Death Camps
After the Einsatzgruppen proved to be “inadequate” and too hard on the soldiers charged with the killing of Jews, causing frequent alcohol use among many, the death camps were organized. The death camps were constructed as a means to carry out the “Final Solution” in a more efficient way. “The general plan was simple. The rest of the European Jews in countries under German occupation or sympathetic to Germany would be shipped by train to death camps in or near the Government General of Poland.”1 There were many other concentration camps built during the time Auschwitz was being enlarged to accommodate facilities large enough for the mass killings of the Jews, the death camps became the responsibility of Himmler and the SS, who were charged with carrying out the final solution. The actual conditions at these camps were terrible to say the least, in cases where crematoriums couldn’t handle the amount of bodies coming in, the bodies would be burned in open pits using the fat from the dead as fuel. The gas chambers effect on the killing of Jews was highly determined by it’s size, the large chambers required more time for the gas to kill its subjects; whereas, the small chambers took much less time and left the bodies in a much more manageable state. “Starvation, beating, torture, and killing were regular feature of life at the camps. Inmates were subjected to ‘medical’ experiments that were cruel and exceedingly painful.”2 The atrocities that were the death camps have definitely left a lasting impact on the way we view Germany and Hitler during WWII.
Spielvogel and Redles Pg. 268
Jason,
Though the Nazi troops rarely balked at carrying out orders of mass executions, they did initially resist killing children. There is a particularly disturbing passage in Saul Friedlander’s book, “The Years of Extermination” when a 6th Army officer resisted an order to execute 90 children, all under age 5. The officer not only resisted, he ordered his soldiers to stand guard over the children. The next day, he was called on the carpet for his actions. He was ordered to personally oversee the executions.. He did carry out his orders and described the ordeal at his trial in Nuremberg: ” I went out to the woods alone. The Wermacht had already dug a grave. The children were brought along in a tractor. They were lined up along the top of the grave and shot so they fell into it. The wailing was indescribable.” It’s hard to believe, normal, ordinary human beings can do that to other human being, especially children.
The point you made about many soldiers turning to alcohol, as a result of the Einsatzgruppen, was actually a surprising point for me. In past classes, when looking into the history of the Holocaust, I’ve never really heard about the affect the killings had on the soldiers themselves. The mental affect on those soldiers had to be awful and, as you point out, many could not handle it. The killing on children proved to be particularly brutal and will forever have an affect on those involved. Overall your blog post actually allowed me to humanize the soldiers that I’ve always viewed as cold and heartless.