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Part II – Essay Question (75 points)
At the beginning of this course, I asked you to consider why we should study the Holocaust.
Many of you wrote that we should study the Holocaust so it will not happen again. This second
part of your final exam asks to you to return to this question of “why study the Holocaust” with
all the knowledge you have gained during this course and write a four-paragraph response that
makes an argument for why we should study the Holocaust and describes how we should go
about it to be effective in meeting the objectives you put forward with your why.
To set the context for this question, please view the following video from The World Jewish
Congress “We Remember” campaign 2019.

In the opening paragraph of your exam, give your rationale for studying the Holocaust. Why is it
important to study this history? (20 points)
In the remaining three paragraphs (15 points each), you will describe how we should study the
Holocaust. There are many ways you can think about this how: specific events people should
know, specific texts everyone should read, specific topics that are critical for understanding this
history, specific questions that should be asked and answered.
The content of the how in each of these paragraphs is up to you within these guidelines:
1. Your how should be connected to your why. (For example, if your why study the
Holocaust includes the fragility of democracy, then your how might include materials
from Hitler’s rise to power in the early- and mid-1930s; if your why includes bearing
witness to those who were persecuted, your how might focus on reading texts from
victims and survivors; if your why includes the culpability of religious-based hatred, then
your how might include primary and secondary texts that show the history of antiJudaism, etc. etc.)
2. Each of these elements of how must be drawn from the class. (You may have watched
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and read The Diary of Anne Frank, but this is an exam
based on material from RS 3528.)
3. Your examples should be specific. If you were to share your essay with a high-school
teacher or your pastor, they should have a good start on what they could include in a
lesson plan or sermon.
Ten points are allocated for the quality of your writing. Your essay should
– have a strong thesis in your opening paragraph;
– be well organized with supporting material in paragraphs 2-4;
– provide clear transitions between paragraphs;
– be free from distracting spelling and grammar errors.

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