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View of a barbed-wire fence separating part of the ghetto in Krakow from the rest of the city.

The "Final Solution"

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The "Final Solution"
  • Scene during the anti-Jewish boycott

    Sign used during the anti-Jewish boycott: "Help liberate Germany from Jewish capital. Don't buy in Jewish stores." Germany, 1933. (Source record ID: X89-204/08)

  • Barbed-wire fence separating the Krakow ghetto from the rest of the city

    View of a barbed-wire fence separating part of the ghetto in Krakow from the rest of the city. Krakow, Poland, date uncertain.

    During the Holocaust, the creation of ghettos was a key step in the Nazi process of brutally separating, persecuting, and ultimately destroying Europe's Jews. Ghettos were often enclosed districts that isolated Jews from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities.

  • Deportation from Krakow

    Deportation from the Krakow ghetto at the time of the ghetto's liquidation. Krakow, Poland, March 1943.

  • Isadore Frenkiel

    Isadore and his wife, Sossia, had seven sons. The Frenkiels, a religious Jewish family, lived in a one-room apartment in a town near Warsaw called Gabin. Like most Jewish families in Gabin, they lived in the town's center, near the synagogue. Isadore was a self-employed cap maker, selling his caps at the town's weekly market. He also fashioned caps for the police and military.

    1933-39: Isadore felt the pinch of the Depression, but although business was poor, he was able to provide for his family. Shortly after the Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, they occupied Gabin. Ten people were shot in the street; others, such as doctors and teachers, were taken away. The Germans rounded up the Jewish men and held them in the marketplace while soldiers doused the synagogue with gasoline and set it on fire.

    1940-42: In 1941 the Frenkiels heard rumors that the Germans were evacuating some towns and deporting the Jews to a death camp. A cousin visited the family after escaping from a transport and said the rumors were true. "They put you in trucks, gas you, then throw your body into a burning pit," he said. Isadore's 3-year-old son ran to his mother crying, "Will they burn me, too?" Isadore urged his cousin to tell the Jewish elders. He met with them, but they did not believe his story and told him to leave town.

    In May 1942 Gabin's Jews were deported to the Chelmno killing center. Isadore, Sossia and four of their sons were placed in a sealed van and asphyxiated with exhaust fumes.

  • Rozia Susskind

    Rozia was born to a Jewish family in the town of Kolbuszowa. Her family lived outside of town, near her uncles. The Susskinds owned a flour mill and a lumber mill. Their home was one of the few in the area with electricity, which was generated at their mills. Rozia had an older sister, Hanka, and an older brother, Yanek.

    1933-39: In the early 1930s, the Susskinds' mills burned down. Hanka moved to Cracow to study in the university and married, and Yanek was working in Kolbuszowa's Jewish bank. The Susskinds could not afford to continue Rozia's schooling, so she was apprenticed to a seamstress. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Hanka and her husband returned to Kolbuszowa and fled to the USSR with Yanek and Rozia's father. Rozia, 17, remained in Kolbuszowa with her mother, who had cancer.

    1940-42: In January 1940 Rozia's mother died. In 1941 the Germans established a Jewish ghetto in Kolbuszowa, and Rozia and her uncles were moved there. Like many in the ghetto, Rozia was put to work sweeping streets, shoveling snow and cleaning the homes of the Germans. On June 20, 1942, the Germans issued a decree: Kolbuszowa's Jews had three days to leave their homes and resettle in the Rzeszow ghetto 20 miles away.

    On July 7, 1942, Rozia and her uncles were deported from the Rzeszow ghetto to the Belzec killing center, where they perished.

  • Hildegard (Hilda) Krakauerova Nitschkeova

    Hilda was the youngest of six children born to Jewish parents in a small Moravian town, where her father ran a dry-goods and clothing store. Her family spoke both Czech and German at home. Hilda was a tomboy when she was growing up, and competed on the Maccabi swim team. She attended a public secondary school in Hodinin, and wanted to pursue a career as a dental technician.

