Why didnt more Jewish people leave before the Nazis could send them to the "death cam
also, were Jewish young men forced to sign up for the German army if DID stay? or what they did during WW2? (those that did stay home)
please explain how the Jewish people would not choose to go to Israel or England at least to avoid being killed or sent to work , concentration camps? how 6 million in Poland didn't try to leave also?
were most of the 6 million killed "Polish Jews"? from which cities mainly and when arrested and sent to camps?
please ex pain what they did also if can
thanks for your answers!
To first answerer..I have heard from World at War documentary that a top Nazi even opened a special travel office for Jews to get their documents ,tickets etc together to leave..after Kristalnacht period especially many did leave.
why any would stay? who were in the concentration camps then? mostly polish Jews? why they didn't leave Poland and go to somewhere else?
Germany stopped them from leaving, many tried to escape the country but Germany closed its borders so they couldn't flee unless they were prepared to run the gauntlet between life or death trying to escape through the borders by means of smuggling themselves and the like.
It cost an enormous amount of money to leave Germany in the early to mid 30s. One stipulation was a Jewish person had to pay the next years' taxes ahead of time even though he wouldn't be there. Many Jews did leave, and many couldn't afford to.
Two good answers, but both missing one essential point.
Jews, for centuries, had been used to persecution. When it happened they just kept a low profile, waited for it to blow over, and started again. This non-resistance policy had kept the Jewish people alive for thousands of years and was deeply embedded in the culture.
It was a long time before it was obvious - especially to a people conditioned to a pacifist and passive response - that this was more than another pogrom or (sometimes murderous) persecution: it was planned extirpation. By the time the final solution was set in motion (1942) the war was in progress and borders were closed. Jews were sometimes herded into sealed ghettos to make escape difficult. Even then, it was a while before the reality of where those trains were going dawned on the Jews, and by then (despite some heroic resistance from that point) it was too late.
Nonetheless, some did get out in time. My old (German Jewish) Maths master said that all the pessimistic Jews were in Britain or the USA while all the optimistic ones were in Auschwitz. Very true.
Whew! BIG Q! You'll need to do the research yourself, to get a complete Ans. But part of this has burned in my heart ever since I was a child---that many many Jewish refugees DID find boats of any kind to make it to Israel, but the British were in control of Palestine then, I think. (They had a "mandate" over Palestine at that time, whatever that is.) The British refused to allow the refugee boats to land!! And thousands of people drowned!
From what i have read and from eyewitness accounts, the Holocaust was not an overnight thing but was a gradual unfolding of events.
At first, the German army marched into Poland. As the army took control of most towns and cities, then the Nazis established centralized control. The Nazi govt brought in laws, restricting where Jews could go and evicted Jews from their houses and put into ghettos. Jews were made to wear the Star of David - which showed that they were Jewish.
The laws also for bad Jews from owning businesses. With no income or livelihood, Jews had no money and were forced to sell the very items they had for food. Who could the Jews turn to for help?
The German army was followed into Poland and other occupied areas by Police groups - such as the SS, the gestapo.
At first, the Germans went after political parishioners - IE those that opposed German control such as intellectuals - and anyone else that could cause trouble. Places such as Auschwitz started as concentration camps for Polish political prisoners.
Most Jews really believed that the Nazis would get a little tough and rough - but then things would settle down and life would go back to normal.
Some jews but had an inkling of what was coming and tried to avoid the deportations out of the ghetto. But where could they run? Polish catholics hated the jews as much as anyone else. The Russians didnt want a jewish influx there either.
Read the story about the 'St Louis' ship which left Germany in 1939 with jews wanting to escape the Nazi regime. The fate of that ship and all those people aboard pretty much sums up the fate of jews throughout Europe. Where could they run?
With all areas of escape cut off and with not many polish peasants willing to risk their lives for jews, there was really no where else to run. German SS police action squads went into towns and villages and dragged jews from their houses and businesses.
At first Hitler's plan was to get rid of the Jews in Germany by first getting them out of the social life and making it so they would leave. That was the initial plan, to have them leave Germany in mass. Problem was that after a little while, during which time many Jews did leave or try to leave, other countries would not take them anymore . Then when the war started Hitler had more Jews on to handle from the occupied territories and he again tried to relocate them somehow ,somewhere, put them in work/prison camps, shot them. But then that didn't work out so well either so he totally lost it and decided to work towards not only getting rid of the Jews in his territories but towards eliminating the Jewish population from the face of the Earth.
Hitler favored creation of Israel and immigration of Jews to Palestine and also offered them free transportation. However Rabbi Abba Hillal Silver of Cleveland and Rabbi Stephen wise of New York assailed the decision on the ground that it will make Jews a pauperized salesmen of German made goods (see New York Times Dt January 15, 1939).
To address the German Jews who did not leave: most did not have either the resources or desire to leave. You see, many of the Jews who lived in Germany were highly patriotic, and thought that if they proved how patriotic they were, they would not be counted among the Untermensch. Also, it wasn't common knowledge what was happening to Jews, not until it was too late.
Also, Jews who did try to leave had a hard time finding a new home; most countries didn't want more Jews. America, for instance, had a quota for how many Jews could come to America, and that was filled up pretty quickly.
Some Jewish young men were drafted into the army, but most were sent to work camps, where they'd work until they died.
Also, there was no Israel at the time; Israel became a country after WWII as an answer to all the Jewish refugees.
Also, there were about 3.5 million Jews in Poland, but their reasons for not leaving were actually a bit different. Jews in Poland were unique in that most of them had not become a part of the mainstream culture: they were a large enough group that they could insulate themselves from the Poles. Most didn't even speak Polish, and those who did often couldn't speak it well. Generally, they saw any conflict Poland had with their neighbors as a "Polish problem", something that was not of any concern to them. This tactic had worked somewhat well in previous wars, when they had mostly been left alone.
So when the Germans invaded, they had no idea what was going on; though there were more progressive Jews who joined the army and interacted with Poles, most of the Jews kindle rolled their eyes and continued with their way of life. When the Germans began to round them up, they went along with it, believing that being submissive would cause the Germans to see them as nonthreatening and spare them. It was like leading sheep to the slaughter.
Eventually, the Jewish community did realize what was happening, and with the help of Zegota (a unit of the Polish Underground Army that was specifically designated for rescuing Jews), many made it out, at a high cost to their protectors (in Poland, an entire family would often be executed if one person in that family was caught helping a Jew).
Why didnt more Jewish people leave before the Nazis could send them to the "death cam
