Blog post for 11/20

JAH 386-404:

1. Why did the Nazis change their method of extermination from mass shooting to gassing in the death camps? How many Jews, and from which countries, were killed in the camps?

Nazi killing groups called Einsatzgruppen began to commit mass shootings. Either Jews were shot into a ditch or were thrown into one.The number of Jews that were killed by Einsatzgruppen A-D was startling. Some groups killed upwards of 33,000 Jews. The Nazis found that shooting was laborious, ineffective and too dependent on manpower. It also started to become too emotions for Germans. At the Wannsee Conference 15 members discussed the "Final Solution," which resulted in a solution for a more efficient way to kill all the Jews in Europe. Concentration camps were fixed killing institutions and no longer did Einsatzgruppen have to track down and shoot Jews. Gassing started with carbon monoxide poison in busses and then was switched to gassing in camps. By 1943 1.7 million were gased. Jews were gassed and murdered in camps all over Europe, with major extermination camps in Trebinka, Chelmno, Auschwitz, Sobibor, Belzec and Majdanek. Jews were taken from all over to these camps, but mostly from the major ghettos nearby. The number of Jews that were murdered in camps depended on the year for example:

From 1942-1944 107,000 Dutch Jews were gassed at Auschwitz and Sobibor.

1944- 77,000 French Jews were killed.

25,000 Belgium Jews were sent to Auschwitz.

JMW: 777-778 “A Secret Speech on the Jewish Question,” by Heinrich Himmler:

What does this speech reveal about the mentality of Himmler, one of the architects of the Final Solution?

Himmler begins his speech with the "Jewish Question." Jews must be exterminated, even though it might be hard to do. There might be a decent Jew that you know but that is not the case overall. Everyone has to be murdered, even the children because they will grow up and threaten Germans' sons and grandsons. There is an even larger effect on the Germans who are executing these murders, but don't worry, they are fine. The Jewish question will be answered by the end of the year.

-Through Himmler's speech he seems deeply sorry for every decision he is making, it pains him, but it must be done.