EUROPEAN HISTORY DOCUMENT BASED QUESTION Created by Jennifer Norton Argonaut High School, Jackson, CA Mandel Fellow – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 1999-2000 Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Documents 1-14. (Some of the documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.) This question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. As you analyze the documents, take into account both the sources of the documents and the authors’ point of view. Write an essay on the following topic that integrates your analysis of the documents. Do not simply summarize the documents individually. You may refer to relevant historical facts and developments not mentioned in the documents, although you are not required to do so. Describe and analyze Nazi actions and policies as expressed in various official communications and testimonies from 1939-1945, and examine the officials’ attitudes towards both their own actions and the orders they received from the Nazi government. Historical Background: World War II began in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. Within months, The Nazis began to identify the Jewish populations of Nazi- occupied Poland and force them into ghettos. With the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Nazis continued to ghettoize Jews, and also began “Operation Reinhard” – the extermination of the Jews of Europe. From 1941-1942, this was largely accomplished by the Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads whose sole purpose was to murder Jews in mass shootings. When this method proved too stressful on the executioners, as well as too ‘inefficient’ by Nazi standards, the Nazis implemented the ‘Final Solution’: the ‘liquidation’ of the ghettos, the deportations of hundreds of thousands from Western Europe and the eventual extermination of millions of Jews in death and slave labor camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Treblinka and Sobibor, Chelmno and Majdanek. 1 2 Document 1 Source: Speech by Adolph Hitler to his commanders and generals August 22, 1939 Our strength lies in our quickness and our brutality; Genghis Khan sent millions of women and children to death knowingly and with a light heart. History sees in him only the great founder of states. In the East I have put my deaths-head formations in place with the command to relentlessly and without compassion send to death many women and children of Polish origin and language. Only thus can we gain the living space we need. Who after all is today speaking about the destruction of the Armenians? Poland will be depopulated and settled with Germans. As for the rest, gentlemen, the fate of Russia will be exactly the same as I am now going through with in the case of Poland. After Stalin’s death-he is a very sick man- we will break the Soviet Union. Then there will begin the dawn of the German rule on earth. Document 2 Source: Speech by Hans Frank, administrative head of occupied Poland 1939-1945, at Berlin University November 18, 1941 A problem that occupies us in particular is the Jews. This merry little people which wallows in dirt and filth has been gathered by us in ghettos and special quarters and will probably not remain in the General- Government for very long. (Vigorous Applause) Strangely enough – we only realized it over there in Poland – there is another category of Jews, something one would never have thought possible. There are laboring Jews over there who work in transport, in building factories, and others are skilled workers such as tailors, shoemakers etc. We have put together Jewish workshops in which goods will be made which will greatly ease the position of German production. These Jews may well be left to work in this way…for the other Jews we must provide suitable arrangements. 3 Document 3 Source: Written evidence collected by War Crimes Tribunals from Rudolph Höss, Commander of Auschwitz extermination camp relating to events from the summer of 1941 I was summoned to Field Marshall Himmler who said in effect: “The Führer has ordered the Jewish question to be solved once and for all and that we, the SS are to implement that order. The existing extermination centers in the East are not in a position to carry out the large Aktionen which are anticipated. I have therefore earmarked Auschwitz for this purpose because of its good position as regards communications and because the area can be easily isolated and camouflaged. You will treat this order as absolutely secret, even from your superiors. The Jews are the sworn enemies of the German people and must be eradicated. Every Jew we can lay our hands on must be destroyed now during the war, without exception. 4 Document 4 Source: Letter from a German Armament Inspector in the Ukraine to the Chief of the Industrial Armaments Department, December 1941 The Jewish population remained temporarily unmolested shortly after the fighting, [but] months later specially detached formations executed a planned shooting of Jews. It was done entirely in public with the Ukrainian militia and unfortunately in many instances also with members of the armed forces taking part voluntarily. The way these actions, which included old men, women and children of all ages were carried out was horrible. So far 150,000-200,000 Jews may have been executed. [N]o consideration was given to the interest of the economy. Summarizing, this kind of solution to the Jewish problem in the Ukraine, which obviously was based on ideological theories, had the following results: (a) Elimination of a part of partly superfluous eaters in the cities. (b) Elimination of a part of the population which hated us undoubtedly. (c) Elimination of badly needed tradesmen who were in many cases indispensable even in the interests of the armed forces… (d) Consequences as to foreign propaganda which are obvious. (e) Bad effects on the troops which get indirect contact with the executions. (f) Brutalizing effects on the formations which carry out the executions. 5 Document 5 Source: Cover letter and Wehrmacht [German Army] Major Rösler’s report from Zhitomir, Ukraine - January 1942 21 January 1942 Secret! To: The Chief of Army Armaments – Commander of the Reserve Army Re: Atrocities toward the civilian population in the East. /1 Enclosure Because of rumors circulating about mass executions in Russia, I investigated their origins because I thought them extremely exaggerated. Enclosed is a report by Major Rösler’s that fully confirms the rumors. When such actions take place in such openness, it will be unavoidable that they will become known and criticized in the homeland. Report: [W]e heard salvos of rifle fire at regular intervals. I decide to investigate. A pit had been cut in the ground about 4 m wide and 7-8 meters long; the side of the pit was stained all over with streams of blood. The pit itself was filled with human corpses of all kinds and both sexes in such numbers it was difficult to estimate them. The uniforms of the commandos were stained with blood. In a wide circle stood countless soldiers of troop units stationed there, some as spectators, dressed in swimming trunks, as well as many civilians with women and children. I did not acquire any excessive sensitivity of the emotions during my service in the World War and in the French and Russian campaigns of this war but I cannot recall ever having witnessed a scene such as I have described here. I cannot begin to conceive the legal basis on which these executions were carried out. Everything that is happening here seems to be absolutely incompatible with our [German] views on education and morality that a mass slaughter of human beings should be carried out quite publicly, as on an outdoor stage. 6 Document 6 Source: German SS officers and SD (Security Police) watch as a group of Jewish men dig trench to be used as their own mass grave in an Einsatzgruppen Aktionen, Ukraine, USSR 1942 7 Document 7 Source: Memorandum of Dr. August Becker to SS Lt. Col. Rauff, Kiev – May 1942 The place of execution is 10 to 15 km away from the highways…If the persons to be executed are driven or led to the place, then they realize immediately what is going on and get restless, which is to be avoided as far as possible. I ordered the vans to be camouflaged as house trailers by putting window shutters on each side [but] the vans became so well known that the civilian population called the van “death van” as soon as one of these vehicles appeared. It is my opinion the van cannot be kept secret for any length of time, not even camouflaged… I ordered that the men were to be kept as far away from the vans as possible so they should not suffer damage to their health by the gas which eventually escapes. Document 8 Source: 1947 signed confession of SS Colonel Paul Blobel regarding events of 1942-44 [I]n June 1942 I was entrusted with the task of obliterating the traces of the executions carried out by the Einsatzgruppen in the East. This order was top secret. The order could not be carried out immediately because the material required for the burning of the bodies was not available. In May and June 1943 the order was carried out. During my visit in August I myself observed the burning of bodies in a mass grave near Kiev. It took about two days until the grave burned down to the bottom. According to my orders I should have extended my duties over the entire area occupied by the Einsatzgruppen, but owing to the retreat from Russia, I could not carry out my orders completely.