The Holocaust: Camps

and Killing Squads

Invasion of the Soviet

Union
June 22, 1941 invaded along 2,000 mile front.
Took 3 million soldiers including Finnish,
Hungarian and Romanian troops. More than
100 infantry divisions and 3,550 tanks.
Soviets not prepared. Hundreds of thousands
captured. Major cities taken.
November- Nazis laid siege to Sevastopol, a
critical port city in the Crimea. December
reached Moscow, forcing government to
leave. Obstacles were stretched supply lines,
weather and resistance from Soviet Army.
Stopped at Leningrad and pushed back from
Moscow in December. Suffered huge
casualties. Victory fading.
Winter 1942-1943 Soviets go on the
offensive.
Nazis make invasion about ideological
differences and a struggle of the races.
Secure Aryan supremacy.

Mobile Killing Squads

Turning point in the Holocaust. Mass killing of Jews
became an operational policy.
Einstazgruppen- Special Deployment Groups. Small
groups of SS and Police that followed the army.
Had followed the army into Poland and helped
establish the ghettos. Here their job was to kill any
Jews they found.
Jews were easy to find. 9 out of 10
lived in cities. Took Jews by
surprise.
By the Spring of 1943 they had killed
over a million Soviet Jews and tens of
thousands of Soviet POWs.

 Mass exterminations were organized. Rounded up

Jews, Communist Party officials, Gypsies and
intelligentsia. Total extermination of Jews. Took them
outside of the cities where they were shot and buried
in mass graves.
Local residents knew what was happening and for the
most part did nothing. Scared it would be them next.
Army and SS encouraged people to conduct pogroms
taking advantage of anti-Semitism and antiCommunist feelings. Had to use the local population to
get it done.
April 6, 1942 killed 1,600 Jews in Piryatin in Ukraine.
Were all old men, women and children who could not
flee. Led them out of the city where huge pits had
been dug. Told them to strop and
sorted them. Ordered them into
the pits in groups of five and killed
them using submachine gunfire.

 3,000 men took part in the killing squads. Ordinary

men, most were educated. Used their skills and training
to do the job to the best of their ability. Had a choice of
whether or not to participate and in doing so became
killers either reluctantly or enthusiastically. Several
men asked to be reassigned with no punishment.
Drank heavily to cope with the work. Did not like the
psychological effects so look at a more impersonal
method of killing. Victims must be brought to the killers
and killed in a way that minimized the contact.
Before the squads were done with
their work 1.2 million Jews were
killed.
1942 and 1943 when the war turned
against the Nazis they returned, dug
up the graves, and burned the bodies
to conceal the evidence.

Babi Yar
September 19, 1941 German troops took Kiev. A week
later several buildings used by the German Army are
blown up. The Germans retaliated by killing all the Jews
in Kiev.
The Jews were marched to Babi Yar, a ravine 2 miles
from the center of the city. Forced everyone to remove
all their clothing. No exceptions. Rings taken from men
and women.
They were shot and the
bodies fell into the ravine.
The shots were heard in
the city. Forced to lie on
the bodies of those
already dead. They did
not know their fate until they
reached the ravine. Some
survived.

 Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there were

33,771 Jews killed.
In the next months it served as a killing site for Gypsies
and Soviet prisoners of war. No true number of those
killed.
August 1943 the Red Army advanced and the graves were
dug up. The bodes were burned to hide the evidence of
mass murder. Took a month with the help of inmates to
dig them up. Bodies piled on wooden logs, doused with
gas and burned. The Jewish inmates killed when they were
done.
For 25 years the Soviets refused to
acknowledge Babi Yar. No memorial until 1974.
Identification is vague and the word Jew is not
used. After the Ukraine became independent in
1991 and on the 50th anniversary of Babi Yar
they added the names of the victims.

Romania
1940 home to the 3rd largest Jewish population.
750,000. Only Poland and the Soviet Union had more
Jews.
Ally to France so when they fell to Germany they lost
land to the Soviet Union, Hungary and Bulgaria.
November 1942 they were ruled by fascist leaders
and became partners with Germany. Aggressive
policy of Romanization
Jews identified, assets confiscated and excluded from
the economy. 40,000 homes seized. Hitler supported
the Iron Guard taking over in 1941 so he could have
the support of the Romanian army when he
invaded the Soviet Union.
Own version of Kristallnacht. 120
Jews killed in 72 hours. Bodies

 Invaded with Germans in 1941. Recaptured lost territory.

