2=Piper |editor-first2=Franciszek |editor-link2=|title=Auschwitz, 1940–1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp. Volume III: Mass Murder |title-link=Auschwitz 1940–1945|date=2000 |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |location=Oświęcim|isbn=978-8385047872}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Pohl |first1=Dieter |editor1-last=Bajohr |editor1-first=Frank |editor2-last=Pohl |editor2-first=Dieter |title=Right-Wing Politics and the Rise of Antisemitism in Europe 1935–1941 |date=2019 |publisher=Wallstein Verlag |location=Göttingen |pages=19–38 |isbn=9783835333475| chapter=Right-wing Politics and Antisemitism in Europe, 1935–1940: A Survey|ref=harv}} | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia |last=Polonsky |first=Antony |title=Polish Jewry |pages=486–493 |editor1-last=Laqueur|editor1-first=Walter|editor2-last=Baumel|editor2-first=Judith Tydor |year=2001 |encyclopedia=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-08432-3}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Polonsky |first1=Anthony |last2=Michlic |first2=Joanna B. |editor1-last=Polonsky |editor1-first=Anthony |editor2-last=Michlic |editor2-first=Joanna B. |title=The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland |date=2004 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton and Oxford |isbn=0-691-11643-1 |pages=xiii–xiv|chapter=Preface}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Proctor |first=Robert |year=1988 |title=Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis |url=https://archive.org/details/racialhygiene00robe |url-access=registration |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-74578-7}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Reynolds |first=David |author-link=David Reynolds (historian) |title=The Long Shadow: The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century|year=2014 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-24429-8}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Roseman |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Roseman |title=The Villa, The Lake, The Meeting: Wannsee and the Final Solution|year=2003 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=9-780-1419-2831-9}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Schelvis |first1=Jules |authorlink=Jules Schelvis |title=Sobibor: A History of a Nazi Death Camp |date=2014 |orig-year=2008 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=London and New York |isbn=978-1-84520-418-1}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Schneider |first1=Gertrude |editor1-last=Dobroszycki |editor1-first=Lucjan |editor2-last=Gurock |editor2-first=Jeffery S. |title=The Holocaust in the Soviet Union: Studies and Sources on the Destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied Territories of the USSR, 1941–45 |date=2015 |orig-year=1993 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon and New York |isbn=978-1563241734|chapter=The Two Ghettos in Riga, Latvia, 1941–1943|pages=181–194}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Schulweis |first=Harvey |editor1-last=Hayes |editor1-first=Peter |editor1link=Peter Hayes (historian) |title=How Was It Possible?: A Holocaust Reader |date=2015 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |location=Lincoln, NE |chapter=Foreword |pp=xi–xii}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |authorlink=Timothy D. Snyder |year=2010 |title=Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-00239-9|title-link=Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin }} | |||
: {{Cite journal|last=Snyder|first=Timothy|date=2012|author-mask=3|title=The Causes of the Holocaust|journal=Contemporary European History|volume=21|issue=2|pages=149–168|doi=10.1017/S0960777312000094|ref=harv}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |authorlink=Timothy D. Snyder |author-mask=3 |year=2015 |title=Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning |location=New York |publisher=Tim Duggan Books |isbn=978-1-101-90347-6}} | |||
: {{cite journal|last=Spector|first=Shmuel |title=Aktion 1005—Effacing the murder of millions| journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |volume=5| issue=2 |date= 1 January 1990 | pages=157–173| doi=10.1093/hgs/5.2.157}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Stackelberg |first1=Roderick |last2=Winkle |first2=Sally A. |title=The Nazi Germany Sourcebook: An Anthology of Texts |date=2002 |publisher=Routledge |location=London and New York |isbn=0-415-22213-3}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Stargardt |first1=Nicholas |editor1-last=Hayes |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Roth |editor2-first=John K. |editor1-link=Peter Hayes (historian) |editor2-link=John K. Roth |title=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-921186-9 |pages=218–232|chapter=Children}} | |||
: {{cite book | last=Stone | first=Dan | authorlink=Dan Stone (historian) |title=Histories of the Holocaust | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=New York | year=2010 | isbn=978-0-19-956679-2}} | |||
: {{cite book | last=Stone | first=Dan | authorlink=Dan Stone (historian) |author-mask=3 |title=The Liberation of the Camps: The End of the Holocaust and Its Aftermath | publisher=Yale University Press | location=New Haven and London| year=2015 | isbn=978-0-300-20457-5}} | |||
: {{cite journal|last=Strous|first=Rael D.|year=2007|title=Psychiatry during the Nazi Era: Ethical Lessons for the Modern Professional|journal=Annals of General Psychiatry|volume=6|issue=8|page=8|doi=10.1186/1744-859X-6-8|ref=harv|pmid=17326822|pmc=1828151}} | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Strzelecka |first1=Irena |last2=Setkiewicz |first2=Piotr |editor-last1=Długoborski |editor-first1=Wacław |editor-last2=Piper |editor-first2=Franciszek |editor-link2=Franciszek Piper |title=Auschwitz, 1940–1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp |volume=I: The Establishment and Organization of the Camp |title-link=Auschwitz 1940–1945 |date=2000 |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |location=Oświęcim |chapter=The Construction, Expansion and Development of the Camp and its Branches |pages=63–138|isbn=978-8385047872|oclc=874340863|ref=harv}}<!-- | |||
: {{cite book |last1=Strzelecka |first1=Irena |editor-last1=Długoborski |editor-first1=Wacław |editor-last2=Piper |editor-first2=Franciszek |editor-link2=Franciszek Piper |title=Auschwitz, 1940–1945. Central Issues in the History of the Camp |volume=II: The Prisoners—Their Life and Work |title-link=Auschwitz 1940–1945 |date=2000 |publisher=Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum |location=Oświęcim |chapter=Women in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp |pages=171–200|isbn=978-8385047872|oclc=874340863|ref=harv}}--> | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia |last=Tec |first=Nechama |title=Resistance in Eastern Europe |pages=543–550 |editor1-last=Laqueur|editor1-first=Walter|editor2-last=Baumel|editor2-first=Judith Tydor |year=2001 |encyclopedia=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-08432-3}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Trunk |first=Isaiah |author-link=Isaiah Trunk |year=1996 |origyear=1972 |title=Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation |location=Lincoln, NE |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=0-8032-9428-X}} | |||
: {{cite book|last=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |authorlink=United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |title=Historical Atlas of the Holocaust |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |year=1996 |isbn=0-02-897451-4|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalatlaso00unit }} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Wachsmann |first=Nikolaus |authorlink=Nikolaus Wachsmann |year=2015 |title=KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |location=New York |isbn=978-0-374-11825-9}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Wette |first=Wolfram |author-link=Wolfram Wette |year=2006 |title=The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality |title-link=The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA, and London |isbn=978-0-674-02213-3}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Yahil |first=Leni |authorlink=Leni Yahil |year=1990 |title=The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932–1945 |url=https://archive.org/details/holocaustfateofe0000yahi |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-504523-9}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Zimmerman |first=Joshua D. |authorlink=Joshua D. Zimmerman |year=2015 |title=The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939–1945 |location=New York |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-1070-1426-8}} | |||
: {{cite book |last=Zuccotti |first=Susan |authorlink=Susan Zuccotti |year=1993 |title=The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=0-465-03034-3}} | |||
: {{cite encyclopedia |last=Zweig |first=Ronald |authorlink= |title=Reparations, German |editor1-last=Laqueur|editor1-first=Walter|editor2-last=Baumel|editor2-first=Judith Tydor |year=2001 |pages=530–532 |encyclopedia=The Holocaust Encyclopedia |location=New Haven, CT |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-08432-3}} | |||
{{refend}} | {{refend}} | ||
== |
====Book chapters==== | ||
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}} <!-- {{cite book |last1= |first1= |author-link= |title=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |date=2010 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-921186-9 |pages= |chapter=}} --> | |||
{{For|further reading|Bibliography of the Holocaust}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Assmann |first1=Aleida |author1-link=Aleida Assmann |title=Memory in a Global Age: Discourses, Practices and Trajectories |date=2010 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-230-28336-7 |pages=97–117 |language=en |chapter=The Holocaust – a Global Memory? Extensions and Limits of a New Memory Community}} | |||
* . | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Bartov |first1=Omer |author1-link=Omer Bartov |title=The Oxford History of the Third Reich |date=2023b |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-288683-5 |pages=190–216 |language=en |chapter=The Holocaust}} | |||
* , ] discussion list for librarians, scholars and advanced students. | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Beorn |first1=Waitman Wade |author1-link=Waitman Wade Beorn |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |pages=153–172 |language=en |chapter=All the Other Neighbors: Communal Genocide in Eastern Europe}} | |||
* , ] | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Dean |first1=Martin C.|author-link=Martin C. Dean |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-97049-2 |pages=263–277 |language=en |chapter=Survivors of the Holocaust within the Nazi Universe of Camps}} | |||
* . BBC News, 27 January 2015. | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Engel |first1=David |author1-link=David Engel (historian) |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |pages=233–245 |language=en |chapter=A Sustained Civilian Struggle: Rethinking Jewish Responses to the Nazi Regime}} | |||
* . ''Life'' magazine, 22(8), 24 February 1947, pp. 81–84. | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Evans |first1=Richard J. |author1-link=Richard J. Evans |title=The Jews, the Holocaust, and the Public: The Legacies of David Cesarani |date=2019 |publisher=] |isbn=978-3-030-28675-0 |pages=117–143 |language=en |chapter=The Decision to Exterminate the Jews of Europe}} | |||
* {{cite news |last1=Cesarani |first1=David |authorlink1=David Cesarani |title=An insult to Kiev's massacred Jews |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/25/babi-yar-massacre-hotel-plan |work=The Guardian |date=25 September 2009 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190612070407/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2009/sep/25/babi-yar-massacre-hotel-plan |archivedate=12 June 2019 |url-status=live}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Goschler |first1=Constantin |last2=Ther |first2=Philipp |author2-link=Philipp Ther |title=Robbery and Restitution: The Conflict over Jewish Property in Europe |date=2007 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-85745-564-2 |pages=1–18 |language=en |chapter=Introduction: A History Without Boundaries: the Robbery and Restitution of Jewish Property in Europe}} | |||
