Questions tagged [holocaust]
For questions about The Holocaust, the genocide committed by Nazi Germany under the direction of Adolf Hitler. For any other genocide, use the [genocide] tag. This is a sensitive and heavily-trolled topic (many questions are from holocaust deniers trying to get people to agree with them) so questions on this subject are held to an exceptionally strict standard.
82
questions
110
votes
14
answers
29k
views
When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
When watching "Saving Private Ryan" I noticed during the opening scene that one of the soldiers (who is Jewish) gets emotional when he discovers a Hitler Youth knife, I could only assume it was ...
- 947
56
votes
3
answers
18k
views
Why were so many more Jewish men than Jewish women killed during the Holocaust?
On the Wikipedia page Jewish Women in the Holocaust, it says:
Of the estimated six million Jews who were killed1 during the Holocaust, 2 million of them were women.2
Conversely, this means that ...
- 729
41
votes
3
answers
6k
views
How were concentration and extermination camp guards recruited?
I'm interested in knowing how the Nazi regime went about hiring the guards and other camp personnel who did the dirty work.
Were they screened for sadism, callousness, obedience, or some other trait ...
- 716
39
votes
8
answers
10k
views
Were defendants at the Nuremberg trial allowed to deny the holocaust?
In reply to a question on how to respond to Holocaust denial, I answered
At the Nuremberg trials the holocaust was one of the indictments. None of the defendants pretended that the holocaust had ...
- 14.1k
38
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Was Anne Frank's story common?
I've been reading the Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank. Prior to reading it, I always assumed that her story was somewhat typical of Jews living in countries that Germany occupied, or even in ...
- 553
37
votes
10
answers
4k
views
What was the purpose of Nazi extermination camps?
Why did they spend money and effort to build the infrastructure and organization, collect, transport and house the prisoners while execution on the spot would presumably be easier and less costly? I'm ...
- 395
33
votes
12
answers
5k
views
How to rebut Holocaust denial argument?
I came across a Holocaust denier who claims that there is a plaque outside Auschwitz which says that the Nazis murdered 1.5 million people there (mostly Jewish). However, the plaque used to say 4 ...
- 2,094
30
votes
2
answers
9k
views
Is it true that Germans in World War 2 did not suffer punishment for refusing genocidal orders?
According to Norman Naimark's interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast (#248)
One of the shocking things that I learned just a few years ago when studying the Holocaust is that you could pull out. In ...
- 766
30
votes
5
answers
3k
views
At which point in time did the majority of German population become aware of the Holocaust?
I've read the wikipedia pages on Responsibility for the Holocaust and German Resistance to Nazism but the answer is not clear. It's established that large numbers of Germans were aware of the ...
- 401
25
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Nuremberg Laws - Did they affect existing marriages between Jews and Non-Jews?
The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor states:
Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or related blood are forbidden.
Sexual relations between Jews and citizens of ...
- 417
24
votes
3
answers
6k
views
What was the state of the German rail system in 1944?
Could an SS officer get from Auschwitz to Berlin by train in July/August/September 1944? I need to know how Allied bombing might have disrupted the system.
For context: I am writing a mystery which ...
- 249
22
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What were the 52 kinds of victims persecuted by the Nazis?
Out of the surviving 6,808 arrest files
of Duesseldorf, a small city of half a million population, 1,440 were
those of Communists alone. They were, however, only one among
the 52 types of ...
- 321
20
votes
2
answers
7k
views
What publication claimed that Michael Jackson died in a nuclear holocaust?
I have a question about some paragraph in Finkelstein's Holocaust Industry. He writes that
Some years back, the parody of a New York tabloid was headlined: “Michael Jackson, 60 Million Others, Die ...
- 329
16
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Why was Johannes Blaskowitz indicted at the Nuremberg High Command Trial
Johannes Blaskowitz was a German General during WW2. He committed suicide in 1948 while being tried as a war criminal.
His action during the Polish offensive seem rather counter to this, to quote ...
- 7,485
14
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How did Finland treat Jewish locals during WWII?
First, what facts do I know.
There was no prosecution of Jews in Finland
Jewish POWs were separated in special POW camps for Jews. They were told that Finnish people hate them and they are to be ...
- 32.7k
13
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Did more Jews live in Poland than any other country, prior to the Holocaust, because of how Polish laws and people regarded Jews?
Poland in 1900 and just before the Sho'ah ranks 1st in a list of nations by Jewish percentage of the population. [1]
Now of course in such a ranking that country is Israel.
Why did Jews migrate to and ...
- 231
13
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How successful were Einsatzkommando Tunis and how much was Rommel complicit?
This Einsatzkommando was headed by SS officer Walter Rauff and according to his wikipedia article it had great effect on the local Jewish population. An example is given, a quote from a German TV ...
