THE NEW ORDER AND THE HOLOCAUST

1. THE NEW ORDER AND THE HOLOCAUST “The New Order in Europe” Nazis controlled Europe from the English Channel in the west to near Moscow in the east (1942)---mostly ran by military or civilian officials and supportive civilians Nazis were ruthless in eastern Europe---see the Slavic people as racially inferior---wanted the lands for German settlers---plans for Aryan empire is set in place Heinrich Himmler is the SS leader put in charge of the German resettlement plans in the east---(move Slavic people out and replace them with Germans)---moved one million Poles to southern Poland---1942 two million ethnic Germans had been moved and colonized to new Poland provinces---Hitler anticipates turning all Slavs into slaves so Himmler suggest killing them instead Labor shortage in Germany so about 7 million Europeans are forced to work in Germany or in their own country for the Nazi empire

2. “The Holocaust” • 1. Hitler’s “Final Solution” was to exterminate the Jews from Europe because they were the greatest threat to his Aryan Empire • 2. The SS under Himmler was responsible for carrying out the Final Solution which was “genocide” or the physical extermination of ones own race---the Jewish population • 3. Reinhard Heydrich was the head of the SS’s Security Service and was in charge of the Final Solution---He created special forces called “Einsatzgruppen” to carry out Nazi plans • 4. When Poland fell Heydrich ordered all Jews to be rounded up and put in crowded ghettos in a number of cities---the Nazis tried to starve the Jews----many resistance groups in the ghettos fought back • 5. In 1941 the Einsatzgruppen began to act as mobile killing units which followed the army, rounded up the Jews, and then executed them---they buried their bodies in mass graves (one million died this way)----however, the Nazis thought this was too slow a solution

3. “Death Camps” • 1. Jews were transported in trains like cattle to Poland which had six death camps and the largest was “Auschwitz”---30% of the arrivals were sent to work in labor camps of which many were starved or worked to death---others were exterminated in gas chambers • 2. By 1942 the death camps are in full operation and the “Final Solution” is of top priority even over the military needs during war---In 1944 as the Germans began to lose ground, Hitler still ordered Jews be shipped from Greece and Hungary to the death camps • 3. Over 3 million Jews were killed in the death camps (overall total killed were between 5 and 6 million)

4. 4. Other victims of the Holocaust were Europe’s Gypsies (40%), Poles, Ukrainians, and 3-4 million Soviet prisoners of war • 5. The Danish people were able to protect most of its Jewish citizens yet, in other places “Collaborators” helped the Nazis find Jews • 6. Jewish children were the first to be put to death in the gas champers because they could not work (1.2 million)---many children were moved from cities being bombed and never saw their parents again (1945 13 million orphaned children in Europe---Schools closed and many children on both sides joined the front lines to fight or worked as spies (age 14-15)

5. “The New Order In Asia” • 1. Japan hoped to use its newly conquered countries as sources of raw materials such as tin, oil, and rubber (market for Japanese goods) • 2. Japanese slogans were “Asia for the Asiatics”---they contacted anticolonialist forces and promised them that local governments would be set up under Japanese control (Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Vietnam, and the Philippines)---each was ran by Japanese military and the local people were forced to work • 3. In Vietnam, the Japanese took rice from the people and one million of them starved to death in 1944 and 1945

6. “Japanese Respect” • 1. At first, many of the Southeast Asian nationalists cooperated with the Japanese but their attitudes changed through the arrogance and contempt for local customs (no respect for the culture) --- ie: Buddhist pagodas in Burma were used as military latrines • 2. The Japanese were like the Germans, they had little respect for the lives of people in occupied countries---In Nanjing and in China the Japenese soldiers looted the city and killed and raped its people (12,000 Allied P.O.W.’s died while constructing the Burma-Thailand railway in 1943) • 3. Nationalist in occupied countries were conflicted because they did not want the former colonial powers to return but they did not like the Japanese either----Ho Chi Minh in French Indochina turned against the Japanese and worked with the Allies