The Holocaust 1944
Labor and Forced Labor Camps
Beginning in the mid - 1930s, the Nazis started economically exploiting the prisoners in the camps. The SS authorities hired out its human resource - the labor of the camp inmates - to various German companies in order to make a profit. German control of large parts of Europe presented a wide range of possibilities for continued economic exploitation of what they considered racially inferior populations. Consequently, hundreds of camps were established for forced labor. The harsh working conditions caused the deaths of a substantial number of prisoners. The SS authorities even developed the concept of "extermination through labor," which was implemented with regard to some of the prisoners, especially the Jews.
Partisans
Throughout occupied Europe, Partisans banded together to engage in guerrilla warfare against the Germans. Jewish partisans played a prominent role in parts of the USSR where the geographical conditions permitted such warfare. They fought in existing partisan units or set up their own. The decision to join the partisans was a tragic one, since leaving for the forest meant abandoning one's family. In some areas of Belorussia and Vohlin, the Jewish Partisan units sheltered whole families, thus maintaining the lives of many women and children during the Holocaust. In southern European countries such as Yugoslavia and Greece, Jews joined general partisan units. In western European countries, such as Belgium, resistance was characterized mainly by underground movements, and Jews played a significant role in them.
Survivor Edi Weinstein on being Liberated by Russian Soldiers
This first encounter with the Russians, which assured us our freedom, took place near the village of Chuchleby, next to Kaluza Creek. It was about 2 o’clock on Monday afternoon, July 31, 1944. I will always consider this date as meaningful as the day of my birth. Father felt the same way: when people asked him how old he was, he used to say he was born on July 31, 1944.
The Terror Regime
One of the distinctive features of the Nazi state was its use of institutionalized violence . It's highly organized and well planned system of terrorizing the population culminated in the creation of the concentration camp . The first camp, Dachau, was established as early as March 1933. The camps were used to suppress the regime's political opponents and later to "re-educate" various segments of society whose behavior did not conform to Nazi values. The camps also became a tool for the exploitation of the inmates by means of forced labor, as well as for the implementation of the Nazi racial policy, especially for its antisemitic policies.
The Free World Before the War
Despite initial revulsion for the Nazi regime, Hitler's government was gradually granted legitimacy by countries around the world and international public opinion. Throughout the 1930s, there were those who viewed Nazism as an example of how to confront the economic crisis and the Communist menace. During the late 1930s, because of the threat they posed to peace worldwide and especially in Europe, western countries grew more concerned with Nazi policy. The oppression of German Jewry was not a priority for these countries. The annexation of Austria (the Anschluss) in March 1938 and the deteriorating situation of German and Austrian Jewry during that same year, heightened awareness of the Jewish refugee problem in Europe. In July 1938, an international conference convened in Evian, France, to discuss this issue. It produced no results.