“Fearing that the father could no longer control himself in his unbridled rage, she [Hitler’s mother] decides to put an end to the beating… she goes up to the attic, covers Adolf who is lying on the floor but cannot deflect the father's final blow. Without a sound she absorbs it”. Excerpt taken from the memoirs of Adolf Hitler's half-brother, Alois, and half-sister, Angela. What does this tell you about Adolf Hitler’s relationship with his parents?

When a bully hurts their victim, what does the bully want to get over them? Abuse is living with a person that wants: POWER and CONTROL constantly

Can you remember the 5 types of domestic abuse?

Hitler went on to run a dictatorship that persecuted and killed many individuals including Jews, gypsies, disabled people, homosexuals and political prisoners. Lesson Aim: Did the abuse that Hitler experienced as a child influence how he chose to treat his victims?

Your challenge: Using the cards, make a timeline of ‘events leading up to the Final Solution’ by sorting the images into chronological order.

April 1933 – The SA organise a boycott of Jewish shops and businesses. They painted ‘Jude’ (Jew) on windows and tried to persuade people not to enter.

May 1933 – A new law banned Jews from government jobs, for example no Jew could be a courtroom judge.

May 1933 – Jews were banned from involvement in theatre, film, literature and music. Their books were publically burnt.

1934 – Jews were banned from public spaces such as parks and swimming pools.

September The Nuremberg Laws were passed removing a Jew’s rights to German citizenship. Jews were not allowed to vote, go out at night, get married or have sexual relations with German citizens.

July – August There was an intentional lull in Jewish persecution because Germany was hosting the Olympics and wanted to give the outside world a good impression.

By 1938 Jewish men were forced to add ‘Israel’ to their first name and Jewish women, the name Sarah. They also had a large ‘J’ stamped on their passport so that they could be easily identified and monitored.

November Kristallnacht saw 7,500 shop windows smashed, 400 synagogues burned and 30,000 Jews arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps.

1939 – The Nazis started forcing Jews into ‘ghettos’. Walls were built to keep them inside these areas where conditions were appalling. Only starvation rations were allowed and thousands died from hunger, intense cold and disease.

1941 – the Nazis organised murder squads called ‘Einsatzgruppen’ who rounded up Jews and forced them to dig their own mass graves before shooting them the Nazis started their ‘Final Solution’. Death camps were used to try to exterminate all European Jews.

Now look to see if you can identify any of the 5 types of abuse and note them on your timeline.

Do you notice any patterns to the types of abuse used?

Are there any irregularities to the pattern? If so, why?

Hitler used the Jews as a scapegoat for his and Germany’s problems. Did the abuse that Hitler experienced as a child influence how he chose to treat his victims?

All children have different experiences in life; some good, some bad. Hitler had experienced a difficult childhood so was he destined to be evil or did he have a choice? Consider this quote: “It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” William Shakespeare