Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3

(Example for Teacher Reference)

Directions: Answer the questions below.

Based on your prior knowledge and the first two lessons of this module, what do you already
know about the Holocaust?
Answers will vary.

What questions do you have about the Holocaust? What would you like to know?
Answers will vary.

Why do you think we are learning about a terrible time period in history like the Holocaust?
Answers will vary but may include it is important to learn about awful things that have
happened in history so that we are sure not to repeat the same mistakes.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Entrance Ticket: Unit 1, Lesson 3

Name: Date:
Directions: Answer the questions below.

Based on your prior knowledge and the first two lessons of this module, what do you already
know about the Holocaust?

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

What questions do you have about the Holocaust? What would you like to know?

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Why do you think we are learning about a terrible time period in history like the Holocaust?

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Holocaust Glossary Strips

L.8.4c

Directions: Cut out the rows into strips, and give each student one strip for their activity in
Work Time A.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

Nazi party leader, 1919–1945.

German Chancellor, 1933–1945.
Adolf Hitler
Called Führer, or supreme leader, by
the Nazis

a group of 26 nations led by Great

Britain, the United States, and the
Allies Soviet Union that opposed Germany,
Italy, and Japan (known as the Axis
partners) in World War II

prejudice or discrimination against

anti-Semitism Jews—dislike, fear, and persecution
of Jews

to totally destroy; to make extinct;

annihilate Hitler wanted to annihilate the
Jewish population in Europe.

term used in Nazi Germany to refer

to non-Jewish and non-Roma (Gypsy)
Caucasians; Northern Europeans
with especially “Nordic” features
Aryan
such as blonde hair and blue eyes
were considered by so-called race
scientists to be the most superior of
Aryans, members of a “master race.”

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

largest of the Nazi concentration

camps, located in southwestern
Poland; More than one million Jews
Auschwitz-Birkenau were murdered there. All inhabitants
of the Secret Annex were sent from
Westerbork to Auschwitz in
September 1944.

a concentration camp in northern

Germany; Epidemics, overcrowding,
and planned starvation in this camp
Bergen-Belsen
led to the deaths of more than
34,168 people, including Anne and
Margot Frank.

Nazi camp also known as Auschwitz II

(see Auschwitz-Birkenau above);
Birkenau contained systematic mass
Birkenau
killing operations. It also housed
thousands of concentration camp
prisoners deployed at forced labor.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

prison camps that held large

numbers of Jews, other members of
persecuted minorities (homosexual
men and women, Gypsies, political
and religious opponents of the Nazis,
concentration camps resistance fighters), and others
considered enemies of the state;
People died of starvation and disease
and were sometimes forced to
provide labor prior to mass
execution.

the first Nazi concentration camp,

located in southern Germany and
erected in 1933; Nazi doctors and
scientists used prisoners from
Dachau
Dachau as guinea pigs for
experiments. The camp was
liberated by American troops in April
1945.

Nazi extermination centers where

Jews and other victims were brought
death camps
to be killed as part of Hitler’s Final
Solution

an anti-Semitic tabloid style

newspaper published during World
Der Stürmer
War II; It acted as Nazi propaganda
and often included racist caricatures.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

forced removal of Jews in Nazi-

deportation
occupied countries from their homes

a country or government ruled by a

dictatorship dictator (one person who exercises
absolute power)

people who are forced to leave their

home country because of war,
displaced persons
persecution, or natural disaster;
refugees

a social and political ideology that

held as a primary guiding principle
fascism that the state or nation is the highest
priority, rather than personal or
individual freedoms

a Nazi plan for the genocide of all of

Final Solution Europe’s Jewish population during
World War II

camps where prisoners were used as

forced-labor camps
slave labor

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

the deliberate and systematic

genocide destruction of a racial, political,
cultural, or religious group

secret state police; Prior to the

outbreak of war, the gestapo used
brutal methods to investigate and
gestapo suppress resistance to Nazi rule
within Germany. After 1939, the
gestapo expanded its operations into
Nazi-occupied Europe.

a section of a city where Jews were

forced to live, usually with several
families living in one house,
separated from the rest of the city by
ghetto
walls or wire fences, and often
sealed; They were used primarily as a
station for gathering Jews prior to
deportation to concentration camps.

the state-sponsored systematic

persecution and annihilation of
European citizens by Nazi Germany
Holocaust
and its collaborators between 1933
and 1945; Jews were the primary
victims. Six million were murdered.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)
Nazi-established killing centers for
efficient mass murder; Unlike
concentration camps, which served
primarily as detention and labor
centers, killing centers (also referred
to as “extermination camps” or
killing centers
“death camps”) were almost
exclusively “death factories.”
German SS and police murdered
nearly 2,700,000 Jews in the killing
centers either by asphyxiation with
poison gas or by shooting.