- 7,485
12
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Why was an SS commander dismissed and charged for the mistreatment of Jewish prisoners?
Amon Göth was relieved from his position at the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp and also charged for mistreating and killing Jews, along with the fact that he stole some of their property which ...
- 233
12
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Does Hitler's "Mein Kampf" contain hints that he wanted to exterminate Jews on the scale that actually happened?
Imagine I live in 1933-1934 and read Hitler's "Mein Kampf". Is there anything in this book that would make me think the Nazis seriously intend to kill between 6 and 17 million Jews?
I haven't read ...
user23839
12
votes
1
answer
34k
views
How historically accurate is "Life is Beautiful" when it comes to Jewish extermination?
I want to ask about the movie Life is Beautiful
It is portrayed, in the movie, how that protagonist Jew is sent to extermination camp in Italy.
I thought Jews in Italy were not usually sent to ...
- 5,517
12
votes
2
answers
550
views
What was the fate of Latvian Jewish population sent to gulags in June 1941?
Some of my ancestors were Latvian Jews who came to the U.S. in 1904. I'm trying to figure out whether any part of this branch of my family might still exist in the eastern hemisphere. After the Hitler-...
user2848
11
votes
4
answers
4k
views
How do functionalists explain the fact that Holocaust continued until the very end of the war?
While I haven't read Goldhagen or scholars with a similar viewpoint directly, I frequently encounter the following argument that seems very Goldhagenite to me: "The Germans tried to murder Jews up ...
- 4,774
11
votes
1
answer
369
views
Synagogue Scene in Der Ewige Jude: Looking for more information
This question is fairly technical, but I've run into a dead-end and the historians whom I have asked have been unable to help me. If anybody can direct me to something on this subject, I would very ...
- 3,276
10
votes
7
answers
2k
views
Were death camps originally intended as death camps and if not, what changed?
This Holocaust info page makes two statements that seem contradictory.
The following paragraph states that death camps were designed specifically for mass murder. (I assume this means the chemical ...
- 133
10
votes
3
answers
842
views
Is Himmler's memo about genocide authentic? Significant?
In this bio of Yehuda Bauer, we see mention of a Himmler memo to Hitler (dated May 25, 1940): Himmler states his rejection of "the Bolshevik method of physical annihilation of a people out of inner ...
- 3,783
10
votes
4
answers
900
views
How were middle ranking Nazis known to the allies before the end of the war?
According to Hanns and Rudolf by Thomas Harding near the end of WW2 the allies created a large database ... known as CROWCASS, of war criminals which they intended to target once victory was achieved.
...
- 11.7k
9
votes
1
answer
473
views
Why did the Irish Free State suppress news of the Holocaust in 1945? Reaction once it became known?
Paul Bew's book Churchill and Ireland mentions the following in connection with the Irish Free State (forerunner of the present Republic of Ireland)'s Prime Minister De Valera's visit to the German ...
- 5,631
8
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Why didn't Soviet Jews flee east ahead of the advancing Nazis?
As the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, incorporated conquered territories into Reichskommisariat Ostland, Reichskommissariat Ukraine, and military administration, they went on to implement the ...
- 3,754
8
votes
1
answer
970
views
In a Nazi concentration, labor, or death camp, what was a "'sale' Appel"?
I have listened to 100+ hours of testimonies by Holocaust survivors. Those who were in concentration, labor, or death camps invariably described the brutal roll calls known in German as Appels.
...
- 161
8
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Were concentration camp guards allowed to talk about their work at home?
In a forum a holocaust survivor reckoned that most Germans did not know about the killing of Jews and others in concentration camps. Others objected and said that people at least knew that Jews were ...
- 311
8
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Did personnel from the "Aktion T4" ("euthanasia" murders) kill severely wounded Wehrmacht soldiers on the eastern front?
In Jonathan Littell's novel Les Bienveillantes (English title: The Kindly Ones) the fictional protagonist meets, in 1943, a man employed with the Aktion T4, the organization behind the "euthanasia" ...
- 4,774
8
votes
1
answer
817
views
Did any relatives of Fritz Haber (the inventor of poison gas) die in the gas chambers?
I am sorry if this seems a ghoulish question. However, German scientist Fritz Haber (1860-1934), winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and co-inventor of the Haber-Bosch process to make nitrates ...
- 5,631
7
votes
1
answer
608
views
How did the news of the reality Nazi concentration camps reach the United State's mainstream? What were the waves of awareness and when? [duplicate]
I just watched a documentary (I think it was called "We Were There" or "I Was There") featuring interviews of US soldiers that were Jewish and had helped liberate Nazi concentration camps. I was ...
