Lesson 4: The Holocaust: persecution to genocide
The Holocaust was a process: invasion, ghettoisation, mass shootings, deportation and killing centres escalated under Nazi rule.
Part of your national curriculum
- Challenges 1901 to the present: Understand challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day, including the First and Second World Wars and the Holocaust
- Historical enquiry: Understand the challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world, including the Holocaust and the role of ideology, and how these are represented and interpreted
- Historical enquiry: Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources, and how and why historians have interpreted the past in different ways
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Understand challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day, including the First and Second World Wars and the Holocaust
Key learning points
- • Escalation
- • Evidence and language
- • Specificity and connection
This lesson at a glance
- 40 minutes
- 25 parts to scroll through
- 3 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 25
Archive-led lessonHistorical enquiry
Lesson 4: The Holocaust: persecution to genocide
The Holocaust was a process: invasion, ghettoisation, mass shootings, deportation and killing centres escalated under Nazi rule.
In a nutshell
Understand challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day, including the First and Second World Wars and the Holocaust
What you already know
Part 2 of 25
Before we start
What you already know
You should already know that Nazi persecution developed in stages during the 1930s, and that Germany invaded much of Europe from 1939.
Key words
Part 3 of 25
Key words
Words you'll need today
- Genocide
- The deliberate attempt to destroy a people.
- Ghetto
- An area where Jewish people were forcibly confined under Nazi rule.
- Euphemism
- A mild word used to hide the truth of what is being described.
- Testimony
- A survivor's own account of what happened to them.
Reset break
Part 4 of 25
Pause
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Your lesson plan
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Lesson brief
How did mass murder become systematic?
By the end, you will be able to
- • Build an accurate twentieth-century chronology
- • Connect British, European and global developments
- • Use official records and testimony ethically and critically
Resources
- • The Holocaust Explained: testimony and evidence (1933–1945)
- • Lesson notes and marked knowledge check
Learning cycle
Part 6 of 25
Learning cycle 1 of 2
How genocide escalated
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 7 of 25
Learn
Escalation
After invasion of the Soviet Union, mobile killing units murdered Jewish communities in mass shootings. Deportations then linked occupied Europe to killing centres.
Reset break
Part 8 of 25
Pause
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Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 9 of 25
Quick check
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Learning cycle
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Learning cycle 2 of 2
Evidence, language and other victims
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Reset break
Part 12 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 3 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 13 of 25
Learn
Evidence and language
Perpetrator documents often use euphemism; survivor testimony restores experiences those records obscure. Six million Jewish people were murdered.
Explore the idea
Part 14 of 25
Learn
Specificity and connection
Nazi Germany also persecuted and murdered Roma and Sinti, disabled people, Soviet prisoners of war and others. Their histories should be studied accurately without collapsing distinct policies into one story.
Quick check
Part 15 of 25
Reset break
Part 16 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Investigate evidence
Part 17 of 25
Evidence 1 of 1
primaryThe Holocaust Explained: testimony and evidence
Jewish victims, survivors and Nazi bureaucracy, 1933–1945
Personal testimony, photographs and official records document persecution escalating from exclusion to systematic mass murder.
This specialist collection distinguishes evidence, context and later interpretation. Individual testimony should be read as a person's experience, never as a puzzle or simulation.
Think like a historian
How do personal testimony and perpetrator records answer different historical questions?
Source: The Wiener Holocaust Library, The Holocaust Explained
View the archive record ↗Common mix-ups
Part 18 of 25
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- People often think the Holocaust was one single decision. It escalated through invasion, ghettoisation, mass shootings and killing centres.
- People often rely only on perpetrator documents. Those records hide reality behind euphemism; survivor testimony is essential.
Challenge round
Part 19 of 25
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Reset break
Part 20 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 5 of 6 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 21 of 25
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Deportations then linked occupied ____ to killing centres.
Challenge round
Part 22 of 25
Game · Recall cards
The immediate trigger was…
Card 1 of 4
Exit quiz
Part 23 of 25
Exit quiz
Show what you've learned
6 questions, marked together at the end. Nothing is timed.
1. The Holocaust is best described as…
2. How many Jewish people were murdered?
3. Mobile killing units carried out mass shootings after the invasion of…
4. Why pair perpetrator records with survivor testimony?
5. Escalation means…
6. Nazi Germany also persecuted and murdered…
Mastery quiz
Part 24 of 25
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Lesson 4: The Holocaust: persecution to genocide
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. The immediate trigger was…
2. Why was it global?
3. Best causal account?
4. Total war means…
Lesson round-up
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Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
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Ask LunaPart 1 of 25 · Watch & discover
How this is going
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Understand challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day, including the First and Second World Wars and the Holocaust
- Not looked at yet
Understand the challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world, including the Holocaust and the role of ideology, and how these are represented and interpreted
- Not looked at yet
Understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources, and how and why historians have interpreted the past in different ways