1. Was the final solution planned or was it improvised?
Learning objectives:
To build on what we already know about the build up to the Final Solution
To plan a Part A question about the Final solution
The Final Solution was planned from the outset
The Final Solution was improvised

2. How can we explain the development of the extermination final solution?
Experience of WWII – desensitised to violence, dehumanising, pressure on territorial solution- Russia/Madagascar/hostages
Long-term anti-Semitism/scape-goating – propaganda impact, der Jude, dehumanising Jewish people
Chaos of the Nazi state – Kristallnacht Goebbels, Hitler’s oral orders, Hitler retreated to the Berghof, Wansee Conference called to response from the Gauleiters pressure in Warthengau, radicalisation happened as lower down Nazis are trying to advance their careers
Didn’t know – focusing on surviving, rumours, Hamburg 1942 newspaper headline ‘Exterminate all the Jews!’, senior Nazis said that Hitler knew and directed it, Hitler never made a spoken or written record directing or acknowledging

3. Use your books (if you need to) to explain why each of these events are significant in terms of the Holocaust
1933 Dachau camp opens
1933 boycott of Jewish shops begins
1935 Nuremburg Race Laws
1938 Kristallnacht
1939 Invasion of Poland
1941 Himmler orders the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’
1942 Wannsee Conference
1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising
1945 Death marches begin as allies approach
Nuremburg trials

4. Why did Hitler decide to set up concentration camps?
Which 3 WW2 events do you think had the biggest impact on how Jews were treated? Explain the impact they had?
Have you changed your mind about whether the Final solution was planned or improvised?

5. Who was to blame for the final solution?
Use your books and what we have learnt this lesson to fill in your worksheets
Who was to blame
Evidence to support this (think about how the Final Solution came about, why it came about, whether it was planned or improvised)
Evidence to challenge this
How credible is this blame?
Hitler
Nazis
Germans
Allies
Senior Nazis
No-one – product of long-held anti-Semitism and WWII
Use pgs in pink book

6. No-one – product of long-held anti-Semitism and WWII
Who was to blame
Evidence to support this (think about how the Final Solution came about, why it came about, whether it was planned or improvised)
Evidence to challenge this
How credible is this blame?
Hitler
Nazis
Germans
Allies
Senior Nazis
No-one – product of long-held anti-Semitism and WWII

7. Anything to add? The Final Solution was planned from the outset
The Final Solution was improvised

8. Let’s plan this together...
A question planning
Systematic extermination emerged as the Final Solution to the Jewish Question as result of the chaotic nature of the Nazi state. How far do you agree with this statement?
Let’s plan this together...

9. How would you have planned you answer differently if this was the question?
June 2010, part A question:

12. How chaotic and organised was the state?

13. What does this suggest to you about Hitler’s dictatorship?
This is a photograph of the Berghof – the mountain retreat where Hitler spent most of his time from 1938.
What does this suggest to you about Hitler’s dictatorship?
What do you think a chaotic plurocracy is?

14. Chaotic Plurocracy Chaotic
Plurocracy – many people and organisations creating Hitler’s will. These often overlapped with existing bodies.
However – it is still a dictatorship – but perhaps not the most efficient kind!

15. Read through all of the factors on your handout.
What interpretation do these sources have of Hitler’s dictatorship?
Was Hitler’s rule a chaotic plurocracy?
Write in different colours
Evidence to support this interpretation
Evidence to challenge this interpretation

16. How chaotic and organised was the state?

17. Homework, due Tuesday 5 May
June 2010, part A question: June 2011, Part B question: