These curriculum links follow a suggested chronological presentation on the Holocaust. Each topic expands to include background information, maps, videos, testimonies, and lessons.
- Click on a tab below for your topic of interest, and it will turn orange.
- To see all links corresponding to your topic of interest, scroll down the page.
- Use the “Search by Keywords” field below to find ALL links for a particular topic.
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We welcome suggested additions and/or needed revisions from our users. Please contact: info@ahecinfo.org
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- Adolf Hitler
- America and the Holocaust
- Art
- Auschwitz/Birkenau
- Begin Your Unit
- Bystanders, Collaboration, and Complicity
- Contemporary Antisemitism
- Deportation
- Emigration
- Europe After World War I
- Film
- Finish Your Unit
- History of Antisemitism
- Holocaust Denial
- Jewish Life in Nazi Germany
- Judaism
- Kristallnacht
- Liberation
- Life in Nazi Germany
- Literature
- Music
- Nazi Propaganda
- Nazi Racism
- Operation Reinhard Camps
- Other Camps (alphabetical)
- Plays
- Poetry
- Pre-War Jewish Life
- Religious Institutions and the Third Reich
- Remembering the Holocaust
- Rescue
- Resistance
- Restoring Justice
- Specific Ghettos (alphabetical)
- Survival in Hiding
- Survivors / Displaced Persons
- The Aftermath
- The Camps (General)
- The Final Solution
- The Final Stages of War
- The Ghettos (general)
- The Nazi Party and Its Rise to Power
- The Perpetrators
- The Victims
- The Wannsee Conference
- The War in the East
- The War in the South
- The War in the West
- The World Response
- The Yellow Star
- Violations of Versailles
- What the Nazis Believed
- World War II Begins
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- Adolf Hitler
- Adolf Hitler and World War I: 1913-1919, USHMM
- Adolf Hitler, about.com
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Adolf Hitler, Jewish Virtual Library
Includes quotes and speeches.
- Adolf Hitler: From Unknown to Dictator of Germany, The History Place
- Adolf Hitler: Man and Monster, BBC
- Hitler Develops His Antisemitic Ideas, The Holocaust Explained
- Hitler’s Family Tree, about.com
- LESSON: Adolf Hitler, remember.org
- Making a Leader, from Propaganda Exhibit, USHMM
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VIDEO: Hitler Campaign Speech, Historical Film Footage (1:19), USHMM
Waldenburg, Germany, July 22, 1932. Transcript: [Band music and cheering; singing of the Horst Wessel song] Adolf Hitler: For fourteen long years these parties have raped German freedom, beaten German men with clubs. Before two or three months pass this terror will be removed if you vote for National Socialists."
- VIDEO: Hitler Speech, September 1935 (2:41), USHMM
- America and the Holocaust
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“The US and the Holocaust,” Ken Burns in the Classroom
This site includes resources by topic for the classroom.
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[Dr. Seuss] Dr. Seuss Went to War, A Catalog of Political Cartoons, UC San Diego
The Dr. Seuss Collection in the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego, contains the original drawings and/or newspaper clippings of all of these cartoons. This website makes these cartoons available to all internet users. The cartoons have been scanned from the original newspaper clippings in the UCSD collection.
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[Dr. Seuss] The Political Dr. Seuss, PBS
A gallery of many of Dr. Seuss' political cartoons with a brief description.
- [Fort Ontario] Emergency Refugee Shelter, USHMM
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[Fort Ontario] Oral Histories: Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario, Oswego State University of New York
The interviews were done in connection with the Refugees' 40th reunion in New York City and contain interviews with and about Fort Ontario Refugees. NOTE: Jack Bass mentioned in these tapes is not Jack Bass from Birmingham.
- [Fort Ontario] Ruth Gruber Finds Haven for 1,000 Holocaust Refugees, Jewish Women’s Archives
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[Fort Ontario] Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum
The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum is dedicated to keeping alive the story of the 982 European refugees who were allowed into the United States as “guests” of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Holocaust in World War II. They were temporarily housed at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York from August 1944 – February 1946.
- [Karski] Alerting the World: Jan Karski, USHMM
- [Karski] Jan Karski Educational Foundation
- [Karski] Jan Karski-Humanity’s Hero, Polish History Museum
- [Karski] VIDEO: Jan Karski-How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust (5:38), remember.org
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[Karski] VIDEO: Warning the World (5:18), Facing History and Ourselves
Jan Karski, a diplomat and member of the Polish resistance, describes his experience in the Warsaw Ghetto and his meeting with U.S. President Roosevelt.
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Escapees from Auschwitz-Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, remember.org
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Exposing Auschwitz, aish.com
- [Wetzler-Vrba] The First Report About Auschwitz by John S. Conway, Museum of Tolerance
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[Wetzler-Vrba] VIDEO: Escape From Auschwitz (53:52), PBS
The death factory at Auschwitz was a closely guarded secret of the Third Reich – until two men, Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, escaped to tell the world about the Nazi atrocities. Escape from Auschwitz reveals the story of their escape and explores the controversial decision by the head of the Hungarian underground not to make their report public.
- Allies Knew of Plan for Italy’s Jews, Jewish Virtual Library
- ANIMATED MAP: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
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ARCHIVED EXHIBIT: FDR and the Holocaust, 1942-1945, FDR Library
America’s response to the Holocaust has become the subject of intense historical interest in recent decades. Historians debate why FDR and other American decision-makers did not do more to admit Jewish refugees and undertake policies—including bombing rail lines to Auschwitz or Auschwitz itself—that might have saved lives. This online exhibit explores these issues and includes primary documents.
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AUDIO: Real-Time Radio Broadcasts from D-Day, June 6, 1944, World War II Foundation
Listen to actual real-time radio broadcasts from NBC, CBS and the BBC News on June 6, 1944, the date of the Allied landings in Northwest France. These factual news broadcasts are Public Domain.
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AUDIO: When Nazis Took Manhattan (7:43), NPR Radio Lab
On the evening of Feb. 20, 1939, the marquee of New York's Madison Square Garden was lit up with the evening's main event: a "Pro American Rally." The organizers had chosen the date in celebration of George Washington's birthday and had procured a 30-foot-tall banner of America's first president for the stage. More than 20,000 men and women streamed inside and took their seats. The view they had was stunning: Washington was hung between American flags — and swastikas. The rally was sponsored by the German American Bund, an organization with headquarters in Manhattan and thousands of members across the United States. In the 1930s, the Bund was one of several organizations in the United States that were openly supportive of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe.
- Auschwitz Bombing Controversy: Could the Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau, Jewish Virtual Library
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BBC: 700,000 Jews Killed in Poland, Jewish Virtual Library
Report from June 2, 1942.
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British Doubt Reports on Mass Murder of Polish Jews, Jewish Virtual Library
August 1943
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Displaced Persons and Postwar America, USHMM
Following World War II and the Holocaust, the United States provided aid to hundreds of thousands of European Displaced Persons (DPs). American organizations also helped many DPs immigrate to the US. These sources reveal DPs' experiences as they encountered Americans and United States policies. Through documents, correspondence, films, and other materials, this collection examines how DPs understood and experienced immigration to the US in the wake of catastrophe.
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Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945
This 174-page piece was put out by the Center for Cryptologic History at the National Security Agency, 2004.
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Eduard Schulte, USHMM
Eduard Schulte (1891–1966) was a prominent German industrialist and secret anti-Nazi who leaked the first report to the west that the Nazis intended to murder all Jews in Europe.
- Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
- EXHIBIT: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
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EXHIBIT: Americans and the Holocaust, USHMM
Holocaust history raises important questions about what Europeans could have done to stop the rise of Nazism in Germany and its assault on Europe’s Jews. Questions also must be asked of the international community, including the United States. What did the US government and the American people know about the threats posed by Nazi Germany? What responses were possible? And when? This exhibition examines the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide.
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EXHIBIT: The Story of Anthony Acevedo, USHMM/Americans and the Holocaust
Anthony Acevedo was a Mexican American who served as a US Army medic during World War II. He was captured by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge and held as a prisoner of war (POW) in the Berga subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. While there, he kept a secret diary of his experiences, including a record of his fellow American soldiers’ deaths.
- FDR’s Response to Kristallnacht: Another Look, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
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How America Learned of the Holocaust, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Written by Dr. Rafael Medoff in 2003/2004.
- How German-Born ‘Ritchie Boys’ Helped America Defeat Hitler, New York Post, July 25, 2017
- January 22, 1944: President Established War Refugee Board, History Unfolded/US Newspapers and the Holocaust
- LESSON PLANS: Teaching Materials on Americans and the Holocaust, USHMM
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LESSON: A Case Study on the Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Teaching Materials
By examining the Wagner-Rogers Bill of 1939, students learn how Americans debated the country’s role as a haven for refugees, identifying economic, social, and geopolitical factors that influenced Americans’ attitudes about the United States’ role in the world during the critical years 1938–1941. Using primary-source documents, students identify and evaluate arguments that Americans made for and against the acceptance of child refugees in 1939. The lesson concludes with reflection on questions that this history raises about America’s role in the world today.
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LESSON: History Unfolded-US Newspapers and the Holocaust (2-3 class periods), USHMM
Students investigate what information about the Holocaust was available in their communities by doing original research using historic newspapers found online or in a local library. Through an analysis of their discoveries, they better understand American responses to the Holocaust within the socio-economic and political context of the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. In conjunction with this lesson, consider adding the AHEC online resource of "Kristallnacht in Birmingham Newspapers."
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LESSON: The Wagner-Rogers Bill: Debate, American Immigration Law Foundation
This lesson allows students to develop and hear the arguments for and against the Wagner-Rogers bill, by taking part in a mock Congressional debate on the bill. Students are encouraged to develop and listen to persuasive testimony and speeches, and to come up with creative strategies to change the legislation in ways in which it might be more acceptable.
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LESSON: US Policy and the Holocaust Refugee Crisis – Weighing the Evidence, National Archives
This activity introduces students to the dispute between U.S. Government agencies over rescuing Europe's Jews from extermination during the Holocaust. Using memos from the State and Treasury Departments, as well as presidential proclamations and Congressional legislation, students will: 1. Identify impediments to the admission of refugees to the United States 2. Explore actions taken by various U.S. officials to both rescue and block immigration of European Jews 3. Explain the roles of the State and Treasury Departments in rescuing refugees
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Life Magazine, September 25, 1939
From the pages of "Life Magazine," see what Americans knew in September 1939. Great primary resource for students.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: What did Refugees Need to Obtain a US Visa in the 1930s?, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
As the Nazi regime’s attacks intensified in the late 1930s, hundreds of thousands of Jews in Germany tried to immigrate to the United States. To enter the United States, each person needed an immigration visa stamped into his or her passport. It was difficult to get the necessary papers to leave Germany, and US immigration visas were difficult to obtain. The process could take years. EXPLORE THE SEVEN STEPS THAT WERE REQUIRED FOR THOSE SEEKING TO IMMIGRATE TO THE UNITED STATES.
- Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
- Peter Bergson, USHMM
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PHOTO: US Aerial Reconnaissance Photo, Auschwitz-Birkenau, August 25, 1944
An enlargement of part of a photo of Auschwitz-Birkenau taken by a Mosquito plane from the South African Air force’s 60 Photo Reconnaissance Squadron (Sortie no. 60PR/694) under the command of the U.S. Airforce. The selection process of a recently arrived transport visible on the ramp has been completed, and those selected to die are being to taken to Crematorium II. Also visible is a cultivated garden in the courtyard of Crematorium II, the open gate into it, and Crematorium III. The basement undressing rooms and gas chambers of both complexes can also be seen.
- PHOTOS: US Aerial Reconnaissance Photos, Auschwitz-Birkenau, August 25, 1944
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POLITICAL CARTOON: Evian Conference 1938, Facing History and Ourselves
Political cartoon entitled “Will the Evian Conference Guide Him to Freedom?” in The New York Times, July 3, 1938
- POLITICAL CARTOON: Please Ring the Bell for Us, Francis Knott, July 1939
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POLITICAL CARTOON: The Evian Conference
Cartoon published in 1938 by the Daily Express newspaper in Britain showing refugees from Nazi occupied territories and the unwillingness of any countries to take them.
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POSTER SET: American Responses, USHMM
Twelve printable posters on the American response to the Holocaust.
- PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Wagner-Rogers Refugee Bill Backed at Hearing, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: History Unfolded-US Newspapers and the Holocaust, USHMM
This project, still ongoing, investigates US press coverage for a number of Holocaust-related events. You can search by date/content theme/location.
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: As We Have No Racial Problem, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Thee attitude of most delegates at Evian was perhaps best expressed by Australia’s representative, Colonel T.W. White in the following speech.
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READING: The United States Enters World War II, Facing History and Ourselves
Examine the history of the United States’ entrance into World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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READING: A Report on the Murder of Jews, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the memo that urged President Roosevelt to step up US efforts to rescue Jews from the Nazis, and led him to establish the War Refugee Board.
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READING: America & the Holocaust, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about Americans’ attitudes of fear and distrust toward Jewish refugees from Europe.
- READING: America and the Holocaust, Facing History and Ourselves
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READING: American Public Opinion Data, Facing History and Ourselves
The following surveys and polling questions were conducted between 1938-41 and gauge US attitudes toward Jews.
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READING: The Voyage of the St. Louis, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why countries including the US refused to accept Jewish refugees who sought to escape from Nazi-occupied Europe on the St. Louis.
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RECORDING: The Mysterious Stranger (44:06), BBC
Edward Schulte was a German industrialist who, in 1942, repeatedly passed information to the Allies about Hitler's plans for the Jews in Europe. This program asks what the Allies' motives were for appearing to do so little to help the victims of the Final Solution. It also finds out why, even in post-war Switzerland, Schulte was keen to keep his identity a secret.
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Records of the War Refugee Board, 1944-1945 | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
This significant Holocaust-era research collection consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence, memoranda, telegrams, reports, petitions, vouchers, press clippings, and related papers pertaining to policies, programs, and operations of the War Refugee Board.
- Ritchie Boys: The Secret US Unit Bolstered by German-Born Jews That Helped the Allies Beat Hitler, CBS/60 Mintes
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SD Report on the Outcomes of the Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
Summary of the outcomes from the Evian Conference and its ramifications for German-Jewish policy given by the Nazi intelligence and security body (SD) in July 1938.
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Secret Heroes: Camp Ritchie and the Making of the Ritchie Boys
The Ritchie Boys consisted of approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII at the secret Camp Ritchie training facility in Maryland. Approximately 14%, or 2,200, of them were Jewish refugees born in Germany and Austria. Most of the men sent to Camp Ritchie for training were assigned there because of fluency in German, French, Italian, Polish, or other languages needed by the US Army during WWII. They had been drafted into or volunteered to join the US Army and when their ability to speak the languages of the enemy were discovered, they were sent to Camp Ritchie on secret orders. Includes a roster of the Ritchie Boys.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Local Doctor Shares Chilling Story of Surviving Holocaust, The Buffalo News
The story of Dr. Sol Messinger.
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The Bergson Group: A History in Photographs, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Note several links at the bottom of page.
- The Day the Rabbis Marched, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
- The Evian Conference, USHMM
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The Immigration of Refugee Children to the US, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Numerous organizations and individuals attempted to bring unaccompanied children, mostly German Jewish children, to the United States between 1933 and 1945. More than one thousand unaccompanied children escaped Nazi persecution by immigrating to the United States as part of these organized efforts. This article provides a summary of this work.
- The Riegner Report, Jewish Virtual Library
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The Riegner Report: State Department Learns of Nazi Extermination Plan, Jewish Virtual Library
Full contents of the telegram.
- The Riegner Report: Welles Tells Wise He Has Information on Nazi Extermination Plan, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Significance of the Evian Conference, The Holocaust Explained
- The U.S. and the Holocaust, USHMM
- The U.S. and the Holocaust: Wartime Rescue Activity, USHMM
- The U.S. and the Holocaust: Why Auschwitz Was Not Bombed, USHMM
- The Wagner-Rogers Bill, Jewish Virtual Library
- The War Refugee Board, Jewish Virtual Library
- U.S. Policy and Its Impact on European Jews, USHMM
- U.S. Policy Toward Jewish Refugees, 1941-1952, USHMM
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VIDEO LESSON: Anthony Acevedo (37:31), Christina Chaverria/USHMM
Christina presents the story of Anthony Acevedo to the Holt High School/Tuscaloosa classroom of Mindy Walker, October 2020. Acevedo was a Mexican American who served as a US Army medic during World War II. He was captured by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge and held as a prisoner of war (POW) in the Berga subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. While there, he kept a secret diary of his experiences, including a record of his fellow American soldiers’ deaths.
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VIDEO: A Night at the Garden (7:06)
In 1939, 20,000 Americans rallied in New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism – an event largely forgotten from American history. "A Night at the Garden", made entirely from archival footage filmed that night, transports audiences to this chilling gathering and shines a light on the power of demagoguery and antisemitism in the United States. The film was nominated for a 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short; it was also an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival.
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VIDEO: A Night at the Garden / Discussion with Marshall Curry and Rebecca Kobrin (36:58), Museum of Jewish Heritage
Academy Award-nominated documentarian Marshall Curry screened his film "A Night at the Garden" at the Museum on February 28, 2019. He and Professor Rebecca Kobrin (Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History, Department of History, Columbia University) discussed the film as well as the history and rise of Nazism in the United States. Curry's short documentary "A Night at the Garden" was nominated for an Academy Award and is online at anightatthegarden.com.
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VIDEO: American Experience: America and the Holocaust (1:22:45), Facing History and Ourselves
This episode of The American Experience examines the role of the United States in the Holocaust, exploring such issues as American antisemitism and the deliberate suppression of information that European Jews were slated for genocide. Study Guide to the film available from Facing History at: https://www.facinghistory.org/books-borrowing/america-and-holocaust-study-guide
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VIDEO: Americans and the Holocaust Tour, USHMM
Americans and the Holocaust looks closely at America’s role in this history. The United States alone could not have prevented the Holocaust, but more could have been done to save some of the six million Jews that were killed. This exhibition examines the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war, and genocide. Introduction (2:18); Fear Itself, 1933-1937 (9:31); Desperate Times, Limited Measures, 1938-1941 (9:34); Storm Clouds Gather, 1939-1941 (7:10); America at War, 1942-1945 (7:54); Conclusion (3:07)
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VIDEO: Confronting the Holocaust: American Responses (16:43), USHMM
American responses to the persecution and murder of European Jews during the Holocaust invite reflection on the role of individuals, organizations, and governments in confronting hatred and mass atrocities.
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VIDEO: Evian Conference Fails to Aid Refugees, Historical Film Footage (0:37), USHMM
Delegates of 32 countries assembled at the Royal Hotel in Evian, France, from July 6 to 15, 1938, to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees. The refugees were desperate to flee Nazi persecution in Germany, but could not leave without having permission to settle in other countries. The Evian Conference resulted in almost no change in the immigration policies of most of the attending nations. The major powers--the United States, Great Britain, and France--opposed unrestricted immigration, making it clear that they intended to take no official action to alleviate the German-Jewish refugee problem.
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VIDEO: How Did FDR’s Leadership Shape American Responses to the Nazi Threat? (1:28:27), USHMM
In a new biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, distinguished historian Robert Dallek examines complex questions about the US president, who came to power the same year as Adolf Hitler in Germany, prepared America to fight a Second World War, and died as US troops saw the first physical evidence of the Holocaust. On December 13, 2017, the Museum hosted a discussion to offer fresh perspectives to questions such as how did Roosevelt deal with an isolationist nation? What shaped his response to the persecution of Jews?
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VIDEO: The Auschwitz Bombing Controversy in Context (17:00), Yad Vashem
Dr. David Silberklang, Editor of Yad Vashem Studies, discusses the controversial decision of the Allies in regards to bombing the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1944.
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VIDEO: The Conspiracy Theory of World War II (5:40), Yad Vashem
Prof. Jeffrey Herf explores the place antisemitism held in Nazi propaganda, addressing the question of why this phenomenon assumed genocidal proportions between 1941 and 1945.
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VIDEO: The Ritchie Boys (1:33), YouTube
The so-called "Ritchie Boys" were mostly Jewish immigrants from Germany and Austria and were specially trained in counterintelligence, interrogation, investigation and psychological warfare. In top secret operations they were used both here and on the front lines to assist in the fight against the Nazis. This is the story of Guy Stern.
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VIDEO: The US and the Holocaust, A Ken Burns Film
"The U.S. and the Holocaust" is a three-part, six-hour series that examines America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. This site has segments from the movie for classroom use.
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VIDEO: U.S. Enters World War II, Historical Film Footage (2:54), USHMM
December 8, 1941: Portion of the speech in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the US Congress to declare war on Japan following the previous day's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
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VIDEO: When 20,000 American Nazis Descended Upon New York City (7:05), The Atlantic
In February 1939, the German American Bund organized a rally of 20,000 Nazi supporters at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The rally was held on George Washington's birthday to proclaim the rights of white gentiles, the "true patriots." This Madison Square Garden rally drew a crowd of 20,000 who consistently booed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and chanted the Nazi salutation "Heil Hitler."
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VIDEO/ANIMATED: Tony-A Soldier’s Journey (6:51), USHMM
US Army medic Tony Acevedo was among hundreds of American soldiers forced to surrender to the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. He was captured in January 1945 and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp, where he and his comrades were beaten and tortured. Tony recorded every atrocity and death he witnessed in a secret diary to honor his fellow soldiers and keep their memory alive. View Tony’s diary and related artifacts: https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/anthony-acevedo
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Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
Includes one survivor testimony.
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Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The 1939 Wagner-Rogers Bill is the common name for two identical congressional bills (one in the US House of Representatives and one in the US Senate) that proposed admitting 20,000 German refugee children to the United States outside of immigration quotas. Despite congressional hearings and public debate in the spring of 1939, the bills never came to a vote.
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War Refugee Board Receives Report on Final Solution, Jewish Virtual Library
This letter from the War Refugee Board refers to the report written by Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler describing what they had seen before escaping from Auschwitz-Birkenau on April 7, 1944.
- War Refugee Board: Background and Establishment, USHMM
- When Did the World Find Out About the Holocaust?, Jewish Virtual Library
- Displaced Persons and Postwar America
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Displaced Persons and Postwar America, USHMM
Following World War II and the Holocaust, the United States provided aid to hundreds of thousands of European Displaced Persons (DPs). American organizations also helped many DPs immigrate to the US. These sources reveal DPs' experiences as they encountered Americans and United States policies. Through documents, correspondence, films, and other materials, this collection examines how DPs understood and experienced immigration to the US in the wake of catastrophe.
- Evian Conference, 1938
- Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
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POLITICAL CARTOON: Evian Conference 1938, Facing History and Ourselves
Political cartoon entitled “Will the Evian Conference Guide Him to Freedom?” in The New York Times, July 3, 1938
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POLITICAL CARTOON: The Evian Conference
Cartoon published in 1938 by the Daily Express newspaper in Britain showing refugees from Nazi occupied territories and the unwillingness of any countries to take them.
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: As We Have No Racial Problem, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Thee attitude of most delegates at Evian was perhaps best expressed by Australia’s representative, Colonel T.W. White in the following speech.
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SD Report on the Outcomes of the Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
Summary of the outcomes from the Evian Conference and its ramifications for German-Jewish policy given by the Nazi intelligence and security body (SD) in July 1938.
- The Evian Conference, USHMM
- The Significance of the Evian Conference, The Holocaust Explained
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VIDEO: Evian Conference Fails to Aid Refugees, Historical Film Footage (0:37), USHMM
Delegates of 32 countries assembled at the Royal Hotel in Evian, France, from July 6 to 15, 1938, to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees. The refugees were desperate to flee Nazi persecution in Germany, but could not leave without having permission to settle in other countries. The Evian Conference resulted in almost no change in the immigration policies of most of the attending nations. The major powers--the United States, Great Britain, and France--opposed unrestricted immigration, making it clear that they intended to take no official action to alleviate the German-Jewish refugee problem.
- Public Response
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AUDIO: When Nazis Took Manhattan (7:43), NPR Radio Lab
On the evening of Feb. 20, 1939, the marquee of New York's Madison Square Garden was lit up with the evening's main event: a "Pro American Rally." The organizers had chosen the date in celebration of George Washington's birthday and had procured a 30-foot-tall banner of America's first president for the stage. More than 20,000 men and women streamed inside and took their seats. The view they had was stunning: Washington was hung between American flags — and swastikas. The rally was sponsored by the German American Bund, an organization with headquarters in Manhattan and thousands of members across the United States. In the 1930s, the Bund was one of several organizations in the United States that were openly supportive of Adolf Hitler and the rise of fascism in Europe.
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POSTER SET: American Responses, USHMM
Twelve printable posters on the American response to the Holocaust.
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READING: America & the Holocaust, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about Americans’ attitudes of fear and distrust toward Jewish refugees from Europe.
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READING: American Public Opinion Data, Facing History and Ourselves
The following surveys and polling questions were conducted between 1938-41 and gauge US attitudes toward Jews.
- The Day the Rabbis Marched, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
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VIDEO: A Night at the Garden (7:06)
In 1939, 20,000 Americans rallied in New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism – an event largely forgotten from American history. "A Night at the Garden", made entirely from archival footage filmed that night, transports audiences to this chilling gathering and shines a light on the power of demagoguery and antisemitism in the United States. The film was nominated for a 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short; it was also an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival.
-
VIDEO: A Night at the Garden / Discussion with Marshall Curry and Rebecca Kobrin (36:58), Museum of Jewish Heritage
Academy Award-nominated documentarian Marshall Curry screened his film "A Night at the Garden" at the Museum on February 28, 2019. He and Professor Rebecca Kobrin (Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History, Department of History, Columbia University) discussed the film as well as the history and rise of Nazism in the United States. Curry's short documentary "A Night at the Garden" was nominated for an Academy Award and is online at anightatthegarden.com.
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VIDEO: Confronting the Holocaust: American Responses (16:43), USHMM
American responses to the persecution and murder of European Jews during the Holocaust invite reflection on the role of individuals, organizations, and governments in confronting hatred and mass atrocities.
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VIDEO: When 20,000 American Nazis Descended Upon New York City (7:05), The Atlantic
In February 1939, the German American Bund organized a rally of 20,000 Nazi supporters at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The rally was held on George Washington's birthday to proclaim the rights of white gentiles, the "true patriots." This Madison Square Garden rally drew a crowd of 20,000 who consistently booed President Franklin D. Roosevelt and chanted the Nazi salutation "Heil Hitler."
- Riegner Telegram, 1942
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Eduard Schulte, USHMM
Eduard Schulte (1891–1966) was a prominent German industrialist and secret anti-Nazi who leaked the first report to the west that the Nazis intended to murder all Jews in Europe.
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RECORDING: The Mysterious Stranger (44:06), BBC
Edward Schulte was a German industrialist who, in 1942, repeatedly passed information to the Allies about Hitler's plans for the Jews in Europe. This program asks what the Allies' motives were for appearing to do so little to help the victims of the Final Solution. It also finds out why, even in post-war Switzerland, Schulte was keen to keep his identity a secret.
- The Riegner Report, Jewish Virtual Library
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The Riegner Report: State Department Learns of Nazi Extermination Plan, Jewish Virtual Library
Full contents of the telegram.
- The Riegner Report: Welles Tells Wise He Has Information on Nazi Extermination Plan, Jewish Virtual Library
- St. Louis, 1939
- ANIMATED MAP: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
- EXHIBIT: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
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READING: The Voyage of the St. Louis, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why countries including the US refused to accept Jewish refugees who sought to escape from Nazi-occupied Europe on the St. Louis.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Local Doctor Shares Chilling Story of Surviving Holocaust, The Buffalo News
The story of Dr. Sol Messinger.
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Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
Includes one survivor testimony.
- The Auschwitz Bombing Controversy, 1944
- Auschwitz Bombing Controversy: Could the Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz-Birkenau, Jewish Virtual Library
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PHOTO: US Aerial Reconnaissance Photo, Auschwitz-Birkenau, August 25, 1944
An enlargement of part of a photo of Auschwitz-Birkenau taken by a Mosquito plane from the South African Air force’s 60 Photo Reconnaissance Squadron (Sortie no. 60PR/694) under the command of the U.S. Airforce. The selection process of a recently arrived transport visible on the ramp has been completed, and those selected to die are being to taken to Crematorium II. Also visible is a cultivated garden in the courtyard of Crematorium II, the open gate into it, and Crematorium III. The basement undressing rooms and gas chambers of both complexes can also be seen.
- PHOTOS: US Aerial Reconnaissance Photos, Auschwitz-Birkenau, August 25, 1944
- The U.S. and the Holocaust: Why Auschwitz Was Not Bombed, USHMM
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VIDEO: The Auschwitz Bombing Controversy in Context (17:00), Yad Vashem
Dr. David Silberklang, Editor of Yad Vashem Studies, discusses the controversial decision of the Allies in regards to bombing the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1944.
- The Bergson Group, 1942
- Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
- Peter Bergson, USHMM
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The Bergson Group: A History in Photographs, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
Note several links at the bottom of page.
- The Ritchie Boys
- How German-Born ‘Ritchie Boys’ Helped America Defeat Hitler, New York Post, July 25, 2017
- Ritchie Boys: The Secret US Unit Bolstered by German-Born Jews That Helped the Allies Beat Hitler, CBS/60 Mintes
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Secret Heroes: Camp Ritchie and the Making of the Ritchie Boys
The Ritchie Boys consisted of approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII at the secret Camp Ritchie training facility in Maryland. Approximately 14%, or 2,200, of them were Jewish refugees born in Germany and Austria. Most of the men sent to Camp Ritchie for training were assigned there because of fluency in German, French, Italian, Polish, or other languages needed by the US Army during WWII. They had been drafted into or volunteered to join the US Army and when their ability to speak the languages of the enemy were discovered, they were sent to Camp Ritchie on secret orders. Includes a roster of the Ritchie Boys.
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VIDEO: The Ritchie Boys (1:33), YouTube
The so-called "Ritchie Boys" were mostly Jewish immigrants from Germany and Austria and were specially trained in counterintelligence, interrogation, investigation and psychological warfare. In top secret operations they were used both here and on the front lines to assist in the fight against the Nazis. This is the story of Guy Stern.
- U.S. Enters the War
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AUDIO: Real-Time Radio Broadcasts from D-Day, June 6, 1944, World War II Foundation
Listen to actual real-time radio broadcasts from NBC, CBS and the BBC News on June 6, 1944, the date of the Allied landings in Northwest France. These factual news broadcasts are Public Domain.
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EXHIBIT: The Story of Anthony Acevedo, USHMM/Americans and the Holocaust
Anthony Acevedo was a Mexican American who served as a US Army medic during World War II. He was captured by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge and held as a prisoner of war (POW) in the Berga subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. While there, he kept a secret diary of his experiences, including a record of his fellow American soldiers’ deaths.
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Life Magazine, September 25, 1939
From the pages of "Life Magazine," see what Americans knew in September 1939. Great primary resource for students.
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READING: The United States Enters World War II, Facing History and Ourselves
Examine the history of the United States’ entrance into World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor.
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VIDEO LESSON: Anthony Acevedo (37:31), Christina Chaverria/USHMM
Christina presents the story of Anthony Acevedo to the Holt High School/Tuscaloosa classroom of Mindy Walker, October 2020. Acevedo was a Mexican American who served as a US Army medic during World War II. He was captured by German troops during the Battle of the Bulge and held as a prisoner of war (POW) in the Berga subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. While there, he kept a secret diary of his experiences, including a record of his fellow American soldiers’ deaths.
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VIDEO: U.S. Enters World War II, Historical Film Footage (2:54), USHMM
December 8, 1941: Portion of the speech in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the US Congress to declare war on Japan following the previous day's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
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VIDEO/ANIMATED: Tony-A Soldier’s Journey (6:51), USHMM
US Army medic Tony Acevedo was among hundreds of American soldiers forced to surrender to the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. He was captured in January 1945 and taken to a prisoner-of-war camp, where he and his comrades were beaten and tortured. Tony recorded every atrocity and death he witnessed in a secret diary to honor his fellow soldiers and keep their memory alive. View Tony’s diary and related artifacts: https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/anthony-acevedo
- U.S. Policy
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Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945
This 174-page piece was put out by the Center for Cryptologic History at the National Security Agency, 2004.
- FDR’s Response to Kristallnacht: Another Look, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
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LESSON: US Policy and the Holocaust Refugee Crisis – Weighing the Evidence, National Archives
This activity introduces students to the dispute between U.S. Government agencies over rescuing Europe's Jews from extermination during the Holocaust. Using memos from the State and Treasury Departments, as well as presidential proclamations and Congressional legislation, students will: 1. Identify impediments to the admission of refugees to the United States 2. Explore actions taken by various U.S. officials to both rescue and block immigration of European Jews 3. Explain the roles of the State and Treasury Departments in rescuing refugees
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: What did Refugees Need to Obtain a US Visa in the 1930s?, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
As the Nazi regime’s attacks intensified in the late 1930s, hundreds of thousands of Jews in Germany tried to immigrate to the United States. To enter the United States, each person needed an immigration visa stamped into his or her passport. It was difficult to get the necessary papers to leave Germany, and US immigration visas were difficult to obtain. The process could take years. EXPLORE THE SEVEN STEPS THAT WERE REQUIRED FOR THOSE SEEKING TO IMMIGRATE TO THE UNITED STATES.
- U.S. Policy and Its Impact on European Jews, USHMM
- U.S. Policy Toward Jewish Refugees, 1941-1952, USHMM
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VIDEO: How Did FDR’s Leadership Shape American Responses to the Nazi Threat? (1:28:27), USHMM
In a new biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, distinguished historian Robert Dallek examines complex questions about the US president, who came to power the same year as Adolf Hitler in Germany, prepared America to fight a Second World War, and died as US troops saw the first physical evidence of the Holocaust. On December 13, 2017, the Museum hosted a discussion to offer fresh perspectives to questions such as how did Roosevelt deal with an isolationist nation? What shaped his response to the persecution of Jews?
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VIDEO: The Conspiracy Theory of World War II (5:40), Yad Vashem
Prof. Jeffrey Herf explores the place antisemitism held in Nazi propaganda, addressing the question of why this phenomenon assumed genocidal proportions between 1941 and 1945.
- Wagner-Rogers Bill, 1939
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LESSON: A Case Study on the Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Teaching Materials
By examining the Wagner-Rogers Bill of 1939, students learn how Americans debated the country’s role as a haven for refugees, identifying economic, social, and geopolitical factors that influenced Americans’ attitudes about the United States’ role in the world during the critical years 1938–1941. Using primary-source documents, students identify and evaluate arguments that Americans made for and against the acceptance of child refugees in 1939. The lesson concludes with reflection on questions that this history raises about America’s role in the world today.
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LESSON: The Wagner-Rogers Bill: Debate, American Immigration Law Foundation
This lesson allows students to develop and hear the arguments for and against the Wagner-Rogers bill, by taking part in a mock Congressional debate on the bill. Students are encouraged to develop and listen to persuasive testimony and speeches, and to come up with creative strategies to change the legislation in ways in which it might be more acceptable.
- POLITICAL CARTOON: Please Ring the Bell for Us, Francis Knott, July 1939
- PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Wagner-Rogers Refugee Bill Backed at Hearing, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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The Immigration of Refugee Children to the US, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Numerous organizations and individuals attempted to bring unaccompanied children, mostly German Jewish children, to the United States between 1933 and 1945. More than one thousand unaccompanied children escaped Nazi persecution by immigrating to the United States as part of these organized efforts. This article provides a summary of this work.
- The Wagner-Rogers Bill, Jewish Virtual Library
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Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The 1939 Wagner-Rogers Bill is the common name for two identical congressional bills (one in the US House of Representatives and one in the US Senate) that proposed admitting 20,000 German refugee children to the United States outside of immigration quotas. Despite congressional hearings and public debate in the spring of 1939, the bills never came to a vote.
- War Refugee Board, 1944
- [Fort Ontario] Emergency Refugee Shelter, USHMM
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[Fort Ontario] Oral Histories: Emergency Refugee Shelter at Fort Ontario, Oswego State University of New York
The interviews were done in connection with the Refugees' 40th reunion in New York City and contain interviews with and about Fort Ontario Refugees. NOTE: Jack Bass mentioned in these tapes is not Jack Bass from Birmingham.
- [Fort Ontario] Ruth Gruber Finds Haven for 1,000 Holocaust Refugees, Jewish Women’s Archives
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[Fort Ontario] Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum
The Safe Haven Holocaust Refugee Shelter Museum is dedicated to keeping alive the story of the 982 European refugees who were allowed into the United States as “guests” of President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Holocaust in World War II. They were temporarily housed at Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York from August 1944 – February 1946.
- January 22, 1944: President Established War Refugee Board, History Unfolded/US Newspapers and the Holocaust
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READING: A Report on the Murder of Jews, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the memo that urged President Roosevelt to step up US efforts to rescue Jews from the Nazis, and led him to establish the War Refugee Board.
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Records of the War Refugee Board, 1944-1945 | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum
This significant Holocaust-era research collection consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence, memoranda, telegrams, reports, petitions, vouchers, press clippings, and related papers pertaining to policies, programs, and operations of the War Refugee Board.
- The U.S. and the Holocaust: Wartime Rescue Activity, USHMM
- The War Refugee Board, Jewish Virtual Library
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War Refugee Board Receives Report on Final Solution, Jewish Virtual Library
This letter from the War Refugee Board refers to the report written by Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler describing what they had seen before escaping from Auschwitz-Birkenau on April 7, 1944.
