THE HOLOCAUST

What is the Holocaust?

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic,

state-sponsored persecution and murder of
approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and
its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin
meaning "sacrifice by fire.”
 German Jewish
children in Berlin
prior to the Nazi
seizure of power.
January 1929.
USHMM, COURTESY
OF GEORGE
FOGELSON

Before Adolf Hitler came to power, Jews had lived

prosperous lives in Germany for years. Many viewed
themselves as Germans first, and Jews second, in spite of
a centuries-old tradition of antisemitism throughout
Europe.
 Germans read a poster
affixed to a pillar in a busy
Berlin street warning them
not to buy from Jews. April
1933. USHMM, COURTESY OF
KZ GEDENKSTÄTTE
DACHAU

Soon after Hitler

became German
chancellor,
antisemitic laws,
like the Nuremberg
Laws, segregated
Jews, forcing them
from their jobs and
businesses.
 Bystanders watch
as a Jewish student
is paraded over the
Wiedenhaser
Bridge in Marburg
carrying a sign. An
SA fife-and-drum
band marches
ahead. USHMM,
COURTESY OF AMT
FÜR
PRESS-UND-OFFENTLIC
HKEITSARBEIT,
MARBURG

Nazi racial ideology targeted many groups, especially Jews,

as “inferior”. Nazis spewed hate-filled propaganda and
forced their ideas about “purifying” the Aryan race on to
others, making public examples of violators.
 A Hollerith
machine of the
type used to
tabulate
national census
data in Nazi
Germany in the
1930s. USHMM,
COURTESY OF
TECHNISCHES
MUSEUM DRESDEN

The Nazi government embraced the most advanced

technology in order to further their aims of “purifying”
the Aryan race.
 Spectators
give the Nazi
salute as they
attend a rally
in Nuremberg.
September
1938. USHMM

In spite of the loss of their individual freedoms, Germans

rallied behind the Nazis and Hitler, who were seen as
providing relief from the Depression and restoring
national pride after the humiliations of World War One.
 On the morning after
Kristallnacht, local
residents watch the
synagogue in Ober
Ramstadt, Germany,
destroyed by fire. The
local fire department
tries to prevent the fire
from spreading to a
nearby home. November
10, 1938. USHMM,
COURTESY OF TRUDY
ISENBERG

Kristallnacht, “Night of Broken Glass,” was an attack on

Jewish owned businesses and synagogues in Germany and
Austria, followed by a huge wave of deportations to
Dachau and other concentration camps.
 A German Jewish refugee
family poses on the deck of the
St. Louis while en route to Cuba.
May–June 1939. USHMM,
COURTESY OF JOHN MEYERSTEIN
In the face of increased
persecution, many Jews chose
to abandon their homes in
Germany. However, they faced
many obstacles, including
procuring visas to other
countries, leaving their family
members, and forfeiting their
savings.
 The Hadamar
Institute was one
of six hospitals
and sanatoria in
Germany and
Austria in which
the Nazi
“euthanasia”
program was
carried out.
USHMM, COURTESY
OF ROSANNE BASS
FULTON
As the war began, the Nazis ordered the killing of
institutionalized handicapped patients, usually by poison
gas, who were considered to be “incurable”. Public
protest led the Nazis to continue the program in secret.
This T-4 program was a direct precursor to the Holocaust.
 German soldiers
march into
Warsaw carrying
bayonets.
October 5, 1939.
USHMM,
COURTESY OF
NATIONAL
ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
ADMINISTRATION

In spite of the Munich Pact, the Nazis invaded Poland in

September 1939 using blitzkrieg (“lightning war”) tactics.
Poland fell to the Nazis before France and Britain could
mobilize for its protection.
 German soldiers
execute Piotr
Sosnowski, a
priest from
Tuchola. Piasnica
Wielka, Poland,
fall 1939. USHMM,
COURTESY OF
INSTYTUT PAMIĘCI
NARODOWEJ

Once in Poland, the Nazis began instituting their racial

policies, destroying Polish culture, and eliminating all
possible resistance through murdering Polish political,
intellectual, and religious leadership.
 Prisoners
stand at roll
call at
Buchenwald
camp.
1938–1941.
USHMM,
COURTESY OF
ROBERT A.
SCHMUHL

Concentration camps were established across occupied

Europe to accommodate the massive numbers of political
and social prisoners that the Nazis captured. Others were
imprisoned in ghettoes, transit camps, forced-labor, and
death camps.
 Under SS guard, prisoners
carry stones up the “staircase
of death,” in the Mauthausen
concentration camp. Austria,
1942. USHMM, COURTESY OF
ARCHIV DER KZ-GEDENKSTÄTTE
MAUTHAUSEN

Those in forced-labor camps

worked at a variety of hard
physical labor. Those too ill or
weak to work usually died
unless they were protected by
another prisoner.
 Roma (Gypsy)
prisoners in the
Belzec
forced-labor
camp. Poland,
1940. USHMM,
COURTESY OF
ARCHIWUM
DOKUMENTACJI
MECHANICZNEJ,
WARSAW

