HST 362 – Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
Unit Exam 3
Spring 2021
Exam Directions:
Respond to the questions below on a separate document but be sure to identify which
questions you are responding to. I have made the exam a pdf to encourage you to do this.
Your exam response document with your complete answers needs to be uploaded via the
www.turnitin.com link on Blackboard. Note that www.turnitin.com will only recognize certain
file types, so if you use an uncommon word processor you may need to save it as plain text to get
it to upload.
Ensuring the exam is submitted on time is your responsibility. Do not wait until the last minute,
and be sure you receive submission confirmation. The exam is due by 9:00am on May 20.
The conditions of remote learning mean placing faith in your efforts to learn, not simply to do
well. You may use notes and readings but may not consult the internet.
This is part honor
system, part www.turnitin.com plagiarism checking. Please do not put us both in the
uncomfortable position of having to work through an integrity violation. If you quote something
directly, it should be cited.
This exam is written to encourage you to make arguments, not simply to reiterate what I have
said in class. You should draw on that material, but the “right answer” is rarely something I have
directly said in class. Your goal should be to formulate strong arguments, which requires
thoughtful consideration, planning, and, dare I say, revision.
Exam
Part One: Conceptual Pairings (15% each, 60% of total)
Respond to four of the following conceptual pairings. For each, focus on what the conceptual
connection (or difference) is and then consider what that connection or difference tells us about
the subject(s) of this class. What does the relationship between the two shed light on?
Indicate which pairing you are responding to!
1) Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact—War of Annihilation/Vernichtungskrieg
2) Vichy France—Jedwabne
3) Jan Karski—White Rose
4) Commissar Orders—Mass Rape
5) Treblinka—Auschwitz III
6) Einsatzgruppen—Jewish Councils
7) German experience of racial violence—Nuremberg Trials
Part Two: Essay (40% of total exam grade)
Answer one of these essay questions. Your response should balance specific facts with
explanatory narrative.
Please note: The easiest way to do badly is to not answer the question in its entirety. Read
closely and be sure to respond to what is being asked of you.
Indicate which question you are responding to!
1) Explain the origins of the Final Solution as both an idea and a reality. Make an argument
about how and why it developed as it did from an abstraction to the ultimate form taken
in the Holocaust/Shoah.
Tip: Your response should demonstrate that you understand why this is a complicated
question. No matter how sophisticated you make it, a version of “Hitler always wanted to
kill all the Jews and then he did it,” is a profoundly incomplete answer. While there is no
minimum number of issues/people/places you need to incorporate, your response should
feel complete and include a discussion of several factors that contributed to the
development over time.
2) At a responsibly sized party of vaccinated acquaintances, you hear someone say, “People
living in Europe during the Second World War increasingly split into clear groups of
victims and perpetrators. It was that simple!” Back up your calculated response to this
binary (i.e., mutually exclusive or categorically distinctive) conception of perpetrators
and victims with reference to at least three different places or groups of people.