German for “Night of Broken Glass”;

A mass pogrom of Nazi violence
against Jews and their stores and
synagogues in November 1938.
There was intense looting and
Kristallnacht
destruction of property, and 35,000
Jewish men were sent to labor or
concentration camps. Many were
subsequently released. Thirty-five
people were killed.

Hitler’s ideal was to create a

“superior” race of only Aryan
descent. He wanted to do this by
master race eliminating “subhumans,” such as
Jews, Gypsies, enemies of the state,
and handicapped or unproductive
people.

German for “My Struggle,” Hitler’s

Mein Kampf autobiography, which he wrote while
in prison after the November 1923
failed “Beer Hall Putsch”; In it, Hitler

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)
explains his beliefs and plans for the
future of the German nation. He
describes the domination by an
“Aryan” race through the elimination
of all inferior and undesirable
peoples, of which he focuses in
particular on the “source of all
evil”—the Jews.

a member of a German fascist party

Nazi controlling Germany from 1933 to
1945 under Adolf Hitler

the German fascist party controlling

Nazi Party Germany from 1933 to 1945 under
Adolf Hitler

laws announced by Hitler defining

“Jew” and systematizing and
regulating discrimination and
Nuremberg Laws
persecution; One example is the
Reich Citizenship Law, which
deprived all Jews of their civil rights.

control of a country by a foreign

military power; The Netherlands was
occupation
occupied by the Nazi government of
Germany.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

ill-treatment or hostility often due to

persecution
race or political or religious beliefs

an organized massacre of or attack

pogrom
on Jews

false or semi-true information used

by a government, political party, or
some other group that was intended
to sway the opinions of the
propaganda population; The Nazis had a minister
of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels,
who sought to establish enemies in
the public mind through the use and
distribution of propaganda.

Reich German word for empire

the German parliament; On February

27, 1933, a staged fire burned the
Reichstag building. A month later, on
Reichstag March 23, 1933, the Reichstag
approved the Enabling Act which
gave Hitler unlimited dictatorial
power.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

stood for the abbreviation of

Schutzstaffel, the black-shirted elite
guard of Hitler; Later the SS was the
political police in charge of the
concentration and death camps.
SS They established control of the
police and security systems, forming
the basis of the Nazi police state, and
were the major instrument of terror
in the concentration camps and
occupied Europe.

an ancient symbol, based on a good

swastika luck symbol from India, appropriated
by the Nazis as their emblem

the “third empire” of Germany; It

was the Nazi name for Germany,
Third Reich
declared by Hitler, and was used
from January 1933 to April 1945.

the peace treaty that officially ended

World War I between Germany and
Treaty of Versaille
the allies; It placed all the blame on
Germany.

a predominantly Jewish area in the

capital of Poland; In 1940, it was
enclosed and walled in, and
Warsaw Ghetto eventually confined nearly 500,000
Jews. Starvation, disease, unsanitary
conditions, and shootings led to the
deaths of 45,000 individuals in 1941.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word Definition
(Ideas, Events, People)

The German republic was

established in 1919 after World War
Weimar Republic I. It was an experiment in democracy
from 1919 to 1933 until Hitler came
into power in 1933.

Also called the Great War, it was an

international conflict fought mainly
in Europe and the Middle East,
between the Central Powers (mainly
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
Turkey) and the Allies (mainly
World War I France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Great
Britain, and the United States). It
began in July of 1914 and ended in
November of 1918. The Central
Powers collapsed. It was a brutal war
with much slaughter, death, and
destruction.

the six-pointed Star of David; a

Jewish symbol that the Nazis forced
yellow star Jews above the age of six to wear. It
was considered a mark of shame and
made Jews visible.

a language that combines aspects of

Yiddish
German and Hebrew

Sources:
“Holocaust Encyclopedia Glossary.” United States Holocaust and Memorial Museum.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/glossary. Accessed 16 April 2019.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

“Holocaust Glossary.” Scholastic Teacher’s Activity Guide. Scholastic.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/frank/gloss.htm. Accessed 16 April 2019.
“Holocaust Glossary of Terms.” Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team, Holocaust Research Project.
2010. http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/appendix/glossary.html. Accessed 16 April 2019.
“A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust: Glossary.” Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of
Education, University of South Florida. 2005. https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/glossary.htm. Accessed
16 April 2019.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Holocaust Glossary

L.8.4c

Name: Date:

Directions: Use the definitions to deepen your understanding of the ideas, people, and events
of Holocaust.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word
Definition
(ideas, events, people)
Adolf Hitler Nazi party leader, 1919–1945. German Chancellor, 1933–
1945. Called Führer, or supreme leader, by the Nazis

Allies a group of 26 nations led by Great Britain, the United States,

and the Soviet Union that opposed Germany, Italy, and Japan
(known as the Axis partners) in World War II

anti-Semitism prejudice or discrimination against Jews—dislike, fear, and

persecution of Jews

annihilate to totally destroy; to make extinct; Hitler wanted to annihilate

the Jewish population in Europe.

