World War II: Vernichtungskrieg and the Final Solution

1. LECTURE WEEK 4War of extermination [‘Vernichtungskrieg’] and the beginning of the ‘Final Solution’1. German expansionist politics before the beginning of WW II2. WW II, 1939-42: Successes on the Western and Eastern front3. Vernichtungskrieg (war of extermination) in the East4. Links between war in Eastern Europe and ‘Final Solution’

2. ‘Vernichtungskrieg and the beginning of the ‘Final Solution’1. German expansionist politics before the beginning of WW II • 13 Jan. 1935: Saarland back to Germany via popular vote • 7 March 1936: Remilitarization of the Rheinland • 25 October 1936: ‘Axis Berlin-Rome’ • 15 November 1936: Pact Germany-Japan • 1938: Invasion of Austria (‘Anschluß’) with broad acclaim by Austrian population

3. German Expansion 1935-July 1939 Source: Gilbert’s Holocaust Atlas

4. 29-30 Sept. 1938: ‘Münchner Abkommen’: Hitler, Mussolini (Italy), Chamberlain (Great Britain) and Daladier (France) agree ceding of Sudetenland to Germany; Prague had previously been forced to agree. German troops occupy Sudetenland 1 October. • 14 March 1939: Invasion into Czech territory; 16 March creation of ‘Reichsprotektorat Böhmen und Mähren’ (Bohemia and Moravia, roughly the territory of today’s Czech Republic) (slide 3). Britain ends appeasement politics. • 22 May 1939: Military alliance between Germany and Italy • 23 August 1939: Hitler-Stalin-Pakt

5. ‘Vernichtungskrieg and the beginning of the ‘Final Solution’2. WW II, 1939-42: Successes on the Western and Eastern front • 1 September 1939: Attack on Poland; beginning of WW II. All of Western Poland occupied within a month; Eastern Poland occupied by Soviet Union. • 3 September 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany. • October 1939: Western provinces of Poland made part of the Reich, establishment of Generalgouvernement under Hans Frank in the Eastern provinces under German rule. • 9 April 1940: Attack on Norway and Denmark.

6. Poland Invasion Sept 1939 Source: Gilbert’s Holocaust Atlas

7. 10 May 1940: Beginning of Western offensive; until end of June, Germany overruns Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and parts of France. The collaborationist Vichy-Regime under Marshall Pétain is established in rest of France (slide 8). • The German conduct of War in the West and North in various instances violates international regulations (e.g. Haager Landkriegsordnung, early versions of the Geneva Convention) regarding protection of the civilian population and treatment of POWs, but not nearly as systematically as the later war in the East. • 22 June 1941: Beginning of ‘Unternehmen Barbarossa’ (attack on the Soviet Union). German army gets close to Moscow. • December 1941: counter-offensive of the Red Army begins; battle of Stalingrad in early 1943 seals German defeat.

8. German domination in Europe 1942 Source: Gilbert’s Holocaust Atlas

9. ‘Vernichtungskrieg and the beginning of the ‘Final Solution’3. Vernichtungskrieg in the East German warfare in Eastern Europe is shaped by anti-communist, racist and anti-Semitic Nazi ideology, lead as a ruthless racial war (more than 20 mio. Soviet citizens, more than half of them civilians, die in WW II) and aimed at the conquest of Lebensraum in the East and enslavement of the Slav ‘Untermenschen’. The beginning of extermination policies against Jews. All of these dimensions are closely connected.

10. 1939: murder of Polish élites. • From late 1939: concentration of Polish Jews in ghettos. Beginning deportations of Austrian and Czech Jews to Poland; first mass deportations of Jews form the Eastern Polish provinces into the Generalgouvernement. February 1940: first deportations of German Jews to Poland. Deportations of Jews into Generalgouvernement later halted because of protests by Generalgouverneur Frank.

11. Early summer – end of 1940: ‘Madagaskar-Plan’ explored (deporting all Jews to Madagascar) • March 1941: Hitler explains to high-ranking Wehrmacht officers: The war against the Soviet Union is to be lead as “Vernichtungskrieg”, “mit barbarischer Härte”.

12. http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/wk2/propaganda/index.html

14. 13 May 1941 (i.e. before start of attack on Soviet Union): Hitler’s ‘Barbarossa decree’ – contains among other things: actions by Wehrmacht members against civilians are not to be persecuted by military courts even if criminal according to international law (unless the maintenance of military discipline is threatened); partisans to be killed; retaliations against local communities in case of partisan attacks etc. • 6 June 1941: ‘Kommissarbefehl’ of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, ordering ‘liquidation’ of all Red Army political officers (breaking international law) (slide 18).

15. Erlasse des Vernichtungskriegs Hitler’s ‚Barbarossa Decree‘ of 13 May 1941 Decree on the jurisdiction of martial law and on special measures of the troops I Treatment of criminal acts by enemy civilians [...] 2. Partisans are to be dispatched without mercy by the troops either in combat or while trying to escape. 3. Furthermore, all other attacks by enemy civilians against the Wehrmacht, its members and retinue are to be repelled on the spot by the most extreme measures up to the destruction of the attacker. 4. [...] Collective drastic action will be taken immediately against communities from which treacherous or insidious attacks against the Wehrmacht are launched, on the orders of an officer with at least the rank of battalion commander upwards, if the circumstances do not permit a speedy apprehension of individual culprits. [...]

16. Erlasse des Vernichtungskriegs Hitler’s ‚Barbarossa Decree‘ of 13 May 1941 Decree on the jurisdiction of martial law and on special measures of the troops(continuation) II. Treatment of criminal acts by members of the Wehrmacht or its retinue against native civilians1. For acts which members of the Wehrmacht or its retinue commit against enemy civilians, there is no compulsion to prosecute, even when the act represents at the same time a military crime or offense. 2. In judging such deeds it is to be considered in any proceedings that the collapse in the year 1918, the later period of suffering of the German people, and the battle against National Socialism with the movement’s countless sacrifices of blood are incontestably to be attributed to Bolshevik influence, and that no German has forgotten that. 3. [...] The chairman only orders court-martial proceedings for acts against native inhabitants, when the maintenance of discipline or the protection of the troops demands it. That applies, for example, in the case of serious acts that result from the loss of sexual restraint, are derived from a criminal disposition, or are a sign that the troops are threatening to run wild.

17. Erlasse des Vernichtungskriegs The Commissar Order of 6 June 1941 [issued by OKW] Guidelines for the Treatment of Political Commissars In the battle against Bolshevism, the adherence of the enemy to the principles of humanity or international law is not to be counted on. [...] The troops must be aware that: 1. In this battle mercy or considerations of international law with regard to these elements is false. They are a danger to our own safety and to the rapid pacification of the conquered territories. 2. The originators of barbaric, Asiatic methods of warfare are the political commissars. So immediate and unhesitatingly severe measures must be undertaken against them. They are therefore, when captured either in battle or offering resistance, as a matter of routine to be dispatched by firearms. [...]

18. 3.1. Main Actors in mass killings of (Jewish and non-Jewish) civilians • Einsatzgruppen • The Wehrmacht • Reservepolizeibataillone

19. Einsatzgruppen: • Special units of SS and SD (Sicherheitsdienst, part of the SS apparatus), operating behind the front with support by police battalions and (esp. in Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania) local units and logistical support by Wehrmacht, killing suspected communists, Jews and partisans. Largest single killing action: more than 30 000 Jews killed in Babij Yar near Kiev in September 1941.

20. The Wehrmacht: Involved in criminal (according to international law) and genocidal activities in several ways: • (By and large) willing instrument in an aggressive war, thus making possible the operation of the killing squads in the East, the deportation of most of the Jews of Europe and the undisturbed operation of the extermination camps in the East. The image of the Jewish-Bolshevik ‘Kommissar’, e.g, links two main ideological enemies of Nazism.

