Describe in detail the different stages and decisions that led to the Holocaust.When you can accomplish the learning objectives for this lesson, you should begin work on the lesson essay described below.
Describe in detail the different stages and decisions that led to the Holocaust.When you can accomplish the learning objectives for this lesson, you should begin work on the lesson essay described below.
Lesson 5 : The Holocaust
Lesson Essay
When you can accomplish the learning objectives for this lesson, you should begin work on the lesson essay described below. You may use any assigned readings, your notes, and other course-related materials to complete this assignment. Be sure to reread the essay grading criteria on the Grades and Assessments page.
This essay should be about 1,000 words long, typed double space with one-inch margins on each side. It is worth 150 points and should address the following:
There are a number of historians who regard the Holocaust as a unique occurrence unparalleled by other crimes in human history. On the basis of what you have just learned about the history of anti-Semitism over the last 2,500 years, would you agree with this view? Why or why not?
Learning Objectives
After completing this lesson, you should be able to do the following:
Provide a historical account of anti-Semitism in Europe.
Describe in detail the different stages and decisions that led to the Holocaust.
Portray the situation in the death camps.
Reflect on the historical significance of the Holocaust.
Commentary
A Brief History of the Jewish People
Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, whose history goes back almost 6,000 years to biblical times. Today, there are about 13.5 million Jews worldwide. Most of them live in the United States, Israel, the European Community, and the former Soviet Republics. Judaism is built on monotheism. The Jewish law is laid down in the Torah, which consists of the five books of Moses in the Old Testament. According to the Jewish faith, Jews are the chosen people because God made a special pact with Abraham, from whom the Jewish people descended. Although this belief in exclusivity is hardly different from other world religions, it has often been referred to as the reason Jews would seek to establish world domination, a fear that contributed to the rise of anti-Semitism throughout the ages.
The descendents of Abraham’s family settled in Egypt peacefully until about 1580 BC, when a new pharaoh (or ruler) in Egypt made them slaves. To escape from bondage, the Jews, under Moses’ leadership, fled into the desert where they received the Ten Commandments and ultimately reached the so-called “promised land” of present-day Israel. In 586 BC, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar conquered the southern land of Judah, devastated Jerusalem, and destroyed the Jewish temple that had been built by King Salomon around 950 BC. He also led many Jews as slaves into the Babylonian exile and thus began what has become known as the Diaspora—the dispersion of Jews outside of Israel that continues until today. The first Diaspora lasted about fifty years, until the Babylonians were overthrown by the Persians and the Jews were allowed to go back home, where they built the second temple in 516 BC. During the following centuries, Judah was controlled by a variety of different powers, including the Persians, the Greeks, and finally the Romans, who, in 70 AD, under the leadership of Titus, destroyed the second temple and forced the Jewish people once again into exile. In 132 AD, the Jews under Bar Kochba (or Kokhba) started an unsuccessful revolt against the Romans, who subsequently decimated the Jewish community and deliberately sought to undermine their identification with the land of Israel by renaming itPalaestina.
The first Jews had entered German lands with the Roman legions that established colonies along the Rhine in the first two centuries AD. These Jews were essentially an agricultural people, and by the third century, some had become successful winegrowers on the slopes along the Rhine. Others had become merchants, artisans, or doctors. From these early centuries through the Carolingian Empire and up until the time of the early Crusades, the Jews were able to maintain legal autonomy within their own communities. Jewish law was binding and they were permitted to follow their religious worship and customs without persecution, as long as they did not attempt to convert Christians to Judaism.
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