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Lesson 28 of 28
  • Year 11
  • AQA

The Final Solution

I can explain why the Nazis carried out the 'Final Solution'

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View unit
Lesson 28 of 28
New
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  • Year 11
  • AQA

The Final Solution

I can explain why the Nazis carried out the 'Final Solution'

Download all
Share activities with pupils

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Ghettos isolated Jewish communities in horrific conditions across Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
  2. Task Forces (Einsatzgruppen) carried out mass shootings as Nazi control expanded across Eastern Europe.
  3. Death camps industrialised mass murder using gas chambers and crematoria.
  4. The Wannsee Conference formalised genocide as state policy - known as the 'Final Solution'.
  5. Though awareness varied, many Germans knew of persecution and responded with silence, fear, or complicity.

Keywords

  • Ghetto - an area of a city where people of a particular race or religion live

  • Task Forces (Einsatzgruppen) - mobile SS killing squads responsible for murdering those the Nazis saw as racial or political enemies

  • Genocide - the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a particular national, racial, ethnic or religious group

  • Final Solution - the Nazi plan to murder all Jews in Europe, formalised at the Wannsee Conference in 1942

  • Holocaust - the mass murder of millions of Jews by Nazi Germany during the Second World War

Common misconception

The Final Solution was decided all at once.

It was an evolving process. Historians have debated whether genocide was inevitable from 1933 — policies escalated over time, with many historians seeing Wannsee as marking the coordination point, not the start.


To help you plan your year 11 history lesson on: The Final Solution, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Holocaust Mapping Project: Students create a map showing major ghettos, death camps, and transport routes. Use colour coding and arrows to reveal how genocide was planned and scaled across Nazi-occupied Europe. Pupils could add details about some of the specific individuals who were affected.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
  • Depiction or discussion of serious crime
  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

Supervision

Adult supervision required

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Prior knowledge starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What belief did Hitler promote about Jewish people even before coming to power?

they were Germany’s strongest allies in international politics
they were leading scientists and educators in Europe
Correct answer: they were part of a worldwide conspiracy to destroy Germany

Q2.
The 1933 Nazi-led was the first coordinated, state-backed antisemitic action — a protest in which people were encouraged to avoid buying from Jewish businesses.

Correct Answer: boycott

Q3.
Which of the following statements describe the effects of the Nuremberg Laws?

Jews were allowed to vote in local but not national elections.
Correct answer: Jews were stripped of German citizenship.
Correct answer: Marriage between Jews and ‘Aryan’ Germans was banned.

Q4.
Starting with the earliest, sort these events into chronological order:

1 - Nazi boycott of Jewish shops
2 - Nuremberg Laws
3 - Kristallnacht

Q5.
What was Kristallnacht?

a celebration of Jewish culture in Germany
Correct answer: a Nazi-led attack on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues
a peaceful protest by German citizens against Nazi laws
the day Germany surrendered in World War II

Q6.
What was the goal of the Reich Centre for Jewish Emigration, created in January 1939?

to help Jews access education
Correct answer: to push Jews out of Germany
to recruit Jewish workers for the war effort

Assessment exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
What was the main purpose of Nazi-created ghettos in cities like Warsaw?

Correct answer: to isolate and imprison Jews in overcrowded, inhumane conditions
to provide protection for Jewish communities
to separate Jewish populations for their own safety

Q2.
The Nazi regime used mobile killing units known as to carry out mass shootings of Jews and other targeted groups in Eastern Europe.

Correct Answer: Task Forces, Einsatzgruppen

Q3.
Starting with the earliest, sort these developments into chronological order:

1 - establishment of ghettos
2 - construction of death camps
3 - Wannsee Conference

Q4.
Which of the following best explains the development of the Nazis’ Final Solution?

Correct answer: it evolved over time, with genocide becoming a coordinated policy at Wannsee
it was a long-standing plan that began with Kristallnacht
it was decided in full in 1933 when Hitler became Chancellor

Q5.
What became the primary method of mass killing in several Nazi death camps during the Holocaust?

beheading by guillotine
firing squads using SS rifles
Correct answer: gassing using poison in specially designed chambers

Q6.
What was the “banality of evil,” as described by Hannah Arendt?

the claim that Nazi leaders were mentally ill
the idea that only evil people commit atrocities
Correct answer: the idea that ordinary people can commit atrocities through routine actions

Additional material

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