The German Nazis were responsible for the systematic killing of millions of Jews.  Hitler called it “The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.”  There were concentration camps set up throughout German controlled territories.  This seminar will focus on the largest and most notorious camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in German-controlled Poland.StandardsCC.1.2.11–12.C - Analyze the interaction and development of a complex set of ideas, sequence of events, or specific individuals over the course of the text.CC.1.2.11–12.I - Analyze foundational U.S. and world documents of historical, political, and literary significance for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

The German Nazis were responsible for the systematic killing of millions of Jews.  Hitler called it “The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.”  There were concentration camps set up throughout German controlled territories.  This project will focus on the largest and most notorious camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, located in German-controlled Poland. Anne Frank and her family were discovered and arrested in August 1944. In September 1944 they were sent from the Westerbork Camp in the Netherlands to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Anne’s father, Otto Frank, survived and was liberated from Auschwitz-Birkenau in January 1945. 

Once the pride of the German Navy, this 700 foot long heavy cruiser was used by the U.S. as a test target for not one but two atom bombs at Bikini atoll. Today, at the bottom of the ocean, the radiation levels of the Prinz Eugen are low enough for safe exploration. In this video, Jonathan joins historian Mark Miller on a trip to explore this mysterious shipwreck. What they find about the condition of this wreck is surprising. Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

A History Of The Holocaust: A Guide For The Community College Student: The Second Edition.

The rise and fall of National Socialism is one of the most intensively-studied topics in European history. Nevertheless, after more than half a century, popular views of Nazism in the media and among the public remain simplistic-essentialized by equal parts fascination and horror. Adolf Hitler, for instance, is often portrayed as an evil genius of supernatural ability; while the Nazi state is similarly imagined to have held absolute power over every aspect of its subjects’ lives. Such characterizations allow ordinary Germans to be portrayed as helpless victims of Nazism, ensnared or coerced into submission by forces beyond their control. Another popular characterization is that German culture itself is fundamentally flawed - that all Germans were basically Nazis at heart. This schema conveniently erases the manifestations of fascism in other Western nations, and allows Americans and other Westerners to reassure themselves that the horrors of Nazism could never emerge in their own enlightened national cultures.