: Organizing Mass Murder
First expectation: Students will know who was responsible for the decision to murder the Jews systematically and who was responsible for putting this decision into action.
- Who gave the order to murder every, last European Jew?
historical terms: the “Hitler Myth, ” a “Hitler order,” Mein Kampf
historical figures: Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945), Josef Goebbels (1897-1945
- Who else was personally responsible?
historical terms: judenfrei (free of Jews), Chelmno, Auschwitz, Majdanek, General Government
historical figures: Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich (1903-1942), Adolf Eichmann (1906-62), Odilio Globocnic (1904-1945)
Second expectation: Students will understand the significance of the Wannsee Conference (January 1942)?
- What was the Wannsee Conference?
- Why was the meeting called?
historical figures and terms: Wehrmacht, Einsatzgruppen, Gestapo, the Madagascar Plan, Benito Mussolini, the T4 program, Czechoslovakia, General Government
- Who participated in the meeting?
historical terms: Foreign Ministry, Justice Ministry, Interior Ministry (that is, the national police), Ministry of the 4-Year Plan (that is, Economic Ministry), the Ministry of the Railroads and the Ministry of the Occupied Areas
- What did the euphemism “resettlement” really stand for?
historical figures and terms: T4 Program, subterfuge
Third expectation: Students will understand the differences among German concentration camps slave labor camps and death camps.
- What differences were there among the three types of camps?
historical terms: I.G. Farben, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Porsche, East Industry Inc., Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau,
- How widely used was gas chambers and what gasses were used?
historical terms: T4 Program, sanatoriums, carbon monoxide, Zyklon-B, hydrogen cyanide, prussic acid,
