The HolocaustThe HolocaustDescriptionHistoryVictimsConcentration CampsLiberation and Beyond

DescriptionDescription

What is The Holocaust?What is The Holocaust?Holocaust was originally a Jewish term

that meant "a burnt sacrifice offered to God"

Now refers to the systematic annihilation (complete removal) of European Jews and other minority groups by Nazi Germany

HistoryHistory

TimelineTimelineThe Holocaust is considered to have

taken place between 1933-1945World War II officially took place

between 1939-1945

1933 Hitler comes to power, along with his Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers

1933 “Nuremberg Laws” make Jewish people second class citizens and Jewish businesses are boycotted

1933-1935 plans to reduce genetic inferiors by sterilization

1933-1939 minorities are sent to concentration camps

1937-1939 Jews are not allowed to attend public schools or theatres, and could not live or even walk within certain sections of town

Plundered items from Jewish homes

1938 During Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), Jews are arrested, and their homes and synagogues are destroyed

1939 Germany invades Poland, start of WWII, Germans view Polish as subhuman

1942-1944 Polish Jews sent to extermination camps

May 1945 Defeat of Nazi Germany

VictimsVictims

“While not all victims were Jews, all Jews were victims.”

“While not all victims were Jews, all Jews were victims.”

~Elie Wiesel

Gestapo beating a Jew

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

~Elie Wiesel

Other minorities targetedOther minorities targetedPhysically handicappedMentally handicappedGypsiesHomosexualsJehovah’s Witnesses

Gypsies in Concentration Camp

“Wartime was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill.”

“Wartime was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill.”

~Adolf Hitler

ChildrenChildrenDid not escape the terror 1 ½ million Jewish and minority

children were murdered

Jewish child in Ghetto

Children being deported

Concentration CampsConcentration Camps

Women and children were usually seen as useless

Only those who could work or perform jobs were kept alive

Those who were allowed to live were disinfected and their heads were shaved

Many were killed in the “poison gas” showers

Crematory from Concentration Camp

Men in Concentration CampWiesel is in this picture

Glasses of those murdered in Concentration Camp

Sorting through clothes of people murdered in concentration camp

Mass Grave

Mass Burning

“Indifference makes that person dead before the person dies.”

“Indifference makes that person dead before the person dies.”

~Elie Wiesel

LiberationLiberation

Most people had few family members left

Many people left Germany and Poland for other countries

Some went to “Displaced Persons” camps

Liberation from a Concentration Camp

Removal of the Nazi Symbol after Liberation

Elie Wiesel 1928-Elie Wiesel 1928-

1986 won Nobel Peace PrizeCurrently a professor at Boston

UniversitySurvived Auschwitz and BuchenwaldPublished Night, a memoir of his time

in the concentration camps, in 1960.

(Left) Wiesel at age 15, (Right) Wiesel in Concentration Camp

Oprah’s interview with Elie WieselOprah’s interview with Elie Wiesel

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