Y10 History Week beginning 15/06/20 Lesson Three: How did the Holocaust happen? The Holocaust is a big and difficult topic, and it is extremely difficult to do it justice without a teacher. It is also one which needs to be treated with sensitivity. We cannot hope to teach you about it in the way we would like during the current circumstances. However, your teacher can and will answer further questions that you have about this material through Teams or via email. As a minimum, work through the tasks that describe and explain the escalation of the Holocaust over time. Much of this is connected to your earlier work about increasing Jewish persecution and the Nazis’ discrimination towards minority groups. Once you have done this, there are many more activities provided here from the Holocaust Education Trust to give you a better understanding of how and why the Holocaust occurred.
Transcript
Y10 History
Week beginning 15/06/20
Lesson Three: How did the Holocaust happen?
The Holocaust is a big and difficult topic, and it is extremely
difficult to do it justice without a teacher. It is also one which needs
to be treated with sensitivity. We cannot hope to teach you about
it in the way we would like during the current circumstances.
However, your teacher can and will answer further questions that
you have about this material through Teams or via email.
As a minimum, work through the tasks that describe and explain
the escalation of the Holocaust over time. Much of this is
connected to your earlier work about increasing Jewish
persecution and the Nazis’ discrimination towards minority groups.
Once you have done this, there are many more activities
provided here from the Holocaust Education Trust to give you a
better understanding of how and why the Holocaust occurred.
INTRODUCTION
In order to effectively study the Holocaust, it is important to understand what
the term means. In this first activity we will consider that, whilst there are
different versions of a definition of the Holocaust, they all have certain things
in common. The Holocaust is not a simple subject, and as you study it you
might find you come away with more questions than answers. This is
absolutely fine and we encourage you to think about these questions as you
work through all of the activities to come. Ideally a definition of the Holocaust
would give some indication of a response to important questions such as:
Who were the victims?
Who were the perpetrators?
When did this happen?
Where did this happen?
How did it happen?
Why did this happen?
Answering these questions in a short definition is very difficult. One historically
accurate and academically acceptable definition that the Holocaust
Educational Trust uses is: The Holocaust was the murder of approximately six
million Jewish men, women and children by Nazi Germany and its
collaborators during the Second World War. Whilst this does not respond to all
of the questions above, a historian would accept it as a valid definition, even
if not a perfect one. In the coming activities you will explore these questions
and discover some of the complexities of the Holocaust – complexities which
make any definition seem inadequate.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY THE TERM ‘HOLOCAUST’?
The word ‘Holocaust’ comes from ancient Greek: ‘holos’ means ‘completely’
and ‘kaustos’ means ‘burnt’. The word was first used to describe religious
sacrifices. For this reason, some people have objected to the term
‘Holocaust’ and prefer to use the Hebrew word ‘Shoah’, which means
‘catastrophe’. The term ‘Holocaust’ means different things to different
people. However, there are several key themes that run through any
definition of the word. Below are three definitions of what the Holocaust was.
Each has been written by an institution that helps to commemorate and
educate about the Holocaust.
TASK 1
Complete the following tasks based on the definitions below:
Read through the definitions and underline any terms or phrases they have in
common. (You may need to look up any new words you find.)
What do all of the definitions have in common? What can we learn from this?
DEFINITIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST
“The Holocaust was the systematic murder of Europe's Jews by the Nazis and
their collaborators during the Second World War. For the first time in history,
industrial methods were used for the mass extermination of a whole people.
Between 1933 and 1945, Jews were targeted for discrimination, segregation
and extermination. […] The Nazis enslaved and murdered millions of others as
well. Political opponents, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), homosexuals, prisoners of
conscience, people with physical and mental disabilities, Poles, Soviet
prisoners of war and others were killed or died in camps as a result of neglect,
starvation or disease.”
Imperial War Museum, London, UK
“The Holocaust was the murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis
and their collaborators. Between the German invasion of the Soviet Union in
the summer of 1941 and the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Nazi
Germany and its accomplices strove to murder every Jew under their
domination. Because Nazi discrimination against the Jews began with Hitler’s
accession to power in January 1933, many historians consider this the start of
the Holocaust era. The Jews were not the only victims of Hitler’s regime, but
they were the only group that the Nazis sought to destroy entirely.”
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel
“The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored
persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime
and its collaborators. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities
also targeted other groups because of their perceived “racial inferiority”:
Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles,
Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological,
and behavioural grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, and homosexuals.”
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
TASK 2
Read through the article below, detailing how persecution against the Jews
escalated. For each year, explain how these events either made it easier for the
Nazis to push for further discrimination against Jews, or how it made it harder for the
Nazis to ‘dial back’ and reduce their discrimination against Jews.
Murder on an industrial scale- A Timeline of the Holocaust
The discovery of Nazi concentration camps towards the end of WW2 revealed the full horror
of Hitler's plans to exterminate Europe's Jews and other minorities. The media reports of the
systematic slaughter shocked the world.
What happened in Germany to lead to these events? And how much was known about the
mass murders during the years that led to one of the darkest chapters of the 20th Century?