Slaughter begins. Three days later a massive pogrom begins
in Iasi. 8,000 Jews killed and thousands deported on sealed
trains.
June 30th there are 4,332 survivors loaded onto two trains.
One headed for Calarasi almost
300 miles away. Cattle cars shuttled
back and forth until Jews died of hunger
and dehydration. Before the journey
was over 2,544 died.
Odesa- murdered Jews by burning. In
response to an attack on Romanian
headquarters. October 23, 1941 19,000
Jews were taken to the square, gas was
poured on them, and they were set on fire.
By afternoon another 2,000 were taken to Dalink. Some were
shot and others were shut in a warehouse and set on fire.

 Joined an Einstazgruppen D in slaughter of

thousands. In some cases thousands of locals
participated. Death marches were thousands died.
In the next three years 70,000 died there due to
famine, disease and murder.
As Germany began to lose in 1942 and 1943 Romania
did not send any more of their Jews but did agree
that Romanian Jews in the Reich could be sent to the
camps. Approved deporting Romanian Jews to Belzac.
Never carried out.
Used surviving Jews as hostages to be traded to the
Allies for cash. December 1942 the asking price for a
Jew was $1,336. at that price was willing to send
75,000 Jews to Palestine.
By the end of the war 211,215
Romanian Jews dead. 300,000 alive
and waiting to be ransomed.

Wannsee Conference- 1942:

Deciding to Kill the Jews
Until 1941 basic goals was to force the Jews to
emigrate. Failed when countries could not take
anymore Jews. Expansion brought more Jews under
Nazi control.
Mass killing of Jews started after the invasion of the
Soviet Union. Mobile killing squads planned long
before the invasion. Policy to kill Jews but all Jews?
Within a year the killing centers- made the
Holocaust possible- were in place. December 8th
gassing of Jews began in the mobile gas
vans at Chelmno. Building gas chambers at
Auschwitz and Belzac. Mass extermination
not the plan but already in action.

 January 20, 1942 conference started. Men who were

responsible for the Holocaust. Turning point in the war
against the Jews.
Headed by Reinhard Heydrich, head of the SS Reich
Security Main Office. Adolf Eichmann prepared
conference protocols. 15 men attended. Half of them
held doctorates.
knew evacuation to the east meant
killing centers and final solution was
murder
Prototypes being tested. Einstazgruppen
killing hundreds of thousands in the East.
Killing vans in operation for 40 days at
Chelmno. Farmhouse at Auschwitz converted into gas
chamber using Zyklon B. gas chambers using carbon
monoxide constructed at Belzac.
No opposition, no qualms of conscience. Enthusiastic
about doing their part.

Attendees of Wannsee

Genocide as State
Policy
Unique among cases of mass murder. Intentional
and premeditated. Unlike other policies where
death was a result, the death of entire populations
was the goal of Nazi policy from 1941 on.
Served no political or territorial purpose. Indians
stood in the way of westward expansion. Not the
means to an end but a fundamental goal. All
encompassing. All Jews were targeted.
Anti-Semitic violence prior to this had been in
spurts, geographically isolated and not sanctioned
by law. Before this based on religion not biology.

 For 12 years persecution and destruction of Jews

was a national priority. Workers killed despite
labor shortage. Trains available to transport Jews
despite everything being needed to supply the
army.
Policy of extermination sanctioned by law. Legal
system served as instrument of oppression and
death. Became a genocidal state. All parts of
government participated.
Interior of Ministry and churches provided birth
records. Post office delivered notices of
deportation. Finance Ministry took wealth and
property.

 Location of camps based on accessibility and costeffectiveness.

Corporations profited from industry and death.
Pharmaceutical companies tested drugs on camp
inmate without regard for side effects. Bid for
contracts to build ovens and supply gas. One
provided one camp alone with 46 ovens capable of
burning 500 bodies an hour.
Murder by mass shooting gave way to
killing centers where small staff could
kill thousands a day without having any
contact with them. Final Solution was
Germanys greatest achievement.

