Hello, I'm Mr. Marchant, and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

I'll be guiding you through all of our resources today, and my top priority is to make sure that by the end of our lesson, you are able to successfully meet our learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on The Holocaust, where we are asking ourselves, what was the Holocaust? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to explain the diversity of Europe's Jewish population by the 1930s.

There are five keywords which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Three of those are persecution, pogrom, and emancipation.

Persecution means to treat someone unfairly or cruelly because of their race, religion, or beliefs.

A pogrom is an act of organised cruel behaviour or killing that is done to a large group because of their race or religion.

And emancipation means to give people more freedom or rights by removing social, legal, or political controls that limit them.

And our other two keywords for today's lesson are assimilate and Mosaic faith.

Assimilate means to become part of a group, country, or society.

And Mosaic faith was an alternative way of referring to Judaism.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts, and we'll begin by focusing on the history of Jewish life in Europe.

Before World War Two, Jews had been living in Europe since the classical period, over 2,000 years before.

As most of Europe was Christian, Jews living across the continent were minorities.

European Jews experienced persecution, but this was just one of many experiences for Jewish communities on the continent.

So thinking about what we've just heard, when did Jews begin living in Europe? Was it the classical period, the mediaeval period, or the early modern period? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was A.

Jews began living in Europe in the classical period more than 2,000 years before the outbreak of World War Two.

Persecution was one of the experiences which Jewish communities faced in Europe before World War Two.

European Jews frequently suffered from persecution.

Many European cities had Jewish quarters where Jews were expected to live separately from the rest of the population.

Jews were also regularly denied the right to vote in countries where that right existed.

And some countries even expelled their Jewish populations entirely.

This included England in 1290 and Spain in 1492.

Violence was another experience which Jewish communities faced throughout European history.

Jews sometimes suffered violent attacks from their Christian neighbours, mostly at times of social crisis.

In the 14th century, Jews were sometimes blamed for the plague.

Jews were massacred in the German Rhineland in 1347, as they were blamed for the spread at the Black Death.

Similarly, the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881 triggered pogroms against Jewish communities across the Russian Empire.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that reads, "The persecution of Jews in Europe was always violent." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So why was that original statement false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done to everybody who said, "Jews faced many social restrictions and were denied political rights, but violent persecution mostly occurred only at times of social crisis." And so now we can think about emancipation as an experience of Jewish life in Europe.

From the 18th century onwards, many legal restrictions placed on Jews were removed, granting them legal equality.

France emancipated Jews during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period at the end of the 18th century and very beginning of the 19th century.

Countries like Britain and Germany, although not Russia, also granted emancipation to their Jewish populations during the 19th century.

So I want you to change one word to correct the following sentence, which reads, "Throughout the 19th century, Russian leaders supported the emancipation of Jews living in their empire." So consider which word appears to be incorrect, and what should it be changed to? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the incorrect word was supported, and that it should have been changed to opposed.

Throughout the 19th century, Russian leaders opposed the emancipation of Jews living in their empire.

This was unlike countries such as France, Britain and Germany, where Jews were emancipated during the 18th and 19th centuries.

And now we can think about some of the contributions that Jews living in Europe were able to make.

Jews made significant contributions to European society, culture, and science.

Baruch Spinoza was a 17th century philosopher whose ideas influenced the entire Enlightenment movement.

And Albert Einstein became a famous physicist in the early 20th century.

Those are just two of many examples of Jews who were able to contribute significantly to Europe before the outbreak of World War Two.

So thinking about what we've just heard, which inference is most valid based on the life of Baruch Spinoza? Is it that Jews made no contributions to European culture until after they were emancipated, that Jews made some significant contributions to European culture even before they were emancipated, or that Jews led all European cultural breakthroughs even before they were emancipated? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

The life of Baruch Spinoza means that we can infer Jews made some significant contributions to European culture even before they were emancipated from the late 18th century onwards.

And so now we're in a good position to put all of our knowledge about the history of Jewish life in Europe into practise.

I want you to study our statements, and you need to do two things in response to them.

Firstly, identify whether each statement is true or false.

And then secondly, you need to correct any of those statements which were false.

You should provide additional information to support your corrections.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So firstly, I asked you to identify whether each of our statements was true or false, and your answers should have included, for our statement that said Jews only began living in Europe during the late 18th century, that that statement was false.

For our second statement which said Jews mostly experienced violence at times of social calm, that that statement was also false.

For our third statement, some Jews became leading European philosophers and scientists.

Well, that statement was true.

It should have said that on fourth statement, at the start of the 20th century, Jews still lacked legal equality with non-Jews was false.

So thinking about the second part of task A, I asked you to correct any of our false statements and to provide additional information to support your corrections.