Aryan term used in Nazi Germany to refer to non-Jewish and non-

Roma (Gypsy) Caucasians; Northern Europeans with
especially “Nordic” features such as blonde hair and blue eyes
were considered by so-called race scientists to be the most
superior of Aryans, members of a “master race.”

Auschwitz-Birkenau largest of the Nazi concentration camps, located in

southwestern Poland; More than one million Jews were
murdered there. All inhabitants of the Secret Annex were
sent from Westerbork to Auschwitz in September 1944.

Bergen-Belsen a concentration camp in northern Germany; Epidemics,

overcrowding, and planned starvation in this camp led to the
deaths of more than 34,168 people, including Anne and
Margot Frank.

Birkenau Nazi camp also known as Auschwitz II (see Auschwitz-

Birkenau above); Birkenau contained systematic mass killing
operations. It also housed thousands of concentration camp
prisoners deployed at forced labor.

concentration camps prison camps that held large numbers of Jews, other
members of persecuted minorities (homosexual men and
women, Gypsies, political and religious opponents of the
Nazis, resistance fighters), and others considered enemies of
the state; People died of starvation and disease and were
sometimes forced to provide labor prior to mass execution.

Dachau the first Nazi concentration camp, located in southern

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word
Definition
(ideas, events, people)
Germany and erected in 1933; Nazi doctors and scientists
used prisoners from Dachau as guinea pigs for experiments.
The camp was liberated by American troops in April 1945.

death camps Nazi extermination centers where Jews and other victims
were brought to be killed as part of Hitler’s Final Solution

Der Stürmer an anti-Semitic tabloid style newspaper published during

World War II; It acted as Nazi propaganda and often included
racist caricatures.

deportation forced removal of Jews in Nazi-occupied countries from their

homes

dictatorship a country or government ruled by a dictator (one person who

exercises absolute power)

displaced persons people who are forced to leave their home country because
of war, persecution, or natural disaster; refugees

fascism a social and political ideology that held as a primary guiding

principle that the state or nation is the highest priority, rather
than personal or individual freedoms

Final Solution a Nazi plan for the genocide of all of Europe’s Jewish
population during World War II

forced-labor camps camps where prisoners were used as slave labor

genocide the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political,

cultural, or religious group

gestapo secret state police; Prior to the outbreak of war, the gestapo
used brutal methods to investigate and suppress resistance to
Nazi rule within Germany. After 1939, the gestapo expanded
its operations into Nazi-occupied Europe.

ghetto a section of a city where Jews were forced to live, usually with
several families living in one house, separated from the rest
of the city by walls or wire fences, and often sealed; They
were used primarily as a station for gathering Jews prior to
deportation to concentration camps.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word
Definition
(ideas, events, people)
Holocaust the state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation
of European citizens by Nazi Germany and its collaborators
between 1933 and 1945; Jews were the primary victims. Six
million were murdered.

killing centers Nazi-established killing centers for efficient mass murder;

Unlike concentration camps, which served primarily as
detention and labor centers, killing centers (also referred to
as “extermination camps” or “death camps”) were almost
exclusively “death factories.” German SS and police murdered
nearly 2,700,000 Jews in the killing centers either by
asphyxiation with poison gas or by shooting.

Kristallnacht German for “Night of Broken Glass”; A mass pogrom of Nazi

violence against Jews and their stores and synagogues in
November 1938. There was intense looting and destruction of
property, and 35,000 Jewish men were sent to labor or
concentration camps. Many were subsequently released.
Thirty-five people were killed.

master race Hitler’s ideal was to create a “superior” race of only Aryan
descent. He wanted to do this by eliminating “subhumans,”
such as Jews, Gypsies, enemies of the state, and handicapped
or unproductive people.

Mein Kampf German for “My Struggle,” Hitler’s autobiography, which he

wrote while in prison after the November 1923 failed “Beer
Hall Putsch”; In it, Hitler explains his beliefs and plans for the
future of the German nation. He describes the domination by
an “Aryan” race through the elimination of all inferior and
undesirable peoples, of which he focuses in particular on the
“source of all evil”—the Jews.

