The Impact of hair cutting: Identity and indoctrination during the Holocaust

Abstract

The Holocaust did not occur suddenly. Germany’s loss of World War I, the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, anti-Semitic sentiment and Hitler writing Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in 1924 made way for him to become Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He established and led a government based on obsessive anti- Semitic Nazi ideology which promoted Aryan perfection and expansion of land. With an emphasis on humiliation and hair, this lesson, The Impact of Hair Cutting: Identity and Indoctrination During the Holocaust, investigates one of many factors that contributed to Germany’s leap from hatred toward murder. If students have not studied the Holocaust before, additional background information that can be obtained from Towson University, Azrieli Foundation, Facing History and Ourselves, Echoes & Reflections, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, USC Shoah Foundation, Yad Vashem, YIVO, among other sources