3 Jewish businessmen to march down a street in Leipzig, Germany, carrying signs that read: "Don't buy from Jews; Shop in German businesses!“

1. Why do you think they would do this? 2. How does the crowd on the sidewalk react?

Frederic Zeller was a 9-yr old student in Berlin in 1933 - he remembers how school turned into a nightmare: Teachers were baiting us....ridiculing us in front of the class. "Zeller?," questioned my teacher, "that can't be your real name, can it? I bet it was something more like Schmulewitz, Or Isaaksohn, right?" Then he snapped furiously: "Stand to attention when I'm talking to you. What do you think this is - a Jew school?“ In German public schools, Jewish students were forced to stand next to chalkboards on which anti-Semitic slogans had been written, while other students read the words aloud: "The Jew is our greatest enemy!"

1. Why are these incidents occurring in school?

2. How do the students react to the teacher’s instructions?

1. What is the chart above about?

2. What are the white figures? The black figures? The mixed figures?

• Describe the illustration above.

Below is an excerpt from the children’s book, Don't Trust the Fox in the Green Meadow or the Jew

on His Oath, which was required reading for all German children

Young people who call themselves real Germans join the Hitler Youth. They dedicate their

lives to the Fuhrer (German for leader) and strive for the future. You can see the Hitler Youth,

proud and handsome. They are all tall and proud, from the biggest to the smallest man. They

love the Fuhrer. They fear God in heaven. They despise the Jews. Jews are not like them.

That's why Jews must go.

1. Why is the book cover designed that way, with a fox in one corner and a stereotypically drawn

Jew in the other?

2. Why are to two images in the book side by side?

3. Why were children required to read this story?

From a Nazi-approved Math Textbook:

"The Jews are aliens in Germany--in 1933 there were 66,060,000 inhabitants in the German Reich

(Empire), of whom 499,682 were Jews.

What is the percent of aliens?"

Primary Source #1

Primary Source #2

Primary Source #3

Primary Source #4

• Message from SS Heydrich to all State Police Main Offices and Field Offices:

• Secret Copy of Most Urgent telegram from Munich, of November 10, 1938, 1:20 A.M.

• To All Headquarters and Stations of the State Police. All districts and Sub-districts of the SD.

• Urgent! For immediate attention of Chief or his deputy!

• Re: Measures against Jews tonight

Demonstrations against the Jews are to be expected in all parts of the Reich in the course of the

coming night, November 9/10, 1938. The instructions below are to be applied in dealing with

these events:

1. The Chiefs of the State Police must immediately upon receipt of this telegram contact the

political leaders in their areas –to discuss the arrangements for the demonstrations.

2. Only measures are to be taken as do not endanger German lives or property (synagogues are

to be burned down only where there is no danger of fire in neighboring buildings)

3. Places of business and apartments belonging to Jews may be destroyed but not looted.

4. In streets care is to be taken that non-Jewish businesses are protected against damage

5. Demonstrations are not to be prevented by the Police, which is only to supervise

6. As many Jews in all districts as can be accommodated in existing prisons are to be arrested.

After the detentions have been carried out the appropriate concentration camps are to be

contacted immediately for the prompt accommodation of the Jews in the camps.

• The Poisonous Mushroom•  This story comes from an anti-Semitic children's book published by Julius Streicher, the publisher of Der Stürmer. 

This summary and partial translation is taken from a 1938 publication.• A mother and her young boy are gathering mushrooms in the German forest. The boy finds some poisonous ones.

The mother explains that there are good mushrooms and poisonous ones, and, as they go home, says:• "Look, Franz, human beings in this world are like the mushrooms in the forest. There are good mushrooms and there

are good people. There are poisonous, bad mushrooms and there are bad people. And we have to be on our guard against bad people just as we have to be on guard against poisonous mushrooms. Do you understand that?"

• "Yes, mother," Franz replies. "I understand that in dealing with bad people trouble may arise, just as when one eats a poisonous mushroom. One may even die!"

• "And do you know, too, who these bad men are, these poisonous mushrooms of mankind?" the mother continued.• Franz slaps his chest in pride: "Of course I know, mother! They are the Jews! Our teacher has often told us about

them."• The mother praises her boy for his intelligence, and goes on to explain the different kinds of "poisonous" Jews: the

Jewish peddler, the Jewish cattle-dealer, the Kosher butcher, the Jewish doctor, the baptized Jew, and so on. "However they disguise themselves, or however friendly they try to be, affirming a thousand times their good intentions to us, one must not believe them. Jews they are and Jews they remain. For our Volk they are poison."

• "Like the poisonous mushroom!" says Franz.• "Yes, my child! Just as a single poisonous mushroom can kill a whole family, so a solitary Jew can destroy a whole

village, a whole city, even an entire Volk."• Franz has understood. "Tell me, mother, do all non-Jews know that the Jew is as dangerous as a poisonous

mushroom?"• Mother shakes her head. "Unfortunately not, my child. There are millions of non-Jews who do not yet know the Jews.

So we have to enlighten people and warn them against the Jews. Our young people, too, must be warned. Our boys and girls must learn to know the Jew. They must learn that the Jew is the most dangerous poison-mushroom in existence. Just as poisonous mushrooms spring up everywhere, so the Jew is found in every country in the world. Just as poisonous mushrooms often lead to the most dreadful calamity, so the Jew is the cause of misery and distress, illness and death."

•  • The author then concludes this story by pointing the moral:• "The following tales tell the truth about the Jewish poison-mushroom. They show the many shapes the Jew assumes.

They show the depravity and baseness of the Jewish race. They show the Jew for what he really is:• The Devil in human form.

"It was dark already...They lined us up on a ledge which was so small that we

couldn't get much footing on it. They began shooting us. I shut my eyes, clenched

my fists, tensed my muscles and took a plunge down before the bullets hit me. It

seemed I was flying forever. But I landed safely on the bodies. After a while, when

the shooting stopped, I heard the Germans climbing into the ravine. They started

finishing off all those who were not dead yet, those who were moaning, hiccupping,

tossing, and writhing in agony. They ran their flashlights over the bodies and

finished off all who moved. I was lying so still without stirring, terrified of giving

myself away. I felt I was done for. I decided to keep quiet. They started covering

the corpses over with earth. They must have put quite a lot over me because I felt I

was beginning to suffocate. But I was afraid to move. I was gasping for breath. I

knew I would suffocate. Then I decided it was better to be shot than buried alive. I

stirred but I didn't know that it was quite dark already. Using my left arm I managed

to move a little way up. Then I took a deep breath, summoned up my waning

strength and crawled out from under the cover of earth. It was dark. But all the

same it was dangerous to crawl because of the searching beams of flashlight and

they continued shooting at those who moaned. They might hit me. So I had to be

careful. I was lucky enough to crawl up one of the high walls of the ravine, and

straining every nerve and muscle, got out of it."

Flow Chart for “Operation Reinhard,” Auschwitz, and Majdanek

Aerial view of Auschwitz

“Selektion”

Slave Labor at a BMW factory