Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________

Anti-Semitism in Germany in the 1930s

Adolf Hitler had risen to power while using anti-Semitic rhetoric. For example, he
stated that the Jewish people were responsible for Germany losing World War I,
which was untrue. When he came to power in 1933, the Jewish people started to
lose rights and safety over time.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were passed, denying German Jews of citizenship, or
working within the government. It also stated that Germans and Jews were not
allowed to marry, and even having a courting relationship was not allowed. These
were the significant laws that impacted the Jewish community the most; however,
other laws that stated they were not allowed to fly a national flag further showed that
they were becoming socially isolated within their own country.

On the night of November 9th 1938, the Jewish

community was the target of attacks throughout the
country. Earlier that day, news broke that a Jewish
college student had murdered a Nazi official in France.
This served as the excuse for widespread vandalism
and arson of Jewish businesses, synagogues, homes,
and schools. Kristallnacht or the “Night of the Broken
Glass” also witnessed the arrest of 30,000 Jews, many
of whom were to concentration camps, and some were
even killed. Furthermore, after the violence of the 9th
and 10th was over, the Jewish community was forced to pay for the damages incurred.

Wannsee Conference & the Final Solution

In July 1941, Nazi officials met to discuss, as they said, the
“Jewish question.” They met in the suburbs of Berlin as
ordered by Hitler to “as soon as possible form a general
plan of the administrative, material, and financial measures
necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the
Jewish question.” Although various hideous ideas were
given, the plan proposed by Heydrich Himmler, where they
would send the Jewish people to concentration camps
where they would be worked to death or die of other causes, was the focus of the
conference.

Throughout the conference, detailed minutes and notes were taken, which would be
used against the Nazis during the Nuremberg Trials after the wars. Within a month
of the meeting, vans that gassed people to death were being used in Chelmno,
Poland, killing 1,000 people per day. Soon after the conference, concentration camps
and death camps were built in occupied Poland and other territories throughout the
German-controlled territory as the plan proposed by Himmler was put into fruition.
Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________

Dachau & Concentration Camps

Shortly after Hitler became chancellor of Germany, a large concentration camp was
constructed outside of Munich. Initially, the camp was created to house political
prisoners; however, as time went on, it became a place of mass suffering and death
for Jews, homosexuals, intellectuals, Roma community members, Jehovah
Witnesses, and other targeted groups.

Prisoners at Dachau were malnourished, and some

had to work as slave laborers while others were used in
medical experiments. Adolf Hitler stated that his
camps were not under German law, and so from the
very start, his guards could kill anyone and not face
any reprisal for doing so. The camp also was a training
group for the SS and camp guards. As Germany
entered World War II, over time, the number of
prisoners went from 6,000, the number the camp was built for, to 30,000. After the
Wannsee Conference, four crematorium ovens were constructed while others were
placed on trains and sent to extermination camps in Poland.

Dachau was liberated on April 29, 1945, by the Americans who found the camp full of
emaciated prisoners with corpses rotting in train cars. The camp is now a memorial
site and open to the public to visit and learn about the atrocities of the Holocaust.

The Ghettos
Ghettos had existed in Europe since at least the 15th century when Venice forced the Jewish
population to live in the specific Jewish quarter. The Nazis utilized ghettos to separate the
Jewish people from non-Jewish communities before transporting them to other locations.
Overall, the Germans set up 1,143 ghettos. Some were closed with barbed wire and walls,
while some had no fences but had restrictions, and others were known as destruction
ghettos. These ghettos were cut off from the outside world and were awaiting transportation
to concentration or extermination camps.

The first ghetto was established in Piotrkow, Poland, in October

1939; however, the largest was the Warsaw ghetto that housed
400,000 Jews within 1.3 square miles. In 1943, the Germans
sought to deport the remaining residents of the Warsaw ghetto.
Instead, the inhabitants revolted against the Germans held out for a
few weeks before German forces retook the ghetto and deported
any inhabitant still alive.

Ghettos were crowded and undersupplied. Some were set up for years, while others lasted
just a few days. Smuggling was common to help bring in goods to support the people.
Education was offered at some locations, but it was usually disrupted as consistency was not
wanted. Adults usually found themselves working for the Germans as free laborers.
Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________

Auschwitz-Birkenau
After Germany took over parts of Poland, they began to construct
camps as they had done in Germany; however, after the Wannsee
conference, some of these camps were converted into
extermination camps, with the sole purpose to kill the majority of
people who would enter into its gates.

