Instructions

Your FIVE essays should make a reasonable use of the lectures as well as your textbooks.  Remember, your answers should be carefully constructed using precise terminology, for example, the actual names of important historical events, individuals, dates, literature, and key places.  You must provide typed double-spaced two-page minimum-length answers to FIVE of the following questions.  For maximum effect, twenty-five items (names, dates, places, events, excerpts from the documents) should be carefully woven into each essay.

Question 2:    Construct a conversation in Berlin between an Polish Orthodox Jew and an German Assimilationist Jew taking place in August 1939.  Be sure to include a demonstration of the differences and similarities in their worldviews, especially, political trends as well as cultural and religious tendencies.

Question 3:    Describe ideology of National Socialism, including the role of Adolf Hitler.  To what extent is it truly revolutionary?  reactionary?

Question 4:    While serving as an American diplomat in Berlin in November 1941, you are called upon by Washington to outline the rise of Adolf Hitler and his anticipated course of action (domestically and internationally) for 1942.  On the basis of the evidence at hand, what will you tell your superiors in Washington?  Remember, Washington expects a war with Japan in the near future!

Question 5:    As a member of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) in Lodz or Warsaw (you choose), you have a number of responsibilities all of which focus on the question of survival.  Outline the meaning of survival in this context as understood by the council and the measures employed to enhance the chances of survival for the Jewish community under your care.

Question 6:    Outline evolution of Nazi domestic policy (including occupied territories) towards targeted groups, namely, Jews, Gypsies, and Communists, beginning with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 through December 1941.  Given the nature of the actions, to what extent can the men of Police Battalion 101, the Einsatzgruppen, e.g., Adolf Eichmann, and their foreign auxillaries be defined as ordinary men?