Jewish women walking in the street with yellow Star of Davids attached to their outer clothing. France, c. 1940s. Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

Part of the Library’s Summer Term educational talks and workshops.

In the interwar period, Germany was politically unstable. The trauma caused by the First World War and the Great Depression left many Germans disheartened and susceptible to extremist ideas.

The Nazi Party seemingly offered hope and solutions. The Party condemned the unpopular Treaty of Versailles and offered an explanation for Germany’s problems – the Jews. Although this was not a new idea in Germany, where antisemitism had been growing since the start of the century, Nazi ideology placed antisemitism and racist ideas at its centre.

This revision session, aimed at GCSE and A-Level students, will utilise sources from the Library’s unique archive to examine the Nazi’s creation of a ‘Racial State’. It will explore the radicalisation of the state; Nazi racial ideology; increasing antisemitic policies and actions as well as the treatment of Jews in the early years of war by looking at the development of ghettos and deportations.

Delivered by Kiera Fitzgerald, the Library’s Education Officer, this session is suitable for those studying the following: KS3 History; GCSE History Edexcel: Weimar and Nazi Germany 1918-1939; GCSE History OCR: Germany 1925-1955: The People and The State. Edexcel A-Level History – Germany and West Germany, 1918–89; OCR History Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963; AQA History: Democracy and Nazism: Germany 1918-1945.

Event guidelines

1. The Library will send you a Zoom link and joining instructions via email before the event. Please do check your junk folders.

2. Please try and join 5 minutes before the event start time (17.55) and we will let you into the room (do try and bear with us if this takes a few minutes).