Holocaust Remembered

In 2006, the United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as an annual international day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era. This date marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. Every member nation of the U.N. has an obligation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and develop educational programs as part of the resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide. The U.N. resolution rejects denial of the Holocaust, and condemns discrimination and violence based on religion or ethnicity.

The Holocaust was caused by acceptance of the German people of the racist doctrine of Aryan (Nordic) supremacy perpetrated by Hitler and the Nazi government. It touted the biological superiority of the blond-haired and blue-eyed people of northern Europe. Non-whites, including Jews, were designated as inferior races. Many people believe the Holocaust started with the passage of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, which denied Jews in Germany their civil rights.

The Nazis confiscated all wealth and property from the Jewish people and excluded them from all but the most menial employment. Nazi propaganda against Jews continued with the opening in November 1937 of the "Eternal Jew" exhibit in Munich. It featured documents, photographs and films that depicted the Jewish people as vile, corrupt, and subhuman creatures.

Then, using the excuse of the murder of a German diplomat by a Jewish teenager in Paris in November 1938, a series of riots, collectively known as Kristallnacht, "Night of the Broken Glass," erupted throughout Germany. Hundreds of Jews were beaten and murdered, Jewish businesses were looted, synagogues and hospitals were burned, and thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. More than six million Jews were slaughtered in these camps during the war.

The survivors of these camps were finally liberated by the U.S. and its allies at the end of the war in Europe in 1945. After the founding of the United Nations shortly after the war in June of 1945, one of its first accomplishments was to help create the new country and government of Israel in 1948 as a homeland for the survivors and other Jews who wanted to settle there.

Annual remembrance of the Holocaust is important if students are to understand the prejudice that resulted in the Holocaust and other genocides across the world. Even today, we see the formation of neo-Nazi groups in the U.S. and in other countries who adopt the same beliefs and practices that resulted in the Holocaust.

Students should create a report of at least 150 words, or a presentation of at least two minutes and seven slides, (links to models provided at end of activity) that cites at least three resources and address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can create of substitute others):

• How did the Nazis get the German people to accept the violence and create hatred toward the Jews and other non-Nordic people?
• Why didn't other countries try to do more to help the Jews in Europe?
• Why didn't the Jews do more to protect themselves against the violence?
• Why is it important to continue the involve students in studying the Holocaust?

Pathfinder: Click the Topics tab > World War II (c. 1939-1945) > The Holocaust

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

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