- War Refugee Board: Background and Establishment, USHMM
- Warnings From Europe
- [Karski] Alerting the World: Jan Karski, USHMM
- [Karski] Jan Karski Educational Foundation
- [Karski] Jan Karski-Humanity’s Hero, Polish History Museum
- [Karski] VIDEO: Jan Karski-How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust (5:38), remember.org
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[Karski] VIDEO: Warning the World (5:18), Facing History and Ourselves
Jan Karski, a diplomat and member of the Polish resistance, describes his experience in the Warsaw Ghetto and his meeting with U.S. President Roosevelt.
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Escapees from Auschwitz-Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, remember.org
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Exposing Auschwitz, aish.com
- [Wetzler-Vrba] The First Report About Auschwitz by John S. Conway, Museum of Tolerance
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[Wetzler-Vrba] VIDEO: Escape From Auschwitz (53:52), PBS
The death factory at Auschwitz was a closely guarded secret of the Third Reich – until two men, Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, escaped to tell the world about the Nazi atrocities. Escape from Auschwitz reveals the story of their escape and explores the controversial decision by the head of the Hungarian underground not to make their report public.
- Allies Knew of Plan for Italy’s Jews, Jewish Virtual Library
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BBC: 700,000 Jews Killed in Poland, Jewish Virtual Library
Report from June 2, 1942.
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British Doubt Reports on Mass Murder of Polish Jews, Jewish Virtual Library
August 1943
- When Did the World Find Out About the Holocaust?, Jewish Virtual Library
- Art
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“Coping Through Art – Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Theresienstadt”, Yad Vashem
Conditions in Theresienstadt were appalling, and even more so for children who had to first cope with the enormous trauma and life-changing upheaval that deportation wreaked upon their young lives. Realizing that art could be a therapeutic tool to help children to deal with their feelings of loss, sorrow, fear, and uncertainty, Friedl set about teaching over 600 children with the enormous enthusiasm and energy that her friends, colleagues and students remember as being so typical for her.
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A Testament to the Artist: Restoring Alfred Kantor’s Sketchbook and Portfolio, Museum of Jewish Heritage
"The Book of Alfred Kantor: contains 127 sketches and paintings, most of which were made during his incarceration in three concentration camps. Some were re-creations after the war. Alfred Kantor (1923, Prague - 2003, Maine) was expelled from the Rottner School of Advertising in Prague in 1941 because he was Jewish. Soon after he was deported to Theresienstadt. During his time there, Kantor painted and sketched daily life -- even the fake shops set up for the Red Cross visit in 1944. When he learned that he was to be deported to Auschwitz, Kantor left those drawings with a close friend, who returned them after the war. At Auschwitz, art supplied were more difficult to find, especially since art was totally prohibited. Kantor was slipped a watercolor set while working in the sick ward. His finished pieces were either destroyed or hidden. In 1944, Kantor was transferred to Schwarzheide, a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. After the war ended, Kantor was transported back to Theresienstadt
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Aaron Morgan, “The Mound Series,”University of Minnesota
Art, like his Jewish heritage, has always been at the core of Aaron Morgan’s being. A native New Yorker, he was trained at the High School of Art & Design. Morgan traces his Jewish roots far back before his father changed the family name in 1927 from Morgenstern to Morgan. The Mound Series is based on the Hassidic tale of the 36 hidden Tzaddikim. In Kabbalistic folklore, the thirty-six hidden ones have the potential to save the world: they appear when they are needed, and one of them might be the Messiah. In almost all the works of art, thirty-five of the thirty-six figures are represented. One is not. The others — gone, buried, ashes. One escapes; one of the thirty-six survives . . . The Jewish people survive!
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Art & Remembrance
Inspired by the art and story of Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, Art and Remembrance draws on the power and passion of Esther’s art and story–and other first-person narratives told through art–to educate about the Holocaust and other forms of social injustice; to open hearts and minds to the experiences of others; and to give voice to those who may yet share their stories through the healing power of art.
- Art, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
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ART: “Couple with Czech Shield, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It depicts a couple leaning on a shield bearing the Czech coat of arms. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
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ART: “Next Year in Jerusalem” by Jo Spier
Watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier and given to Moritz and Hildegard Henschel while they were imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people dancing through a stone gate, leaving behind a trail of Star of David badges. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after liberation. Moritz was an influential lawyer in Berlin when Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. As government persecution of Jews intensified, Moritz and Hildegard sent their daughters Marianne, 15, to Palestine and Lilly, 13, to England in 1939. Moritz was on the board of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, created by the Nazi government in February 1939 to organize Jewish affairs. The Association was eventually forced to assist with deportations. In 1940, Moritz became president of the Berlin Jewish Community. In January 1943, Moritz became president of the Reich Association, when Leo Baeck was deported. On June 10, 1943, the Reich Association was shut down and Moritz and Hildegard were deported to Theresienstadt. Moritz was elected to the Jewish Council and put in charge of the Freizeitgestaltung, which produced cultural events and materials. On May 9, 1945, the camp was liberated by Soviet forces. Moritz and Hildegard went to Deggendorf displaced persons camp, then immigrated to Palestine in 1946.
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ART: “Transport Arrival, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people walking along a city street, many disabled or crutches; others pull a wagons, one with a Star of David. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943. He was deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
- ART: Auschwitz Paintings by Survivor Jan Komski, remember.org
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ART: Images from Auschwitz-Birkenau by John Wiernicki
Watercolor and ink drawings created after the war. Includes biography of John Wiernicki.
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ART: My Nazi Death Camp Childhood Diary-in Pictures, by Helga Weiss
Helga Weiss, a Czech Jewish girl, was sent with her parents to the concentration camp at Terezin, a few days after her 12th birthday in 1941. She kept a diary, in words and pictures, and when she and her mother were sent on to Auschwitz in 1944, her uncle hid the diary in a brick wall for safekeeping. These are some of the pictures from her diary, which has only now been published.
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ART: The Warsaw Ghetto by Israel Bernbaum, University of Minnesota
Israel Bernbaum was a Jew born in Warsaw, Poland in 1920,escaping Warsaw before the ghetto was sealed. He survived the war living in the Soviet Union, coming to the United States in 1957 after being repatriated to Poland from the USSR as a Polish national. While working as a dental technician, Bernbaum studied art at Queens College, graduating with a B.A. in 1973. This was the period when he produced his first large works dealing with the Holocaust experiences. In particular, Bernbaum aimed his images at young people in the hope that simplicity of image, color, and almost a cartoon-like form would help tell the story of Jewish suffering. Familiar images appear in his works such as portraits of Anne Frank, the child from the Stroop Report photos of the Warsaw Ghetto, and especially images of destruction with street names in the field of debris around Warsaw. Other images deal with the deportation of the children of the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka and the heroism of Janusz Korczak.
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Arthur Szyk: Artist for Freedom, Library of Congress
Arthur Szyk (1894–1951) was one America's leading political artists during World War II, when he produced hundreds of anti-Axis illustrations and cartoons in aid of the Allied war effort. Throughout his career he created art in the service of human rights and civil liberties—in his native Poland, in Paris where he was trained during the 1920s, and in America, the country he adopted in 1940. Settling in the United States, Szyk announced, “At last, I have found the home I have always searched for. Here I can speak of what my soul feels. There is no other place on earth that gives one the freedom, liberty and justice that America does.”
- Artists’ Responses to the Holocaust, Imperial War Museum
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Artwork of Zinovii Tolkatchev, Yad Vashem
In the USSR, probably the first and foremost Jewish artist who dealt with the Holocaust from a liberator’s perspective was Zinovii Tolkatchev, who served as an official artist for a Soviet Army documentation unit.
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Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Jewish Museum Berlin
The exhibition "Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto" presents works by the graphic artist Bedřich Fritta (1906–1944), produced between 1942 and 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The majority of Bedrich Fritta's large ink drawings and sketches, numbering more than one hundred, survived in hiding. This survey exhibition focuses on the aesthetic techniques through which Fritta interpreted and commented on daily ghetto life. It reveals the diversity of his visual language and the extraordinary artistic quality of his drawings and sketches.
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Chess in the Art of Samuel Bak, University of Minnesota
Samuel Bak was born on August 12, 1933 in Vilna, Poland at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under first Soviet, then German occupation. Bak's artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine. While both he and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis.
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David Friedmann, “Because They Were Jews!”, University of Minnesota
David Friedmann's successful career as an artist was shattered by the Holocaust. After liberation, he produced a legacy of artwork to commemorate the millions of Jews who perished, as well as to record mans' inhumanity to man. His burning desire was to show the world what persecution, torment, and agony was like as practiced by the Nazis, so that it would never happen again.
- David Olere Art Analysis Lesson, Rich Gair, Professor of Holocaust Studies
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David Olere Drawings & Paintings, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
Full gallery with descriptions.
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Dr. Robert Fisch, University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Robert 0. Fisch, is a native of Budapest, Hungary and a survivor of Nazi concentration camps including Mauthausen. He completed medical school in Hungary, and came to America in 1957. Dr. Fisch became a medical intern and eventually a professor in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, where he practiced and taught until his retirement. This site provide background into his life and video footage about his life.
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Eli Leskley’s Ghetto Diary, University of Minnesota
Born in 1911, Leskley painted 70 satiric watercolors while he was interned in Theresienstadt. The works are reflective of daily life in the ghetto. Fearing for his and his wife's life he cut up many of the originals into small fragments, which his wife smartly hid. They were retrieved after the war and Leskley recreated each one. All of the following images relate to life in Theresienstadt. They reflect the irony and the complexities that was life in Theresienstadt.
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Esther Lurie, Scenes from the Kovno Ghetto, University of Minnesota
Esther Lurie(1913-1998) was born in Liepaja, Latvia, emigrated to Palestine in 1934 and returned to the Baltic States several times for exhibitions. She was caught in Lithuania when the war between Germany and the USSR broke out in 1941 and survived the Kovno Ghetto and Stutthoff concentration camp. Many of her works survived in hidden spaces of the Ghetto.
- EXHIBIT: The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk, USHMM
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Felix Nussbaum: Self Portraits of a Jew in Turmoil, Yad Vashem
Felix Nussbaum was a German Jew caught in the relentless downward spiral of Nazi persecution, an artist who in the prime of his creative life had to focus on his own survival. In the end, he was murdered by people who saw him only as an object of hatred - a Jew - rather than as an extraordinarily talented human being with a gift to bring beauty into the world.
- Illuminations: The Art of Samuel Bak, Facing History and Ourselves
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Joseph Bau, Minnesota Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Mr. Bau was born in Krakow, Poland in 1920. His education was interrupted by World War II, during which he was interned in Plaszow concentration camp, to a subcamp of Gross Rosen, and then to Oscar Schindler's cam/factory at Zablocie where he stayed until the end of the war. He immigrated to Israel in 1950 and worked as a graphic artist. This collection of work offers a unique perspective of his work.
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LESSON: “A Childhood Ensnared in Tears,” Creative Use of Holocaust Imagery in the Classroom, Yad Vashem
Using the work of Chava Wolf, a Jewish child during the Holocaust, students will not only contemplate the symbolism in her brightly colored, child-like paintings, but will also create through their own artwork.
- LESSON: Teaching the Holocaust: Light from the Yellow Star Leads the Way, Holocaust Teacher Resource Center
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Light From the Yellow Star, Dr. Robert O. Fisch, University of Minnesota
Dr. Robert O. Fisch is a retired pediatrician and visual artist as well as a Holocaust survivor. His art expresses issues of humanity that he hopes will heal the world in the aftermath of the Holocaust. "Light From The Yellow Star" offers a narrative of Dr. Fisch's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp through eloquent paintings and moving prose. the text exudes an optimism and hopefulness about life, even though it recounts a personal story of terrible suffering.
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Light from the Yellow Star, Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
From the collection at the University of Minnesota, this includes all of the images from the book as well as the artists statement for each.
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Monuments Men Foundation
The Monuments Men Foundation honors the legacy of the men and women who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, known as the "Monuments Men," and their unprecedented and heroic work protecting and safeguarding civilization's most important artistic and cultural treasures from armed conflict during World War II.
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Moshe Matarosso Collection, USHMM
Matarossa was a Holocaust survivor, born in Thessaloniki, Greece 1927. In 1941 the Germans invaded Greece. In February 1943, the deportations began, and Moshe was taken to Auschwitz.
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Murals of the Holocaust, PBS
For over 20 years, a summer program for gifted adolescents at Western Kentucky University has offered an arts-integrated history course on Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The course concludes with students working as a group to create a large mural on the Holocaust. In this way, students use the power of art to deal with their own emotions as well as to educate others. The murals from the past 20 years went on a traveling display in Kentucky to engage a broader audience in thought-provoking conversation on the topic. In this video collection, hear the stories of a Holocaust survivor and the son of a Holocaust survivor who are involved with the program, learn how students in the program decided on a theme for their mural, and learn how one teacher incorporates the arts into Holocaust history lessons.
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PICTORIAL DIARY: Erich Lichtblau-Leskly, Theresienstadt 1942-1945
While imprisoned in Theresienstadt (Terezin) Ghetto, Erich Lichtblau-Leskly artistically depicted the daily lives of its residents, poignantly capturing the complications and ironies of ghetto life. His paintings are rendered in a cartoon style, and many are sarcastic commentary on the desperate conditions under which the Jewish prisoners existed, contradicting Nazi propaganda that promoted Theresienstadt as a model facility where Jews supposedly were well treated. It’s clear that he’s only showing them to his wife and not to other people, because he’s making fun of a lot of the other people, including people who could have punished him. In the spring of 1945, Lichtblau-Leskly cut most of his artwork into pieces. His wife, Elsa Lichtblau, hid the fragmented artwork under the floorboards of the barracks, and Lichtblau-Leskly was able to retrieve it after liberation. While living in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s, he reworked these fragments into larger watercolor illustrations.
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Samuel Bak – An Arduous Road, Yad Vashem
An online exhibition.
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Samuel Bak, Alchetron
Some of Samuel Bak's paintings as well as links to YouTube videos about the artist and his work.
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Shelomo Selinger, University of Minnesota
Shelomo Selinger is an Israeli sculptor and artist who was born in Jaworzno, Poland in 1928. Selinger was a prisoner in nine concentration camps (including to Gross-Rosen). He was found in a pile of bodies by a Russian-Jewish medical doctor in the liberating Red Army in Theresienstadt. He had a long recovery, mentally as he suffered from amnesia for seven years, in regards to his war time experiences. He immigrated to Israel in 1946, and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1955-1958. A series of drawings in pen and ink by Selinger done in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Selinger's depiction of the conditions and brutality of the German concentration camps are done in a style that creates a fragmented narrative but provides sufficient indication of the violence so that the story is well understood.
- Speaking About the Unspeakable: A Lecture by Samuel Bak, University of Minnesota
- Teaching About Auschwitz Through Art, Yad Vashem
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Teaching the Holocaust with Visual Art, University of Minnesota
Search is available by artist or places. Very helpful for adding art to your curriculum.
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The Arthur Szyk Collection, JSTOR
Irvin Ungar describes the life and work of artist Arthur Szyk.
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The Inclusion of Art in a Study of the Holocaust, Alabama Holocaust Education Center
References artwork contained in the AHEC PowerPoint, "The Holocaust."
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VIDEO (1/5): Teaching the Holocaust Using Art (12:28), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Art - Introduction Part 2: Felix Nussbaum - Le Réfugié (The Refugee) Part 3: Halina Olomucki - The Armband Peddler Part 4: Carol Deutsch – “In Her Mouth Was an Olive Leaf” Part 5: Artwork & Credits
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VIDEO (2/5): Teaching the Holocaust Using Art-Felix Nussbaum (12:28), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Art - Introduction Part 2: Felix Nussbaum - Le Réfugié (The Refugee) Part 3: Halina Olomucki - The Armband Peddler Part 4: Carol Deutsch – “In Her Mouth Was an Olive Leaf” Part 5: Artwork & Credits
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VIDEO (3/5): Teaching the Holocaust Using Art-Halina Olomucki (12:28), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Art - Introduction Part 2: Felix Nussbaum - Le Réfugié (The Refugee) Part 3: Halina Olomucki - The Armband Peddler Part 4: Carol Deutsch – “In Her Mouth Was an Olive Leaf” Part 5: Artwork & Credits
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VIDEO (4/5): Teaching the Holocaust Using Art-Carol Deutsch (12:28), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Art - Introduction Part 2: Felix Nussbaum - Le Réfugié (The Refugee) Part 3: Halina Olomucki - The Armband Peddler Part 4: Carol Deutsch – “In Her Mouth Was an Olive Leaf” Part 5: Artwork & Credits
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VIDEO: “Draw What You See” by Helga Weissova (3:54)
On an Auschwitz platform in 1944, Helga Weiss and her mother fooled one of the most reviled men in modern history, Josef Mengele, and managed to save their lives. Not long into her teens, Weiss lied about her age, claiming she was old enough to work for her keep. Her mother persuaded the Nazis that Helga was in fact her daughter's older sister, and she was sent to the forced labor barracks and not the gas chamber. Throughout her journey, Helga's father told her, "Draw what you see." And she did. This video tells her story through her drawings.
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VIDEO: “SS Dog” by Leon Haas (3:41), Yad Vashem / Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the work "SS Dog", created in the camp by Leo Hass, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem.
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin – Leo Haas (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the work "SS Dog", created in the camp by Leo Hass, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction "SS Dog" by Leo Hass
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin-Guidelines for Educators (3:52), Yad Vashem Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem.
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin-Petr Ginz (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the children's newspaper "Vedem", created in the camp by Petr Ginz and his friends, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Petr Ginz - "Vedem"
- VIDEO: Spiritual Survival-Art During the Holocaust (43:39), Yad Vashem
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VIDEO: Through the Eye of the Needle – The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz (30:02), YouTube
More than 40 years after the Holocaust, Esther Nisenthal Krinitz depicted her remarkable story of survival through a stunningly beautiful series of 36 fabric collage and embroidery panels. Through Esther’s own words and images of her artwork, as well as interviews with her daughters and others,this 30-minute film explores the capacity of the human heart to heal. Through these reflections, we are reminded that genocide and acts of baseless hatred are still with us, and that Esther’s story, and those like hers, compel us to build a just and peaceful world for all.
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Wolfgang Hergeth, the “Janusz Korczak Cycle,” University of Minnesota
Wolfgang Hergeth was born on January 21, 1946 in Silberbach, Czechoslovakia. The "Janusz Korczak Cycle" was introduced in 1998 at the Uhlberghalle in Filderstadt, Germany. Janusz Korczak, born Henryk Goldsmit in Warsaw on July 22, 1878, was a prominent, Polish Jewish pediatrician, professor, and founder of an internationally respected children's home. His personal sacrifice is beyond measure. After the fall of Poland, when the Germans proceeded to transport to the Warsaw Ghetto Jews from all over Warsaw and beyond, the orphanage was overwhelmed. Yet from beginning to end Korczak was the shield that protected all who were under his care -- his children. He resolved to go with them wherever they might be taken. As it turned out, this meant to Treblinka and to death. In the decades since the Holocaust, tales of this martyred Jewish doctor have taken on a legendary quality, especially the spectacular drama that unfolded on his last journey with the children. With the cycle, Hergeth creates eleven paintings dedicated to Korczak giving expression to Korczak's own views of the calamity unfolding in his midst, including the expected fate that awaited his condemned children.
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Yellow Star Foundation
The Yellow Star Foundation website builds on the great success of Dr. Robert Fisch's book, "Light from The Yellow Star: Lessons of Love From the Holocaust," to teach students about the Holocaust. The website includes lesson plans, video clips, a teachers’ forum, classroom ideas, links to resources, classroom dos and don’ts, information about the Holocaust, and profiles of projects successfully used in other parts of the country.
- Aaron Morgan
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Aaron Morgan, “The Mound Series,”University of Minnesota
Art, like his Jewish heritage, has always been at the core of Aaron Morgan’s being. A native New Yorker, he was trained at the High School of Art & Design. Morgan traces his Jewish roots far back before his father changed the family name in 1927 from Morgenstern to Morgan. The Mound Series is based on the Hassidic tale of the 36 hidden Tzaddikim. In Kabbalistic folklore, the thirty-six hidden ones have the potential to save the world: they appear when they are needed, and one of them might be the Messiah. In almost all the works of art, thirty-five of the thirty-six figures are represented. One is not. The others — gone, buried, ashes. One escapes; one of the thirty-six survives . . . The Jewish people survive!
- Alfred Kantor
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A Testament to the Artist: Restoring Alfred Kantor’s Sketchbook and Portfolio, Museum of Jewish Heritage
"The Book of Alfred Kantor: contains 127 sketches and paintings, most of which were made during his incarceration in three concentration camps. Some were re-creations after the war. Alfred Kantor (1923, Prague - 2003, Maine) was expelled from the Rottner School of Advertising in Prague in 1941 because he was Jewish. Soon after he was deported to Theresienstadt. During his time there, Kantor painted and sketched daily life -- even the fake shops set up for the Red Cross visit in 1944. When he learned that he was to be deported to Auschwitz, Kantor left those drawings with a close friend, who returned them after the war. At Auschwitz, art supplied were more difficult to find, especially since art was totally prohibited. Kantor was slipped a watercolor set while working in the sick ward. His finished pieces were either destroyed or hidden. In 1944, Kantor was transferred to Schwarzheide, a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. After the war ended, Kantor was transported back to Theresienstadt
- Arthur Szyk
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Arthur Szyk: Artist for Freedom, Library of Congress
Arthur Szyk (1894–1951) was one America's leading political artists during World War II, when he produced hundreds of anti-Axis illustrations and cartoons in aid of the Allied war effort. Throughout his career he created art in the service of human rights and civil liberties—in his native Poland, in Paris where he was trained during the 1920s, and in America, the country he adopted in 1940. Settling in the United States, Szyk announced, “At last, I have found the home I have always searched for. Here I can speak of what my soul feels. There is no other place on earth that gives one the freedom, liberty and justice that America does.”
- EXHIBIT: The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk, USHMM
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The Arthur Szyk Collection, JSTOR
Irvin Ungar describes the life and work of artist Arthur Szyk.
- Bedřich Fritta
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Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Jewish Museum Berlin
The exhibition "Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto" presents works by the graphic artist Bedřich Fritta (1906–1944), produced between 1942 and 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The majority of Bedrich Fritta's large ink drawings and sketches, numbering more than one hundred, survived in hiding. This survey exhibition focuses on the aesthetic techniques through which Fritta interpreted and commented on daily ghetto life. It reveals the diversity of his visual language and the extraordinary artistic quality of his drawings and sketches.
- Carol Deutsch
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VIDEO (4/5): Teaching the Holocaust Using Art-Carol Deutsch (12:28), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Art - Introduction Part 2: Felix Nussbaum - Le Réfugié (The Refugee) Part 3: Halina Olomucki - The Armband Peddler Part 4: Carol Deutsch – “In Her Mouth Was an Olive Leaf” Part 5: Artwork & Credits
- David Friedmann
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David Friedmann, “Because They Were Jews!”, University of Minnesota
David Friedmann's successful career as an artist was shattered by the Holocaust. After liberation, he produced a legacy of artwork to commemorate the millions of Jews who perished, as well as to record mans' inhumanity to man. His burning desire was to show the world what persecution, torment, and agony was like as practiced by the Nazis, so that it would never happen again.
- David Olere
- David Olere Art Analysis Lesson, Rich Gair, Professor of Holocaust Studies
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David Olere Drawings & Paintings, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
Full gallery with descriptions.
- Dr. Robert O. Fisch
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Dr. Robert Fisch, University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Robert 0. Fisch, is a native of Budapest, Hungary and a survivor of Nazi concentration camps including Mauthausen. He completed medical school in Hungary, and came to America in 1957. Dr. Fisch became a medical intern and eventually a professor in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, where he practiced and taught until his retirement. This site provide background into his life and video footage about his life.
- LESSON: Teaching the Holocaust: Light from the Yellow Star Leads the Way, Holocaust Teacher Resource Center
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Light From the Yellow Star, Dr. Robert O. Fisch, University of Minnesota
Dr. Robert O. Fisch is a retired pediatrician and visual artist as well as a Holocaust survivor. His art expresses issues of humanity that he hopes will heal the world in the aftermath of the Holocaust. "Light From The Yellow Star" offers a narrative of Dr. Fisch's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp through eloquent paintings and moving prose. the text exudes an optimism and hopefulness about life, even though it recounts a personal story of terrible suffering.
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Light from the Yellow Star, Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
From the collection at the University of Minnesota, this includes all of the images from the book as well as the artists statement for each.
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Yellow Star Foundation
The Yellow Star Foundation website builds on the great success of Dr. Robert Fisch's book, "Light from The Yellow Star: Lessons of Love From the Holocaust," to teach students about the Holocaust. The website includes lesson plans, video clips, a teachers’ forum, classroom ideas, links to resources, classroom dos and don’ts, information about the Holocaust, and profiles of projects successfully used in other parts of the country.
- Erich Lichtblau-Leskly
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Eli Leskley’s Ghetto Diary, University of Minnesota
Born in 1911, Leskley painted 70 satiric watercolors while he was interned in Theresienstadt. The works are reflective of daily life in the ghetto. Fearing for his and his wife's life he cut up many of the originals into small fragments, which his wife smartly hid. They were retrieved after the war and Leskley recreated each one. All of the following images relate to life in Theresienstadt. They reflect the irony and the complexities that was life in Theresienstadt.
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PICTORIAL DIARY: Erich Lichtblau-Leskly, Theresienstadt 1942-1945
While imprisoned in Theresienstadt (Terezin) Ghetto, Erich Lichtblau-Leskly artistically depicted the daily lives of its residents, poignantly capturing the complications and ironies of ghetto life. His paintings are rendered in a cartoon style, and many are sarcastic commentary on the desperate conditions under which the Jewish prisoners existed, contradicting Nazi propaganda that promoted Theresienstadt as a model facility where Jews supposedly were well treated. It’s clear that he’s only showing them to his wife and not to other people, because he’s making fun of a lot of the other people, including people who could have punished him. In the spring of 1945, Lichtblau-Leskly cut most of his artwork into pieces. His wife, Elsa Lichtblau, hid the fragmented artwork under the floorboards of the barracks, and Lichtblau-Leskly was able to retrieve it after liberation. While living in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s, he reworked these fragments into larger watercolor illustrations.
- Esther Lurie
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Esther Lurie, Scenes from the Kovno Ghetto, University of Minnesota
Esther Lurie(1913-1998) was born in Liepaja, Latvia, emigrated to Palestine in 1934 and returned to the Baltic States several times for exhibitions. She was caught in Lithuania when the war between Germany and the USSR broke out in 1941 and survived the Kovno Ghetto and Stutthoff concentration camp. Many of her works survived in hidden spaces of the Ghetto.
- Esther Nisenthal Krinitz
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Art & Remembrance
Inspired by the art and story of Holocaust survivor Esther Nisenthal Krinitz, Art and Remembrance draws on the power and passion of Esther’s art and story–and other first-person narratives told through art–to educate about the Holocaust and other forms of social injustice; to open hearts and minds to the experiences of others; and to give voice to those who may yet share their stories through the healing power of art.
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VIDEO: Through the Eye of the Needle – The Art of Esther Nisenthal Krinitz (30:02), YouTube
More than 40 years after the Holocaust, Esther Nisenthal Krinitz depicted her remarkable story of survival through a stunningly beautiful series of 36 fabric collage and embroidery panels. Through Esther’s own words and images of her artwork, as well as interviews with her daughters and others,this 30-minute film explores the capacity of the human heart to heal. Through these reflections, we are reminded that genocide and acts of baseless hatred are still with us, and that Esther’s story, and those like hers, compel us to build a just and peaceful world for all.
- Felix Nussbaum
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Felix Nussbaum: Self Portraits of a Jew in Turmoil, Yad Vashem
Felix Nussbaum was a German Jew caught in the relentless downward spiral of Nazi persecution, an artist who in the prime of his creative life had to focus on his own survival. In the end, he was murdered by people who saw him only as an object of hatred - a Jew - rather than as an extraordinarily talented human being with a gift to bring beauty into the world.
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VIDEO (2/5): Teaching the Holocaust Using Art-Felix Nussbaum (12:28), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Art - Introduction Part 2: Felix Nussbaum - Le Réfugié (The Refugee) Part 3: Halina Olomucki - The Armband Peddler Part 4: Carol Deutsch – “In Her Mouth Was an Olive Leaf” Part 5: Artwork & Credits
- Halina Olomucki
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VIDEO (3/5): Teaching the Holocaust Using Art-Halina Olomucki (12:28), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust using Art", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby discusses various approaches to utilizing Holocaust art in teaching the Holocaust to your students. As she stresses, a teacher does not have to be an expert in the field to broach this topic. Focusing on three individual artworks, Elsby demonstrates how exploring the artistic aspects of each painting, together with the context in which they were created and the questions they raise, combine to deepen our understanding of the Holocaust as a human event. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Art - Introduction Part 2: Felix Nussbaum - Le Réfugié (The Refugee) Part 3: Halina Olomucki - The Armband Peddler Part 4: Carol Deutsch – “In Her Mouth Was an Olive Leaf” Part 5: Artwork & Credits
- Helga Weiss
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ART: My Nazi Death Camp Childhood Diary-in Pictures, by Helga Weiss
Helga Weiss, a Czech Jewish girl, was sent with her parents to the concentration camp at Terezin, a few days after her 12th birthday in 1941. She kept a diary, in words and pictures, and when she and her mother were sent on to Auschwitz in 1944, her uncle hid the diary in a brick wall for safekeeping. These are some of the pictures from her diary, which has only now been published.
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VIDEO: “Draw What You See” by Helga Weissova (3:54)
On an Auschwitz platform in 1944, Helga Weiss and her mother fooled one of the most reviled men in modern history, Josef Mengele, and managed to save their lives. Not long into her teens, Weiss lied about her age, claiming she was old enough to work for her keep. Her mother persuaded the Nazis that Helga was in fact her daughter's older sister, and she was sent to the forced labor barracks and not the gas chamber. Throughout her journey, Helga's father told her, "Draw what you see." And she did. This video tells her story through her drawings.
- Israel Bernbaum
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ART: The Warsaw Ghetto by Israel Bernbaum, University of Minnesota
Israel Bernbaum was a Jew born in Warsaw, Poland in 1920,escaping Warsaw before the ghetto was sealed. He survived the war living in the Soviet Union, coming to the United States in 1957 after being repatriated to Poland from the USSR as a Polish national. While working as a dental technician, Bernbaum studied art at Queens College, graduating with a B.A. in 1973. This was the period when he produced his first large works dealing with the Holocaust experiences. In particular, Bernbaum aimed his images at young people in the hope that simplicity of image, color, and almost a cartoon-like form would help tell the story of Jewish suffering. Familiar images appear in his works such as portraits of Anne Frank, the child from the Stroop Report photos of the Warsaw Ghetto, and especially images of destruction with street names in the field of debris around Warsaw. Other images deal with the deportation of the children of the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka and the heroism of Janusz Korczak.
- Jan Komski
- John Wiernicki
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ART: Images from Auschwitz-Birkenau by John Wiernicki
Watercolor and ink drawings created after the war. Includes biography of John Wiernicki.
- Joseph Bau
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Joseph Bau, Minnesota Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Mr. Bau was born in Krakow, Poland in 1920. His education was interrupted by World War II, during which he was interned in Plaszow concentration camp, to a subcamp of Gross Rosen, and then to Oscar Schindler's cam/factory at Zablocie where he stayed until the end of the war. He immigrated to Israel in 1950 and worked as a graphic artist. This collection of work offers a unique perspective of his work.
- Joseph Spier
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ART: “Couple with Czech Shield, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It depicts a couple leaning on a shield bearing the Czech coat of arms. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
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ART: “Next Year in Jerusalem” by Jo Spier
Watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier and given to Moritz and Hildegard Henschel while they were imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people dancing through a stone gate, leaving behind a trail of Star of David badges. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after liberation. Moritz was an influential lawyer in Berlin when Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. As government persecution of Jews intensified, Moritz and Hildegard sent their daughters Marianne, 15, to Palestine and Lilly, 13, to England in 1939. Moritz was on the board of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, created by the Nazi government in February 1939 to organize Jewish affairs. The Association was eventually forced to assist with deportations. In 1940, Moritz became president of the Berlin Jewish Community. In January 1943, Moritz became president of the Reich Association, when Leo Baeck was deported. On June 10, 1943, the Reich Association was shut down and Moritz and Hildegard were deported to Theresienstadt. Moritz was elected to the Jewish Council and put in charge of the Freizeitgestaltung, which produced cultural events and materials. On May 9, 1945, the camp was liberated by Soviet forces. Moritz and Hildegard went to Deggendorf displaced persons camp, then immigrated to Palestine in 1946.
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ART: “Transport Arrival, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people walking along a city street, many disabled or crutches; others pull a wagons, one with a Star of David. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943. He was deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
- Leo Haas
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VIDEO: “SS Dog” by Leon Haas (3:41), Yad Vashem / Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the work "SS Dog", created in the camp by Leo Hass, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem.
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin – Leo Haas (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the work "SS Dog", created in the camp by Leo Hass, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction "SS Dog" by Leo Hass
- Moshe Matarasso
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Moshe Matarosso Collection, USHMM
Matarossa was a Holocaust survivor, born in Thessaloniki, Greece 1927. In 1941 the Germans invaded Greece. In February 1943, the deportations began, and Moshe was taken to Auschwitz.
- Peter Ginz
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin-Petr Ginz (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the children's newspaper "Vedem", created in the camp by Petr Ginz and his friends, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Petr Ginz - "Vedem"
- Samuel Bak
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Chess in the Art of Samuel Bak, University of Minnesota
Samuel Bak was born on August 12, 1933 in Vilna, Poland at a crucial moment in modern history. From 1940 to 1944, Vilna was under first Soviet, then German occupation. Bak's artistic talent was first recognized during an exhibition of his work in the Ghetto of Vilna when he was nine. While both he and his mother survived, his father and four grandparents all perished at the hands of the Nazis.
- Illuminations: The Art of Samuel Bak, Facing History and Ourselves
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Samuel Bak – An Arduous Road, Yad Vashem
An online exhibition.
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Samuel Bak, Alchetron
Some of Samuel Bak's paintings as well as links to YouTube videos about the artist and his work.
- Speaking About the Unspeakable: A Lecture by Samuel Bak, University of Minnesota
- Shelomo Selinger
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Shelomo Selinger, University of Minnesota
Shelomo Selinger is an Israeli sculptor and artist who was born in Jaworzno, Poland in 1928. Selinger was a prisoner in nine concentration camps (including to Gross-Rosen). He was found in a pile of bodies by a Russian-Jewish medical doctor in the liberating Red Army in Theresienstadt. He had a long recovery, mentally as he suffered from amnesia for seven years, in regards to his war time experiences. He immigrated to Israel in 1946, and studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1955-1958. A series of drawings in pen and ink by Selinger done in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Selinger's depiction of the conditions and brutality of the German concentration camps are done in a style that creates a fragmented narrative but provides sufficient indication of the violence so that the story is well understood.
- Wolfgang Hergeth
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Wolfgang Hergeth, the “Janusz Korczak Cycle,” University of Minnesota
Wolfgang Hergeth was born on January 21, 1946 in Silberbach, Czechoslovakia. The "Janusz Korczak Cycle" was introduced in 1998 at the Uhlberghalle in Filderstadt, Germany. Janusz Korczak, born Henryk Goldsmit in Warsaw on July 22, 1878, was a prominent, Polish Jewish pediatrician, professor, and founder of an internationally respected children's home. His personal sacrifice is beyond measure. After the fall of Poland, when the Germans proceeded to transport to the Warsaw Ghetto Jews from all over Warsaw and beyond, the orphanage was overwhelmed. Yet from beginning to end Korczak was the shield that protected all who were under his care -- his children. He resolved to go with them wherever they might be taken. As it turned out, this meant to Treblinka and to death. In the decades since the Holocaust, tales of this martyred Jewish doctor have taken on a legendary quality, especially the spectacular drama that unfolded on his last journey with the children. With the cycle, Hergeth creates eleven paintings dedicated to Korczak giving expression to Korczak's own views of the calamity unfolding in his midst, including the expected fate that awaited his condemned children.
- Auschwitz/Birkenau
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Escapees from Auschwitz-Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, remember.org
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Exposing Auschwitz, aish.com
- [Wetzler-Vrba] The First Report About Auschwitz by John S. Conway, Museum of Tolerance
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[Wetzler-Vrba] VIDEO: Escape From Auschwitz (53:52), PBS
The death factory at Auschwitz was a closely guarded secret of the Third Reich – until two men, Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, escaped to tell the world about the Nazi atrocities. Escape from Auschwitz reveals the story of their escape and explores the controversial decision by the head of the Hungarian underground not to make their report public.
- A Tale of Two Albums, USHMM
- ANIMATED MAP: Auschwitz, BBC
- ANIMATED MAP: Auschwitz, USHMM
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Architecture of Murder: The Auschwitz-Birkenau Blueprints, Yad Vashem
The Auschwitz complex was not built overnight. This was a major construction project that lasted years and was never completed. A number of organizations and companies were involved in the building process, as well as thousands of workers, both German and foreign. What started as a single camp with 22 buildings in 1940 became a complex of 3 main camps and 40 sub-camps. Learn the history and see the blueprints.