 Perversion of slavery. Monowitz housed

profitable industrial operations. Petrochemical
complex brought human slavery to its perfection
by reducing people to consumable raw materials
from which all mineral resources were extracted.
Every part of the body was recycled to feed war
effort. Gold teeth to the treasury. Hair to stuff
mattresses, and ashes from bodies became
fertilizer.
Slaves were a commodity to be used, discarded
and replaced. Not the traditional
view of slaves.
No budget for operation.
With cooperation of industry
and ingenuity of those who
harvested from the dead the
entire killing operation stayed
in the black.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Passover 1943

July and September 1942 almost 310,000 Jews sent
from Warsaw to Treblinka. 60,000 still in the ghetto. As
deportations continued they were determined to resist.
ZOB (Jewish Fighting Force) took control of the ghetto.
January 9, 1943 Himmler visited the ghetto. Ordered
deportations of 8,000 Jews. Caught by surprise. Hid
from the deportations. Resistance from the battles in
the streets. Many Jews killed. Deportations stopped.
April 19, 1943 uprising began. Continued until the
ghetto was liquidated on May 16th. Did well in
the first few days. Germans cut off
electricity, water and gas to the ghetto.
Brought in police dogs. Started to burn
the ghetto.

 Plan was to liquidate the ghetto in 3 days. The Jews

lasted almost a month. Revolution in Jewish history.
Resisted with armed forces.
Suicides began when the Germans started capturing
the leaders.
Some aspects the same in all the uprisings- leaders
were all young, not responsible for older parents or
children.
Knew Treblinka meant death. 300,000 removed.
250,000 killed at Treblinka and 35,000 either shot
and killed at ghetto or diverted to
Majdanek for labor. Jewish
fighters knew they were losing
but would die fighting.
Of the Jews captured 7,000
were shot, 7,000 sent to Treblinka,
42,000 to Majdanek and to other
labor camps. Germans lost 16 and
85 were wounded.

Deportations
Railroads vital to the killing process. Trains came
from all over German controlled Europe to the killing
centers situated along the rail lines in Poland.
Reichsbahn was largest railroad organization. 1.4
million workers, of whom 50,000 were civil servants.
As supply lines got longer for a two front war,
shortage of trains happened. System stretched too
thin. Bombing disrupted traffic but trains carrying
Jews continued to roll in.
Transports given extra cars, more Jews crammed
onto fewer trains, indirect routes taken so other
traffic could continue. No secret to rail workers where
the Jews were going.

 Auschwitz there were 44 parallel tracks at train

station. Special railroad spur built at Birkenau to run
directly to exit ramp. Chimneys visible as Jews got off
the trains.
No railway people protested or resigned their
positions. Did their jobs well. Ticketed as people,
transported as cattle, mainly in freight cars.
SS used travel agents to book one way tickets at 4
pennies/kilometer of track.
Children under 10 were
price. If more than 400
people got discount of
the usual third class
charge. No charge on
return of empty trains.
Same forms and
processes as regular
passengers.

 3 forms of deportation: 1) deported from towns and

cities to transit camps and ghettos 2) smaller to larger
ghettos 3) 1942 sent on to one of the killing centers.
Between May 15 and July 19, 1944 there were 437,402
Jews deported from Hungary- most to Birkenau. were
gassed when they arrived. Railroad worked overtime to
keep up with the demand where they killed almost
100,000 people a day.
Train trip was long. Days even a week. Cattle cars- floor
area of 25 by 10 feet. Equaled 250 feet square feet.
Each person had about 2 square feet of standing
room. Average railroad car was in U.S. is 40 by 10 feet.
They were sealed. Hot in summer and freezing
in winter. Very little food. Bucket for toilet.
When they arrived they thought the worst
was over. Within in a couple of hours, 90%
of them would be dead.

Resettlement in the East

Concentration Camps served 3 main purposes:
detention centers, sources of labor and for
liquidation.
During the war the camp universe expanded quickly
to meet demands for war production and policy of
genocide.
More than 15,000 camps throughout German
occupied Europe. Included transit camps, prisoner of
war camps, private industrial camps, work education
camps, foreign labor camps, police detention camps,
and even camps for children whose
parents had been sent to labor
camps. More than 300 camps just for
women.

