Chapter 19

Question 1

When was the Anschluss achieved?

Answer 1

March 1938

Question 2

How was the Anschluss described?

Answer 2

As a ‘bloodless victory’

Question 3

What was the effect of the Anschluss?

Answer 3

It emboldened Hitler and the Nazis to pursue more radical policies.

Question 4

When did Hitler acquire the Sudetenland area of Czechoslovakia?

Answer 4

September 1938

Question 5

Who agreed to the German takeover of the Sudetenland?

Answer 5

Britain and France.

Question 6

When did Hitler take over the rest of Czechoslovakia?

Answer 6

March 1939

Question 7

When was the Nazi-Soviet Pact signed?

Answer 7

August 1939

Question 8

What did the Nazi-Soviet Pact agree to?

Answer 8

The USSR would not oppose the German invasion of Poland.

Question 9

When did Germany invade Poland?

Answer 9

1 September 1939

Question 10

When did Britain and France declare war on Germany?

Answer 10

3 September 1939

Question 11

When was the Decree of Registration of Jewish Property passed?

Answer 11

April 1938

Question 12

What did the Decree of Registration of Jewish Property do?

Answer 12

All Jewish-owned property worth more than 5000 marks was confiscated.

Question 13

What is meant by Aryanisation?

Answer 13

Nazi policy of removing all Jews and other non-Aryans from German cultural and economic life.

Question 14

How many Jewish-owned businesses were there April 1938 compared with April 1939 after the passing of the Decree of Registration of Jewish Property?

Answer 14

40,000 in 1938; just 8000 in 1939.

Question 15

What were all Jewish men forced to do in 1939?

Answer 15

Adopt the additional first name of Israel.

Question 16

What were all Jewish women forced to do in 1939?

Answer 16

Adopt the additional first name Sarah.

Question 17

When was the Reichkristallnacht?

Answer 17

9-10 November 1938

Question 18

What happened on the Reichkristallnacht?

Answer 18

Jewish homes and businesses were looted and synagogues set on fire. Thousands of Jews were arrested, beaten up and killed.

Question 19

What is a pogrom?

Answer 19

An organised massacre of an ethnic group; the Reichkristallnacht was a pogrom.

Question 20

How did Nazi propaganda present the Reichkristallnacht?

Answer 20

They claimed ‘the National Soul has boiled over’.

Question 21

Who made up the majority of those involved in violence and vandalism during the Reichkristallnacht?

Answer 21

SA and SS men who had been instructed to wear civilian clothes to make it seem like the public will.

Question 22

How many Jews were killed during the Reichkristallnacht?

Answer 22

91

Question 23

Who had to pay for the cost of repairs after the Reichkristallnacht?

Answer 23

The Jewish people who were the victims of the violence.

Question 24

How much was the Jewish community forced to pay for the disruption to the economy during the Reichkristallnacht?

Answer 24

1 billion Reichmarks

Question 25

What was seen as the solution to the Jewish problem from 1938 to 1941?

Answer 25

Forced emigration

Question 26

Why did many Jews choose not to emigrate?

Answer 26

They saw the anti-Semitism of the Nazis as something that would pass and they considered themselves German first, Jewish second.

Question 27

What was contradictory about the Nazi’s Jewish emigration push?

Answer 27

They were pressuring Jews to emigrate but at the same time making it hard for them to do so by stripping them of their wealth.

Question 28

How many Jewish children were sent to Britain in 1938-39?

Answer 28

9000

Question 29

Why did the outbreak of war in September 1939 change the situation of the Jewish problem?

Answer 29

The Nazis acquired new territories in western Poland that could be used to settle Jews, but they also acquired many more Jews in the process of invading new countries.

Question 30

Why did the war allow the Nazis to act more radically with their race policies?

Answer 30

• The national emergency enabled them to act with dictatorial power.
• Propaganda whipped up hatred for Germany’s enemies.
• More land to settle the Jews in more Jews to deal with.

Question 31

What was the General Government?

Answer 31

The area of Poland occupied by the Nazis in 1939 controlled by the Nazi Governor Hans Frank.

Question 32

How did the Nazis intend to use the General Government area?

Answer 32

As a dumping ground for Poles and Jews displaced from areas that were to be colonised by ethnic Germans.

Question 33

What was the Madagascar Plan?

Answer 33

The idea of removing all of Europe’s Jews and sending them to Madagascar.

Question 34

How many Jews did the Germans plan to send to Madagascar?

Answer 34

4 million

Question 35

Was Madagascar intended to be a new permanent home for Jews?

Answer 35

No. Conditions were meant to be harsh, leading to the elimination of the Jews through natural causes in the long term.

Question 36

Why was the Madagascar Plan decided against?

Answer 36

Operation Barbarossa would allow Germany to send the Jews into Siberia after they conquered the USSR.

Question 37

Why does the existence of the Madagascar Plan suggest?

Answer 37

That the Nazis had not yet decided on the Final Solution and the attempt to exterminate all Jews; on the other hand, if the Madagascar Plan had gone ahead, it was hoped the Jews would die out there anyway. So even if the means by which the Jews would be eliminated had not been determined, the ultimate aim of killing them all was still fixed.