- ART: Art of the Camp & Post Camp Period, Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum
- ART: Auschwitz Paintings by Survivor Jan Komski, remember.org
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ART: Images from Auschwitz-Birkenau by John Wiernicki
Watercolor and ink drawings created after the war. Includes biography of John Wiernicki.
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Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim
Learn about the 400-year Jewish history of Oświęcim.
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Auschwitz Through the Lens of the SS: Photos of Nazi Leadership at the Camp, USHMM
The Höcker Album
- Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp, Yad Vashem
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Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum
Includes sections on history and education.
- Auschwitz-Birkenau: Crematoria & Gas Chambers, Jewish Virtual Library
- Auschwitz-Birkenau: Nazi Medical Experimentation, Jewish Virtual Library
- Auschwitz, The Holocaust Explained
- Auschwitz, USHMM
- EXHIBIT: Deadly Medicine-Creating the Master Race, USHMM
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EXHIBIT: Science and Suffering, Victims and Perpetrators of Nazi Human Experimentation, The Wiener Holocaust Library
Under the Nazis, medical research supported a new vision for a 'racially pure' Europe. Nazi policy eroded the legal basis for the protection of individual rights, including control over one's own body to promote the body politic. Through portraits of victims and perpetrators, this online exhibit explores the legacy of medical research under Nazism, and its impact on bioethics today.
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EXHIBIT: The Stories of Six Righteous Among the Nations in Auschwitz, Yad Vashem
Even within the horror that was Auschwitz, there were flickers of light. Despite the total dehumanization that was part of the camp system, there were remarkable acts of solidarity and humanity by camp inmates. Among them were non-Jews, who at risk to their own lives, sought to ease the pain, to give aid and to rescue Jews. Features the stories of Ludwig Wörl, Dr. Adelaide Hautval, Lorenzo Perrone, Jerzy Bielecki, Dr. Ella Lingens, and Jerzy Pozimski.
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Inside the Epicenter of Horror-Photographs of the Sonderkommando, Yad Vashem
Among the millions of photographs that are related to Nazi death camps, only four depict the actual process of mass killing perpetrated at the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
- Josef Mengele, USHMM
- Killing Center Revolts, USHMM
- LESSON: Learning and Remembering About Auschwitz-Birkenau, Yad Vashem
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LESSON: The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm, iWitness
When ten-year-old Elliott asks his 90-year-old great-grandfather, Jack, about the number tattooed on his arm, he sparks an intimate conversation about Jack’s life that spans happy memories of childhood in Poland, the loss of his family, surviving Auschwitz and finding a new life in America.
- LESSONS: The Auschwitz Album, A Curriculum for High School Students, Yad Vashem
- Nazi Medical Experiments, USHMM
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: 70 Stories of Auschwitz, USC Shoah Foundation
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, listen to the testimonies of 70 Holocaust survivors, drawn from the Visual History Archive at USC Shoah Foundation, as they recall their personal experiences in the Nazi extermination camp.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Born in the City That Became Auschwitz, USC Shoah Foundation
The existence of the city dates back at least to 12th century. Following the partition of Poland in 1772, the city was annexed to the Habsburg Austrian Empire, returning to Polish rule only after the end of WWI. During that time, Oświęcim became an industrial center and an important railroad junction. Jewish population in 1921 was 4,950. On the eve of World War II, there were about 8,000 Jews in the city, over half the whole population. Oświęcim was occupied immediately at the beginning of WWII. By October 1939, it was annexed into Greater Germany.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Surviving Auschwitz, USC Shoah Foundation
Peter Hersch (b. 1930 in Loza, Podkarpatska Rus, Czechoslovakia [as of 1991, Ukraine]) describes his deportation to Auschwitz II-Birkenau from the Mukačevo ghetto in a cattle train. He recounts the crowding, confusion, thirst, and unsanitary conditions. Lili Springer (b. 1930 in Vyskovo nad Tisou, Czechoslovakia [as of 1991, Ukraine]) recounts her first impressions of Auschwitz II-Birkenau after arriving on train. She was put in a line with other relatively healthy people, then given a shower and old clothes to wear. She describes entering the camp while an orchestra played and arriving at her barrack for the first time. Andrew Burian (b. 1930 in Buštino, Czechoslovakia [as of 1991, Ukraine]) describes the Appell (roll-call) in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, when camp guards periodically selected prisoners for forced labor groups or for extermination. He also describes the daily allotment of food in the camp.
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Oshpitzin, Auschwitz Jewish Center
Oshpitzin was the name the Jews of Oswiecim called their town. Explore a virtual map of Oswiecim and a guidebook to pre-war Jewish life. Of special note under Multimedia is the VIDEO: "Oshiptisin. Save From Oblivion" (37:44)
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Prisoner Revolt at Auschwitz-Birkenau, USHMM
On October 7, 1944, prisoners assigned to Crematorium IV at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center rebel after learning that they were going to be killed. Members of the Sonderkommando at Crematorium IV rose in revolt.
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READING: Auschwitz, Facing History and Ourselves
Read eyewitness accounts of the killing process at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
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READING: Choiceless Choices, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider the experiences of Jewish prisoners who were forced to help German guards murder other prisoners.
- Rudolf Höss-Commandant of Auschwitz by Laurence Rees, BBC
- Sonderkommando Revolt, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Auschwitz II-Birkenau Sonderkommando Testimony Clips (24:13), USC Shoah Foundation
Five survivors of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau death camp describe their perspectives of the Sonderkommando Uprising of 1944.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Eva Kor (22:50)
Eva Kor is a Holocaust survivor who endured the Dr. Josef Mengele's twin experiments at Auschwitz. This is her 2014 speech in Columbus, OH.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Eva Kor on Her Experience with Josef Mengele, USC Shoah Foundation
Eva Kor and her twin sister Miriam were experimented on by infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. She describes how one experiment nearly killed her but she promised herself she would survive.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Kitty Felix, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
The following testimony from Kitty Felix (today Kitty Hart-Moxon) demonstrates how conventional notions of status and decency were irrelevant to survival in Auschwitz.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Ruth Brand (3:21), USC Shoah Foundation
Ruth Brand talks about the decision to fast on Yom Kippur—also known as the Day of Atonement—in Auschwitz II-Birkenau as a form of resistance.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Saul Reichert (3:15), Musee de l’Holocauste Montreal
Saul Reichert was born in 1930 in Zgierz, Poland but he grew up in Pabianice. Soon after the occupying German forces established the ghetto, Saul’s family was forced to move in. In 1942 they were transferred to the Lodz ghetto and in 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In this excerpt, Saul recalls how they celebrated Rosh Hashanah in the camp.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Selection in Auschwitz (4:53), Yad Vashem
Holocaust survivors Jacki Handali and Rita Weiss describe their arrival in Auschwitz and the selection process. In Hebrew with English subtitles.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Witold Pilecki, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
Pilecki was the only known voluntary inmate of Auschwitz, who spent two and a half years gathering intelligence from within the camp. After a group of Polish political opponents were imprisoned in Auschwitz in August 1940 and then their families learned of their deaths, Pilecki volunteered to investigate.
- Tattoos and Numbers – The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz
- Teaching About Auschwitz Through Art, Yad Vashem
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The Album, USHMM
Karl Höcker's photograph album includes both documentation of official visits and ceremonies at Auschwitz as well as more personal photographs depicting the myriad of social activities that he and other members of the Auschwitz camp staff enjoyed.
- The Revolt at Auschwitz (October 7, 1944), Jewish Virtual Library
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Then and Now: Auschwitz Paintings by Survivors and Recent Photos, remember.org
This exhibit contrasts contemporary photographs of these two camps, with images of what they were like 1940-45 as remembered by artist-survivors. Much of the art was created soon after their liberation.
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VIDEO: Auschwitz (Oświęcim) (21:00)
Published in 1945, this film was used for the war crime tribunal in Nuremberg 1945-46 to show the atrocities in the Auschwitz complex All footage were taken some month after liberation. After liberation the camp was cleaned up for those inmates who still lived there. This film has no audio track due the fact that the Nuremberg trials were international ... no original script to this film are known to exist.
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VIDEO: Auschwitz 70, The Past is Present (51:44), USC Shoah Foundation
This site includes an image gallery, activities, and classroom resources.
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VIDEO: Auschwitz-Drone Video of Nazi Concentration Camp (2:29), BBC
The BBC deployed a camera-equipped drone over site, offering a chilling tour of where as many as 1.1 million people died at the hands of Nazis between 1940 and 1945. Located in southern Poland, it was the largest death camp under Adolf Hitler's "final solution."
- VIDEO: CNN Special Report-Voices of Auschwitz, 2015 (46:50), YouTube
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VIDEO: Crematorium II at Auschwitz-Birkenau (3:05), Antonio Fontoura Jr./YouTube
A virtual reconstruction of the Crematorium II.
- VIDEO: Day in Auschwitz, Kitty Hart-Moxon’s Story of Survival (47:32), USC Shoah Foundation
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VIDEO: Encountering Auschwitz (9:23), USHMM
In this film from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, historians and survivors discuss the significance of Auschwitz.
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VIDEO: Eva: A-7603, Film Website
The story of Eva Moses Kor, Holocaust survivor. At 10, she survived experiments by Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. At 50, she helped launch the biggest manhunt in history.Now in her 80s, after decades of pain and anger, she travels the world to promote what her life journey has taught: Hope. Healing. Humanity. Includes viewing guide for the video.
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VIDEO: Eva: A-7603, Student Viewing Handout, Mindy Walker, Holt High School, Tuscaloosa, AL
Viewing handout for students to complete while watching the film.
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VIDEO: Footprints-Discovering the Holocaust Through Historical Artifacts (8:24), University of London
This film examines a child's shoe, an artifact from Auschwitz-Birkenau, and discusses what can be learned from artifacts.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Auschwitz (2:13), USHMM
Historical film footage.
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VIDEO: Our Liberation-Stories of Holocaust Survivors’ Road to Freedom (24:11), International March of the Living
On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the greatest mass murder in human history, where over 1 million of Hitler’s 6 million Jewish victims perished. As the world commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau and International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the film tells the moving stories of six Holocaust survivors, as they revisit that pivotal moment in their lives, when Allied troops overran the Nazi death camps, and gave the survivors the Freedom they so deeply yearned for. "Our Liberation” is directed and produced by Naomi Wise. The Holocaust survivors featured in the film are all connected to the March of the Living. They are: Miriam Ziegler, Faigie Libman, Robert Engel Z”L, Ernest Ehrmann, Howard Kleinberg Z”L and Joe Mandel. The first of the six stories, features the poignant return of Toronto resident Miriam Ziegler, to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele performed medical experiments on her when she was just a child. Pictured in the photo (second from the left) at nine years old, she is holding her arm out with her Auschwitz tattoo number, because the Russian soldier asked her for her name and she instinctively showed him the number on her arm - That was her natural reaction in Auschwitz.
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VIDEO: The Harmonica Player from Auschwitz (4:36), Yad Vashem/YouTube
A moving video that highlights the story of Auschwitz survivor Shmuel Gogol. Gogol's harmonica was seized upon arrival at Auschwitz, but he traded his meager daily ration of bread for another one. Gogol was quickly caught by a camp guard, ordered to join the Auschwitz orchestra and forced to play while Jews were led to the gas chambers. Gogol promised that if he survived he would dedicate his life to teaching Jewish children to play the harmonica. He went on to establish the Ramat Gan Harmonica Choir. The choir has performed at Yad Vashem, paying tribute to the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust, becoming part of Yad Vashem's ongoing efforts to keep the stories of the Shoah alive for generations to come.
- Gas Chambers and Crematoria
- Auschwitz-Birkenau: Crematoria & Gas Chambers, Jewish Virtual Library
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VIDEO: Crematorium II at Auschwitz-Birkenau (3:05), Antonio Fontoura Jr./YouTube
A virtual reconstruction of the Crematorium II.
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VIDEO: Footprints-Discovering the Holocaust Through Historical Artifacts (8:24), University of London
This film examines a child's shoe, an artifact from Auschwitz-Birkenau, and discusses what can be learned from artifacts.
- Jewish Life in Oswiecim Before the War
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Auschwitz Jewish Center in Oświęcim
Learn about the 400-year Jewish history of Oświęcim.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Born in the City That Became Auschwitz, USC Shoah Foundation
The existence of the city dates back at least to 12th century. Following the partition of Poland in 1772, the city was annexed to the Habsburg Austrian Empire, returning to Polish rule only after the end of WWI. During that time, Oświęcim became an industrial center and an important railroad junction. Jewish population in 1921 was 4,950. On the eve of World War II, there were about 8,000 Jews in the city, over half the whole population. Oświęcim was occupied immediately at the beginning of WWII. By October 1939, it was annexed into Greater Germany.
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Oshpitzin, Auschwitz Jewish Center
Oshpitzin was the name the Jews of Oswiecim called their town. Explore a virtual map of Oswiecim and a guidebook to pre-war Jewish life. Of special note under Multimedia is the VIDEO: "Oshiptisin. Save From Oblivion" (37:44)
- Liberation of Auschwitz
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VIDEO: Auschwitz (Oświęcim) (21:00)
Published in 1945, this film was used for the war crime tribunal in Nuremberg 1945-46 to show the atrocities in the Auschwitz complex All footage were taken some month after liberation. After liberation the camp was cleaned up for those inmates who still lived there. This film has no audio track due the fact that the Nuremberg trials were international ... no original script to this film are known to exist.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Auschwitz (2:13), USHMM
Historical film footage.
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VIDEO: Our Liberation-Stories of Holocaust Survivors’ Road to Freedom (24:11), International March of the Living
On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the site of the greatest mass murder in human history, where over 1 million of Hitler’s 6 million Jewish victims perished. As the world commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau and International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the film tells the moving stories of six Holocaust survivors, as they revisit that pivotal moment in their lives, when Allied troops overran the Nazi death camps, and gave the survivors the Freedom they so deeply yearned for. "Our Liberation” is directed and produced by Naomi Wise. The Holocaust survivors featured in the film are all connected to the March of the Living. They are: Miriam Ziegler, Faigie Libman, Robert Engel Z”L, Ernest Ehrmann, Howard Kleinberg Z”L and Joe Mandel. The first of the six stories, features the poignant return of Toronto resident Miriam Ziegler, to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the infamous Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele performed medical experiments on her when she was just a child. Pictured in the photo (second from the left) at nine years old, she is holding her arm out with her Auschwitz tattoo number, because the Russian soldier asked her for her name and she instinctively showed him the number on her arm - That was her natural reaction in Auschwitz.
- Life in the Camp
- ART: Art of the Camp & Post Camp Period, Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum
- ART: Auschwitz Paintings by Survivor Jan Komski, remember.org
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Surviving Auschwitz, USC Shoah Foundation
Peter Hersch (b. 1930 in Loza, Podkarpatska Rus, Czechoslovakia [as of 1991, Ukraine]) describes his deportation to Auschwitz II-Birkenau from the Mukačevo ghetto in a cattle train. He recounts the crowding, confusion, thirst, and unsanitary conditions. Lili Springer (b. 1930 in Vyskovo nad Tisou, Czechoslovakia [as of 1991, Ukraine]) recounts her first impressions of Auschwitz II-Birkenau after arriving on train. She was put in a line with other relatively healthy people, then given a shower and old clothes to wear. She describes entering the camp while an orchestra played and arriving at her barrack for the first time. Andrew Burian (b. 1930 in Buštino, Czechoslovakia [as of 1991, Ukraine]) describes the Appell (roll-call) in Auschwitz II-Birkenau, when camp guards periodically selected prisoners for forced labor groups or for extermination. He also describes the daily allotment of food in the camp.
- Rudolf Höss-Commandant of Auschwitz by Laurence Rees, BBC
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Kitty Felix, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
The following testimony from Kitty Felix (today Kitty Hart-Moxon) demonstrates how conventional notions of status and decency were irrelevant to survival in Auschwitz.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Ruth Brand (3:21), USC Shoah Foundation
Ruth Brand talks about the decision to fast on Yom Kippur—also known as the Day of Atonement—in Auschwitz II-Birkenau as a form of resistance.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Saul Reichert (3:15), Musee de l’Holocauste Montreal
Saul Reichert was born in 1930 in Zgierz, Poland but he grew up in Pabianice. Soon after the occupying German forces established the ghetto, Saul’s family was forced to move in. In 1942 they were transferred to the Lodz ghetto and in 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In this excerpt, Saul recalls how they celebrated Rosh Hashanah in the camp.
-
VIDEO: The Harmonica Player from Auschwitz (4:36), Yad Vashem/YouTube
A moving video that highlights the story of Auschwitz survivor Shmuel Gogol. Gogol's harmonica was seized upon arrival at Auschwitz, but he traded his meager daily ration of bread for another one. Gogol was quickly caught by a camp guard, ordered to join the Auschwitz orchestra and forced to play while Jews were led to the gas chambers. Gogol promised that if he survived he would dedicate his life to teaching Jewish children to play the harmonica. He went on to establish the Ramat Gan Harmonica Choir. The choir has performed at Yad Vashem, paying tribute to the victims and the survivors of the Holocaust, becoming part of Yad Vashem's ongoing efforts to keep the stories of the Shoah alive for generations to come.
- Medical Experimentation
- Auschwitz-Birkenau: Nazi Medical Experimentation, Jewish Virtual Library
- EXHIBIT: Deadly Medicine-Creating the Master Race, USHMM
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EXHIBIT: Science and Suffering, Victims and Perpetrators of Nazi Human Experimentation, The Wiener Holocaust Library
Under the Nazis, medical research supported a new vision for a 'racially pure' Europe. Nazi policy eroded the legal basis for the protection of individual rights, including control over one's own body to promote the body politic. Through portraits of victims and perpetrators, this online exhibit explores the legacy of medical research under Nazism, and its impact on bioethics today.
- Josef Mengele, USHMM
- Nazi Medical Experiments, USHMM
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Eva Kor (22:50)
Eva Kor is a Holocaust survivor who endured the Dr. Josef Mengele's twin experiments at Auschwitz. This is her 2014 speech in Columbus, OH.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Eva Kor on Her Experience with Josef Mengele, USC Shoah Foundation
Eva Kor and her twin sister Miriam were experimented on by infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. She describes how one experiment nearly killed her but she promised herself she would survive.
- Prisoner Revolt
- Killing Center Revolts, USHMM
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Prisoner Revolt at Auschwitz-Birkenau, USHMM
On October 7, 1944, prisoners assigned to Crematorium IV at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center rebel after learning that they were going to be killed. Members of the Sonderkommando at Crematorium IV rose in revolt.
- Sonderkommando Revolt, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
- The Revolt at Auschwitz (October 7, 1944), Jewish Virtual Library
- Selection
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Selection in Auschwitz (4:53), Yad Vashem
Holocaust survivors Jacki Handali and Rita Weiss describe their arrival in Auschwitz and the selection process. In Hebrew with English subtitles.
- Sonderkommandos
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Inside the Epicenter of Horror-Photographs of the Sonderkommando, Yad Vashem
Among the millions of photographs that are related to Nazi death camps, only four depict the actual process of mass killing perpetrated at the gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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READING: Auschwitz, Facing History and Ourselves
Read eyewitness accounts of the killing process at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.
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READING: Choiceless Choices, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider the experiences of Jewish prisoners who were forced to help German guards murder other prisoners.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Auschwitz II-Birkenau Sonderkommando Testimony Clips (24:13), USC Shoah Foundation
Five survivors of the Auschwitz II-Birkenau death camp describe their perspectives of the Sonderkommando Uprising of 1944.
- Tattoos
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LESSON: The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm, iWitness
When ten-year-old Elliott asks his 90-year-old great-grandfather, Jack, about the number tattooed on his arm, he sparks an intimate conversation about Jack’s life that spans happy memories of childhood in Poland, the loss of his family, surviving Auschwitz and finding a new life in America.
- Tattoos and Numbers – The System of Identifying Prisoners at Auschwitz
- The Auschwitz Album
- A Tale of Two Albums, USHMM
- LESSONS: The Auschwitz Album, A Curriculum for High School Students, Yad Vashem
- The Höcker Album
- A Tale of Two Albums, USHMM
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Auschwitz Through the Lens of the SS: Photos of Nazi Leadership at the Camp, USHMM
The Höcker Album
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The Album, USHMM
Karl Höcker's photograph album includes both documentation of official visits and ceremonies at Auschwitz as well as more personal photographs depicting the myriad of social activities that he and other members of the Auschwitz camp staff enjoyed.
- The Wetzler-Vrba Report
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Escapees from Auschwitz-Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, remember.org
- [Wetzler-Vrba] Exposing Auschwitz, aish.com
- [Wetzler-Vrba] The First Report About Auschwitz by John S. Conway, Museum of Tolerance
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[Wetzler-Vrba] VIDEO: Escape From Auschwitz (53:52), PBS
The death factory at Auschwitz was a closely guarded secret of the Third Reich – until two men, Rudolph Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, escaped to tell the world about the Nazi atrocities. Escape from Auschwitz reveals the story of their escape and explores the controversial decision by the head of the Hungarian underground not to make their report public.
- Begin Your Unit
- “The Camera as Weapon: Documentary Photography and the Holocaust,” Museum of Tolerance
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A Practical Guide on How to Confront Hate, Tina Kempin Reuter, UAB Institute for Human Rights
Explores what we can do to confront hate, white supremacy, and racism.
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An Overview of the Holocaust: Topics to Teach, USHMM
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has identified topic areas for you to consider while planning a course of study on the Holocaust. We recommend that you introduce your students to these topics even if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust. An introduction to the topic areas is essential for providing students with a sense of the breadth of the history of the Holocaust.
- Analysis Worksheet – Artifact, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Cartoon, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Map, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Motion Picture, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Photo, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Poster, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Sound Recording, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Written Document, National Archives
- ANIMATED MAP: Europe After World War I, The Map as History
- ANIMATED MAP: Introduction to the Holocaust (1:57), USHMM
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ANIMATED MAP: Maps, Central Europe and History (7:48), Centropa
This short trip through Europe´s maps explains how borders moved and cultures moved with them.
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ANIMATED MAP: World War II and the Holocaust (6:34), USHMM
Serves as a timeline for the Holocaust. Includes full transcript.
- Archival Photographs, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
- Audio Glossary of Holocaust Terms, Echoes & Reflections
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Brief History of the Holocaust, A Reference Tool, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum tells the story of the Holocaust from a unique perspective, that of Montreal survivors. This piece, that accompanies their exhibition, tells the story of Jewish communities before, during and after the Holocaust. It explores the unimaginable tragedy in which so many lives were lost and the horrors witnessed by the few who survived. Montreal became home to the third largest survivor population after World War II. Approximately 5,000 survivors still reside in the Montreal area today.
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Centropa
The first oral history project that combines old family pictures with the stories that go with them, Centropa has interviewed 1,200 elderly Jews living in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Sephardic communities of Greece, Turkey and the Balkans.
- Chronology of the Holocaust
- Critical Analysis of Photographs as Historical Sources, Yad Vashem
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Dehumanization and Incitement: The Use and Abuse of Holocaust Photographs and Images, Keene State College
A potential pitfall in teaching about the Holocaust is using Holocaust imagery without ever teaching students how to evaluate and decode those images. Teach your students how to avoid these pitfalls.
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Experiencing History: Holocaust Sources in Context, USHMM
Learn about the Holocaust through unique, original sources. With this tool, you can read, watch, and examine the experiences of everyday people to analyze how genocide unfolded. Discover a diary, a letter, a newspaper article, or a policy paper; see a photograph, or watch film footage. Discuss the complex context from which the Holocaust emerged and consider the importance of primary sources for understanding the world.
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German History in Documents and Images: Nazi Germany 1933-45, German Historical Institute, Washginton, DC
A comprehensive collection of documents, images, and maps accompanied by a section introduction by leading scholars. Many of the documents included in this project are difficult to locate in print publications, especially outside of Germany. All of the German-language documents included in GHDI are accompanied by contemporary English translations, almost all of which were commissioned for the project. GHDI also offers new access to a range of historically significant visual images, many of which will be unfamiliar to viewers.
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Holocaust Education Map, Holocaust Education Resource Center (HERC)
This online Curriculum Resource focuses on 4 Domains: Intolerance, Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, Responsibility. They then hand-picked from the best resources in the world like the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Facing History and Ourselves, and Echoes and Reflections. Then, lessons and resources were edited into simplified ready-to-use plans by a team of teaching experts. Lessons can be selected based on grade level and/or class time.
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Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory, Digital Edition of the Book by Lawrence L Langer, Fortunoff Video Archives/Yale University
A seminal text in Holocaust studies, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory draws on testimonies from the Fortunoff Video Archive to examine how they can complement "historical studies by enabling us to confront the human dimensions of the catastrophe." It also examines “the form and function of memory as survivors relive devastating experiences of pain, humiliation, and loss.”
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Holocaust Timeline, Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center
This timeline parallels the "Road to War" with the "Road to the Holocaust."
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ID Cards (printable) Used at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
The sheer number of victims in the Holocaust challenges easy comprehension. When visitors enter the Museum’s Permanent Exhibition, they receive an ID card telling the true story of a person who lived during the Holocaust. Using these individual profiles, show your students that behind the massive statistics are real people—children and parents, neighbors and friends—and a diversity of personal experience. The collection is browsable by gender and age.
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If You Heard What I Heard
The true stories of Holocaust survivors as they were heard by the last generation to hear the stories directly from them - their grandchildren. Educational materials available to use these in your classroom.
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Images, Audio & Video, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
Unique source searchable by topic.
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IWitness, USC Shoah Foundation
Based on the Survivor Testimonies created by Steven Spielberg and donated to the USC Shoah Foundation, IWitness provides access to these testimonies to watch, teach, and share with your classroom. Clips can be browsed by topic and edited for classroom projects.
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Key Documents from the National Archives of the UK
These key documents from The National Archives lend themselves most readily to an analysis of the Allied response to the question of saving the Jews. The documents in the collection are labelled and arranged together according to theme.
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LESSON: Narrative Links, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Gyula Frenkel was imprisoned in the Vapniarca concentration camp in Transnistria from 1942 until 1943. Whilst in the camp he made a belt from copper and aluminium. Each link depicts the conditions of the camp and tells of his experiences and those of other prisoners. In this lesson, as students encounter the object, they examine each link, make meaning, and construct a narrative. As they consider an explanation of the links and discover how Frenkel sequenced these, students attempt to synthesise these different narratives and thus reflect on the nature of recounting the past. Includes Lesson Plan and PowerPoint.
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LESSON: Overview of the Holocaust (1 class period), USHMM
Organized around the Museum-produced 38 minute documentary "The Path to Nazi Genocide," these materials and discussion questions provide students with an introduction to the history of the Holocaust.
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LESSON: Pyramid of Hate Exercise, USC Shoah Foundation
This classroom exercise is designed to help educators teach students ages 14-18 about the effects and consequences of hatred and intolerance. The exercise integrates first-person testimonies.
- LESSON: Stereotypes and Prejudices, remember.org
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LESSON: Surviving the Holocaust, Fairfax County Public Schools
This lesson examines the Holocaust through the experience of Irene Fogel Weiss, a Jewish woman who survived the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Irene shares her personal story, covering how Nazi influences took over her town of Botragy, Czechoslovakia, the harassment of her family and fellow Jews, their deportation to a Hungarian ghetto, her arrival at Auschwitz, and their death march into Germany. She concludes by examining critical questions around humanity, civility, propaganda, and analyzing information in a search for the truth. These topics pose excellent opportunities for student reflection and discussion, as well as comparisons with contemporary issues facing our localities and our nation. This lesson includes accompanying video testimony.
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LESSON: The Escalation of Hate, Partners Against Hate
The goal of this lesson is to examine the escalating nature of hate and to consider the difficulty of stopping the progression once it begins.
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LESSON: Those Who Don’t Know-Identity, Membership, and Stereotypes, Facing History and Ourselves
Students prepare to study prejudice and stereotyping in Nazi-occupied Germany by considering the ways that people are defined by others.
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LESSON: Timeline Activity (1-2 class periods), USHMM
Teachers often have very little time to teach about the Holocaust, and yet they are asked to focus on Content, Context, and Complexity—the foundational principles of our pedagogical guidelines—in their approach. We believe that building a timeline that integrates personal stories, key historical events (including World War II, the Holocaust, and the world’s response), Nazi laws and decrees, and other relevant themes/topics can provide a platform to understand both how and why the Holocaust happened, and that it can be accomplished in a relatively short time frame. This interactive lesson also lends itself to critical thinking and understanding that the Holocaust happened to individuals and was incremental. It allows students to make inferences about the inter-relatedness of time and geographic location to the events that took place, affecting individuals and victim groups.
- LESSON: Universe of Obligation, Facing History and Ourselves
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LESSON: Using Art to Teach “Number the Stars” (VIDEO: 5:05), PBS Learning Media
In this episode of NJEA’s Classroom Close-up, fifth-grade students at Alan B. Shepard Elementary School learn about the holocaust by reading the book, Number the Stars, and creating paneled works of art.The paneled artwork, called triptychs, uses historical photos to show how holocaust victims’ lives were transformed. Through the research and creation of the artwork, students learn to analyze images and build empathy.
- LESSON: Using Testimony to Teach, Facing History and Ourselves
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Maps, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
Broad selection of maps.
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Myths and Misconceptions, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
A series of short films presented by Stephen Feinberg, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, explore the myths and misconceptions about the Nazi period and the Holocaust that students may bring with them to the classroom.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: History of the Holocaust, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
Based on the "Brief History of the Holocaust" reference guide. Includes interactive timelines and maps.
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POSTER SET: The Holocaust, Nazi Assault 1933-1945, USHMM
Twenty-one printable posters.
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PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: History Unfolded-US Newspapers and the Holocaust, USHMM
This project, still ongoing, investigates US press coverage for a number of Holocaust-related events. You can search by date/content theme/location.
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Prism Journal, Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education & Administration, Yeshiva University
Azrieli Graduate School publishes "PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators." "Prism" offers educators a practical, scholarly resource on teaching the Holocaust at the high school, college and graduate school levels. Each issue examines a specific topic through a variety of lenses, including education, history, literature, poetry, psychology and art. Experts from high schools, colleges, universities, museums and resource centers in the United States and Israel bring diverse perspectives highlighting particular facets of the issue at hand.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Echoes and Reflections Teacher’s Resource Guide
This site contains the full testimonies as well as the clips of survivors who are part of the curriculum.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: IWitness, USC Shoah Foundation
Clipped testimonies, searchable by topic, with the full testimony available as well.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Re-Collection, Azrieli Foundation
A collection of Canadian survivor stories and videos.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: The 1939 Society
Some of these videos were recorded at UCLA in the 1980′s and others as part of a project by The Anti-Defamation League, Orange County. As the audience, you help preserve the legacy of survivors by listening to their stories—and by sharing them with others.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Various, Museum of Jewish Heritage/Coming of Age in the Holocaust
Features twelve stories of Holocaust survivors and one story of an individual who grew up in the Mandate of Palestine during the same period. Brief summaries allow you to select the survivor you would like to explore further. Each survivor's story is divided into chapters with a collection of video clips, timeline, geography, discussion topics, and project suggestions.
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Survivors Testimony Film Series, Yad Vashem
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Survivors and Witnesses: Using Video Testimony in the Classroom, Facing History and Ourselves
Facing History and Ourselves has selected testimony from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive to complement the print and digital editions of Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior.
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The Ten Stages of Genocide, Montreal Holocaust Museum
According to academic and activist Gregory H. Stanton, genocide is a process that develops in ten stages, described here. The stages do not necessarily follow a linear progression and may coexist. Prevention measures may be implemented at any stage.
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This Month in Holocaust History, The Holocaust Explained
Description of events that occurred in each month.
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This Month in Holocaust History, Yad Vashem
Photos, by month, from the archives of Yad Vashem.
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Timeline of Events, USHMM
Each event has a full description and some have accompanying images and video.
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Timeline of the Holocaust, Echoes & Reflections
This timeline chronicles key dates from 1933-1945 and is supported by primary source materials and accompanied classroom activities designed to enhance instruction.
- Timeline of the Holocaust, Museum of Tolerance
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VIDEO: “Why Did the Holocaust Happen?” Lecture by Peter Hayes (1:22), USHMM
On January 17, 2017 historian Peter Hayes spoke at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to discuss his new book, "Why? Explaining the Holocaust."
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VIDEO: Footprints-Discovering the Holocaust Through Historical Artifacts (8:24), University of London
This film examines a child's shoe, an artifact from Auschwitz-Birkenau, and discusses what can be learned from artifacts.
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VIDEO: Teaching About the Holocaust-Bringing the Lesson of Closure (3:48), USHMM
Dr. Joyce Witt, AP European History teacher at Highland Park High School in Chicago, demonstrates in this sample lesson an exemplary method for teaching a class on the Holocaust. Joyce Witt was a 1997-1998 Teacher Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This program was a part of the museum's Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Exemplary Lessons Initiative. Dr. Witt explains: Study of the Holocaust would not be complete without a discussion of implications for the future. How should the Holocaust be woven into the fabric of twentieth-century history? How can its study move us forward so that our children are not traumatized and fixated on its atrocities? Most important, what are the lessons that can be learned from this horrific event so that our children learn from the past to make a better world? These essential questions must be asked if the study of the Holocaust is to have meaning in the post-Holocaust world.
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VIDEO: Teaching the Holocaust in Today’s World (11:10), Echoes & Reflections
Teaching about the Holocaust can be overwhelming. How can we provide a meaningful learning experience for our students in a limited amount of time? What is an effective approach to making learning about the Holocaust relevant and meaningful to students in today's world?
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VIDEO: Teaching the Holocaust in Today’s World (11:10), Echoes & Reflections Video Toolbox
This video introduces effective approaches to help guide you in making instructional decisions, in order to increase students’ knowledge of the history of the Holocaust, and their understanding of its ongoing relevance to their lives and current society.
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VIDEO: Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs (3:06), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs", ISHS staff member Franziska Reiniger discusses how you can explore Holocaust photography with your students. Introducing some general points to keep in mind when teaching using any photograph from the Holocaust, Ms. Reiniger then proceeds with two examples, demonstrating the remarkable differences we find in photographs taken from different points of view. The graphical elements within a photograph sometimes hint at the external circumstances surrounding the time and place when the photograph was taken, and be studying both we deepen our understanding of the Holocaust. The photographs discussed in this video are available for viewing and for downloading from our website. Franziska Reiniger is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs Part 2: Photographs as Propaganda Part 3: Documentation of Atrocities: The Jewish Photographer Henryk Ross
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VIDEO: The Path to Nazi Genocide – Worksheet, USHMM
Organized around a Museum-produced 38-minute documentary, "The Path to Nazi Genocide," this worksheet provides students with an introduction to the history of the Holocaust.
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VIDEO: The Path to Nazi Genocide (38 minutes), USHMM
This 38-minute film examines the Nazis’ rise and consolidation of power in Germany. Using rare footage, the film explores their ideology, propaganda, and persecution of Jews and other victims. It also outlines the path by which the Nazis and their collaborators led a state to war and to the murder of millions of people. By providing a concise overview of the Holocaust and those involved, this resource is intended to provoke reflection and discussion about the role of ordinary people, institutions, and nations between 1918 and 1945. (This film is intended for adult viewers, but selected segments may be appropriate for younger audiences.)
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VIDEO: Thomas Buergenthal Discusses Quote from Abel Herzberg (0:48), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
"There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times." Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg
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VIDEO: Using Holocaust Testimony in the Classroom (1:44), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Using Holocaust Testimony in the Classroom", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon discusses how we recommend choosing and using Holocaust testimony with your students. After first discussing the aspects unique to face-to-face survivor testimony, aspects that we will invariably lose in a world without survivors, Ms. Ochayon proceeds to contrast and then balance two approaches to chosing testimony video: the historical, and the personal. Chosing a piece of testimony that is only personal or only historical can be counterproductive; it is by choosing testimony that relates, personally, to historical events that we derive a deeper understanding from the survivors. The testimonies discussed in this video are available for viewing from our website. The video includes testimony by Leo Laufer, Oscar Pinkus, Livia Wiederman. Sheryl Silver-Ochayon is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem. Part 1: Using Holocaust Testimony in the Classroom Part 2: Childhood During the Holocaust
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VIDEO: What is the Holocaust? (1/7) (:54): Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
What is the Holocaust? Who were its victims? When did it occur? What were the ghettos, and why were they established? How did the “Final Solution” evolve? Dr. David Silberklang offers a clear and concise introductory answer to these complex questions. Dr. David Silberklang is Senior Historian and Editor of Yad Vashem Studies, International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Nazi Rise to Power (1933) Part 3: Separation, Exclusion, and Expulsion (1933-1939) Part 4: War and Territorial Expansion (1939-1941) Part 5: “Operation Barbarossa” – Systematic Murder Begins (1941) Part 6: The “Final Solution” Coalesces (1941-1942) Part 7: Perfecting Industrial Murder (1942-1945)
- VIDEO: Why Should Students Consider History from Multiple Perspectives? (0:53), Brown University/Choices Program
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Voices of the Holocaust, Illinois Institute of Technology
In 1946, Dr. David P. Boder, a psychology professor from Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology, traveled to Europe to record the stories of Holocaust survivors in their own words. Over a period of three months, he visited refugee camps in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, carrying a wire recorder and 200 spools of steel wire, upon which he was able to record over 90 hours of first-hand testimony. These recordings represent the earliest known oral histories of the Holocaust, which are available through this online archive. NOTE: Jack Bass (Jürgen Bassfreund) of Birmingham was interviewed by David Boder. See: https://voices.iit.edu/interviewee?doc=bassfreundJ
- What Was the Holocaust?, The Holocaust Explained
- Why Simulation Activities Should Not Be Used, Anti-Defamation League
- Why Teach About the Holocaust?, UNESCO
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Witnesses to the Holocaust: Stories of Minnesota Holocaust Survivors and Liberators, 25th Edition
This resource captures the vivid memories of people who experienced the Holocaust – those imprisoned in concentration camps, those who managed to escape internment, and those who liberated the concentration camps. Simple and eloquent, these testimonies detail not just the experiences, but the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a world turned upside down. These are compelling stories not just of pain and death but also of individual acts of heroism and tenacity, the apex of the human spirit.