Nazi a member of a German fascist party controlling Germany

from 1933 to 1945 under Adolf Hitler

Nazi Party the German fascist party controlling Germany from 1933 to
1945 under Adolf Hitler

Nuremberg Laws laws announced by Hitler defining “Jew” and systematizing

and regulating discrimination and persecution; One example

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word
Definition
(ideas, events, people)
is the Reich Citizenship Law, which deprived all Jews of their
civil rights.

occupation control of a country by a foreign military power; The

Netherlands was occupied by the Nazi government of
Germany.

persecution ill-treatment or hostility often due to race or political or

religious beliefs

pogrom an organized massacre of or attack on Jews

propaganda false or semi-true information used by a government, political

party, or some other group that was intended to sway the
opinions of the population; The Nazis had a minister of
propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, who sought to establish
enemies in the public mind through the use and distribution
of propaganda.

Reich German word for empire

Reichstag the German parliament; On February 27, 1933, a staged fire

burned the Reichstag building. A month later, on March 23,
1933, the Reichstag approved the Enabling Act which gave
Hitler unlimited dictatorial power.

SS stood for the abbreviation of Schutzstaffel, the black-shirted

elite guard of Hitler; Later the SS was the political police in
charge of the concentration and death camps. They
established control of the police and security systems,
forming the basis of the Nazi police state, and were the major
instrument of terror in the concentration camps and occupied
Europe.

swastika an ancient symbol, based on a good luck symbol from India,

appropriated by the Nazis as their emblem

Third Reich the “third empire” of Germany; It was the Nazi name for
Germany, declared by Hitler, and was used from January 1933
to April 1945.

Treaty of Versaille the peace treaty that officially ended World War I between

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Word
Definition
(ideas, events, people)
Germany and the allies; It placed all the blame on Germany.

Warsaw Ghetto a predominantly Jewish area in the capital of Poland; In 1940,

it was enclosed and walled in, and eventually confined nearly
500,000 Jews. Starvation, disease, unsanitary conditions, and
shootings led to the deaths of 45,000 individuals in 1941.

Weimar Republic The German republic was established in 1919 after World
War I. It was an experiment in democracy from 1919 to 1933
until Hitler came into power in 1933.

World War I Also called the Great War, it was an international conflict
fought mainly in Europe and the Middle East, between the
Central Powers (mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
Turkey) and the Allies (mainly France, Russia, Italy, Japan,
Great Britain, and the United States). It began in July of 1914
and ended in November of 1918. The Central Powers
collapsed. It was a brutal war with much slaughter, death, and
destruction.

yellow star the six-pointed Star of David; a Jewish symbol that the Nazis
forced Jews above the age of six to wear. It was considered a
mark of shame and made Jews visible.

Yiddish a language that combines aspects of German and Hebrew

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Sources:
“Holocaust Encyclopedia Glossary.” United States Holocaust and Memorial Museum.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/glossary. Accessed 16 April 2019.
“Holocaust Glossary.” Scholastic Teacher’s Activity Guide. Scholastic.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/frank/gloss.htm. Accessed 16 April 2019.
“Holocaust Glossary of Terms.” Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team, Holocaust Research Project.
2010. http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/appendix/glossary.html. Accessed 16 April 2019.
“A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust: Glossary.” Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of
Education, University of South Florida. 2005. https://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/glossary.htm. Accessed
16 April 2019.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Excerpts from “The Holocaust:

An Introductory History”

Name: Date:

Note: Germany was defeated in World War I and left with less territory and a smaller army.
Germany also had to take the blame for World War I and pay money to other countries. The
government in Germany was economically unstable, which led to a lot of unemployment and
political and class tensions, causing difficulty for the government. The Nazi party took
advantage of this unrest in Germany, inspiring citizens to disagree with one another and
blaming Jewish people for all that had happened. The result was that Adolf Hitler was elected
to be the chancellor of Germany.

Introduction

The Holocaust (also called Ha-Shoah in Hebrew) refers to the period from January 30, 1933—
when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany—to May 8, 1945, when the war in Europe
officially ended. During this time, Jews in Europe were subjected to progressively harsher
persecution that ultimately led to the murder of 6,000,000 Jews (1.5 million of these being
children) and the destruction of 5,000 Jewish communities. These deaths represented two-
thirds of European Jewry and one-third of all world Jewry.
The Jews who died were not casualties of the fighting that ravaged Europe during World War II.
Rather, they were the victims of Germany’s deliberate and systematic attempt to annihilate the
entire Jewish population of Europe, a plan Hitler called the “Final Solution” (Endlosung).
***

Propaganda: “The Jews Are Our Misfortune”

A major tool of the Nazis’ propaganda assault was the weekly Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer (The
Attacker). At the bottom of the front page of each issue, in bold letters, the paper proclaimed,
“The Jews are our misfortune!” Der Stürmer also regularly featured cartoons of Jews in which
they were caricatured as hooked-nosed and ape-like. The influence of the newspaper was far-
reaching: by 1938 about a half million copies were distributed weekly.
***
The government . . . abolished individual rights and protections: freedom of the press,
assembly, and expression were nullified, as well as the right to privacy. When the elections
were held on March 5, the Nazis . . . won a majority in the government.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

