PART I: You will begin by addressing:
What are the essential major points/features of the Holocaust in your given country? Through analysis of primary and secondary sources, you should develop a thesis to help explain what happened in your country.
PART II: You will continue by addressing:
How have historians researched and argued the major points/features of the Holocaust in your given country. This is like a historiography paper: analyzing how historian’s arguments and research have changed over time.
This paper will be broken into two parts, each with a distinct purpose.
Part I will be an analytical, research based paper. You are NOT simply retelling events that happened, but rather, analyzing what happened. What does that mean exactly? Through your research, you will find the major reasons WHY or HOW the Holocaust took place. In other words, by telling your reader WHAT happened, you will tell your reader WHY it happened.
Part II will look at what historians have already said about your country in relation to the Holocaust. You should find 2 of the major historians and research what they have said about the event. This can be a daunting task, as you will have to READ their books and decide what they are saying. This takes time…so start now! Will you have to read two, 500-page books? Not exactly. The skill will be reading important parts of the book and discerning what the historian is trying to say.
Ideally, Part I and Part II research will go together. As you build your research, you will probably find the major historians and begin to see what they are presenting. Visit USHMM.org and type in the search window “The Holocaust in ____________ (your country).” A summary will pop up and if you scroll to the bottom...you will see a selected bibliography. You are on your way!
Sample search terms:
holocaust World War II The final solution pogroms Jewish ghetto extermination
concentration camps labor camps genocide Anschluss antisemitism Aryan
crematorium Fuhrer gas chambers gestapo Nuremberg laws shoah swastika
Third Reich Versailles treaty volkisch Zyklon B
Types of resources suitable for research on this topic:
There has been a great deal of historical research on the holocaust of the Jews in Europe during World War II. You should find books, electronic books, articles from journals accessed through our databases, and primary sources.
