Year 12 Modern - Trial Exam Advice

Well, the Trial HSC will be this Friday. A bit of last-minute advice for all you Modern students...

For WW1, focus on perspective, reliability and usefulness of sources. Be prepared to write extended responses on the larger topics: for example, the nature of warfare on the Western Front, the reasons for the stalemate, the changing attitudes of soldiers and civilians, the effects of 'total war' on civilians, the turning points of the conflict, and the aims of the Big Three at Versailles.

For Germany, remember you will have a choice of two essays. Usually, one will focus on Weimar, the other on Nazi Germany. Be sure that you know all about the problems faced by the Weimar Republic, how the Nazis achieved power, and the nature of Nazi society from 1933-1939, as well as Nazi foreign and religious policy.

For Speer, have a working knowledge of his career (maybe memorise ten important landmarks in his life). Make a list of all of his achievements and failures. Formulate an opinion on his significance as a historical personality. Be able to argue whether he was a successful person, or an unsuccessful person, and back it with evidence. Have an opinion on the guy!

For Conflict in Europe, know the steps leading to war (LA-SCRAMCUP, dictatorships, failure of the League of Nations), and the chronology of the war from 1939 to 1943. Have a detailed knowledge of the early successes of Germany (Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Greece) as well as the failed Barbarossa campaign up to and including the Battle of Stalingrad. Revise the Battle of Britain, the Battle of El Alamein, and the effects of the war on civilians in Britain and Germany. Make sure you know about Nazi racial policies in Europe.

Have a go at some practice exams on the BOS website. Try this link for last year's paper.

Most of all - good luck! Email me if you have any problems on thomas.griffith@det.nsw.edu.au

Year 12 Modern - Speer and the Holocaust

Just a bit of extra info on Speer...here is an article from Britain's Guardian newspaper, from 2007. It refers to his knowledge about the Holocaust.


"A newly discovered letter by Adolf Hitler's architect and armaments minister Albert Speer offers proof that he knew about the plans to exterminate the Jews, despite his repeated claims to the contrary.

Writing in 1971 to Hélène Jeanty, the widow of a Belgian resistance leader, Speer admitted that he had been at a conference where Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and Gestapo, had unveiled plans to exterminate the Jews in what is known as the Posen speech. Speer's insistence that he had left before the end of the meeting, and had therefore known nothing about the Holocaust, probably spared him from execution after the Nuremberg trials at the end of the second world war.

It helped earn him the name of "the good Nazi" and the image of a genius architect who had misguidedly slipped into Nazi circles to further his career. Instead of facing death as many top Nazis did, Speer served 20 years in prison, mainly for using slave labour.

In the letter to Jeanty, written on December 23 1971, Speer wrote: "There is no doubt - I was present as Himmler announced on October 6 1943 that all Jews would be killed". He continued: "Who would believe me that I suppressed this, that it would have been easier to have written all of this in my memoirs?"

Speer, who died in London in 1981, denied knowing about the Holocaust in his best-selling 1969 book, Inside the Third Reich, as well as in lengthy interviews with the British author Gitta Sereny, who wrote a biography on him.

The letter is part of a collection of 100 between Speer and Mrs Jeanty, an author, written between 1971 and 1981, recently found in Britain. They are due to be auctioned at Bonhams, London, on March 27."

Year 12 Modern - Exam Advice

Modern History will have their next major assessment on Tuesday afternoon, in the double. The format will be as follows:

Time Allowed: 70 minutes

Part 1: 25 marks (35 minutes)
Essay question on Conflict in Europe, using 'assess' or 'evaluate'.

Assess = make a judgement of value
Explain = make a judgement based on criteria

So the question will ask you to make some sort of judgement about some aspect of the background to WW2. You should definitely revise the following points:

• the dictatorships in Italy and Germany
• the foreign policy actions of Mussolini (e.g. Abyssinia) and Hitler (LA-SCRAMCUP - League of Nations, Austrian coup, Saar plebiscite, Conscription, Rearmament, Anschluss, Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia, USSR-Nazi Pact, Poland)
• the failure of the League of Nations (especially in the Abyssinia crisis, and the Spanish Civil War)
• the policy of appeasement, followed by Britain and France until 1939
• the Nazi-Soviet Pact, signed in August 1939

I have provided some revision sites below.

Part 2: 25 marks (35 minutes)
25-mark question assessing/evaluating the life of Albert Speer

Make sure you know:

• his personal background, and the main events in his life/career
• his main achievements (as an architect, as Minister of Armaments, as a Nazi, as a repentant war criminal, as a historical figure)
• his main failures
• the major controversies about Speer: did he know about the Holocaust? To what extent did he use slave labour? Was he complicit in demolishing Jewish residences? Was he a willing Nazi, or a man thrust into an important position by Hitler? Was he really sorry for what he did? Did his work as Armaments Minister make the war last longer than it would have?

The key to this question is to have an opinion, as you will be making a judgement about Speer. Make sure you back your opinion up with real evidence!!

Revision Links:

Causes of WW2:

http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII7a.htm
http://www.johndclare.net/causes_of_world_war_two_revision.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/causes_of_WW2.htm
http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/causes.htm

Albert Speer:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2318929114565469665 (Video about Speer)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/speera1.shtml (Audio interviews with Speer himself)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/speer.html (Speer's own sworn testimony at Nuremberg)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Speer1.html (Short bio of Speer)

Year 12 Modern - Favourite Nazis...

OK, not many people voted - it was the holidays - but it seems that 2/3 of you are looking forward to studying Albert Speer...which is very fortuitous, as he happens to be our chosen Nazi personality for 2009. I bet you can't wait!

See you tomorrow, ready to learn lots about Germany in the 1930s.