Hitler and World War Two

World War Two

Phase one; the war that hitler won

By Sept 1939 – Hitler already achieved several conquests without even fighting a war. Austria and Sudetenland of Czech taken over in 1938, Prague and Bohemia-Moravia seized from Czech in March 1939

August 1939 – Hitler agrees the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Stalin preparing to invade Poland

Invading Poland – Brit and France go to war, didn’t save Poland

Invasion complete by end of Sept 1939

In 1940 – Hitler won Blitzkrieg victories in the West, defeating France in June, leaving Brit isolated.

France under a Nazi puppet regime rule from the town of Vichy. Hitler seemed able to have his Lebensraum in the east easily.

Phase Two ; Operation Barbarossa

Nazi-Sov pact only intended to be temporary.

June 1941 – Launched Operation Barbarossa. Ger armies swept across USSR occupying territories in eastern Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, West Russia and Ukraine.

Victory seemed certain.

Phase Three – Total war and total defeat.

German invasion closed in on Leningrad and Moscow. Stalled because of resistance from Sov forces and the Russian winter.

Dec 1941 – Jap attack Pearl Harbour, brought United States into the war.

USA, Russia, Brit. All against Germany. By 1945 Reich in ruins, hitler committed suicide in his Berlin bunker. Germans surrendered in May.

Impact of war on race policies

1939 – 40

From Sept 1939 Nazi race policies shaped by the war.

From 1938 Anti-Semitic policy already become extreme. Kristallnacht. The war radicalised policies.

Why?

Increased dictatorial power. Feelings of patriotism and jewish hatred spawned. New territories and Jewish populations. Expanding role of the SS

Gaining Territory

March 1938 – Anschluss with Austria – Jew pop 192,000

Sept 1938 – Annexation of the Sudetenland

March 1939 – Occupation of Czech, 350k Jew pop.

Sept 1939- Invasion of Poland, 3 million jew pop.

Nazi plans after the invasion of Poland

-          Mass deportation to the East

-          Germanise the lands liberated by Ger expansion – Lebensraum

-          Not easy, faced urgent practical problems in dealing with the millions of jews in Poland

Development of race policies

1939 – Sept – Ghettoisation of Polish Jews

-          October – Euthanasia programme authorised by Hitler

-          November – Jews in Poland made to wear Star of David

1940 – June – Madagascar Plan drawn up

-          November – Warsaw ghetto sealed

1941 – June – Einsatzgruppen deployed behind Eastern Front

-          August – Euthanasia Porgamme halted

-          Sept – Mass killing of Jews near Kiev

-          Dec – Gassing of Jews at Chelmo

1942 – Jan – Wannsee Conference

-          July – Round up of Jews from Vichy France

1941 – May – Concentration of all killings at Auschwitz

-          June  - Deportations of Reich Jews from Germany

1944 – June – Mass deportation of Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz

-          Nov – Destruction and evacuation of Auschwitz

1945 – Jan – Liberation of Auschwitz

-          April – Liberation of Bergen-Belsen and Mathausen

Euthanasia and the beginning of mass murder

1933 Sterilisation Law – Hereditary disease. Blindness, schizo, deaf etc. Severe alcoholism, feeble-mindedness, manic depression, deformity. 1^st year 388,400 people reported to the hereditary health courts, 75% by own doctors.

62,000 sterilisation orders issued, just under half carried out.

Not due to lack of enthusiasm, just logistical probelsm.

1935 Nuremberg Laws

1939 Euthanasia policy

Origins of Euthanasia programme

1938-39 Leipzig – Baby born called Knauer, born blind, missing a leg and arm, Wrote a letter to Hitler asking for it to be mercy killed. – Letter picked up by ambitious Philipp Bouhler. Showed Hitler, 1 Sept 1939 – Hitler gave go-ahead for mercy killings.  – The catalyst.

-          2 Other appeals too, middle-aged woman dying of cancer and worker who was injured in industrial accident.

-          Ended up killing around 5,000 innocent children in secret

End of the Euthanasia policy

Rumours spread among staff working at asylums and it spread to the public

Mistakes made with victims families

Led to protests outside killing centres, letters to Hitler, Catholic Church – Von Galen Bishop of Munster

Aug 1941 – Hitler temporarily halted killings

Hartheim killing centre continued to kill until Dec 1944 – The prisoners from Mauthausen concentration camp

Links to Holocaust

Euth project provided SS with technical expertise for mass murder and gas chambers

Disguising of chambers as shower rooms – Visible in euthanasia centres and death camps

Many personnel from Euthanasia centres redeployed to death camps. Franz Stangl, ex Hartheim worker. Now commandant at Sobibor and Treblinka death camps.

The Nazi invasion of Poland and the growing “Jewish Problem”

Conquest of Poland in Sept 1939 – Increased number of Jews living uner Nazi control. 3 Million Jews living in Poland, 2 million in Germany’s occupied territory.

These Jews were poor and more orthodox, appeared Nazi stereotype of “Slav untermenschen”. Numbers posed problems for Germany.

West Poland belonged to Germany, East to Russia, Middle section governed by Hans Frank, a Nazi governor, called the “General government” – This middle section was to be the dumping ground for the Reichs deported jews. Most death camps located here.

Ghettoization

Creation of Jewish ghettos to deal with the huge Jewish populations.

Feb 1940 – First ghetto setup, Lodz ghetto.

-          Jews sent had their homes confiscated. Most had to sell their valuables to survive. Forced labour ensued. Restricted medical resources and food massively. Ghettos were overcrowded.

-          Terrible conditions in the ghetto, six people shared a room, 15 lived in an apartment. Few homes had running water.

-          Lice and diseases, TB, typhus, spotted fever. Spread rapidly.

-          Black market of smuggled food created. Ghettos had illegal schools and printing presses. Religious festivals and prayers that were forbidden were organised.

Mordechai Chaim Rumkovski – “The Dictator of Lodz” – Raped women at threat of deportation.

Nazi’s never saw ghettos as long-term solution. Conditions worked, large numbers died- Starvation, cold, disease. Many worked to death. 500k Jews died in the ghettos.

Warsaw Ghetto – Average of 5k deaths every month.

Madagascar Plan

First coined by French anti-Semites in late 1930s, merely a wild idea with no prospect / little of becoming a reality.

Foreign ministry’s department for Internal German Affairs proposed the island of Madagascar should be taken from France and become a German mandate. Vichy France would be responsible for resettling the population of 25,000 in Madagascar.

Planned to send 4million Jews to Madagascar. Send farmers, construction workers and artisans upto age 45 to get the island ready. The sale of their property in Europe would finance the initial costs.

Similair to the ghettos, elimination of Jews by “Natural wastage”

Also ideas to deport all Jews to Palestine. Small territory under British rule however, not that far from Europe, Madagascar was far away and secluded and offered more space. No political problems with Madagascar.

Ideas to use Jews as Hostages  to influence American public if the US might become involved in the war. Would be presented as german “Generosity” towards the Jews in propaganda.

Hitler could not end the war with Britain, the Royal Navy would be able to disrupt the transportation of Jews by sea to Madagascar. – Turned attention back to the east.

Shelved in favour of sending Europes jews into Siberia once conquest of USSR was complete.

Possible that the idea to exterminate all the Jews had not been made at this point, considering all the different plans, yet the “Natural Wastage” pointed towards a long-term goal to kill all the Jews.