the holocaust, aos 4

Question 1

what is anti-semitism?

Answer 1

hostility to, prejudice against, or discrimination towards Jews

Question 2

why were people anti-semitic?

Answer 2

• many jews fled what had been known as Jewish Palestine after losing a fight over their holy land. this flow of refugees is known as the Jewish Diaspora
• new communities across europe were suspicious of Jewish refugees because they could communicate with Jews of other countries through Yiddish, and had unusual cultural traditions
• although many jews adapted to their new societies, some were still seen as ‘other’
• conspiracies that jews were manipulating the world’s economy and media (supported by Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which ‘exposed’ the jewish plan for world domination) caused a rise in anti-semitic propaganda

Question 3

timeline of restrictions on Jewish people

germany

Answer 3

• march 1933 - hitler ordered a boycott of jewish shops
• april 1933 - jews were not allowed to own land
• 1935 - jews were excluded from parks, swimming pools, restaurants and public buildings
• 1935 - Nuremberg Laws: banned marriage and sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews, stripped Jews of their citizenship and right to vote
• 1938 - jews had to pick their children’s names from an approved list, were forced to wear the Star of David on their clothes, banned from universities
• November 1938 - Kristallnacht: 7000 jewish shops were smashed and looted, synagogues were burnt down, 46000 jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps

Question 4

the final solution origins

Answer 4

• jewish people had been rounded up into ghettos in germany’s occupied terriroty
• hitler planned to annhiliated all jews and extend his lebensraum
• the nazis shifted from face-to-face killing to planned, organised, industrial execution
• the wansee conference was held to find ‘the final solution to the jewish problem’
• the outcome of the conference was the liquidation of the ghettos and establishment of death camps

Question 5

concentration camps

Answer 5

• Chelmno
• Belzec
• Sobibor
• Treblinka
• Majdanek
• Auschwitz-Birkenau: 1.3 million deaths

Question 6

aims and outcomes of concentration camps

Answer 6

• the aim was the obliteration of the jewish ‘race’
• auschwitz-birkenau was equipped with several extermination facilities and crematoria, and was also the site of Josef Mengele’s experiments to accerlerate the births rates of the German Aryans
• Zyklon-B in gas chambers was used to kill prisoners efficiently, and jews were stripped of all valuable possessions, and hair was shaved for textiles
• 6 million jews were killed in the holocaust
• auschwitz-birkenau is now a museum to serve as a reminder of the horrific genocide