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Holocaust Facts & Worksheets

The term "Holocaust", comes originally from the Greek word "holokauston" which means "sacrifice by fire". Today, the Holocaust refers to the Nazi's persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people.

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The term “Holocaust,” comes originally from the Greek word “holokauston” which means “sacrifice by fire”. Today, the Holocaust refers to the Nazi’s mass persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people.

See the fact file below for more information on the Holocaust or alternatively, you can download our 24-page Holocaust worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

THE JEWISH PEOPLE

  • The Jewish people were descendants of the Israelites and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah.
  • They originated as an ethnic and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, in the part of the Levant known as the Land of Israel.
  • Jews were politically independent for a long span, with invaders in between. 
  • However, since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, most Jews have lived elsewhere.
  • Their religion is Judaism and national language is Hebrew.
  • More than half of the Jewish population lives in the diaspora. 
  • Prior to 1948, approximately 800,000 Jews were living in lands which now make up the Arab world (excluding Israel).
  • Currently, the largest Jewish community outside of Israel is located in the United States.
  • The Jewish people and Judaism have experienced various persecutions throughout Jewish history.
  • Throughout history, many rulers, empires, and nations have oppressed their Jewish populations or sought to eliminate them entirely. 
  • Methods employed ranged from expulsion to outright genocide; within nations, often the threat of these extreme methods was sufficient to silence dissent.

JEWISH PERSECUTION

  • On April 1, 1933, the Nazis began their action against German Jews by announcing a boycott of all Jewish-run businesses.
  • The Holocaust began in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and ended in 1945, when the Nazis were defeated by the Allied powers.
  • The genocide, known as HaShoah in Hebrew, aimed at the elimination of the Jewish people on the European continent.
  • Leading up to World War II, nearly all Jewish firms in Nazi Germany collapsed under financial pressure or had been forced to sell out to the Nazi government as part of the “Aryanization” policy inaugurated in 1937.
  • It was a broadly organized operation led by Nazi Germany in which approximately six million Jews were murdered methodically and with horrifying cruelty.

OTHER VICTIMS OF WAR

  • In addition to Jews, the Nazis targeted many other groups of people. People of different ethnic and religious backgrounds were at risk as were people who were disabled or homosexual. 
  • Anyone who resisted the Nazis was sent to forced labor camps or murdered. It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust.
  • It was the aim of Hitler’s regime to create a European world dominated and populated by the Aryan race, which they believed to be genetically superior.
  • The Nazi machinery was dedicated to eradicating millions of people it deemed undesirable.
  • Some people were undesirable by Nazi standards because of who they were, their genetic or cultural origins, or health conditions. 
  • These included Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and other Slavs, and people with physical or mental disabilities.
  • Others were Nazi victims because of what they did. These victims of the Nazi regime included Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, the dissenting clergy, Communists, Socialists, ‘asocials’, and other political enemies.
  • Those believed by Hitler and the Nazis to be enemies of the state were banished to labor and death camps. 
  • Inside the concentration camps, prisoners were forced to wear various colored triangles, each color denoting a different group.
  • The letters on the triangular badges designated the prisoners’ countries of origin.
  • The number of inmates in Auschwitz is estimated to have been some 23,000. 
  • Many became the victims of medical experiments; others died of exhaustion or were suffocated by poison gas.
  • The camp was dissolved in August 1944.
  • Under the Nazi regime, African-German children were labeled “Rhineland Bastards” and forcibly sterilized.
  • Hitler labelled them “bastardising the European continent at its core.”

NAZI CRUELTY

    • The food the prisoners received was not nutritious or sanitary in most circumstances. Prisoners slept with three or more people on crowded wooden bunks that had no mattress or pillow. 
    • Torture within the concentration camps was common and deaths were frequent. At a number of Nazi concentration camps, Nazi doctors conducted medical experiments on prisoners against their will. 

    While concentration camps were meant to work and starve prisoners to death, extermination camps (also known as death camps) were built for the sole purpose of killing large groups of people quickly and efficiently.

END OF WAR

  • By the spring of 1945, German leadership was dissolving amid internal dissent.
  • On April 30, 1945 Hitler committed suicide. Germany’s formal surrender in World War II came barely a week later, on May 8, 1945.
  • After the surrender,  Allied forces discovered the concentration camps and were horrified to see the prisoners of war.
  • Many holocaust victims were ultimately displaced for many years since they had no place to return to, until the establishment of Israel.

Holocaust Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Holocaust across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Holocaust worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the  “Holocaust”, which has come to refer to the Nazi’s mass persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • World at War
  • The Mastermind
  • Them who Suffered
  • A Thousand Words
  • Diary of a Young Girl
  • A Survivor
  • Words of Peace
  • Laws for Peace
  • Poster for Peace
  • Quick Review

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Link will appear as Holocaust Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, January 4, 2021

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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