Auschwitz-Birkenau was located in southern Poland and was the site where over
one million people were killed during the Holocaust. Gas chambers were constructed
with large crematoriums to burn the corpses. The majority of people who were sent to
Auschwitz were sent to their deaths immediately upon arrival. However, some
deemed fit to work were used as slave laborers working with munitions, synthetic
rubbers, in the crematorium area, or making other war-related items. Most prisoners
were housed in Birkenau and had to endure horrendous conditions and malnutrition.
Frequent selections occurred to see if the prisoners were still fit to work, and if they
were deemed not to be, they would be sent to the gas chambers. Some children and
others were able to pass the first selection as they were chosen for medical
experiments conducted by doctor Josef Mengele. His experiments could involve
injecting one’s heart with chloroform or seeing how long one would take to die if
exposed to certain poisons or diseases.

Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945; however, most of the prisoners were
forced to endure the death marches as they were forced to walk or, at some times,
run to other camps to evade the Soviet army.

Death Marches
When the Allied forces entered German-held territory, the
Nazis began to force the prisoners of their concentration
camps to march to other locations farther away from the
front lines. As the war was drawing to a close over the
winter and spring months, the prisoners endured bitterly
cold conditions without proper clothing to keep them alive.
Furthermore, they were given little to no food or water while
moving, and many learned how to take brief naps while running or walking.

If a person could not keep up with the group, tried to escape, or even just tripped,
they would be killed on the spot. People who had friends or family members tended
to help each other along, partially carrying the others to help them sleep while walking
or doing shifts when they were given a chance to rest to ensure that all members of
their group would wake up again and not succumb to hypothermia. Fifteen thousand
people died on the death march from Auschwitz to Wodzislaw alone. Some camps
were marched north to the sea, where they were marched straight into the water and
shot. For those that survived, most were liberated in April or May 1945.
Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________

The Holocaust
Directions: Read the information on each card and answer the following questions.

1. What did the Nuremberg Laws state? What rights were taken away from the
Jewish people?

2. What happened on the night of November 9th, 1938? Give specific

information.

3. What idea did the Wannsee Conference focus on and then initiate after it was
finished?

4. Why was Dachau able to commit crimes against humanity right from the start
in 1933?

5. What types of ghettos were established in Nazi-controlled areas? What was a

destruction ghetto, and how was it different from the rest?

6. How many people were killed at Auschwitz? What role did Josef Mengele
have at the camp, and what did he do?

7. What conditions did people have to endure during the death marches?
Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________
Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________

Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nNHVrc1soMYHwVb86CqXpmPB1Jq_DkZtuXEY
GPIYyiE/copy
Key
1. What did the Nuremberg Laws state? What rights were taken away from the
Jewish people?
 The laws took away citizenship, certain marriage rights, the ability to work for
the government, and even the ability to hang a German flag.

2. What happened on the night of November 9th, 1938? Give specific information.
 The Night of the Broken Glass attacked Jewish-owned businesses,
synagogues, homes, and schools. It also involved 30,000 Jewish being
arrested and sent to camps.

3. What idea did the Wannsee Conference focus on and then initiate after it was
finished?
 The Wannsee Conference focused on sending targeted people to
concentration camps where they would be worked to death.

4. Why was Dachau able to commit crimes against humanity right from the start in
1933?
 Hitler stated that camps were not under German law.

5. What types of ghettos were established in Nazi-controlled areas? What was a

destruction ghetto, and how was it different from the rest?
 Closed ghettos had fences and barbed wires, open ghettos had no walls.
They only had certain restrictions. Destruction ghettos were 100% closed off
and awaiting transit to another location, most likely a concentration or
extermination camp.

6. How many people were killed at Auschwitz? What role did Josef Mengele have
at the camp, and what did he do?
 Over 1 million people were killed. Mengele was a doctor at the camp who
conducted numerous experiments on people like injecting them with poisons
or diseases.

7. What conditions did people have to endure during the death marches?
 Bitter cold, no food or water, and no rest while under constant threat of being
killed for not keeping up.
Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________