Question

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Answer 1

Eisatzgruppen were death squads responsible for the immediate extermination of anyone the Third Reich considered undesirable on the Eastern Front, often Jews. They were directly responsible for a large number of murderous atrocities that saw hundreds of thousands killed at their hands in operations intended to "cleanse" areas in Poland and then Russia when the Reich launched its attacks against the Soviet Union and pushed into their territory. The Einsatzgruppen followed right along.

The Wansee Conference was called by SS official Reinhard Heydrich to discuss the Final Solution. He was placed in charge of carrying it out and the meeting was used to inform the invited Reich officials of what would be required of each of them and their departments to carry it out.

The chief apparatus used to carry out the Final Solution would be the SS which administered the concentration camps and who would also handle much of the security. The SS was also used to facilitate the Final Solution throughout the territories of the Third Reich and were from whom the Einsatzgruppen were often drawn from.

The Jews were specifically targeted largely because of antisemitism fostered by the Nazis having been used as scapegoats for Germany's ills extending all the way back to its losses in WW1. Hitler often blamed them in his speeches for Germany's failures, fostering suspicion and hate against the Jews as a part of his platform. Once the Nazis were in power, things became even worse for the Jews in Germany.

But they weren't the only targets. Anyone else that was seen as "degenerate" to the Reich was also a victim which included gypsies, the gay, mental patients, and political prisoners. Most, if not all, of these "undesirables" were consigned to concentration camps in the 1930's even before the war had started.