How Did the Nazis Persecute the Jews?

Lesson Objective:

To describe how the Nazis persecuted Jews in Germany between 1933-45

Task 1• Read the story from Nazi Germany as a class.

This story was given to school children in Nazi Germany

• Answer the questions below once you have read the story

• 1. What do Jews apparently look like?• 2. How does the ‘best scholar’ (best pupil)

describe Jews?• 3. Who else is the story racist about? • 4. Describe the effect this story would have on a

young child? What will they think about Jewish people?

Why did the Nazis hate the Jews?

• Jews in Germany often had money and were concentrated in certain professions – many Germans were jealous of this

• Jews tended to marry Jews – they were accused of ‘not fitting in’

• Jews had been hated for years – in the 14th century Jews were blamed for the plague, 100,000 were killed in Germany

• Before World War I the German Kaiser said that the Jews were the ‘curse of my country’

• In short, The Nazis message was not new, Jews had been hated by some in Germany for a long time

Jews were forced to wear the star of David so people knew that they were Jews

Jewish shops had signs telling people not to shop there. In 1938 the Nazis told people to go around

and smash up Jewish shops. This was called Kristallnacht (Crystal Night) The night of broken

glass)

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Hitler’s views on minorities and the disabled

Hitler’s Laws against the Jews

By 1939 many anti-Jewish laws had been introduced, for example Jews couldn’t marry non-Jews, many were sacked from jobs and could not be out their home between 8pm and 6am 

He who is not bodily and mentally sound must not be allowed to have children. All they will do is pass bad genes into their children. We must get rid of these people. 

Task: Write what Hitler and the Nazis say about different groups and what laws they introduced onto your A4 sheet.

See the example here for guidance

The ‘Final Solution’

• Lesson Objective: To explain what the ‘Final Solution’ was and describe the conditions in death camps.

In a series of meetings between 1941-2 leading Nazis met and decided the ‘Jewish problem’ needed to be solved.

They decided that every Jew in Europe should be killed, around 11 million people.

Meeting chaired by Reinhard Heydrich. His nick-name was the ‘Blond Butcher’

Jews were taken from their homes and forced to live in concentration camps.

Killing took place by shooting them

Later this changed as Nazis decided that shooting was ‘too stressful’ for the Nazi soldiers

At first the Nazis put Jews into a small room and pumped carbon dioxide from lorry exhausts into the room

Later gas chambers were developed. Jews were told they were going for a shower and then gassed

This was called the Holocaust: the extermination of the Jews

Some people who were not killed in the gas chambers were used for medical experiments, for example testing the human body to see at what low temperature the body dies (source ii) or raising the volume and seeing at what volume the ear drums burst. The overall aim was to help the German army in combat situations.

One doctor called Joseph Mengele enjoyed testing on twins who he found ‘interesting’.

After the war he escaped and lived in South America until 1979

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ii

iii

Treatment of Children What Nazis said about the ‘Final Solution’

Violence and punishments

Work and living conditions

Divide your page as above. Look at your source sheet and write what happened into the four categories. If what you have written fits into more than one category write in one

box then draw a neat line to another

• View the video clip. The images that you see will show you how persecution of the Jews turned into genocide. You will see shocking images but to understand the full horrors of what happened do not look away.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaCdKwFcHnw

• In pairs discuss what you have seen. How did it make you feel? What was the most shocking thing you saw? What did the Americans make the local population do? Why do you think they did this?

Cartoon published in America, 1936.

What is the message of this cartoon? (7)

Use the source and your knowledge to explain your answer.

Explain why the Nazis persecuted different groups in society. (6)