 Mid- 1942 there were six killing centers.

Camps held 100,000 inmates. By 1943 it was
224,000 and in 1944 it was 534,00. by January
1945 held 714,000. Of those 200,000 were
women.
More than 3 million- mostly Jews- were
murdered.

Killing Centers: Chelmno

37 miles northwest of Lodz. First used to kill Jews as
part of the Final Solution.
Started December 8, 1941 and ended March 1943. In
1942 thousands of Gypsies were also killed there. Only
left Jews were in the Lodz ghetto which operated longer
than any other.
Reopened to kill 7,000 Jews from Lodz in June-July
1944. rest of the Jews from Lodz sent
to Auschwitz.
Fall of 1944 sent special units
to dig up the bodies and burn
the evidence. Abandoned
January 8, 1945. 150,000 Jews
were killed.

 Chelmno had a staff of 20 SS officers and 120

regular police.
Divided into two parts: Schloss (manor)- arrival camp
and Waldlager (forest camp)- cremation and burial.
Located 2.5 miles away in Rzochow Forest.
Used mobile gas vans. Not near rail lines. Jews
brought from trains by truck. Taken to cellar in
groups of 50 where their valuables were taken and
they were stripped. Went up ramp to gas vans. Jews
were gassed in the vans as they traveled to the
forest.
Germans built two crematoria to
burn the bodies after a typhoid
outbreak. January 1945
Germans killed the Jewish
workers. Only two survivors and
1 who escaped.

Killing Centers:
Treblinka
November 1941 established forced labor camp for
Jews. Also served the SS and police authorities as a so
called Labor Education Camp for non-Jewish Poles who
the Germans said violated labor discipline.
Both Polish and Jewish inmates, imprisoned in
separate compounds, were deployed as forced labor.
Majority were forced to work in nearby gravel pit.
July 1942 completed construction of a killing center,
Treblinka II, a mile from the main camp.
Built a rail spur that led from the
labor camp, Treblinka I to the
killing center. Killing center was
heavily wooded and hidden from
view.

 Divided into three parts: reception, the living area,

and the killing area. Living area contained housing
for German staff and the guard unit. Contained
administrative offices, a clinic, storerooms and
workshops. One section contained barracks that
housed those Jewish prisoners selected from
incoming transports to provide forced labor to
support the camps function: mass murder.
Incoming trains for 50-60 cars bound for the killing
center stopped at the Malkinia station first. 20 cars
unhooked and brought to the killing center.
Prisoners separated. Valuables taken and
told to undress. Ran through the
tubes to the gas chambers. Sealed
inside and killed. Buried and then
later dug up and burned in
makeshift ovens in late 1942 and
1943.

 Deportations mainly from Warsaw. Between late July

and September 1942, they deported 265,000 Jews
from the Warsaw ghetto.
Between August and November 1942 they deported
346,000 Jews to Treblinka II. Continued until May
1943.
Operated for 14 months. 870,000 to 925,000 Jews
killed by a staff of 150. Fewer than 100 survivors.
Jewish inmates organized resistance group in early
1943. August 2, 1943 prisoners seized weapons but
were discovered before they could take over the
camp. Hundreds of prisoners stormed the main gate
in an attempt to escape. More than 300 escaped. 2/3
tracked down
and killed later.
Surviving prisoners shot after they were
finished dismantling the camp.

Killing Centers: Sobibor

Built spring 1942. Small staff of SS and police officials.
Divided into three parts: reception area,
administration area and killing area.
May 1942 began gassing operations. Trains with 4060 cars arrived. Took 20 cars at a time to the killing
center.
They were also forced to exhume the mass graves in
fall of 1942 and burn the bodies to remove the
evidence.
206,000 Jews killed in carbon monoxide gas
chambers. 16 months it was in operation. October
1943 revolt by the last prisoners. 300 escaped. By the
end of the
war only 300 survivors.

