Source 1: Impact of Holocaust Survivors on humanity

Chart: Some Holocaust survivors and their contribution to humanity

Name

Sex

Birth

Death/Age
29 September
2010 (age 86)

Country
France

Contribution

Charpak, Georges

Male

1 August 1924

Physicist. Nobel Prize

(Physics).

Liviu Librescu

Male

18 August 1930 12 April 2007

(age 76)

Romania Professor. During the

Virginia Tech
Shooting, Librescu
held the door of his
classroom shut
against the gunman in
order to give his
students as much
time as possible to
escape. Of 23
students in his class,
22 were able to
escape and survive.

Henry Morgentaler

Male

19 March 1923

29 May 2013
(age 90)

Poland

Doctor and Activist.

Received the Order of
Canada for his work
in promoting safer
health care for
women and human
rights.

Irene Lieblich

Female 20 April 1923

28 December
2008 (age 86)

Poland

Renowned artist.
Nobel Prizerecognized illustrator.

Franois Englert

Male

6 Nov 1932

Alive (age 82)

Belgium

Physicist and
Professor. Nobel
Prize (Physics).

Roald Hoffmann

Male

18 July 1937

Alive (age 77)

Poland

Scientist and
professor. Nobel Prize
(Chemistry).

Magda Herzberger

Female 1926

Alive (age 89)

Romania Neurosurgeon,
author, poet, and
composer.

Gerda
Weissmann Klien

Female 8 May 1924

Alive (age 90)

Poland

Writer, human rights

activist, and
documentarian.
Winner of the
Academy Award, an
Emmy Award, and the
Presidential Medal of
Freedom.

Name

Sex

Birth

Death/Age

Country

Contribution

Walter Kohn

Male

9 March 1923

Alive (age 91)

Austria

Scientist and
professor. Nobel Prize
(Chemistry).

Elie Wiesel

Male

30 Sept 1928

Alive (age 86)

Romania Author, professor, and

/Hungary political activist.

Imre Kertsz

Male

9 Nov 1929

Alive (age 85)

Hungary

Author. Nobel Prize

(Literature).

How many Nobel Prize winners died at the age of onetwo? And whose shoes are here? One
of them could have discovered the cure for cancer, of AIDSThe great poets. The great
dreamers. Contributions to the world.
- Elie Wiesel

What is the Nobel Prize? The Nobel Prize is a prestigious award that is given to individuals
whose achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, peace, medicine, literature and the arts
have contributed to the benefit of all mankind. It is considered by many to be the highest
international honor that a human being can receive.
A story: Two names on this list, Elie Wiesel and Imre Kertsz, were born in the same country
and less than a year apart. They both were sent to Auschwitz and later to Buchenvald. They
both survived the Holocaust, despite the loss of almost their entire families. Both became
writers. Both have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. They survived, and their writing
has brought beauty and inspiration to the world. This is their story. But what of the stories of
those that did not survive?
A reminder: The persons listed in this chart are just a portion of those Holocaust survivors who
contributed to mankind in important and meaningful ways. Furthermore, this list does not take
into account the powerful impact that so many survivors had on their own communities,
neighbors, and in countless other, less obvious ways.

Questions
1. What are some of the areas that Holocaust survivors have had a positive impact on?

2. To whom is the Nobel Prize awarded? What does this mean about the power and importance
of these survivors achievements?

3. If the previous chart only lists a few of the survivors who have touched humanity through their
work and actions, what conclusions can you reach about how humanity was affected, or not
affected, by those who died in the Holocaust?

Source 2: How did the loss of so many effect the places where they came from?
Today is history. Today will be remembered. Years from now the young will ask with wonder
about this day. Today is history and you are part of it. Six hundred years ago, when elsewhere
they were footing the blame for the Black Death, Casimir the Great - so called - told the Jews
they could come to Krakow. They came. They trundled their belongings into the city. They
settled. They took hold. They prospered in business, science, education, the arts. With nothing
they came and with nothing they flourished. For six centuries there has been a Jewish Krakow.
By this evening those six centuries will be a rumor. They never happened. Today is history.
Amon Goeth
Chart: The effect of the Holocaust on the Jews of Europe
Country
Poland

Estimated Pre-War
Jewish population

Estimated killed

Percent killed

3,300,000

3,000,000

Baltic Countries

253,000

228,000

90

Germany and Austria

240,000

210,00

90

Bohemia and Moravia

90,000

80,000

89

Slovakia

90,000

75,000

83

Greece

70,000

54,000

77

Netherlands

140,000

105,000

75

Hungary

650,000

450,000

Byelorussion SSR

375,000

245,000

65

1,500,000

900,000

60

Belgium

65,000

40,000

60

Yugoslavia

43,000

26,000

60

600,000

300,000

50

2,173

890

41

350,000

90,000

26

Bulgaria

64,000

14,000

22

Italy

40,000

8,000

20

5,000

1,000

20

975,000

107,000

11

8,000

52

<1

8,861,800

5,933,900

Ukranian SSR

Romania
Normay
France

Luxembourg
Russian SFSR
Denmark
Total

Questions
1. Read the quote. What is the effect of wiping out communities like the one in Krakow? What is
lost?

