ABSTRACT
The deliberate destruction of millions of human lives in the Holocaust makes it a highly emotional topic that is difficult to discuss dispassionately. The racial ideas of Adolf Hitler are a logical beginning for examination of the Holocaust. Second World War provided major turning point in Hitler’s “solution to the Jewish question.” Hitler’s initial conquests, created the opportunity to put his racial programs into effect. The Einsatzgruppen were responsible for executing this directive by establishing a number of Jewish ghettos in late 1939 and 1940. In the active war zone, the regular army advance into the Soviet Union was followed by four newly organized Einsatzgruppen. The Einsatzgruppen approach to solving the Jewish question was soon seen to be inadequate. There emerged, then, a second approach to the Final Solution: the systematic annihilation of the Jewish population in Nazi-occupied Europe in specially constructed death camps. A standard procedure was usually followed for Jews arriving at one of the six death camps.