* {{cite news |title=The Dark Continent: Hitler's European Holocaust Helpers |url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-dark-continent-hitler-s-european-holocaust-helpers-a-625824.html |work=Der Spiegel |date=20 May 2009 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20150103000925/http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-dark-continent-hitler-s-european-holocaust-helpers-a-625824.html |archivedate=3 January 2015 |url-status=live}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Hayes |first1=Peter |author1-link=Peter Hayes (historian) |last2=Roth |first2=John K. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |date=2010 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-921186-9 |pages=1–20 |chapter=Introduction}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Hayes |first1=Peter |title=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |date=2010 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-921186-9|pages=540–559 |chapter=Plunder and Restitution}} | |||
*{{cite book |last1=Kansteiner |first1=Wulf |title=The Twentieth Century in European Memory: Transcultural Mediation and Reception |date=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-35235-3 |pages=305–343 |language=en |chapter=Transnational Holocaust Memory, Digital Culture and the End of Reception Studies}} | |||
* {{cite book |first=Charles |last=King |authorlink=Charles King (professor of international affairs) |chapter=Can – or Should – There Be a Political Science of the Holocaust? |editor-last1=Kopstein |editor-first1=Jeffrey S. |editor-link=Jeffrey Kopstein |title=Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust |date=2023 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-5017-6676-3 |language=en}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Kochavi |first1=Arieh J. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |date=2010 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-921186-9 |pages=509–523 |chapter=Liberation and Dispersal}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Kopstein |first1=Jeffrey S. |author-link=Jeffrey Kopstein |title=Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust |date=2023 |publisher=] |isbn=978-1-5017-6676-3 |pages=104–123 |language=en |chapter=A Common History of Violence?: The Pogroms of Summer 1941 in Comparative Perspective}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Messenger |first1=David A. |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |pages=381–396 |language=en |chapter=The Geopolitics of Neutrality: Diplomacy, Refuge, and Rescue during the Holocaust}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Miron |first1=Guy |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |pages=247–261 |language=en |chapter=Ghettos and Ghettoization – History and Historiography}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Priemel |first1=Kim Christian |author1-link=Kim Christian Priemel |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |pages=173–189 |language=en |chapter=War Crimes Trials, the Holocaust, and Historiography, 1943–2011}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Sahlstrom |first=Julia |chapter=Recognition, Justice, and Memory: Swedish-Jewish Reactions to the Holocaust and the Major Trials |date=2021 |title=Early Holocaust Memory in Sweden: Archives, Testimonies and Reflections |pages=287–313 |editor-last=Heuman |editor-first=Johannes |chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55532-0_11 |access-date=28 January 2024 |series=The Holocaust and its Contexts |publisher=] |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-55532-0_11 |isbn=978-3-030-55532-0 |s2cid=229432191 |editor2-last=Rudberg |editor2-first=Pontus}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Spoerer |first1=Mark |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |pages=135–151 |language=en |chapter=The Nazi War Economy, the Forced Labor System, and the Murder of Jewish and Non-Jewish Workers}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Stone |first1=Dan |chapter=Ideologies of Race |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |pages=59–74 |doi=10.1002/9781118970492.ch3 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |language=en}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Weitz |first1=Eric D. |author-link=Eric D. Weitz |title=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |date=2010 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-921186-9|pages=54–67 |chapter=Nationalism}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Westermann |first1=Edward B. |author-link=Edward B. Westermann |title=A Companion to the Holocaust |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-97052-2 |pages=117–133 |chapter=Old Nazis, Ordinary Men, and New Killers: Synthetic and Divergent Histories of Perpetrators}} | |||
* {{cite book |last1=Wittmann |first1=Rebecca |author-link=Rebecca Wittmann |title=The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |date=2010 |publisher=] |isbn=978-0-19-921186-9|pages=524–539 |chapter=Punishment}} | |||
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====Journal articles==== | |||
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* {{cite journal |last1=Burzlaff |first1=Jan |title=Confronting the Communal Grave: a Reassessment of Social Relations During the Holocaust in Eastern Europe |journal=The Historical Journal |date=2020 |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=1054–1077 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X19000566 |s2cid=<!-- --> }} | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Láníček |first1=Jan |author-link=Jan Láníček|title=Governments-in-exile and the Jews during and after the Second World War |journal=] |date=2012 |volume=18 |issue=2–3 |pages=73–94 |doi=10.1080/17504902.2012.11087307 |s2cid=<!-- --> }} | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Lehnstaedt |first1=Stephan |author1-link=Stephan Lehnstaedt |title=Aktion Reinhardt – Sources, Research and Commemoration in the last 30 years |journal=Témoigner. Entre histoire et mémoire. Revue pluridisciplinaire de la Fondation Auschwitz |date=2021 |issue=132 |pages=62–70 |doi=10.4000/temoigner.9886 |s2cid=256347577 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/temoigner/9886 |language=en |issn=2031-4183 |doi-access=free}} | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Sutcliffe |first1=Adam |title=Whose Feelings Matter? Holocaust Memory, Empathy, and Redemptive Anti-Antisemitism |journal=] |date=2022 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=222–242 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2022.2160533 |s2cid=<!-- --> |doi-access=free}} | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Welch |first1=Susan |title=Gender and Selection During the Holocaust: Transports of Western European Jews to the East |journal=] |date=2020 |volume=22 |issue=4 |pages=459–478 |doi=10.1080/14623528.2020.1764743 |s2cid=<!-- --> |url=https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/resources/68efc96d-e75e-48d2-a5c2-1aba2e1cb28e}} | |||
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Revision as of 16:06, 20 December 2024
Genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany This article is about the state-sponsored genocide of European Jews during World War II. For all peoples persecuted during this era, see Holocaust victims. "Holocaust" and "Shoah" redirect here. For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation).
The Holocaust | |
---|---|
Part of World War II | |
Jews arriving at Auschwitz II in German-occupied Poland, May 1944. Most were selected to go to the gas chambers. | |
Location | Europe, primarily German-occupied Poland and the Soviet Union |
Date | 1941–1945 |
Attack type | Genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass murder, mass shooting, death marches, poison gas, hate crime |
Deaths | Around 6 million Jews |
Perpetrators | Nazi Germany along with its collaborators and allies |
The Holocaust (/ˈhɒləkɔːst/ , US also /ˈhoʊlə-/) was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of these other groups.
The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of "living space", and seized power in early 1933. Meant to force all German Jews to emigrate, regardless of means, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws, encouraged harassment, and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Jews. Following the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot by German forces and local collaborators.
Later in 1941 or early 1942, the highest levels of the German government decided to murder all Jews in Europe. Victims were deported by rail to extermination camps where, if they survived the journey, most were killed with poison gas. Other Jews continued to be employed in forced labor camps where many died from starvation, abuse, exhaustion, or being used as test subjects in deadly medical experiments. Although many Jews tried to escape, surviving in hiding was difficult due to factors such as the lack of money to pay helpers and the risk of denunciation. The property, homes, and jobs belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to the German occupiers and other non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing continued at a lower rate until the end of the war in May 1945.
Many Jewish survivors emigrated outside of Europe after the war. A few Holocaust perpetrators faced criminal trials. Billions of dollars in reparations have been paid, although falling short of the Jews' losses. The Holocaust has also been commemorated in museums, memorials, and culture. It has become central to Western historical consciousness as a symbol of the ultimate human evil.
Terminology and scope
Main article: Names of the HolocaustThe term Holocaust, derived from a Greek word meaning 'burnt offering', has become the most common word used to describe the Nazi extermination of Jews in English and many other languages. The term Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of other groups that the Nazis targeted, especially those targeted on a biological basis, in particular the Roma and Sinti, as well as Soviet prisoners of war and Polish and Soviet civilians. All of these groups, however, were targeted for different reasons. By the 1970s, the adjective Jewish was dropped as redundant and Holocaust, now capitalized, became the default term for the destruction of European Jews. The Hebrew word Shoah ('catastrophic destruction') exclusively refers to Jewish victims. The perpetrators used the phrase "Final Solution" as a euphemism for their genocide of Jews.
Background
Jews have lived in Europe for more than two thousand years. Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, Jews were subjected to antisemitism based on Christian theology, which blamed them for killing Jesus. In the nineteenth century many European countries granted full citizenship rights to Jews in hopes that they would assimilate. By the early twentieth century, most Jews in central and western Europe were well integrated into society, while in eastern Europe, where emancipation had arrived later, many Jews continued to live in small towns, spoke Yiddish, and practiced Orthodox Judaism. Political antisemitism positing the existence of a Jewish question and usually an international Jewish conspiracy emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth century due to the rise of nationalism in Europe and industrialization that increased economic conflicts between Jews and non-Jews. Some scientists began to categorize humans into different races and argued that there was a life or death struggle between them. Many racists argued that Jews were a separate racial group alien to Europe.