The Nazis moved swiftly to consolidate their power into a dictatorship. On March 23, the
Enabling Act was passed. It sanctioned Hitler’s dictatorial efforts and legally enabled him to
pursue them further. The Nazis marshaled their formidable propaganda machine to silence
their critics. They also developed a sophisticated police and military force.
The Sturmabteilung (S.A., Storm Troopers), a grassroots organization, helped Hitler undermine
the German democracy. The Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, Secret State Police), a force
recruited from professional police officers, was given complete freedom to arrest anyone after
February 28. The Schutzstaffel (SS, Protection Squad) served as Hitler’s personal bodyguard and
eventually controlled the concentration camps and the Gestapo. The Sicherheitsdienst des
Reichsführers-SS (S.D., Security Service of the SS) functioned as the Nazis’ intelligence service,
uncovering enemies and keeping them under surveillance.
With this police infrastructure in place, opponents of the Nazis were terrorized, beaten, or sent
to one of the concentration camps the Germans built to incarcerate them. Dachau, just outside
of Munich, was the first such camp built for political prisoners. Dachau’s purpose changed over
time and eventually became another brutal concentration camp for Jews.
By the end of 1934 Hitler was in absolute control of Germany, and his campaign against the
Jews in full swing. The Nazis claimed the Jews corrupted pure German culture with their
“foreign” and “mongrel” influence. They portrayed the Jews as evil and cowardly, and Germans
as hardworking, courageous, and honest. The Jews, the Nazis claimed, who were heavily
represented in finance, commerce, the press, literature, theater, and the arts, had weakened
Germany’s economy and culture. The massive government-supported propaganda machine
created a racial anti-Semitism, which was different from the longstanding anti-Semitic tradition
of the Christian churches.
The superior race was the “Aryans,” the Germans. . . . [T]he conclusion was that the ‘Aryan’
peoples were . . . superior to the ‘Semitic’ ones”

The Jews Are Isolated from Society

The Nazis then combined their racial theories with the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin
to justify their treatment of the Jews. The Germans, as the strongest and fittest, were destined
to rule, while the weak and racially adulterated Jews were doomed to extinction. Hitler began
to restrict the Jews with legislation and terror, which entailed burning books written by Jews,
removing Jews from their professions and public schools, confiscating their businesses and
property and excluding them from public events. The most infamous of the anti-Jewish
legislation were the Nuremberg Laws, enacted on September 15, 1935. They formed the legal
basis for the Jews’ exclusion from German society and the progressively restrictive Jewish
policies of the Germans.
Many Jews attempted to flee Germany, and thousands succeeded by immigrating to such
countries as Belgium, Czechoslovakia, England, France and Holland. It was much more difficult
to get out of Europe. Jews encountered stiff immigration quotas in most of the world’s

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

countries. Even if they obtained the necessary documents, they often had to wait months or
years before leaving. Many families out of desperation sent their children first.
In July 1938, representatives of 32 countries met in the French town of Evian to discuss the
refugee and immigration problems created by the Nazis in Germany. Nothing substantial was
done or decided at the Evian Conference, and it became apparent to Hitler that no one wanted
the Jews and that he would not meet resistance in instituting his Jewish policies. By the autumn
of 1941, Europe was in effect sealed to most legal emigration. The Jews were trapped.
On November 9–10, 1938, the attacks on the Jews became violent. Hershel Grynszpan, a 17-
year-old Jewish boy distraught at the deportation of his family, shot Ernst vom Rath, the third
secretary in the German Embassy in Paris, who died on November 9. Nazi hooligans used this
assassination as the pretext for instigating a night of destruction that is now known as
Kristallnacht (the night of broken glass). They looted and destroyed Jewish homes and
businesses and burned synagogues. Many Jews were beaten and killed; 30,000 Jews were
arrested and sent to concentration camps.

The Jews Are Confined to Ghettos

Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, beginning World War II. Soon after, in 1940, the
Nazis began establishing ghettos for the Jews of Poland. More than 10 percent of the Polish
population was Jewish, numbering about three million. Jews were forcibly deported from their
homes to live in crowded ghettos, isolated from the rest of society.
This concentration of the Jewish population later aided the Nazis in their deportation of the
Jews to the death camps. The ghettos lacked the necessary food, water, space, and sanitary
facilities required by so many people living within their constricted boundaries. Many died of
deprivation and starvation.