- World War II: Timeline, USHMM
- Artifacts
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Experiencing History: Holocaust Sources in Context, USHMM
Learn about the Holocaust through unique, original sources. With this tool, you can read, watch, and examine the experiences of everyday people to analyze how genocide unfolded. Discover a diary, a letter, a newspaper article, or a policy paper; see a photograph, or watch film footage. Discuss the complex context from which the Holocaust emerged and consider the importance of primary sources for understanding the world.
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LESSON: Narrative Links, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
Gyula Frenkel was imprisoned in the Vapniarca concentration camp in Transnistria from 1942 until 1943. Whilst in the camp he made a belt from copper and aluminium. Each link depicts the conditions of the camp and tells of his experiences and those of other prisoners. In this lesson, as students encounter the object, they examine each link, make meaning, and construct a narrative. As they consider an explanation of the links and discover how Frenkel sequenced these, students attempt to synthesise these different narratives and thus reflect on the nature of recounting the past. Includes Lesson Plan and PowerPoint.
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VIDEO: Footprints-Discovering the Holocaust Through Historical Artifacts (8:24), University of London
This film examines a child's shoe, an artifact from Auschwitz-Birkenau, and discusses what can be learned from artifacts.
- Documents
- Analysis Worksheet – Written Document, National Archives
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Experiencing History: Holocaust Sources in Context, USHMM
Learn about the Holocaust through unique, original sources. With this tool, you can read, watch, and examine the experiences of everyday people to analyze how genocide unfolded. Discover a diary, a letter, a newspaper article, or a policy paper; see a photograph, or watch film footage. Discuss the complex context from which the Holocaust emerged and consider the importance of primary sources for understanding the world.
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German History in Documents and Images: Nazi Germany 1933-45, German Historical Institute, Washginton, DC
A comprehensive collection of documents, images, and maps accompanied by a section introduction by leading scholars. Many of the documents included in this project are difficult to locate in print publications, especially outside of Germany. All of the German-language documents included in GHDI are accompanied by contemporary English translations, almost all of which were commissioned for the project. GHDI also offers new access to a range of historically significant visual images, many of which will be unfamiliar to viewers.
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Key Documents from the National Archives of the UK
These key documents from The National Archives lend themselves most readily to an analysis of the Allied response to the question of saving the Jews. The documents in the collection are labelled and arranged together according to theme.
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PRIMARY DOCUMENTS: History Unfolded-US Newspapers and the Holocaust, USHMM
This project, still ongoing, investigates US press coverage for a number of Holocaust-related events. You can search by date/content theme/location.
- Holocaust Pedagogy
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An Overview of the Holocaust: Topics to Teach, USHMM
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has identified topic areas for you to consider while planning a course of study on the Holocaust. We recommend that you introduce your students to these topics even if you have limited time to teach about the Holocaust. An introduction to the topic areas is essential for providing students with a sense of the breadth of the history of the Holocaust.
- Analysis Worksheet – Artifact, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Cartoon, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Map, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Motion Picture, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Photo, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Poster, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Sound Recording, National Archives
- Analysis Worksheet – Written Document, National Archives
- Audio Glossary of Holocaust Terms, Echoes & Reflections
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Brief History of the Holocaust, A Reference Tool, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
The Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum tells the story of the Holocaust from a unique perspective, that of Montreal survivors. This piece, that accompanies their exhibition, tells the story of Jewish communities before, during and after the Holocaust. It explores the unimaginable tragedy in which so many lives were lost and the horrors witnessed by the few who survived. Montreal became home to the third largest survivor population after World War II. Approximately 5,000 survivors still reside in the Montreal area today.
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Holocaust Education Map, Holocaust Education Resource Center (HERC)
This online Curriculum Resource focuses on 4 Domains: Intolerance, Nazi Germany, The Holocaust, Responsibility. They then hand-picked from the best resources in the world like the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Facing History and Ourselves, and Echoes and Reflections. Then, lessons and resources were edited into simplified ready-to-use plans by a team of teaching experts. Lessons can be selected based on grade level and/or class time.
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LESSON: Timeline Activity (1-2 class periods), USHMM
Teachers often have very little time to teach about the Holocaust, and yet they are asked to focus on Content, Context, and Complexity—the foundational principles of our pedagogical guidelines—in their approach. We believe that building a timeline that integrates personal stories, key historical events (including World War II, the Holocaust, and the world’s response), Nazi laws and decrees, and other relevant themes/topics can provide a platform to understand both how and why the Holocaust happened, and that it can be accomplished in a relatively short time frame. This interactive lesson also lends itself to critical thinking and understanding that the Holocaust happened to individuals and was incremental. It allows students to make inferences about the inter-relatedness of time and geographic location to the events that took place, affecting individuals and victim groups.
-
Myths and Misconceptions, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education
A series of short films presented by Stephen Feinberg, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, explore the myths and misconceptions about the Nazi period and the Holocaust that students may bring with them to the classroom.
-
ONLINE EXHIBIT: History of the Holocaust, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre
Based on the "Brief History of the Holocaust" reference guide. Includes interactive timelines and maps.
-
Prism Journal, Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education & Administration, Yeshiva University
Azrieli Graduate School publishes "PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators." "Prism" offers educators a practical, scholarly resource on teaching the Holocaust at the high school, college and graduate school levels. Each issue examines a specific topic through a variety of lenses, including education, history, literature, poetry, psychology and art. Experts from high schools, colleges, universities, museums and resource centers in the United States and Israel bring diverse perspectives highlighting particular facets of the issue at hand.
-
The Ten Stages of Genocide, Montreal Holocaust Museum
According to academic and activist Gregory H. Stanton, genocide is a process that develops in ten stages, described here. The stages do not necessarily follow a linear progression and may coexist. Prevention measures may be implemented at any stage.
-
VIDEO: Teaching About the Holocaust-Bringing the Lesson of Closure (3:48), USHMM
Dr. Joyce Witt, AP European History teacher at Highland Park High School in Chicago, demonstrates in this sample lesson an exemplary method for teaching a class on the Holocaust. Joyce Witt was a 1997-1998 Teacher Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This program was a part of the museum's Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Exemplary Lessons Initiative. Dr. Witt explains: Study of the Holocaust would not be complete without a discussion of implications for the future. How should the Holocaust be woven into the fabric of twentieth-century history? How can its study move us forward so that our children are not traumatized and fixated on its atrocities? Most important, what are the lessons that can be learned from this horrific event so that our children learn from the past to make a better world? These essential questions must be asked if the study of the Holocaust is to have meaning in the post-Holocaust world.
-
VIDEO: Teaching the Holocaust in Today’s World (11:10), Echoes & Reflections
Teaching about the Holocaust can be overwhelming. How can we provide a meaningful learning experience for our students in a limited amount of time? What is an effective approach to making learning about the Holocaust relevant and meaningful to students in today's world?
-
VIDEO: Thomas Buergenthal Discusses Quote from Abel Herzberg (0:48), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
"There were not six million Jews murdered; there was one murder, six million times." Holocaust survivor Abel Herzberg
- VIDEO: Why Should Students Consider History from Multiple Perspectives? (0:53), Brown University/Choices Program
- Why Simulation Activities Should Not Be Used, Anti-Defamation League
- Why Teach About the Holocaust?, UNESCO
- Maps
- Analysis Worksheet – Map, National Archives
- ANIMATED MAP: Europe After World War I, The Map as History
- ANIMATED MAP: Introduction to the Holocaust (1:57), USHMM
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ANIMATED MAP: Maps, Central Europe and History (7:48), Centropa
This short trip through Europe´s maps explains how borders moved and cultures moved with them.
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ANIMATED MAP: World War II and the Holocaust (6:34), USHMM
Serves as a timeline for the Holocaust. Includes full transcript.
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German History in Documents and Images: Nazi Germany 1933-45, German Historical Institute, Washginton, DC
A comprehensive collection of documents, images, and maps accompanied by a section introduction by leading scholars. Many of the documents included in this project are difficult to locate in print publications, especially outside of Germany. All of the German-language documents included in GHDI are accompanied by contemporary English translations, almost all of which were commissioned for the project. GHDI also offers new access to a range of historically significant visual images, many of which will be unfamiliar to viewers.
-
Maps, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
Broad selection of maps.
- Photographs
- “The Camera as Weapon: Documentary Photography and the Holocaust,” Museum of Tolerance
- Analysis Worksheet – Photo, National Archives
- Archival Photographs, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
- Critical Analysis of Photographs as Historical Sources, Yad Vashem
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Dehumanization and Incitement: The Use and Abuse of Holocaust Photographs and Images, Keene State College
A potential pitfall in teaching about the Holocaust is using Holocaust imagery without ever teaching students how to evaluate and decode those images. Teach your students how to avoid these pitfalls.
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Experiencing History: Holocaust Sources in Context, USHMM
Learn about the Holocaust through unique, original sources. With this tool, you can read, watch, and examine the experiences of everyday people to analyze how genocide unfolded. Discover a diary, a letter, a newspaper article, or a policy paper; see a photograph, or watch film footage. Discuss the complex context from which the Holocaust emerged and consider the importance of primary sources for understanding the world.
-
German History in Documents and Images: Nazi Germany 1933-45, German Historical Institute, Washginton, DC
A comprehensive collection of documents, images, and maps accompanied by a section introduction by leading scholars. Many of the documents included in this project are difficult to locate in print publications, especially outside of Germany. All of the German-language documents included in GHDI are accompanied by contemporary English translations, almost all of which were commissioned for the project. GHDI also offers new access to a range of historically significant visual images, many of which will be unfamiliar to viewers.
-
Images, Audio & Video, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
Unique source searchable by topic.
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VIDEO: Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs (3:06), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs", ISHS staff member Franziska Reiniger discusses how you can explore Holocaust photography with your students. Introducing some general points to keep in mind when teaching using any photograph from the Holocaust, Ms. Reiniger then proceeds with two examples, demonstrating the remarkable differences we find in photographs taken from different points of view. The graphical elements within a photograph sometimes hint at the external circumstances surrounding the time and place when the photograph was taken, and be studying both we deepen our understanding of the Holocaust. The photographs discussed in this video are available for viewing and for downloading from our website. Franziska Reiniger is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem. Part 1: Teaching the Holocaust Using Photographs Part 2: Photographs as Propaganda Part 3: Documentation of Atrocities: The Jewish Photographer Henryk Ross
- Sources for Survivor Testimony
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Centropa
The first oral history project that combines old family pictures with the stories that go with them, Centropa has interviewed 1,200 elderly Jews living in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Sephardic communities of Greece, Turkey and the Balkans.
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Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory, Digital Edition of the Book by Lawrence L Langer, Fortunoff Video Archives/Yale University
A seminal text in Holocaust studies, Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory draws on testimonies from the Fortunoff Video Archive to examine how they can complement "historical studies by enabling us to confront the human dimensions of the catastrophe." It also examines “the form and function of memory as survivors relive devastating experiences of pain, humiliation, and loss.”
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ID Cards (printable) Used at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
The sheer number of victims in the Holocaust challenges easy comprehension. When visitors enter the Museum’s Permanent Exhibition, they receive an ID card telling the true story of a person who lived during the Holocaust. Using these individual profiles, show your students that behind the massive statistics are real people—children and parents, neighbors and friends—and a diversity of personal experience. The collection is browsable by gender and age.
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If You Heard What I Heard
The true stories of Holocaust survivors as they were heard by the last generation to hear the stories directly from them - their grandchildren. Educational materials available to use these in your classroom.
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IWitness, USC Shoah Foundation
Based on the Survivor Testimonies created by Steven Spielberg and donated to the USC Shoah Foundation, IWitness provides access to these testimonies to watch, teach, and share with your classroom. Clips can be browsed by topic and edited for classroom projects.
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LESSON: Surviving the Holocaust, Fairfax County Public Schools
This lesson examines the Holocaust through the experience of Irene Fogel Weiss, a Jewish woman who survived the horrors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Irene shares her personal story, covering how Nazi influences took over her town of Botragy, Czechoslovakia, the harassment of her family and fellow Jews, their deportation to a Hungarian ghetto, her arrival at Auschwitz, and their death march into Germany. She concludes by examining critical questions around humanity, civility, propaganda, and analyzing information in a search for the truth. These topics pose excellent opportunities for student reflection and discussion, as well as comparisons with contemporary issues facing our localities and our nation. This lesson includes accompanying video testimony.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Echoes and Reflections Teacher’s Resource Guide
This site contains the full testimonies as well as the clips of survivors who are part of the curriculum.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: IWitness, USC Shoah Foundation
Clipped testimonies, searchable by topic, with the full testimony available as well.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Re-Collection, Azrieli Foundation
A collection of Canadian survivor stories and videos.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: The 1939 Society
Some of these videos were recorded at UCLA in the 1980′s and others as part of a project by The Anti-Defamation League, Orange County. As the audience, you help preserve the legacy of survivors by listening to their stories—and by sharing them with others.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Various, Museum of Jewish Heritage/Coming of Age in the Holocaust
Features twelve stories of Holocaust survivors and one story of an individual who grew up in the Mandate of Palestine during the same period. Brief summaries allow you to select the survivor you would like to explore further. Each survivor's story is divided into chapters with a collection of video clips, timeline, geography, discussion topics, and project suggestions.
-
Survivors and Witnesses: Using Video Testimony in the Classroom, Facing History and Ourselves
Facing History and Ourselves has selected testimony from USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive to complement the print and digital editions of Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior.
-
Voices of the Holocaust, Illinois Institute of Technology
In 1946, Dr. David P. Boder, a psychology professor from Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology, traveled to Europe to record the stories of Holocaust survivors in their own words. Over a period of three months, he visited refugee camps in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, carrying a wire recorder and 200 spools of steel wire, upon which he was able to record over 90 hours of first-hand testimony. These recordings represent the earliest known oral histories of the Holocaust, which are available through this online archive. NOTE: Jack Bass (Jürgen Bassfreund) of Birmingham was interviewed by David Boder. See: https://voices.iit.edu/interviewee?doc=bassfreundJ
-
Witnesses to the Holocaust: Stories of Minnesota Holocaust Survivors and Liberators, 25th Edition
This resource captures the vivid memories of people who experienced the Holocaust – those imprisoned in concentration camps, those who managed to escape internment, and those who liberated the concentration camps. Simple and eloquent, these testimonies detail not just the experiences, but the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a world turned upside down. These are compelling stories not just of pain and death but also of individual acts of heroism and tenacity, the apex of the human spirit.
- Timelines
- Chronology of the Holocaust
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Holocaust Timeline, Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center
This timeline parallels the "Road to War" with the "Road to the Holocaust."
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LESSON: Timeline Activity (1-2 class periods), USHMM
Teachers often have very little time to teach about the Holocaust, and yet they are asked to focus on Content, Context, and Complexity—the foundational principles of our pedagogical guidelines—in their approach. We believe that building a timeline that integrates personal stories, key historical events (including World War II, the Holocaust, and the world’s response), Nazi laws and decrees, and other relevant themes/topics can provide a platform to understand both how and why the Holocaust happened, and that it can be accomplished in a relatively short time frame. This interactive lesson also lends itself to critical thinking and understanding that the Holocaust happened to individuals and was incremental. It allows students to make inferences about the inter-relatedness of time and geographic location to the events that took place, affecting individuals and victim groups.
-
This Month in Holocaust History, The Holocaust Explained
Description of events that occurred in each month.
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This Month in Holocaust History, Yad Vashem
Photos, by month, from the archives of Yad Vashem.
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Timeline of Events, USHMM
Each event has a full description and some have accompanying images and video.
-
Timeline of the Holocaust, Echoes & Reflections
This timeline chronicles key dates from 1933-1945 and is supported by primary source materials and accompanied classroom activities designed to enhance instruction.
- Timeline of the Holocaust, Museum of Tolerance
- World War II: Timeline, USHMM
- Understanding Hate
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A Practical Guide on How to Confront Hate, Tina Kempin Reuter, UAB Institute for Human Rights
Explores what we can do to confront hate, white supremacy, and racism.
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LESSON: Pyramid of Hate Exercise, USC Shoah Foundation
This classroom exercise is designed to help educators teach students ages 14-18 about the effects and consequences of hatred and intolerance. The exercise integrates first-person testimonies.
- LESSON: Stereotypes and Prejudices, remember.org
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LESSON: The Escalation of Hate, Partners Against Hate
The goal of this lesson is to examine the escalating nature of hate and to consider the difficulty of stopping the progression once it begins.
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LESSON: Those Who Don’t Know-Identity, Membership, and Stereotypes, Facing History and Ourselves
Students prepare to study prejudice and stereotyping in Nazi-occupied Germany by considering the ways that people are defined by others.
- Using Art to Teach the Holocaust
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LESSON: Using Art to Teach “Number the Stars” (VIDEO: 5:05), PBS Learning Media
In this episode of NJEA’s Classroom Close-up, fifth-grade students at Alan B. Shepard Elementary School learn about the holocaust by reading the book, Number the Stars, and creating paneled works of art.The paneled artwork, called triptychs, uses historical photos to show how holocaust victims’ lives were transformed. Through the research and creation of the artwork, students learn to analyze images and build empathy.
- Using Testimony in the Classroom
- LESSON: Using Testimony to Teach, Facing History and Ourselves
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Survivors Testimony Film Series, Yad Vashem
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VIDEO: Using Holocaust Testimony in the Classroom (1:44), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Using Holocaust Testimony in the Classroom", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon discusses how we recommend choosing and using Holocaust testimony with your students. After first discussing the aspects unique to face-to-face survivor testimony, aspects that we will invariably lose in a world without survivors, Ms. Ochayon proceeds to contrast and then balance two approaches to chosing testimony video: the historical, and the personal. Chosing a piece of testimony that is only personal or only historical can be counterproductive; it is by choosing testimony that relates, personally, to historical events that we derive a deeper understanding from the survivors. The testimonies discussed in this video are available for viewing from our website. The video includes testimony by Leo Laufer, Oscar Pinkus, Livia Wiederman. Sheryl Silver-Ochayon is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem. Part 1: Using Holocaust Testimony in the Classroom Part 2: Childhood During the Holocaust
- Bystanders, Collaboration, and Complicity
- Bystanders, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
- Collaboration, USHMM
- EXHIBIT: Some Were Neighbors-Collaboration & Complicity in the Holocaust, USHMM
- LESSON: Deconstructing the Familiar, A Photo Activity, USHMM
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LESSON: Ethical Leadership (1 class period), USHMM
These educational modules explore how challenges to ethical behavior and leadership played out in the context of the Holocaust and pose larger questions about how they confront us today. This lesson was designed for college level, but is adaptable for secondary level.
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LESSON: Guilt, Responsibility and Punishment, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains photos of different people, some of whom were involved in the implementation of the Holocaust. By the end of this activity, you will have developed your ability to think critically and from different perspectives. You will also have reflected on how both the indifference of individuals and the choices they make can lead to horrific consequences. This will help you to understand the role of passive observers and the dangers of remaining silent.
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LESSON: The Holocaust: Bystanders and Upstanders, Facing History and Ourselves
Students explore the stories of individuals, groups, and nations who made choices to resist the Nazis, as well as the bystanders who decided to remain silent.
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LESSON: The Roles of Individuals, USHMM
Millions of ordinary people witnessed the crimes of the Holocaust. These teaching materials explore the motives and pressures that led many individuals to abandon their fellow human beings—or to make the choice to help.
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: Chaim Rumkowski’s Speech to Lodz Ghetto Residents, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Rumkowski's famous "Give Me Your Children" speech.
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: The Population Has Not Behaved Correctly, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Szczebrzeszyn is a small town in eastern Poland. Its Jewish community was destroyed in October 1942. Some Jews were deported to Bełżec extermination camp; many were shot in the streets of the town and in its Jewish cemetery which is shown in the photograph. The reactions of the non-Jewish population were recorded by a local doctor, Zygmunt Klukowski, in his diary.
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: The Question of Jewish Children Does Not Interest Him, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Although only the governments of Germany, Romania and Croatia murdered Jews as state policy, other states actively participated in the Holocaust. On 16-17 July 1942 more than 13,000 Jews without French citizenship were arrested by French police in Paris; the victims included more than 4,000 children. Most of the arrestees were held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver, an indoor cycling stadium, before being transferred to transit camps. The idea of arresting the children came from the French Prime Minister Laval, as this telegram sent by Theodor Dannecker, the SS representative in France, a few days before the round-up makes clear.
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READING: The Hangman, Facing History and Ourselves
Explore bystander behavior and the challenges of speaking up with Maurice Ogden's poem, "The Hangman."
- SPEECH: The Perils of Indifference by Elie Wiesel, The White House, April 1999, The History Place/Great Speeches Collection
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VIDEO: Bystanders and Resisters (5:11), Facing History and Ourselves
Dr. Paul Bookbinder, University of Massachusetts, discusses the roles of bystanders and resisters during the Holocaust.
- VIDEO: Elie Wiesel Talks About Fighting Indifference (1:00), Facing History and Ourselves
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VIDEO: How Did Ordinary Citizens Become Murderers? (1:30), USHMM
What prompted average people to commit extraordinary crimes in support of the Nazi cause? On September 13, 2017, the Museum hosted a discussion on this topic. Featuring Dr. Christopher Browning & Dr. Wendy Lower.
- Contemporary Antisemitism
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Confront Hate and Antisemitism, USHMM
In the aftermath of the moral and societal failures that made the Holocaust possible, confronting antisemitism and all forms of hatred is critical. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum offer resources for teachers to share in their classrooms.
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Contemporary Antisemitism, USC Shoah Foundation/IWitness
Eyewitness video testimonies.
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LESSON: Antisemtism and the Bystander Effect, USC Shoah Foundation/IWitness
Grades 7-10, ELA. In this activity, students will develop an understanding of what it means to be a bystander and the impact of bystanding. Students will watch testimonies from survivors of and witnesses to historical and contemporary antisemitism who describe the consequences of the bystander effect in their own lives. Students will construct a social media message for the #BeginsWithMe campaign that describes their own plan to counter bystander behavior.
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LESSON: Contemporary Antisemitism, USC Shoah Foundation/IWitness
Grades 9-10, ELA. What is antisemitism and how is it different than contemporary antisemitism? How do historical events shape contemporary societies? This activity defines antisemitism and contemporary antisemitism, and focuses on Denmark's collective pride around the Holocaust-era rescue of its Jewish citizens and how this pride was reinvigorated after a 2015 attack on a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark. Through testimony, students will see how antisemitism, hate, and stereotypes impact everyone in society, not just those targeted in an attack.
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LESSON: Promoting Effective Conversation Skills, USC Shoah Foundation/IWitness
Grades 9-10. ELA. Students will apply the concept of respectful disagreement. Students will develop strategies to respectfully disagree when confronted with differing ideas.
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PODCAST: Deborah Lipstadt, Voices of Antisemitism (4:56), USHMM
When Holocaust denier David Irving sued Deborah Lipstadt for libel in a British court, she experienced what she called "the world of difference between reading about antisemitism and hearing it up close and personal."
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Stronger Than Hate, USC Shoah Foundation/IWitness
Educational resources for building empathy and respect.
- Deportation
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DATABASE: Transports to Extinction, Yad Vashem
The Shoah (Holocaust) Deportation Database allows the visitor to search for victims by name, departure date, transport number, etc. This database is continually being updated.
- Map: The European Rail System, USHMM
- POEM: “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Freightcar,” by Dan Pagis, Yad Vashem
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READING: The “Special Trains,” Facing History and Ourselves
Consider the role of bureaucrats in the Nazi regime with this interview with a man who managed the trains to Auschwitz and Treblinka.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Deportations, USHMM
Includes several oral histories on the topic of Deportation.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Halina Birenbaum, Masha Putermilch, and Yosef Charny (4:14), Yad Vashem/YouTube
Survivors describe the mass deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto in the summer of 1942. Hebrew with English subtitles.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Shmuel Rotbard, Miriam Akavia, and Aliza Avnon (3:41), Yad Vashem/YouTube
Holocaust survivors describe the deportation from Cracow, Poland, to the concentration camps. Hebrew with English subtitles.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Blanka Rothschild (1:47), USHMM
Survivor describes deportation from the Lodz Ghetto.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Kalman Perk (2:55), Yad Vashem
Born in 1930 in Kaunas, Lithuania, Kalman Perk was deported with his family to the Kovno ghetto in 1941. Hiding in a cellar in July 1944 to escape the impending liquidation of the ghetto, the family was forced to abandon their hiding place due to German-ignited fires in the ghetto. They were then loaded onto a cattle car and deported to the concentration camps. Convinced by his parents that he must escape, Kalman jumped out the window of the moving train and fled eastward into Russia. Kalman adopted the last words his father spoke to him before escaping from the train, "Be a decent person", as the guiding principle of his life.
- The Forgotten Part of the Final Solution-The Liquidation of the Ghettos, by Wolfgang Scheffler, Museum of Tolerance
- The Online Guide of the Deportations of Jews Research Project, Yad Vashem
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VIDEO: Curator Discusses Man’s Last Letter (1:59), USHMM,
Letter written by Otto Simmonds and thrown from the railroad car deporting him from the camp of Drancy in France, to Auschwitz.
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VIDEO: I Have a Message for You (12:45), The New York Times
Klara was 20 years old and living in Belgium when she, her husband, and her father were taken in a roundup to the Mechelen transit camp and put on a train bound for Auschwitz. This beautiful film includes interviews with Klara accented with artisitic drawings, and tells the story of her escape and guilt at leaving her father.
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VIDEO: Toyland (13:55), Magnet Film
Germany 1942: In order to protect her son Marianne Meißner tried to make him believe that the Jewish neighbours are going on a journey to “Toyland”. One morning her son has disappeared - the Jewish neighbours too. Toyland is a film about guilt, responsibility, small and big lies. Winner 2009 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
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VIDEO: Westerbork Deportation Footage by Werner Breslauer, Experiencing History, USHMM
The film featured here is a hybrid of perpetrator and victim footage. Recording the deportation of Dutch Jews (and some Sinti-Roma) from Westerbork on May 19, 1944, it chronicles the loading of train cars bound for Auschwitz. The cameraman, Werner (Rudolf) Breslauer, was a German Jew who fled to the Netherlands with his wife and three children. Embedded within this footage is a now iconic image of a young Sinti girl as she is being deported. Settela Steinbach was one of the 245 Dutch Sinti killed in Auschwitz-Birkenau between July 31 and August 1, 1944, the date of the liquidation of Birkenau's "Zigeunerlager" ("Gypsy Camp"). Settela's last, and world renowned, picture was taken on May 19, 1944 moments before the train door was bolted and locked in front of her. The image of Settela peeking through the train doors, head covered, has become a symbol of the genocide of the Sinti/Roma during the Holocaust.
- Emigration
- ANIMATED MAP: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
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CHART: Immigrants Admitted to the U.S. – Fiscal Years 1900-2002, INS
Scroll to page 2.
- CHART: Jewish Emigration from Germany and Austria, 1933-1939, According to Destination, Yad Vashem
- CHART: Jewish Emigration from Nazi Territories 1933-1941, Yad Vashem
- Documentation Required for Emigration from Germany (PDF), USHMM
- Documentation Required for Immigration Visas to Enter the U.S. (PDF), USHMM
- Escape from German-Occupied Europe, USHMM
- Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
- EXHIBIT: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
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EXHIBIT: Flight and Rescue, USHMM
This is the extraordinary story of more than 2,000 Polish Jewish refugees. Enduring the hardships of travel and restrictive immigration laws, they escaped wartime Europe to safety in the Far East just months before the start of the Nazi genocide that claimed the lives of 3 million Polish Jews. Experience their journey through photographs, personal articles, and survivor interviews.
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EXHIBIT: The Boy Alone in Nazi Vienna, The Wiener Holocaust Library
During the Kindertransport, children left their home countries and families behind. Many would no longer see their parents again. But for some, the Kindertransport promised a reunion with a parent who had made the painful decision to leave first. A cache of 40 letters recently discovered in a UK loft documents this more unusual experience from a child's perspective. The letters were written by a boy in Vienna to his mother, who was already in the UK, over the course of an agonising four-month separation. During this time each worked frantically towards a reunion that they could not be certain would happen as war clouds gathered.
- German and Austrian Jewish Refugees in Shanghai, USHMM
- German Jewish Refugees, USHMM
- German-Jewish Refugees, 1933-1939, USHMM
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Harvor from the Holocaust, PBS Learning Media
Harbor from the Holocaust explores the extraordinary relationship of these Jews and their adopted city of Shanghai, even through the bitter years of Japanese occupation 1937-1945 and the Chinese civil war that followed. It was a relationship that produced some exceptional artists, statesmen and authors, as well as ‘ordinary’ people who survived to carry on their Jewish religion and traditions that would have otherwise been consigned to oblivion.
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How UK’s ‘Kitchener Camp’ rescue saved 4,000 Jewish men after Kristallnacht, Times of Israel, July 3, 2020
The camp was the concrete manifestation of a softening of the British government’s hardline approach to those fleeing Nazi persecution. Amid public and parliamentary revulsion at the terrible events of November 1938, and under heavy pressure from the Central British Fund (CBF) for German Jewry (now World Jewish Relief), the Home Office agreed to admit thousands of Jewish refugees, albeit under stringent conditions. As a result, the Kindertransport saw 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children brought to Britain. Less well-known or celebrated, however, is the equally remarkable story of the “Kitchener Camp” rescue that undoubtedly saved the lives of nearly 4,000 German and Austrian Jewish men.
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IMAGE: Plea for Help for Europe’s Jews, Facing History and Ourselves
In the Chicago Daily News, November 23, 1938, the cartoonist Cecil Jensen pleaded for world leaders to help Europe's Jews.
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Immigration & Refugee Policy During WWII, Jewish Virtual Library
Contains links for more specific topics.
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Jewish Refugees Aboard the SS Quanza, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The SS Quanza was a Portuguese ship chartered by 317 Jewish refugees attempting to escape Nazi-dominated Europe in August 1940. Passengers with valid visas were allowed to disembark in New York and Vera Cruz, but that left 81 refugees seeking asylum. Their request to land in the USA triggered a political and legal battle between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long.
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Kindertransport Association Oral History Project, YouTube
Thirty personal testimonies.
- Kindertransport, BBC
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Kindertransport: 1938-1940, USHMM
Includes photos and personal histories.
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Kitchener Camp (UK)
This former army camp near Sandwich, Kent, was adapted by the Council of German Jewry to house mostly single Jewish men from Germany and Austria who had been released from concentration camps in the aftermath of the infamous Kristallnacht Pogrom on the proviso that they would leave Germany immediately, often without their families. This site includes a timeline, documents, photos, names, etc.
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LESSON: A Case Study on the Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Teaching Materials
By examining the Wagner-Rogers Bill of 1939, students learn how Americans debated the country’s role as a haven for refugees, identifying economic, social, and geopolitical factors that influenced Americans’ attitudes about the United States’ role in the world during the critical years 1938–1941. Using primary-source documents, students identify and evaluate arguments that Americans made for and against the acceptance of child refugees in 1939. The lesson concludes with reflection on questions that this history raises about America’s role in the world today.
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LESSON: Analyzing Einstein’s Citizenship Application, National Archives
Students will examine and interpret information from a 1936 Declaration of Intention document to discover the individual applying for citizenship in the United States: Albert Einstein.
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LESSON: Escape in Peter Feigl’s Diary, Facing History and Ourselves
By comparing two personal accounts of escape from German-occupied Europe, students gain a deeper understanding of escape and the refugee experience during the Holocaust.
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LESSON: MS St. Louis Crisis, Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies/Keene State College
This lesson explores the US decision-making process in rejecting the passengers from the St. Louis. Includes background information, questions to consider, and the personal story of a local survivor who was on the St. Louis.
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LESSON: Refugee Experiences in Elisabeth Kaufmann’s Diary, Facing History and Ourselves
Students draw on diary entries and historical documents to gain insight into experiences of refugees during the Holocaust.
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LESSON: Refugee Politics in Europe, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains information about the historical event known as the Evian Conference. By the end of the activity you will have developed your understanding of contemporary issues and human rights, including how we view newcomers today.
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LESSON: The Wagner-Rogers Bill: Debate, American Immigration Law Foundation
This lesson allows students to develop and hear the arguments for and against the Wagner-Rogers bill, by taking part in a mock Congressional debate on the bill. Students are encouraged to develop and listen to persuasive testimony and speeches, and to come up with creative strategies to change the legislation in ways in which it might be more acceptable.
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LESSON: Understanding the Kindertransport, IWitness/USC Shoah Foundation
This Information Quest activity introduces students to the Kindertransport, the transport of child refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to England, and its effects on the children who experienced the journey. It provides important historical context for the book, "The Children of Willesden Lane," the story of one child's journey from Westbahnhof station to Willesden Lane and beyond. Students will engage in a close reading of a variety of texts, develop an appreciation for the historical context of the story and listen to first person accounts of the experience on the Kindertransport. The activity complements the Facing History and Ourselves teachers resource for The Children of Willesden Lane.
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LESSON: Why Didn’t They Just Leave?, USHMM
Students will explore the documents necessary for emigration and immigration in the 1930s and read diary passages that personalize the challenges of seeking refuge. This lesson utilizes the following additional resources: "The Path to Nazi Genocide", animated maps, and "Salvaged Pages" by Alexandra Zapruder.
- Madagascar Plan, Yad Vashem
- Nisko and Lublin Plan, Yad Vashem
- Nisko: The First Experiment in Deportation, Museum of Tolerance
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: What did Refugees Need to Obtain a US Visa in the 1930s?, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
As the Nazi regime’s attacks intensified in the late 1930s, hundreds of thousands of Jews in Germany tried to immigrate to the United States. To enter the United States, each person needed an immigration visa stamped into his or her passport. It was difficult to get the necessary papers to leave Germany, and US immigration visas were difficult to obtain. The process could take years. EXPLORE THE SEVEN STEPS THAT WERE REQUIRED FOR THOSE SEEKING TO IMMIGRATE TO THE UNITED STATES.
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Operation Texas, Jewish Virtual Library
In 1938, Lyndon Baines Johnson - then a Congressman who would later become the 36th President of the United States - worked covertly to establish a refuge in Texas for European Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. Johnson eventually helped hundreds of European Jews enter Texas through Cuba, Mexico and South America.
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Orchestra of Exiles, PBS Learning Media
On the brink of World War II and the rise of Nazi-occupation, one man’s remarkable four-year odyssey helped rescue Europe’s premier Jewish musicians and their families from persecution, while preserving the musical heritage of Europe. Orchestra of Exiles, a 90-minute documentary film by Academy Award-nominated Josh Aronson, tells the dramatic story of celebrated Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman (1882-1947). With courage, resourcefulness, and an entourage of allies including Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein, Huberman bravely stood up to racial intolerance, ultimately saving almost 1,000 Jews from 1933–1936 while forming the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.
- PHOTO STORY: 6 Stories of the Kindertransport, The Imperial War Museum
- Polish Jewish Refugees in the Shanghai Ghetto, 1941-1945, USHMM
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POLITICAL CARTOON: Evian Conference 1938, Facing History and Ourselves
Political cartoon entitled “Will the Evian Conference Guide Him to Freedom?” in The New York Times, July 3, 1938
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POLITICAL CARTOON: European Crossroads – Daily Express, October 17, 1938
Shows refugees from Nazi Germany with no place to go.
- POLITICAL CARTOON: Please Ring the Bell for Us, Francis Knott, July 1939
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POLITICAL CARTOON: The Evian Conference
Cartoon published in 1938 by the Daily Express newspaper in Britain showing refugees from Nazi occupied territories and the unwillingness of any countries to take them.
- PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Wagner-Rogers Refugee Bill Backed at Hearing, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: As We Have No Racial Problem, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Thee attitude of most delegates at Evian was perhaps best expressed by Australia’s representative, Colonel T.W. White in the following speech.
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READING: A Refugee Crisis, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider how nations around the world responded to the Jewish refugee crisis created by Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria.
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READING: The Voyage of the St. Louis, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why countries including the US refused to accept Jewish refugees who sought to escape from Nazi-occupied Europe on the St. Louis.
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SD Report on the Outcomes of the Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
Summary of the outcomes from the Evian Conference and its ramifications for German-Jewish policy given by the Nazi intelligence and security body (SD) in July 1938.