So your answers may have included, Jews had lived in Europe for over 2,000 years before the beginning of World War Two, that Jews mostly experienced violence at times of social crisis such as during plague outbreaks in the 14th century or after Tsar Alexander II's assassination in Russia, which triggered pogroms. And by the start of the 20th century, Jews had been granted emancipation in most of Europe, except for the Russian Empire.

So really well done if your own corrected statements looks something like those models, which we've just seen.

And now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today, where we are going to focus on diversity amongst European Jews.

Europe's Jewish population grew significantly during the 19th century, and continue to do so in the early 20th century.

By the 1930s, the Jewish population in Europe had reached around 10 million people.

Whilst there was a growing number of European Jews before World War Two, there were also many differences between them.

Jews lived all across Europe in the early 20th century.

From an overall population of around 10 million on the continent, the largest numbers of Jews lived in Central and Eastern Europe.

Poland had the largest Jewish population of any European country by 1933.

More than 3 million Poles were Jewish, accounting for roughly 10% of the country's population.

The Soviet Union, otherwise known as the USSR, also had a large Jewish population of over 2.

5 million people.

Jewish populations were considerably smaller in other European countries.

Romania had the third largest Jewish population of over 700,000 people, and Germany was the only other country with a Jewish population over half a million.

And even then, this meant that Jews made up less than 1% of Germany's total population.

So thinking about what we've just heard, which country had the highest Jewish population in Europe? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the country with the highest Jewish population in Europe by the 1930s was Poland.

There were over 3 million Jews living in Poland, meaning that 10% of the country's population was Jewish.

And let's try another question.

This time I want you to write the missing number.

In Germany, less than, blank, percent of the country's population was Jewish in the 1930s.

So what's the missing number? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing number was one.

In Germany, less than 1% of the country's population was Jewish in the 1930s.

There were many differences between European Jews.

Some of these differences followed broadly national patterns.

For instance, German Jews were frequently middle class and many had professional jobs in careers like medicine and law.

By contrast, Poland's Jewish population was much more likely to be poor and to work in factories.

However, other differences existed even within countries, even in how Jews practised religion and spoke.

Aside from national languages like French and German, there were many Jews who spoke distinctively Jewish languages.

Even then, there were differences, as some Jews spoke Yiddish whilst others spoke Hebrew.

Furthermore, many Jews spoke more than one language, and used these different languages in different circumstances and environments.

There were also differences between how European Jews identified themselves.

Some Jews who became very assimilated prioritised other forms of identity above their religious and ethnic heritage.

For instance, it was common amongst highly assimilated Jews in Hungary to describe themselves as citizens of the Mosaic faith.

Doing this prioritise their identification as Hungarians first before their identity is Jewish.

Other indicators also demonstrated high levels of assimilation, such as significant numbers of marriages between Jews and non-Jews in Germany.

Similarly, there were 100,000 Jewish soldiers who fought on behalf of Germany during World War One, and many more across Europe who served in national armies in the early 20th century.

In other instances, some people chose to prioritise their Jewish identity over others like class or nationality, and were considered less assimilated.

While some Jews joined national political parties, others preferred to support specifically Jewish parties.

For instance, in 1939, 1/3 of Polish towns voted mainly for the Bund during national elections, a Jewish political party which promised social reform.

Meanwhile, many Jewish parents across Europe chose to send their children to Jewish faith schools rather than mixed public schools.

In some cases, this was because Jewish identity was considered central to a family.

Though other factors such as school quality, local context, and wealth also influenced why Jewish families made different choices on this matter.

For instance, Fanny Reichart grew up in Belgium in the 1920s, and her parents, she described as traditionally Jewish.

But despite this, Fanny was sent to a public school rather than a Jewish school for her education.

So let's check that our understanding is secure.

We have a statement on the screen that reads, "Only some European Jews spoke Yiddish." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

Why was the original statement false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said Yiddish was spoken by some Jews, whereas others spoke Hebrew or national languages like French and German.

Some Jews also spoke multiple languages.

So this shows that European Jews spoke languages other than Yiddish.

And let's try another question.

Which of the following is the best example of how some Jews chose to assimilate in Europe? Is it that 1/3 of Polish towns voted for the Jewish Bund in elections in 1939, that many Hungarian Jews referred to themselves as citizens of the Mosaic faith, or that many parents sent their children to attend Jewish faith schools? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.

Our best example of how some Jews chose to assimilate in Europe before World War Two was that many Hungarian Jews referred to themselves as citizens of the Mosaic faith.

This meant they were prioritising their Hungarian identity before their identity as Jews.

And let's try one final question.

Other than religion, I want you to identify one other factor which influenced where some Jewish parents sent their children to school.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who identified one of the following factors.

School quality, local context, and wealth.

All of those different factors, as well as Jews' own identity influenced where some parents chose to send their children to school.