21. Increasingly involved alongside the SS, or even independently, in the mass killing of civilians, esp. – but not exclusively - Jews, as alleged supporters of partisans. Esp. in Serbia, the Wehrmacht, not the SS,plays the leading role in mass killings. • Treatment of Soviet POWs: 3.3 million out of 5.7 million die in captivity, mostly from starvation and disease. • Siege of the big Russian cities, leading to (intended) mass starvation of civilians (e.g. several million dead in Leningrad).

22. Army sustained itself from the resources of the occupied population, thus causing starvation and death. • Wherever the German army was forced to retreat (from late 1941), it followed a policy of ‘scorched earth’, leading to deprivation and death of large parts of the population.

23. 4. Links between the war in Eastern Europe and the ‘Final Solution’ • Both inspired by racist ideology and the ideal of the Aryan ‘master race’. • More specifically: Explicit propagandist and ideological link between Jews, Communists and partisans (in Kommissarbefehl and innumerable other orders – see e.g. Manstein order, slide 24).

24. On 20 November 1941 General Erich von Manstein, commander of the Eleventh Army, issued the following order: • Since 22 June the German Volk is in the midst of a battle for life and death against the Bolshevik system. This struggle is not being carried on against the Soviet Armed Forces alone in the established form laid down by European rules of warfare. … • Jewry is the middleman between the enemy in the rear and the remains of the Red Army and the Red leadership still fighting. More strongly than in Europe they hold all key positions of political leadership and administration, of trade and crafts and constitutes a cell for all unrest and possible uprisings. • The Jewish Bolshevik system must be wiped out once and for all and should never again be allowed to invade our European living space. • The German soldier has therefore not only the task of crushing the military potential of this system. He comes also as the bearer of a racial concept and as the avenger of all the cruelties which have been perpetrated on him and on the German people. • The soldier must appreciate the necessity for the harsh punishment of Jewry, the spiritual bearer of the Bolshevik terror. This is also necessary in order to nip in the bud all uprisings which are mostly plotted by Jews." • (Quoted in: Omer Bartov: ‘Savage War’. In: Burleigh, Confronting the Nazi Past, London 1996: 125-39, here 130

25. Links between the war in Eastern Europe and the ‘Final Solution’ (ctd.) • Practical link: the initial stage of mass killings of Jews occurred in the context of the conquest of Eastern Europe, close collaboration between SS (mainly responsible for the running of the concentration and later extermination camps) and Wehrmacht. • Facilitated by the generally brutalising consequences of war for the soldiers and thus for large parts of German society. • Auschwitz and Majdanek were initially camps for Soviet POWs. The first gassings with Zyklon B at Auschwitz were performed on Russian POWs.

26. Further Reading: - Omer Bartov, “Savage War”, in Michael Burleigh, ed.,Confronting the Nazi Past, 1996: 125-139 - Jürgen Förster, “The relation between Operation Barbarossa as an ideological war of extermination and the Final Solution”, in David Cesarani, ed., The Final Solution, 1994: 85-102 - Richard Breitmann, “Himmler, the architect of genocide”, in David Cesarani, ed., The Final Solution, London, New York; Routledge, 1994: 73-84 - Christian Streit, “Wehrmacht, Einsatzgruppen, Soviet POWs and anti-Bolshevism in the emergence of the Final Solution, in David Cesarani, ed., The Final Solution, London, New York; Routledge, 1994: 103-118 - Omer Bartov, “Operation Barbarossa and the Final Solution”, in David Cesarani, ed., The Final Solution, London, New York; Routledge, 1994: 119-136

27. Further Reading (cont.): • Jürgen Förster, “Complicity or Entanglement? Wehrmacht, War, and Holocaust”, in Berenbaum and Peck, eds., 1998: 266-283 • Helmut Krausnick and Hans-Heinrich Wilhelm, Die Truppe des Weltanschauungskrieges, Stuttgart: DVA, 1981 • Christian Streit, Keine Kameraden: Die Wehrmacht und die sowjetischen Kriegsgefangenen, Bonn: Dietz • Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, ed., Verbrechen der Wehrmacht: Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941-1944, Hamburg: Hamburger Edition • - English translation of the above [in short loan]