The Holocaust Chapter 19.3

Resettlement in the East In 1942 the Nazi regime stretched across a majority of continental Europe. Hitler believed that Germany’s newly acquired land was to be used for German peasants to resettle. He believed that the Slavic people living there were an inferior race. Hitler’s plans for an Aryan racial empire was so important to him that he & the Nazis began to put their racial program into effect soon after the conquest of Poland. http://www.history.com/topics/the-holocaust/videos#adolf- hitler

Resettlement in the East Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, was put in charge of German resettlement plans in the east. He was in charge of moving the Slavic people out, and replacing them with Germans. Slavic peoples included: Czech, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, and Ukrainian. 1 million Poles were moved and replaced with Germans. By 1942, 2 million ethnic Germans were living in Poland.

Resettlement in the East The invasion of the Soviet Union made Hitler even more excited about German colonization in the east. He believed that German peasants would move there and “Germanize them.” Himmler told a gathering of SS officers that 30 million Slavs might have to die in order to achieve German plans in the east.

Slave Labor in Germany Labor shortages in Germany led to a policy of rounding up foreign workers. In 1942, a special office was set up to recruit labor for German farms and industries. By the summer of 1944, 7 million European workers were slaves in Germany. They made up 20% of Germany’s work force.

The Holocaust Racial struggle was a key element in Hitler’s world of ideas. To him, racial struggle was clearly defined conflict of opposites. On one side were the Aryans, creators of human development. On the other, the Jews, parasites, in Hitler’s view, who were trying to destroy the Aryans. The Final Solution was genocide, or physical extermination of the Jews.

The Holocaust Einsatzgruppen– were special strike forces that were a part of the SS that was given the orders to carry out Hitler’s plan. In 1941 the strike forces were given the job of acting as a mobile killing units. Their job was to round up Jews in their villages, execute them, and bury them in mass graves.

The Holocaust

The Holocaust It is estimated that 1 million Jews were killed by the Einsatzgruppen. (As awful as that sounds the Nazis decided that it was too slow by their standards.) In 1942 Jews from countries occupied by Germany were rounded up, and packed like sardines into freight trains, and shipped to Poland. 6 extermination camps were built in Poland for this purpose.

The Holocaust

Auschwitz Was the largest concentration camp. 30% of the Jews sent there were forced to work in labor camps, where many were starved or worked to death. The rest were sent to the gas chambers.

Death Toll The Germans killed between 5 and 6 million Jews, over 3 million of them in death camps. Essentially, 90% of the Jewish population of Poland, the Baltic countries, and Germany were killed. The holocaust was responsible for the death of nearly 2 out of every 3 European Jews. The Nazis killed another 5-10 million non-Jewish people. 1 million Roma (gypsies) 4 million Poles and Ukrainians. http://www.history.com/topics/the- holocaust/videos#concentration-camp-liberation

Holocaust Deaths

Jewish death toll by Country

Jewish death toll by Country http://www.humanitas- international.org/holocaust/jwlosses.htm http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2t19n_auschwitz- nazi-death-camp-poland_travel

End of the War Tehran Conference—Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill were the leaders of the Big 3 (USA, Great Britain, and USSR). They decided that U.S. & Great Britain would invade Germany from the east, and the USSR from the west. This meant Eastern Europe would be freed by communist Soviets. Yalta Conference– (Yalta, USSR/ February 1945) Big 3 met to decide terms of the postwar. Stalin, Churchill, and FDR agreed to create the United Nations, and that Germany would be divided into 4 zones, which would be run by (USA, France, USSR, and Great Britain). They could not decide on free elections in Eastern Europe.

End of the War Potsdam Conference—(Potsdam, Germany/ July 1945) Harry S. Truman (President USA) and Stalin were the major players involved at the conference. Truman wanted Eastern Europe to have free elections, but Stalin did not allow that to happen. Eastern Europe did not have free elections, and they were ruled by the Soviet Union.