How did invasions affect the Jews in WWII?
1 Answer
It contributed significantly to the Holocaust.
Explanation:
German Jews had already experienced violence discrimination and marginalisation before the outbreak of World War 2. When Hitler invaded Poland and started WW2 the fate of European Jewry became much worse.
The Jewish population in Poland at the beginning of the war was approximately 3.3 million. Over 3 million were to perish.
This pattern was replicated throughout Europe both in the East and West, often with the active collaboration of the local populations and authorities. Only Denmark collectively made serious attempts to protect its Jewish population.
In the West widespread discrimination and marginalisation was followed by deportation to the extermination camps in the East. This was true in all countries occupied by the Germans, even the Channel Islands.
In the East, Jews were rounded up and concentrated in ghettoes in the most appalling conditions. This led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. There were also mass shootings such as in the Baltic States and at Babi Yar outside Kiev.
With the regular German Army were killing squads known as Einsatxgruppen who executed hundreds of thousands of Jews. They were often helped by local militias and even civilians who were encouraged by the Germans. Anti-semitism was not confined to Germany but was widespread across Europe and dated back centuries.
Eventually given the numbers involved, the Germans for logistic and humanitarian reasons (that is for the killers not the victims) developed a network of extermination camps primarily in Poland where millions were murdered and processed for the German war effort.
The invasions therefore trapped the Jewish communities and sealed their fate often with the willing support of the indigenous populations.
