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New classroom resource for Key Stages 3 and 4: The Holocaust

In unleashing the Second World War, the Nazi regime was responsible for the deaths of around 50 million people, including civilians and soldiers. The Nazis and their allies committed genocide against Europe’s Roma, murdered millions of Catholic Poles and Soviet Prisoners of War, and caused death and destruction throughout occupied Europe. The genocide of the Jews that has come to be known as the Holocaust was both intertwined with and separate from these other killings.

There is no doubt in my mind that we are in the presence of one of the greatest and most horrible crimes ever committed. Winston Churchill, July 1944

We have recently released a new classroom resource for Key Stages 3 and 4, designed to help students and teachers consider the stark reality of what happened to the Jewish people during the war.  It is made up of key contemporary documents held at The National Archives and can support students in their own analysis of the Allies’ response to the information they received.

These documents show that the murder of six million Jews was a complex set of interrelated events: a series of vastly different experiences for all involved. Did the Allies understand that the Nazis intended to wipe out the Jews altogether? Should they have acted differently and done more to save them? Or was the truth about what was happening received and understood piecemeal, so that there was no real comprehension of the extent of the Nazi plans?

Visit our new classroom resource to find out more.

 

Channel website: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Original article link: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/new-classroom-resource-for-key-stages-3-and-4-the-holocaust/

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