The turn of the twentieth century saw a major effort to establish a German colonial empire overseas, leading to the Herero and Nama genocide and subsequent racial apartheid regime in South West Africa. World War I (1914–1918) intensified nationalist and racist sentiments in Germany and other European countries. Jews in eastern Europe were targeted by widespread pogroms. Germany had two million war dead and lost a substantial territory; opposition to the postwar settlement united Germans across the political spectrum. The military promoted the untrue but compelling idea that, rather than being defeated on the battlefield, Germany had been stabbed in the back by socialists and Jews.
The Nazi Party was founded in the wake of the war, and its ideology is often cited as the main factor explaining the Holocaust. From the beginning, the Nazis—not unlike other nation-states in Europe—dreamed of a world without Jews, whom they identified as "the embodiment of everything that was wrong with modernity". The Nazis defined the German nation as a racial community unbounded by Germany's physical borders and sought to purge it of racially foreign and socially deficient elements. The Nazi Party and its leader, Adolf Hitler, were also obsessed with reversing Germany's territorial losses and acquiring additional Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe for colonization. These ideas appealed to many Germans. The Nazis promised to protect European civilization from the Soviet threat. Hitler believed that Jews controlled the Soviet Union, as well as the Western powers, and were plotting to destroy Germany.
Rise of Nazi Germany
Amidst a worldwide economic depression and political fragmentation, the Nazi Party rapidly increased its support, reaching a high of 37 percent in mid-1932 elections, by campaigning on issues such as anticommunism and economic recovery. Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933 in a backroom deal supported by right-wing politicians. Within months, all other political parties were banned, the regime seized control of the media, tens of thousands of political opponents—especially communists—were arrested, and a system of camps for extrajudicial imprisonment was set up. The Nazi regime cracked down on crime and social outsiders—such as Roma and Sinti, homosexual men, and those perceived as workshy—through a variety of measures, including imprisonment in concentration camps. The Nazis forcibly sterilized 400,000 people and subjected others to forced abortions for real or supposed hereditary illnesses.
Although the Nazis sought to control every aspect of public and private life, Nazi repression was directed almost entirely against groups perceived as outside the national community. Most Germans had little to fear provided they did not oppose the new regime. The new regime built popular support through economic growth, which partly occurred through state-led measures such as rearmament. The annexations of Austria (1938), Sudetenland (1938), and Bohemia and Moravia (1939) also increased the Nazis' popular support. Germans were inundated with propaganda both against Jews and other groups targeted by the Nazis.
Persecution of Jews
Main article: The Holocaust in Germany Further information: Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi GermanyThe roughly 500,000 German Jews made up less than 1 percent of the country's population in 1933. They were wealthier on average than other Germans and largely assimilated, although a minority were recent immigrants from eastern Europe. Various German government agencies, Nazi Party organizations, and local authorities instituted about 1,500 anti-Jewish laws. In 1933, Jews were banned or restricted from several professions and the civil service. After hounding the German Jews out of public life by the end of 1934, the regime passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. The laws reserved full citizenship rights for those of "German or related blood", restricted Jews' economic activity, and criminalized new marriages and sexual relationships between Jews and non-Jewish Germans. Jews were defined as those with three or four Jewish grandparents; many of those with partial Jewish descent were classified as Mischlinge, with varying rights. The regime also sought to segregate Jews with a view to their ultimate disappearance from the country. Jewish students were gradually forced out of the school system. Some municipalities enacted restrictions governing where Jews were allowed to live or conduct business. In 1938 and 1939, Jews were barred from additional occupations, and their businesses were expropriated to force them out of the economy.
Anti-Jewish violence, largely locally organized by members of Nazi Party institutions, took primarily non-lethal forms from 1933 to 1939. Jewish stores, especially in rural areas, were often boycotted or vandalized. As a result of local and popular pressure, many small towns became entirely free of Jews and as many as a third of Jewish businesses may have been forced to close. Anti-Jewish violence was even worse in areas annexed by Nazi Germany. On 9–10 November 1938, the Nazis organized Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a nationwide pogrom. Over 7,500 Jewish shops (out of 9,000) were looted, more than 1,000 synagogues were damaged or destroyed, at least 90 Jews were murdered, and as many as 30,000 Jewish men were arrested, although many were released within weeks. German Jews were levied a special tax that raised more than 1 billion Reichsmarks (RM).
The Nazi government wanted to force all Jews to leave Germany. By the end of 1939, most Jews who could emigrate had already done so; those who remained behind were disproportionately elderly, poor, or female and could not obtain a visa. The plurality, around 110,000, left for the United States, while smaller numbers emigrated to South America, Shanghai, Mandatory Palestine, and South Africa. Germany collected emigration taxes of nearly 1 billion RM, mostly from Jews. The policy of forced emigration continued into 1940.
Besides Germany, a significant number of other European countries abandoned democracy for some kind of authoritarian or fascist rule. Many countries, including Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, passed antisemitic legislation in the 1930s and 1940s. In October 1938, Germany deported many Polish Jews in response to a Polish law that enabled the revocation of citizenship for Polish Jews living abroad.
Start of World War II
The German Wehrmacht (armed forces) invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, triggering declarations of war from the United Kingdom and France. During the five weeks of fighting, as many as 16,000 civilians, hostages, and prisoners of war may have been shot by the German invaders; there was also a great deal of looting. Special units known as Einsatzgruppen followed the army to eliminate any possible resistance. Around 50,000 Polish and Polish Jewish leaders and intellectuals were arrested or executed. The Auschwitz concentration camp was established to hold those members of the Polish intelligentsia not killed in the purges. Around 400,000 Poles were expelled from the Wartheland in western Poland to the General Governorate occupation zone from 1939 to 1941, and the area was resettled by ethnic Germans from eastern Europe.
The rest of Poland was occupied by the Soviet Union, which invaded Poland from the east on 17 September pursuant to the German–Soviet pact. The Soviet Union deported hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens to the Soviet interior, including as many as 260,000 Jews who largely survived the war. Although most Jews were not communists, some accepted positions in the Soviet administration, contributing to a pre-existing perception among many non-Jews that Soviet rule was a Jewish conspiracy. In 1940, Germany invaded much of western Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, and Denmark and Norway. In 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. Some of these new holdings were fully or partially annexed into Germany while others were placed under civilian or military rule.
The war provided cover for "Aktion T4", the murder of around 70,000 institutionalized Germans with mental or physical disabilities at specialized killing centers using poison gas. The victims included all 4,000 to 5,000 institutionalized Jews. Despite efforts to maintain secrecy, knowledge of the killings leaked out and Hitler ordered a halt to the centralized killing program in August 1941. Decentralized killings via denial of medical care, starvation, and poisoning caused an additional 120,000 deaths by the end of the war. Many of the same personnel and technologies were later used for the mass murder of Jews.
Ghettoization and resettlement
Further information: The Holocaust in PolandGermany gained control of 1.7 million Jews in Poland. The Nazis tried to concentrate Jews in the Lublin District of the General Governorate. 45,000 Jews were deported by November and left to fend for themselves, causing many deaths. Deportations stopped in early 1940 due to the opposition of Hans Frank, the leader of the General Governorate, who did not want his fiefdom to become a dumping ground for unwanted Jews. After the conquest of France, the Nazis considered deporting Jews to French Madagascar, but this proved impossible. The Nazis planned that harsh conditions in these areas would kill many Jews. In September 1939, around 7,000 Jews were killed, alongside thousands of Poles, however, they were not systematically targeted as they would be later, and open mass killings would subside until June of 1941.
During the invasion, synagogues were burned and thousands of Jews fled or were expelled into the Soviet occupation zone. Various anti-Jewish regulations were soon issued. In October 1939, adult Jews in the General Governorate were required to perform forced labor. In November 1939 they were ordered to wear white armbands. Laws decreed the seizure of most Jewish property and the takeover of Jewish-owned businesses. When Jews were forced into ghettos, they lost their homes and belongings.
The first Nazi ghettos were established in the Wartheland and General Governorate in 1939 and 1940 on the initiative of local German administrators. The largest ghettos, such as Warsaw and Łódź, were established in existing residential neighborhoods and closed by fences or walls. In many smaller ghettos, Jews were forced into poor neighborhoods but with no fence. Forced labor programs provided subsistence to many ghetto inhabitants, and in some cases protected them from deportation. Workshops and factories were operated inside some ghettos, while in other cases Jews left the ghetto to work outside it. Because the ghettos were not segregated by sex some family life continued. A Jewish community leadership (Judenrat) exercised some authority and tried to sustain the Jewish community while following German demands. As a survival strategy, many tried to make the ghettos useful to the occupiers as a labor reserve. Jews in western Europe were not forced into ghettos but faced discriminatory laws and confiscation of property.
Rape and sexual exploitation of Jewish and non-Jewish women in eastern Europe was common.
Invasion of the Soviet Union
Germany and its allies Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Italy invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. Although the war was launched more for strategic than ideological reasons, what Hitler saw as an apocalyptic battle against the forces of Jewish Bolshevism was to be carried out as a war of extermination with complete disregard for the laws and customs of war. A quick victory was expected and was planned to be followed by a massive demographic engineering project to remove 31 million people and replace them with German settlers. To increase the speed of conquest the Germans planned to feed their army by looting, exporting additional food to Germany, and to terrorize the local inhabitants with preventative killings. The Germans foresaw that the invasion would cause a food shortfall and planned the mass starvation of Soviet cities and some rural areas. Although the starvation policy was less successful than planners hoped, the residents of some cities, particularly in Ukraine, and besieged Leningrad, as well as the Jewish ghettos, endured human-made famine, during which millions of people died of starvation.
