If Hitler really wanted to exterminate the Jews, why did he even ship them to camps? Why not just shoot them?

Question

Honest question. Your are fighting a two front war, why waste food and supplies to keep even some of them alive. Why not just shoot them on the spot?

Answer 1

I don't think his intention was, at least in the beginning, to exterminate the Jews. They were meant to work in forced labour camps, along with the communists, homosexuals and later POW. Many of them actually died from starvation, just like the other prisoners, and even free civilians outside the camps - it was a pretty big war and supplying the army was primary concern.
Of course, the racial factor was also relevant. You can see that the percentage of Soviet POW deaths in captivity is much, much higher then the percentage of US or British deaths. Better care and supplies were provided for soldiers of the western armies then to Soviets and Jews.
As for gas chambers, for scientific researches on that issue, one can be sentenced to jail in some democratic countries... (see link below)

Answer 2

At the risk of entertaining a question which looks suspiciously like an attempt at Holocaust denial, I'll try to explain.

The psychology of the German nation at that time and the logistics of the whole operation did not allow for wholesale bloody slaughter on the spot.

Imagine they had just rounded up several million people who they deemed less than human - Jews, trade unionists, socialists, Communists, gypsies, homo-sexuals, etc. Think of the panic, the call to arms, the resistance, the reaction of other countries - not to mention the rivers of blood on the streets. Think of the chaos that would have ensued. Think how much support would have been lost among his own followers and, more importantly, the rude awaekning of the bedazzled, scared and supine general population. No one has that much ammunition or will to slaughter innocents.
The Third Reich would have collapsed in days, weeks at most.

It was rationalised as an industrial process. Concentration camps were the most efficient way to rid themselves of undesirables and opponents. Also, many of those who were capable served as slave labour to assist the War effort. Other options were considered but, notably, nothing as crass or potentially uncontrollable as your suggestion.

What they did was planned, organised, and rationalised. They 'disappeared' these millions of people over years. They told people they were being resettled. They told people they were being deloused. They commandeered all their victims' worthwhile possessions, right down to the gold teeth.

This was the most cynical act of prolonged, calculated, insane inhumanity.

It happened.

It was real.

Psychologically and emotionally, the German people are still struggling to come to terms with what their forebears did. It is to their credit that they continue to strive to do so.

Perhaps you should investigate some of those activities.

Answer 3

Mass graves in several locations show he did just that.
In fact the reason he changed is because he didn't want to waste ammunition during wartime so a better 'solution' was ordered to be found. Enter the gas chambers and crematoria.
Have you seen the footage taken by our soldiers as they entered the camps? Those people were walking skeletons.
They were starved, given only enough moldy bread and water to work. They weren't given supplies...there was no medical care.
Do a little research, what you will find is fascinating and shocking. That one group of ordinary human beings could legally do this to another and go home from killing mothers and their babies to playing with their own children and kissing their wives, will mean you never look at humans the same again.

Answer 4

The worst were the camps like Sobibor, this was one of several that were sooooo bad that even the Nazi's knew it would look bad so most were closed even before the war was over by the Nazi's themselves.

Here read: http://www.auschwitz.dk/sobibor/sobibor.htm

I watched a special on this place and it was unbelievable what horrors people are capable of. It probably says in the link, but I remember from the show it said that the average life span of someone going to Sobibor was around 60 minutes from the time they arrive till the time they died.

Answer 5

hi, a million) in the start diverse than the U. S., all people went to conflict simply by actuality Hitler invaded Poland that grew to grow to be allied with our allies. Few people initially cared on the subject count of the Jews and a good form of have been grew to grow to be back attempting to immigrate to the Americas indoors the 30's whilst they stated the writing on the wall. Japan attacked the U. S. in a protracted time, she declared conflict and Japan grew to grow to be allied with Germany who then declared conflict on the U. S.. 2) there have been in basic terms too many interruptions as at as quickly as simply by fact the conflict escalated. Infrastructures, railroads, highways, factories utilising them as slave labour etc have been being consistently bombed around-the-clock and of direction incredibly some the troops and gadgets that could have swept up the Jewish people have been diverted someplace else. Had there no longer been a 2 front conflict and invasion of Europe happening, eu Jews could desire to probably have been eradicated a hundred%. 6 million in spite of the reality that maintains to be incredibly an accomplishment indoors the evil experience of all of it. 3) The Jewish people over the centuries migrated around the worldwide and those exterior of Europe who had kin individuals there survived. 4) finally for the numbers, the German government condemned itself. effective they invented each ingredient from the tape recorder to the attack rifle and section rocket yet no paper shredder. they have been meticulous in accounting approximately each and each and each and all of the Jews exterminated and for this reason have been caught in basic terms with their palms indoors the cookie jar with the point to talk. Cheers, Michael Kelly

Answer 6

They did that at first, in Poland and then even more so in the Soviet Union; so your question isn't really "why didn't they just shoot them", but "why didn't they just keep on shooting them?" and the answer is that the men of the "Special Action Squads" that lined everybody up in pits and machine gunned them, men women and children, couldn't handle it after a very short time. They began to lose their minds, and their value to Hitler as soldiers.

It was afterwards that the industrialized death trains and death chambers started to be used, to spare the civilized sensibilities of the executioners....

Answer 7

What a morbid question. Hitler established the final solution as a way to answer the jewsish "question". For fear of public reprisal, Nazis transfered Jews into urban ghettos. It was quickly determined that shooting was not efficent for mass murder. Gas was considered less expensive, and as a result more effiecent camps were established. As Russia was advancing west, the order was passed down to liquidate the ghettos and camps. During this period is when many of the shootings occured.

Answer 8

Because many of them were used as slave labor at the camps to make munitions, uniforms, and other war materiel. When they wore out from the work, the Nazis killed them.

Answer 9

they were used as slaves. they were used in horrific experiments. anyone that could ask a cold hearted question like that is beyond me.