A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust: Music

Music Discussion Questions

Analyze the use of propaganda by the Nazis.
What kinds of music were considered "degenerate" in Hitler's time. Why?
Research the influence of Jazz on rebellious youth groups during Hitler's regime in Germany.
How was music used as a form of resistance to the Nazi regime?
How did music aid in concentration camp prisoner moral and survival?
Wagner was a favorite composer of Hitler and his henchmen. Discuss the composer's beliefs which may have attracted Hitler's admiration.
Listen to a select piece by Wagner. How does it make you feel? How could it have influenced others during Hitler's time?
Evaluate the role of the mass media and propaganda in Nazi Germany.
Many Jewish families in Germany had roots in their towns and villages for generations. Research the contributions of German Jews to their country through music. To narrow your research, focus on a particular period or music or geographic area.
Research stories of survivors who claim that music was a sustaining force in their lives through the Holocaust.
Discuss the composer Richard Strauss, his music, and the role he played in the Third Reich.
Compare the music of Brückner and Wagner.
Discuss why Hitler identified with the great composers, Beethoven and Wagner.
Discuss the "degenerate" Jewish composers contributions to the Arts after they fled to the United States to escape Nazi oppression.
Discuss the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. What made their music objectionable to the Third Reich?
Discuss the three-prong policy regarding musicians and artisis practiced by the Third Reich.

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