What was Life like for the Jews?

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You are going to find out how life in Germany changed for Jews when Hitler came to power.

Then you will research what happened during the Second World War to Jews all over Europe. These terrible events are known as:

The Holocaust

A useful general online book is Tell ye your children

1. Life in Germany:

As you have already learned some of Hitler's popularity was based on antisemitism (hatred of the Jewish race). Hitler and many other Germans blamed the Jews for failure in the First World War and Germany's economic problems. Nazi views on the Jews were well known when Hitler became Chancellor in1933.

Write extracts for a diary of a Jewish teenager. These extracts should describe what is happening in Germany to your fellow Jews. These dates are particularly important:

1935 Nuremberg Laws

1938 Kristallnacht an eyewitness account is available Here

Click on this useful site to find out more.

2. Jews in Poland

Now imagine you are a Polish Jew. Describe life in the ghettos. Use these links to find out about German attitudes to the Jews living in the ghettos:

http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/gcpol6.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/categories/c55628/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/08/a6573008.shtml

3. The Concentration Camps

Your third task is to write a diary account of life inside a concentration camp

There are two famous ones at Auschwitz and Belsen

 Also, try this site:http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=358201

Think very carefully about whether you want to look at or use some of the photographs of these tragic events

This is a useful timeline of events

Having spent a long time looking at these sites I do think that your textbook is as interesting as any of the sites.

4. If you have time you could now put yourself in the shoes of a soldier or nurse liberating a camp, and imagine your reactions. These may help:

Here’s an eyewitness account of liberating Belsen

This link describes what the Allies found: Shoes

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