The “Final Solution”

In June 1941 Germany attacked the Soviet Union and began the “Final Solution.” Four mobile
killing groups were formed called Einsatzgruppen A, B, C and D. Each group contained several
commando units. The Einsatzgruppen gathered Jews town by town, marched them to huge pits
dug earlier, stripped them, lined them up, and shot them with automatic weapons. The dead
and dying would fall into the pits to be buried in mass graves. In the infamous Babi Yar
massacre, near Kiev, 30,000–35,000 Jews were killed in two days. In addition to their operations
in the Soviet Union, the Einsatzgruppen conducted mass murder in eastern Poland, Estonia,
Lithuania and Latvia. It is estimated that by the end of 1942, the Einsatzgruppen had murdered
more than 1.3 million Jews.
On January 20, 1942, several top officials of the German government met to officially
coordinate the military and civilian administrative branches of the Nazi system to organize a
system of mass murder of the Jews. This meeting, called the Wannsee Conference, “marked the
beginning of the full-scale, comprehensive extermination operation [of the Jews] and laid the
foundations for its organization, which started immediately after the conference ended.”

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

While the Nazis murdered other national and ethnic groups, such as a number of Soviet
prisoners of war, Polish intellectuals, and gypsies, only the Jews were marked for systematic
and total annihilation. Jews were singled out for “Special Treatment” (Sonderbehandlung),
which meant that Jewish men, women and children were to be methodically killed with
poisonous gas. In the exacting records kept at the Auschwitz death camp, the cause of death of
Jews who had been gassed was indicated by “SB,” the first letters of the two words that form
the German term for “Special Treatment.”
By the spring of 1942, the Nazis had established six killing centers (death camps) in Poland:
Chelmno (Kulmhof), Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Maidanek and Auschwitz. All were located near
railway lines so that Jews could be easily transported daily. A vast system of camps (called
Lagersystem) supported the death camps. The purpose of these camps varied: some were slave
labor camps, some transit camps, others concentration camps and their subcamps, and still
others the notorious death camps. Some camps combined all of these functions or a few of
them. All the camps were intolerably brutal.
***
In nearly every country overrun by the Nazis, the Jews were forced to wear badges marking
them as Jews, they were rounded up into ghettos or concentration camps and then gradually
transported to the killing centers. The death camps were essentially factories for murdering
Jews. The Germans shipped thousands of Jews to them each day. Within a few hours of their
arrival, the Jews had been stripped of their possessions and valuables, gassed to death, and
their bodies burned in specially designed crematoriums. Approximately 3.5 million Jews were
murdered in these death camps.
Many healthy, young strong Jews were not killed immediately. The Germans’ war effort and the
“Final Solution” required a great deal of manpower, so the Germans reserved large pools of
Jews for slave labor. These people, imprisoned in concentration and labor camps, were forced
to work in German munitions and other factories, such as I.G. Farben and Krupps, and wherever
the Nazis needed laborers. They were worked from dawn until dark without adequate food and
shelter. Thousands perished, literally worked to death by the Germans and their collaborators.
In the last months of Hitler’s Reich, as the German armies retreated, the Nazis began marching
the prisoners still alive in the concentration camps to the territory they still controlled. The
Germans forced the starving and sick Jews to walk hundreds of miles. Most died or were shot
along the way. About a quarter of a million Jews died on the death marches.

Jewish Resistance

The Germans’ overwhelming repression and the presence of many collaborators in the various
local populations severely limited the ability of the Jews to resist. Jewish resistance did occur,
however, in several forms. Staying alive, clean, and observing Jewish religious traditions
constituted resistance under the dehumanizing conditions imposed by the Nazis. Other forms
of resistance involved escape attempts from the ghettos and camps. Many who succeeded in
escaping the ghettos lived in the forests and mountains in family camps and in fighting partisan

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units. Once free, though, the Jews had to contend with local residents and partisan groups who
were often openly hostile. Jews also staged armed revolts in the ghettos of Vilna, Bialystok,
Bedzin-Sosnowiec, Krakow, and Warsaw.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest ghetto revolt. Massive deportations (or Aktions)
had been held in the ghetto from July to September 1942, emptying the ghetto of the majority
of Jews imprisoned there. When the Germans entered the ghetto again in January 1943 to
remove several thousand more, small unorganized groups of Jews attacked them. After four
days, the Germans withdrew from the ghetto, having deported far fewer people than they had
intended. The Nazis reentered the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of Passover, to evacuate
the remaining Jews and close the ghetto. The Jews, using homemade bombs and stolen or
bartered weapons, resisted and withstood the Germans for 27 days. They fought from bunkers
and sewers and evaded capture until the Germans burned the ghetto building by building. By
May 16, the ghetto was in ruins and the uprising crushed.
Jews also revolted in the death camps of Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz. All of these acts of
resistance were largely unsuccessful in the face of the superior German forces, but they were
very important spiritually, giving the Jews hope that one day the Nazis would be defeated.