    1933-39: In February 1933 Hilda moved to the Moravian capital of Brno where she attended dental school. On December 23, 1935, she married Leo Nitschke. Two years later, she graduated from dental school. In March 1939 the Germans occupied Bohemia and Moravia and quickly imposed restrictions on the Jewish population. The Germans evicted the Nitschkes from their apartment, and Hilda, as a Jew, was forbidden to treat non-Jewish patients.

    1940-44: The Nitschkes had moved in with the family of Leo's sister, Edita. Hilda found work as a dental assistant with a Jewish dentist. In June 1943 Hilda and Leo were deported with Edita's family to the Theresienstadt ghetto in western Czechoslovakia. On October 28, 1944, Hilda, Leo, and Edita's family were deported to Auschwitz. There, Hilda was selected for slave labor. She was transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, and then put to work in an aircraft factory in Raguhn.

    Hilda was back in Theresienstadt when the ghetto was liberated in May 1945. After the war, she returned to Brno and learned that her husband had died in Auschwitz.

  • European rail system, 1939

    The European rail network played a crucial role in the implementation of the Final Solution. Jews from Germany and German-occupied Europe were deported by rail to killing centers in occupied Poland, where they were killed. The Germans attempted to disguise their intentions, referring to deportations as "resettlement to the east." The victims were told they were to be taken to labor camps, but in reality, from 1942 onward, deportation meant transit to killing centers for most Jews. Deportations on this scale required the coordination of numerous German government ministries, including the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), the Transport Ministry, and the Foreign Office. The RSHA coordinated and directed the deportations; the Transport Ministry organized train schedules; and the Foreign Office negotiated with German-allied states to hand over their Jews.

During World War II (1939-1945), Nazi German leaders developed a plan to deliberately and systematically murder all European Jews. The Nazis called this plan the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” (“Endlösung der Judenfrage”). They also referred to it as the “Final Solution” (“Endlösung”).

The Germans carried out the “Final Solution” by planning, coordinating, and committing the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. With the help of their allies and collaborators, the Nazis murdered six million Jewish people through brutal treatment, in mass shooting operations, and in gas chambers.

The “Final Solution” (1941-1945) was the tragic culmination of the Nazis’ increasingly radical anti-Jewish policies. It is the last stage of the Holocaust (1933-1945).  

Did the Nazis immediately begin to carry out the mass murder of Jews?

No. When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, they did not immediately start to carry out the mass murder of Jews. However, antisemitism was a central part of Nazi ideology. Once the Nazis controlled the German government, they used their power to persecute Jews in Germany.

In the 1930s, the Nazis discriminated against Jews. They excluded them from German society. They boycotted and confiscated Jewish-owned businesses. They passed discriminatory laws, such as the Nuremberg Race Laws. They attacked Jews in a nationwide riot called “Kristallnacht,” or the “Night of Broken Glass.” The goal of these policies was to make life in Germany so unbearable that German Jews would choose to emigrate. The Nazis’ ultimate aim was to make Germany “cleansed of Jews” (judenrein).

The Nazis’ efforts to persecute Jews became more radical over time.

How did the outbreak of World War II change the Nazis’ anti-Jewish policies?

World War II marked a turning point in how the Nazis treated Jewish people. Before World War II (1939-1945), the Nazis had primarily used laws to persecute German Jews. But war changed things in two main ways. First and foremost, war brought millions more Jews under Nazi control. Second, the war led the Nazis to consider more radical ideas.

During the first two years of World War II, the Nazis targeted Jews using policies of ghettoization and forced relocation. Both of these measures physically removed Jewish populations from their homes and communities. They attempted to segregate and isolate them from non-Jews.

In 1939 and 1940, German authorities began to isolate Jews in German-occupied Poland. They forced them to live in separate areas of cities called ghettos. The occupiers subjected Jews to extreme overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Many ghetto residents died from disease, starvation, and brutal treatment.

At the same time, the Nazis carried out early experiments with deporting Jews from Germany. They also considered forcibly relocating entire Jewish communities to what they considered distant, undesirable, or isolated places. They explored plans to establish a reservation for Jews in the Lublin district of German-occupied Poland. They also considered sending Jews to Madagascar, an island off the African coast. Ultimately, these plans were too hard to carry out. So, the Nazis looked for other solutions to get rid of the Jewish population in Germany and in German-occupied territories.  