Killing Centers: Belzac

November 1941 construction started. Location
chosen because it had good rail connections and a
good concentration of Jews. Finished later winter
1942.
It was the second killing center to begin operation.
Same three areas: reception, administration and
killing. All connected with tubes. Rail tracks ran from
gas chambers to mass graves.
Gassing operations started mid-March 1942. trains of
40-60 freight cars arrived with
80-100 people crowded in
each car. 20 cars were
detached and brought to the
camp. Went to the reception
area.

 Told to hand over all their valuables. Men and

women separated. Forced to undress and then
forced through the tubes into the gas chambers.
Doors sealed and the engine block outside
started. Carbon monoxide funneled into the
chambers, killing those inside. Process repeated
with remaining cars.
Sonderkommando removed the bodies and
buried them. Other prisoners worked in other
areas- reception, facilitating detaining, disrobing,
relinquishment of valuables to be transported to
Germany, and movement through the tubes.
Cleaned out railcars for next deportation.
March- December 1942 there were 434,508 Jews
killed. Hundreds of Poles and Gypsies as well.
Only 2 known survivors.

 October 1942 using forced laborers they

exhumed the mass graves and burned the
bodies in open-air ovens made from rail track.
Used machines to crush the bones into powder.
Finished late spring 1943 and the Jewish laborers
were either killed or deported to Sobibor to be
gassed.
After the camp was dismantled the Germans
ploughed over the site, built a manor house and
planted trees and crops to disguise the area.

Killing Centers:
Majdanek
Suburb of Lublin.
360,000 people from 28 countries, representing
54 ethnic groups went through.
Between 170,000 and 235,000 people- most
were Poles- died from starvation, exhaustion,
disease, beatings and gassing.

Who Shall Live and Who Shall

Die?
Reception area of each camp is where they were
removed from the trains and the living divided based on
ability to work. Those unable to work were taken away.
Remaining went through the first of many selektions
(selections). Old people, pregnant women, young
children and the sick were sentenced to death.
Segregated by gender, then they were told to strip, give
up their valuables before going into the gas chambers.
Those selected to work were registered, branded, and
sheared. Given uniforms. Saw a physician.
He determined your fate.
Auschwitz was the only camp
where you could hope to live for a
little while. Still most were killed
shortly after arrival.

Prisoners of the Camps:

Soviet POWs
From June 1941 to end of war in May 1945 between 2-3 million
POWs died from mass executions, brutal mistreatment,
intentional starvation, and lack of clothing and shelter.
Army responsible for almost all these deaths.
57% of Soviet POWs compared to 3.6% of Anglo-American POWs.
1942 the POWs vital to war economy so the death rate
decreased.
1943 million working as
slaves. Many sent to
concentration camps.
Also disgraced at home. Stalin
believed they should have
fought to the death. Excluded
from Soviet community.

Prisoners of the Camps:

Gypsies
Interned and then sent to labor and death camps. Experience
parallels that of the Jews.
Despised because of their social status. Threat to Aryan racial
purity. Feared a mixing of their blood. Hunted down.
Tens of thousands killed by SS and police in the east. More
deported and killed in the camps.
23,000 deported from Germany to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Transported
from Lodz to Chelmno where they were killed.
At Birkenau a special camp was
built for them. Children subjected
to brutal and inhumane medical
experiments by Josef Mengele.
August 2, 1944 Gypsy camp liquidated.
All men, women and children were
sent to the gas chambers.
Estimated 90,000 to 220,000 killed.

Prisoners of the Camps:

Political Prisoners
First ones sent to the camps.
1933 sent to Dachau.
Communist, Social Democrats, and trade
unionists marked by red triangles.

Prisoners of the Camps:

Jehovahs Witnesses
Civil disobedience and refusal to accept authority.
Wore purple triangles
Remained by choice. Could leave if they renounced
their faith.
Nazis did not plan their extermination.
1 in 2 died in the camps.

Prisoners of the Camps:

Homosexuals
Targeted men because they threatened the fate
of the Aryan race. Not slated to be killed.
Tens of thousands sent to prison.
5,000 sent to camps where they were brutally
mistreated. Tried to change their sexual
orientation. Experiments.

