The Holocaust

The Holocaust, the systematic attempt by Nazi Germany during World War II to destroy European Jewry, was a tragedy of overwhelming moral magnitude. It was perhaps the most significant historical episode of the entire human experience. As such, it raises the most fundamental questions concerning individual responsibility, collective moral conduct, and the entire state of the human condition. How did this happen? Why did it happen? The essays, documents, maps, and other sources in this portfolio examine the evolution of a pre-modern cultural and religious prejudice to its modern, fatal culmination in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." This portfolio includes a Study Guide with reproducible student activities. 5 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * The Historical Origins of Antisemitism * Hitler and the Rise of Nazism * The Final Solution * The Response oft he Free World * The Legacy of the Holocaust 12 Primary Source Documents: * Chronology of the Holocaust, 1933-1945 * Front page of Der Sturmer, radical antisemitic tabloid, 1938 * Reinhard Heydrich directive of 21 September 1939, on the internment of Poland's Jews * Letter from Herman Goering to Reinhard Heydrich ordering implementation of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" * Reich Citizenship Law proclaimed by Hitler, 15 September 1935, giving legal authority to Nazi racial policy * Portions of the Wannsee protocol, 20 January 1942, from the meeting of Nazi officials convened to coordinate the "Final Solution" * Hitler's secret directive, signed by Martin Bormann, 11 July 1943, banning discussion of the "Jewish Question" * "The Geography of Genocide," five maps charting antisemitic violence from 1918 to 1945 * Invoice for Zyklon B cyanide gas used in death camps and photo of gas canister * Aerial photograph of Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp photographed by Allied aircraft, 25 August 1944 * "Images of the Holocaust," a collection of photographs portraying the horrors of the Holocaust * Newspaper coverage of the Holocaust, 1938-1942