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Holocaust
The genocide of approximately 6 million European Jews during World War II planned by Adolf Hitler.
11,094 Questions
An SS officer was an officer in the SS.
SS stands for Schutzstaffel. Literally it means 'protective squad', but it should be left untranslated as SS.
The SS was originally set up as Hitler's personal bodyguard and was a sub-division of the SA (brownshirts, stormtroopers). In 1934 it became fully independent of the SA and was commanded by Himmler (with Heydrich as his deputy). It became the core of Nazi terror apparatus and ran the concentration camps and by about 1936 assumed control of the entire terror apparatus.
In the late 1930s, various additional SS units were set up as a kind of supplementary army alongside the main German army, which some of the top Nazis didn't quite trust. This SS "army" was called the "Waffen-SS" and was distinct from the "Totenkopfverbaende" ("Death's Head Units") that ran the concentration camps.
All sections of the SS liked to look on themselves as an elite ... During World War 2 the SS accepted foreign volunteers as the German regular army wasn't keen on accepting foreigners. So there were, for example, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Bosnian Muslim and other SS units.
In general, the SS had a reputation for fanatical devotion to Nazism. It was officially ranked as racially one notch above ordinary Germans ...!
Like all larger military outfits, the SS had officers, NCOs and ordinary soldiers.
Note that the SS had its own designation for ranks. These almost entirely avoided rank designations borrowed from foreign languages, so for example, the SS equivalent of a "Major" was a "Sturmbannführer" a full "General" was an "Obergruppenführer" and so on.
See the Related Link for "Wikipedia: SS Ranks" to the bottom for the answer.
Could Nazis themselves get a tattoos?
All members of the SS had to have tattoos. Others did not need tattoos.
Answer
Only ethnic Germans and the SS police escaped the registration tattoos, in Nazi Germany. Tattoos were used to mark and tract prisoners who were sent to the labor camps. Jews, homosexuals, the mentally ill, Soviet prisoners of war, Poles, Communists, Jehovah's Witnesses, blacks and the Roma were all tattooed - while in forced labor concentration camps.
The Nazis initiated the tattooing program at Auschwitz in mid-1941, but soon the number system was out dated - due to the execution of more inmates than actual live prisoners. Instead, the Nazis introduced a new system that was distinct to each division of the extermination camp - Josef Mengele, who performed inhumane scientific experiments on prisoners, tattooed his own distinct number series on those prisoners depending on where in his camp they were assigned.
The purpose was not only to identify but to degrade - making these people a mere number in the system - so less than human. It is horrifying still today how inhumane a human can be.
What was the Holocaust and how many Jews died?
6 million Jewish people roughly and roughly 4 million other people were killed in the Holocaust. The term "Holocaust" means 'Death by fire', which was a method of killing some of the Death Camps used against its prisoners.
How many followers did Adolph Hitler have during the Holocaust?
== == hitler gained alot of followers. nearly all of them were germans ___ By 1940 about 10% of the population of Germany was members of the NSDAP (Nazi party). Obviously, there were supporters outside the Party, too. Note that the popularity of the Nazi regime fluctuated. It peaked in the summer of 1940 after the German victory over France, and declined after Stalingrad.
Did the Russians kill more Jews than the Germans in WW II?
No, the Soviet Union did not target the Jews. It was the Nazis that murdered about 6 million Jews ...
Why did the nazis listen to Hitler when he told them to kill the jewish?
For true Nazis 'follow-the-leader' was the highest virtue. "Fuhrer command! We will follow [obey]", they screamed ecstatically at him, and they followed him all the way to the bottom of the abyss.
What is the conflict and compromise in the Holocaust?
The Holocaust is not regarded as a conlict because there was no fighting apart from in a few cases. It was murder, not warfare.
It was the slaughter of six almost entirely defenceless million Jews by the Nazis in World War 2. It wasn't a conflict ... It took place during World War 2, which of course was a conflict on a vast scale, but the two are not the same. The Holocaust was a kind of sub-plot during World War 2, but wasn't central to it.
The Holocaust was mass murder (genocide) on a vast scale: it was not a conflict. Adolf Hitler hated the Jews and held them responsible for all Germany's problems and for the outbreak of World War 2 (which he had started). Hitler was gripped by all kinds of bizarre conspiracy theories which claimed that 'the Jews' wanted to achieve world domination and were in competition with Germany for this.
Please see the related questions.
Who are the German military police?
There were several different military police. The Army had a military police who were wore the standard army uniform but wore a different eagle and swatika on their uniform and helmet. They wore one on their LEFT sleeve. The SS were the political police and were the ones who wore black uniforms. Before the war, the SA were the police. They wore brown shirts and the small hat (similiar to a kepi) and were called the "Brown shirts". They were replaced by the SS.
Why did people put Hitler in charge?
In Germany in the early 1930s there were about 850,000 Jews and people of Jewish origin (including people who were one-quarter Jewish). Out of a total population of about 62 million this amounts to about 1.4%. That's nowhere near enough to have much of an electoral impact. (The assumption you make in the question about 'large amount' is inaccurate).
The "Night of the Broken Glass" happened in November 1938. Over two nights, Nazis destroyed homes, schools and businesses held by Jews and killed over 100 people.
