This topic covers genocide — the deliberate destruction of a people — and in particular the Nazi persecution of Jewish people from 1933 and the murder of about six million European Jews between 1941 and 1945. The Junior Cycle exam tests key terms, the chronological stages of persecution, the consequences of the Holocaust, and how to evaluate historical sources and commemoration.
Genocide and the Roots of Nazi Persecution
Genocide is the crime of trying to completely destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The Holocaust is the best-known genocide because the killing was organised by a modern state using railways, records and purpose-built camps, though other genocides include the 1915 killing of Armenians and the 1994 genocide of Tutsi in Rwanda.
Nazi persecution built upon centuries of European anti-Semitism through deliberate state actions:
- In his book Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler declared that Germans belonged to a master race and blamed Jewish people for Germany's problems.
- The Nazis used Jews as scapegoats for losing World War One and the economic crises of the 1920s.
- The Ministry of Propaganda, run by Joseph Goebbels, spread false, hateful messages through newspapers, posters, and films to persuade ordinary Germans to support anti-Jewish laws.
The Escalation of Persecution (1935–1941)
Persecution was carried out in distinct stages, moving from legal discrimination to open violence:
| Year | Stage | Historical Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Nuremberg Laws | Stripped German Jews of their citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and non-Jews. |
| 1938 | Kristallnacht | A state-sponsored pogrom where Nazis attacked synagogues, burned businesses, and arrested 30,000 Jewish men. |
| 1939–1940 | Ghetto system | Jewish people were forced into sealed, overcrowded city districts, such as Warsaw, with little food or medicine. |
Jewish people were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing — in occupied Poland from 1939 and in Germany from 1941 — so that they could be identified and shut out of society.
The 'Final Solution' and Jewish Resistance
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, mobile SS killing squads shot over a million people. Nazi leaders then turned to mass murder using poison gas.
- Wannsee Conference (January 1942): Reinhard Heydrich chaired a meeting of Nazi officials that planned the Final Solution — the murder of every Jewish person in Europe — and organised the transports and killing centres.
- Camp system: Prisoners were sent to labour camps like Dachau to work, or to purpose-built extermination camps in occupied Poland, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka.
- Mass murder: Victims were brought in locked cattle wagons. On arrival, SS doctors carried out a 'selection': those thought fit for work were kept as slave labour, and the rest were sent straight to the gas chambers.
- Resistance: Victims resisted where they could. In April 1943, Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the Nazis with smuggled weapons and held out for almost a month.
Consequences, Evidence, and Commemoration
Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz on 27 January 1945, and Allied troops liberated western camps by May 1945. About six million Jewish people and millions of others, including Roma and disabled people, were murdered.
- Nuremberg Trials (1945–1946): Surviving Nazi leaders were put on trial by Allied courts for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- State of Israel: Founded in 1948, partly as a homeland for Jewish people, including survivors who had no homes to return to.
- Historical evidence: Historians study written Nazi records alongside primary sources like Anne Frank's diary and survivor testimonies. Source check: A survivor's testimony is a valuable primary source because the person was there, but a limitation is that human memory can fade or change over decades.
- Commemoration: International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on 27 January. Survivors such as Tomi Reichental, who settled in Ireland, have spoken in Irish schools so that the lessons of genocide are not forgotten.
Key terms
- Genocide
- The crime of deliberately trying to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
- Holocaust
- The systematic murder of about six million European Jews by the Nazi regime between 1941 and 1945.
- Anti-Semitism
- Hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Jewish people.
- Mein Kampf
- The book written by Adolf Hitler setting out his extreme racist ideas and hatred of Jewish people.
- Propaganda
- The organised spreading of information, often biased or false, to persuade people to adopt specific beliefs.
- Nuremberg Laws
- Anti-Semitic laws passed in 1935 that stripped German Jews of their citizenship and forbade intermarriage.
- Kristallnacht
- The 'Night of Broken Glass' in November 1938, when the Nazis organised violent attacks on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues.
- Final Solution
- The Nazi plan agreed at the Wannsee Conference in 1942 to systematically murder every Jewish person in Europe.
Check yourself
What two key restrictions did the 1935 Nuremberg Laws place on German Jews?
They stripped German Jews of their citizenship and banned marriage or relationships between Jews and non-Jewish Germans.
Give one reason the Nazis were able to turn ordinary Germans against Jewish people.
Nazi propaganda run by Joseph Goebbels used posters, newspapers, and films to blame Jewish people for Germany's economic troubles and defeat in World War One.
What happened during Kristallnacht in November 1938?
The Nazis organised a violent pogrom, destroying Jewish synagogues, homes, and businesses, and arresting 30,000 men.
What was the purpose of the 1942 Wannsee Conference?
To organise the administration, railway transport, and killing centres for the Final Solution across Europe.
Why is International Holocaust Remembrance Day held on 27 January?
It marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp by Soviet soldiers on 27 January 1945.