By mid-June 1941, about 30,000 Jews had died, 20,000 of whom had starved to death in the ghettos.
Soviet prisoners of war in the custody of the German Army were intended to die in large numbers. Sixty percent—3.3 million people—died, primarily of starvation, making them the second largest group of victims of Nazi mass killing after European Jews. Jewish prisoners of war and commissars were systematically executed. About a million civilians were killed by the Nazis during anti-partisan warfare, including more than 300,000 in Belarus. From 1942 onwards, the Germans and their allies targeted villages suspected of supporting the partisans, burning them and killing or expelling their inhabitants. During these operations, nearby small ghettos were liquidated and their inhabitants shot. By 1943, anti-partisan operations aimed for the depopulation of large areas of Belarus. Jews and those unfit for work were typically shot on the spot with others deported. Although most of those killed were not Jews, anti-partisan warfare often led to the deaths of Jews.
Mass shootings of Jews
Further information: The Holocaust in the Soviet Union and The Holocaust in RomaniaThe systematic murder of Jews began in the Soviet Union in 1941. During the invasion, many Jews were conscripted into the Red Army. Out of 10 or 15 million Soviet civilians who fled eastwards to the Soviet interior, 1.6 million were Jews. Local inhabitants killed as many as 50,000 Jews in pogroms in Latvia, Lithuania, eastern Poland, Ukraine, and the Romanian borderlands. Although German forces tried to incite pogroms, their role in causing violence is controversial. Romanian soldiers killed tens of thousands of Jews from Odessa by April 1942.
Prior to the invasion, the Einsatzgruppen were reorganized in preparation for mass killings and instructed to shoot Soviet officials and Jewish state and party employees. The shootings were justified on the basis of Jews' supposed central role in supporting the communist system, but it was not initially envisioned to kill all Soviet Jews. The occupiers relied on locals to identify Jews to be targeted. The first German mass killings targeted adult male Jews who had worked as civil servants or in jobs requiring education. Tens of thousands were shot by the end of July. The vast majority of civilian victims were Jews. In July and August Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS (Schutzstaffel), made several visits to the death squads' zones of operation, relaying orders to kill more Jews. At this time, the killers began to murder Jewish women and children too. Executions peaked at 40,000 a month in Lithuania in August and September and in October and November reached their height in Belarus.
The executions often took place a few kilometers from a town. Victims were rounded up and marched to the execution site, forced to undress, and shot into previously dug pits. The favored technique was a shot in the back of the neck with a single bullet. In the chaos, many victims were not killed by the gunfire but instead buried alive. Typically, the pits would be guarded after the execution but sometimes a few victims managed to escape afterwards. Executions were public spectacles and the victims' property was looted both by the occupiers and local inhabitants. Around 200 ghettos were established in the occupied Soviet Union, with many existing only briefly before their inhabitants were executed. A few large ghettos such as Vilna, Kovno, Riga, Białystok, and Lwów lasted into 1943 because they became centers of production.
Victims of mass shootings included Jews deported from elsewhere. Besides Germany, Romania killed the largest number of Jews. Romania deported about 154,000–170,000 Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina to ghettos in Transnistria from 1941 to 1943. Jews from Transnistria were also imprisoned in these ghettos, where the total death toll may have reached 160,000. Hungary expelled thousands of Carpathian Ruthenian and foreign Jews in 1941, who were shortly thereafter shot in Ukraine. At the beginning of September, all German Jews were required to wear a yellow star, and in October, Hitler decided to deport them to the east and ban emigration. Between mid-October and the end of 1941, 42,000 Jews from Germany and its annexed territories and 5,000 Romani people from Austria were deported to Łódź, Kovno, Riga, and Minsk. In late November, 5,000 German Jews were shot outside of Kovno and another 1,000 near Riga, but Himmler ordered an end to such massacres and some in the senior Nazi leadership voiced doubts about killing German Jews. Executions of German Jews in the Baltics resumed in early 1942.
After the expansion of killings to target the entire Soviet Jewish population, the 3,000 men of the Einsatzgruppen proved insufficient and Himmler mobilized 21 battalions of Order Police to assist them. In addition, Wehrmacht soldiers, Waffen-SS brigades, and local auxiliaries shot many Jews. By the end of 1941, more than 80 percent of the Jews in central Ukraine, eastern Belarus, Russia, Latvia, and Lithuania had been shot, but less than 25 percent of those living farther west where 900,000 remained alive. By the end of the war, around 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot and as many as 225,000 Roma. The murderers found the executions distressing and logistically inconvenient, which influenced the decision to switch to other methods of killing.
Systematic deportations across Europe
Most historians agree that Hitler issued an explicit order to kill all Jews across Europe, but there is disagreement as to when. Some historians cite inflammatory statements by Hitler and other Nazi leaders as well as the concurrent mass shootings of Serbian Jews, plans for extermination camps in Poland, and the beginning of the deportation of German Jews as indicative of the final decision having been made before December 1941. Others argue that these policies were initiatives by local leaders and that the final decision was made later. On 5 December 1941, the Soviet Union launched its first major counteroffensive. On 11 December, Hitler declared war on the United States after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The next day, he told leading Nazi party officials, referring to his 1939 prophecy, "The world war is here; the annihilation of the Jews must be the necessary consequence."
It took the Nazis several months after this to organize a continent-wide genocide. Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), convened the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. This high-level meeting was intended to coordinate anti-Jewish policy. The majority of Holocaust killings were carried out in 1942, with it being the peak of the genocide, as over 3 million Jews were murdered, with 20 or 25 percent of Holocaust victims dying before early 1942 and the same number surviving by the end of the year.
Extermination camps
Main article: Extermination campGas vans developed from those used to kill mental patients since 1939 were assigned to the Einsatzgruppen and first used in November 1941; victims were forced into the van and killed with engine exhaust. The first extermination camp was Chełmno in the Wartheland, established on the initiative of the local civil administrator Arthur Greiser with Himmler's approval; it began operations in December 1941 using gas vans. In October 1941, Higher SS and Police Leader of Lublin Odilo Globocnik began work planning Belzec—the first purpose-built extermination camp to feature stationary gas chambers using carbon monoxide based on the previous Aktion T4 programme—amid increasing talk among German administrators in Poland of large-scale murder of Jews in the General Governorate. In late 1941 in East Upper Silesia, Jews in forced-labor camps operated by the Schmelt Organization deemed "unfit for work" began to be sent in groups to Auschwitz where they were murdered. In early 1942, Zyklon B became the preferred killing method in extermination camps after gassing experiments were conducted on Russian POWs in late August 1941.
The camps were located on rail lines to make it easier to transport Jews to their deaths, but in remote places to avoid notice. The stench caused by mass killing operations was noticeable to anyone nearby. Except in the deportations from western and central Europe, people were typically deported to the camps in overcrowded cattle cars. As many as 150 people were forced into a single boxcar. Many died en route, partly because of the low priority accorded to these transports. Shortage of rail transport sometimes led to postponement or cancellation of deportations. Upon arrival, the victims were robbed of their remaining possessions, forced to undress, had their hair cut, and were chased into the gas chamber. Death from the gas was agonizing and could take as long as 30 minutes. The gas chambers were primitive and sometimes malfunctioned. Some prisoners were shot because the gas chambers were not functioning. At other extermination camps, nearly everyone on a transport was killed on arrival, but at Auschwitz around 20–25 percent were separated out for labor, although many of these prisoners died later on through starvation, mass shooting, torture, and medical experiments.
Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka reported a combined revenue of RM 178.7 million from belongings stolen from their victims, far exceeding costs. Combined, the camps required the labor of less than 3,000 Jewish prisoners, 1,000 Trawniki men (largely Ukrainian auxiliaries), and very few German guards. About half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust died by poison gas. Thousands of Romani people were also murdered in the extermination camps. Prisoner uprisings at Treblinka and Sobibor meant that these camps were shut down earlier than envisioned.
Camp | Location | Number of Jews killed | Killing technology | Planning began | Mass gassing duration |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chełmno | Wartheland | 150,000 | Gas vans | July 1941 | 8 December 1941 – April 1943 and April–July 1944 |
Belzec | Lublin District | 440,823–596,200 | Stationary gas chamber, engine exhaust | October 1941 | 17 March 1942 – December 1942 |
Sobibor | Lublin District | 170,618–238,900 | Stationary gas chamber, engine exhaust | Late 1941 or March 1942 | May 1942 – October 1942 |
Treblinka | Warsaw District | 780,863–951,800 | Stationary gas chamber, engine exhaust | April 1942 | 23 July 1942 – October 1943 |
Auschwitz II–Birkenau | East Upper Silesia | 900,000–1,000,000 | Stationary gas chamber, hydrogen cyanide | September 1941 (built as POW camp) |
February 1942 – October 1944 |
Liquidation of the ghettos in Poland
Further information: Operation ReinhardPlans to kill most of the Jews in the General Governorate were affected by various goals of the SS, military, and civil administration to reduce the amount of food consumed by Jews, enable a slight increase in rations to non-Jewish Poles, and combat the black market. In March 1942, killings began in Belzec, targeting Jews from Lublin who were not capable of work. This action reportedly reduced the black market and was deemed a success to be replicated elsewhere. By mid-1942, Nazi leaders decided to allow only 300,000 Jews to survive in the General Governorate by the end of the year for forced labor; for the most part, only those working in armaments production were spared. The majority of ghettos were liquidated in mass executions nearby, especially if they were not near a train station. Larger ghettos were more commonly liquidated during multiple deportations to extermination camps. During this campaign, 1.5 million Polish Jews were murdered in the largest killing operation of the Holocaust.
