Study Guides

Unit Summary

In this unit pupils undergo a period study that provides an unfolding narrative which tells a story about a period that shaped the world we live in today. They look at the key events, developments, people and stories that defined the chosen period.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to explain why the Nazis carried out the 'Final Solution'.

Key Notes

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

Vocabulary To Learn

• 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 Mistakes To Avoid

• The Final Solution was decided all at once.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• 1923, the Ruhr and hyperinflation Study Guide
• Early unrest and the Treaty of Versailles Study Guide
• Economic recovery under Stresemann Study Guide
• Employment in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Germany before the First World War Study Guide
• Germany's naval ambitions before the First World War Study Guide
• Goebbels and propaganda in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Hitler's creation of a dictatorship Study Guide
• How Hitler became Chancellor of Germany Study Guide
• Industrialisation, social reform and the growth of socialism Study Guide
• Nazi racial ideology and the treatment of minorities Study Guide
• Opposition and resistance to Hitler and the Nazi Party Study Guide
• Stresemann's international achievements Study Guide
• The First World War and the German Revolution Study Guide
• The growth in support for the Nazi Party Study Guide
• The growth of unemployment and rise in support for the Communist Party Study Guide
• The Nazi economy and WW2 Study Guide
• The Nazi Party and religion Study Guide
• The Nazi police state Study Guide
• The persecution of Jews Study Guide
• The putsches of 1919-23 Study Guide
• The Reichstag Fire and the Enabling Act Study Guide
• The Weimar Republic Study Guide
• Weimar culture 1924-29 Study Guide
• Women in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Work and life in Nazi Germany Study Guide
• Young people in Nazi Germany Study Guide