Historical Context

• pg. 27 - "The Final Solution" - global plan during World War II to systematically exterminate the Jewish people - two-thirds of the Jewish population was killed

• pg. 40 - Hitler Youth - BDM - Bund Deutscher Madchen (Band of German Girls)

• pg. 46 and pg. 56 - Jesse Owens

  • American track and field athlete

  • Won FOUR gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany AKA "Hitler's Games"

  • Credited with "single-handedly crushing Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy"

  • Known (back then) as "The Fastest Man Alive"

pg. 51 - "The Star of David was painted on their doors" - The Road of Yellow Stars

• The Star of David - six-pointed star was painted in yellow and black across thousands of doors and windows

• Boycott of Jewish businesses

pg. 59 - Point Two - Mr. Steiner felt "relief when Jewish shop owners were put out of business - PROPAGANDA informed him that it was only a matter of time before a plague of Jewish tailors showed up and stole his customers"

Propaganda - information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view

pg. 61 - "Two and a half years later, the Kaufmann Shoe Shop was reduced to broken glass"

• The "Night of Broken Glass" - November 9th, 1938 (AKA Kristallnacht)

• In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed

• Called the "Night of Broken Glass" because of the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets.