Destination America

Free at Last

Normandy: The Great Crusade

Profiles of Freedom

2. What is the historical significance of the 1938 event known as Kristallnacht?

3. What was life like for a Jewish person who was forced to live in a Nazi ghetto?

4. What are some examples of ways in which people resisted the Nazi Party’s treatment of Jews?

5. How were Jewish people treated when they were sent to a concentration camp?

6. What was the ultimate purpose of the concentration camps?

7. In 1945, Germany began to lose World War II. What was the fate of the concentration camps and their prisoners?

8. American and British soldiers attempted to liberate some of the concentration camps. What did they find when they arrived at them?

2. The Holocaust was a human tragedy on a global scale. Millions of lives were exterminated by Hitler and the Nazis, and many more people died trying to stop them. Do you believe it’s possible that a similar tragedy could still happen in the world today, even though the human race has already experienced it before? Why or why not? Are similar, smaller events going on right now (and in the recent past)? If so, why do you think they are happening?

3. Imagine what it would have been like to be a German person your age during World War II. Do you think you would have been able to resist the propaganda and not join one of the many Hitler youth programs? Explain your response.

4. Anne Frank is famous for her statement that, despite her experiences during World War II, she still believed in the goodness of people. Knowing what you know about the events that transpired in Nazi concentration camps, do you have the same belief? Discuss the argument that the Nazi soldiers “were following orders” when they committed these war crimes. Discuss other factors that might also have contributed to their behaviors, such as propaganda and mob psychology.

5. Which do you think is a more effective way to learn about the Holocaust—through a careful analysis of historical facts or through listening to a wide selection of stories told by survivors? Does one of these methods offer a more realistic portrait of history? Explain your response.

6. It is said that we must learn about the past in order not to relive it. At the same time, however, we are told not to dwell in the past. How do you think these adages should or should not be applied to the Holocaust? Is one of them more applicable than the other? Can they both be true? Explain and defend your answers.