- STUDY GUIDE: Into the Arms of Strangers, Stories of the Kindertransport
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Child Survivors of the Holocaust, BBC
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Esther Starobin-Fate of Family that Remained in Germany (6:57), USHMM
Esther Starobin and her three sisters left Germany for Great Britain in 1939 as part of a special rescue of Jewish children known as the Kindertransport, or children’s transport. In this episode, Esther discusses how she learned the fate of her parents and brother who remained in Germany after she and her sisters had left.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Freddie Traum-Evacuated to England (9:05), USHMM
Freddie Traum discusses life as a refugee in Great Britain during World War II. Freddie and his sister were sent from their home in Austria to England as part of the Kindertransport, the special transport that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940. Freddie initially lived with a family in London but was evacuated to the countryside, along with other Londoners, when Great Britain declared war on Germany in September of 1939.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Friendship Before, During, and After the War (6:47), Facing History and Ourselves
Vera Gissing, who survived the Holocaust as part of the Kindertransport, describes the importance of her non-Jewish friends to her and her parents throughout World War II.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Kurt Klein (2:06), USHMM
As Nazi anti-Jewish policy intensified, Kurt's family decided to leave Germany. Kurt left for the United States in 1937, but his parents were unable to leave before the outbreak of World War II. Kurt's parents were eventually deported to Auschwitz, in German-occupied Poland. In 1942, Kurt joined the United States Army and was trained in military intelligence. In Europe, he interrogated prisoners of war. In May 1945, he took part in the surrender of a village in Czechoslovakia and returned the next day to assist over 100 Jewish women who had been abandoned there during a death march. Kurt's future wife, Gerda, was one of the women in this group.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Local Doctor Shares Chilling Story of Surviving Holocaust, The Buffalo News
The story of Dr. Sol Messinger.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Preparing for the Kindertransport (7:04), Facing History and Ourselves
Vera Gissing, a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia, recalls how her family prepared her for the Kindertransport, a rescue mission that brought thousands of Jewish refugee children to Great Britain.
- The Evian Conference, USHMM
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The Immigration of Refugee Children to the US, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Numerous organizations and individuals attempted to bring unaccompanied children, mostly German Jewish children, to the United States between 1933 and 1945. More than one thousand unaccompanied children escaped Nazi persecution by immigrating to the United States as part of these organized efforts. This article provides a summary of this work.
- The Jews of Shanghai, The Holocaust Explained
- The Kindertransport Association
- The Kindertransport, The Holocaust Explained
- The Kitchener Camp for Refugees, The Wiener Holocaust Library
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The Nazis & the Jews: The Madagascar Plan, Jewish Virtual Library
Includes full text of the Madagascar Plan.
- The Significance of the Evian Conference, The Holocaust Explained
- The Wagner-Rogers Bill, Jewish Virtual Library
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TIMELINE: An Interactive Timeline-US Immigration Policy, Past and Present, Brown University/Choices Program
Includes lesson plans.
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VIDEO: Evian Conference Fails to Aid Refugees, Historical Film Footage (0:37), USHMM
Delegates of 32 countries assembled at the Royal Hotel in Evian, France, from July 6 to 15, 1938, to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees. The refugees were desperate to flee Nazi persecution in Germany, but could not leave without having permission to settle in other countries. The Evian Conference resulted in almost no change in the immigration policies of most of the attending nations. The major powers--the United States, Great Britain, and France--opposed unrestricted immigration, making it clear that they intended to take no official action to alleviate the German-Jewish refugee problem.
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VIDEO: Kindertransport Premovie(11:57), Pomona College Theatre Department
A short video about the events leading up the Kindertransport... An educational supplement to Pomona College Theater Department's of Kindertransport by Diane Samuels.
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VIDEO: Nobody Wants Us (37:00)
In September 1940, three teenagers were trapped on the steamship Quanze in the port of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Along with 83 other exhausted refugees, they were hoping to be allowed on American soil — where millions of others in distress had safely landed before them. Times had changed and America was turning away refugees at this critical time in history. Would these families be turned away too? "Nobody Wants Us" is their story. The relevance of this documentary goes far beyond the historical significance of the Steamship Quanza. It addresses how the US has responded to these refugees fleeing war torn Europe and encourages us to consider our reaction to refugees today. The film reinforces the concept of helping those in need when the world seems against them.
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VIDEO: Refugee Ships at Sea (7:50), Americans and the Holocaust/USHMM
Includes details on the voyage of the St. Louis (May 1939) and the SS Quanza (August 1940) More than 1,200 ships carrying nearly 111,000 Jewish refugees arrived in New York between March 1938, when Germany annexed Austria, and October 1941, when Germany banned emigration. This seven-minute film shows the passage of ships carrying Jewish refugees from Europe to the United States between 1938 and 1941, as well as the atypical voyages of the MS St Louis in May 1939 and the SS Quanza in August 1940.
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VIDEO: Ruth-A Little Girl’s Big Journey (16:04), USC Shoah Foundation/IWitness
This animated short film for primary school students follows Dr. Ruth Westheimer's survival of the Holocaust a s young girl. It explores universal themes of fear, loss, and loneliness, as well as resilience, bravery, and hope.
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VIDEO: Webinar – Remembering the MS St. Louis (1:09), Museum of Jewish Heritage
In May 1939, more than 930 Jews fled the Third Reich aboard the MS St. Louis. Their destination was Cuba and then most planned to immigrate to the United States, but they were turned away by both countries. Forced to return to Europe, ultimately more than 250 of the passengers died in the Holocaust. In this special commemorative program, award-winning journalist Armando Lucas Correa (The German Girl), who is an expert on the history of the St. Louis, is in conversation with Sirius XM radio host Jessica Shaw.
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VIDEO/ANIMATED: Franz-A Professor’s Plea (5:18), USHMM
Jewish professor Dr. Franz Goldberger—desperate to escape Nazi persecution in Vienna, Austria, in the late 1930s—wrote letters to strangers in the United States. He was searching for someone to serve as his financial sponsor for immigration. One of Franz’s letters reached Helen Roseland, a postal worker in Eagle Grove, Iowa. Although she had never met Franz, she resolved to help him—tackling a mountain of paperwork and racing against time. View Franz’s letter and related photographs: https://exhibitions.ushmm.org/americans-and-the-holocaust/personal-story/franz-goldberger?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=behind_every_name&utm_content=franz_goldberger
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Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
Includes one survivor testimony.
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Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The 1939 Wagner-Rogers Bill is the common name for two identical congressional bills (one in the US House of Representatives and one in the US Senate) that proposed admitting 20,000 German refugee children to the United States outside of immigration quotas. Despite congressional hearings and public debate in the spring of 1939, the bills never came to a vote.
- Plans to Remove the Jews from Europe
- Madagascar Plan, Yad Vashem
- Nisko and Lublin Plan, Yad Vashem
- Nisko: The First Experiment in Deportation, Museum of Tolerance
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The Nazis & the Jews: The Madagascar Plan, Jewish Virtual Library
Includes full text of the Madagascar Plan.
- Shanghai
- German and Austrian Jewish Refugees in Shanghai, USHMM
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Harvor from the Holocaust, PBS Learning Media
Harbor from the Holocaust explores the extraordinary relationship of these Jews and their adopted city of Shanghai, even through the bitter years of Japanese occupation 1937-1945 and the Chinese civil war that followed. It was a relationship that produced some exceptional artists, statesmen and authors, as well as ‘ordinary’ people who survived to carry on their Jewish religion and traditions that would have otherwise been consigned to oblivion.
- Polish Jewish Refugees in the Shanghai Ghetto, 1941-1945, USHMM
- The Jews of Shanghai, The Holocaust Explained
- SS Quanza, August 1940
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Jewish Refugees Aboard the SS Quanza, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The SS Quanza was a Portuguese ship chartered by 317 Jewish refugees attempting to escape Nazi-dominated Europe in August 1940. Passengers with valid visas were allowed to disembark in New York and Vera Cruz, but that left 81 refugees seeking asylum. Their request to land in the USA triggered a political and legal battle between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long.
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VIDEO: Nobody Wants Us (37:00)
In September 1940, three teenagers were trapped on the steamship Quanze in the port of Hampton Roads, Virginia. Along with 83 other exhausted refugees, they were hoping to be allowed on American soil — where millions of others in distress had safely landed before them. Times had changed and America was turning away refugees at this critical time in history. Would these families be turned away too? "Nobody Wants Us" is their story. The relevance of this documentary goes far beyond the historical significance of the Steamship Quanza. It addresses how the US has responded to these refugees fleeing war torn Europe and encourages us to consider our reaction to refugees today. The film reinforces the concept of helping those in need when the world seems against them.
- The Evian Conference, July 1938
- Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
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LESSON: Refugee Politics in Europe, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains information about the historical event known as the Evian Conference. By the end of the activity you will have developed your understanding of contemporary issues and human rights, including how we view newcomers today.
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POLITICAL CARTOON: Evian Conference 1938, Facing History and Ourselves
Political cartoon entitled “Will the Evian Conference Guide Him to Freedom?” in The New York Times, July 3, 1938
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POLITICAL CARTOON: European Crossroads – Daily Express, October 17, 1938
Shows refugees from Nazi Germany with no place to go.
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POLITICAL CARTOON: The Evian Conference
Cartoon published in 1938 by the Daily Express newspaper in Britain showing refugees from Nazi occupied territories and the unwillingness of any countries to take them.
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: As We Have No Racial Problem, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Thee attitude of most delegates at Evian was perhaps best expressed by Australia’s representative, Colonel T.W. White in the following speech.
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SD Report on the Outcomes of the Evian Conference, Yad Vashem
Summary of the outcomes from the Evian Conference and its ramifications for German-Jewish policy given by the Nazi intelligence and security body (SD) in July 1938.
- The Evian Conference, USHMM
- The Significance of the Evian Conference, The Holocaust Explained
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VIDEO: Evian Conference Fails to Aid Refugees, Historical Film Footage (0:37), USHMM
Delegates of 32 countries assembled at the Royal Hotel in Evian, France, from July 6 to 15, 1938, to discuss the problem of Jewish refugees. The refugees were desperate to flee Nazi persecution in Germany, but could not leave without having permission to settle in other countries. The Evian Conference resulted in almost no change in the immigration policies of most of the attending nations. The major powers--the United States, Great Britain, and France--opposed unrestricted immigration, making it clear that they intended to take no official action to alleviate the German-Jewish refugee problem.
- The Kindertransport, December 1938
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EXHIBIT: The Boy Alone in Nazi Vienna, The Wiener Holocaust Library
During the Kindertransport, children left their home countries and families behind. Many would no longer see their parents again. But for some, the Kindertransport promised a reunion with a parent who had made the painful decision to leave first. A cache of 40 letters recently discovered in a UK loft documents this more unusual experience from a child's perspective. The letters were written by a boy in Vienna to his mother, who was already in the UK, over the course of an agonising four-month separation. During this time each worked frantically towards a reunion that they could not be certain would happen as war clouds gathered.
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Kindertransport Association Oral History Project, YouTube
Thirty personal testimonies.
- Kindertransport, BBC
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Kindertransport: 1938-1940, USHMM
Includes photos and personal histories.
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LESSON: Understanding the Kindertransport, IWitness/USC Shoah Foundation
This Information Quest activity introduces students to the Kindertransport, the transport of child refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to England, and its effects on the children who experienced the journey. It provides important historical context for the book, "The Children of Willesden Lane," the story of one child's journey from Westbahnhof station to Willesden Lane and beyond. Students will engage in a close reading of a variety of texts, develop an appreciation for the historical context of the story and listen to first person accounts of the experience on the Kindertransport. The activity complements the Facing History and Ourselves teachers resource for The Children of Willesden Lane.
- PHOTO STORY: 6 Stories of the Kindertransport, The Imperial War Museum
- STUDY GUIDE: Into the Arms of Strangers, Stories of the Kindertransport
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Child Survivors of the Holocaust, BBC
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Esther Starobin-Fate of Family that Remained in Germany (6:57), USHMM
Esther Starobin and her three sisters left Germany for Great Britain in 1939 as part of a special rescue of Jewish children known as the Kindertransport, or children’s transport. In this episode, Esther discusses how she learned the fate of her parents and brother who remained in Germany after she and her sisters had left.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Freddie Traum-Evacuated to England (9:05), USHMM
Freddie Traum discusses life as a refugee in Great Britain during World War II. Freddie and his sister were sent from their home in Austria to England as part of the Kindertransport, the special transport that brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940. Freddie initially lived with a family in London but was evacuated to the countryside, along with other Londoners, when Great Britain declared war on Germany in September of 1939.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Friendship Before, During, and After the War (6:47), Facing History and Ourselves
Vera Gissing, who survived the Holocaust as part of the Kindertransport, describes the importance of her non-Jewish friends to her and her parents throughout World War II.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Preparing for the Kindertransport (7:04), Facing History and Ourselves
Vera Gissing, a Holocaust survivor from Czechoslovakia, recalls how her family prepared her for the Kindertransport, a rescue mission that brought thousands of Jewish refugee children to Great Britain.
- The Kindertransport Association
- The Kindertransport, The Holocaust Explained
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VIDEO: Kindertransport Premovie(11:57), Pomona College Theatre Department
A short video about the events leading up the Kindertransport... An educational supplement to Pomona College Theater Department's of Kindertransport by Diane Samuels.
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VIDEO: Ruth-A Little Girl’s Big Journey (16:04), USC Shoah Foundation/IWitness
This animated short film for primary school students follows Dr. Ruth Westheimer's survival of the Holocaust a s young girl. It explores universal themes of fear, loss, and loneliness, as well as resilience, bravery, and hope.
- The Kitchener Camp, December 1938
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How UK’s ‘Kitchener Camp’ rescue saved 4,000 Jewish men after Kristallnacht, Times of Israel, July 3, 2020
The camp was the concrete manifestation of a softening of the British government’s hardline approach to those fleeing Nazi persecution. Amid public and parliamentary revulsion at the terrible events of November 1938, and under heavy pressure from the Central British Fund (CBF) for German Jewry (now World Jewish Relief), the Home Office agreed to admit thousands of Jewish refugees, albeit under stringent conditions. As a result, the Kindertransport saw 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children brought to Britain. Less well-known or celebrated, however, is the equally remarkable story of the “Kitchener Camp” rescue that undoubtedly saved the lives of nearly 4,000 German and Austrian Jewish men.
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Kitchener Camp (UK)
This former army camp near Sandwich, Kent, was adapted by the Council of German Jewry to house mostly single Jewish men from Germany and Austria who had been released from concentration camps in the aftermath of the infamous Kristallnacht Pogrom on the proviso that they would leave Germany immediately, often without their families. This site includes a timeline, documents, photos, names, etc.
- The Kitchener Camp for Refugees, The Wiener Holocaust Library
- The St. Louis, May 1939
- ANIMATED MAP: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
- EXHIBIT: Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
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LESSON: MS St. Louis Crisis, Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies/Keene State College
This lesson explores the US decision-making process in rejecting the passengers from the St. Louis. Includes background information, questions to consider, and the personal story of a local survivor who was on the St. Louis.
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READING: The Voyage of the St. Louis, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why countries including the US refused to accept Jewish refugees who sought to escape from Nazi-occupied Europe on the St. Louis.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Local Doctor Shares Chilling Story of Surviving Holocaust, The Buffalo News
The story of Dr. Sol Messinger.
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VIDEO: Refugee Ships at Sea (7:50), Americans and the Holocaust/USHMM
Includes details on the voyage of the St. Louis (May 1939) and the SS Quanza (August 1940) More than 1,200 ships carrying nearly 111,000 Jewish refugees arrived in New York between March 1938, when Germany annexed Austria, and October 1941, when Germany banned emigration. This seven-minute film shows the passage of ships carrying Jewish refugees from Europe to the United States between 1938 and 1941, as well as the atypical voyages of the MS St Louis in May 1939 and the SS Quanza in August 1940.
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VIDEO: Webinar – Remembering the MS St. Louis (1:09), Museum of Jewish Heritage
In May 1939, more than 930 Jews fled the Third Reich aboard the MS St. Louis. Their destination was Cuba and then most planned to immigrate to the United States, but they were turned away by both countries. Forced to return to Europe, ultimately more than 250 of the passengers died in the Holocaust. In this special commemorative program, award-winning journalist Armando Lucas Correa (The German Girl), who is an expert on the history of the St. Louis, is in conversation with Sirius XM radio host Jessica Shaw.
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Voyage of the St. Louis, USHMM
Includes one survivor testimony.
- The Wagner-Rogers Bill, February 1939
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LESSON: A Case Study on the Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Teaching Materials
By examining the Wagner-Rogers Bill of 1939, students learn how Americans debated the country’s role as a haven for refugees, identifying economic, social, and geopolitical factors that influenced Americans’ attitudes about the United States’ role in the world during the critical years 1938–1941. Using primary-source documents, students identify and evaluate arguments that Americans made for and against the acceptance of child refugees in 1939. The lesson concludes with reflection on questions that this history raises about America’s role in the world today.
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LESSON: The Wagner-Rogers Bill: Debate, American Immigration Law Foundation
This lesson allows students to develop and hear the arguments for and against the Wagner-Rogers bill, by taking part in a mock Congressional debate on the bill. Students are encouraged to develop and listen to persuasive testimony and speeches, and to come up with creative strategies to change the legislation in ways in which it might be more acceptable.
- POLITICAL CARTOON: Please Ring the Bell for Us, Francis Knott, July 1939
- PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Wagner-Rogers Refugee Bill Backed at Hearing, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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The Immigration of Refugee Children to the US, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Numerous organizations and individuals attempted to bring unaccompanied children, mostly German Jewish children, to the United States between 1933 and 1945. More than one thousand unaccompanied children escaped Nazi persecution by immigrating to the United States as part of these organized efforts. This article provides a summary of this work.
- The Wagner-Rogers Bill, Jewish Virtual Library
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Wagner-Rogers Bill, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The 1939 Wagner-Rogers Bill is the common name for two identical congressional bills (one in the US House of Representatives and one in the US Senate) that proposed admitting 20,000 German refugee children to the United States outside of immigration quotas. Despite congressional hearings and public debate in the spring of 1939, the bills never came to a vote.
- Europe After World War I
- A Look at German Inflation 1914-1924, “National Coin Week” Exhibit
- ANIMATED MAP: Europe After World War I, The Map as History
- Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, USHMM
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Fallen German-Jewish Soldiers in the First World War, Jewish Museum Berlin
Biographies of 12 German Jews who fell in the First World War and whose military service and deaths are documented in the museum’s archival holdings.
- German Railroad Notes of the 1923 Hyperinflation, John E. Sandrock
- Hyperinflation, John D. Clare, Educator
- IMAGE: Antisemitic Weimar Campaign Poster, Facing History and Ourselves
- IMAGE: National Socialism Election Poster, Facing History and Ourselves
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LESSON: Choices in Weimar Republic Elections
This lesson helps students investigate some of the choices available to Germans in elections in the early 1930s and understand the variety of reasons many Germans supported the Nazi Party. After analyzing the platforms of three Weimar political parties—the Social Democrats, the Communists, and the Nazis—students will read short biographies of several German citizens. Using details from the biographies, the party platforms, and any information they have learned before this lesson about the Weimar Republic, students will then determine which political party they believe each citizen would have supported.
- LESSON: Map Analysis, Europe Before & After World War I
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LESSON: The Weimar Republic-Historical Context and Decision Making, Facing History and Ourselves
Students consider how economic, political, and social conditions in the Weimar Republic impacted the Nazi party's appeal to some Germans.
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LESSON: The Weimar Republic: Historical Context and Decision Making, Facing History and Ourselves
Adolf Hitler did not gain power by a military coup; he gained power primarily through lawful means. How did this happen? What factors may have influenced the choices made by regular people that led to the popularity of the Nazi Party? In this lesson, students will explore primary documents that will help them answer these questions. As they interpret how conditions during the Weimar Republic may have impacted the appeal of the Nazi Party to specific German citizens, students begin to recognize how economic, political, social, and cultural factors influence their own beliefs and choices.
- MAP: Europe 1914, Wikimedia
- MAP: Europe 1922, Jewish Virtual Library
- Nazi Germany Political Parties, Spartacus Educational (UK)
- Political Parties in the Reichstag, 1920-1933, Jewish Virtual Library
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Political Parties of the Weimar Republic, Deutscher Bundestag
Includes description of each.
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POSTCARD: “Treaty of Versailles,” Greetings from the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Not all Germans were ready to accept defeat at the end of the war, much less the settlement which was imposed upon them at Versailles and signed on the twenty-eighth day of June 1919, the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. The German army, many felt, had been "stabbed in the back," and never should have been forced to sign the armistice. As for the treaty which followed, its provisions exceeded Germany's worst expectations. A "Diktat,"as it was called (or a dictated treaty) which imposed, among so many crippling particulars, extensive territorial losses, excessive reparations, and, to justify the settlement's extremes, acceptance of a humiliating guilt. That the memory of the German people would soon be helped by a veteran of the Great War, Adolf Hitler, is seen on Card 171: As the sun rises with golden rays shining from the swastika at its center, Germany breaks its shackles to the viperous Treaty of Versailles.
- PRIMARY SOURCES: Weimar Economics, Facing History and Ourselves
- PRIMARY SOURCES: Weimar Politics, Facing History and Ourselves
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READING: A Decline in Public Enthusiasm, Facing History and Ourselves
Gain insight into a growing wariness of Hitler in the mid-1930s through a German police report and a letter from a US diplomat.
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READING: Hard Times Return, Facing History and Ourselves
Compare the party platforms of the Communists, Nazis, and Social Democrats in Germany's 1932 presidential elections, a time of deep economic crisis.
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READING: When Money Had No Value, Facing History and Ourselves
Beginning in the fall of 1922, an extreme inflation, or hyperinflation, took hold of the German economy.
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READING: Who Is To Blame for the Inflation?, Facing History and Ourselves
During the year of hyperinflation, Germans looked for someone to blame for the crisis.
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The Early Years of the Weimar Republic, ThoughtCo.
Because Hitler and his Nazi Party rose to power in the final years of the Weimar Republic, the era has been seen as one of failure. But the history of Weimar, Germany's republican government from the end of World War 1 to 1933, is far more complicated and also crucial to understanding how Hitler came to power.
- The Effects of World War One on Germany, The Holocaust Explained
- The German Economy c. 1919-1929, The Holocaust Explained
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The Jews Who Stabbed Germany in the Back, Tablet Magazine 11.9.17
The stab-in-the-back story-"Dolchstoss" in German-happened when the German army returned home in defeat in November 1918. The reason for their surrender was obscure to many German: the enemy had never touched German soil, and both at the beginning and the end of the war-at least according to German newspapers-the Kaiser's forces appeared to be winning. So there was only one possible explanation: Germany had been betrayed by Socialists and Jews.
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The November Criminals, ThoughtCo.
The nickname "November Criminals" was given to the German politicians who negotiated and signed the armistice which ended World War One in November of 1918. The November Criminals were named so by German political opponents who thought the German army had enough strength to continue and that surrendering was a betrayal or crime, that the German army had not actually lost on the battlefront.
- The Weimar Republic, The Holocaust Explained
- The Weimar Republic, USHMM
- Treaty of Versailles, 1919, USHMM
- VIDEO ACTIVITY: Weimar, BBC
- VIDEO: Make Germany Pay-Versailles 1919 (19:56), BBC School Series
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VIDEO: Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education – The Weimar Republic (1:46), Yad Vashem
This video outlines the interwar Weimar Republic, tracing its collapse into totalitarianism through its inception and popular perception. Part of Yad Vashem's "Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education" video series.
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VIDEO: The Weimar Republic (5:21), Facing History and Ourselves
Dr. Paul Bookbinder, University of Massachusetts, describes the “noble experiment” of democracy in the Weimar Republic.
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VIDEO: The Year of Crisis-1923, Hyperinflation in Germany (5:14), YouTube
NOTE: Although an effective teaching tool, this video has grammatical errors.
- VIDEO: Treaty of Versailles Documentary (19:14), BBC, YouTube
- Was the Economy Doomed to Fail, The Holocaust Explained
- Weimar Germany 1919-1933, Dr. Marjie Bloy, UK
- Weimar Republic, Yad Vashem
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World War I, USHMM
The trauma of World War I (1914–18) profoundly shaped the attitudes and actions of both leaders and ordinary people during the Holocaust. This Special Focus include historical film footage and photographs.
- World War I: Aftermath, USHMM
- World War I: Antisemitism in History, USHMM
- World War I: Treaties and Reparations, USHMM
- Stab in the Back Myth
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The Jews Who Stabbed Germany in the Back, Tablet Magazine 11.9.17
The stab-in-the-back story-"Dolchstoss" in German-happened when the German army returned home in defeat in November 1918. The reason for their surrender was obscure to many German: the enemy had never touched German soil, and both at the beginning and the end of the war-at least according to German newspapers-the Kaiser's forces appeared to be winning. So there was only one possible explanation: Germany had been betrayed by Socialists and Jews.
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The November Criminals, ThoughtCo.
The nickname "November Criminals" was given to the German politicians who negotiated and signed the armistice which ended World War One in November of 1918. The November Criminals were named so by German political opponents who thought the German army had enough strength to continue and that surrendering was a betrayal or crime, that the German army had not actually lost on the battlefront.
- World War I: Antisemitism in History, USHMM
- The Weimar Republic
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LESSON: The Weimar Republic: Historical Context and Decision Making, Facing History and Ourselves
Adolf Hitler did not gain power by a military coup; he gained power primarily through lawful means. How did this happen? What factors may have influenced the choices made by regular people that led to the popularity of the Nazi Party? In this lesson, students will explore primary documents that will help them answer these questions. As they interpret how conditions during the Weimar Republic may have impacted the appeal of the Nazi Party to specific German citizens, students begin to recognize how economic, political, social, and cultural factors influence their own beliefs and choices.
-
The Early Years of the Weimar Republic, ThoughtCo.
Because Hitler and his Nazi Party rose to power in the final years of the Weimar Republic, the era has been seen as one of failure. But the history of Weimar, Germany's republican government from the end of World War 1 to 1933, is far more complicated and also crucial to understanding how Hitler came to power.
- The Weimar Republic, The Holocaust Explained
- The Weimar Republic, USHMM
- VIDEO ACTIVITY: Weimar, BBC
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VIDEO: Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education – The Weimar Republic (1:46), Yad Vashem
This video outlines the interwar Weimar Republic, tracing its collapse into totalitarianism through its inception and popular perception. Part of Yad Vashem's "Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education" video series.
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VIDEO: The Weimar Republic (5:21), Facing History and Ourselves
Dr. Paul Bookbinder, University of Massachusetts, describes the “noble experiment” of democracy in the Weimar Republic.
- Weimar Germany 1919-1933, Dr. Marjie Bloy, UK
- Weimar Republic, Yad Vashem
- Treaty of Versailles
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POSTCARD: “Treaty of Versailles,” Greetings from the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Not all Germans were ready to accept defeat at the end of the war, much less the settlement which was imposed upon them at Versailles and signed on the twenty-eighth day of June 1919, the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo. The German army, many felt, had been "stabbed in the back," and never should have been forced to sign the armistice. As for the treaty which followed, its provisions exceeded Germany's worst expectations. A "Diktat,"as it was called (or a dictated treaty) which imposed, among so many crippling particulars, extensive territorial losses, excessive reparations, and, to justify the settlement's extremes, acceptance of a humiliating guilt. That the memory of the German people would soon be helped by a veteran of the Great War, Adolf Hitler, is seen on Card 171: As the sun rises with golden rays shining from the swastika at its center, Germany breaks its shackles to the viperous Treaty of Versailles.
- Treaty of Versailles, 1919, USHMM
- VIDEO: Make Germany Pay-Versailles 1919 (19:56), BBC School Series
- VIDEO: Treaty of Versailles Documentary (19:14), BBC, YouTube
- Weimar Republic Economics
- A Look at German Inflation 1914-1924, “National Coin Week” Exhibit
- German Railroad Notes of the 1923 Hyperinflation, John E. Sandrock
- Hyperinflation, John D. Clare, Educator
- PRIMARY SOURCES: Weimar Economics, Facing History and Ourselves
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READING: When Money Had No Value, Facing History and Ourselves
Beginning in the fall of 1922, an extreme inflation, or hyperinflation, took hold of the German economy.
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READING: Who Is To Blame for the Inflation?, Facing History and Ourselves
During the year of hyperinflation, Germans looked for someone to blame for the crisis.
- The German Economy c. 1919-1929, The Holocaust Explained
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VIDEO: The Year of Crisis-1923, Hyperinflation in Germany (5:14), YouTube
NOTE: Although an effective teaching tool, this video has grammatical errors.
- Was the Economy Doomed to Fail, The Holocaust Explained
- Weimar Republic Politics
- Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, USHMM
- IMAGE: Antisemitic Weimar Campaign Poster, Facing History and Ourselves
- IMAGE: National Socialism Election Poster, Facing History and Ourselves
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LESSON: Choices in Weimar Republic Elections
This lesson helps students investigate some of the choices available to Germans in elections in the early 1930s and understand the variety of reasons many Germans supported the Nazi Party. After analyzing the platforms of three Weimar political parties—the Social Democrats, the Communists, and the Nazis—students will read short biographies of several German citizens. Using details from the biographies, the party platforms, and any information they have learned before this lesson about the Weimar Republic, students will then determine which political party they believe each citizen would have supported.
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LESSON: The Weimar Republic-Historical Context and Decision Making, Facing History and Ourselves
Students consider how economic, political, and social conditions in the Weimar Republic impacted the Nazi party's appeal to some Germans.
- Nazi Germany Political Parties, Spartacus Educational (UK)
- Political Parties in the Reichstag, 1920-1933, Jewish Virtual Library
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Political Parties of the Weimar Republic, Deutscher Bundestag
Includes description of each.
- PRIMARY SOURCES: Weimar Politics, Facing History and Ourselves
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READING: A Decline in Public Enthusiasm, Facing History and Ourselves
Gain insight into a growing wariness of Hitler in the mid-1930s through a German police report and a letter from a US diplomat.
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READING: Hard Times Return, Facing History and Ourselves
Compare the party platforms of the Communists, Nazis, and Social Democrats in Germany's 1932 presidential elections, a time of deep economic crisis.
- Film
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Bibliography and Videography, USHMM
This bibliography provides examples for the secondary school level that meet the Museum’s rubric criteria. It includes diaries, memoirs, secondary sources, literature, graphic novels, and films.
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VIDEO: One Survivor Remembers (39:04), USHMM
This 40-minute film tells Gerda Weissmann’s account of surviving the Holocaust, based off her book All but My Life. It was produced in 1995 by HBO and the Museum to commemorate the the 50th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust.
- One Survivor Remembers
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VIDEO: One Survivor Remembers (39:04), USHMM
This 40-minute film tells Gerda Weissmann’s account of surviving the Holocaust, based off her book All but My Life. It was produced in 1995 by HBO and the Museum to commemorate the the 50th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust.
- Finish Your Unit
- LESSON: Considering the Role of Values in Public Policy, Choices for the 21st Century
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The Ten Stages of Genocide, Montreal Holocaust Museum
According to academic and activist Gregory H. Stanton, genocide is a process that develops in ten stages, described here. The stages do not necessarily follow a linear progression and may coexist. Prevention measures may be implemented at any stage.
- VIDEO: Elie Wiesel Dedication Speech at US Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 22, 1993, YouTube
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VIDEO: Teaching About the Holocaust-Bringing the Lesson of Closure (3:48), USHMM
Dr. Joyce Witt, AP European History teacher at Highland Park High School in Chicago, demonstrates in this sample lesson an exemplary method for teaching a class on the Holocaust. Joyce Witt was a 1997-1998 Teacher Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This program was a part of the museum's Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Exemplary Lessons Initiative. Dr. Witt explains: Study of the Holocaust would not be complete without a discussion of implications for the future. How should the Holocaust be woven into the fabric of twentieth-century history? How can its study move us forward so that our children are not traumatized and fixated on its atrocities? Most important, what are the lessons that can be learned from this horrific event so that our children learn from the past to make a better world? These essential questions must be asked if the study of the Holocaust is to have meaning in the post-Holocaust world.
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VIDEO: The Holocaust as History and Warning (1:29), Timothy Snyder, Grimm Lecture 2017, University of Waterloo
Timothy Snyder, author of the widely successful book "Black Earth," believes we have misunderstood the Holocaust and the essential lessons it should have taught us. If the Holocaust was indeed, as Snyder’s carefully constructed argument will demonstrate, a result of ecological panic and state destruction, then our misunderstanding of it has endangered our own future.
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Why Did the Holocaust Happen?, USHMM
On January 17, 2017 historian Peter Hayes spoke at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to discuss his new book, "Why?"
- History of Antisemitism
- A Brief History of Antisemitism, ADL
- A Hoax of Hate – The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, ADL
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Anti-Semitism, Encyclopaedia Britannica
Written by Michael Berenbaum.
- Antisemitism in History: From the Early Church to 1400, USHMM
- Antisemitism in History: Racial Antisemitism, 1875-1945, USHMM
- Antisemitism in History: The Early Modern Era, 1300-1800, USHMM
- Antisemitism in History: The Era of Nationalism, 1800-1918, USHMM
- Antisemitism in History: World War I, USHMM
- Antisemitism, USHMM
- Antisemitism: A Historical Survey, Museum of Tolerance
- Classical and Christian Antisemitism, remember.org
- LESSON PLANS: Teaching Materials on Antisemitism and Racism, USHMM
- LESSON: Classical and Christian Antisemitism, remember.org
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LESSON: History of Antisemitism and the Holocaust, USHMM
This lesson will focus on the history of antisemitism and its role in the Holocaust to better understand how prejudice and hate speech can contribute to violence, mass atrocity, and genocide. Learning about the origins of hatred and prejudice encourages students to think critically about antisemitism today. Uses the USHMM Films "European Antisemitism from its Origins to the Present" and "The Path to Nazi Genocide: From Citizens to Outcasts." Grade Level: 7-12. Time Required: 1 class period.
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LESSON: The History of European Antisemitism (worksheet)
This lesson was created by Casey Piola for the BHEC, 2017. The worksheet accompanies the teaching PowerPoint by the same name.
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LESSON: What is Antisemitism, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains a fact sheet and images featuring antisemitic prejudices and some of the most common myths and accusations that were used in Nazi propaganda against the Jews. By the end of this activity you will have gained knowledge about antisemitism and racism then and now, and you will have developed your understanding of the consequences of stereotypes and prejudices.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Antisemitism Uncovered: A Guide to Old Myths in a New Era, ADL
This is a comprehensive resource with historical context, fact-based descriptions of prevalent antisemitic myths, contemporary examples and calls-to-action for addressing this hate.
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Sermon by Rabbi Lynne Goldsmith, AHC Yom HaShoah Commemoriation, 2017
In asking the question "How Could This Happen?", Rabbi Goldsmith (Dothan) explores her personal research into the massacre of Jewish citizens in York, England in the year 1190 and tries to shed some light on factors that might have led to the murder of 6 million Jews in Europe about 750 years later. This is her sermon as presented during the Alabama Holocaust Commission's Yom HaShoah Commemoration in 2017.
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Summary of Antisemitism, Echoes and Relflections
A 2-page handout for students on the History of Antisemitism.
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, USHMM
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VIDEO LESSON: Historic Antisemitism – Part I (17:09), Georgia Commission on the Holocaust
The Longest Hatred: A history of antisemitism from Roman times through the Middle Ages.
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VIDEO LESSON: Historic Antisemitism – Part II (22:58), Georgia Commission on the Holocaust
Covers from the Medieval period to the 17th century.
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VIDEO LESSON: Historic Antisemitism – Part III (25:22), Georgia Commission on the Holocaust
Antisemitism from the 19th century to World War 2.
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VIDEO: “Antisemitism from the Enlightenment to World War I” (11:55), Facing History & Ourselves
Scholars describe the persistence of antisemitism in Europe from the Enlightenment through World War I and explain how new social, political, and pseudo-scientific justifications were created to perpetuate old prejudices.
- VIDEO: “European Antisemitism From Its Origins to the Holocaust” (13:44), USHMM
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VIDEO: “Exploring Roots of Antisemitism” (12:01), The Imperial War Museum
NOTE: Scroll to bottom of page to find video.
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VIDEO: “The Ancient Roots of Anti-Judaism” (11:26), Facing History and Ourselves
Scholars trace anti-Jewish myths, hatred, and violence back to the time of the Roman Empire in this historical overview of anti-Judaism’s roots.
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VIDEO: “The Power of a Lie-The History of the Blood Libel” (5:40), Facing History & Ourselves
Staff from Facing History and Ourselves discuss the history and ramifications of the blood libel.
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VIDEO: Anti-Jewish Perceptions in the Greco-Roman World (12:21), Yad Vashem
Prof. John G. Gager and Prof. Paula Fredriksen discuss anti-Jewish perceptions in the Greco-Roman world, asking whether these should be seen as antisemitism or another form of xenophobia.
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VIDEO: Anti-Judaism (5:21), Yad Vashem
Prof. David Nirenberg presents the concept of “anti-Judaism” and explores what separates it from “antisemitism”.
-
VIDEO: Anti-Judaism, Shakespeare and the Jews (10:32), Yad Vashem
Prof. David Nirenberg defines anti-Judaism and discusses its place in Western culture and tradition, examining the work of William Shakespeare, and particularly his play "The Merchant of Venice."
-
VIDEO: Antisemitism (14:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
What is antisemitism and what role did it play in Nazi Germany? How can we teach and explain to students the concept of antisemitism? Antisemitism did not begin when Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. Antisemitism had long been entrenched in Germany and other European countries, and Jews for many centuries had been victims of widespread hatred and suspicion. We present the different forms antisemitism has taken over the centuries and the innovations brought to antisemitism by the Nazis in order to better explain the historical context of the rise of racial antisemitic ideology.
