Y9 History

Week beginning 1/6/2020

What was Hitler like? – Source analysis. Nazi ideology and Jewish

persecution.

Please spend ONE HOUR on each lesson this week.

Lesson One

1. Read the information and watch the video about how Hitler

became ruler of Germany. Answer the question to recap

your previous learning.

2. Look at the four sources about Hitler and answer the bullet

point questions after each one.

3. Complete the key question and then write a report on Hitler

using the information provided.

Activity One

At the end of WWI Hitler was one of many former German soldiers whose

prospects were bleak. By 1934 Hitler was declared “Der Fuhrer”, the leader of

Germany and a dictator – a ruler who could simply do what they wanted.

Watch the video on this page about how Hitler became a dictator.

The video on this page should remind you of some of the reasons why Hitler

and the Nazi Party came to power.

What was the main reason why Hitler was able to become leader of

Germany? Answer in full.

Activity Two

Source Work

These sources give you more insight into what Hitler was like. Read the

information and then answer the questions to try and get greater insight into

what Hitler was like.

Source One

Look at Source One. Report by Mr. Law, a British businessman, who worked in

Germany.

Transcript:

I am told, on what I believe to be very good German authority, that really the

most dangerous man of all is the Fuhrer himself. He falls into fits of passion

and will listen to no advice. It was on his orders and against the advice of the

Foreign Office and the army that recently an American was beheaded. It

was again on his direct orders and before he could receive any advice that

the bombardment of Almeria took place.

If this is true – as I believe it to be – the picture is not a cheerful one. No one

wants war; certainly, but when you have a passionate lunatic at the top who

still commands the devotion of the populace and who is evidently prepared

to run great risks, then already the situation is dangerous. But when, besides

that, the Russian army appears not exactly at the height of its efficiency,

when (as it is believed in Germany) France is tottering on the edge of

communism and Franco is at the gates of Bilbao, then we ought to be on our

guard.

I was told in Berlin that another publicity campaign was contemplated in

England by those English people who are advocating close relations with

Germany. This I am informed both by Englishmen in Berlin and by patriotic

Germans who do not like Nazi-ism would be at this juncture a most disastrous

mistake. No further advances should be made to Germany at the present

time.

What impression of Hitler do you get from this source?

Why, in Mr. Law’s opinion, is Hitler dangerous?

Read paragraph 3 carefully. Is Mr. Law in favour of granting further

concessions to Hitler?

Source Two

Read Source Two. This is a report on a conversation with Count Bernstorff a

German anti-Nazi campaigner.

Transcript

I had a talk last night with COUNT ALBRECHT BERNSTORFF, who has just arrived

in London from Berlin. As is well known, he is a rabid anti-Nazi, and this fact

must be taken into consideration in estimating the truth of his remarks. He

was as usual full of stories and most entertaining. Compared with other

opponents of the regeme whom I know, his boldness is amazing, and he does

not suffer, as most do, from the nervous glance over the shoulder (Known as

“der deutsche Blick”) when speaking about conditions in Germany. I record

some of his remarks in case they are of interest.

Count Bernstorff said that Herr Hitler has lately been more frequently subject

to fits, in the course of which he foams at the mouth and becomes very

violent. One such fit occurred a short time ago when he drove through

Munich and saw that the rebuilding which he had planned was not

progressing as fast as he had expected. On being told that the reason was

the lack of iron and steel, he developed a fit and became so violent that he

had to be restrained by his A.D.C’s til a doctor could be sent for to give him a

sedative injection. Herr Hitler’s main occupation nowadays is town-planning

and he plays about all day long with models of Berlin, Nuremburg and

Munich. He takes practically no interest in anything else. None of his

Ministers, except Goebbels and Goering, can be certain of access to him.

His favourite companions are men such as Julius Streicher. Goebbels is,

according to Count Bernstorff, somewhat out of favour at the moment and

has lost his influence in the country. Nevertheless, Hitler continues to use him

as a source of ideas which he work up in his speeches.

Glossary

A.D.C.: Aide-de-camp (a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant)

Julius Streicher: Streicher was the founder and publisher of the newspaper Der

Stürmer.

Goebbels: Joseph Goebbels, the German Propaganda Minister

Goering: Hermann Göring, the commander of the Luftwaffe.

Which words suggest that Bernstorff disliked the Nazi regime?

From what is said in this source, what type of leader is Hitler?

Does this account of Hitler back up the view of Hitler in Source 1?

Can you trust Bernstorff’s account?

Source Three

Look at Source Three. This is a drawing of Adolf Hitler by Richard Ziegler in

about 1944.

What impression of Hitler does the picture give you?

How has the artist created this impression?

The government paid the artist to produce this picture. What

instructions do you think the artist was given by the government?

Can the picture be considered as reliable evidence of what Hitler was

like?

Given the date of the picture, how accurate do you think it is at

displaying how Hitler would have been acting? Why do you think this?

Source Four

Read Source Four. This is a short description of Hitler prepared by the British

Embassy in Berlin.

