Final Solution
The Final Solution (German: Die Endlösung) was a plan made by Nazi Germany to kill millions of Jews and Gypsies (Roma and Sinti people of Romania and many other European countries) during World War II.[1] On July 31 1941, Nazi Luftwaffe leader Hermann Goering ordered the SS to make plans for a "complete solution of the Jewish question."[1] At first, people were simply shot dead, but in the autumn of 1941, the SS and police began using mobile killing vans.[1] People were locked into the back of trucks which had been changed to allow the exhaust gases such as carbon monoxide to enter. The people sealed in the back of the truck were gassed, which led to them dying a horrible death.
Heinrich Himmler brought in a plan known as Operation Reinhard, named after SS General Reinhard Heydrich,[1] who had been killed by Czech soldiers. Three camps were set up in Poland for the purpose of killing people. These were at Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.[1] In 1942 more death camps were set up in Poland at Majdanek, Chelmno, and Auschwitz.[1] By the end of World War II, about six million people had been killed.[1]
Final Solution Media
Hitler's prophecy speech in the Reichstag, 30 January 1939
The villa at 56–58 Am Großen Wannsee, where the Wannsee Conference was held, is now a memorial and museum.
Himmler note 18 December 1941: 'als Partisanen auszurotten'
Nazi extermination camps marked with black and white skulls. General Government territory: centre, Distrikt Galizien: lower–right. Death camp at Auschwitz: lower–left (in Provinz Oberschlesien), Nazi-Soviet line in red
Berlin, Reichstag session of 11 December 1941: Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States of America.
