the final solution

• the occupation of Poland in 1939 brought 3 million Jews into Germany
• in June 1941, the invasion of Russia, the Einsatzgruppen followed the army rounding up jews. They carried out mass shootings and killed 700,000 jews 1941-2.
• from September 1941 Jews had to wear a yellow star so they could be identified.
• The final solution agreed at the Wannsee conference in Jan 1942, policy changed from resettlement to extermination. gas extermination and development of extermination centres e.g., Auschwitz.
• camps located near railways to speed up transportation.
• in 1943 Warsaw ghetto destroyed and jews transported to death camps
• in 1944 Jews from all over German conquered lands were transported to death camps
• over 6 million jews killed with political opponents, gypsies and even Russian prisoners of war.
• Hitler was committed to the extermination of the jews from early on in his career and slowly increased persecution however no written orders
• conquest of France in 1940 seemed a war for resettlement as the majority would have died from disease. impossible as Britain's navy controlled the Indian sea.
• functionalists say Hitler used the final solution as the war was not being won quickly and unplanned while the intentionalisms say extermination response to military situation and Hitler committed early on.
• of the 3 million Polish Jews, only 4000 survived; 2%
• 23,000 gypsies sent to Auschwitz in 1943-4