1933- Nazis in power
Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Hitler rose to power in Germany by
offering a version of history in which the depression of the 1930s was the fault of the Jews.
In January, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of a coalition government, his own
National Socialist party being the largest in parliament. Hitler quickly moved to cement his
power by suspending many civil liberties and allowing imprisonment without trial. By March,
the first Nazi concentration camp was established at Dachau, not to imprison Jews but to
hold political dissidents. Further laws targeted Jews, restricting the jobs they could hold and
revoking their German citizenship. Anti-Semitic sentiment increased as the Jewish population
was blamed for many of Germany's recent and historical problems.
“I refuse to admit that the police are a defence squad for Jewish stores.” - Herman Göring,
reported in the Times, 11 March 1933
1934- Hitler declared Führer
In a speech broadcast on BBC radio in November 1934, Churchill warned of the Nazi ‘gospel
of intolerance and racial pride'. By August, Hitler’s grip on power was secured after a bloody
purge that destroyed all opposition in the party. He declared himself Führer, or leader.
His grip on German society tightened and those who publicly objected to Nazi policies were
often sentenced to hard labour in the rapidly expanding concentration camp system. Jews
were subjected to further laws restricting their rights, but rising anti-Semitism in Europe wasn’t
limited to Germany. In the UK, Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists gained support from
sections of the public and press, even filling the Royal Albert Hall in April.
“Hurrah for the Blackshirts.”- Daily Mail, January 1934. ‘Blackshirts’ was the nickname for the
British Union of Fascists.
1935- Anti-Semitism as law
The Nuremberg Laws defined a Jew as anyone with three or more Jewish grandparents. Four
German grandparents were needed to be classified as German. In September, policy
escalated. The Nuremberg Laws reduced Jews to second-class citizens because of their
'impure' blood.
Defined by the religion of their grandparents rather than by their own beliefs, Jews were
viewed as having impure blood lines. The new laws were taught in schools, cementing anti-
Semitism in German culture. Most Germans kept quiet, often benefiting when Jews lost jobs
and businesses. Persecution of other minorities also escalated: the police were given new
powers to arrest homosexuals and compulsory abortions were administered to women
considered to be ‘hereditarily ill’.
“Like so many Nazi catchwords… “May Jewry perish!” – was meant literally and will be
literally brought to pass if the fanatics have their way.” -The Times, 8 November 1935
1936- The Third Reich on show
The Berlin Olympics of 1936 was a propaganda success and marked Germany's return to the
world stage after the First World War. Hitler's anti-Semitic rhetoric had turned many Germans
against the Jews. But a different propaganda strategy was needed for a global audience.
The Summer Olympics in Berlin gave the Nazis a platform to project a crafted image to the
world. Despite calls for boycotts, the games were a success. Anti-Jewish notices were
removed and German spectators cheered black athlete Jesse Owens to four gold medals.
Visitors saw a tolerant Reich. However, three days after the games ended, the head of the
Olympic Village, Wolfgang Fürstner, killed himself as he would soon be dismissed due to his
Jewish ancestry under the Nuremberg Laws.
“This contact with many nationalities and races has made the Germans more human again.”
Frederick T Birchall reports on the Berlin Olympics, New York Times, 16 August 1936
1937- Escalation of anti-Jewish propaganda
As the world’s eyes were on the battle between Fascism and Communism in Spain, the Nazis
stepped up their erosion of civil rights in Germany.
Concentration camps began to incarcerate ‘habitual criminals’ in addition to political
prisoners. Goebbels stepped up anti-Semitic propaganda with a traveling exhibition which
cast Jews as the enemy. Nearly half a million people attended. Some guessed worse would
come. Winston Churchill criticised British relations with Germany, warning of ‘great evils of
racial and religious intolerance’, though many colleagues complained of his ‘harping on’
about Jews.
“It is a horrible thing that a race of people should be attempted to be blotted out of the
society in which they had been born.” -Winston Churchill criticises British foreign policy in
December 1937
1938- Jewish persecution intensifies
Kristallnacht - the 'Night of Broken Glass' - was an escalation in Nazi persecution of the Jews.
In March, Germany invaded Austria and by September parts of Czechoslovakia too, drawing
new territories under the regime of Nazi persecution.
In November, attacks erupted against Jewish businesses. At least 91 Jews died and 267
synagogues were destroyed in a centrally coordinated plot passed off as spontaneous
violence across Germany. Thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps and were
only released if they agreed to leave the Nazi territory. Many Jews decided to flee, though
options were limited. Britain agreed to house Jewish children, eventually taking in 10,000
minors, but refused to change its policy for Jewish adults.
1939- The world at war
Until this point, Nazi strategy had concentrated on getting Jews to leave the Reich but when
war broke out in September a different plan emerged.
By the end of September, the SS had started to develop plans to deport Jews to newly
invaded Poland: the first steps towards the systematic murder that would follow. In Poland
itself, thousands of Poles and Jews were rounded up and shot, early indications of the
systematic murder that would follow. Alongside this, Hitler approved a new programme of
euthanasia to exterminate the handicapped and mentally ill.