Slave Labor
1942 concentration camps a vital part of the war economy.
Realized war would take mobilization of all available resources.
Forced labor estimates exceed 7 million. More than 1 million
foreign workers were also concentration camp inmates.
Working conditions brutal. 11 hour days with a minimum
amount of sleep and almost no food or warmth.
Companies did not care about using slave labor. Voluntary.
Labor shortage put restraints on how the SS could treat
prisoners.
Nothing would slow down the Final Solution. 1943 Mauthausen
had a population of 21,100 and 8,491 deaths. Labor a
dispensable commodity not a capital investment.
I.G. Farben, the largest industrial complex,
invest almost 700 million reichsmarks in a
petrochemical complex at Auschwitz III.
Slaves were literally worked to death.

Auschwitz
Largest and most organized. More people killed
there than any camp.
Three camps: Auschwitz I (concentration camp);
Auschwitz II (Birkenau- killing center); Auschwitz
II (Buna-Monowitz the complex of slave labor
camps.
Covered a closed zone of 19 square miles
guarded by up to 4,500 men and women on the
camp staff in up to 12 companies of the SS
Deaths Head Unit. They had been in the camp
since 1934 and wore the cross and skull insignia.
all the camps together killed
1.1 million people- 90% of them
Jewish.

Auschwitz I
Opened June 1940 with the transport of 728 Polish
prisoners. Purpose was to hold political prisoners.
Oversaw labor of hundreds of thousands. Arbeit Macht
Frei (Work Liberates). Reality was they were worked and
starved to death.
Block 11 used to house political prisoners. Basement
windows were barred and upper windows sealed. Did
first experiments in gassing here.
Block 10 was across the courtyard. This is where they
did medical experiments. Sterilization done by army
physician, Dr. Horst Schumann. Not let the enemies of
the
state reproduce.
Between the two buildings was the
Black Wall where they did executions.

Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
Built in the summer of 1941. Divided into 9
subunits. Separated by electrically charged
barbed wire.
Network of 13 miles of canals surrounded the
camps.
Wooden barracks built to hold 48 horses housed
800 people instead. Other buildings held 400500 people without a bathroom. Had to use a
bucket.
Latrine served 250 people at a time. It was a hut
30 by 130 feet with rows of holes sunk
through the floor. Until 1943
the only water they had came
from the latrine.

 1943 Mengele became head physician. Wanted to

prove racial superiority.
Did experiments on Gypsy children first. They worked
on twins, dwarfs and the disabled. Twins and the
disabled were photographed first and casts made of
their jaws and teeth.
When he was done the patients were killed and their
organs removed to be studied. Took documents with
when he left in January 1945.

Auschwitz III (BunaMonowitz)

Site of the labor complex.
Heart of major industrial complex sponsored by I.G.
Farben.
Surrounded by 45 satellite camps throughout upper
Silesia and southwestern Poland.
Each developed economic nexus of industries and
corporate investors. Relied on unending supply of
cheap labor.
Workers died by the thousands only to be replaced by
new arrivals.
Sonderkommando worked at the crematoria. Given
better food. They were expendable and sent to gas
chambers and then replaced by inmates.
Lived and worked in the shadow of death.

Face to Face with Death:

Tattooing and Shearing
Final Solution was not just about killing but also
about the plunder (goods taken from the Jews).
In Auschwitz and Majdanek alone they found
300,000 pairs of shoes. These were given to
German settlers who came to Poland and to
other inmates.
Produced more than 2,000 freight cars of stolen
goods.

 If you survived the first selection your introduction

into camp life was the humiliation of being tattooed
and shorn. It was to dehumanize the Jews.
Until August 1942 hair was not used. After that
processed into felt to be used in industry and thread
was spun from it.
Made hair cloth, ignition mechanism for bombs, ropes
and cords for ships and mattress stuffing. Hair was
worth about $1.09/2.2lbs.

Body Disposal
Cleaning up and disposing of the bodies was a huge job.
At Birkenau they first buried the bodies in a lime pit. As the
number increased and the bodies decomposed the earth
rose and oozed which polluted the groundwater.
Dug up the bodies and burned them. Became more
efficient after that.
Ashes and bones crushed with wooden mortars then buried
in pits or sunk in rivers. Also used to fertilize the fields.
Society participated in the process by
demanding more goods like gold and
hair.
Beginning in 1942 they started
collecting gold teeth. 1944 the
estimate was as high as 22 to 26lbs of
gold a month collected.