Roma, also deemed “inferior” by the Nazis, were

imprisoned in forced labor camps or were frequently the
victims of the Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing units, that
targeted groups presumed to be threatening to Nazi
power or “purity”.
 Execution of a Ukrainian
Jew by a member of an
Einsatzgruppe (mobile
killing squad). Vinnitsa,
Soviet Union, 1942.
USHMM, COURTESY OF
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The majority of
Einsatzgruppen killings
outside Germany took place
in occupied portions of the
Soviet Union.
 Vendors and
buyers at the
market in the
Lodz ghetto.
Circa 1941.
USHMM,
COURTESY OF
ROBERT ADAMS

Ghettoes, walled-off portions of cities, were established

across Poland to contain Jews. Jews who lived there were
used as forced labor for German businesses. Living
conditions were squalid. As the war progressed, it was no
secret what would happen to the ghetto’s residents.
 One of the three milk cans in
which Emmanuel Ringelblum
saved the “Oneg Shabbat”
archives, chronicling the history
of the Warsaw ghetto. USHMM,
COURTESY OF ŻYDOWSKI HISTORYCZNY
INSTYTUT NAUKOWO-BADAWCZY

Those living in the Warsaw

ghetto created a record of
their lives in the ghetto and
buried it before they were
deported to the camps.
Much of the archive was
located after the war, though
some is still missing.
 Jewish partisans
in the forests of
Lithuania.
1941–1944.
USHMM, COURTESY
OF MOSHE
KAGANOVICH

While some Jews, like those in the Warsaw ghetto who

preserved an archive, pursued spiritual resistance, others
chose armed resistance and escaped to become partisans.
 Danish rescuers
on board a boat.
1943. USHMM,
COURTESY OF
FRIHEDSMUSEET

Some chose not to be bystanders but to rescue those

targeted by the Nazis, in spite of the danger to themselves.
Their motivations varied from financial to moral. Less
than ½ of 1% of Europeans were rescuers.
Concentration camp badges
bearing purple triangles
worn by Jehovah’s
Witnesses. 1940–1945.
USHMM, COURTESY OF
ANNEMARIE AND WALTRAUD
KUESSEROW

Prisoners frequently were

assigned to camps based
on their perceived crime.
Color coded badges made
classification of prisoners
easier for guards, in
addition to their
dehumanizing effect.
 Women inmates
in Auschwitz sort
through a huge
pile of shoes
from a transport
of Hungarian
Jews. May 1944.
USHMM, COURTESY
OF YAD VASHEM

As prisoners arrived at camps, they were usually stripped

of all of their belongings and reassigned prison uniforms.
Other inmates then sorted through the items for valuables
and items that could be re-sold.
 Some of the
thousands of
shoes confiscated
from arriving
prisoners at the
Majdanek
concentration
camp. ARCHIWUM
PAŃSTWOWEGO
MUZEUM NA
MAJDANKU
 A Jewish woman
walks toward the
gas chambers with
three young
children after
going through the
selection process
on the ramp at
Aushwitz-Birkena
u. USHMM, COURTESY
OF YAD VASHEM

Children were usually separated from their parents as

soon as they arrived at their destination, if they hadn’t
been before their journey began. Those allowed to stay
with a parent typically were headed to the gas chambers.
 Two young boys
wearing Jewish
badges in the
Kovno ghetto
shortly before
their round-up in
the “Children’s
Action.” USHMM,
COURTESY OF
SHRAGA WAINER

Children were frequently targeted in the ghettos and

rounded up before the rest of their families, as they had
no labor value for the Reich.
 An aerial
reconnaissance
photograph of
the Auschwitz
concentration
camp showing the
Auschwitz II
(Birkenau) killing
center. USHMM,
COURTESY OF
NATIONAL
ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
ADMINISTRATION

As the Allies were coming closer to victory, they

considered bombing Auschwitz but declined.
 A view of concentration
camp prisoners marching
through a village while on a
death march from Dachau to
Wolfratshausen. USHMM,
COURTESY OF KZ GEDENKSTÄTTE
DACHAU

As the Allies progressed

toward Germany, the
Nazis began a series of
forced marches of
prisoners both to save their
labor for the Reich and to
hide the crimes of the Nazi
regime.
 U.S. soldiers
view the charred
remains of
victims of the
Ohrdruf
concentration
camp. April 1945.
USHMM, COURTESY
OF NATIONAL
ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
ADMINSTRATION

The Nazis burned the evidence of their crimes when they

could not transport it as they retreated.
 Mauthausen camp
survivors cheer
American soldiers
soon after their
liberation. May 1945.
USHMM, COURTESY OF
NATIONAL ARCHIVES
AND RECORDS.
ADMINISTRATION

Allied soldiers were astonished at the condition of the

prisoners they liberated as they progressed toward
Berlin.
 Wilhem
Beiglboeck, a
consulting
physician for the
Luftwaffe, pleads
“not guilty” to
the charges
against him at
the Doctors trial.
November 1945.
USHMM, COURTESY
OF NATIONAL
ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
ADMINISTRATION

A series of war crimes trials were conducted after the war,

including special trials to prosecute doctors.
 Jewish mothers
with baby
carriages at the
Landsberg
Displaced
Persons camp.
January 1, 1947.
USHMM, COURTESY
OF AVIVA KEMPNER

Though the war was over, many former prisoners found

themselves in DP camps until they could find relatives or
obtain visas to leave Europe. For some, this process took
several years.
Map of
Concentration
Camps in
Europe and
Statistics on
Jews killed in
the Holocaust.
THE HOLOCAUST