Sunday, May 8, 2011

The Holocaust


Antisemitism began in Germany in 1933. 9 million Jews lived across European countries that would eventually be taken over by Germany. 6 million Jews died by 1945. That means 2 out of every 3 Jews perished from Nazi genocide.

Your task is to read about the Nazi rule, Jews in prewar Germany, the "Final Solution", Nazi concentration camps, and rescue from the camps. To do this, visit the official site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum at http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/

Answer all questions on a WORD DOCUMENT

1. Under the Nazi Rule section, read about why the Nazis also directed their hatred towards handicapped individuals, titled The Murder of the Handicapped. Summarize 5 key facts from this section.

2. Under the Jews in Prewar Germany section, read about the Nuremberg Laws, titled the Nuremberg Race Laws. Summarize 5 key facts from this section.

3. Explain what happened during the "Final Solution." Bullet point the process.

4. Read about the background to Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp established by the Germans. Explain the setting of the camp, daily life in the camp, impossible escapes, and longevity of prisoners.

5. The Soviet solders were the first to liberate Jews from the camps in 1944. Read about the liberation experience faced by the Allied soldiers, what they saw, and the reaction by the survivors. Summarize 5 key points.

6. Look at all 3 pages of photographs on the site. Choose the photograph that stands out to you the most. Identify the photograph and be sure to state your reasons why it "caught your eye."

7. View 3 testimonies of individuals who experienced the Holocaust. (you don't need to write anything for this)

8. Lastly, browse away from the Holocaust website to find other acts of genocide (look up this word if you don't know what it means). The term genocide didn't officially exist until the 1940's, so you may need to alter your search words to find examples pre-1940. Use any credible source to find your answer.


1 comment:

Logan Worsh said...

1.-Hitler wanted to rid the “Master Race” of all impurities such as the terminally ill or the mentally handicapped.
-German doctors read over the medical files and chose which patients were going to be killed.
- Bodies were burned in ovens called “Crematoria.”
- Regarding all protest, Hitler continued this program, 200,000 handicapped patients were killed in 1940-1945.
- This program became a model for the murder of the Jews and other cultures.

2. - Nazis held rallies to discuss new laws and rules.
- These laws excluded Jews from Reich citizenship and having relations with German blood or related blood.
- Just being called a Jew grouped you into their religion and got you punished.
- Hitler removed some of the anti Jew signs from public areas so that people didn’t criticize his government and change the area of where the Olympics take place.

3.
•1941-Nazis made ghettos for Jewish holding and used mobile firing squads to kill Jews.
•1942- Nazis began shipping Jews from all over Europe to six extermination camps.
•The “Final Solution” was just the mass killing of Jews with different tactics of fear.

4. In this camp people who were spared of immediate execution were used for labor. They were stripped of their Identity and given a number and the same clothes as everyone else. Each day was a struggle for life with un-bearable living conditions, like no heat or cold air in their sleeping quarters or no bathrooms. There were 36 wooden bunk beds in each barrack bud 500 people were put in each barrack so sleeping was a hassle. Inmates were fed watery soups with rotten vegetables and meat and were given a bad drink resembling coffee. Diseases were spread and diarrhea was very common. Most people were sent to labor facilities to work. Some inmates were sent to experiment chamber where doctors performed on them to find better cures for soldiers and airmen.

5.
•Russians found over 300,000 pairs of clothes and tens of thousands shoes.
•Americans came across stacks or corpse lying there in piles.
•People who were still alive looked like walking skeletons.

6. I chose the picture on this 1st page 3 down on the left side. If you look at it you can see all the prisoners lined up for role call and you can really feel a sense of fear within them.

8. Rwandan Genocide took place in 1994 in a small African nation. Over one hundred days 800,000 people were killed. That’s almost as much as 20% of the population.