When and how did the Nazis begin to systematically carry out mass killings of Jews?

The Nazis began to systematically commit mass killings of Jews in summer 1941 after Germany attacked the Soviet Union.

Special SS and police units followed the German military into Soviet-controlled territory. Their official tasks included guaranteeing security behind the front lines. They were also tasked with eliminating Nazi Germany’s real and perceived enemies. They targeted Communists and Jews, among others. In practice, these units carried out mass shooting operations. At first, they shot Jewish men of military age. But then, these units soon began to murder entire Jewish communities. Their victims included children and the elderly. Sometimes, these units used mobile gas vans to murder Jews and others with poison gas.

The systematic mass shootings and gassings reflected the radicalization of Nazi anti-Jewish policies. They marked the beginning of the “Final Solution.”

What role did the killing centers play in the “Final Solution”?

As a key part of the “Final Solution,” the Nazis created killing centers to commit mass murder. In English, killing centers are sometimes called “extermination camps” or “death camps.” The Nazis built the killing centers for the sole purpose of efficiently murdering Jewish people on a mass scale.

Nazi Germany operated five killing centers: Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The primary means of murder at the killing centers was poisonous gas released into sealed gas chambers or gas vans.

The Germans deported Jews to these killing centers from all over Europe. Deportations usually took place by train. Conditions on deportation trains were overcrowded and inhumane. Most of those deported to the killing centers were murdered upon arrival.

Are the “Final Solution” and the Holocaust the same thing?

No. The “Final Solution” is not exactly the same as the Holocaust. Rather, the “Final Solution” is part of the Holocaust.

The Holocaust was an evolving process that took place from 1933 to 1945. It did not begin with mass murder. It began with the systematic persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.

The Final Solution was the systematic mass murder of Jewish people between 1941 and 1945. It was the tragic culmination of the Holocaust.

The Holocaust encompasses both the systematic persecution of Jews beginning in 1933 and the “Final Solution”—the systematic mass murder of Jews between 1941 and 1945.

How many Jews were killed in the Holocaust?

In total, the Nazis and their collaborators and allies murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust. This was approximately two thirds of Europe’s prewar Jewish population.  

Key Dates

February 1940

The Creation of the Łódź Ghetto

In February 1940, before the start of the “Final Solution,” the German authorities establish a ghetto in Łódź, a city in German-occupied Poland. By April 1940, the Germans force more than 160,000 Polish Jews into the Łódź ghetto. The ghetto is surrounded by a barbed wire and wooden fence. Forced labor, overcrowding, and hunger are the dominant features of life for those imprisoned there.

The creation of the Łódź ghetto is an example of German efforts to isolate Jews from the non-Jewish population. It is a precursor to the “Final Solution.” 

October and November 1941

Deportations of Jews from Western and Central Europe to the Łódź Ghetto

In October and November 1941, German officials deport approximately 20,000 Jews from western and central Europe to the Łódź ghetto. This includes Jews from cities such as Berlin, Vienna, and Prague. Many of these Jews are elderly and sick. More than 3,000 of them die in the first seven months. The arrival of these deportations exacerbates overcrowding.

These deportations are part of a major escalation of Nazi anti-Jewish policy in the fall of 1941. At this time, Nazi leaders decide to try to make certain German cities “cleansed of Jews” (“judenrein”). The deportations to the Łódź ghetto are a step in this process.

January 16, 1942

Deportations of Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to the Chełmno Killing Center Begin

On January 16, 1942, German authorities begin deporting Jews from the Łódź ghetto to the Chełmno killing center. These deportations are part of the “Final Solution.” The Germans establish the killing center in Chełmno to murder Jews from the Łódź ghetto and the surrounding areas. The killing center is located only about 30 miles from the city of Łódź. Gassing operations had begun at the killing center in December 1941. At Chełmno, the Jewish deportees are killed in mobile gas vans.

By late summer of 1944, German authorities murder approximately 77,000 Jews from the Łódź ghetto in Chełmno. In total, at least 167,000 Jews are murdered there.

Chełmno is one of five killing centers built by the Nazi German regime as part of the “Final Solution.”

Last Edited: Nov 14, 2024

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