In order to reduce resistance, the ghetto would be raided without warning, usually in the early morning, and the extent of the operation would be concealed as long as possible. Trawniki men would cordon off the ghetto while the Order Police and Security Police carried out the action. In addition to local non-Jewish collaborators, the Jewish councils and Jewish ghetto police were often ordered to assist with liquidation actions, although these Jews were in most cases murdered later. Chaotic, capriciously executed selections determined who would be loaded onto the trains. Many Jews were shot during the action, often leaving ghettos strewn with corpses. Jewish forced laborers had to clean it up and collect any valuables from the victims.
The Warsaw Ghetto was cleared between 22 July and 12 September. Of the original population of 350,000 Jews, 250,000 were killed at Treblinka, 11,000 were deported to labor camps, 10,000 were shot in the ghetto, 35,000 were allowed to remain in the ghetto after a final selection, and around 20,000 or 25,000 managed to hide in the ghetto. Misdirection efforts convinced many Jews that they could avoid deportation until it was too late. During a six-week period beginning in August, 300,000 Jews from the Radom District were sent to Treblinka.
At the same time as the mass killing of Jews in the General Governorate, Jews who were in ghettos to the west and east were targeted. Tens of thousands of Jews were deported from ghettos in the Warthegau and East Upper Silesia to Chełmno and Auschwitz. 300,000 Jews—largely skilled laborers—were shot in Volhynia, Podolia, and southwestern Belarus. Deportations and mass executions in the Bialystok District and Galicia killed many Jews. Although there was practically no resistance in the General Governorate in 1942, some Soviet Jews improvised weapons, attacked those attempting to liquidate the ghetto, and set it on fire. These ghetto uprisings were only undertaken when the inhabitants began to believe that their death was certain. In 1943, larger uprisings in Warsaw, Białystok, and Glubokoje necessitated the use of heavy weapons. The uprising in Warsaw prompted the Nazi leadership to liquidate additional ghettos and labor camps in German-occupied Poland with their inhabitants massacred, such as the Wola Massacre, or deported to extermination camps for fear of additional Jewish resistance developing. Nevertheless, in early 1944, more than 70,000 Jews were performing forced labor in the General Governorate.
Deportations from elsewhere
Unlike the killing areas in the east, the deportation from elsewhere in Europe was centrally organized from Berlin, although it depended on the outcome of negotiations with allied governments and popular responses to deportation. Beginning in late 1941, local administrators responded to the deportation of Jews to their area by massacring local Jews in order to free up space in ghettos for the deportees. If the deported Jews did not die of harsh conditions, they were killed later in extermination camps. Jews deported to Auschwitz were initially entered into the camp; the practice of conducting selections and murdering many prisoners upon arrival began in July 1942. In May and June, German and Slovak Jews deported to Lublin began to be sent directly to extermination camps.
In Western Europe, almost all Jewish deaths occurred after deportation. The occupiers often relied on local policemen to arrest Jews, limiting the number who were deported. In 1942, nearly 100,000 Jews were deported from Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Only 25 percent of the Jews in France were killed; most of them were either non-citizens or recent immigrants. Si Kaddour Benghabrit and Abdelkader Mesli saved hundreds of Jews by hiding them in the basements of the Grand Mosque of Paris and other resistance efforts in France. The death rate in the Netherlands was higher than neighboring countries, which scholars have attributed to difficulty in hiding or increased collaboration of the Dutch police.
The German government sought the deportation of Jews from allied countries. The first to hand over its Jewish population was Slovakia, which arrested and deported about 58,000 Jews to Poland from March to October 1942. The Independent State of Croatia had already shot or killed in concentration camps the majority of its Jewish population (along with a larger number of Serbs), and later deported several thousand Jews in 1942 and 1943. Bulgaria deported 11,000 Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Greece and Yugoslavia, who were murdered at Treblinka, but declined to allow the deportation of Jews from its prewar territory. Romania and Hungary did not send any Jews, which were the largest surviving populations after 1942. Prior to the German occupation of Italy in September 1943, there were no serious attempt to deport Italian Jews, and Italy refused to allow the deportation of Jews in many Italian-occupied areas. Nazi Germany did not attempt the destruction of the Finnish Jews and the North African Jews living under French or Italian rule.
Perpetrators and beneficiaries
Further information: Responsibility for the HolocaustAn estimated 200,000 to 250,000 Germans were directly involved in killing Jews, and if one includes all those involved in the organization of extermination, the number rises to 500,000. Genocide required the active and tacit consent of millions of Germans and non-Germans. The motivation of Holocaust perpetrators varied and has led to historiographical debate. Studies of the SS officials who organized the Holocaust have found that most had strong ideological commitment to Nazism. In addition to ideological factors, many perpetrators were motivated by the prospect of material gain and social advancement. German SS, police, and regular army units rarely had trouble finding enough men to shoot Jewish civilians, even though punishment for refusal was absent or light.
Non-German perpetrators and collaborators included Dutch, French, and Polish policemen, Romanian soldiers, foreign SS and police auxiliaries, Ukrainian Insurgent Army partisans, and some civilians. Some were coerced into committing violence against Jews, but others killed for entertainment, material rewards, the possibility of better treatment from the occupiers, or ideological motivations such as nationalism and anti-communism. According to historian Christian Gerlach, non-Germans "not under German command" caused 5 to 6 percent of the Jewish deaths, and their involvement was crucial in other ways.
Millions of Germans and others benefited from the genocide. Corruption was rampant in the SS despite the proceeds of the Holocaust being designated as state property. Different German state agencies vied to receive property stolen from Jews murdered at the death camps. Many workers were able to obtain better jobs vacated by murdered Jews. Businessmen benefitted from eliminating their Jewish competitors or taking over Jewish-owned businesses. Others took over housing and possessions that had belonged to Jews. Some Poles living near the extermination camps later dug up human remains in search of valuables. The property of deported Jews was also appropriated by Germany's allies and collaborating governments. Even puppet states such as Vichy France and Norway were able to successfully lay claim to Jewish property. In the decades after the war, Swiss banks became notorious for harboring gold deposited by Nazis who had stolen it during the Holocaust, as well as profiting from unclaimed deposits made by Holocaust victims.
Forced labor
Further information: Forced labor in Nazi GermanyBeginning in 1938—especially in Germany and its annexed territories—many Jews were drafted into forced-labor camps and segregated work details. These camps were often of a temporary nature and typically overseen by civilian authorities. Initially, mortality did not increase dramatically. After mid-1941, conditions for Jewish forced laborers drastically worsened and death rates increased; even private companies deliberately subjected workers to murderous conditions. Beginning in 1941 and increasingly as time went on, Jews capable of employment were separated from others—who were usually killed. They were typically employed in non-skilled jobs and could be replaced easily if non-Jewish workers were available, but those in skilled positions had a higher chance of survival. Although conditions varied widely between camps, Jewish forced laborers were typically treated worse than non-Jewish prisoners and suffered much higher mortality rates.
In mid-1943, Himmler sought to bring surviving Jewish forced laborers under the control of the SS in the concentration camp system. Some of the forced-labor camps for Jews and some ghettos, such as Kovno, were designated concentration camps, while others were dissolved and surviving prisoners sent to a concentration camp. Despite many deaths, as many as 200,000 Jews survived the war inside the concentration camps. Although most Holocaust victims were never imprisoned in a concentration camp, the image of these camps is a popular symbol of the Holocaust.
Including the Soviet prisoners of war, 13 million people were brought to Germany for forced labor. The largest nationalities were Soviet and Polish and they were the worst-treated groups except for Roma and Jews. Soviet and Polish forced laborers endured inadequate food and medical treatment, long hours, and abuse by employers. Hundreds of thousands died. Many others were forced to work for the occupiers without leaving their country of residence. Some of Germany's allies, including Slovakia and Hungary, agreed to deport Jews to protect non-Jews from German demands for forced labor. East European women were also kidnapped, via lapanka, to serve as sex slaves of German soldiers in military and camp brothels despite the prohibition of relationships, including fraternization, between German and foreign workers, which imposed the penalty of imprisonment and death.
Escape and hiding
Further information: Rescue of Jews during the HolocaustGerlach estimates that 200,000 Jews survived in hiding across Europe. Knowledge of German intentions was essential to take action, but many struggled to believe the news. Many attempted to jump from trains or flee ghettos and camps, but successfully escaping and living in hiding was extremely difficult and often unsuccessful.
The support, or at least absence of active opposition, of the local population was essential but often lacking in Eastern Europe. Those in hiding depended on the assistance of non-Jews. Having money, social connections with non-Jews, a non-Jewish appearance, perfect command of the local language, determination, and luck played a major role in determining survival. Jews in hiding were hunted down with the assistance of local collaborators and rewards offered for their denunciation. The death penalty was sometimes enforced on people hiding them, especially in eastern Europe. Rescuers' motivations varied on a spectrum from altruism to expecting sex or material gain; it was not uncommon for helpers to betray or murder Jews if their money ran out. Gerlach argues that hundreds of thousands of Jews may have died because of rumors or denunciations, and many others never attempted to escape because of a belief it was hopeless.