-
VIDEO: France and the Dreyfus Affair (8:21), Yad Vashem
Prof. Pierre Birnbaum explores the development of antisemitism in 19th century France and the notorious Dreyfus Affair.
-
VIDEO: Martin Luther and Anti-Jewish Perceptions in Early Modern Europe (6:26), Yad Vashem
Dr. Judith Kalik explores the anti-Jewish attitudes that existed in the early modern period in Europe and examines the way Jews were perceived in Martin Luther's work.
-
VIDEO: Modern Antisemitism in Germany (7:54), Yad Vashem
Prof. Shulamit Volkov explores the way Jews were treated and perceived in 19th centry Germany.
-
VIDEO: Racism and Racial Antisemitism (8:52), Yad Vashem
Dr. David Silberklang and Prof. Anita Shapira discuss the rise of scientific racism in the 19th century and the development of racial antisemitism.
-
VIDEO: The Conspiracy Theory of World War II (5:40), Yad Vashem
Prof. Jeffrey Herf explores the place antisemitism held in Nazi propaganda, addressing the question of why this phenomenon assumed genocidal proportions between 1941 and 1945.
-
VIDEO: The Danger of a Single Story, Chimamanda Adichie (9:06), TedTalk
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Novelist
-
VIDEO: The Genocidal Aspect of Antisemitism (5:33), Yad Vashem
Prof. Jeffrey Herf discusses the genocidal aspect of antisemitism, showing how this aspect of antisemitism differentiates it from other forms of hatred and racism and exploring how it led to the Nazi implementation of the "Final Solution" during the Holocaust.
-
VIDEO: The Impact of the Jewish Emancipation on Antisemitism (5:40), Yad Vashem
Prof. Shulamit Volkov discusses Jewish Emancipation and examines how a European society, which was used to seeing the Jews as socially inferior and visibly different, handle their assimilation into civilian life.
-
VIDEO: The Nature of Antisemitism (2:14), Yad Vashem
Prof. Peter Hayes discusses whether antisemitism has unique characteristics that distinguish it from other prejudices and hostilities.
-
VIDEO: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (4:18), Yad Vashem
Prof. Elissa Bemporad and Prof. Yehuda Bauer discuss the origins and spread of the fabricated ""Protocols of the Elders of Zion"", exploring how they became one the most widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times.
-
What’s In a Hyphen, Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism
This same protocol is followed by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Alabama Holocaust Education Center.
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
- A Hoax of Hate – The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, ADL
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, USHMM
-
VIDEO: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (4:18), Yad Vashem
Prof. Elissa Bemporad and Prof. Yehuda Bauer discuss the origins and spread of the fabricated ""Protocols of the Elders of Zion"", exploring how they became one the most widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times.
- Holocaust Denial
- Combating Holocaust Denial: Origins of the Holocaust, USHMM
-
Denying the Holocaust by Deborah Lipstadt, BBC
Deborah Lipstadt discusses how misinformation and false claims are used to question the reality of the Nazis' attempt to exterminate Europe's Jews.
-
General Assembly Adopts Resolution Condemning Any Denial of Holocaust, United Nations, January 26, 2007
Primary document.
-
Holocaust Denial on Trial, Emory University
This website was created by Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt and colleagues and is a joint project of Emory University and Emory’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. Its mission is to ensure perpetual access to the evidence, transcripts, judgment, and appeal documents that made the case in the David Irving v. Penguin Books U.K. and Deborah Lipstadt trial and to refute the misleading claims of Holocaust deniers with historical evidence. Alongside these goals, hdot.org strives to educate the public about the threat Holocaust denial poses to history, society, law, and identity.
- Holocaust Deniers and Public Misinformation, USHMM
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Robert Clary Speaks as a Holocaust Survivor (58:35)
1992 video of Robert Clary (from TV's Hogan's Heroes) speaking for one hour about his 3 years in the concentration camps. The opening focuses on the dangers of denial and forgetting.
-
VIDEO: Deborah Lipstadt – Behind the Lies of Holocaust Denial (15:30), TedTalks
“There are facts, there are opinions, and there are lies.” Watch Deborah E. Lipstadt deliver her TED Talk on Holocaust denial in the twentieth and twenty-first century.
- Jewish Life in Nazi Germany
-
“An Infamous Date” by Harry Reicher, National Law Journal, April 5, 2004
April 7, 1933, the day the Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service was promulgated, bears particular resonance for lawyers. It was the opening salvo in a systematic assault by the Nazi regime on the income-earning capacity of Jews.
-
“The Day Evil Became the Rule of Law” by Harry Reicher, The Forward, September 23, 2005
The "Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor," which later came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws, ruthlessly wrought fundamental changes to the place of Jews in German society and formed an important step on the way to the Holocaust.
- 1933 Book Burnings, USHMM
-
1938 Projekt: Posts from the Past, Leo Baeck Institute
Eighty years after the events of 1938, how does one grasp the mixture of horror and surprise felt by the victims of the Nazi regime? One significant way is to look at the letters, diaries, and photographs saved by German Jews and their families. Using documents from our archives and those of several partner institutions, the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin will update this site with personal stories—one for each day in 1938. These materials illustrate the range of reactions and emotions that individuals and families had as they struggled to escape Germany and Austria in order to survive. In addition, significant world events are described alongside the calendar entries to provide a broad context for the individual stories.
- Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany, USHMM
- ARTIFACT: Nuremberg Race Laws Chart, USHMM
- Bayerischer Platz: Photos of the Bavarian Quarter Memorial 1933-1938, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
-
DOCUMENT: Nuremberg Race Laws, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Includes: Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935 and Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor of September 15, 1935.
- Examples of Antisemitic Legislation, 1933-1939, USHMM
- Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life, USHMM
- EXHIBIT: Fighting the Fires of Hate, America and the Nazi Book Burnings, USHMM
-
German Woman Writes Apology to US Man, Times of Israel, October 26, 2017
Discovering her house once belonged to a Jewish family who fled persecution, Doris Schott-Neuse took it upon herself to find the still living-son and implore him for forgiveness. Peter Hirschmann recalls his family home and how during the "Aryanization" process, his family home was seized.
-
Gross Breesen Project, Yad Vashem
Gross Breesen, located on the border of Germany and Poland, was created as a training farm by Jewish leadership in the mid 1930’s to help Jewish youth immigrate into countries that desired workers skilled in the agricultural sciences. Directing Gross Breesen's day-to-day activities was Dr. Curt Bondy, a charismatic and brilliant educator who developed an invigorating program that balanced hard physical farm labor with lessons on Jewish life, German history and social philosophy. Bondy also stressed taking responsibility for one's actions, the importance of teamwork, and giving back to the community. The stability of farm life at Gross Breesen was a welcome respite for a group of 130 Jewish youth who faced the escalating oppression of Nazism.
- How Did Educational Policy Affect German Jews?, The Holocaust Explained
- Jews in Prewar Germany, USHMM
-
LESSON: Learning from the Early Stages of the Holocaust, USHMM
In this lesson, students will develop visual literacy skills and refine their ability to analyze primary sources by examining photographs from the early years of the Holocaust. Students will be asked to describe the events of the Holocaust, assess whether these photos provided a warning about the genocide that was to come, and identify what the precursors to genocide are. Students will utilize higher-level critical thinking skills by reflecting on their own obligations as citizens of a democracy and by identifying effective methods for presenting information to enlighten and involve the public.
-
LESSON: Life Changes for the Jews in Germany, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains a list of laws and regulations implemented by the Nazis which demonstrate some of the key steps taken in their antisemitic agenda. By the end of this activity you will have gained a greater awareness of the necessity to protect and uphold democratic values and human rights. You will also have reflected on how subtle changes in society can lead to indifference to the suffering of others and horrific consequences.
-
LESSON: Persecution of the German-Jews, The Early Years, 1933-39, USC Shoah Foundation
This lesson uses Shoah Foundation testimony clips to highlight the increasingly severe discriminatory measures that led up to and culminated in genocide of the Jews in Europe.
-
LETTERS: Night Falls: German Jews React to Hitler’s Rise to Power, Tablet Magazine 11.8.17
Within months of the Nazis taking control in Germany, decrees and regulations effectively removed Jews from German economic life. German Jews reacted with shock and disbelief as seen in this primary source of private letters that German Jews sent to their relatives living abroad.
- Nazi Antisemitism 1933-1939, The Holocaust Explained, London Jewish Cultural Council
- Nazi Germany and Anti-Jewish Policy, Echoes and Reflections
- Nuremberg Race Laws: Translation, USHMM
-
POSTCARD: “The Nuremberg Laws,” Greetings from the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hitler's bitterest attacks were saved for Jews. "The Jews are our misfortune!" he raged repeatedly. And virulent antisemitism received the force of law in September 1935 when, "for the protection of German blood and honor," new statutes greatly restricting the civil rights and freedom of Jews were proclaimed at Nuremberg, the party-town of National Socialism. This card was printed for that 1935 Nuremberg party-gathering; the venue is shown.
-
POSTER: Books Are Weapons in the War of Ideas, 1942, US Office of War Information
This US poster from World War II, by S. Broder, shows Nazis burning books in front of an oversized book emblazoned with "Books cannot be killed by fire" quite from Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Principal Acts of Anti-Jewish Legislation in Germany, 1933-1943, Professor David Luebke/University of Oregon
-
READING: “Restoring” Germany’s Civil Service, Facing History and Ourselves
Read a letter exchange between Adolf Hitler and President Paul von Hindenburg regarding a law that suspended Jews from positions of civil service in Nazi Germany.
-
READING: A Wave of Discrimination, Facing History and Ourselves
Review a list of anti-Jewish Laws, policies, and decrees made in Nazi Germany in 1933.
-
READING: Can a National Socialist Have Jewish Friends?, Facing History and Ourselves
Melita Maschmann describes the contradictory way she viewed Jews, and particularly her Jewish classmates, while growing up in Nazi Germany.
-
READING: Controlling the Universities, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn how the Nazis pushed their ideology onto German universities, and how academics like Heidegger and Einstein responded.
-
READING: Discovering Jewish Blood, Facing History and Ourselves
Find out how one family's lives changed when Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany.
-
READING: Isolated and Demonized, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the hundreds of anti-Jewish laws and measures passed in Germany during the first three years of World War II.
-
READING: Law, Justice, and the Holocaust, USHMM
This site contains a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law that show the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership, with support or acquiescence from the majority of German people, including judges, moved the nation from a democracy to a dictatorship, and the series of legal steps that left millions vulnerable to the racist and antisemitic ideology of the Nazi state. These legal instruments reveal the positions that judges took and the questions that they faced during the Nazi regime; in so doing, they provide a framework for thoughtful and meaningful debate on the role of the judiciary in society and its responsibilities today.
-
READING: Targeting Jews, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the Nazis' boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, including a firsthand account from a German Jew.
-
READING: The Empty Table, Facing History and Ourselves
Read a German Jew's firsthand account of being alienated by her friends during the Nazis' first year in power.
-
READING: The Nuremberg Laws, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the laws that redefined what it meant to be German in Nazi Germany, and that stripped Jews and others of citizenship.
-
READING: Where They Burn Books, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider the significance of the public burning of books in Nazi Germany in 1933.
-
READING: Youth on the Margins, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider what it was like to grow up as an outsider in Nazi Germany with these firsthand accounts from a Jehovah's Witness and a Jew.
- Rise of the Nazis and Beginning of Persecution, Yad Vashem
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Frank Liebermann-Changes in Germany After Nazi Rise to Power (7:40), USHMM
Frank Liebermann discusses life in Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933. Shortly after taking power, the Nazis began to eliminate individual rights and freedoms for Jews in Germany. This changed daily life for Frank and his family in many ways. Frank's father was a physician and it became increasingly difficult for him to practice medicine after 1933.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Friendship and Betrayal (2:55), Facing History and Ourselves
Ellen Kerry Davis, a Jewish woman originally from Hoof, Germany, describes how her family's friendships were impacted by Nazi rule.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Fritz Gluckstein (2:35), USHMM
When Fritz Gluckstein was a child, his father—a decorated World War I veteran—used to proudly display his German flag and taught him how to salute it. This all changed after Hitler came to power. Listen to Fritz describe the Nuremberg Race Laws, which essentially legalized antisemitism.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: From Democracy to Dictatorship (3:24) Facing History and Ourselves
Alfred Wolf, a Holocaust survivor from Eberbach, Germany, recalls the changes he noticed in Germany after the election of Adolf Hitler.
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Jewish Life in Nazi Germany (3:42), Yad Vashem/YouTube
- The Boycott of Jewish Businesses, USHMM
- The Burning of the Books in Nazi Germany, 1933: The American Response, Museum of Tolerance
-
The Gathering Story, The Wiener Holocaust Library
To mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Wiener Library, they are introducing a new series of articles, selected from the writings of Dr, Alfred Wiener and his contemporaries, from the earliest days of his organization. This serialized edited set of articles selected from the monthly edition of the "Centralverein Zeitung" serves as an exceptionally rich contemporary primary source. The articles, meticulously edited and translated by Senior Archivist Howard Falksohn, are presented in chronological order so the reader is encouraged to suspend the benefit of hindsight and to engage with their content as if they were experiencing the era as it unfolded.
-
The Motorcycle Album, The Wiener Holocaust Library
This collection holds photographs taken of antisemitic signs outside German towns and villages during a motorcycle voyage in 1935 from the Dutch border to Berlin. It was then used by Dr Alfred Wiener and his colleagues at the Jewish Central Information Office in Amsterdam to educate the public about the on-going persecution in Nazi-Germany.
- The Nuremberg Laws, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Nuremberg Race Laws, USHMM
- TIMELINE EXHIBIT: Anti-Jewish Laws in Nazi Germany (1936-1939), Montreal Holocaust Museum
- VIDEO: Book Burning as Goebbels Speaks, Historical Film Footage (2:56), USHMM
- VIDEO: Boycott of Jewish Businesses in Halle (2:37), USHMM
-
VIDEO: Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education – Nuremberg Laws (1:43), Yad Vashem
This video outlines the Nuremberg Laws, illustrating a series of racist antisemitic legal decisions that radically downgraded the legal status of Jews in Nazi Germany before the war.
-
VIDEO: Monument Walk Berlin, Book Burning Memorial (5:36)
In January 2012 young people from 8 different countries visited 3 monuments in Berlin and made short documentary films. The films focused on the history of the monument and its societal relevance (or lack of it). People in the vicinity were asked whether they were aware that the monument existed and what they thought of the monument.
- VIDEO: Nazi Book Burning (9:41), USHMM
-
VIDEO: The Life of the Jews in Germany After the Nazi Rise to Power (5:18), Yad Vashem
A historical video describing the life of the Jews in Germany in the 1930s and the main events in these years such as – the Boycott of Jewish businesses, Nuremberg Laws, Kristallnacht, and more.
-
VIDEO: The Nazi Plan-Book Burning (2:59), USHMM
May 10, 1933, The Burning of Books." Several angles of the big bonfire in front of the university in Berlin, at Opernplatz, into which books are tossed by students, SA men, others.
-
VIDEO: What is the Holocaust? (3/7): Separation, Exclusion, and Expulsion (1:49), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
What is the Holocaust? Who were its victims? When did it occur? What were the ghettos, and why were they established? How did the “Final Solution” evolve? Dr. David Silberklang offers a clear and concise introductory answer to these complex questions. Dr. David Silberklang is Senior Historian and Editor of Yad Vashem Studies, International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Nazi Rise to Power (1933) Part 3: Separation, Exclusion, and Expulsion (1933-1939) Part 4: War and Territorial Expansion (1939-1941) Part 5: “Operation Barbarossa” – Systematic Murder Begins (1941) Part 6: The “Final Solution” Coalesces (1941-1942) Part 7: Perfecting Industrial Murder (1942-1945)
- What Were the Nuremberg Laws? / World Jewish Congress
- Anti-Jewish Decrees
-
“An Infamous Date” by Harry Reicher, National Law Journal, April 5, 2004
April 7, 1933, the day the Law for the Restoration of the Civil Service was promulgated, bears particular resonance for lawyers. It was the opening salvo in a systematic assault by the Nazi regime on the income-earning capacity of Jews.
-
1938 Projekt: Posts from the Past, Leo Baeck Institute
Eighty years after the events of 1938, how does one grasp the mixture of horror and surprise felt by the victims of the Nazi regime? One significant way is to look at the letters, diaries, and photographs saved by German Jews and their families. Using documents from our archives and those of several partner institutions, the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin will update this site with personal stories—one for each day in 1938. These materials illustrate the range of reactions and emotions that individuals and families had as they struggled to escape Germany and Austria in order to survive. In addition, significant world events are described alongside the calendar entries to provide a broad context for the individual stories.
- Anti-Jewish Legislation in Prewar Germany, USHMM
- Bayerischer Platz: Photos of the Bavarian Quarter Memorial 1933-1938, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
- Examples of Antisemitic Legislation, 1933-1939, USHMM
- Exclusion of Jews from German Economic Life, USHMM
-
German Woman Writes Apology to US Man, Times of Israel, October 26, 2017
Discovering her house once belonged to a Jewish family who fled persecution, Doris Schott-Neuse took it upon herself to find the still living-son and implore him for forgiveness. Peter Hirschmann recalls his family home and how during the "Aryanization" process, his family home was seized.
-
LESSON: Life Changes for the Jews in Germany, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains a list of laws and regulations implemented by the Nazis which demonstrate some of the key steps taken in their antisemitic agenda. By the end of this activity you will have gained a greater awareness of the necessity to protect and uphold democratic values and human rights. You will also have reflected on how subtle changes in society can lead to indifference to the suffering of others and horrific consequences.
-
LESSON: Persecution of the German-Jews, The Early Years, 1933-39, USC Shoah Foundation
This lesson uses Shoah Foundation testimony clips to highlight the increasingly severe discriminatory measures that led up to and culminated in genocide of the Jews in Europe.
- Nazi Germany and Anti-Jewish Policy, Echoes and Reflections
- Principal Acts of Anti-Jewish Legislation in Germany, 1933-1943, Professor David Luebke/University of Oregon
-
READING: “Restoring” Germany’s Civil Service, Facing History and Ourselves
Read a letter exchange between Adolf Hitler and President Paul von Hindenburg regarding a law that suspended Jews from positions of civil service in Nazi Germany.
-
READING: A Wave of Discrimination, Facing History and Ourselves
Review a list of anti-Jewish Laws, policies, and decrees made in Nazi Germany in 1933.
-
READING: Can a National Socialist Have Jewish Friends?, Facing History and Ourselves
Melita Maschmann describes the contradictory way she viewed Jews, and particularly her Jewish classmates, while growing up in Nazi Germany.
-
READING: Controlling the Universities, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn how the Nazis pushed their ideology onto German universities, and how academics like Heidegger and Einstein responded.
-
READING: Isolated and Demonized, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the hundreds of anti-Jewish laws and measures passed in Germany during the first three years of World War II.
-
READING: Law, Justice, and the Holocaust, USHMM
This site contains a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law that show the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership, with support or acquiescence from the majority of German people, including judges, moved the nation from a democracy to a dictatorship, and the series of legal steps that left millions vulnerable to the racist and antisemitic ideology of the Nazi state. These legal instruments reveal the positions that judges took and the questions that they faced during the Nazi regime; in so doing, they provide a framework for thoughtful and meaningful debate on the role of the judiciary in society and its responsibilities today.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Frank Liebermann-Changes in Germany After Nazi Rise to Power (7:40), USHMM
Frank Liebermann discusses life in Germany after the Nazis came to power in 1933. Shortly after taking power, the Nazis began to eliminate individual rights and freedoms for Jews in Germany. This changed daily life for Frank and his family in many ways. Frank's father was a physician and it became increasingly difficult for him to practice medicine after 1933.
-
The Motorcycle Album, The Wiener Holocaust Library
This collection holds photographs taken of antisemitic signs outside German towns and villages during a motorcycle voyage in 1935 from the Dutch border to Berlin. It was then used by Dr Alfred Wiener and his colleagues at the Jewish Central Information Office in Amsterdam to educate the public about the on-going persecution in Nazi-Germany.
- TIMELINE EXHIBIT: Anti-Jewish Laws in Nazi Germany (1936-1939), Montreal Holocaust Museum
- Book Burnings, May 1933
- 1933 Book Burnings, USHMM
- EXHIBIT: Fighting the Fires of Hate, America and the Nazi Book Burnings, USHMM
-
POSTER: Books Are Weapons in the War of Ideas, 1942, US Office of War Information
This US poster from World War II, by S. Broder, shows Nazis burning books in front of an oversized book emblazoned with "Books cannot be killed by fire" quite from Franklin D. Roosevelt
-
READING: Where They Burn Books, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider the significance of the public burning of books in Nazi Germany in 1933.
- The Burning of the Books in Nazi Germany, 1933: The American Response, Museum of Tolerance
- VIDEO: Book Burning as Goebbels Speaks, Historical Film Footage (2:56), USHMM
-
VIDEO: Monument Walk Berlin, Book Burning Memorial (5:36)
In January 2012 young people from 8 different countries visited 3 monuments in Berlin and made short documentary films. The films focused on the history of the monument and its societal relevance (or lack of it). People in the vicinity were asked whether they were aware that the monument existed and what they thought of the monument.
- VIDEO: Nazi Book Burning (9:41), USHMM
-
VIDEO: The Nazi Plan-Book Burning (2:59), USHMM
May 10, 1933, The Burning of Books." Several angles of the big bonfire in front of the university in Berlin, at Opernplatz, into which books are tossed by students, SA men, others.
- Boycott of Jewish Businesses, April 1933
-
READING: Targeting Jews, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the Nazis' boycott of Jewish-owned businesses, including a firsthand account from a German Jew.
- The Boycott of Jewish Businesses, USHMM
- VIDEO: Boycott of Jewish Businesses in Halle (2:37), USHMM
- Gross Breesen
-
Gross Breesen Project, Yad Vashem
Gross Breesen, located on the border of Germany and Poland, was created as a training farm by Jewish leadership in the mid 1930’s to help Jewish youth immigrate into countries that desired workers skilled in the agricultural sciences. Directing Gross Breesen's day-to-day activities was Dr. Curt Bondy, a charismatic and brilliant educator who developed an invigorating program that balanced hard physical farm labor with lessons on Jewish life, German history and social philosophy. Bondy also stressed taking responsibility for one's actions, the importance of teamwork, and giving back to the community. The stability of farm life at Gross Breesen was a welcome respite for a group of 130 Jewish youth who faced the escalating oppression of Nazism.
- Nuremberg Laws
-
“The Day Evil Became the Rule of Law” by Harry Reicher, The Forward, September 23, 2005
The "Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor," which later came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws, ruthlessly wrought fundamental changes to the place of Jews in German society and formed an important step on the way to the Holocaust.
- ARTIFACT: Nuremberg Race Laws Chart, USHMM
-
DOCUMENT: Nuremberg Race Laws, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Includes: Reich Citizenship Law of September 15, 1935 and Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor of September 15, 1935.
- Nuremberg Race Laws: Translation, USHMM
-
POSTCARD: “The Nuremberg Laws,” Greetings from the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hitler's bitterest attacks were saved for Jews. "The Jews are our misfortune!" he raged repeatedly. And virulent antisemitism received the force of law in September 1935 when, "for the protection of German blood and honor," new statutes greatly restricting the civil rights and freedom of Jews were proclaimed at Nuremberg, the party-town of National Socialism. This card was printed for that 1935 Nuremberg party-gathering; the venue is shown.
-
READING: Discovering Jewish Blood, Facing History and Ourselves
Find out how one family's lives changed when Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws in Nazi Germany.
-
READING: Law, Justice, and the Holocaust, USHMM
This site contains a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law that show the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership, with support or acquiescence from the majority of German people, including judges, moved the nation from a democracy to a dictatorship, and the series of legal steps that left millions vulnerable to the racist and antisemitic ideology of the Nazi state. These legal instruments reveal the positions that judges took and the questions that they faced during the Nazi regime; in so doing, they provide a framework for thoughtful and meaningful debate on the role of the judiciary in society and its responsibilities today.
-
READING: The Nuremberg Laws, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the laws that redefined what it meant to be German in Nazi Germany, and that stripped Jews and others of citizenship.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Fritz Gluckstein (2:35), USHMM
When Fritz Gluckstein was a child, his father—a decorated World War I veteran—used to proudly display his German flag and taught him how to salute it. This all changed after Hitler came to power. Listen to Fritz describe the Nuremberg Race Laws, which essentially legalized antisemitism.
- The Nuremberg Laws, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Nuremberg Race Laws, USHMM
-
VIDEO: Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education – Nuremberg Laws (1:43), Yad Vashem
This video outlines the Nuremberg Laws, illustrating a series of racist antisemitic legal decisions that radically downgraded the legal status of Jews in Nazi Germany before the war.
- What Were the Nuremberg Laws? / World Jewish Congress
- Judaism
- Judaism and Jewish Life, The Holocaust Explained
- LESSON: Who Are the Jews?, remember.org
-
VIDEO: The Rise of Chasidism (4:47), PBS
This video from the PBS series The Story of the Jews examines the circumstances under which the Jews of 18th century Russia embraced a new form of observance known as Chasidism. Living under the constant threat of brutal persecution, this ecstatic and joyful expression of Judaism was a welcome alternative to hopelessness. Informed by mystical texts, like the Kabbalah, that revealed profound truths about God and the universe, and an observance characterized by song and dance, life became a spiritual journey. Leaders were believed to have godlike powers, surrounded by tales of wonder, healing and resurrection.
-
VISUAL TIMELINE: Explore the Diaspora, PBS
Discover major events in the diaspora of the Jews through this visual timeline of the most notable related international events. The timeline spans from 600 B.C.E., visiting Judea and Babylonia, to modern day Israel. Explore the chronology and impact of these events, as they collectively tell much of the story of the Jewish people.
- Kristallnacht
-
1938 Projekt: Posts from the Past, Leo Baeck Institute
Eighty years after the events of 1938, how does one grasp the mixture of horror and surprise felt by the victims of the Nazi regime? One significant way is to look at the letters, diaries, and photographs saved by German Jews and their families. Using documents from our archives and those of several partner institutions, the Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin will update this site with personal stories—one for each day in 1938. These materials illustrate the range of reactions and emotions that individuals and families had as they struggled to escape Germany and Austria in order to survive. In addition, significant world events are described alongside the calendar entries to provide a broad context for the individual stories.
- EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES: The November 1938 Pogrom – Kristallnacht, Yad Vashem
- FDR’s Response to Kristallnacht: Another Look, David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies
-
Kristallnacht, A Nationwide Pogrom, USHMM
Includes photos, artifacts, maps, and personal history.
-
Kristallnacht, The Night of Broken Glass, Jewish Virtual Library
Links to primary source material and personal accounts.
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LESSON: Kristallnacht: Decision Making in Times of Injustice, Facing History and Ourselves
Students explore decision making by reading a contemporary story about bullying and a historical story about a night of state-sanctioned violence against Jews.
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LESSON: Newspapers’ Report on the November Pogrom, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains articles from newspapers in Germany and the United Kingdom. By the end of this activity you will have developed your ability to critically examine information from historical source materials and understand how historical events can be seen from different perspectives.
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LESSON: Picturing Kristallnacht, Centropa
The goal of the lesson is to personalize for students what happened by starting with their own photographs as a way connect to young Jews in Jews in Germany and Austria before the Nazi rise to power. Then Centropa interview excerpts and photographs are used to learn first-hand memories of Kristallnacht.
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LESSON: Some Were Neighbors-Collaboration & Complicity in the Holocaust, USHMM/USC Shoah Foundation
This activity focuses on the actions of ordinary people during Kristallnacht -- a turning point in the Holocaust during which Nazis terrorized German and Austrian Jews in a very public way. First, you will select a photograph and reflect on what it reveals about the event. Then you will review a short film, article, and map to learn more. With this information, you will listen to eyewitness testimony and take notes on how Kristallnacht affected the Jewish community as well as the various roles played by neighbors. Finally, you will re-examine the image you started with -- and reflect on the following: How did the actions of ordinary people shape the events of Kristallnacht?
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LESSON: Understanding Kristallnacht, Facing History and Ourselves
Students analyze a variety of firsthand accounts of Kristallnacht in order to piece together a story of what happened on that night.
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MAP: Destruction of Synagogues on Kristallnacht, A Teacher’s Guide to The Holocaust
Shows cities where synagogues were destroyed.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Remembering Kristallnacht
This exhibit features a series of interviews with witnesses of the pogrom that occurred on November 9-10, 1938, known as Kristallnacht, "Night of Broken Glass." Organized in partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
- PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Discussions by the Authorities Following Kristallnacht, Jewish Virtual Library
- PRIMARY DOCUMENT: Heydrich’s Instructions for Kristallnacht, Jewish Virtual Library
- Re-Examining the Tipping Point: 70 Years Since the Kristallnacht Pogrom, Yad Vashem
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READING: A Family Responds to Kristallnacht, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about a family who assisted their Jewish neighbors after Kristallnacht, and the consequences they faced for their decision to help.
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READING: A Visitor’s Perspective on Kristallnacht, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider a Swiss merchant's account of how his German colleagues responded to the events of Kristallnacht.
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READING: Opportunism During Kristallnacht, Facing History and Ourselves
Examine firsthand reports of the theft committed against Jews during the chaos and violence of Kristallnacht.
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READING: The Narrowing Circle, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn how Nazi officials used laws and bureaucracy to exclude Jews from public German life in the aftermath of Kristallnacht.
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READING: The Night of the Pogrom, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn what incited Kristallnacht and get insight into the experiences of Jews in Germany on the night of horrendous violence in November 1938.
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READING: World Responses to Kristallnacht, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider how leaders like FDR, clergy members, and ordinary people around the world responded to the news of Kristallnacht.
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SPECIAL FOCUS: Kristallnacht-The November 1938 Pogroms, USHMM
Includes 8 survivor testimonies and historical photos.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Inge (Berg) Katzenstein & Jill (Gesela Berg) Pauly (8:39), USHMM
Survivors remember Kristallnacht.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Kristallnacht in Austria, Centropa
Excerpts (written) of 15 survivors who witnessed Kristallnacht in Austria.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Remembering Kristallnacht (21:38), USC Shoah Foundation
Six Holocaust survivors: Fred Katz, Esther Gever, Jacob Wiener, Eva Abraham-Podietz, Robert Behr, and Herbert Karliner, recount their personal experiences during the Kristallnacht Pogrom and the events that followed.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Fritz Gluckstein (5:23), USHMM
Survivor remembers Kristallnacht.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Hedi (Politzer) Pope (5:11), USHMM
Survivor remembers Kristallnacht.
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Interview with Miriam Ron, “This is Not the Story of Someone Else,” Yad Vashem
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Johanna (Gerechter) Neumann (5:18), USHMM
Survivor remembers Kristallnacht.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Lotte Morley (1:15), Museum of Jewish Heritage
Holocaust survivor Lotte Morley on how some non-Jewish Germans reacted to Kristallnacht.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Rabbi Gerd Jacob (Zwienicki) Wiener (8:49), USHMM
Survivor remembers Kristallnacht.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Robert Behr (6:11), USHMM
Survivor remembers Kristallnacht.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Susan (Hilsenrath) Warsinger (8:33), USHMM
Survivor remembers Kristallnacht.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Susan (Strauss) Taube (6:05), USHMM
Survivor remembers Kristallnacht.
- The Significance of Kristallnacht, The Holocaust Explained
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VIDEO: Kristallnacht (22:31), GA Commission on the Holocaust (2020)
Eighty two years ago, on November 9 and 10, 1938, a coordinated campaign of terror was unleashed against the Jews of Germany and Austria. This 22-minute original video program is presented by GCH Executive Director Sally Levine.
- VIDEO: Holocaust Survivors Remember Kristallnacht (21:44), USC Shoah Foundation/USHMM
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VIDEO: Kristallnacht (1:55), Facing History and Ourselves
Dr. Paul Bookbinder, University of Massachusetts, describes Kristallnacht and explains what it meant for German Jews.
- VIDEO: Kristallnacht-Night of Broken Glass, Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo (4:51)
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VIDEO: Kristallnacht: The November 1938 Pogroms (9:40), Facing History and Ourselves
Scholars discuss the events of Kristallnacht, a series of violent attacks against Jews in Germany, Austria, and part of Czechoslovakia in November 1938.
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VIDEO: The Forgotten Life of Herschel Grynszpan (1:06:53), Museum of Jewish Heritage/NY
In November 1938, Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish refugee living in Paris, walked into his city’s German Embassy and assassinated Nazi diplomat Ernst vom Rath. Grynszpan was just seventeen years old. His actions would later be used as justification for Kristallnacht, the violent antisemitic pogrom which took place on November 9 and 10, 1938. Now, 83 years later, Herschel Grynszpan has largely faded into history. This Museum program explores Grynszpan’s story, how it came to be used as propaganda, and why it was ultimately forgotten. The program includes a discussion between Jonathan Kirsch, author of "The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat and a Murder in Paris," and Alan E. Steinweis, Professor of History and Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont.
- Liberation
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“Despite It All I Am Alive” – Liberation & Return to Life Through Photographs & Testimony, Yad Vashem
This site features suggested educational activities for teaching this topic. We juxtapose photos with pieces of testimony, diaries, etc. Through discussion suggestions, we hope to delve deeper into the various difficulties and choices facing survivors shortly after liberation.
- ANIMATED MAP: Liberation of Nazi Camps, USHMM
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ARTIFACT: A Surprising Discovery-“Kiki” the Monkey Puppet, USHMM
Curator Kyra Schuster recounts the serendipitous story of how the Museum came to acquire the puppet that US Army medic Eldon Nicholas used to entertain children after the liberation of the Vittel internment camp in France. Includes video (4:25).
- For Some Holocaust Survivors, Even Liberation Was Dehumanizing, New York Times, April 28, 2020
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IMAGE: Liberation of Buchenwald
Famous photo of the barracks of Buchenwald at liberation that includes Elie Wiesel. This interactive photo allows you to see the fate of many of the survivors pictured.
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LESSON: Liberation and Survival, Yad Vashem
Includes: What Was Liberation? What Did Liberation Mean for Jewish Survivors? What Did the Survivors Do Following Liberation? What were the “DP Camps”? What was the “Bericha”?
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LETTERS: The Wilsey Collection, Holocaust Center for Humanity
In 2016, Clarice Wilsey donated the remarkable letters of her father, Captain David B. Wilsey, M.D., an army anesthesiologist present at the liberation of Dachau concentration camp, to the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Although Dr. Wilsey rarely discussed his experiences at Dachau after the war, he wrote to his wife Emily in several letters in 1945 “to tell thousands so that millions will know what Dachau is and never forget the name of Dachau.” The Wilsey collection features 280+ letters, photographs, and more from Dr. Wilsey’s time in the U.S. Army, including the liberation of Dachau and experiences thereafter healing survivors. This browse-able collection allows the public to experience these letters for the first time and includes resources for educators.
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Liberation and Return to Life, Yad Vashem
The Holocaust would rupture a continuity of life in Europe. Here we offer a variety of entry points into this fascinating and moving chapter, following survivors from their first steps of liberation, the dawning realization of the extent of the tragedy that had befallen them and, for some, the first steps towards building a new life, often beginning in Displaced Persons' Camps in Europe.
- Liberation of the Concentration Camps, Imperial War Museums
- Liberation, USHMM
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: James A. Rose, Liberation of Dachau (1:20), USHMM
James A. Rose, of Toledo, Ohio, was with the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. In this clip, Rose describes his impressions of Dachau.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: Alan Moskin liberates Gunskirchen (subcamp of Mauthausen) (20:53), Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance & Education
This testimony, with archival film footage, illustrates the realities of Alan's experiences as a young American soldier in the 71st Division of Patton's 3rd Army who liberated Gunskirchen.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: George Mitnick’s Letter Home from Ordruf, April 13, 1945
J. George Mitnick of Jasper, AL served as a Captain in the US Army, 65th Infantry Division, in Europe where his unit liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp (a subcamp of Buchenwald) in Germany and assisted in the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. This artifact is part of collection at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, donated in 2006 by his daughter, by Ronne Mitnick Hess of Birmingham.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: The Holocaust (7:45), PBS
WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE. Liberators Ray Leopold, Burnett Miller, Dwain Luce, and others discuss their encounters as American liberators of Nazi camps (Mauthausen, Hadamar, Ludwigslust).
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: U.S. Liberators Discuss their Experiences
Five U.S. veterans from Texas recount their experience liberating Nazi concentration camps.
- Mauthausen: Resistance, Liberation, and Postwar Trials, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Witnesses for Change-Stories of Liberation, USC Shoah Foundation
As the Allies retook control of lands that had been occupied by the Germans, they came across many Nazi camps. In some instances, the Nazis had tried to destroy all evidence of the camps, in order to conceal from the world what had happened there. In other cases, only the buildings remained as the Nazis had sent the prisoners elsewhere, often on death marches.
- PHOTOS: World War II Liberation Photograph, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
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POSTER SET: Liberation 1945, USHMM
Ten printable posters.
