Mrs.

Dupuis
S.S. 221

Name: __________________________________
Date: __________________
Period: ____
The Holocaust
Document Based Question

Historical Context: Adolf Hitler rose to power on the empty stomachs of the German people, but he
maintained and strengthened his rule through fear and hatred. Throughout the Holocaust, many
atrocities to human rights occurred, most notably to people of Jewish descent. Millions of innocent
men, women, and children suffered and lost their lives due to the propaganda filled hatred of Hitler.
Task: Using the information from the documents and your knowledge of global history, complete the
chart below and provide evidence from the documents to support your answers.

Describe three reasons for these human rights violations

Describe three different human rights violations during the Holocaust
Describe the reaction of the international community to the human rights violations.
Question or Task

Analysis and Document Evidence

What human rights did the

Nazis violate?

How were the Jewish people

dehumanized?

Describe the chronology of

treatment against the Jews.

Document #1: Nazi Boycott of Jewish Businesses

Discussion Questions:
1. How would the boycott of Jewish businesses help the Nazis?
2. How would the boycott change the economic livelihood of the Jewish population?
3. How would you respond?
Document #2: Anti-Jewish Legislation in Pre War Germany

Discussion Questions:
1. How did life change politically,
economically, and socially for the Jews?
2. Would you have left Germany after these
laws were passed? Explain why or why
not.
3. What were Jews banned from doing?

In April 1933, German law restricted the number of Jewish students at German schools and
universities. In the same month, further legislation sharply curtailed "Jewish activity" in the medical
and legal professions. The mayor of Munich disallowed Jewish doctors from treating non-Jewish
patients, and the Bavarian Interior Ministry denied admission of Jewish students to medical school.
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 heralded a new wave of anti-Semitic legislation that brought about
immediate and concrete segregation: Jewish patients were no longer admitted to municipal. German
court judges could not cite legal commentaries or opinions written by Jewish authors, Jewish officers
were expelled from the army, and Jewish university students were not allowed to sit for doctoral
exams.
Other regulations reinforced the message that Jews were outsiders in Germany; for example, in
December 1935, the Reich Propaganda Ministry issued a decree forbidding Jewish soldiers to be
named among the dead in World War I memorials.
Document #3: Kristellnacht (The Night of Broken Glass)

Message from SS Heydrich to all State Police Officers November 10, 1939
Regards: Measures against Jews tonight:
A) Only such measures may be taken which do not jeopardize German life or property (for instance
Kristallnacht Order
burning of temples only if there is no danger for the neighborhood)
B) Business establishments and homes of Jews may be destroyed but not looted.
C) On business streets special care is to be taken that non Jewish establishments will be
safeguarded at all cost against damage
D) As soon as the events of the night permit the use of designated officers arrest as many Jews as
the local jails will hold, particularly the wealthy ones
Discussion Questions:
1. How would German Jews feel waking up to the destruction?
2. Why do you think so many Germans would participate in the violence?
3. Did the world know about the Night of Broken Glass? What does that tell you?

Document #4: Identification Badges

In May 1942, all Jews
aged six and older are
required to wear a
yellow Star of David on
their clothes to set them
apart from non-Jews.

Discussion Questions:
1. What was the purpose of identification badges?
2. Do you think this is a human rights violation? Explain.

Document #5: Testimony of Nazi Soldier at a Concentration Camp

Testimony of SS Erich Fuchs

If memory serves me right, about thirty to forty women were gassed in one chamber. The Jewish
women were forced to undress in an open place close to the gas chamber, and were forced into the
chamber by soldiers. When the women were shut up in the gas chamber I set the motor in motion. I
switched the motor from neutral to on so that the gas was sent into the chamber. At the suggestion of a
chemist, I fixed the motor on a definite speed so that it was unnecessary henceforth to press on the gsa.
About ten minutes later the thirty to forty women were dead.
Document #6: Holocaust Survivors - Testimony
Rose Greenshpan Poland 7 years old in 1944
Well, first we were selected, and then we had to give up our clothing from home except for our shoes. And
then our heads were shaven bald. I had two long braids, and they just snipped off my braids and dumped it
on this pile of hair. I was just horrified to see my brown braids on this pile of hair. And when I was staring
at this pile, somebody was already going over my head with a pair of sheers that were hand-operated. So,
the haircut wasn't even smooth, and in touching my head, I saw some blood on my fingers, and I just cried
obviously. As a young girl I thought my hair was a crown. But, I had no idea that maybe I'll be grateful for
not having that hair later, as we were infested with lice. They tried to reduce us to be untermenschen, they
called us untermenschen, sub-humans.
In my case for example I thought, at home I didn't have lice; at home I was clean; at home I had beautiful
hair; at home I had beautiful clothes. Here they took everything away from me and they don't permit us to
take a bath or clean ourselves and obviously we'll get sick from this. But whose fault is this? Who is the
untermensch? It's the perpetrators. They are the untermenschen. They perpetrated this crime against us,
against humanity.
I put myself in the position that I am in, the role that I am playing now is the survivor, which I am.
Anybody who doesn't believe it can look at my tattoo number, and what could be more convincing than
that? And that's the only thing I have left from the Holocaust, in addition to the scars on my legs, all over
my right leg and what's in my heart, and A-6374 tattooed on my lower left arm.
First the whistle would blow and everybody would get up real quickly and remember there were ten,
twelve of us in Auschwitz to one bunk. And there was only one blanket. And so quickly just hold the edges
so it will look nice. And rush out that narrow door. And on the other side of it somebody was there
whipping. All the time with the whip. And I have all kinds of slash marks that still shows up. And so before
you even get out there you already had this fear. So fear is what they constantly tried to infect us with.

Discussion Questions For Document 5 and 6:

1. Describe your reaction to these two testimonies.
2. What could the world have done to prevent this?
3. How did the Nazis dehumanize the Jewish people?
4. What was life like in the concentration camps?