Holocaust Exam I Study Guide

• Describe the history of antisemitism in Europe in terms of common themes actions and ideas

• List and describe the major tactics (e.g. expulsions) commonly used throughout history to persecute Jews in Europe.

• List and describe the major anti-Semitic ideas (e.g. Jews are Christ-killers) that have recurred throughout history.

• Identify and discuss the major theories of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination including:
  Social inequalities
  Social identity (e.g. ingroup/outgroup)
  conformity
  frustration/aggression
  personality dynamics
  categorization
  just-world-hypthesis

• Discuss ingroup bias and out-group homogeneity and the impact on communication and memory.

• Explain the difference between democide, genocide, and ethnocide.

• Discuss Woolf and Hulsizers' basic concepts in relation to genocide.

• Identify the common cultural roots of genocide (e.g. history of aggression; history of devaluation of the "other").

• Discuss the role of authoritarianism to the Holocaust.

• Identify the common major destabilizing factors that may precede a genocide (e.g. economic crisis).

• Discuss the "magnitude gap" that exists between perpetrators and victims.
  Explain the four factors involved in the magnitude gap.

• Discuss the reasons why individuals join groups and the constructive/destructive factors associated with such group membership.

• Discuss the role of the elite in the perpetration of a genocide.

• Discuss the situational factors that play a role in the path towards genocide (e.g. loss of national pride and hedonic balancing).

• Discuss the ramifications of consolidation of government control in the path to genocide.

• Discuss media effects in relation to the development of genocide.

• Discuss moral exclusion and the parallel loss of rights.

• Discuss the role of impunity in a genocide.

• Discuss the role of bystanders in the prevention or escalation of a genocide.

• Relate any of the above concepts related to a psychosocial model of genocide to the Holocaust.

• List three different major provisions of the Versailles Treaty.

• Describe the impact of the Versailles Treaty on the people of Germany and its role in the development of the Holocaust

• Explain the structural weaknesses of the Weimar Republic.

• Discuss the impact of economic depression on the Weimar Republic.

• What is the relationship of Social Darwinism to Nazi Germany?

• Discuss the early history of eugenics in the United States.

• Discuss the early history of eugenics in Nazi Germany.

• Discuss the purpose and functioning of the T-4 project (the euthanasia project) in Nazi Germany.

• Explain how Hitler was able to create the Third Reich from the Weimar Republic legally.

• Describe the role of bystanders during the Holocaust including actions taken or not taken

• Describe the Holocaust in terms of the number of victims and the various groups singled out by the Nazi's for genocide and/or persecution

• Be able to discuss the functions of the Einsatzgruppen.

• Identify the names of the various concentration and death camps and the number of camps in Nazi Europe

• Be able to name and briefly discuss the Operation Reinhard death camps.