Jews participated in resistance movements in most European countries, and often were overrepresented. Jews were not always welcome, particularly in nationalist resistance groups—some of which killed Jews. Particularly in Belarus, with its favorable geography of dense forests, many Jews joined the Soviet partisans—an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 across the Soviet Union. An additional 10,000 to 13,000 Jewish non-combatants lived in family camps in Eastern European forests, of which the most well known was the Bielski partisans.
International reactions
Main article: International response to the HolocaustThe Nazi leaders knew that their actions would bring international condemnation. On 26 June 1942, BBC services in all languages publicized a report by the Jewish Social-Democratic Bund and other resistance groups and transmitted by the Polish government-in-exile, documenting the killing of 700,000 Jews in Poland. In December 1942, the Allies, then known as the United Nations, adopted a joint declaration condemning the systematic murder of Jews. Most neutral countries in Europe maintained a pro-German foreign policy during the war. Nevertheless, some Jews were able to escape to neutral countries, whose policies ranged from rescue to non-action.
During the war the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) raised $70 million and in the years after the war it raised $300 million. This money was spent aiding emigrants and providing direct relief in the form of parcels and other assistance to Jews living under German occupation, and after the war to Holocaust survivors. The United States banned sending relief into German-occupied Europe after entering the war, but the JDC continued to do so. From 1939 to 1944, 81,000 European Jews emigrated with the JDC's assistance.
Throughout the war, no detailed photo intelligence study was carried out on any of the major concentration or extermination camps. Appeals from Jewish representatives to the American and British governments to bomb rail lines leading to the camps or crematoriums was rejected, with little to no input from the War Departments of the United States or United Kingdom. However, debate exists on whether a military response would have impacted on the Holocaust.
Second half of the war
Continuing killings
After German military defeats in 1943, it became increasingly evident that Germany would lose the war. In early 1943, 45,000 Jews were deported from German-occupied northern Greece, primarily Salonica, to Auschwitz, where nearly all were killed. After Italy switched sides in late 1943, Germany deported several thousand Jews from Italy and the former Italian occupation zones of France, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece, with limited success. Attempts to continue deportations in Western Europe after 1942 often failed because of Jews going into hiding and the increasing recalcitrance of local authorities. Most Danish Jews escaped to Sweden with the help of the Danish resistance in the face of a half-hearted German deportation effort in late 1943. Additional killings in 1943 and 1944 eliminated all remaining ghettos and most surviving Jews in Eastern Europe. Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were shut down and destroyed.
The largest murder action after 1942 was that against the Hungarian Jews. After the German invasion of Hungary in 1944, the Hungarian government cooperated closely in the deportation of 437,000 Jews in eight weeks, mostly to Auschwitz. The expropriation of Jewish property was useful to achieve Hungarian economic goals and sending the Jews as forced laborers avoided the need to send non-Jewish Hungarians. Those who survived the selection were forced to provide construction and manufacturing labor as part of a last-ditch effort to increase the production of fighter aircraft. Although the Nazis' goal of eliminating any Jewish population from Germany had largely been achieved in 1943, it was reversed in 1944 as a result of the importation of these Jews for labor.
Death marches and liberation
Following Allied advances, the SS deported concentration camp prisoners to camps in Germany and Austria, starting in mid-1944 from the Baltics. Weak and sick prisoners were often killed in the camp and others were forced to travel by rail or on foot, usually with no or inadequate food. Those who could not keep up were shot. The evacuations were ordered partly to retain the prisoners as forced labor and partly to avoid allowing any prisoners to fall into enemy hands. In October and November 1944, 90,000 Jews were deported from Budapest to the Austrian border. The transfer of prisoners from Auschwitz began in mid-1944, the gas chambers were shut down and destroyed after October, and in January most of the remaining 67,000 Auschwitz prisoners were sent on a death march westwards.
In January 1945, more than 700,000 people were imprisoned in the concentration camp system, of whom as many as a third died before the end of the war. At this time, most concentration camp prisoners were Soviet and Polish civilians, either arrested for real or supposed resistance or for attempting to escape forced labor. The death marches led to the breakdown of supplies for the camps that continued to exist, causing additional deaths. Although there was no systematic killing of Jews during the death marches, around 70,000 to 100,000 Jews died in the last months of the war. Many of the death march survivors ended up in other concentration camps that were liberated in 1945 during the Western Allied invasion of Germany. The liberators found piles of corpses that they had to bulldoze into mass graves. Some survivors were freed there and others had been liberated by the Red Army during its march westwards.
Death toll
Main article: Holocaust victimsAround six million Jews were killed. Of the six million victims, most of those killed were from Eastern Europe, and with half from Poland alone. Around 1.3 million Jews who had once lived under Nazi rule or in one of Germany's allies survived the war. One-third of the Jewish population worldwide, and two-thirds of European Jews, had been wiped out. Death rates varied widely due to a variety of factors and approached 100 percent in some areas. Some reasons why survival chances varied was the availability of emigration and protection from Germany's allies—which saved around 600,000 Jews. Jewish children and the elderly faced even lower survival rates than adults. It is considered to be the single largest genocide in human history.
The deadliest phase of the Holocaust was Operation Reinhard, which was marked by the introduction of extermination camps. Roughly two million Jews were killed from March 1942 to November 1943. Around 1.47 million Jews were murdered in just 100 days from late July to early November 1942, a rate approximately 83% higher than the commonly suggested figure for the Rwandan genocide. Between July to October 1942, two million Jews were murdered, including Operation Reinhard and other killings, with over three million Jews killed in 1942 alone, as stated by historian Christian Gerlach. On the other hand, historian Alex J. Kay states that over two million Jews were murdered from late July to mid-November, stating that "these three-and-a-half months were the most intense, the deadliest of the entire Holocaust". It was the fastest rate of genocidal killing in history.
On 3 November 1943, around 18,400 Jews were murdered at Majdanek over the course of nine hours, in what was the largest number ever killed in a death camp on a single day. It was part of Operation Harvest Festival, the murder of some 43,000 Jews, the single largest massacre of Jews by German forces, occurring from 3 to 4 November 1943.
Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and POWs; estimated by Gerlach at 6 to 8 million, at more than 10 million by Gilbert and at over 11 million by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In some countries, such as Hungary, Jews were a majority of civilian deaths; in Poland, they were either a majority or about half. In other countries such as the Soviet Union, France, Greece, and Yugoslavia, non-Jewish civilian losses outnumbered Jewish deaths.
Aftermath and legacy
Main article: Aftermath of the HolocaustReturn home and emigration
After liberation, many Jews attempted to return home. Limited success in finding relatives, the refusal of many non-Jews to return property, and violent attacks such as the Kielce pogrom convinced many survivors to leave eastern Europe. Antisemitism was reported to increase in several countries after the war, in part due to conflicts over property restitution. When the war ended, there were less than 28,000 German Jews and 60,000 non-German Jews in Germany. By 1947, the number of Jews in Germany had increased to 250,000 owing to emigration from eastern Europe allowed by the communist authorities; Jews made up around 25 percent of the population of displaced persons camps. Although many survivors were in poor health, they attempted to organize self-government in these camps, including education and rehabilitation efforts. Due to the reluctance of other countries to allow their immigration, many survivors remained in Germany until the establishment of Israel in 1948. Others moved to the United States around 1950 due to loosened immigration restrictions.
Criminal trials
Further information: Category:Holocaust trialsMost Holocaust perpetrators were never put on trial for their crimes. During and after World War II, many European countries launched widespread purges of real and perceived collaborators that affected possibly as much as 2–3 percent of the population of Europe, although most of the resulting trials did not emphasize crimes against Jews. Nazi atrocities led to the United Nations' Genocide Convention in 1948, but it was not used in Holocaust trials due to the non-retroactivity of criminal laws.
In 1945 and 1946, the International Military Tribunal tried 23 Nazi leaders primarily for waging wars of aggression, which the prosecution argued was the root of Nazi criminality; nevertheless, the systematic murder of Jews came to take center stage. This trial and others held by the Allies in occupied Germany—the United States Army alone charged 1,676 defendants in 462 war crimes trials—were widely perceived as an unjust form of political revenge by the German public. West Germany later investigated 100,000 people and tried more than 6,000 defendants, mainly low-level perpetrators. The high-level organizer Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped and tried in Israel in 1961. Instead of convicting Eichmann on the basis of documentary evidence, Israeli prosecutors asked many Holocaust survivors to testify, a strategy that increased publicity but has proven controversial.
Reparations
Historians estimate that property losses to Jews of Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France, Poland, and Hungary amounted to around 10 billion in 1944 dollars, or $170 billion in 2023. This estimate does not include the value of labor extracted. Overall, the amount of Jewish property looted by the Nazis was about 10 percent of the total stolen from occupied countries. Efforts by survivors to receive reparations for their losses began immediately after World War II. There was an additional wave of restitution efforts in the 1990s connected to the fall of Communism in eastern Europe.
Between 1945 and 2018, Germany paid $86.8 billion in restitution and compensation to Holocaust survivors and heirs. In 1952, West Germany negotiated an agreement to pay DM 3 billion (around $714 million) to Israel and DM 450 million (around $107 million) to the Claims Conference. Germany paid pensions and other reparations for harm done to some Holocaust survivors. Other countries have paid restitution for assets stolen from Jews from these countries. Most Western European countries restored some property to Jews after the war, while communist countries nationalized many formerly Jewish assets, meaning that the overall amount restored to Jews has been lower in those countries. Poland is the only member of the European Union that never passed any restitution legislation. Many restitution programs fell short of restoration of prewar assets, and in particular, large amounts of immovable property was never returned to survivors or their heirs.
