This segregated streetcar illustrates the ways in which the Nazis removed Jews from contact with other citizens.  After the Nuremberg laws of 1935 restricted citizenship in the Reich to those of “German or kindred blood”, only citizens or racial Germans were entitled to civil and political rights.  Jews were ostracized socially and economically before being forced into ghettoes and then into killing centers.

Relationship to guideline

Students should be encouraged at the end of a lesson on the Holocaust to connect what they have learned to other world events as well as the world they live in today.  This image of a Polish streetcar designated for only a certain group in Poland encourages students to connect with their own country’s history of segregation and racism. Students should be encouraged to reflect on what they have learned and to consider what this study means to them personally and as citizens of a democracy.