So we're now in a good position for all of our knowledge about diversity amongst European Jews into practise.

I want you to describe two differences which existed between European Jews in the early 20th century.

You may consider points of comparison such as differences between Jews living in different countries and differences between Jews who lived in the same countries.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you to describe two differences which existed between European Jews in the early 20th century, and your answers may have included, "One difference between European Jews in the early 20th century was language.

Some Jews chose to speak national languages such as German or French.

Meanwhile, other Jews spoke distinctively Jewish languages, but even then this differed between those who spoke Yiddish and those who spoke Hebrew.

Furthermore, some Jews spoke multiple different languages, often depending on context." So really well done if your own response looks something like that model we've just seen.

Your answer may also have included.

"Another difference between European Jews in the early 20th century was wealth.

Jews who lived in Germany tended to be middle class, and many had careers in areas like medicine and law.

By contrast, Polish Jews tended to be poor and often had jobs working in factories." So really well done if your own response look something like that model there.

And now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today, where we're going to think about individual Jewish lives.

There were many differences between Jewish lives in Europe before World War Two.

Historians can rely upon sources to help increase their understanding of these lives and what they may have been like for different Jewish individuals, families, and communities.

So I want you to study the photo shown on the screen.

It's a portrait of a Lithuanian Jewish family taken during the 1920s.

What do you notice about the people shown in it? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, that was a big question to think about.

And you may have identified some of the following things in our image.

First, that there are many family members shown, 10, in the photograph.

Then, that there's a big age range from young to old in this image, that all the members of the family appear well-presented.

We can be a little bit more detailed about this observation.

For example, we can see that the people are clean and well-dressed.

For example, we see the men wearing some ties in this image.

You may also have identified that the clothing the people in the photograph are wearing seems to differ between ages.

For instance, the eldest woman has her hair covered, whereas the younger women in the photograph do not.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

I want you to study our photo again, identify a detail which suggests it is a picture of an extended family, not just core members.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said a detail which suggests the picture is of an extended family, not just its core members, is that 10 people are photographed.

That's larger than we'd expect the average core family to be.

So thinking about our image again, how could this photo suggest that family was an important part of some European Jews' lives? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that in the photo, the gathering of many family members together, 10 people, as we've already established, and their smart presentation suggests that having a family portrait taken was something they all cared about.

And that in turn would suggest that family was important to some European Jews.

And let's think about the image in a different way.

How could this photo be said to demonstrate that differences existed within Jewish communities? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to anybody who said that from our photo, the additional coverings worn by the eldest people appear to be religious clothes.

The other family members aren't wearing similar clothes though, suggesting that generational differences existed within Jewish communities.

So this single photograph is really a powerful source for demonstrating that there were many differences and lots of diversity within Jewish communities.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of everything that we've just had.

We have a statement on the screen that reads, "Within individual Jewish families, identity was expressed in the same way." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

Why is the original statement false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that we can tell our original statement was false because generational differences existed between some Jews, which led to differences in ways that they chose to express their identity, such as through their choice of clothing.

And let's try one final question.

Which reason best explains why historians must be careful when describing life for Jews before World War Two? Is it that there were very few Jews in Europe before World War Two, that Jewish lives differed even within small communities, or that there are too few sources to provide details? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answer was B.

Historians must be careful when describing life for Jews before World War Two because Jewish lives differed even within small communities.

So historians must be careful not to generalise.

So now we're in a good position to put all of our knowledge about individual lives and everything that we've heard today into practise.

I want you to study the historian's view shown on the screen.

The historian says, "Before World War Two, Jewish lives in Europe were shaped by more than just their religion." I want you to write one paragraph to explain why the historian's view is correct.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to write one paragraph to explain whether historian's view was correct, and your answer may have included, "The historian's view is correct because there was considerable difference between the lives of Jews in Europe before World War Two as their lives were affected by more than just religion.

For instance, Jews across Europe made different decisions about how they wish to assimilate.

Marriage between Jews and non-Jews was more common in Germany than some other areas, for example.

Similarly, the survival of some family portraits shows that Jewish identity could be expressed differently.

For instance, some photos show older Jewish women with head coverings and younger women without.

This suggests that even individual Jewish families had generational differences." And so now we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning about Jewish life in Europe before World War Two.

We've seen that Jewish communities had lived in Europe for thousands of years before World War Two.

The majority of Europe's Jewish population lived in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in Poland and the USSR.

Individual Jewish people made different decisions about how much they wish to assimilate international cultures.

And factors other than religion, including family, wealth, and age, also affected the identities of Jewish people and led to considerable diversity amongst Europe's Jews.

So really well done for all of your effort during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources, and I look forward to seeing you again in the future, as we think further about the Holocaust and continue to ask ourselves what it was.