What was a quote from Dr Mengele?
The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.
How many ghettos where there in Germany during the Nazis?
The Nazi ghettos for Jews were mainly in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and other parts of Eastern Europe. In 1939-40 German Jews in most larger cities were forced to move into 'Jewish' appartment blocks, which were marked as such with a large J above all entrances. In most of Nazi Germany itself Jews were not put into ghettos in the sense of walled in areas. The Nazis know that that would lead to too many questions from ordinary Germans.
Where did some leading Nazis escape to?
The main countries were in South America, especially Argentina, Paraguay and also Brazil.
How many Jews were killed in the ovens?
Jews were not killed in incinerators during the Holocaust. They were gassed in showers, shot by firing squad, shot outside of a firing squad, electrocuted, had inhumane experiments performed on them, and succumbed to numerous diseases, but the Nazis did not incinerate live Jews. After killing a Jew by any of the above means, the dead body was then incinerated. It is impossible to know how many Jews were incinerated, but considering how many Jews went into the camps and how many came out, it is likely that half of the Jews killed in the Holocaust (if not more) were incinerated post-mortem.
How many people died in Monowitz Concentration Camp?
No Jews would've died in Monowitz (a subcamp of Auschwitz), as it was a a Labor Education Camp for non-Jewish inmates.
It estimated that few inmates died in Monowitz; many of them were even payed for working to develop synthetic rubber and oils for the German war effort.
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Auschwitz III (also known as Monowitz or Buna) was a harsh concentration camp, whatever its official title. It had Jewish inmates as well as non-Jews, for example Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi, who have both written well known books about their experiences there. The camp was, perhaps, less harsh than, for example, the Auschwitz Women's camp, but it had a high death rate. Taking the various labour camps in the Auschwitz group as a whole, over half those prisoners who were registered there did not leave alive according to research done by the Auschwitz Museum in the 1980s and 1990s. (About 190,000 registered prisoners left the Auschwitz group of camps alive. That doesn't of course mean that they survived as many were moved to other camps and perished there - for example, Anne and Margot Frank).
As registered prisoners were sometimes moved from one sub-camp to another estimating figures at individual sections is tricky. However, the source quoted below gives an estimate of 10,000 Monowitz prisoners killed ...
According to the Wikipedia article on Monowitz:
The life expectancy of Jewish workers at Buna Werke was three to four months, for those working in the outlying mines, only one month. Those deemed unfit for work were gassed at Birkenau or sent "to Birkenau" (nach Birkenau), according to a euphemism used in I.G. Farben record books.
See link for more information on Monowitz.
What did jews do during the holocaust?
Ordinary Germans joined the army, there was an almost total mobilisation, with Germany being able to bring in workers from the east, it freed ordinary workers to join the army.
Why did they let the Holocaust happen?
The 'world' didn't care.
__________
A lot of the world didn't know the situation was as bad as it was in Europe during that time.
___________
Actually, the Holocaust was regularly reported in the media in Allied and neutral countries from November 1942 on, but seems not to have registered widely. Part of the trouble was that in practical terms there was very little that the Allies could do about it - and of course many people just didn't care.
Did all the Germans agree with Hitler's plans?
No, because although not officially allowed on the register, there were German Jews.
Also, friends and spouses of Jews did not like this.
However, the Gestapo terrified everyone into compliance.
Don't forget, Hitler used Propaganda against the Jews - eg. he blamed entire wars on them, called them conspiracies, and even kid's books were anti-semistic.
It would be almost impossible for another atempt to whip out an entire race with out any country stepping in for assistance. Sure in Africa there are thousands of innocent people that die year but not to a scale such as the holocaust.
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The above answer is ... far too optimistic. In 1994 in Rwanda, Hutu militias slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis for ethnic (racial) reasons. There were no gas chambers or anything as sophisticated as that - it was mainly done with machetes. As for the scale, the 800,000 were killed within 3 months in a frenzy of murder. That is on a par with the rate at which the Nazis committed genocide.
As in the case of the Holocaust, the rest of the world just didn't want to know - until it was over.
Yes another holocaust is possible
What happened to the polish people in the concentration camps of World War 2?
They were taken to ghettos or concentration camps. They also had certain regulatios to meet;They were were forced to do manual labour like shoveling snow and clearing driveways. They had to gain special permission just to get on a train, they had to wear a star on their clothing at all times and they had curfews in their ghettos.
Who was a famous German who helped save Jewish refugees?
Here are three people. One is famous, the other two are not. * Oskar Schindler * Hermann Maas * Heinrich Grüber Incidentally, Grüber was one of the few Germans who gave evidence against Eichmann at the latter's trial.
Who built the ovens used in the Holocaust?
J A Topf und Soehne, Erfurt. The company had an established reputation for building efficient crematoria and other furnaces that reached very high temperatures using low-grade coal.
What is a resistance group to the Nazis?
To distribut cupcakes and candy to the Germans while dispensing bullets and hand-grenades to the Jews.
What was the importance of the Star of David?
From 1941 or 1942 onwards all Jews living in Germany and in most areas under German occupation had to wear a yellow star of David on their outermost items of clothing. The purpose was to make them easily recognizable as Jews.