Liberation

The camps were liberated gradually, as the Allies advanced on the German army. For example,
Maidanek (near Lublin, Poland) was liberated by Soviet forces in July 1944, Auschwitz in January
1945 by the Soviets, Bergen-Belsen (near Hanover, Germany) by the British in April 1945, and
Dachau by the Americans in April 1945.
At the end of the war, between 50,000 and 100,000 Jewish survivors were living in three zones
of occupation: American, British and Soviet. Within a year, that figure grew to about 200,000.
The American zone of occupation contained more than 90 percent of the Jewish displaced
persons (DPs). The Jewish DPs would not and could not return to their homes, which brought
back such horrible memories and still held the threat of danger from anti-Semitic neighbors.
Thus, they languished in DP camps until emigration could be arranged to Palestine, and later
Israel, the United States, South America and other countries. The last DP camp closed in 1957.
Below are figures for the number of Jews murdered in each country that came under German
domination. They are estimates, as are all figures relating to Holocaust victims . . . The total
number of six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, which emerged from the
Nuremberg trials, is also an estimate. Numbers have ranged between five and seven million
killed. The exact number will never be known because of the many people whose murders were
not recorded and whose bodies have still not be found.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Victims

Country/Continent Jews Killed Country/Continent Jews Killed

Africa 526 Hungary 305,000

Albania 200 Italy 8,000

Austria 65,000 Latvia 85,000

Belgium 24,387 Lithuania 135,000

Czechoslovakia 277,000 Luxembourg 700

Denmark 77 Netherlands 106,000

Estonia 4,000 Norway 728

France 83,000 Poland 3,001,000

Germany 160,000 Romania 364,632

Greece 71,301 Soviet Union 1,500,000

Yugoslavia 67,122 TOTAL: 6,258,673

Sources:
David S. Wyman, “The United States,” in David S. Wyman, ed., The World Reacts to the Holocaust, (Baltimore,
MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), pp. 707–10.
Leni Yahil, The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 36.
Holocaust Memorial Center
6602 West Maple Road
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
Tel. (248) 661-0840 Fax. (248) 661-4204
info@holocaustcenter.org; http://www.holocaustcenter.org/
Adapted from “The Holocaust: An Introductory History.” Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative
Enterprise (AICE). Web. Used by permission.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

“The Holocaust: An Introductory History”

Note-Catcher

RI.8.4, L.8.4c

(Example for Teacher Reference)

Directions: Listen as your teacher reads aloud the new vocabulary from each section of “The
Holocaust: An Introductory History.” Use your Holocaust Glossary to look up the meaning of
domain-specific vocabulary that you don’t know. Read along silently as your teacher reads the
section of text, and underline vocabulary words as you come across them. Read the central idea
and the “Think about It” question, and Turn and Talk with your partner before jotting down
your answer.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Section 1: Introduction
Central Idea Vocabulary
6,000,000 Jews died in Holocaust—not  World War I
because of war, but because of Hitler’s  Nazi party
“Final Solution.”
 Holocaust
 persecution
 “Final Solution”
 Annihilate

Think about It: What does the term final solution show you about how the Nazis wanted
other German people to think of the Jewish people? What does this show you about what
can happen politically when people are hurting and angry?
Answers will vary but may include the idea that the Nazis wanted the German people to
think that getting rid of Jews would be a solution to all their problems. This shows that
when people are hurting and angry, they can be politically manipulated to think horrible
things.

Section 2: Propaganda: “The Jews Are Our Misfortune”

Central Idea Vocabulary
The Nazi party won elections and gave  propaganda
Hitler absolute power. He began to use  dictatorship
propaganda in the media to blame the Jews
for all of Germany’s trouble and to begin  Gestapo
working toward a master Aryan race.  concentration camp
 anti-Semitism
 Aryan

Think about It: Why do you think the newspaper and propaganda were so important to
the Nazis?
Answers will vary but may include the idea that the newspaper and propaganda were so
important to the Nazis because they allowed the Nazis to manipulate the way people
thought about Jewish people.

Section 3: The Jews Are Isolated from Society

Central Idea Vocabulary
Hitler began passing laws restricting what  Nuremberg Laws

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Jews could do. Many Jewish people tried to

leave, but other countries did not step up
to help take them in, so they were trapped.

Think about It: Why might other countries have been unwilling to take in Jewish
emigrants?
Answers will vary but may include the idea that other countries were unwilling to take
in Jewish people because they wanted to limit how many people came into their
countries because they feared overcrowding or financial burden.

