Meticulous documents
Dawson Petrea - 5th period
Introduction
Meticulous - showing great attention and detail. Being very careful and precise
The Nazis kept meticulous documents about how many Jews were killed in World War 2.
The documents are important to history and the war because the documents show important facts about what happened, how many died and why history should not repeat itself.
Why the Nazis kept the documents-
The Nazis kept records of the amount of Jews killed from each city. Each nazi got a rank depending on how many they killed. Some would brag about sending off entire ghettos to camps. They did not know, however that later the documents would be used against them in their trials
War crime trials
Trials of war crimes were held after World War 2 ended. They were held in Nereburg, Germany where Judges from Great britain, France, United states, and the Soviet Union, were in charge of giving them their trial.
Finding the documents
The United States army had made significant finds in the Nazis gold and documents. They were discovered on April 7, 1945 by engineers of the United States 90th infantry Division.
The money and documents were found in the Kaiseroda Salt Mines in Merkers, Germany.
Millions of documents were found.
Destroyed documents
Many of the most central documents were burned in the prague regional headquarters. Many RHSA files were found at the local Gestapo, the secret state police. Captured documents gave records of actions and policies of the Nazis.
Holocaust documentary
Counting casualties
The three images are pictures of documents that were recovered at the end of the war. The records show how many Jews were killed in certain cities, and other places.
Link to more information-
Shows examples of records that were kept by the Nazis.
Link to more information-
Database that shows real documents that were kept and gives information of when they were found, how they were found, and what they were used for after that
How they planned on hiding the records
Germany had made great efforts to keep the the holocaust a secret. Most of the killing orders were given verbally. They did as little writing as possible to keep a minimal amount of documents. Nazis did succeed in destroying most of the documents and records that were kept from the war, in the end, a large amount was still retrieved. Hitler also ordered that killings never be spoken of in documentations or in public statements. They used codewords such as "action" ( Aktion) which referred to a violent operation against Jewish. "Resettlement to the east" (Umseidlung nach dem osten) meant forced deportation of jews to camps, and "special treatment" (Sonderbehandlung) meant killing. Eventually, information leaked out from survivors of the mass killing operations and the information soon reached the United States and Great Britain.
Conclusion
Many documents were retrieved and are being held in museums in Germany and in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The documents were a large help to finding war criminals and bringing them to justice. In the end, the Nazis failed in their mission to hide many documents and the entire holocaust.