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READING: As the War Ended, Facing History and Ourselves
Eisenhower, a general during World War II, describes his shock and horror at touring a Nazi concentration camp liberated by US troops.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Personal Histories of Liberation, USHMM
Contains numerous survivor testimonies.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: The Anguish of Liberation (4:23), Yad Vashem
Holocaust survivors Nachum Bandel, Rita Weiss, Miriam Akavia, Alisa-Lusia Avnon, Herta Goldman and Walter Zwi Bacharach describe the anguish of liberation. In Hebrew with English subtitles.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Estelle Laughlin-Post Liberation Struggles (9:59), USHMM
Estelle Laughlin discusses her liberation by Soviet troops in January 1945 from the Czestochowa concentration camp in Poland. In the days immediately following liberation, she and her mother and sister encountered both hostile and helpful people as they traveled through Poland and struggled to rebuild their lives.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Gerda and Kurt Klein Describe Liberation (3:44), YouTube
In this short video, Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein and her husband, Kurt Klein, share their experiences of liberation and meeting for the first time.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Martin Aaron (2:42), USC Shoah Foundation
Martin Aaron, from Birmingham, relates his experience of being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945.
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VIDEO: Bergen-Belsen After Liberation, Historical Film Footage (1:43), USHMM
As Allied forces approached Germany in late 1944 and early 1945, Bergen-Belsen became a collection camp for tens of thousands of prisoners evacuated from camps near the front. Thousands of these prisoners died due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and lack of adequate food and shelter. On April 15, 1945, British soldiers entered Bergen-Belsen. They found 60,000 prisoners in the camp, most in a critical condition. This footage shows Allied cameramen filming the condition of the prisoners and the filthy conditions found in Bergen-Belsen after liberation.
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VIDEO: Bergen-Belsen Survivor Reunited with One of Camp Liberators (3:06), BBC
A woman who survived the Holocaust and was in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as World War Two ended, has finally met one of the British soldiers who liberated the camp. The BBC's Fiona Bruce reports on the emotional reunion between camp survivor Zdenka Fantlova and George Leonard.
- VIDEO: GI Jews- US Soldiers Liberate Nazi Concentration Camps (3:35), PBS
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VIDEO: Holocaust Survivors-Liberated But Not Free (7:27), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon presents the story of the survivors, from the moment of liberation to their experiences searching for family members and loved ones. Ms. Ochayon discusses the magnitude and complexity of liberation as a bittersweet moment for most survivors, their attempts returning home and locating relatives - often all gone - and the postwar anti-Jewish attacks, dilemmas and hardships.
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VIDEO: Howard Cwick, Liberator: Eyewitness to History, USC Shoah Foundation
Young American soldier Howard Cwick, son of Polish Jewish immigrants, unexpectedly arrived at the gates of Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945, armed with a rifle and his camera. In his testimony, Howard provides an eloquent, striking account of his experiences. The lesson’s theme, Eyewitness to History, explores Howard’s roles as eyewitness, liberator, and activist. Include video (30:18), background on Buchenwald, Lesson Packet
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VIDEO: Liberation and Return to Life (19:56), USHMM
View unique footage of liberation and its immediate aftermath through the eyes of the American soldiers who first entered Nazi concentration camps in the spring of 1945. Then witness the rebuilding of survivors' lives in displaced persons' camps, including films of vocational training, religious gatherings, and children at play.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Auschwitz (2:13), USHMM
Historical film footage.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Historical Film Footage (:57), USHMM
After British soldiers liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, they forced the remaining SS guards to help bury the dead. Here, survivors of the camp taunt their former tormentors, who prepare to bury victims in a mass grave.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Historical Film Footage (0:53), USHMM
British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. They filmed statements from members of their own forces. In this British military footage, British army chaplain T.J. Stretch recounts his impressions of the camp.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (1:01), USHMM
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. This footage records examples of Nazi atrocities (shrunken head, pieces of tattooed human skin, preserved skull and organs) discovered by the liberating troops.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (1:24), USHMM
The Buchenwald camp was one of the largest concentration camps. The Nazis built it in 1937 in a wooded area northwest of Weimar in central Germany. US forces liberated the Buchenwald camp on April 11, 1945. When US troops entered the camp, they found more than 20,000 prisoners. This footage shows scenes that US cameramen filmed in the camp, survivors, and the arrival of Red Cross trucks.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (2:06), USHMM
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. Here, US soldiers escort German civilians from the nearby town of Weimar through the Buchenwald camp. The American liberating troops had a policy of forcing German civilians to view the atrocities committed in the camps.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Concentration Camp (9:55), from “Why We Fight” (Episode 9) of Band of Brothers
Excellent re-enactment of the shock experiences by US liberators of camps.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Dachau, Historical Film Footage (0:49), USHMM
The Dachau concentration camp, northwest of Munich, Germany, was the first regular concentration camp the Nazis established in 1933. About twelve years later, on April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were about 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. Here, soldiers of the US Seventh Army document conditions in the camp. They also require German civilians to tour the camp and confront Nazi atrocities.
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VIDEO: Liberators and Survivors: The First Moments (15:26), Yad Vashem
The liberation of concentration camps by the US Army at the end of WWII is an excellent entry point for US history teachers into the study of the Holocaust. This video interweaves liberators’ and Jewish survivors’ testimonies and other primary sources, highlighting the experiences of US soldiers upon entering the Nazi camps. The video helps you present their story to your students, as the witnesses relate to the stark difference between conventional warfare and the Holocaust, an unprecedented genocide. Great care has been taken not to include visually graphic photographs, making the video particularly suitable for middle and high school students.
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VIDEO: Lt. Col. Jack Williams, An Alabama Liberator (25:15), University of Alabama Honors College/Lights Camera Alabama
When a boy finds a movie projector among the relics his father brought him from World War II, he wonders where it came from – and why. This movie tells that story and more – about the Holocaust in Germany and the full experience of liberation from the perspective of the liberators as well as townspeople. Lt. Col.Jack Williams liberated Dachau. WARNING: THIS MOVIE CONTAINS DIFFICULT IMAGES
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VIDEO: Nazi Murder Mills (06:24), USHMM
Documentary footage from liberation of Hadamar, Ohrdruf, Buchenwald, and Nordhausen. Ed Herlihy, commentator. NOTE: Disturbing footage.
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VIDEO: The Jewish Service Heard Round the World: Live from Germany (5:54), American Jewish Committee
Excerpts of the first Jewish broadcast that took place from occupied Germany in Aachen in 1944.
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VIDEO: The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Imperial War Museums
Includes narrative and various video pieces.
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VIDEO: U.S. Forces Liberate Buchenwald (1:24), USHMM
Historical film footage. No sound.
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VIDEO: Witnesses to the Holocaust: Liberation 1945 (14.31), USHMM
The US soldiers who helped defeat Nazi Germany and liberate the concentration camps were among the first eyewitnesses to the Holocaust. Remembering their stories of freedom inspires us to promote human dignity and confront hatred whenever and wherever it occurs.
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VIDEOS: Liberator Testimony, The Holocaust Resource Center of Kean University
Appropriate for courses in: United States History II, World History, Holocaust Studies, Genocide Studies, European History, Civics, Sociology, Psychology, World Literature, American Literature Grade Levels 7-12
- What Happened to the Survivors?, The Holocaust Explained
- Life in Nazi Germany
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Dorothy Thompson Speaks Out on Freedom of the Press in Germany, USHMM/Experiencing History
Few journalists irritated Nazi authorities more than American columnist Dorothy Thompson. In the 1930s and 1940s, she used her voice to denounce Nazi policies, call attention to the plight of the regime’s many victims, and urge action by the US government to aid refugees from the Third Reich.
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EXHIBIT: Never Again, Heeding the Warning Signs (11:08), USHMM
In the pivotal year before Nazi Germany invaded Poland and launched World War II, intervention could have saved many lives. Citizens and countries responded in different ways to the events of 1938. What lessons do their actions hold for us today?
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Forced Labor 1939-1945: Memory and History, Freie Universitat Berlin
The website features a collection of audio and video interviews of 600 former forced labourers from 26 countries. It also provides background information, short films and talks about forced labour.
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Forced Labor Documentation Center, Berlin
An estimated 26 million people were abducted by the Nazi regime and exploited as forced laborers during the Second World War. The Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Centre has the task of providing information on the history and dimensions of Nazi forced labor and making the fate of these men, women and children visible.
- Forced Labor, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
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Forced Labor: An Overview, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The Nazis subjected millions of people (both Jews and other victim groups) to forced labor under brutal conditions. From the establishment of the first Nazi concentration camps and detention facilities in the winter of 1933, forced labor—often pointless and humiliating, and imposed without proper equipment, clothing, nourishment, or rest—formed a core part of the concentration camp regimen.
- German Business and the Third Reich, Jewish Virtual Library
- German Foreign Policy, 1933-1945, USHMM
- Hitler’s Foreign Policy, Dr. Marjie Bloy, UK
- Hitler’s Leadership Style, BBC
- Law and Justice in the Third Reich, USHMM
- Law and the Holocaust, USHMM
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LESSON: Learning from the Early Stages of the Holocaust, USHMM
In this lesson, students will develop visual literacy skills and refine their ability to analyze primary sources by examining photographs from the early years of the Holocaust. Students will be asked to describe the events of the Holocaust, assess whether these photos provided a warning about the genocide that was to come, and identify what the precursors to genocide are. Students will utilize higher-level critical thinking skills by reflecting on their own obligations as citizens of a democracy and by identifying effective methods for presenting information to enlighten and involve the public.
- Nazi Germany, Government Structure, Ministries, and Party Organizations, World Future Fund
- Nazi Terror Begins, USHMM
- PHOTOS: A Brutal Pageantry: The Third Reich’s Myth-Making Machinery, In Color, LIFE.com
- Political Prisoners, USHMM
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POSTER SET: Early Warning Signs, USHMM
Fourteen printable posters on the Early Warning Signs of the Holocaust.
- Principal Officials of the Third Reich, Jewish Virtual Library
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READING: Do You Take the Oath, Facing History and Ourselves
Reflect on the choices and actions of two Germans who had to decide whether or not to pledge an oath of loyalty to Hitler,
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READING: Law, Justice, and the Holocaust, USHMM
This site contains a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law that show the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership, with support or acquiescence from the majority of German people, including judges, moved the nation from a democracy to a dictatorship, and the series of legal steps that left millions vulnerable to the racist and antisemitic ideology of the Nazi state. These legal instruments reveal the positions that judges took and the questions that they faced during the Nazi regime; in so doing, they provide a framework for thoughtful and meaningful debate on the role of the judiciary in society and its responsibilities today.
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READING: Political Prisoners, Facing History and Ourselves
A member of the German Communist Party describes her experience in a Nazi Concentration camp for political prisoners.
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READING: Speaking in Whispers, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the role of cell and block wardens, Germans who collected information about their neighbors in Nazi German society.
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READING: Spying on Family and Friends, Facing History and Ourselves
Discover the effects of the "Malicious Attacks" law, which criminalized dissent to the Nazi party, had on one German family and on German society as a whole.
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READING: Storm Troopers, Elite Guards, and Secret Police, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the roles of the SA, the SS, and the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.
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READING: The Battle for Work, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the Nazis' job creation program during their first year in power, which pursued both reemployment and military rearmament.
- SS Police State, USHMM
- Strength Through Joy, Spartacus Educational
- Strength Through Joy, The History Learning Site, UK
- Swastikas by the Seaside, History Today
- The “Robert Ley,” The Great Ocean Liners
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The Role of Academics and Teachers, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
Teachers and university professors were actively involved or went along with the ouster of Jews from their fields and cooperated in other ways with the Nazi regime in the implementation of racial policies.
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The Role of Business Elites, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
Nazi leaders required the active help or cooperation of professionals working in diverse fields who in many instances were not convinced Nazis. Among these professionals were business leaders.
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The Role of Civil Servants, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
Civil servants, from government officials to judges, helped draft, implement, and enforce laws aimed at depriving Jews of their rights, livelihoods, and assets.
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The Role of the Police, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
The police played a vital role in the consolidation of Nazi power and persecution and mass murder of Jews and other groups.
- VIDEO: Der Fuehrer’s Face (9:16), Disney Short Cartoon, 1934, YouTube
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VIDEO: Inside Nazi Germany (13:45), USHMM
Private amateur films capturing life under the Nazi regime from the inside include footage shot by Hitler's secret mistress of Nazi officials at leisure, Hitler greeting jubilant crowds in Vienna upon the German annexation of Austria in March 1938, and the violent backlash against Jews there, and the Nazi invasion of Poland.
- VIDEO: Life in Hitler’s Germany, Part II (12:27), SchoolHistory.co.uk
- VIDEO: Nazi Propaganda-Home Front (21:27), USHMM
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VIDEO: Witnessing Antisemitic Violence (2:13), Facing History and Ourselves
Edith Reiss, from Bolton, England, describes witnessing antisemitic violence on the streets of Göttingen, Germany, when she was a visitor there in 1939.
- Business
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The Role of Business Elites, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
Nazi leaders required the active help or cooperation of professionals working in diverse fields who in many instances were not convinced Nazis. Among these professionals were business leaders.
- Daily Life
- VIDEO: Der Fuehrer’s Face (9:16), Disney Short Cartoon, 1934, YouTube
- VIDEO: Life in Hitler’s Germany, Part II (12:27), SchoolHistory.co.uk
- Economics
- German Business and the Third Reich, Jewish Virtual Library
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READING: The Battle for Work, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the Nazis' job creation program during their first year in power, which pursued both reemployment and military rearmament.
- Forced Labor
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Forced Labor 1939-1945: Memory and History, Freie Universitat Berlin
The website features a collection of audio and video interviews of 600 former forced labourers from 26 countries. It also provides background information, short films and talks about forced labour.
-
Forced Labor Documentation Center, Berlin
An estimated 26 million people were abducted by the Nazi regime and exploited as forced laborers during the Second World War. The Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Centre has the task of providing information on the history and dimensions of Nazi forced labor and making the fate of these men, women and children visible.
- Forced Labor, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
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Forced Labor: An Overview, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
The Nazis subjected millions of people (both Jews and other victim groups) to forced labor under brutal conditions. From the establishment of the first Nazi concentration camps and detention facilities in the winter of 1933, forced labor—often pointless and humiliating, and imposed without proper equipment, clothing, nourishment, or rest—formed a core part of the concentration camp regimen.
- Foreign Policy
- Government
- Hitler’s Leadership Style, BBC
- Nazi Germany, Government Structure, Ministries, and Party Organizations, World Future Fund
- Principal Officials of the Third Reich, Jewish Virtual Library
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READING: Storm Troopers, Elite Guards, and Secret Police, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the roles of the SA, the SS, and the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.
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The Role of Academics and Teachers, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
Teachers and university professors were actively involved or went along with the ouster of Jews from their fields and cooperated in other ways with the Nazi regime in the implementation of racial policies.
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The Role of Civil Servants, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
Civil servants, from government officials to judges, helped draft, implement, and enforce laws aimed at depriving Jews of their rights, livelihoods, and assets.
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The Role of the Police, USHMM/Holocaust Encyclopedia
The police played a vital role in the consolidation of Nazi power and persecution and mass murder of Jews and other groups.
- Strength Through Joy Program
- Strength Through Joy, Spartacus Educational
- Strength Through Joy, The History Learning Site, UK
- Swastikas by the Seaside, History Today
- The “Robert Ley,” The Great Ocean Liners
- Terror
- Nazi Terror Begins, USHMM
- Political Prisoners, USHMM
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READING: Do You Take the Oath, Facing History and Ourselves
Reflect on the choices and actions of two Germans who had to decide whether or not to pledge an oath of loyalty to Hitler,
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READING: Political Prisoners, Facing History and Ourselves
A member of the German Communist Party describes her experience in a Nazi Concentration camp for political prisoners.
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READING: Speaking in Whispers, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the role of cell and block wardens, Germans who collected information about their neighbors in Nazi German society.
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READING: Spying on Family and Friends, Facing History and Ourselves
Discover the effects of the "Malicious Attacks" law, which criminalized dissent to the Nazi party, had on one German family and on German society as a whole.
- SS Police State, USHMM
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VIDEO: Witnessing Antisemitic Violence (2:13), Facing History and Ourselves
Edith Reiss, from Bolton, England, describes witnessing antisemitic violence on the streets of Göttingen, Germany, when she was a visitor there in 1939.
- The Legal System
- Law and Justice in the Third Reich, USHMM
- Law and the Holocaust, USHMM
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READING: Law, Justice, and the Holocaust, USHMM
This site contains a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law that show the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership, with support or acquiescence from the majority of German people, including judges, moved the nation from a democracy to a dictatorship, and the series of legal steps that left millions vulnerable to the racist and antisemitic ideology of the Nazi state. These legal instruments reveal the positions that judges took and the questions that they faced during the Nazi regime; in so doing, they provide a framework for thoughtful and meaningful debate on the role of the judiciary in society and its responsibilities today.
- Literature
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“The Inexorable Joyfulness of Elie Wisel”: Remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorail Museum Tribute, Samantha Power, Harvard Kennedy School-Belfer Center
This was also used as the introduction to 2017 version of "Night" by Elie Wiesel.
-
A Teacher’s Resource for “Night,” Facing History and Ourselves
PDF format
-
Alexandra Zapruder Website
Contains educational resources to accompany "Salvaged Pages."
- An Interview with Miep Gies, Scholastic
- An Unbroken Chain, Live Podcast of the Author Reading His Book, KVSC-FM
- Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, New York, NY
- Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Anne Frank Timeline, Anne Frank House
- Anti-Racism Activity, “The Sneetches,” Teaching Tolerance
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ANTICIPATION & REFLECTION GUIDE: Friedrich
Created by Casey Piola for the BHEC, 2017.
-
Becoming Anne Frank by Dara Horn, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Why did we turn an isolated teenage girl into the world's most famous Holocaust victim?
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Bibliography and Videography, USHMM
This bibliography provides examples for the secondary school level that meet the Museum’s rubric criteria. It includes diaries, memoirs, secondary sources, literature, graphic novels, and films.
- Citywide Reading Guide for The Children of Willesden Lane, Southern Poverty Law Center
- Discussion Questions, The Children of Willesden Lane, Facing History and Ourselves
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Dr. Robert Fisch, University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Robert 0. Fisch, is a native of Budapest, Hungary and a survivor of Nazi concentration camps including Mauthausen. He completed medical school in Hungary, and came to America in 1957. Dr. Fisch became a medical intern and eventually a professor in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, where he practiced and taught until his retirement. This site provide background into his life and video footage about his life.
-
Elie Weisel’s “Perils of Indifference” for Holocaust Units, ThoughtCo.
Elie Wiesel’s noteworthy speech titled "The Perils of Indifference" was delivered to Congress on April 12, 1999. The speech is 1818 words long and can be read at the average grade level 8.6. If you want to listen to the audio recording of the speech, it will take 20:50 minutes. This article explores the values of teaching this speech.
- Elie Wiesel, USHMM
-
Elie Wiesel: Acceptance Speech, Nobel Peace Prize, 1986
Elie Wiesel's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1986
-
EXHIBIT: “Don’t Forget Me” – Children’s Personal Albums from the Holocaust, Yad Vashem
This exhibition features the personal stories of 8 children during the Holocaust. Each child is a world entire. Details about their lives are revealed in the albums they left behind. These albums offer a window into the world of these children: children suffering cruel and relentless persecution under living conditions that defy the imagination. But the albums also show us that in spite of everything, children remain children: writing dedications to their friends and embellishing them with happy illustrations; writing of everlasting friendship, even though in many cases their lives were brutally cut short. The albums, which miraculously remained intact, were made in ghettos, concentration and labor camps, while on the run or in hiding, in different countries throughout Europe and in Asia.
-
EXHIBIT: Anne Frank the Writer: An Unfinished Story, USHMM
Between the ages of 13 and 15, Anne Frank wrote short stories, fairy tales, essays, and the beginnings of a novel. Five notebooks and more than 300 loose pages, meticulously handwritten during her two years in hiding, survived the war. This exhibit reveals these original writings - through sound and images - of a young woman who had great ambition to be a writer and was exploring her craft.
-
Guide for Anne Frank and the Second World War, Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank Guide will not only provide you with information about her life. You can also see the role the United States played in the Second World War and the Holocaust.
-
Hear, O Israel, Save Us by Renia Spiegel, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Translated from Polish for the first time, the diary of Renia Spiegel presents us with a striking first-person narrative of life as a young Jew during World War II. These are diary excerpts with added red type of contextual dates of the history of how World War II came to Poland, as the Nazis invaded from the west and the Soviets from the east, deporting, imprisoning and murdering Jews in cities like Przemsyl, where Spiegel lived and perished. See also "How An Astonishing Holocaust Diary Resurfaced in America."
- Holocaust Diaries, Yad Vashem
-
How an Astonishing Holocaust Diary Resurfaced in America by Robin Shulman, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Renia began her diary feeling alone. Her gregarious, saucy 8-year-old sister Ariana was an aspiring film star who had moved to Warsaw with their mother so she could pursue her acting career. Renia had been sent to live with her grandmother, who owned a stationery store, and her grandfather, a construction contractor, in sleepy Przemysl, a small city in southern Poland about 150 miles east of Krakow. Ariana was visiting her at the end of that summer when war broke out. Over the course of more than 700 pages, between the ages of 15 and 18, Renia wrote funny stories about her friends, charming descriptions of the natural world, lonely appeals to her absent parents, passionate confidences about her boyfriend, and chilling observations of the machinery of nations engaged in cataclysmic violence. Readers will naturally contrast Renia’s diary with Anne Frank’s. Renia was a little older and more sophisticated, writing frequently in poetry as well as in prose. She was also living out in the world instead of in seclusion.
-
LESSON: Beyond Anne Frank, Holocaust Museum Houston
This lesson plan uses Anne Frank’s diary and those edited in "Salvaged Pages" by Alexandra Zapruder. It offers ways to examine some of the central experiences of the diarists and helps to situate the lives of the young writers within the context of the Holocaust across Europe.
-
LESSON: Diaries as Historical Sources, USHMM
Students study examples of diaries written by young people during the Holocaust, particularly examining the ways in which Anne Frank, the most famous diarist of the Holocaust, thought about her audience while writing.
-
LESSON: Exploring Holocaust-Era Diaries, USHMM
Students will examine Holocaust-era diaries as both historical and as deliberately-created literary texts, and will understand how the Holocaust affected the lives of the individuals.
-
LESSON: Holocaust Literature Guide, USHMM
This guide works with all types of Holocaust literature and pairs with any book. A universal guide designed to support the reading of any genre of Holocaust literature, it complements existing English lesson plans for any book or functions as a stand-alone framework. The guide to Holocaust literature places texts in historical context, encouraging students to understand how and why the Holocaust happened. Grade level: Adaptable for grades 7-12 Subject: English/Language Arts Time required: Approximately 60 minutes to introduce Before the Reading. Student work continues while they read the text.
- LESSON: Teaching the Holocaust: Light from the Yellow Star Leads the Way, Holocaust Teacher Resource Center
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LESSON: The Diary of Anne Frank, PBS Learning Media
Using Masterpiece's 2010 version of "The Diary of Anne Frank," these lessons will assist in analysis of the film.
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LESSON: Understanding the Kindertransport, IWitness/USC Shoah Foundation
This Information Quest activity introduces students to the Kindertransport, the transport of child refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to England, and its effects on the children who experienced the journey. It provides important historical context for the book, "The Children of Willesden Lane," the story of one child's journey from Westbahnhof station to Willesden Lane and beyond. Students will engage in a close reading of a variety of texts, develop an appreciation for the historical context of the story and listen to first person accounts of the experience on the Kindertransport. The activity complements the Facing History and Ourselves teachers resource for The Children of Willesden Lane.
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LESSON: You’re Probably Tired, Dear Diary – Children’s Diaries During the Holocaust, Yad Vashem
This lesson plan highlights selected excerpts from the diaries of five Jewish children who lived and perished during the Holocaust. Through these diary entries, we will focus on the pre-war lives of the children and their encounters with Nazi occupation. In addition, their responses to anti-Jewish policies, including the “badge of shame”, aryanization and ghettoization. This lesson plan includes discussion questions as well as primary source materials, and is suitable for social studies and language arts.
- LESSONS: Exploring “Night,” Anne Frank’s Diary
- LESSONS: Exploring “Night”, USHMM
- LESSONS: Exploring “The World Must Know, USHMM
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Life in Sighet, Romania 1920-1939, PBS
Scroll through to view photos of Sighet.
-
Light From the Yellow Star, Dr. Robert O. Fisch, University of Minnesota
Dr. Robert O. Fisch is a retired pediatrician and visual artist as well as a Holocaust survivor. His art expresses issues of humanity that he hopes will heal the world in the aftermath of the Holocaust. "Light From The Yellow Star" offers a narrative of Dr. Fisch's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp through eloquent paintings and moving prose. the text exudes an optimism and hopefulness about life, even though it recounts a personal story of terrible suffering.
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Light from the Yellow Star, Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
From the collection at the University of Minnesota, this includes all of the images from the book as well as the artists statement for each.
- Literature, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
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Peter Feigl’s Diary, USHMM Curator’s Corner
Born in Berlin in 1929, Peter Feigl moved with his parents to Prague and Brussels before they ended up in southern France in 1940. In 1942, Peter was at a Quaker summer camp when his parents were arrested. Learn about the diary Peter began after his parents’ arrest, how it disappeared, and how he recovered it decades later.
- PHOTOS: Anne Frank: Her Life and Legacy, LIFE.com
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PODCAST: Alexandra Zapruder (8:35), USHMM
In 1992, Alexandra Zapruder began to collect diaries written by children during the Holocaust. These diaries speak eloquently of both hope and despair. Hear Ms. Zapruder discuss these diaries.
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Reader’s Companion to “The Diary of Anne Frank,” The Anne Frank Center USA
This guide is organized to help readers understand Anne Frank’s diary. Background information, time lines, and the glossary provide historical context for the years of Anne’s life and are designed to place her diary within the framework of the events taking place during World War II and the Holocaust. Special details have been included to highlight the 25 month period during which Anne and her family hid in the Secret Annex, as well as the aftermath.
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READING GUIDE: Address Unknown
Created for the AHEC by Casey Piola, 2017.
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READING GUIDE: Friedrich
Created by Casey Piola for the BHEC, 2017.
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Resources for teaching “Night,” Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
Included are: primary source materials, secondary historical pieces, testimonies of survivors who shared elements of Wiesel’s experiences, maps, photographs, film footage, lesson plans, information about Wiesel’s life and philanthropic work.
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Resources for Teaching “The Diary of Anne Frank,” Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
Included are: primary source materials, secondary historical pieces, testimonies of survivors who shared elements of Frank’s experiences, maps, photographs, film footage, lesson plans.
-
Sighet, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Sighet (known today as Sighetu Marmatiei), a town in Transylvania, was part of Romania following World War I. The town was part of Hungary between 1940 and 1944. Sighet is well known as the birthplace of Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) noted Holocaust survivor and author of Night. Wiesel, his family, and the rest of the Jews of Sighet were deported from the town to Auschwitz in May 1944.
- STUDY GUIDE: All But My Life, Darryle Clott, USHMM Teacher Fellow
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STUDY GUIDE: Beyond Courage by Doreen Rappaport, Candlewick Press
In this stirring chronicle, Doreen Rappaport brings to light the courage of countless Jews who organized to sabotage the Nazis and help other Jews during the Holocaust.
-
STUDY GUIDE: I’m Still Here, Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust
70-page study guide to the film.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Gerda and Kurt Klein Describe Liberation (3:44), YouTube
In this short video, Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein and her husband, Kurt Klein, share their experiences of liberation and meeting for the first time.
-
TEACHER’S GUIDE: Growing Up in Nazi Germany-Teaching “Friedrich”, Museum of Jewish Heritage
This curriculum focuses on the young adult book of historical fiction, Friedrich (first published in German in 1961; Puffin Books, 1987). Friedrich provides a starting point for developing an understanding of the events, issues, and personal crises faced by all those living in Germany in the years 1930 to 1942, particularly 1930 to 1939. It can be used by the teacher as part of a more extended study of Holocaust history or Holocaust literature, or stand on its own as literature. The curriculum is aimed at middle school students and high school students.
- TEACHER’S GUIDE: One Survivor Remembers
- Teaching the Holocaust Through Literature, Yad Vashem
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The Children of Willesden Lane, Facing History and Ourselves
"The Children of Willesden Lane" is the powerful true story of Lisa Jura, who fled Nazi-occupied Vienna on the Kindertransport as a child. This resource includes a Teacher's Guide, Music Tracks, and more.
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The Lost Diaries of War, New York Times, April 15, 2020
Anne Frank listened in an Amsterdam attic on March 28, 1944, as the voice of the Dutch minister of education came crackling over the radio from London. “Preserve your diaries and letters,” he said. Frank was not the only one listening. After the war, more than 2,000 diaries were collected, each a story of pain and loss, fear and hunger and, yes, moments of levity amid the misery. But unlike Frank’s diary, most of these accounts never surfaced again. Here are edited excerpts from several diaries that track the course of the war.
-
The Searing, Continued Relevance of Diaries From a Genocide by Alexandra Zapruder, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
More than 65 diaries written by young people during the Holocaust have surfaced. Nothing collapses the distance between the reader and the historical past quite like a diary. In the years since the Holocaust, there have been wars and genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq and Syria, among other places. Diaries written by young people have survived some of these conflicts. These writers report on the events of war; they reflect on the way massive forces shape their personal lives; they ask why they must suffer and struggle to survive; and they affirm their humanity while they protest the injustice all around them.
- The Sunflower Reader’s Guide, Penguin Random House
- The Sunflower Synopsis, Facing History and Ourselves
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The Words of a Young Jewish Poet Profoke Soul-Searching in Lithuania, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Lithuania’s role in the Holocaust was a long time in coming, not least because of the Soviet occupation, which made the self-examination undertaken elsewhere in Europe—the scholarship, the government-appointed commissions, the museums and memorials—more difficult. Even after independence, local historians acknowledged the atrocities but placed the blame mainly on the Nazi occupiers. Lithuanian collaborators were written off as drunks and criminals. The truth of these Lithuanian misdeeds is documented in this diary by Matilda Olkin, a 19-year-old Jewish Lithuanian who was killed, along with her family, by local Lithuanians collaborating with the Nazis in 1941. It includes several of Matilda's poems.
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TOUR: The Secret Annex Online, Anne Frank House
Offers a 3D tour of the Annex.
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TOUR: Virtual Reality Tour of the Anne Frank House, Anne Frank House
The tour gives a uniquely immersive experience of the hiding place of Anne Frank and the seven other people in the Secret Annex. In the tour all the rooms of the Secret Annex are furnished in the style of the time spent in hiding. The tour lasts for around 25 minutes, is available in seven languages. FREE but must access from Facebook, download Oculus, or sign in via email.
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VIDEO LESSON: Number the Stars, PBS Learning Media
In this episode of NJEA’s Classroom Close-up, fifth-grade students at Alan B. Shepard Elementary School learn about the holocaust by reading the book, Number the Stars, and creating paneled works of art.
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VIDEO: Address Unknown (4-parts), BBC
Introduction about the book as well as an audiocast of professional actors reading the text of "Address Unknown" by Kathrine Kressman Taylor. Four videos (9:58, 10:01, 10:01,9:59).
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VIDEO: Alexandra Zapruder, “Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust” (39:31), Museum of Jewish Heritage
Alexandra Zapruder lectures at the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Conference for Educators on April 23, 2015.
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VIDEO: Elie Weisel: “The Perils of Indifference” (21:07), American Rhetoric
"The Perils of Indifference" speech was delivered to Congress on April 12, 1999. Here is access to video of the speech as well as the transcript.
-
VIDEO: Lesson Plan-The Story of the Third Wave (1:14)
In this documentary, former students re-tell the story of what really happened.
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VIDEO: One Survivor Remembers (41:30), Teaching Tolerance
This is the film adaptation of "All But My Life" and is age-appropriate for younger students. Includes teaching tools.
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VIDEO: The Sunflower Project (16:06), Memorial Library
In response to Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal’s poignant memoir, The Sunflower, which grapples with the limits of forgiveness, HEN teacher Diane Williams developed the Sunflower Project with her students at ANSER Charter School in Boise, Idaho. Beginning with book salons in her students’ homes, the project sparked debate among her seventh- and eighth-graders and their parents about the very definition of forgiveness. Then, working with the Idaho Human Rights Education Center and Boise artist Ward Hooper, Diane and her students created a public art mural that brought the dialogue to the community.
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VIDEO: The Terrible Things (6:53), Vimeo
An animated version of the children's storybook The Terrible Things written by Eve Bunting.
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VIDEO: The Wave (44:42), Israeli Educational Television
The Third Wave was the name given by history teacher Ron Jones to an experimental recreation of Nazi Germany which he conducted with high school students. The experiment took place at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, during one week in 1969. Jones, unable to explain to his students why the German citizens (particularly non-Nazis) allowed the Nazi Party to exterminate millions of Jews and other so-called 'undesirables', decided to show them instead. Jones writes that he started with simple things like classroom discipline, and managed to meld his history class into a group with a supreme sense of purpose and no small amount of cliquishness. Jones named the movement "The Third Wave," after the common wisdom that the third in a series of ocean waves is always the strongest, and claimed its members would revolutionize the world. The experiment allegedly took on a life of its own, with students from all over the school joining in.
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Yellow Star Foundation
The Yellow Star Foundation website builds on the great success of Dr. Robert Fisch's book, "Light from The Yellow Star: Lessons of Love From the Holocaust," to teach students about the Holocaust. The website includes lesson plans, video clips, a teachers’ forum, classroom ideas, links to resources, classroom dos and don’ts, information about the Holocaust, and profiles of projects successfully used in other parts of the country.
- Address Unknown by Katherine Kressman Taylor
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READING GUIDE: Address Unknown
Created for the AHEC by Casey Piola, 2017.
-
VIDEO: Address Unknown (4-parts), BBC
Introduction about the book as well as an audiocast of professional actors reading the text of "Address Unknown" by Kathrine Kressman Taylor. Four videos (9:58, 10:01, 10:01,9:59).
- All But My Life by Gerda Weissman Klein
- STUDY GUIDE: All But My Life, Darryle Clott, USHMM Teacher Fellow
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Gerda and Kurt Klein Describe Liberation (3:44), YouTube
In this short video, Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein and her husband, Kurt Klein, share their experiences of liberation and meeting for the first time.
- TEACHER’S GUIDE: One Survivor Remembers
-
VIDEO: One Survivor Remembers (41:30), Teaching Tolerance
This is the film adaptation of "All But My Life" and is age-appropriate for younger students. Includes teaching tools.
- An Unbroken Chain by Henry Oertelt
- Beyond Courage, The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocayst by Doreen Rappaport
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STUDY GUIDE: Beyond Courage by Doreen Rappaport, Candlewick Press
In this stirring chronicle, Doreen Rappaport brings to light the courage of countless Jews who organized to sabotage the Nazis and help other Jews during the Holocaust.
- Diaries - General
-
EXHIBIT: “Don’t Forget Me” – Children’s Personal Albums from the Holocaust, Yad Vashem
This exhibition features the personal stories of 8 children during the Holocaust. Each child is a world entire. Details about their lives are revealed in the albums they left behind. These albums offer a window into the world of these children: children suffering cruel and relentless persecution under living conditions that defy the imagination. But the albums also show us that in spite of everything, children remain children: writing dedications to their friends and embellishing them with happy illustrations; writing of everlasting friendship, even though in many cases their lives were brutally cut short. The albums, which miraculously remained intact, were made in ghettos, concentration and labor camps, while on the run or in hiding, in different countries throughout Europe and in Asia.
- Holocaust Diaries, Yad Vashem
-
LESSON: Diaries as Historical Sources, USHMM
Students study examples of diaries written by young people during the Holocaust, particularly examining the ways in which Anne Frank, the most famous diarist of the Holocaust, thought about her audience while writing.
-
LESSON: Exploring Holocaust-Era Diaries, USHMM
Students will examine Holocaust-era diaries as both historical and as deliberately-created literary texts, and will understand how the Holocaust affected the lives of the individuals.
-
LESSON: You’re Probably Tired, Dear Diary – Children’s Diaries During the Holocaust, Yad Vashem
This lesson plan highlights selected excerpts from the diaries of five Jewish children who lived and perished during the Holocaust. Through these diary entries, we will focus on the pre-war lives of the children and their encounters with Nazi occupation. In addition, their responses to anti-Jewish policies, including the “badge of shame”, aryanization and ghettoization. This lesson plan includes discussion questions as well as primary source materials, and is suitable for social studies and language arts.
-
The Lost Diaries of War, New York Times, April 15, 2020
Anne Frank listened in an Amsterdam attic on March 28, 1944, as the voice of the Dutch minister of education came crackling over the radio from London. “Preserve your diaries and letters,” he said. Frank was not the only one listening. After the war, more than 2,000 diaries were collected, each a story of pain and loss, fear and hunger and, yes, moments of levity amid the misery. But unlike Frank’s diary, most of these accounts never surfaced again. Here are edited excerpts from several diaries that track the course of the war.
-
The Searing, Continued Relevance of Diaries From a Genocide by Alexandra Zapruder, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
More than 65 diaries written by young people during the Holocaust have surfaced. Nothing collapses the distance between the reader and the historical past quite like a diary. In the years since the Holocaust, there have been wars and genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Iraq and Syria, among other places. Diaries written by young people have survived some of these conflicts. These writers report on the events of war; they reflect on the way massive forces shape their personal lives; they ask why they must suffer and struggle to survive; and they affirm their humanity while they protest the injustice all around them.
- Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter
-
ANTICIPATION & REFLECTION GUIDE: Friedrich
Created by Casey Piola for the BHEC, 2017.