Does this account of Hitler confirm that he is a passionate lunatic?

How would you describe Hitler based upon this report?

Key Question

Of the accounts you have now read, is any one more reliable than the

others? Explain your answer in full.

Activity Three

You have been asked by the British government to prepare a report on

Hitler’s state of mind.

You have been provided with the sources above. Your report should:

Explain whether or not you think your evidence is reliable

Say whether Hitler is sane or not and provide evidence from the

sources to support your answer

Lesson Two

1. Look at the five photographs showing Jewish life in Europe

pre-WWII. Answer the questions that accompany them.

2. Read through the timeline of anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic laws

introduced into Germany from 1933 until 1943. Complete the

activities.

3. Read the testimonies about Kristallnacht and answer the key

questions.

4. Answer the final set of key questions.

Activity One

Photograph 1

This photograph was taken in 1936 in Kaunas in Lithuania. It shows a Jewish

football team called Makabi Kaunas. The players, owners and supporters

were all Jewish. Makabi played in the Lithuanian first division for most of the

1920s and 1930s. Jewish football teams also played in the top divisions of

Austria, Finland, Hungary, Latvia and Poland.

Why do you think some Jews created their own professional football

teams?

What might this tell us about Jewish life in Europe before the Second

World War?

Photograph 2

This photograph was taken in 1936 in Kraków in Poland. It shows Jewish men

on a street in an area of the city called Kazimierz, which was a traditionally

Jewish district. The doors of the shops behind the men are closed, which tells

us that the photograph was taken on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

Why do you think the man on the left of the group is dressed differently

to the other men?

What might this tell us about Jewish life in Europe before the Second

World War?

Photograph 3

This photograph was taken in 1929 in Leipzig in Germany. It shows a Jewish girl

called Berta Rosenhein on her first day at school. She is carrying a ‘school

cone’, which is a gift given by parents to children in Germany when they start

school – the cone is full of sweets.

What can you learn from the fact that Berta had just the same

experience as any other German child?

What might this tell us about Jewish life in Europe before the Second

World War?

Photograph 4

This photograph was taken in 1935 in Kłodawa in Poland. It shows members of

a Jewish family called the Tabaczyńskis. The photograph was taken at the

local train station as the family said goodbye to a cousin (the short woman in

the pale coat towards the left) who was emigrating.

What can you learn about these young people from the clothes they

are wearing?

What might this tell us about Jewish life in Europe before the Second

World War?

Photograph 5

This photograph was taken in about 1930 in Prague in Czechoslovakia. It

shows a young Jewish couple called Ota and Katerina Margolius. Ota was an

international hockey player for Czechoslovakia and a leader of a Jewish

sports club in Prague. Katerina had trained at art school and then became a

milliner (hat-maker).

What can you learn about Ota and Katerina from this information and

by looking at the photograph?

What might this tell us about Jewish life in Europe before the Second

World War?

Activity Two

Look at the timeline below which outlines how the Nazis treated Jewish

people in Germany from when they came to power in 1933 until 1944.

1933

Jews were forced out of jobs in the law, the civil service, dentistry,

journalism, teaching and farming.

Jews were barred from all sports and athletics clubs.

Random acts of violence against Jews were common; the police and

the courts did not protect Jews from such attacks.

1934

Jews were forced out of jobs in the theatre.

1935

Jews were banned from the German armed forces.

Jews lost their right to vote.

Jews were not allowed to marry Aryans; existing “mixed” marriages

were no longer valid.

Rabbis and other Jewish leaders were stopped from preaching or

speaking publicly.

1936

Jews were not allowed to be vets.

Jews were no longer allowed to own electrical and optical equipment,

bicycles, typewriters, or records, and were ordered to hand them over

to the authorities.

1937

Jews were not allowed to be pharmacists.

1938

Jews were not allowed to be doctors.

Jews had their passports stamped with a ‘J’; some had their passports

removed to prevent them from leaving the country.

Jews were banned from owning businesses.

Jewish children were banned from attending German schools.

Jews were excluded from cinemas, theatres, concerts, exhibitions,

beaches and holiday resorts.

Jewish bookshops and publishing houses were closed down.

Jewish children were forbidden to play with Aryan children.

1939

Jews were not allowed to leave their homes after 8pm (9pm in the

summer).

Jews could be evicted from their homes without reason and without

notice.

1940

Jews no longer received ration cards for clothes.

Jews in Berlin were only allowed to purchase groceries between 4pm

and 5pm.

Jews’ telephones were disconnected.

1941

Jews were only allowed to use public transport on their way to work;

they could only sit down if nobody else was standing.

All Jews over the age of six had to wear a yellow Star of David on their

clothes.

Jews were not allowed to use public telephones and were banned

from public libraries.

Jews were forbidden to leave countries ruled by the Nazis.

1942

Jews were not allowed to buy books, newspapers and magazines.

All Jewish houses were marked with a Star of David.

Jews were not allowed to use public transport at any time.

