This pressure culminated in Hitler ordering the deportation of all Jews still in the Greater German Reich and Protectorate between 15-17 September 1941.įollowing the order, Himmler, Heydrich and Eichmann attempted to find space for the Jews from the Greater German Reich in the already severely overcrowded ghettos in eastern Europe. But, in the autumn of 1941, key Nazi figures contributed to mounting pressure on Hitler to deport the German Jews. Until this point, Hitler had been reluctant to deport Jews in the German Reich until the war was over because of a fear of resistance and retaliation from the German population. In the autumn of 1941, approximately 338,000 Jews remained in Greater Germany. Exactly a month after sending this telegram, Hans died in unknown circumstances at the hands of the Nazis in the Theresienstadt Ghetto.Ĭourtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. He writes ‘On the way to be sent off to Theresienstadt…it will be quite a time until you get any more news’. On 2 October 1942, Hans sent this Red Cross Telegram to his sister in law, Johanna Behrend, who had emigrated to England in 1939. In 1942, Hans and his wife, Marie-Elisabeth (2 January 1887 – ), were deported to Theresienstadt. Hans Schmoller (10 April 1879 – 2 November 1942) was a German Jew from Berlin.
In others, some were spared, although in most cases this was only a temporary measure.ĭr. In many areas, whole Jewish communities were swiftly murdered. There were few restrictions on the actions of the Einsatzgruppen, and they accordingly acted with little restraint or uniformity. Himmler’s visits further encouraged the widespread mass murder of Jews across the Soviet Union. After each visit, murders of Jews in that area quickly escalated. Of Jews, regardless of age, gender or a proven connection to communism. During these visits, Himmler orally issued instructions which encouraged the complete
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The Nazis blamed Jews for these shortages and this lack of military success in the Soviet Union, and suggested that Jews were not onlyĪctivity, but were also unnecessarily draining the food supply.Īmid these growing problems on the home front, Himmler paid a series of visits to the Einsatzgruppen units across the Soviet Union in mid-August 1941. This resulted in a low morale on the German home front. One example of this collaboration can be seen shortly after the invasion in the first week of July 1941, where 5000 Jews in the cities of Riga and Daugavpils were detained and murdered by ethnic Germans and theīy late July 1941, the German Army’s advance on the eastern front had slowed and there were significant food and military shortages in Germany. Participated in the murders, either actively (in the shootings), by identifying Jews or other enemies, or by assisting in security roles, such as guards for camps. An indication of this violence can be seen in the actions of Einsatzkommando 9, a sub unit of Einsatzgruppe B, who, following the occupation of Vilnius on 30 June 1941, shot 500 Jews a day. The mass executions of those deemed to be enemies started almost instantly after the invasion. In many Nazis’ minds, Jews and communists were inseparable. The Nazis viewed communists and Jews as key enemies, who needed to be detained and eliminated in order to allow the Nazis to win the war and ensure the survival of the ‘ System of rule (which the Nazis saw as the ideological enemy of The Nazis regarded Soviet citizens as racially and ideologically inferior, partly due to the Soviet Union’s Later, in 1941, as both of these options were realised to be infeasible, the Nazis created extermination camps to liquidate the populations of the ghettos instead. At this stage, the Nazis planned to deport Jews to Madagascar or lands further east. By 1939 in Poland, the Nazis escalated their actions, and segregated and imprisoned Jews for future deportation. Prior to the war, the Nazis had focused on encouraging Jews to emigrate from the Greater German Reich through their antisemitic policies and actions. Conditions inside ghettos were abysmal, and thousands quickly died from starvation, disease, and poor sanitation.įorced ghettoisation was a large escalation from the pre-war anti-Jewish policy in Germany. In just a few months, millions of Jews were quickly imprisoned inside ghettos in Poland. Prior to the invasion, the Nazis had not drawn up a specific or comprehensive plan for what to do with the Jewish population once Poland was occupied. In September 1939, Poland was home to over three million Jews. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.
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