How did the world react to Germany's persecution of the Jews?

1 Answer
Mar 11, 2016

The Nazi treatment of Jews changed over the life of the Reich, and other nations' reactions to it varied as they understood the situation.

Explanation:

The Holocaust/Shoah was not an immediate process and the Nazis cloaked their activities. It took a while for the truth to become apparent.

Before the War, the Nazis passed their Nuremberg Laws to isolate Germany's Jews and restrict their participation in public life. They also encouraged Jews to leave Germany -- usually in return for their property and finances. German behaviour could be viewed as cruel and restrictive, but not too dangerous.

Between 1939 and the Middle of 1941, the harassment of Jews escalated. Casual homicide in Poland was quite common (there were thousands of instances), and Polish Jews were eventually forcibly relocated into ghetto environments where food shortages and opportunistic diseases could increase their death rate . Elsewhere they were registered so that the restrictions of the Nuremberg Laws would be universal under German administration.

In Mid-1941, the Reich Food Commissioner determined that Germany could not meet its targets for food self-sufficiency for the homeland and the military. Accordingly the "Hunger Plan" pulled the trigger on the Holocaust and deliberate industrialized genocide began after the Wannsee Conference of January 1942. The Germans disguised their plans as best as they could, but by the end of 1943, they had closed five of the six Death Camps, and left Auschwitz-Birkenau open.

Most Allied governments had a great deal of difficulty accepting the rumours and distant reports of deliberate genocide. Even the more detailed reports smuggled out of Poland in 1943-44 were often seen as an exaggeration. By mid-1944 the truth slowly became clear, but in the context of a total war, there was nothing that could be done save to work towards the defeat of Germany.

Some occupied nations resisted German measures towards the Jews as a matter of course (Denmark particularly). Some German allies like Bulgaria, Hungary, and even Italy limited Germany's abilities to go after their Jews, and turned protective once they fully understood the situation.