“Patients considered incurable, according to the best available human judgment of their
state of health, can be granted a mercy killing.” - Decree from Hitler, October 1939
1940- Nazi persecution across Europe
German forces marched across Europe. Of the occupied countries, some capitulated and
implemented Nazi policy immediately. Others held off for longer.
For the first time, camps were created specifically for Jews. Their conditions were far worse
than other camps. The implicit intention was that the inmates would die there. Increasing
numbers of Jews in Poland were relocated in ghettos. Non-Jewish Poles were also deported
from their farms and villages to make room for ‘pure’ ethnic Germans to populate the new
territory.
The Warsaw Ghetto was sealed on 16 November 1940. The walls were 3m high, topped with
barbed wire. Anyone trying to escape would be shot.
“…they will be driven into the ghetto forcibly. An official explanation says that Jewish homes
are known to be breeding-places of pestilence.” -The sealing of the Warsaw Ghetto reported
in the Times, 25 October 1940
1941- The ‘Final Solution’ agreed
The Nazi policy on Jews moved from expulsion to containment to commanders being
ordered to systematically murder the Jews of Europe.
Methods of mass murder evolved at local levels as well as being decreed from Nazi high
command. Killing squads rounded up and shot entire Jewish communities. Over two days in
Kiev, 33,771 Jews were shot. The murder of Jews rapidly escalated, in part because local Nazi
leaders didn’t have enough room to place them in the ghettos. By the end of the year, plans
to implement the systematic slaughter of Jews by using gas in mobile trucks and gas
chambers were well underway.
“Since the Mongol invasions… there has never been methodical, merciless butchery on such
a scale… We are in the presence of a crime without a name.” - Winston Churchill could not
declare all he knew without revealing Enigma was broken (Enigma was the name given to
the Nazi’s secret codes)
1942- Mass murder
Jews from across Europe were transported by train to extermination camps. Those not
selected for work were usually dead within hours of arriving. More Jews were murdered in
1942 than in any other year of the Holocaust, the majority in the newly created extermination
camps.
Of the 430,000 sent to the first death camp at Bełżec in Poland, there were only two survivors.
700,000 were killed at Treblinka in just five months. In July, Himmler ordered that all Jews in key
areas of Poland, except for those needed for essential labour, were to be killed by the end of
the year. Most were. Despite Allied intelligence receiving detailed reports of the mass
murders in Europe, the public reaction in Britain was largely a mixture of apathy and disbelief.
“Extinction feared by Jews in Poland.” - Headline in the New York Times, 1 March 1942
1943- Jewish rebellions
Germany was now losing the war. Vital resources were still ploughed into implementing the
'Final Solution' – the extermination of all Jews in Europe.
Uprisings broke out in some extermination camps. The few remaining Jews kept alive to
dispose of bodies and sort possessions realised the number of transportees was reducing and
they would be next. Civilian uprisings occurred across Poland as mainly young Jews, whose
families had already been murdered, began to resist Nazi oppression. With reports of
rebellion and mass murder in the British press, the situation in the camps could no longer be
be ignored.
“Let those who have hitherto not imbued their hands with innocent blood beware... [we] will
pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth.”- From the text of the Moscow Declaration,
in which Allied leaders pledged justice, October 1943
1944- The long march to Germany
By March, the Allies were driving the German army back.
Tens of thousands of Jews held in the eastern territories were marched towards the heart of
Germany so they could not bear witness to the Allies. Aware that the world had been alerted
to the horrors of the camps, the Nazis sought to destroy evidence. In June, Soviet forces
liberated the first major camp, known as Majdanek, in Lublin, Poland. The Nazis had burned
down the crematorium chimney but had failed to destroy the gas chambers and barracks.
Only a few hundred inmates were still alive.
“The officials used to crack grisly jokes with their victims, a favourite remark being “I’ll see you
in the stove soon”.” - The Times reports on the Soviet liberation of Lublin concentration camp,
August 12 1944
1945 -Horrors revealed
As the Allies swept to victory in Europe and camps were liberated across the once Nazi-
occupied territories, the full scale of the Holocaust emerged.
The Allies found camps that were catastrophically over-crowded with no food or sanitation.
General Eisenhower ordered careful documentation of evidence by occupying troops as
thoughts turned to justice. Hitler and other senior Nazis including Himmler and Goebbels killed
themselves. In November, trials of captured Nazi leaders began at Nuremberg.
“Those officers and men who’ve seen these things have gone back to the Second Army
moved to an anger such as I have never seen in them before.” - Richard Dimbleby, BBC
report, 19 April 1945
1946- Justice at Nuremberg
The international military tribunal delivered its verdict on 21 senior Nazi officials. 18 were found
guilty and three were acquitted.
11 of Hitler’s deputies were given death sentences, including Goering, the most senior
surviving Nazi. However he too committed suicide the night before he was due to hang.
Others received prison terms. Albert Speer, Hitler's personal architect, was released in 1966
and spent his remaining years writing about the Nazi regime, donating most of his royalties to
Jewish charities. Rudolph Hess committed suicide in prison in 1987. Many Nazis evaded justice
altogether and were never tried.
“If understanding is impossible, knowing is imperative, because what happened could
