Develop knowledge and understanding:
To deepen student knowledge and challenge common misunderstandings, in this chapter they will learn:
- About the ways in which the Nazis controlled peoples’ lives after 1933 and how they used terror and violence.
- What concentration camps were and why they were created.
- That the Nazis had a racist worldview which saw certain minority groups as enemies or threats.
- How and why the Nazis persecuted different minority groups.
Challenge myths and misconceptions:
Here is a summary of the key myths and misconceptions that we identified in our research and that we are aiming to challenge through this textbook chapter content and its supporting materials:
- All Germans were either brainwashed or lived in fear of Hitler and the Nazis
- Jewish people were imprisoned and killed in concentration camps in 1933
- All Nazi victims were treated in the same way for the same reasons
Should you choose to share these with students it is very important to be clear that these are false statements and they need to be taught about with sensitivity and skill.
Access the research briefing that is relevant to this textbook chapter content here:
Research briefing 2: Agency and responsibility
Support for in chapter activities:
Support for Think About p.26: ‘Are you surprised that the German people willingly gave information about each other to the Gestapo? Why might people have done this?’
Resource sheet 2.2.1 provides further information and a case study to help students to answer the Think About.
DOWNLOAD: Resource sheet 2.2.1
Additional resources for students:
To find out more about the early concentration camps in Nazi Germany 1933 – 39, students can undertake further research using these recommended websites:
https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-camps/types-of-camps/concentration-camps/
http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk/themes/early-camps.html
Additional resources for teachers:
Open access classroom materials: ‘What was a Nazi concentration camp?’
Explore Nazi concentration camps further with your students using our open access lesson materials. This series of 3 lessons explore:
- What was a concentration camp?
- The German public and Nazi concentration camps
- The first SS concentration camp: How did Dachau change between 1933 and 1945?
https://holocausteducation.org.uk/lessons/open-access/what-was-a-nazi-concentration-camp/
Further reading materials:
Evans, R, J. (2006) The Third Reich in Power: How the Nazis won over the hearts and minds of a nation. Penguin.
Gellately, R. (1992) The Gestapo and German Society: Enforcing Racial Policy 1933-1945. Clarendon.
Gellately, R. (2020) Hitler’s True Believers: How ordinary people became Nazis. Oxford University Press.
Kershaw, I. (2001) The Hitler Myth: Image and reality in the Third Reich. Oxford University Press.
Noakes, J and Pridham, G. (1983 – 1998) Nazism 1919 – 1945. A documentary reader, 4 volumes. University of Exeter press.
Reece, L. (2012) The Nazis: A warning from History. BBC Books.
Wachsmann, N. (2015) KL, A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps. Little, Brown.