Remembrance and historiography
In the decades after the war, Holocaust memory was largely confined to the survivors and their communities. The popularity of Holocaust memory peaked in the 1990s after the fall of Communism, and became central to Western historical consciousness as a symbol of the ultimate human evil. Genocide scholar A. Dirk Moses asserted that "the Holocaust has gradually supplanted genocide as modernity's icon of evil", while political scientist Scott Straus declared that "the Holocaust, perhaps more than any other event in the past century, represents the pinnacle of evil". The Holocaust has been described as "perhaps the most savage and significant single crime in recorded history" and that of the most barbaric events in the twentieth century "the Holocaust probably ranks as the very worst". Renowned German historian Wolfgang Benz described it as the "singularly most monstrous crime committed in the history of mankind". Holocaust education, in which its advocates argue promotes citizenship while reducing prejudice generally, became widespread at the same time. International Holocaust Remembrance Day is commemorated each year on 27 January, while some other countries have set a different memorial day. It has been commemorated in memorials, museums, and speeches, as well as works of culture such as novels, poems, films, and plays. Denial of the Holocaust is a criminal offense in some countries; while denials of the Holocaust have been promoted by various Middle Eastern governments, figures and media.
Although many are convinced that there are lessons or some kind of redemptive meaning to be drawn from the Holocaust, whether this is the case and what these lessons are is disputed. Communist states marginalized the topic of antisemitic persecution while eliding their nationals' collaboration with Nazism, a tendency that continued into the post-communist era. In West Germany, a self-critical memory of the Holocaust developed in the 1970s and 1980s, and spread to some other western European countries. The national memories of the Holocaust were extended to the European Union as a whole, in which Holocaust memory has provided both shared history and an emotional rationale for committing to human rights. Participation in this memory is required of countries seeking entry. In contrast to Europe, in the United States the memory of the Holocaust tends to be more abstract and universalized. During South African apartheid, the Holocaust was evoked widely and divergently, by Jews and non-Jews alike. Whether Holocaust memory actually promotes human rights is disputed. In Israel, the memory of the Holocaust has been used at times to justify the use of force and violation of international human rights norms, in particular as part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
The Holocaust is the most well-known genocide in history, and is considered to be the single most infamous case of genocide in European history as well. It is the single most documented and studied genocide in history. It is also seen as the archetype of genocide and the benchmark in genocide studies.
The scholarly literature on the Holocaust is massive, encompassing thousands of books. The tendency to see the Holocaust as a unique or incomprehensible event continues to be popular among the broader public after being largely rejected by historians. Scholar Omer Bartov points out how the Holocaust was unique in that it was "the industrial killing of millions of human beings in factories of death, ordered by a modern state, organized by a conscientious bureaucracy, and supported by a law-abiding, patriotic "civilized" society." Another debate concerns whether the Holocaust emerged from Western civilization or was an aberration of it.
The Jewish population still remains below pre-Holocaust levels. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel, the world Jewish population reached 15.2 million by the end of 2020 – approximately 1.4 million less than on the eve of the Holocaust in 1939, when the number was 16.6 million.
Notes
- Bartov 2023a, pp. 18–19, "Much of this debate curiously boils down to a very specific historical question, namely, did the Nazis target the Jews for genocide in a manner that was essentially different from their treatment of any other group under their rule? There can be little doubt that the Jews played a singular role in the Nazi imaginaire and that German Jewish policies distinguished them within the Nazi universe of murder and fantasy; but other groups clearly have been similarly targeted in other genocides 'the extent of the 'final solution' was ... shaped by an antisemitism that was colored by a different element over and above the racism and ethno-nationalism that explains the murder of other groups by Nazi Germany—that element being the view of 'the Jews' as an implacable, collective world enemy.' To be sure, this makes the Holocaust unique only within the context of the Nazi empire ..."; Smith 2023, p. 36, "The Holocaust is particular to Jews and yet has had increasing relevance for those who do not identify as Jewish. ... All Jews everywhere were to be murdered because of their racial heritage was 'put into state policy' on January 20, 1942 at the Wannsee conference (Bazyler 2017, 29). Witness to the genocide of the Jews is a uniquely Jewish experience, because only Jews were targeted by that policy, even if other groups were targeted for genocide under other policies. The Nazi regime committed genocide against the Roma and Sinti, governed by separate policies. They also committed war crimes against Soviet Prisoners of War under other policies. So too the mass murder of disabled and the mentally ill had their own policies. The Nazis committed multiple genocides and crimes against humanity, at the same time, sometimes in the same place, governed by different laws, policies, and practices. It is not correct to say that there were many victim types during 'the Holocaust,' if by 'the Holocaust' we mean the genocide of the Jews."; Stone 2023, Introduction: What is the Holocaust?, "This is why the focus here is on the Jews. Roma, the disabled, Soviet POWs, homosexuals and other groups were victims of the Nazis, and it is entirely legitimate to study their fate alongside one another. But using the term 'Holocaust' to encompass all of these groups with the aim of being inclusive and not prioritizing one group's suffering, actually does a disservice to groups other than Jews. For the Nazis persecuted these groups for different reasons, reasons we fail to appreciate if we collapse them all together."; Engel 2021, pp. 3 ("This book is about an encounter between two sets of human beings: on one hand, the people who acted on behalf of the German state, its agencies, or its almost 66 million citizens between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945; on the other, the more than 9 million Jews ...") and 5 ("Those discoveries about the encounter between the Third Reich and the Jews made that encounter stand out in the minds of many from other instances of Nazi persecution and encouraged observers to assign it its own special name."); Jackson 2021, pp. 199–200, "The Nazis killed some people almost exclusively due to their supposed genetic inferiority (the mentally and physically handicapped, Slavs, Roma); they killed others almost exclusively due to their perceived cultural decadence (communists, democrats, modernist authors and artists); but only the Jews were indicted on both grounds simultaneously and with equal vigor. ... This is not to say that Roma, communists, and others were not hated and murdered by the Nazis, but it is to note that the Jews were unique in being despised and assaulted in every dimension of their identity, corporeal and psychic."; Sahlstrom 2021, p. 291, "the established understanding of the Holocaust today as the genocide of six million Jews"; Bartrop 2019, p. 50, "Given this, it must always be remembered that the Holocaust was a premeditated action by the Nazis to permanently eradicate a Jewish presence in Europe. Others—the disabled, Roma, Poles and other Slavs, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, dissenting clergy, communists, socialists, "asocials," and political opponents of all sorts—were also persecuted and in many cases murdered in huge numbers; however, it was the campaign against the Jews that was the ideological "ground zero" for Nazi racial ideology. Others besides Jews were murdered, often on a genocidal scale, and should be remembered and acknowledged: but it was only the Jews who were all to be killed as part of a calculated policy of genocide."; Beorn 2018, p. 4, "I will use the term 'Holocaust' to refer mainly to the Nazi attempt to murder the Jews of Europe; however, I will also use the more inclusive term 'Nazi genocidal project' to capture the larger murderous vision of which the Jews were such a large part. This includes Sinti/Roma (gypsies), the handicapped, political 'enemies,' Soviet prisoners of war, and—particularly in the East—entire ethnic groups such as the Slavs. One cannot understand the Holocaust in Eastern Europe without placing it in the context of this larger Nazi genocidal project that foresaw murder and demographic engineering on a colossal scale."; Cesarani 2016, p. xxxix, "This book deals with the fate of the Jews, not of 'other victims' of Nazi political repression and racial-biological policies. Several other groups endured social exclusion, incarceration in concentration camps, and mass murder. However, the rationale for the persecution of these groups differed radically from the intentions that underlay anti-Jewish policy. Even though homosexual men and women, Germans of African descent, and the severely mentally and physically disabled were all disparaged in Nazi racial thinking, and depicted as a threat to the strength and purity of the Volk, only the Jews were characterized as an implacable, powerful, global enemy that had to be fought at every turn and finally eliminated."; Hayes 2015, p. xiii, "This book also reflects another of its editor's convictions: the Holocaust was National Socialist Germany's assault on the Jews of Europe. Nazism attacked many groups, but none for the same reason that it attacked the Jews, none with the same urgency, and none to the same extent."; Hayes & Roth 2010, p. 2, "Other groups—for example, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, and Slavs—were swept up in the maelstrom of the Holocaust, but not for the same reasons as Jews and not with the same consequences ... In none of these cases, however, was the target group considered dangerous or coherent enough to warrant complete or immediate extirpation. This circumstance constitutes a significant difference from policies pursued toward the Jews, a difference that helps to clarify and define the Holocaust itself."; Stone 2010, pp. 1–2, "For the purpose of this book, the Holocaust is understood as the genocide of the Jews ... 'Holocaust', then, refers to the genocide of the Jews, which by no means excludes an understanding that other groups—notably Romanies and Slavs—were victims of genocide."; Bloxham 2009, p. 1, "Between 5,100,000 and 6,200,000 Jews were murdered during the Second World War, an episode the Nazis called the 'final solution of the Jewish question'. The world today knows it as the Holocaust."; Niewyk & Nicosia 2000, pp. 45 ("The Holocaust is commonly defined as the mass murder of more than 5,000,000 Jews by the Germans during World War II. Not everyone finds this a fully satisfactory definition.") and 51 ("the traditional view that it was the genocide of the Jews alone")
- King 2023, pp. 26–27, "Rather than one big thing, the Holocaust might now be described as an array of event categories. In Christopher Browning's terms, the Holocaust involved three separate "clusters of genocidal projects": euthanasia and "racial purification" directed against the disabled and Sinti and Roma (at the time referred to collectively as "Gypsies") within the Third Reich; the eradication of Slavic populations living in countries east of Germany; and the Final Solution proper—that is, the attempted mass murder of every Jew residing anywhere within Germany's sphere of influence (Browning 2010, 407). (The list of persecuted categories—people targeted by the Nazis in ways short of genocide—would of course be longer.)"; Engel 2021, p. 6, "Echoing this view, some have contended that the expression 'the Holocaust' ought to refer not only to the encounter between the Third Reich and the Jews but also to 'the horrors that Poles, other Slavs, and Gypsies endured at the hands of the Nazis' (Lukas, 1986: 220). Others have extended the term to encompass the Third Reich's treatment of homosexuals, the mentally ill or infrm, and Jehovah's Witnesses, speaking of 11 or 12 million victims of the Holocaust, half of whom were Jews. Still others have employed the word 'holocaust' also when referring to cases of mass murder not perpetrated by the Third Reich."; Kay 2021, pp. 1–2, "For perhaps the first time, all major victim groups where the death tolls reached at least into the tens of thousands will be considered together: Jewish and non-Jewish ... it makes a great deal of sense to consider the different strands of Nazi mass killing together rather than in isolation from one another. This of course means going against the grain of most scholarship on the subject by examining the genocide of the European Jews alongside other Nazi mass-murder campaigns."; Gerlach 2016, pp. 14–15, "There are a number of words I will try to avoid because of the serious misconceptions they might lead to. The terms 'Holocaust' and 'Shoah' are not useful since neither has any analytical value. 'Holocaust' (derived from the Greek holókauton, or burned sacrifice) has a religious connotation unbefitting of the event it is supposed to refer to, and users of this term may mean by it either the persecution and murder of Jews alone, or Nazi German violence against any group more generally ... Importantly, 'Holocaust' and 'Shoah' have also been criticized as 'teleological and anachronistic' terms that convey a retrospective view that makes complex processes appear 'as a single event.'"; Niewyk & Nicosia 2000, p. 51, "The authors of this volume have adopted the third approach to a working definition: The Holocaust—that is, Nazi genocide—was the systematic, state-sponsored murder of entire groups determined by heredity. This applied to Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped. This section also makes it clear that other definitions are defended by scholars who deserve a respectful hearing."
- ^ Equivalent to $400 million at the time, or $7 billion in 2023.
- The Nazi concentration camp system administered by the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office (SS-WVHA) was administratively separate from other forced-labor camps and from the single-purpose extermination camps.
References
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{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Boender, Barbara; ten Have, Wichert, eds. (2012). The Holocaust and Other Genocides: An Introduction (1st ed.). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 7–10. ISBN 978-90-8964-381-0.
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- Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (1968). Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States: Decisions and Annotations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. OCLC 1041397012.
- Gilbert, Martin (2015) . Never Again: A History of the Holocaust. RosettaBooks. ISBN 978-0-7953-4674-3.
- Gerlach, Christian (2016). The Extermination of the European Jews. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-70689-6.
- Hayes, Peter (2017). Why? Explaining the Holocaust. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
- Hayes, Peter (2015). How Was It Possible?: A Holocaust Reader. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-7491-4.
- Jackson, Timothy P. (2021). Mordecai Would Not Bow Down: Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and Christian Supersessionism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-753807-4.
- Kay, Alex J. (2021). Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-26253-7.
- Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280436-5.
- Neufeld, Michael; Berenbaum, Michael (2000). The Bombing of Auschwitz: Should the Allies have attempted it?. New York: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 0-7006-1280-7.
- Niewyk, Donald L.; Nicosia, Francis R. (2000). The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-52878-8.
- Peck, Abraham J.; Berenbaum, Michael, eds. (2002). The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-21529-1.
- Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. (2015). Hi Hitler! How the Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-07399-9.
- Russell, Nestar (2018). Understanding Willing Participants. Vol. 2: Milgram's Obedience Experiments and the Holocaust. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-97999-1. ISBN 978-3-319-97999-1. S2CID 151138604.
- Smith, Stephen D. (2023). The Trajectory of Holocaust Memory: The Crisis of Testimony in Theory and Practice. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-83062-0.
- Stone, Dan (2010). Histories of the Holocaust. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-956679-2.
- Stone, Dan (2023). The Holocaust: An Unfinished History. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-241-38870-9.
- Wachsmann, Nikolaus (2015). KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-11825-9.
Book chapters
- Assmann, Aleida (2010). "The Holocaust – a Global Memory? Extensions and Limits of a New Memory Community". Memory in a Global Age: Discourses, Practices and Trajectories. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 97–117. ISBN 978-0-230-28336-7.
- Bartov, Omer (2023b). "The Holocaust". The Oxford History of the Third Reich. Oxford University Press. pp. 190–216. ISBN 978-0-19-288683-5.
- Beorn, Waitman Wade (2020). "All the Other Neighbors: Communal Genocide in Eastern Europe". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 153–172. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Dean, Martin C. (2020). "Survivors of the Holocaust within the Nazi Universe of Camps". A Companion to the Holocaust. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 263–277. ISBN 978-1-118-97049-2.
- Engel, David (2020). "A Sustained Civilian Struggle: Rethinking Jewish Responses to the Nazi Regime". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 233–245. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Evans, Richard J. (2019). "The Decision to Exterminate the Jews of Europe". The Jews, the Holocaust, and the Public: The Legacies of David Cesarani. Springer International Publishing. pp. 117–143. ISBN 978-3-030-28675-0.
- Goschler, Constantin; Ther, Philipp (2007). "Introduction: A History Without Boundaries: the Robbery and Restitution of Jewish Property in Europe". Robbery and Restitution: The Conflict over Jewish Property in Europe. Berghahn Books. pp. 1–18. ISBN 978-0-85745-564-2.
- Hayes, Peter; Roth, John K. (2010). "Introduction". The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-0-19-921186-9.
- Hayes, Peter (2010). "Plunder and Restitution". The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 540–559. ISBN 978-0-19-921186-9.
- Kansteiner, Wulf (2017). "Transnational Holocaust Memory, Digital Culture and the End of Reception Studies". The Twentieth Century in European Memory: Transcultural Mediation and Reception. Brill. pp. 305–343. ISBN 978-90-04-35235-3.
- King, Charles (2023). "Can – or Should – There Be a Political Science of the Holocaust?". In Kopstein, Jeffrey S. (ed.). Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-5017-6676-3.
- Kochavi, Arieh J. (2010). "Liberation and Dispersal". The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 509–523. ISBN 978-0-19-921186-9.
- Kopstein, Jeffrey S. (2023). "A Common History of Violence?: The Pogroms of Summer 1941 in Comparative Perspective". Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust. Cornell University Press. pp. 104–123. ISBN 978-1-5017-6676-3.
- Messenger, David A. (2020). "The Geopolitics of Neutrality: Diplomacy, Refuge, and Rescue during the Holocaust". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 381–396. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Miron, Guy (2020). "Ghettos and Ghettoization – History and Historiography". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 247–261. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Priemel, Kim Christian (2020). "War Crimes Trials, the Holocaust, and Historiography, 1943–2011". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 173–189. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Sahlstrom, Julia (2021). "Recognition, Justice, and Memory: Swedish-Jewish Reactions to the Holocaust and the Major Trials". In Heuman, Johannes; Rudberg, Pontus (eds.). Early Holocaust Memory in Sweden: Archives, Testimonies and Reflections. The Holocaust and its Contexts. Springer International Publishing. pp. 287–313. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55532-0_11. ISBN 978-3-030-55532-0. S2CID 229432191. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
- Spoerer, Mark (2020). "The Nazi War Economy, the Forced Labor System, and the Murder of Jewish and Non-Jewish Workers". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 135–151. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Stone, Dan (2020). "Ideologies of Race". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 59–74. doi:10.1002/9781118970492.ch3. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Weitz, Eric D. (2010). "Nationalism". The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 54–67. ISBN 978-0-19-921186-9.
- Westermann, Edward B. (2020). "Old Nazis, Ordinary Men, and New Killers: Synthetic and Divergent Histories of Perpetrators". A Companion to the Holocaust. Wiley. pp. 117–133. ISBN 978-1-118-97052-2.
- Wittmann, Rebecca (2010). "Punishment". The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 524–539. ISBN 978-0-19-921186-9.
Journal articles
- Burzlaff, Jan (2020). "Confronting the Communal Grave: a Reassessment of Social Relations During the Holocaust in Eastern Europe". The Historical Journal. 63 (4): 1054–1077. doi:10.1017/S0018246X19000566.
- Láníček, Jan (2012). "Governments-in-exile and the Jews during and after the Second World War". Holocaust Studies. 18 (2–3): 73–94. doi:10.1080/17504902.2012.11087307.
- Lehnstaedt, Stephan (2021). "Aktion Reinhardt – Sources, Research and Commemoration in the last 30 years". Témoigner. Entre histoire et mémoire. Revue pluridisciplinaire de la Fondation Auschwitz (132): 62–70. doi:10.4000/temoigner.9886. ISSN 2031-4183. S2CID 256347577.
- Sutcliffe, Adam (2022). "Whose Feelings Matter? Holocaust Memory, Empathy, and Redemptive Anti-Antisemitism". Journal of Genocide Research. 26 (2): 222–242. doi:10.1080/14623528.2022.2160533.
- Welch, Susan (2020). "Gender and Selection During the Holocaust: Transports of Western European Jews to the East". Journal of Genocide Research. 22 (4): 459–478. doi:10.1080/14623528.2020.1764743.
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