Knowledge organiserYear 9 History

Holocaust study hub

The Holocaust was the systematic murder of Europe’s Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. Around six million Jewish people were killed. This organiser gathers core concepts, key dates, places, and memorials for rapid revision and careful study.

Key terms

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Holocaust

Systematic murder of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis.

Shoah

Hebrew word meaning catastrophe.

Zionist

Jewish movement supporting a national home in Palestine.

Anti-Semitism

Hostility or prejudice against Jewish people.

Mein Kampf

Hitler’s book, published 1925.

Nuremberg Laws

Anti-Jewish, racist laws enforced in Nazi Germany.

Kristallnacht

Night of Broken Glass in 1938. Widespread attacks on Jews and property.

Ghetto

Areas where Jews were forcibly confined with poor conditions.

Final Solution

Attempt to murder every Jewish man, woman and child in Europe.

Concentration Camp

Sites used to imprison millions of Jews and other targeted groups.

Auschwitz

German Nazi camp complex in occupied Poland.

Perpetrator

Someone who inflicts harm or killing.

Bystander

Someone who witnesses harm and does nothing.

Kindertransport

Rescue effort moving Jewish children to Britain starting in 1938.

Refugee

Person forced to flee their country to escape war or persecution.

Resistance

Refusal to accept oppression. Acts of defiance.

Uprising

Armed rebellion or organised resistance.

Deportation

Forcible removal of people from their homes and countries.

Liberation

Freeing people from imprisonment or slavery.

Prosecuted

Legal proceedings brought against suspected criminals.

Memorial

Structure or space that remembers victims and events.

Fast facts

Holos + kaustos
Ancient Greek for completely burnt.
~6,000,000
Jews murdered by Nazis and collaborators.
91 deaths
7,500 businesses, 900 synagogues destroyed.
~490,000
Extreme overcrowding, hunger and disease.
~10,000
Children rescued to Britain from 1938.

Remember Terms such as perpetrator, bystander, resister and rescuer help analyse human choices.

Selected timeline

   1933 Jews barred from government jobs and sports clubs.
   1935 Jews lose rights as German citizens; Nuremberg Laws enacted.
   1938 Kristallnacht; Kindertransport begins in Britain.
   1939 Mass evictions. Jewish families forced from homes.
   1942 Jewish children banned from school; 235,000 Jews sent to Treblinka.
   1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; Leon Greenman arrives at Auschwitz.
   1944 The Frank family discovered in hiding.
   1945 Auschwitz liberated; Nuremberg Trials begin.

Concentration camps referenced

  • Auschwitz (I've hyperlinked a map to this one)
  • Bergen-Belsen
  • Buchenwald
  • Dora
  • Esterwegen
  • Flossenbürg
  • Mauthausen
  • Majdanek
  • Neuengamme
  • Ravensbrück
  • Riga
  • Sachsenhausen
  • Stutthof
  • Vaivara

Kindertransport snapshot

Led by the British Jewish Refugee Committee. £50 bond per child. First arrival to Harwich on 2 December 1938.

Memorials

Study prompts

  • How did laws, propaganda and violence escalate?
  • What choices faced perpetrators, bystanders and resisters?
  • Why do memorials differ in form and purpose?