Question

Why did the management of the “Jewish question” vary in the East and West?

Answer 1

In the east where Germany looked for "living space", it was important to destroy the land's inhabitants completely. People who belong to the ethnic groups including the Jews were to be eliminated with a small percentage left to work the land for the benefit of the German resettlements that were to arrive later. Furthermore, many of the Soviet communist founding members were Jewish until Stalin started his own purge later against the Jews to eradicate them from the party. Also, the war in the East against the Soviet Union was a war of political ideologies in which the Jews were closely connected to Communism. Thus, the term "Judeo Bolshevism" was coined. In the West, the war started because Great Britain and France declared war against Germany when they attacked on Poland. These two nations gave Poland assurances against German aggression. Furthermore, in nations like Norway, it was well noted that Jews had their place in society the same to every other members of those societies. Therefore, the governments tended to resist Hitler's call for their Jews. Even though he gave in later, Vidkun Quisling made it known on record their positive sentiments towards the Norwegian Jews. The same thing happened under the Vichy government in France. Pierre Laval objected, but frequently limited the number of Jews that were sent to Germany. Many of those sent were working in Germany industry for the war effort. A great number did manage to enter the death and concentration camps. A similar protests happened in Denmark. An Interestingly fact during the war was that many Jews escaped to Fascist Spain and found a sanctuary there.