The International School for Holocaust Studies

Lesson 3

Nazi Germany

In this lesson, you learn about the Weimar Republic’s fragile democracy between 1918-1933 and examine historical events that allowed for the complete breakdown of democracy in the Third Reich between 1933 and 1939. You also investigate primary source materials to better understand how legislation, terror, and propaganda isolated Jews from German society.

More information about Nazi Germany during the 1930s

In this lesson, you meet Frank Shurman, formerly (Schuermann). Learn about the fate of Frank's uncle, aunt, and cousins during the Holocaust.

In this lesson, you also meet Esther Clifford. Learn about the fate of some members of Esther's family during the Holocaust by clicking on the pages of testimony identified with .

Key Words

• Aryan Paragraph
• Antisemitism
• Kristallnacht
• National Socialism
• Nuremberg Laws
• Refugees
• Reichstag

Encyclopedia

• Anschluss
• Anti-Jewish Legislation
• Films, Nazi Antisemitic
• Four-Year Plan
• Germany
• Gestapo
• Goebbels, Joseph
• Goering, Hermann
• Gypsies
• Hitler, Adolf
• Hitlerjugend
• Homosexuality in the Third Reich
• Jehovah's Witnesses
• Mein Kampf
• Nazi Party
• Olympic Games of 1936
• Propaganda, Nazi
• SA
• SD
• Shanghai
• Spain
• SS
• United States of America
• Yishuv

Photographs

• Germany, A Nazi Propaganda Poster
• A Closing Rally in Vienna Before the Referendum on the Annexation of Austria to the Reich
• “All of Germany is Listening to the Fuehrer”, a Prewar Nazi Poster Encouraging the Populace to Listen to Propaganda Broadcasts''
• Berlin, Germany, 1935, Military Units on Parade in a Square, on the Day of the Declaration of Rearmament
• Berlin,Germany, A Postcard of the Brandenburg Bridge from the Beginning of the Nazi Regime
• Germany - A Ceremony for the Annual Nazi Party Rally, 1935
• Mein Kampf
• Joseph Goebbels
• Germany, 1938, Heinrich Himmler with Benito Mussolini
• A Racial Chart Taken from a Nazi Propaganda Booklet: What Kind of Marriage is Restricted by the Law? What Kind of Marriage is Allowed?
• A Racial Chart Taken from a Nazi Propaganda Booklet: "Who Has German Blood? Who Belongs to the Jewish Race? Who is of Mixed Race?" 
• A Nazi Propaganda Pamphlet Titled: "The Feuhrer Makes History"
• Berlin, Germany, February 27,1933, The Reichstag in Flames
• Germany - A Nazi Poster for the Elections
• Vienna, Austria, Hitler's Victorious Entrance in 1938
• Munich, Bavaria, Germany, 1938, Ohel Ya'akov Synagogue, after a Pogrom
• A Synagogue On Fire, Kristallnacht, November 10, 1938, Siegen, Germany

Documents

• "Transformations in Our Struggle": Article by Reinhard Heydrich in Das Schwarze Korps
• Report by Adolf Eichmann on His Activity in Vienna
• Regulation for the Elimination of the Jews From the Economic Life of Germany, November 12, 1938