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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. In this you will learn about the events that led up to the Holocaust. We will look at Primo Levi's account of being a prisoner at Auschwitz, and then consider different interpretations of the events that led to the Holocaust. We will look at historians who have contextualized it within the fighting of the Second World War, and historians who have contextualized it with Nazi control of Germany.

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This content is made available by Oak National Academy Limited and its partners and licensed under Oak’s terms & conditions (Collection 1), except where otherwise stated.

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5 Questions

Q1.
In which European country is the death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau located in today?
Germany
Hungary
Correct answer: Poland
Slovakia
Q2.
What name is given to the mass murder of Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Europe during the Second World War?
Auschwitz-Birkenau
Concentration Camps
Fascism
Correct answer: The Holocaust
Q3.
What word is used to define "actions which aim to destroy a religious, ethnic or national group."
Emigration
Correct answer: Genocide
Ghettos
Murder
Q4.
How did most victims of the Nazi genocides arrive at Auschwitz?
By plane
By ship
Correct answer: By train
On foot
Q5.
Why did Primo Levi say there were 'no true witnesses' of the holocaust?
Because he believed artefacts like shoes could tell us more about what happened.
Because people did not want to talk about what happened during the holocaust because it was so terrible.
Because so many of the sources were produced by the perpetrators of the crimes rather than the victims.
Correct answer: Because the witnesses of the full horror of the holocaust died so it is only survivors can describe their own experiences.

5 Questions

Q1.
The Holocaust took place during which conflict?
The Cold War
The Franco-Prussian War
Correct answer: The Second World War
World War One
Q2.
Which of the following most clearly defines 'genocide'?
Correct answer: Actions which aim to destroy an ethnic, religious or national group
Hatred or discrimination shown towards Jewish people
Intentionally and actively treating someone or some group badly as a result of their ethnicity, religion or nationality
Unfair treatment experienced by someone as a result of their ethnicity, religion or nationality
Q3.
What word is used to describe "a section of a town which is separated from the rest of the town and where people often live in worse conditions"?
Einsatzgruppen
Correct answer: Ghetto
Urban
Warsaw
Q4.
Which set of laws in 1935 took away the rights of Jewish people living in Germany?
Discrimination
Persecution
The Enabling Act
Correct answer: The Nuremberg Laws
Q5.
What is the English translation of 'Kristallnacht', the event when Nazis destroyed synagogues and Jewish shops in November 1938?
Correct answer: The Night of Broken Glass
The Night of the Long Knives
The Versailles Conference
The Wannsee Conference