Westerbork

Betrayed and discovered!

Amsterdam's Jews were taken
to camps from the steps of this
theater in the Jewish district.
Amy Schwalb Photography

VA USII 7b

 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the major causes and effects of American involvement in World War II by

b) locating and describing the major events and turning points of the war in Europe and the Pacific.

Goals: At the end of this webquest I will be able to:

1. Explain the segregation of Jews
2. Role of local people in the Holocaust

      New history words: Gestapo (Nazi police),               collaborators, segratation, ghetto

       On August 4, 1944, the Gestapo (Nazi police) arrested all of the members of the Secret Annex. To this day, no one knows who tipped off the authorities that Jews were hiding in the Secret Annex.
     One of the German war aims was to get rid of European Jews. Considering that before the war there were 11 million Jews in Europe, how did they attempt to accomplish it?

Activity #1

First, read this web page here to avoid any confusion over who is who in the Secret Annex. 

Watch a movie about what happened that day here.

Westerbork transit camp
Photo:UK army photograph public domain
www.commons.wikimedia.org

   Anne and her family were sent to Westerbork, a transit camp, in Holland. Transit camps were where people were segregated (separated) from the public. At Westerbork, food was scarce and everyone had to work, but families could stay together and even receive mail.
    
     Jews who did not go into hiding were rounded up and segregated into ghettos. Ghettos were  special areas of a city where Jews were housed.  In the ghettos, the Jews could be watched closely. The biggest Jewish ghettos were in Polish cities such as Warsaw, Lodz and Lublin. Unknown to the Jews, people held in transit camps or ghettos were waiting to be transported to other camps in Nazi territory to be gassed or used for slave labor.

Activity #2
     Consider how much territory that Germany conquered and how many people came under their control.  Germans needed help from the locals to eliminate the Jews. The Nazi relied on civilians to tell them where the Jews were and encouraged violence against them. People who cooperated with the Nazis were known as collaborators. 

      Click on this link: here to find out more about collaborators.

Activity #3
     Then click here to add a tag on an interactive photo called Watching Neighbors. When y0u open the link, click on the all the green buttons on the left to complete the activity.

             Then answer the questions: