How did the Holocaust operate?

Answer 1

The Holocaust took place in stages, which varied from country to country. In general, the Jews were first isolated and weakened by a series of discriminatory decrees, such as special ration cards stamped with a J, which didn't allow as much food as ordinary ration books, not being allowed to shop before 3 pm, by which time many shops had half bare shelves, not being allowed to use public transport, forbidden to own radios ... and later, having to wear the yellow Star of David whenever they were in public. They were forbidden to work for non-Jews and often this meant that they were prevented from earning a living wage. Key stages in much of Eastern Europe were: # Discriminatory legislation of the kind mentioned above. # Compulsory ghettoization. This meant that a certain area(s) was designated as Jewish; all the Jews in town then had to move into that area, which became desperately overcrowded and then insanitary. Further Jews were herded in from surrounding areas. The area was sealed off. The Nazis decided how much food to let in and on what conditions ... # Each ghetto was allowed to have a 'Jewish Council' (nominated or at least approved by the SS) for its own administration. This included the distribution of food and internal policing, and all of this made these councils very unpopular. The Jewish Councils had to supply the SS with victims for deportation to death camps, for example, 5,000 for transport to Auschwitz at 7 am next Monday. # Death from starvation and disease become common. # From October 1941 on, Jews were deported from the ghettos to death camps and multi-purpose concentration camps. # On arrival at a death camp, the victims had to hand over any valuables and money. They were whisked off to gas chambers, gassed and then cremated. Often there was bureaucratic muddles and the unfortunate victims had to wait, sometime for days, till there was space for them in the gas chambers ... Sometimes the crematoria broke down ... # At multi-purpose camps, such as Auschwitz, the new arrivals were divided into two groups - (a) the young (under 15 or so), the old, visibly pregnant women and others considered 'unfit for work'; (b) those 'selected' for work. Those in Group (a) were gassed as soon as practical; those in Group (b) usually had to do heavy manual labour on grossly inaqdequate food. In other words, they were slowly worked to death.