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Ghettoization and Final Solution
A Plan to Murder a People
World War II broke out on September 1, 1939. There were many policies put in place during the early years of the war.Listen to E. Edward Herman recall when his father left Warsaw:
Listen to Paul Temmer talk about humiliation from local non-Jews:
The Ghettos
By late fall 1939, plans were put into place to remove the Jews into urban ghettos, which were euphemistically referred to as “Jewish residential districts.” There were different types of ghettos. Some were closed, others were open. Smaller Jewish communities were forced into ghettos in bigger cities. The Nazis eventually established over 1,000 ghettos.Aktionen
Until June 1941, Germany and the Soviet Union were allied, but on June 22 of 1941, the German army invaded the Soviet Union. Following the army were mobile killing squads, known as the Einsatzgruppen. Their purpose was to liquidate Poles, Roma and Sinti, and members of the Communist party. The overwhelming proportion of the men, women, and children killed by the Einsatzgruppen were Jews.Listen to Essie Levine describe “selections” in the Novogrudok ghetto from which from which she lost most of her family:
Wannsee Conference
On January 20, 1942, a Third Reich inter-ministerial conference was held on Lake Wannsee near Berlin to discuss the "Final Solution" to the so-called "Jewish problem." Nazi officials casually sat around a large conference table and in less than 90 minutes, approved previously drafted plans for the systematic annihilation of the European Jews.I have been authorized by Reich Marshal Herman Goring to make all the necessary preparations for the final solution of the Jewish Question in Europe. I therefore invite you to the conference, immediately followed by breakfast. Heil Hitler!
– Reinhard Heydrich