Jews were not to receive eggs or fresh milk

All schools were closed to Jewish children.

1943

Jews lost all of their remaining legal rights and were to surrender to the

Gestapo (secret police).

Draw a living graph like the one below so you can try and mark out how bad

you think things became for Jewish people over time. This will help you with to

then answer the key questions.

Answer these key questions.

What happened over the years?

What else can we learn about Nazi persecution of Jews from these laws?

Which law do you think was the most important? - Why?

Which period(s) do you think was(were) the most important turning point(s) in

the legal persecution of Jews in Germany?

Activity Three

On the night of 9th–10th November 1938, Jewish communities across

Germany and Austria were attacked in an event known as Kristallnacht. At

least 91 people were murdered, and many others committed suicide. These

are the memories of some German and Austrian Jews who experienced

Kristallnacht.

Fritz Rodeck, Vienna

There were more than twenty large synagogues in Vienna, not to mention the

far more numerous smaller ones. The destruction was the work of a few

hours... In the case of each of these synagogue burnings, the fire brigade

was called in, but not to put out the fire… [they] were there merely to prevent

the fire from spreading to neighbouring buildings.

Susan Sinclair, Nuremberg

My younger sister and I shared a big room and I saw that her bed was full of

glass and that everything had been smashed and the furniture was turned

upside down. Then they pulled me out of bed and tore my nightdress to

shreds and I was so self-conscious as a fifteen year old... Then they started

smashing up the rest of the place... Then they left to smash up somebody

else’s house. It was then that life as I had known it, stopped.

Freddie Knoller, Vienna

Suddenly we heard a woman’s shrill voice, a screaming voice, and we heard

the glass of a window breaking. We heard a thud in the courtyard. We

looked down and saw a body lying there. We didn’t know who it was until

the woman, Mrs Epstein from the first floor, came running into the courtyard,

screaming and going to her husband’s body.

Siegfried Rose, Borna

They broke down the bolted apartment door and threatened us with their

revolvers, forcing us to unlock the entrance doors [to the family shop] and

open all the shutters and windows. All the display windows were immediately

smashed and the goods pulled out. Meanwhile, my uncle and I were held in

the store and beaten with a broken chair until we both had bloody heads.

Hedy Epstein, Kippenheim

[At school the next day] the principal walked in and he gave a long talk – …

at some point while he was talking he pointed his finger at me and said, ‘Get

out you dirty Jew.’ I heard what he said but I could not believe it. How could

this nice man, this gentle man whose daughter was one of my classmates,

how could he have said that?

More than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to Sachsenhausen,

Buchenwald or Dachau concentration camps and held there for several

weeks or months. These are the memories of some of those prisoners.

Karl Schwabe, Buchenwald

We stood there all day for no apparent reason. Always lining up again, being

inspected by SS men; old, ill people collapsing; beatings... On that day, we

were given nothing to eat or drink. That was my first day in Buchenwald;

many similar ones followed. I cannot and do not want to describe all the

details. It was a series of endless physical and mental sufferings.

Stephen Dale, Sachsenhausen

It was no picnic in Sachsenhausen... our clothing was taken and carefully

marked with names; then you were given a striped uniform and marched off

to a block... When we slept on the floor, each with a blanket, we couldn’t lie

on our backs, only sideways because there wasn’t enough room... There

were two roll calls a day and in that cold weather you had to stand for ages.

Kurt Lederer, Buchenwald

Ten thousand distraught, helpless people were being pumped into a camp

that was already overcrowded... People were sleeping – no, my God, they

couldn’t sleep... they lay next to one another, on top of one another, in

unfinished shacks. They couldn’t wash themselves; they couldn’t wash their

linen... everyone in the camp got dysentery. I cannot and will not describe

how people looked and stank. It was hell.

Carl Hecht, Buchenwald

I saw dead men being carried away every day; in the course of two months

about a thousand people died. This was no wonder since neither doctors nor

medicines were on hand. The ill were put in a wash house, got pneumonia

and died. Others, if they did not die from mistreatment, committed suicide by

running into the barbed wire on a daily basis.

Georg Abraham, Sachsenhausen

Inmates who became sick were very badly treated. There was only one SS

camp doctor, and he had his own special way of treating inmates with

frozen hands and feet. After standing for hours in front of the sick bay, they

were sent away with kicks and got another… punishment: they had to stand

for six hours or more at the entrance gate.

Key Questions

What did the Nazis do to the Jews of Germany and Austria on/after

Kristallnacht?

What was the human impact of these events?

How can we describe Kristallnacht?

The Nazis claimed that Kristallnacht was a spontaneous reaction of the

German people to the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a

Jewish student whose parents had been expelled from Germany. What

evidence is there that this was not true?

Activity Four

1. Why did the Nazis persecute Germany’s Jews in these ways in the

1930s?

2. What was life like for Jews in Germany by the end of 1938?

3. What could German Jews do about their situation?

4. What feelings might the hundreds of thousands of German Jews who

left the country have had?