6 Million+ Exhibition

Activity You have 5 minutes to write down your thoughts about the 6

million+ exhibition which commemorated the Holocaust in 2006.

How much do you know about the Holocaust

What was the Holocaust? The mass murder of six million Jews and millions of other people leading up to, and during, World War II.

The killings took place in Europe between 1933 and 1945 by the German Nazi party which was led by Adolf Hitler.

The largest group of victims were Jewish people.

The Nazis also murdered politicians, trade unionists, journalists, teachers and anyone else who spoke out against Hitler.

We will never know exactly how many died but there were many millions of non-Jewish victims, including:

Civilians and soldiers from the Soviet Union Catholics from Poland

Serbs Disabled people

Homosexuals Jehovah's Witnesses

Polish civilians Roma and Sinti people (Gypsies)

Slavic people

1

Why did the Holocaust happen?

In 1921 Adolf Hitler became leader of the Nazi party. The Nazis were

racists and believed that their Aryan race was superior to others.

There were laws against the Jews

• In 1934 Hitler became Germany's head of state. He introduced anti-Semitic laws which discriminated against Jewish people living in the areas he controlled.

• Some of these laws meant that Jewish children could no longer go to school, keep pets or have a bicycle.

• The Nazis believed that Jews were a problem that needed to be removed. The mass killings of the Holocaust were what Hitler called "The Final Solution".

2

How did people die?

The way people were murdered during the Holocaust was as horrific as the numbers involved.

Ghettos

The Nazis moved hundreds of thousands of Jews into very small,

overcrowded cities called ghettoes. They were executed if they tried to leave.

3

Concentration camps

• The Nazis set up huge prisons called concentration camps - where prisoners were starved, often tortured and worked to death.

• Conditions inside the camps were appalling, and starvation and diseases were very real dangers.

• When in 1945 British troops entered the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen in Germany, they found 60,000 starving survivors and many thousands of unburied dead bodies.

4

Activity

You have 5 minutes to write down your knowledge about Auschwitz concentration camp

on the worksheet.

Extermination camps

• In 1942 the Nazis set up six extermination camps in Poland which used specially-built poison gas chambers to kill people.

• The largest of these was Auschwitz-Birkenau - a vast collection of slave labour camps, the concentration camp of Auschwitz and the extermination camp of Birkenau.

• Around 2.7 million Jews were murdered during 1942 alone. This was the most intense period of killing in the Holocaust.

What is Holocaust memorial day?

Millions of Jews and others killed during the Holocaust are being remembered in services across the UK

It marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by soldiers of the Soviet Army in 1945. The day is a national mark of respect for all victims of the Holocaust as well as victims of other genocide around the world.

It helps to educate people about the terrible events and it shows how important it is to be tolerant of other people and their beliefs.

• Holocaust

January 27th 1945

prisoners in Auschwitz were liberated.

6 Million+ exhibition at Huddersfield Art Gallery, 2006. The 6 million buttons installation which was the centrepiece of the Holocaust exhibition by Ms Stowe

5

Memorials

Many artists have designed memorials to commemorate the Holocaust.

You have 20 minutes to design your own memorial. You will present it to the rest of the group explaining the symbolism behind it. Use

the worksheet to help you develop ideas.

Use the following images as inspiration

Base of arm

Bibliography

• http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/greenhead-park-could-site-first-5738752

• www.hmd.org.uk

• http://www.activehistory.co.uk/hmd/

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/16691969

• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2C21B85E1656FFE3

• http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/the_art_of_memory_holocaust_memorials_in_history/

• http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_genocide_intro.html

• Further research: – Steven Spielberg, Schindler’s List