Films such as 'Schindler's List' and 'Life is Beautiful' present only certain views and incidents in the history of the Holocaust. How are we, as members of the audience left to "fill in the gaps"? Are we expected to know the background to the events that we are shown?

It is worth looking at some evidence in order to try to explain some of the events which we are presented in the film.

Film still from Stephen Spielberg's 'Schindler's List'

Look carefully at the following sources:

SOURCE A

First their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a stone of it. ...their homes should be broken down and destroyed...passport and travelling privileges should be absolutely forbidden to the Jews...all their cash and valuables should be taken from them. To sum up...if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one and we may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden - the Jews.

SOURCE B

I must certainly regard the Jewish race as the born enemy of pure man and of all nobility in them and am convinced that we Germans in particular will be destroyed by them.

SOURCE C

This world wide Jewish conspiracy for the overthrow of civilisation and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development...has been steadily growing.

SOURCE D

Should the Jew...triumph over the people of this world, his crown will be the funeral wreath of mankind, and this planet will once again follow its orbit through ether, without any human life on its surface, as it did millions of years ago...Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.

One of these four sources comes from Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle) published in 1925. Can you tell which one?

The others were written in - 1543, 1881 and 1920. Can you sort out the different sources into their correct order?

Finally, one of them appeared in an English newspaper. Can you tell which one?

The fact that the four quotations span nearly 400 years yet all seem to be saying the same thing should point out that anti-Semitism was nothing new by the time that Hitler came to power in 1933. Yet until Hitler there had been no attempt at the total extermination of the Jewish race in Europe.

Paul Hilberg, a historian, has described the treatment of Jews as follows:

"Since the fourth century after Christ there have been three anti-Jewish policies: conversion, expulsion and annihilation. The second appeared as an alternative to the first, and the third emerged as an alternative to the second."

But why should this hatred of the Jews have been in existence for so long? Since before the birth of Christ, Jews have been either admired or hated. Why should one religious group have been so selected for hatred and finally, for brutal extermination?

For you to try and research the complete history of Jewish persecution would be impossible.

In order to understand both the myths that have circulated over the centuries about the Jews and also some of the ways in which they have been treated, you should try to find out about the following:

1. The Diaspora

2. The Blood Libel

3. Treatment of Jews in the Spanish Inquisition

4. The Settlement of the Pale

5. Pogroms

These five areas, whilst covering a wide period of history, should give you the sense that anti-Semitism was not simply confined to Germany in the 1930s-40s but was spread across Europe over many centuries. What it is now crucial to examine is the situation in Germany which gave rise to Hitler's desire to exterminate all Jews and the development towards what is termed The Final Solution.