Section 4: The Jews Are Confined to Ghettos

Central Idea Vocabulary
Once Germany invaded Poland in 1939,  ghetto
World War II began. The Nazis forced Jews
to live in ghettos within the cities.

Think about It: Why did the Nazis move Jews to ghettos, and what were the conditions
like?
Answers will vary but may include the idea that the Nazis wanted to isolate the Jews in
the process of getting rid of them. The conditions in ghettos were terrible, without
enough food, water, or sanitation.

Section 5: The “Final Solution”

Central Idea Vocabulary
In 1942, the Nazis stepped up their plan to  death camp
totally get rid of all Jews. They killed them  concentration camp
in many ways, including shipping many to
death camps and concentration camps.  Auschwitz
 killing center

Think about It: Why does the text emphasis how carefully planned this system was?
Answers will vary but may include the idea that many people were manipulated and
millions died because of a carefully laid out plan.

Section 6: Jewish Resistance

Central Idea Vocabulary
Resistance was difficult, but Jews resisted in  Warsaw Ghetto
several ways. Some tried to keep on
following religious rituals, some tried to

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

escape, and in Warsaw some actively

fought back.

Think about It: Why does the author include this section about resistance?
Answers will vary but may include the idea that, despite the difficulty of rebellion, many
people tried to fight back for their freedom and lives.

Section 7: Liberation
Central Idea Vocabulary
The Allies began liberating the camps when  Allies
Germany started losing the war. They had  displaced persons
to find new homes for the 200,000 Jewish
survivors.

Think about It: How might this experience have affected survivors?
Answers will vary but may include the idea that, after being liberated, many Jewish
people returned to a terrible life in which they could not find their families who were
displaced or deceased, and they were nowhere near their homes, nor could they return.

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

“The Holocaust: An Introductory History”

Note-Catcher

RI.8.4, L.8.4c

Name: Date:

Directions: Listen as your teacher reads aloud the new vocabulary from each section of “The
Holocaust: An Introductory History.” Use your Holocaust Glossary to look up the meaning of
domain-specific vocabulary that you don’t know. Read along silently as your teacher reads the
section of text, and underline vocabulary words as you come across them. Read the central idea
and the “Think about It” question, and Turn and Talk with your partner before jotting down
your answer.

Section 1: Introduction
Central Idea Vocabulary
6,000,000 Jews died in Holocaust—not  World War I
because of war, but because of Hitler’s “Final  Nazi party
Solution.”
 Holocaust
 persecution
 “Final Solution”
 annihilate
Think about It: What does the term final solution show you about how the Nazis wanted
other German people to think of the Jewish people? What does this show you about what
can happen politically when people are hurting and angry?

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Section 2: Propaganda: “The Jews Are Our Misfortune”

Central Idea Vocabulary
The Nazi party won elections and gave Hitler  propaganda
absolute power. He began to use  dictatorship
propaganda in the media to blame the Jews
for all of Germany’s trouble and to begin  Gestapo
working toward a master Aryan race.  concentration camp
 anti-Semitism
 Aryan

Think about It: Why do you think the newspaper and propaganda were so important to the
Nazis?

Section 3: The Jews Are Isolated from Society

Central Idea Vocabulary
Hitler began passing laws restricting what  Nuremberg Laws
Jews could do. Many Jewish people tried to
leave, but other countries did not step up to
help take them in, so they were trapped.

Think about It: Why might other countries have been unwilling to take in Jewish emigrants?

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Section 4: The Jews Are Confined to Ghettos

Central Idea Vocabulary
Once Germany invaded Poland in 1939,  ghetto
World War II began. The Nazis forced Jews to
live in ghettos within the cities.

Think about It: Why did the Nazis move Jews to ghettos, and what were the conditions like?

Section 5: The “Final Solution”

Central Idea Vocabulary
In 1942, the Nazis stepped up their plan to  death camp
totally get rid of all Jews. They killed them in  concentration camp
many ways, including shipping many to
death camps and concentration camps.  Auschwitz
 killing center

Think about It: Why does the text emphasis how carefully planned this system was?

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

Section 6: Jewish Resistance

Central Idea Vocabulary
Resistance was difficult, but Jews resisted in  Warsaw Ghetto
several ways. Some tried to keep on
following religious rituals, some tried to
escape, and in Warsaw some actively fought
back.

Think about It: Why does the author include this section about resistance?

Section 7: Liberation
Central Idea Vocabulary
The Allies began liberating the camps when  Allies
Germany started losing the war. They had to  displaced persons
find new homes for the 200,000 Jewish
survivors.

Think about It: How might this experience have affected survivors?

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Voices of the Holocaust Grade 8: Module 3: Unit 1: Lesson 3

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© 2019 EL Education Inc.