A story to bear witness to goodness

..

What is the Holocaust?

The Holocaust was the
systematic annihilation of
six million Jews by the
Nazi regime during World
War 2. In 1933
approximately nine
million Jews lived in the
21 countries of Europe
that would be occupied by
Germany during the war.
By 1945 two out of every
three European Jews had
been killed. The European
Jews were the primary
victims of the Holocaust.
But Jews were not the
only group singled out for
persecution by Hitlers
Nazi regime. As many as
one-half million Gypsies,
at least 250,000 mentally
or physically disabled
persons, and more than
three million Soviet
prisoners-of-war also fell

During World War

2Oscar
Schindlercontinually
risked his life to protect
and save his Jewish
workers. He spent every
penny he had bribing
and paying off the Nazis
to get food and better
treatment for his Jews.
Nobody was hit at his
factory, nobody
murdered, nobody sent
to death camps like the
nearby Auschwitz.
Oscar Schindler earned
the everlasting gratitude
of his Schindlerjews. No
matter why, no matter
that he was an alcoholic
and a womanisor of the
worst sort - what
matters to his Jews is
that he surfaced from
the chaos of madness
and risked everything for
them. And generations
will remember him for
what he did. No matter

victim to Nazi genocide.

Jehovahs Witnesses,
homosexuals, Social
Democrats, Communists,
partisans, trade unionists,
Polish intelligentsia and
other undesirables were
also victims of the hate
and aggression carried
out by the Nazis.
How many Jews were
murdered during the
Holocaust?
While it is impossible to
ascertain the exact
number of Jewish victims,
statistics indicate that the
total was over 5,830,000.
Six million is the round
figure accepted by most
authorities.
What does Final
Solution mean?
The term Final
Solution (Die Endlosung)
refers to the Germans
plan to physically
liquidate all Jews in
Europe. The term was
used at
the Wannsee Conference
held in Berlin on January
20, 1942, where German
officials discussed its
implementation.
How many children
were murdered during
the Holocaust?
The number of children
killed during the
Holocaust is not
fathomable and full
statistics for the tragic
fate of children who died
will never be known.
Some estimates range as
high as 1.5 million
murdered children. This
figure includes more than
1.2 million Jewish
children, tens of
thousands of Gypsy
children and thousands of
institutionalized
handicapped children who
were murdered under
Nazi rule in Germany and
occupied Europe.
Why did Hitler hate the
Jews?
Holocaust happened
because Hitler and the
Nazis were racist. They
believed the German

how many businesses

Schindler failed in, he
was a success in life ..

people were a 'master

race', who were superior
to others. They even
created a league table of
'races' with the Aryans at
the top and with
Jews, Gypsies and black
people at the bottom.
These 'inferior' people
were seen as a threat to
the purity and strength of
the German nation. When
the Nazis came to power
they persecuted these
people, took away their
human rights and
eventually decided that
they should be
exterminated.
How did the Nazis
carry our their policy
of genocide?
In the late 1930's the
Nazis killed thousands of
handicapped Germans by
lethal injection and
poisonous gas. After the
German invasion of the
Soviet Union in June
1941, mobile killing units
following in the wake of
the German Army began
shooting massive
numbers of Jews and
Gypsies in open fields and
ravines on the outskirts of
conquered cities and
towns.
Eventually the Nazis
created a more secluded
and organized method of
killing. Six extermination
centers were established
in occupied Poland where
large-scale murder by gas
and body disposal
through cremation were
conducted systematically.
Victims were deported to
these centers from
Western Europe and from
the ghettos in Eastern
Europe which the Nazis
had established. In
addition, millions died in
the ghettos and
concentration camps as a
result of forced labor,
starvation, exposure,
brutality, disease, and
execution.
When was the first
concentration camp
established?
Dachau was the first
concentration camp

established and was

opened on March 22,
1933. The camp's first
inmates were primarily
political prisoners
(Communists or Social
Democrats), habitual
criminals, homosexuals,
Jehovah's Witnesses,
and anti-socials (beggars,
vagrants, hawkers).
Others considered
problematic by the Nazis
were also included
(Jewish writers and
journalists, lawyers,
unpopular industrialists).
What is a death camp?
How many? Where?
A death camp camp is a
concentration camp with
special apparatus
especially designed for
mass murder. Six such
camps
existed: AuschwitzBirkenau, Belzec,
Chelmno,
Majdanek, Sobibor,
and Tremblinka. All were
located in Poland.
What was AuschwitzBirkenau?
Auschwitz-Birkenau
became the killing centre
where the largest
numbers of European
Jews were killed. After an
experimental gassing
there in September 1941
of 850 malnourished and
ill prisoners, mass
murder became a daily
routine. By mid 1942,
mass gassing of Jews
using Zyklon-B began at
Auschwitz, where
extermination was
conducted on an
industrial scale with some
estimates running as high
as three million persons
eventually killed through
gassing, starvation,
disease, shooting, and
burning.
Did the Jews resist?
Many Jews simply could
not believe that Hitler
really meant to kill them
all. But once the Nazis
had complete control and
the Jews were being
relocated to ghettos,
rations were

reduced, conditions were

horrible and the Jews did
not have the strength,
physically, emotionally, or
militarily, to resist. There
were uprisings in the
camps, but it was
incredibly difficult and
rarely successful.
Elie Wiesel put it this
way: "The question is not
why all the Jews did not
fight, but how so many of
them did. Tormented,
beaten, starved, where
did they find the strength
- spiritual and physical to resist?" Those
attempting to resist faced
almost impossible odds.

Country/Region

Germany (1938 Borders)

Austria

Belgium & Luxembourg

Bulgaria

Czechoslovakia

France

Greece

Hungary & Ukraine

Italy

Netherlands

Norway

Poland & USSR

Romania

Yugoslavia

TOTAL

Source: Nizkor Project statistics derived from Yad Vashem and Fleming,

A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

A - THE - World War 2 Portal
Court TV: A Look Back at Nuremberg
Cybrary of the Holocaust
David Dickerson Holocaust Resources
Dinur Center for the Study of Jewish History
War Crimes and Genocide
The Einsatzgruppen
Fortunoff Video Archive - Yale University
The Holocaust Chronicle web site
Holocaust Guide at about.com

H-Holocaust
The Holocaust History Project
The Holocaust\Shoah Page
Holocaust - A true story
Humor as a defense mechanism
The Jewish Student Online Research Center
The Kindertransport Organization Home Page
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Literature of the Holocaust
March of the Living
The Nizkor Project
Non-Jewish Victims of the Holocaust
The Nuremberg War Crimes Trials
Online Holocaust Magazine
Roma in the Holocaust
Polish Jews in World War II
Shtetl
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Teaching the Holocaust through Stamps
Virtual Library Geschichte: Drittes Reich

A Virtual Tour of Auschwitz

Auschwitz Alphabet
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Anne Frank Center USA

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Corrie ten Boom -'The Secret Room'
Holocaust Names
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To save a life: stories of Jewish rescue
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Waves and Images of the Holocaust

The Ghosts that Haunt Us

Hartmann: In The Camps
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