any mistakes or errors that remain are mine. I have found that translations are not always straightforward and disagreement exists in the best translation of certain expressions.
A note on sources
As is true of any historical study, the reliability of my sources varies. In general, I have used sources that are well recognized by Hitler scholars as very accurate. The veracity of the English translation of Hitler’s Secret Conversations and Hitler’s Table Talk (compiled by a supporter of Hitler who had his own agenda) has been questioned. Whereas these works are quoted a few times in this book, my conclusions do not rely on them but are well supported by numerous other sources. As research on Hitler progresses I will revise this work to reflect the latest scholarship.
After World War II began in 1939, the Nazis began ordering Jews to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing so that they could be easily recognized and targeted for persecution. The German government recognized that most Jews could go underground or effectively blend into society because most German Jews in the 1930s were fully assimilated Germans. They often did not identify themselves as Jews first, but rather as Germans. Furthermore, in spite of the racial scientists claims, most German Jews were physically indistinguishable from Aryans.
The Nazis planned their holocaust very carefully and meticulously documented their activities because they believed the world would eventually celebrate their achievement of producing a superior race. They also wanted to prove to the world that they achieved what they saw as glorious work—such as finally eliminating the inferior parasitic races such as Jews.
THE NEXT STEP: GHETTOS
After World War II began, the Nazis began ordering all Jews to live within very specific regions of select large cities—these areas were called ghettos. Jews were forced out of their homes and relocated into smaller apartments inside these ghettos, often sharing them with other families.
Some ghettos started out as “open,” meaning that the residents could leave the area during the daytime for work, but had to be back inside the ghetto before their curfew. Later on, all ghettos became “closed,” trapping Jews within the confines of the ghetto walls. The major ghettos were located in the European cities of Warsaw, Lodz, Minsk, Riga, Vilna, Bialystok and Kovno. The largest ghetto was in Warsaw, Poland—at its height, in March 1941, its population reached almost 500,000.
In most ghettos, the Nazis ordered the Jews to establish a Judenrat (a Jewish council) to both administer Nazi demands and to regulate internal life in the ghetto. The organization allowed Nazis to effectively order deportations of large numbers of Jews from the ghettos to the concentration camps. When the “Final Solution” began, the larger ghettos loaded up to 1,000 people per day into cattle cars and sent them to either concentration or death camps.
Bibliography
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Susan Aldous, Nicola Pierce