9th Grade History - Term Paper

Possible Thesis Questions on the Holocaust

Click here for excellent sites for Shoah history

Questions marked with * come directly from www.holocaust-history.org

*What gave the young German university students and medics involved in the White Rose the motivation and courage to oppose totalitarianism and genocide at the risk of their own lives?

* When Did Hitler Decide On The Final Solution? - One real debate among historians is whether the mass murder of European Jews was planned by Hitler from before the war's start (intentionalism), or decided upon, as an alternative to forced emigration, during the war (functionalism). This makes a good paper topic because historians do not agree; there is a quite legitimate spectrum of opinion to explore. Start with this link http://www.holocaust-history.org/hitler-final-solution/

*What were the motivations of the perpetrators?

*What could ________ have done to stop or mitigate the Holocaust?  Fill in the blank: European Jews, German citizens, Western democracies, United States, citizens of occupied countries, the Catholic Church or other religious groups.

Compare the fate of the Jews in two countries and explain any differences. Try to pick contrasting examples. Good comparisons might be Bulgaria and Hungary, Denmark and Holland, France and Italy, Czechoslovakia and Austria.

Why wasn’t Auschwitz bombed?

How did Nazi propaganda about the Jews lay the foundations for the Holocaust?

What was the main purpose of Kristallnacht? Was it simply a night of violence or were there deeper reasons for the destruction of Jewish property?

Many Jews reacted to the Holocaust in many different ways. Some became more religious, others rejected God entirely.
What was the impact of the Holocaust upon Judaism and Jewish  theology?

Discuss the role of Jews who ‘aided’ the Nazis – the Judenrat, the Kapos etc. Were they guilty of collaborating or were they simply trying to save themselves and their families? Were their actions legitimate?

Did the Jews resist significantly enough? Could they have done more?

How important was spiritual resistance to the Jews?

Did the Nuremburg trials deliver the right verdicts on all the accused?

Is the Holocaust unique? Can it legitimately be compared to other horrors such as the Armenian Genocide 1915-16, 1922-23, the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodian Killing Fields 1975-1979, 1950 - 1974 30 million Chinese killed by communists, 1925 - 1940 25 million members of the former Soviet Union killed by Stalin's communists, 1960 - 1996 2 million Hutu and Tutsi tribe members killed by each other or 1989 - present 1.5 Sudanese Christians and animists by northern Moslems? You certainly should not examine all of these events but try to see if there are aspects of the Holocaust that are truly unique.

Should researchers use the results and conclusions from the experiments performed on people in Nazi camps today? This is a difficult ethical question.

Why were the death camps in Poland and not Germany? Look at ideological reasons, geography, history of anti-Semitism in the two countries.

Why did antisemitism take such a hold in Germany (and Austria)? German Jews were very assimilated, fought for their country in World War One and were successful. These factors were also true in Britain and France yet antisemitism did not reach the same heights. What made Germany ripe for Nazi ideology to take hold?

Why were Nazi/fascist parties so unsuccessful in gaining popularity or any power in America and/or Britain?

How do Sephardi Jews view the Holocaust differently from Ashkenazi Jews? Bearing in mind that the Holocaust did not directly touch most Sephardi Jews (clear exceptions in Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria) has the Jewish community made the Holocaust too central to their history?

What was the role of the Mufti of Jerusalem in aiding the Nazis?

Japan was an ally of Hitler yet was a refuge for many 1000s of Jews in World War II. Why did the Japanese provide this refuge? What was Jewish life like in Japan? What was the role of Chiune Sugihara in saving Jewish lives?

Should the Holocaust be central to Jewish identity? This is a really tough and troubling question. How far should a culture use a disaster as its focus?

Were the Nazis and collaborators punished enough after the war?

Why were some Nazis allowed to enter America after the war?

What was the role of German industries in a) the rise of Hitler and b) the Holocaust?

Should Jews today boycott German products? Should Jews today boycott products from companies that gained from slave labor in the Holocaust?

How did the Holocaust aid in the growth of Zionism?

What was the role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust? What was the role of the Protestant Church in the Holocaust? Which church was more complicit to Hitler’s aims?

What was the response of American Jews to the events of 1933-1945? Could they have done more?

How did Hitler use the 1936 Olympics to further his aims? What impression of Germany did foreign journalists receive?

What led to the Wansee Conference of 1942? What was decided there? Can  this event be called the ‘start’ of the Holocaust?

Why did the Bulgarian Jews survive?