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Germany 5.1 - Nazi Policies Towards Jews - Coggle Diagram
Germany 5.1 - Nazi Policies Towards Jews
Ghettos
The Germans began a policy of ghettoisation and started forcing Jews into ghettos in cities in Poland which they called 'Jewish Quarters'.
These areas were surrounded by walls and Jews were cramped into poor housing.
Food was restricted and so starving was common.
Due to the cramped living conditions, disease spread quickly.
In Warsaw the Jewish ghetto was surrounded by a 3.5 metre high wall, topped with barbed wire and broken glass. A German company built the wall but Jews were forced to pay for it.
Between Jan 1941 - July 1942 almost 4000 Jews died each month due to starvation and disease.
In July 1942 after the introduction of the 'final solution' the Jews in Warsaw were moved to East Poland and over 250,000 Jews were moved to camps where most were put to death.
Death Squads
In June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union and conquered most of the west country leaving thousands more Jews under German control.
Special units, known as Einsatzgruppen, followed the German army with orders to put Jews to death.
These death squads rounded up Jewish men, women and children as well as Communist Party leaders and gypsies and took any valuables they owned.
They were forced to remove their clothing and march to fields and forests on the outskirts of towns where they were either shot or gassed and thrown into mass graves.
It is thought that the Einsatzgruppen murdered over 1.2 million civilians in the Soviet Union by 1943.
The Final Solution
In July 1941 the Germans came up with the idea to build Concentration camps in eastern Poland.
Jews were sent to these camps to carry out forced labour.
In a conference in Berlin in January 1942, the Nazis decided to convert some of these concentration camps into extermination camps.
Over the next 4 years almost 6 million Jews were put to death and around 5 million non - Jews were as well.
Jews who were sent to these camps were split into two groups: those who were healthy enough to work and those who weren't.
If they could complete jobs they would do so until they were too weak. Some of these people were forced to be involved in extreme medical experiments.
The rest were killed. As there were so many people, shooting was not deemed efficient and instead posion gas was used.
Huge showers would hold 2,000 Jews at a time and poison gas was released into the chambers.
After all the victims were dead another prisoner was forced to go through their bodies for anything valuable such as gold teeth and then remove the bodies to be sent to huge ovens to be burned.
Keeping It Secret
The round up of Jews was a massive task and if people knew the reality of what was happening they would not have been as willing to help.
Therefore propaganda films were made to show the camps as just labour camps.
The videos showed that Jews were treated well and lived in good conditions, stopping the German people from reacting negatively.
It also meant Jewish people were tricked into helping the resettlement of fellow Jews.
Eventually Jews started to realise what was happening and in April in Warsaw in 1943 there was an uprising against transportation to the camps.
After a month of fighting the remaining 56,000 Jews were arrested: 7,000 were shot and the others were sent to the camps.
When it became clear Germany was going to lose the war, the Nazis tried to hide the evidence of what had happened by digging up railways lines and destroying records.
Allied soldiers were shocked at the horrors they saw when the camps were liberated in 1945.