- 127
7
votes
3
answers
624
views
Was Jud Suss a veiled criticism of Hitler?
In 1940, Veit Harlan directed his most controversial movie: Jud Suss. The film takes various historical liberties, but otherwise depicts the life and death of Joseph Suss Oppenheimer, Court Jew to ...
- 3,276
7
votes
0
answers
298
views
The Rosenberg diary and the functionalist-intentionalist debate
Today it was announced that the diary of Alfred Rosenberg was been found, after it had disappeared in 1946.
Prima facie, this would seem to be a major piece of historical evidence for the ...
- 25.8k
6
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How did Nazi concentration camp staff deal with survivors of gassings?
I've read a story about a woman who was put into a gas chamber and survived it.
In the most notorious of all, Auschwitz-Birkeanau,
she was herded naked into a gas chamber with hundreds
of ...
user23839
6
votes
1
answer
458
views
How much were Jews allowed to take with them from Nazi Germany?
This Smithsonian Magazine article indicates that Jews could keep 8% of their assets (at least in some cases, and I am sure in practice there were obstacles to retaining even that), which is different ...
- 1,908
6
votes
1
answer
564
views
Did Nazi party members request exemption for their pre-war Jewish acquaintances?
So I heard this tale from a teacher many years ago, but cannot find much about it on the internet.
The story as far as I remember is as follows:
That Goebbels complained on many occasions about the ...
- 163
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why do people refuse to acknowledge the Holocaust? [closed]
A lot of people nowadays are denying the Holocaust as a hoax and overblown Jewish lie.
I read somewhere that Harry Truman (or Eisenhower) thought that people would not believe the Holocaust happened ...
- 169
6
votes
1
answer
2k
views
What color triangles did the different religious groups (those not Jews or JWs) wear in Nazi concentration camps?
I was recently reading through Anton Gill's 1989 book "The journey back from hell" regarding the experiences of concentration camp survivors.
On p.31 of this book he mentions that
There were ...
- 428
6
votes
1
answer
281
views
Was there Nazi Collaboration at an Institutional level in Poland?
Following recent legal regulations in Poland prohibiting any association of Polish culpability with the Holocaust and concentration camps, the question that arises is whether there was any Polish ...
- 221
6
votes
0
answers
380
views
What were the rules for guards in Schindler's factories?
Oscar Schindler was able to leverage money for influence to protect the prisoners in his factories. In addition to barring guards from his factory floor, he was able to influence when a guard could ...
- 161
5
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Why did the Nazis target Jehovah's Witnesses?
I have studied the holocaust in some depth, and I am familiar with the repulsive ideological reasons for the Nazis' persecution of Jews, Poles, Slavs, Communists, etc, but I haven't seen any ...
- 4,269
5
votes
4
answers
826
views
How young were children left alive in Auschwitz?
I was reading a criticism in Wikipedia of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas which has a 9-year-old boy in the camp, but people apparently knowledgeable assert this is not realistic -- those who could not ...
- 3,783
5
votes
3
answers
471
views
What was the opportunity cost to bombing the rail lines to Auschwitz?
Occasionally ranters, internet and otherwise, claim that America betrayed the Jews because Roosevelt was asked to bomb the rails to Auschwitz and he refused/ rebuffed them.
Is it difficult to bomb a ...
- 2,823
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Did the Nazi regime always or often prioritize transport trains to the death camps over military transport?
Moishe Postone claims in his essay Anti‑Semitism and National Socialism (emphasis mine):
No functionalist explanation of the Holocaust and no scapegoat theory of anti‑Semitism can even begin to ...
- 4,774
5
votes
3
answers
470
views
Where can I find information about Johannes Pohl?
I am looking for information about Dr Johannes Pohl. According to David G. Roskies in Against the Apocalypse, Pohl was a member of Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, which was tasked with cataloging ...
- 3,276
5
votes
1
answer
430
views
Former French PM Blum was in Buchenwald -- what is known about his life there?
To me it is interesting that he received special treatment rather than immediate execution. He was considered extremely valuable perhaps as a hostage. Wondering any details about how and why he was ...
- 3,783
5
votes
1
answer
572
views
Would Lauri Törni have recieved the Waffen-SS blood type tattoo?
Lauri Allen Törni served with Finland during the Winter war, and due to being an officer, visited Vienna to obtain Waffen-SS training. Does this mean he would have had the SS blood type tattoo applied?...
- 53
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Is there any evidence to corroborate the claim that Rudolf Höss was physically abused by the Allies after his capture?
The claim is from a book by an author called Rupert Butler.
Butler wrote an anti-Nazi book entitled Legions of Death. At the beginning of Legions of Death, Butler expresses his gratitude to two ...
- 1,411