Hitlers Final Solution

Introduction

In the jump of 1941, as preparations were under way for the attack of the USSR, Hitler proclaimed that a war of decimation was about to start. He called for the annihilation of the Bolshevik authority, thus laying the base for the extermination of what Hitler considered to be the biological source of Bolshevism: the Jews of the USSR. The killings were to be undertook by four mobile SS units called Einsatzgruppen (action squads), each comprising of some 1,000 men. In supplement to the Einsatzgruppen, there were other SS and policeman flats requested to shoot Jews who were to be assembled in front of mass graves dug by the Jews themselves. On numerous events after the infantry campaign begun in June 1941, the German armed detachment was called on to supply support to the SS and policemanmanman units. Thus, the total number of Germans engaged in the mass shootings of Jews was round 30,000.

Massive Population Shifts

On July 2, 1941, Reinhard Heydrich, head of Germany's Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service) and an instrumental number in coordinating the extermination of the Jews, issued his Commissars' alignment, according to which all Jews in authorized places in the Soviet administration were to be executed. However, the Einsatzgruppen commanders amply understood this alignment to mean all mature person male Jews. Large figures of them were immediately shot despite of whether they held authorized Soviet positions. In August 1941 the killings were expanded to encompass Jewish women and children. For example, on August 1, 1941, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, handed out an alignment to SS flats preparing to comb the Pripet Marshes in Belarus: "All male Jews should be shot. Drive the feminine Jews into the swamp." The SS officer in ascribe of the procedure suggested his superiors that "Driving women and young kids into the swamps did not have the intended achievement because the swamps were not deep sufficient for the Jews to drown." Beginning in late September 1941 German forces conveyed out large-scale activities in which entire Jewish communities were swabbed out. For example, 33,000 Jews of Kiev, in Ukraine, were killed on September 29 and 30, 1941, in a ravine outside Kiev called Babi Yar.

Order, according to which all Jews in authorized places in the Soviet administration were to be executed. However, the Einsatzgruppen commanders broadly understood this order to mean all adult male Jews. Large numbers of them were directly shot despite of whether they held authorized Soviet positions. In August 1941 the killings were amplified to include Jewish women and children. For example, on August 1, 1941, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, handed out an order to SS flats preparing to comb the Pripet Marshes in Belarus: "All male Jews should be shot. Drive the feminine Jews into the swamp." The SS officer in ascribe of the procedure advised his superiors that "Driving women and young kids into the swamps did not have the proposed success because the swamps were not deep enough for the Jews ...