Introduction

In the death camps of World War II, over six million European Jews perished at the hands of Nazi Germany. Have you ever met someone who lived through the “Holocaust”? Its Greek origins mean “sacrifice by fire.” It was the attempt at a state organized extermination of an entire ethnic group. In 1933 when Hitler came to power in Germany the Jewish Population of Europe was estimated at over nine million. Nearly two out of three of these people would be purged from Europe by the end of 1945. At first they were placed in ghettos and concentration camps. Eventually, a “Final Solution” was proposed in 1942. This led to an all out genocide of the Jews through a system of extermination camps.

In this WebQuest you will be studying the Holocaust. In terms of human lives this catastrophe has few rivals. As in any disaster of this scale there are many versions of the truth to be found. To find your own conclusions it is important to consider the points of view of all groups involved. The perspectives of this era ranged from the Nazi Commandant to the concentration camp prisoner, from the Jewish sympathizer to the ghetto captive.

This WebQuest will ask you to look at the tragedy from one of these perspectives and hear about the others from fellow students. In analyzing the experiences of each of these points of view, you will be able to construct your own understanding of the Holocaust.