203: The Holocaust: Killing Squads, Ghettos, & Gas Chambers

“The procedure is a pretty barbaric one and not to be described here more definitively. Not much will remain of the Jews.” —Joseph Goebbels

This is the story of how the Holocaust becomes industrialized. 

In January 1942, Nazi leaders discuss what will become the “Final Solution”: their plan to murder millions. As more and more Jews are stripped of everything and forced into ghettos, and terrified parents bid a tearful (and often final) farewell to their children, German leaders decide how to deal with the fact that the new territory they’ve acquired is full of Jews and other “undesirables.”

As the Nazis march through Europe, they’ll “evacuate” the continent’s Jews sending them to overcrowded disease-ridden ghettos, then to concentration camps. Initially, mobile killing units, or Einsatzgruppen, simply shoot Jews where they stand. This practice will give way to extermination camps, as one camp in particular—Auschwitz—is figuring out how to use gas to kill on a truly industrial level. 

After years of building, the Holocaust is in full swing.

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