Deportations of the Jewish Population during the Second World War

Abstract

The deportations of Jews during the Second World War constitute the central element of the Nazi extermination policy, but their systematic analysis – covering all 22 European countries concerned, the stages of the policy, military and economic factors, and synchronization with events at the front – had not yet been undertaken in the historical literature.
This article analyzes the deportations of the Jewish population of Europe during the Second World War, examining the ideological foundations (racial legislation, RuSHA, RSHA), the stages of expulsion policy (1939-1942), the Endlösung der Judenfrage concept and its organization (Wannsee Conference), and the military and economic factors influencing the course of the actions.
The analysis draws on archives of the Central Commission for the Investigation of Hitlerite Crimes (GKBZH), the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) in Warsaw, Nuremberg documents, the Korherr statistical report, and the calculations of Raul Hilberg.
The analysis shows that the Aussiedlungsaktionen organized by Sipo and SD initially aimed at isolating Jews and breaking their resistance before mass extermination. The Endlösung der Judenfrage concept, decided at the Wannsee Conference (January 1942), encompassed the Jewish population of all Europe. Economic factors – the need for labor in the war industry – created a conflict between the extermination principle and the need to retain skilled Jewish workers from the ghettos (Łódź, Białystok), expressed in the slogan Vernichtung durch Arbeit. This conflict was ultimately resolved in favor of the political principle: Ausmerzung. The total balance: nearly 6 million victims in 22 European countries, approximately 80% resulting from deportations and expulsions.