Read Bergen War & Genocide, 118-165. Use this book only for part (a) and cite page numbers for any quotation.
- write 150-word answers on TWO questions. 150-word each.
1. What challenges did Jews face in trying to leave Germany? Where did they go?
2. What was the Kindertransport program? Explain how the story of the two boys 13-year old and 9-year old sons of Max S, a tailor, reveal the desperation of German Jews in this period.
3. In what ways was the program to kill disabled children in the winter 1938-1939 a “trial balloon” for National Socialist Germany?
4. How did the Nazi policies of settling 200,000 ethnic Germans on Polish land help breed resentment and conflict among different groups?
5. The strange Nisko project of Adolf Eichmann’s reveals the ways that competition and chaos could make the life of those under Nazi rule even worse. Explain this point.
6. What are the conclusions that Bergen draws from the complaint of General Johannes Blaskowitz’s and the National Socialist response?
7. Bergen dedicates some attention to Jewish-Christian relations in Poland. Why is that a significant aspect of the Holocaust?
8. An important step in the unfolding of the Holocaust involved sending Jews to ghettos. Why is this the case and what were conditions like there?
9. How does the institution of the Jewish council reveal the Nazi approach of “divide and conqueror”?
10. How did the T4 program lay the groundwork for the Holocaust?
11. In August 1941 Cardinal Galen of Münster attacked the program of killing the handicapped. What happened as a result? What does this and other protests against Nazi racist and murderous policies tell us about the extent to which it was possible to oppose or criticize the National Socialist regime?
b) http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1548
Complete a 250-word text freewrite on one of the readings on the link above.
