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Hitler and the Holocaust

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Hitler and the Holocaust

Read the background and sources carefully. Answer using evidence, and distinguish what a source says from what you can infer. This topic concerns genocide and persecution; approach it respectfully.

Background: how persecution escalated

After Germany’s defeat in the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles imposed territorial losses, military restrictions and reparations. The Weimar Republic, Germany’s post-war democracy, faced serious political conflict and economic crises. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party (NSDAP) used antisemitism, racism, extreme nationalism and promises of national renewal to win support. Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. The Nazis then dismantled democratic rights, outlawed opposition and used propaganda, intimidation and state violence to control society. In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws stripped Jewish people of German citizenship and banned marriages between Jews and people classified as “German blood”. Further discrimination, dispossession and violence followed. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany and its collaborators persecuted and murdered millions. The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews. Nazi persecution and mass murder also targeted Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, Polish civilians, Soviet prisoners of war, political opponents, and others.

Sources for inquiry

Source A — Nuremberg Law, 15 September 1935 (excerpt, translated): “A Jew cannot be a citizen of the Reich.” This law was imposed by the Nazi state; it did not describe a real difference in human worth. Source B — Diary entry by a Jewish teenager in hiding, Amsterdam, 11 July 1942 (paraphrased for this worksheet): “We have been told that people are being taken away. I am frightened, but I am trying to keep writing down what happens.” Source C — A 1941 Nazi government report about mass shootings in occupied eastern Europe (paraphrased): “Einsatzgruppen units reported killing thousands of Jewish men, women and children.” These mobile killing units operated behind the German front lines. The wording of a perpetrator report may conceal violence and deny victims their individuality.

1.Which party did Hitler lead, and in what month and year did he become Germany’s chancellor?

2.Choose the best explanation of how the Treaty of Versailles relates to Hitler’s rise. A. It created political and economic grievances that the Nazis exploited. B. It appointed Hitler as chancellor. C. It immediately began the Holocaust.

A. It created political and economic grievances that the Nazis exploited.
B. It appointed Hitler as chancellor.
C. It immediately began the Holocaust.

3.Name two methods, described in the background, that the Nazis used to weaken democracy and control society.

4.Source A is a law made by the government that carried it out. Is it a primary or secondary source? Give one reason it is useful and one limitation when studying Nazi persecution.

5.What does Source B suggest about the experience of a Jewish person in hiding? Identify one detail from the source that supports your inference.

6.Source C was written by perpetrators. Why might its wording be unreliable or incomplete as an account of the killings? Give one way a historian could check it.

7.Select every group named in the background as targeted by Nazi persecution or mass murder: Jewish people; Roma and Sinti people; disabled people; Polish civilians; Soviet prisoners of war; political opponents; all German citizens equally.

Jewish people
Roma and Sinti people
Disabled people
Polish civilians
Soviet prisoners of war
Political opponents
All German citizens equally

8.True or false: The Holocaust refers specifically to the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews; Nazi Germany also persecuted and murdered other groups.

TrueFalse

9.Put these events in chronological order by writing 1–4: Hitler becomes chancellor; the Nuremberg Laws are imposed; Germany invades Poland; the period 1941–1945 of intensified systematic mass murder.

10.Why should students in Aotearoa New Zealand study the Holocaust? Write a short response connecting historical evidence to at least one present-day issue, such as antisemitism, racism, propaganda, or the protection of human rights.