2. Look at the chart. What is the percentage of the Jewish population that was lost in Poland?
Hungary? What is the average loss of the Jewish population of Europe?

3. From your studies, you know that the murder and devastation that occurred in Krakow
occurred all over Europe.What is lost when so many people are murdered and so much culture is
destroyed? Does this loss effect only the people are murdered? Looking at the chart of the Jewish
dead, what sort of impact do you think their deaths would have had upon their towns, cities, and
countries?

Source 3: The Holocaust did not only target the Jews

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me.
- Martin Niemller
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
- Edmund Burke
Chart: Non-Jewish groups affected by the Holocaust
Group
Romani
Ukranians
Poles

Russians
People with Disabilities
Homosexuals
Total

Deaths and Sterilization

220,000-1,500,000
3,000,000
2,470,000-2,670,000 (combined with the number
of Jews murdered, Poland lost an estimated 17%
of their pre-war population).
2,200,000
275,000 murdered
15,000
8,180,000-9,660,000 murdered

Other groups were targeted by the Nazis and considered dangerous or inferior, which led to them
also being marked for the concentration camps. These groups include Europeans of African and
Asian origin, communists, Jehovahs Witnesses, Roman Catholics, Bahais, Freemasons,
Protestants, womens rights organizations, prostitutes, the homeless, alcoholics, drug addicts,
pacifists, draft resisters and common criminals. Exact totals of those murdered, imprisoned, and/
or wronged from these groups by the Nazis are difficult to correctly measure; however, these
groups were considered unacceptable by Nazi racial ideology.

Questions
1. Read the first quotation. What is Niemller trying to communicate about the danger of doing
nothing in the face of harmful, wrong, and unjust actions?

2. Read the second quote. What is the connection that Burke is trying to make between evil and
standing by?

3. Looking at the chart, was the Holocaust only a Jewish Problem? Explain your answer.

4. How are these quotes and numbers of deaths connected to our past class discussion of
upstanders, bystanders, victims, and perpetrators? What lesson does the Holocaust teach us?

Source 4: Lessons learned from history

Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
- George Santayana

Genocide - the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a

particular ethnic group or nation.

Questions
1. Look over the chart. Was the Holocaust the first genocide in human history? Has it been the
last?

2. Read the quote by George Santayana. What do you think he is trying to say about the
importance of understanding human history?

3. What can the Holocaust teach us about the importance of history? Why do we study it?

An Incomplete list of Genocides, from 1755-2015

Event

Location

Zunghar Genocide

Western Mongolia,
Kazakhstan, and
Kyrgyzstan

1755-1758

480,000

600,000 (80% of
Zungharian Oirat
population).

Colonization of the
Congo Free State

Congo

1885-1908

5,000,000

22,000,000

Greek Genocide

Anatolia

1915-1918

275,000

750,000

Armenian
Genocide

Anatolia

1915-1923

300,000

1,500,000

Ukrainian SSR

1932-1933

2,400,000

7,500,000

Europe

1933-1945

4,194,200

6,000,000

Massacre of Maya
peoples (1)

Guatemala

1965-1966

78,500

500,000

Nigerian Civil War

Nigeria

1967-1970

1,000,000

3,000,000

Francisco Macas
Nguemas
persecution of
minorities

Equatorial Guinea

1969-1979

20,000

80,000

1971 Bangladesh
atrocities

Bangladesh

1971

26,000

3,000,000

Massacre of Hutus

Burundi

1972

50,000

100,000

Cambodian
Genocide

Cambodia

1975-1979

1,000,000

3,000,000

Red Terror

Ethiopia

1977-1978

30,000

500,000

Rwandan
Genocide

Rwanda

1994

500,000

1,000,000

Srebrenica
massacre

Bosnia

1995

8,000

8,500

Persecution of
Falun Gong

China

1999-Now

2,000

70,000

War in Darfur

Sudan

2003-2010

400,000

400,000

15,331,700

50,008,500

Holodmor/Soviet
Famine of
1932-1933
The Holocaust

Total

Duration

Lowest estimate
of deaths

Highest estimate
of deaths