War of extermination

FATE OF EUROPEAN JEWS 

o Hitler threatened if there would be another ww, the result would not be
destruction of Germany but extermination of Jews 
o Anti-Semitic drive and desire to remove Jews from Germany is there
from the beginning but how to make it happen plan is not clear 
o as Germany expands, more Jews in control of Hitler 
 
TERRITORIAL SOLUTION 
 early ideas: conquer polar in 1939, east = Germany west= soviet union 
 general government= jewish reservation  
 head of general Gov Hans Frank- not happy about it he wants to bring
polish settlers 
 spring/summer 1940: Madagascar plan- “erase concept of jews” and
send them to Madagascar 
 1940: for a few months they start writing up reports on how to transfer
jews from Europe to Madagascar  
 idea: move all 5.5 million jews from Europe to Madagascar (genocidal
proportions because many will probably not get there and die on the
way) 
 problem: Madagascar is kinda far away how to get from Europe to
Madagascar, would need to transfer them by ship 
 controlling high sea: British  
 Germany and British = not on good terms, still fighting (beginning of
ww2) 
 Madagascar not going to happen because British controlling seas, ->
plan is forgotten 
 rumors:  confirm territorial plans,  
- July 7 1940: Ms voss  
 non jewish germans at the time say they had no idea what they were
doing to jews  
 
ATTACK ON SOVIET UNION 
o hitler decided now is the time to go against soviets: 22 june 1941 
o everyone always expected germans would turn back to ideology
against communists 
o soviet army caught off guard 
o first 4-5 weeks attack goes according to plan, advancing quickly 
o figured the war would take 4 months (wrong) and soviet union would
collapse 
o army was not ready for Russian winter 
o red army begins to push back(December) 
 o by the end of 1941- still not realize they would lose war but realize it
would be a long war 
o ordering jews to deliver fur  
o german loses in attack is staggering ( death toll is large), soviet side
things are worse (about half a million killed by the end of the year) 
o toll on red army (soviet union) not counting civilians = high 
o by the end of 1941- it is clear that the soviet union is not going to
collapse and postponing what they would do with jews - how to deal
with jews in europe had to be resolved during the war instead of after
the war  
o war on soviet union= different war than the one on west, new
extremes 
 
WAR OF EXTERMINATION 
 heinrich himmler, july 1941 
 war on soviet union is different than the one with Germany and
france  
 war of races 
 war that german leadership dreams of establishing colonies 
 war greater than making territory 
 war of ideologies and races 
 why does that matter: there has to be one victor, struggle for survival 
 not a matter of military victory but a matter of destroying and inhilating
the other  
 ideology is not about ideas but about blood  
 rhetoric: number: trying to show fear and threat 
 the aggressor always find a way through propaganda in order to show
themselves as the good/victim 
 jewish element is introduced in quote 
 jews consistently identified directly with whoever enemy is  
 jews regardless of appearance or who they are or what they do is
shown as enemy  
 orders from field marshal von reichenau (10 oct 1941)  
 at the time the war against soviet are going good \ 
 ideological marching orders 
 understand very well that what they are doing in russia is not the same
as when they went into France 
 no international conventions will be relevant in this war  
 “jewish sub-humanity”  
 one of the biggest war crimes= mass killing of soviet prisoners  
 feeding local population- just providing them food not luxury items is a
mistake as a humanitarian act 
 force labor: think of soviet prisoners and realize they have killed most
of them so they go towards making jews do force labor