-
READING GUIDE: Friedrich
Created by Casey Piola for the BHEC, 2017.
-
TEACHER’S GUIDE: Growing Up in Nazi Germany-Teaching “Friedrich”, Museum of Jewish Heritage
This curriculum focuses on the young adult book of historical fiction, Friedrich (first published in German in 1961; Puffin Books, 1987). Friedrich provides a starting point for developing an understanding of the events, issues, and personal crises faced by all those living in Germany in the years 1930 to 1942, particularly 1930 to 1939. It can be used by the teacher as part of a more extended study of Holocaust history or Holocaust literature, or stand on its own as literature. The curriculum is aimed at middle school students and high school students.
- Light from the Yellow Star by Robert O. Fisch
-
Dr. Robert Fisch, University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies
Robert 0. Fisch, is a native of Budapest, Hungary and a survivor of Nazi concentration camps including Mauthausen. He completed medical school in Hungary, and came to America in 1957. Dr. Fisch became a medical intern and eventually a professor in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, where he practiced and taught until his retirement. This site provide background into his life and video footage about his life.
- LESSON: Teaching the Holocaust: Light from the Yellow Star Leads the Way, Holocaust Teacher Resource Center
-
Light From the Yellow Star, Dr. Robert O. Fisch, University of Minnesota
Dr. Robert O. Fisch is a retired pediatrician and visual artist as well as a Holocaust survivor. His art expresses issues of humanity that he hopes will heal the world in the aftermath of the Holocaust. "Light From The Yellow Star" offers a narrative of Dr. Fisch's experiences in a Nazi concentration camp through eloquent paintings and moving prose. the text exudes an optimism and hopefulness about life, even though it recounts a personal story of terrible suffering.
-
Light from the Yellow Star, Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
From the collection at the University of Minnesota, this includes all of the images from the book as well as the artists statement for each.
-
Yellow Star Foundation
The Yellow Star Foundation website builds on the great success of Dr. Robert Fisch's book, "Light from The Yellow Star: Lessons of Love From the Holocaust," to teach students about the Holocaust. The website includes lesson plans, video clips, a teachers’ forum, classroom ideas, links to resources, classroom dos and don’ts, information about the Holocaust, and profiles of projects successfully used in other parts of the country.
- Night by Elie Wiesel
-
“The Inexorable Joyfulness of Elie Wisel”: Remarks at the U.S. Holocaust Memorail Museum Tribute, Samantha Power, Harvard Kennedy School-Belfer Center
This was also used as the introduction to 2017 version of "Night" by Elie Wiesel.
-
A Teacher’s Resource for “Night,” Facing History and Ourselves
PDF format
-
Elie Weisel’s “Perils of Indifference” for Holocaust Units, ThoughtCo.
Elie Wiesel’s noteworthy speech titled "The Perils of Indifference" was delivered to Congress on April 12, 1999. The speech is 1818 words long and can be read at the average grade level 8.6. If you want to listen to the audio recording of the speech, it will take 20:50 minutes. This article explores the values of teaching this speech.
- Elie Wiesel, USHMM
-
Elie Wiesel: Acceptance Speech, Nobel Peace Prize, 1986
Elie Wiesel's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1986
- LESSONS: Exploring “Night”, USHMM
-
Life in Sighet, Romania 1920-1939, PBS
Scroll through to view photos of Sighet.
-
Resources for teaching “Night,” Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
Included are: primary source materials, secondary historical pieces, testimonies of survivors who shared elements of Wiesel’s experiences, maps, photographs, film footage, lesson plans, information about Wiesel’s life and philanthropic work.
-
Sighet, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Sighet (known today as Sighetu Marmatiei), a town in Transylvania, was part of Romania following World War I. The town was part of Hungary between 1940 and 1944. Sighet is well known as the birthplace of Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) noted Holocaust survivor and author of Night. Wiesel, his family, and the rest of the Jews of Sighet were deported from the town to Auschwitz in May 1944.
-
VIDEO: Elie Weisel: “The Perils of Indifference” (21:07), American Rhetoric
"The Perils of Indifference" speech was delivered to Congress on April 12, 1999. Here is access to video of the speech as well as the transcript.
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowery
-
VIDEO LESSON: Number the Stars, PBS Learning Media
In this episode of NJEA’s Classroom Close-up, fifth-grade students at Alan B. Shepard Elementary School learn about the holocaust by reading the book, Number the Stars, and creating paneled works of art.
- Renia's Diary: A Holocaust Journal by Renia Spiegel
-
Hear, O Israel, Save Us by Renia Spiegel, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Translated from Polish for the first time, the diary of Renia Spiegel presents us with a striking first-person narrative of life as a young Jew during World War II. These are diary excerpts with added red type of contextual dates of the history of how World War II came to Poland, as the Nazis invaded from the west and the Soviets from the east, deporting, imprisoning and murdering Jews in cities like Przemsyl, where Spiegel lived and perished. See also "How An Astonishing Holocaust Diary Resurfaced in America."
-
How an Astonishing Holocaust Diary Resurfaced in America by Robin Shulman, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Renia began her diary feeling alone. Her gregarious, saucy 8-year-old sister Ariana was an aspiring film star who had moved to Warsaw with their mother so she could pursue her acting career. Renia had been sent to live with her grandmother, who owned a stationery store, and her grandfather, a construction contractor, in sleepy Przemysl, a small city in southern Poland about 150 miles east of Krakow. Ariana was visiting her at the end of that summer when war broke out. Over the course of more than 700 pages, between the ages of 15 and 18, Renia wrote funny stories about her friends, charming descriptions of the natural world, lonely appeals to her absent parents, passionate confidences about her boyfriend, and chilling observations of the machinery of nations engaged in cataclysmic violence. Readers will naturally contrast Renia’s diary with Anne Frank’s. Renia was a little older and more sophisticated, writing frequently in poetry as well as in prose. She was also living out in the world instead of in seclusion.
- Salvaged Pages by Alexandra Zapruder
-
Alexandra Zapruder Website
Contains educational resources to accompany "Salvaged Pages."
-
LESSON: Beyond Anne Frank, Holocaust Museum Houston
This lesson plan uses Anne Frank’s diary and those edited in "Salvaged Pages" by Alexandra Zapruder. It offers ways to examine some of the central experiences of the diarists and helps to situate the lives of the young writers within the context of the Holocaust across Europe.
-
Peter Feigl’s Diary, USHMM Curator’s Corner
Born in Berlin in 1929, Peter Feigl moved with his parents to Prague and Brussels before they ended up in southern France in 1940. In 1942, Peter was at a Quaker summer camp when his parents were arrested. Learn about the diary Peter began after his parents’ arrest, how it disappeared, and how he recovered it decades later.
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PODCAST: Alexandra Zapruder (8:35), USHMM
In 1992, Alexandra Zapruder began to collect diaries written by children during the Holocaust. These diaries speak eloquently of both hope and despair. Hear Ms. Zapruder discuss these diaries.
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STUDY GUIDE: I’m Still Here, Real Diaries of Young People Who Lived During the Holocaust
70-page study guide to the film.
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VIDEO: Alexandra Zapruder, “Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust” (39:31), Museum of Jewish Heritage
Alexandra Zapruder lectures at the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Conference for Educators on April 23, 2015.
- The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek
- Citywide Reading Guide for The Children of Willesden Lane, Southern Poverty Law Center
- Discussion Questions, The Children of Willesden Lane, Facing History and Ourselves
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LESSON: Understanding the Kindertransport, IWitness/USC Shoah Foundation
This Information Quest activity introduces students to the Kindertransport, the transport of child refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to England, and its effects on the children who experienced the journey. It provides important historical context for the book, "The Children of Willesden Lane," the story of one child's journey from Westbahnhof station to Willesden Lane and beyond. Students will engage in a close reading of a variety of texts, develop an appreciation for the historical context of the story and listen to first person accounts of the experience on the Kindertransport. The activity complements the Facing History and Ourselves teachers resource for The Children of Willesden Lane.
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The Children of Willesden Lane, Facing History and Ourselves
"The Children of Willesden Lane" is the powerful true story of Lisa Jura, who fled Nazi-occupied Vienna on the Kindertransport as a child. This resource includes a Teacher's Guide, Music Tracks, and more.
- The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
- An Interview with Miep Gies, Scholastic
- Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, New York, NY
- Anne Frank House, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Anne Frank Timeline, Anne Frank House
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Becoming Anne Frank by Dara Horn, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Why did we turn an isolated teenage girl into the world's most famous Holocaust victim?
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EXHIBIT: Anne Frank the Writer: An Unfinished Story, USHMM
Between the ages of 13 and 15, Anne Frank wrote short stories, fairy tales, essays, and the beginnings of a novel. Five notebooks and more than 300 loose pages, meticulously handwritten during her two years in hiding, survived the war. This exhibit reveals these original writings - through sound and images - of a young woman who had great ambition to be a writer and was exploring her craft.
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Guide for Anne Frank and the Second World War, Anne Frank House
The Anne Frank Guide will not only provide you with information about her life. You can also see the role the United States played in the Second World War and the Holocaust.
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LESSON: Beyond Anne Frank, Holocaust Museum Houston
This lesson plan uses Anne Frank’s diary and those edited in "Salvaged Pages" by Alexandra Zapruder. It offers ways to examine some of the central experiences of the diarists and helps to situate the lives of the young writers within the context of the Holocaust across Europe.
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LESSON: The Diary of Anne Frank, PBS Learning Media
Using Masterpiece's 2010 version of "The Diary of Anne Frank," these lessons will assist in analysis of the film.
- LESSONS: Exploring “Night,” Anne Frank’s Diary
- PHOTOS: Anne Frank: Her Life and Legacy, LIFE.com
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Reader’s Companion to “The Diary of Anne Frank,” The Anne Frank Center USA
This guide is organized to help readers understand Anne Frank’s diary. Background information, time lines, and the glossary provide historical context for the years of Anne’s life and are designed to place her diary within the framework of the events taking place during World War II and the Holocaust. Special details have been included to highlight the 25 month period during which Anne and her family hid in the Secret Annex, as well as the aftermath.
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Resources for Teaching “The Diary of Anne Frank,” Midwest Center for Holocaust Education
Included are: primary source materials, secondary historical pieces, testimonies of survivors who shared elements of Frank’s experiences, maps, photographs, film footage, lesson plans.
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TOUR: The Secret Annex Online, Anne Frank House
Offers a 3D tour of the Annex.
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TOUR: Virtual Reality Tour of the Anne Frank House, Anne Frank House
The tour gives a uniquely immersive experience of the hiding place of Anne Frank and the seven other people in the Secret Annex. In the tour all the rooms of the Secret Annex are furnished in the style of the time spent in hiding. The tour lasts for around 25 minutes, is available in seven languages. FREE but must access from Facebook, download Oculus, or sign in via email.
- The Diary of Matilda Olkin by Matilda Olkin
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The Words of a Young Jewish Poet Profoke Soul-Searching in Lithuania, Smithsonian Magazine/The Unforgotten: New Voices of the Holocaust, November 2018
Lithuania’s role in the Holocaust was a long time in coming, not least because of the Soviet occupation, which made the self-examination undertaken elsewhere in Europe—the scholarship, the government-appointed commissions, the museums and memorials—more difficult. Even after independence, local historians acknowledged the atrocities but placed the blame mainly on the Nazi occupiers. Lithuanian collaborators were written off as drunks and criminals. The truth of these Lithuanian misdeeds is documented in this diary by Matilda Olkin, a 19-year-old Jewish Lithuanian who was killed, along with her family, by local Lithuanians collaborating with the Nazis in 1941. It includes several of Matilda's poems.
- The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss
- The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal
- The Sunflower Reader’s Guide, Penguin Random House
- The Sunflower Synopsis, Facing History and Ourselves
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VIDEO: The Sunflower Project (16:06), Memorial Library
In response to Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal’s poignant memoir, The Sunflower, which grapples with the limits of forgiveness, HEN teacher Diane Williams developed the Sunflower Project with her students at ANSER Charter School in Boise, Idaho. Beginning with book salons in her students’ homes, the project sparked debate among her seventh- and eighth-graders and their parents about the very definition of forgiveness. Then, working with the Idaho Human Rights Education Center and Boise artist Ward Hooper, Diane and her students created a public art mural that brought the dialogue to the community.
- The Terrible Things by Eve Bunting
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VIDEO: The Terrible Things (6:53), Vimeo
An animated version of the children's storybook The Terrible Things written by Eve Bunting.
- The Wave by Todd Strasser
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VIDEO: Lesson Plan-The Story of the Third Wave (1:14)
In this documentary, former students re-tell the story of what really happened.
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VIDEO: The Wave (44:42), Israeli Educational Television
The Third Wave was the name given by history teacher Ron Jones to an experimental recreation of Nazi Germany which he conducted with high school students. The experiment took place at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, during one week in 1969. Jones, unable to explain to his students why the German citizens (particularly non-Nazis) allowed the Nazi Party to exterminate millions of Jews and other so-called 'undesirables', decided to show them instead. Jones writes that he started with simple things like classroom discipline, and managed to meld his history class into a group with a supreme sense of purpose and no small amount of cliquishness. Jones named the movement "The Third Wave," after the common wisdom that the third in a series of ocean waves is always the strongest, and claimed its members would revolutionize the world. The experiment allegedly took on a life of its own, with students from all over the school joining in.
- Music
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Forbidden Music Regained, Leo Smit Foundation
During the Second World War, many composers were persecuted by the Nazi’s, because they either had a Jewish background or refused to comply with Nazi rules. Their music was banned from all public performance. The Leo Smit Foundation, founded in 1996, is committed to regain this music.
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Hold On To Your Music Foundation
Inspired by the life of Lisa Jura, the Hold On To Your Music Foundation seeks to expand awareness and understanding of the ethical implications of world events such as the Holocaust, and the power of the arts, especially music, to embolden the human spirit in the face of adversity.
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Music and the Holocaust, ORT
From Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 until the liberation in 1945, music played an integral role in daily life under Nazism. On this website, you can learn about diverse composers and musicians, including those who supported the Nazis and those who became their victims. Visit our music page for a wide range of sound recordings of music and songs, or explore musical life in ghettos and camps across Europe using our interactive map. You can delve more deeply into the subject of music and the Holocaust by exploring the themes on the right. Our resources section provides educational and reference material for further reading and listening.
- Music and the Holocaust, YIVO
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Music Files, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
A dozen songs with description and words.
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Music in the Terezin Concentration Camp, Boosey & Hawkes
Some of Europe’s most gifted musicians were among those deported to Terezín.
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Music of the Holocaust, Highlights from the Collection, USHMM
This Web exhibition spotlights material in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Music Collection.
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Music of the Holocaust, YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
Includes links to Concentration Camp Songs, Music in Theresienstadt, Partisan Songs, Songs of Displaced Persons, Ghetto Songs, Music of Protest, Music Written in Hiding, and Roma Songs.
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MUSIC: Where is the Village? (4:16), Jay Black
Popular singer Jay Black's recording of a popular Yiddish song, set to the visuals of Chagall paintings, offers a sentimental glimpse of the Jewish villages lost during the Holocaust.
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ONLINE EXHIBIT: Music of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem
The songs that were created during the Holocaust in ghettos, camps, and partisan groups tell the stories of individuals, groups and communities in the Holocaust period and were a source of unity and comfort, and later, of documentation and remembrance. These compositions link the periods of Jewish cultural life before, during and after the war. They express the experience, ideology, and hope shared by their listeners, both individually and collectively. After the war, these compositions took on the further aspects of remembrance and commemoration.
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Orchestra of Exiles, PBS Learning Media
On the brink of World War II and the rise of Nazi-occupation, one man’s remarkable four-year odyssey helped rescue Europe’s premier Jewish musicians and their families from persecution, while preserving the musical heritage of Europe. Orchestra of Exiles, a 90-minute documentary film by Academy Award-nominated Josh Aronson, tells the dramatic story of celebrated Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman (1882-1947). With courage, resourcefulness, and an entourage of allies including Arturo Toscanini and Albert Einstein, Huberman bravely stood up to racial intolerance, ultimately saving almost 1,000 Jews from 1933–1936 while forming the Palestine Symphony Orchestra.
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Our Will to Live by Mark Ludwig
In Terezín, a Nazi camp where 33,000 people died, a remarkable community of musicians and artists answered despair with creativity. Here is their astonishing world. Includes musical selections from Terezin.
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Songs From Testimonies, Fortunoff Video Archive For Holocaust Testimonies
The Songs From Testimonies project collects and records songs and poems discovered in the Fortunoff Archive testimonies. Musician-in-residence, Zisl Slepovitch, took the songs, conducted research about their origins, then arranged and recorded versions with his ensemble, featuring Sashe Lurje. These songs and poems were sung or recounted in a number of testimonies and reflect the richness of these documents. They are songs from the interwar period and from the ghettos, and the camps. Originally, these songs were sung individually and collectively, but in survivors’ testimonies they are recounted or performed by individuals. They thus remind us that the survivor singing them represents all those who did not survive to sing again, and remind us of the absence of the original audience.
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Songs From Testimonies, Yale Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
In 2018, the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, along with musician-in-residence D. Zisl Slepovitch and former Hartman fellow Sarah Garibova, began production of an album of songs recalled in testimonies. This album, Where is Our Homeland? Songs from Testimonies in the Fortunoff Video Archive, reached fruition in Fall 2019, composed and arranged by musicologist and musician D. Zisl Slepovitch.
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Student Resources: Music and the Holocaust, Dr. Laurence Sherr, Kennesaw State University
These lists provide selected English-language resources for the music of oppressed groups during the Holocaust, and for Holocaust memorial works. Comprehensive multi-lingual resource lists are available at multiple locations. These include the ORT and USHMM websites for print, audio, and video sources, and the bibliographies of books such as "Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis," "Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps," and "Alma Rosé: Vienna to Auschwitz."
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Teaching the Holocaust Through Music, Ludmilla Leibman, Presented at Yad Vashem
Ludmilla Leibman's doctoral dissertation, “Teaching the Holocaust Through Music” (BU, 1999), became the basis for the first course in the history of American higher education on the Music of the Holocaust. She taught this course at Boston University from 2001 to 2009.
- VIDEO: “Never Again” (4:24), Wu Tang Clan
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VIDEO: Tehora (42:25), Liberation75/German Consulate General in Toronto
Composed and written exclusively by Jewish composers and lyricists, this concert is a musical voyage that starts with the thriving Jewish culture of 1920s Berlin during the Weimar Republic, and ends with music from the Promised Land - Israel. "Tehorah," which means "pure" in Hebrew, is a heartbreaking, promising musical story about war, loss, hope, love and forgiveness. Sung in German, Yiddish and Hebrew. Performed by Adrienne Haan, Heinz Walter Florin on piano, and the Diplomatic String Quartet Berlin. Filmed at the Chamber Music Hall at the Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany. First performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, the concert commemorates the 75th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust and encourages peace among all nations.
- Nazi Propaganda
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ARTIFACT: The Poisonous Mushroom (Der Giftpilz), Calvin Propaganda Archive
Pictures from the book with translation of their captions. Includes links to translation of the story that accompanies the picture.
- Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, Encyclopedia Britannica
- Biology for the Middle School, Calvin Propaganda Archive
- Caricatures from Der Stürmer: 1933-1945, Calvin Propaganda Archive
- Deceiving the Public, USHMM
- Defining the Enemy, USHMM
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Der Stuermer: An Overview of the Nazi’s Antisemitic Newspaper, ThoughtCo.
Der Stuermer ("The Attacker") was the Nazi's antisemitic, weekly newspaper that was founded and created by Julius Streicher and was published from April 20, 1923, until February 1, 1945. Popular for its antisemitic cartoons, Der Stuermer was a useful propaganda tool that helped Adolf Hitler and the Nazis sway the German public's opinion against the Jewish people.
- Der Stürmer, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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Education in Nazi Germany, Spartacus Educational (UK)
Includes links to sections on: Changes in Curriculum, Teachers, Hitler Youth & Education, Textbooks, Elite Schools, Women's Education & Problems in Education.
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EXHIBIT: A is for Adolf-Teaching German Children Nazi Values, The Wiener Holocaust Library
The Wiener Library’s propaganda collection provides a rare insight into the complex relationship between the Nazi regime and those it sought to indoctrinate. The display has four themes: School, Experiences of Jewish Children, The Hitler Youth and Beyond School. Each theme displays images of original materials held by the Wiener Library in London, accompanied by explanatory texts. The aim is to show various ways that the Nazis tried to influence German children both at school and in other contexts. Nazi propaganda sought to shape every aspect of young people’s thoughts, especially their perception of the self and the ‘other,’ the ‘German’ and the ‘Jew.’
- EXHIBIT: Propaganda, USHMM
- Geography for Middle School: People and Living Space, Calvin Propaganda Archive
- German Propaganda Archive, Calvin College
- Hitler Youth, Encyclopedia Britannica
- Hitler Youth, Jewish Virtual Library
- Hitler Youth, Spartacus Educational
- Hitler Youth, The History Place
- IMAGE: 1934 Issue of the Fiercely Antisemitic Newspaper Der Stürmer, USHMM
- IMAGE: Nazi Propaganda Poster Depicting Martin Luther, Facing History and Ourselves
- IMAGE: Poster for Propaganda Film “Jud Süss”
- Indoctrinating Youth, USHMM
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Jud Süß (The Jew Süss), Calvin Propaganda Archive
An eight-page flyer for the film.
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Juden Raus! board Ggame, The Wiener Holocaust Library
The Wiener Holocaust Library holds two copies of what has been called “history’s most infamous board game.” Using crude antisemitic stereotypes and imagery, the game’s themes reflect racial hatred, forced deportations, and confiscation of Jewish property. The board shows a walled town, through which players move to round up Jews and deposit them outside the city walls, where a slogan reads “Auf nach Palästina!” (English: “Off to Palestine!”) The winner is the first to remove six people. Although the game was not endorsed by the Nazis (it was seen to trivialize Nazi policies) and contains no Nazi insignia, the casual, cheery tone used in the text accompanying the game reveals how socially acceptable bigotry and antisemitism was at the time.
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LECTURE: Teaching in Extraordinary Times (29:44), USHMM
As the nation honors today’s resilient educators during Teacher Appreciation Week, we invite you to learn about inspiring educators in history. Join Museum experts to discover teachers and students who resisted Nazi policies and some who went the extra mile to protect and even rescue Jews. Featuring Moderator Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, and Guest Lecturer, Kim Blevins-Relleva, Museum Educator.
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Leni Riefenstahl, USHMM
German filmmaker known for her propaganda films.
- LESSON PLAN: Teaching Materials on Propaganda, USHMM
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LESSON: Analyzing Memes, USHMM
Memes—attention-grabbing images with clever captions that pepper social media feeds—permeate our cultural discourse. While memes have the potential to replace thoughtful conversation and impede connections between different opinions, with proper scaffolding they can be the entry point for critical thinking.
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LESSON: Analyzing Nazi Propaganda, Facing History and Ourselves
Students define propaganda and practice an image-analysis activity on a piece of propaganda from Nazi Germany.
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LESSON: Exploring Nazi Propaganda and the Hitler Youth Movement, Facing History and Ourselves
Students build a definition of "propaganda" by exploring various forms and museums of Nazi propaganda.
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LESSON: Life for German Youth in the 1930’s: Education, Propaganda, Conformity, and Obedience, Facing History and Ourselves
Students read narratives from German youth in the 1930s and consider how pride, fear, obedience, and peer pressure influenced how young people responded to the Nazis' messages.
- LESSON: Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936, USHMM
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LESSON: Propaganda in Nazi Germany, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains posters and images featuring Nazi propaganda. By the end of this activity you will have developed your ability to evaluate information and gained a more critical understanding of your sources. You will also have reflected on how propaganda affects us today.
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LESSON: Redefining How We Teach Propaganda, USHMM
This unit (containing 6 lessons) will increase your students’ abilities to critically analyze messages presented in both traditional and new forms of media. As students learn about the consequences of propaganda during the Holocaust, they will better value the importance of media literacy in a democracy.
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LESSON: The Nazis in Power: Propaganda and Conformity, Facing History and Ourselves
Students analyze several examples of Nazi propaganda and explore its impact on German society.
- Music Amongst the Hitler Youth, World ORT
- Nazi Propaganda and Censorship, USHMM
- Nazi Propaganda, USHMM
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Oath and Opposition: Education Under the Third Reich, USHMM
During Nazi rule, a struggle to control education policy emerged between the Ministry of Education, the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB), and the Hitler Jugend. The content is organized into three components: I. Introductory Film (5 min.) that introduces the historical context of education under the authority of the Third Reich. II. Case Studies and Discussion Guide (includes PDFs) that feature the stories of individual teachers who responded in different ways during the Holocaust III. Survivor Testimony in form of a video gallery, in which survivors recount their classroom experiences as students during the Holocaust and reflect on both the teachers who helped them and those who did them harm.
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POSTCARD: “Public Image,” Greetings From the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hitler's "fatherly" affection for children - healthy German children - appears in the photograph.
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POSTCARD: “The Jewish Threat Among Us,” Greetings from the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Among the crude and hateful public attacks against Jews was the exhibition, also organized by Goebbels' propaganda ministry, "The Eternal Jew." This official postcard from that exhibition was designed, like the exhibition it promoted, to reveal "the Jewish threat among us." It pictures a grotesquely caricatured Jew coveting the money which he holds in one hand while holding in the other the whip which produced it. The red hammer-and-sickle identifies the Jew with Communism. National Socialist propaganda was as unremitting as it was irrational and uncompromising.
- Propaganda, Culture and Education in the Third Reich, USHMM
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READING: “Heil Hitler!”: Lessons of Daily Life, Facing History and Ourselves
Get a glimpse into the daily lives of children in Nazi Germany, and consider how the Nazis "educated" Germany's youth.
- READING: “The Eternal Jew” Exhibition, USHMM
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READING: Disillusionment in the Hitler Youth, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why some young people in Nazi Germany chose to drop out of Hitler Youth organizations with this story about a former Hitler Youth member.
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READING: Even If All Others Do-I Do Not!, Facing History and Ourselves
Reflect on the true story of a father who dared to challenge the education his children received in Nazi Germany.
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READING: Joining the Hitler Youth, Facing History and Ourselves
Reflect on these firsthand experiences of former members of the Nazi Youth.
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READING: Propaganda at the Movies, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn how the Nazis used film to create an image of the "national community" and to demonize those they viewed as the enemy, such as the Jews.
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READING: Schooling for the National Community, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn how the Nazis transformed German public education to advance their nationalist and racial ideologies.
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READING: Shaping Public Opinion, Facing History and Ourselves
Read about the far-reaching efforts of Joseph Goebbels and the Ministry of Propaganda to generate enthusiasm for the Nazi Party.
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READING: The “New Germany” on the Olympic Stage, Facing History and Ourselves
Discover how the Nazis used the 1936 Summer Olympics as an opportunity to showcase German society to the world.
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READING: The Birthday Party, Facing History and Ourselves
Gain insight into the pressures that compelled young people and their families to support Nazi youth organizations with this story about a member of the Hitler Youth.
- The Battle for Germany: A Textbook for German Youth, Calvin Propaganda Archive
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The Educational Principles of the New Germany, Calvin Propaganda Archive
What schools and parents need to know about the hoals of National Socialist education.
- The Nazi Olympics, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Nazi Party: The Nazi Olympics, Jewish Virtual Library
- Triumph of the Will, Teacher’s Guide, Social Studies School Service
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Trust No Fox on His Green Heath and No Jew on His Oath, Calvin Propaganda Archive
Antisemitic children's book, images and stories.
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VIDEO: “Jews Out” Board Game (1:57), BBC/Antiques Roadshow
Includes explanation of how the game is played.
- VIDEO: Alfons Heck-Hitler Youth HBO Special (28:42), YouTube
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VIDEO: Building the Racial State with Dr. William Meinecke (1:15:14), MCHE Kansas City
Dr. William Meinecke, Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, examines how Nazi propaganda shaped German society and prepared the population to accept, support, or participate in persecution, war, and the mass murder of Europe’s Jews and others.
- VIDEO: Der Fuehrer’s Face (9:16), Disney Short Cartoon, 1934, YouTube
- VIDEO: Education for Death (10:08), Disney Short Cartoon, 1934, YouTube
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VIDEO: Goebbels Claims Jews Will Destroy Culture, Historical Film Footage (0:52), USHMM
This footage shows Joseph Goebbels, Nazi minister for propaganda and public education, speaking at the September 1935 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. In the speech, Goebbels--a fanatic antisemite--linked Bolshevism with international Jewry and warned Nazi party members of an alleged international Jewish conspiracy to destroy western civilization. Goebbels led the purge of Jewish and other so-called "un-German" influences from the cultural institutions of Nazi Germany.
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VIDEO: Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth (30:22), HBO/YouTube
In this in-depth interview, Alfons Heck recalls how he became a high-ranking member of the Hitler Youth. He talks about the importance of peer pressure and propaganda to Hitler's ability to recruit eight million German children to participate in the "war effort," some as young as twelve participating in murder. The interview is supplemented by archival footage.
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VIDEO: How the Nazis Manipulated the Masses (41:21), USHMM
The Nazis adapted age-old antisemitic lies and stereotypes to dehumanize Jewish people and blame them for Germany’s ills. Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and others shaped and deployed these messages everywhere, from film to radio, posters to press—even in children’s books. This steady drumbeat of antisemitic propaganda reinforced the myth that Jews were dirty, deceitful, and dangerous. Some became fervent believers in the Nazi solution to the “Jewish problem” while most remained silent as their Jewish neighbors were persecuted. Join us to discuss how the Nazis exploited preexisting hatred and how similar lies are being repackaged and spread around the world today with violent consequences.
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VIDEO: Inside the World’s Oldest Holocaust Museum (3:23), BBC
Includes footage of the children's board game "Jews Out" and describes how it is played.
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VIDEO: Jesse Owens (2 min), PBS / American Experience
Jesse Owens' victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics were an affront to Nazi beliefs.
- VIDEO: Jesse Owens’ Inspiring History (2:25), International Olympic Committee
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VIDEO: Student Jamarr R. Talks About Education in Nazi Germany (1:00), Facing History and Ourselves
Jamarr J. explains how propaganda and education became the same thing in Nazi Germany.
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VIDEO: Teaching the Holocaust Using Sports (9:59), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust Using Sports", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon presents the story of Gretel (Margaret) Bergmann, an accomplished Jewish German athlete. Bergmann's remarkable story sheds light on the challenges and hardships Jewish athletes had to face under the Nazi regime. Being unable to pursue her athletic career in Germany, Bergmann decided to leave her country of birth in 1934. She was forced to return and represent the country in the 1936 Olympic Games, only to be excluded from the national team just weeks prior to the opening of the Games. Using sports in teaching about the Holocaust can be extremely useful. Students are generally familiar with sports, athletes, national and international tournaments, and so forth. The topic of sports is one which is relevant to the students' lives today. Furthermore, using sports makes the point that the Holocaust happened in the modern world – a world where there were sports teams, stars and cheering crowds. Sports can be used as a means to bridge the gulf between the Holocaust as a massive historical event and the Holocaust as a human story. Sheryl Silver-Ochayon is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936 Part 3: Gretel Bergmann - An Outcast Athlete
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VIDEO: The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 (4:46), USHMM
In this video introduction to the Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936, American Jewish athlete Marty Glickman, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield, exhibition curator Susan Bachrach, and German Jewish athlete Gretel Bergmann reflect and remember the 1936 Olympic Games as more than history.
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VIDEO: The Opening Ceremony (1 min), PBS / American Experience
he 1936 Olympic Opening Ceremony was held on August 1 at the Reichssportsfeld in Berlin. Cheers echoed throughout the stadium as Adolf Hitler entered.
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VIDEO: Triumph of the Will (1:44:27), Facing History and Ourselves
A Nazi propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl.
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VIDEO: World War II: The Propaganda Battle (52:26)
Bill Moyers examines the role that propaganda played in the course of events during Word War II.
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VISUAL ESSAY: The Impact of Propaganda, Facing History and Ourselves
Explore a curated selection of primary source propaganda images from Nazi Germany.
- Writing the News, USHMM
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You and Your People (Volk), Calvin Propaganda Archive
Translation of a booklet given to children as they finished their required schooling at age 14.
- 1936 Olympics
- Berlin 1936 Olympic Games, Encyclopedia Britannica
- LESSON: Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936, USHMM
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READING: The “New Germany” on the Olympic Stage, Facing History and Ourselves
Discover how the Nazis used the 1936 Summer Olympics as an opportunity to showcase German society to the world.
- The Nazi Olympics, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Nazi Party: The Nazi Olympics, Jewish Virtual Library
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VIDEO: Jesse Owens (2 min), PBS / American Experience
Jesse Owens' victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics were an affront to Nazi beliefs.
- VIDEO: Jesse Owens’ Inspiring History (2:25), International Olympic Committee
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VIDEO: Teaching the Holocaust Using Sports (9:59), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
In the video, "Teaching the Holocaust Using Sports", ISHS staff member Sheryl Ochayon presents the story of Gretel (Margaret) Bergmann, an accomplished Jewish German athlete. Bergmann's remarkable story sheds light on the challenges and hardships Jewish athletes had to face under the Nazi regime. Being unable to pursue her athletic career in Germany, Bergmann decided to leave her country of birth in 1934. She was forced to return and represent the country in the 1936 Olympic Games, only to be excluded from the national team just weeks prior to the opening of the Games. Using sports in teaching about the Holocaust can be extremely useful. Students are generally familiar with sports, athletes, national and international tournaments, and so forth. The topic of sports is one which is relevant to the students' lives today. Furthermore, using sports makes the point that the Holocaust happened in the modern world – a world where there were sports teams, stars and cheering crowds. Sports can be used as a means to bridge the gulf between the Holocaust as a massive historical event and the Holocaust as a human story. Sheryl Silver-Ochayon is a staff member at the International School for Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem Part 1: Introduction Part 2: The Nazi Olympics Berlin 1936 Part 3: Gretel Bergmann - An Outcast Athlete
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VIDEO: The Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936 (4:46), USHMM
In this video introduction to the Nazi Olympics: Berlin 1936, American Jewish athlete Marty Glickman, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield, exhibition curator Susan Bachrach, and German Jewish athlete Gretel Bergmann reflect and remember the 1936 Olympic Games as more than history.
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VIDEO: The Opening Ceremony (1 min), PBS / American Experience
he 1936 Olympic Opening Ceremony was held on August 1 at the Reichssportsfeld in Berlin. Cheers echoed throughout the stadium as Adolf Hitler entered.
- Education
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ARTIFACT: The Poisonous Mushroom (Der Giftpilz), Calvin Propaganda Archive
Pictures from the book with translation of their captions. Includes links to translation of the story that accompanies the picture.
- Biology for the Middle School, Calvin Propaganda Archive
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Education in Nazi Germany, Spartacus Educational (UK)
Includes links to sections on: Changes in Curriculum, Teachers, Hitler Youth & Education, Textbooks, Elite Schools, Women's Education & Problems in Education.
- Geography for Middle School: People and Living Space, Calvin Propaganda Archive
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LECTURE: Teaching in Extraordinary Times (29:44), USHMM
As the nation honors today’s resilient educators during Teacher Appreciation Week, we invite you to learn about inspiring educators in history. Join Museum experts to discover teachers and students who resisted Nazi policies and some who went the extra mile to protect and even rescue Jews. Featuring Moderator Dr. Edna Friedberg, Historian, and Guest Lecturer, Kim Blevins-Relleva, Museum Educator.
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Oath and Opposition: Education Under the Third Reich, USHMM
During Nazi rule, a struggle to control education policy emerged between the Ministry of Education, the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB), and the Hitler Jugend. The content is organized into three components: I. Introductory Film (5 min.) that introduces the historical context of education under the authority of the Third Reich. II. Case Studies and Discussion Guide (includes PDFs) that feature the stories of individual teachers who responded in different ways during the Holocaust III. Survivor Testimony in form of a video gallery, in which survivors recount their classroom experiences as students during the Holocaust and reflect on both the teachers who helped them and those who did them harm.
- Propaganda, Culture and Education in the Third Reich, USHMM
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READING: “Heil Hitler!”: Lessons of Daily Life, Facing History and Ourselves
Get a glimpse into the daily lives of children in Nazi Germany, and consider how the Nazis "educated" Germany's youth.
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READING: Even If All Others Do-I Do Not!, Facing History and Ourselves
Reflect on the true story of a father who dared to challenge the education his children received in Nazi Germany.
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READING: Schooling for the National Community, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn how the Nazis transformed German public education to advance their nationalist and racial ideologies.
- The Battle for Germany: A Textbook for German Youth, Calvin Propaganda Archive
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The Educational Principles of the New Germany, Calvin Propaganda Archive
What schools and parents need to know about the hoals of National Socialist education.
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Trust No Fox on His Green Heath and No Jew on His Oath, Calvin Propaganda Archive
Antisemitic children's book, images and stories.
- VIDEO: Education for Death (10:08), Disney Short Cartoon, 1934, YouTube
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VIDEO: Inside the World’s Oldest Holocaust Museum (3:23), BBC
Includes footage of the children's board game "Jews Out" and describes how it is played.
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VIDEO: Student Jamarr R. Talks About Education in Nazi Germany (1:00), Facing History and Ourselves
Jamarr J. explains how propaganda and education became the same thing in Nazi Germany.
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You and Your People (Volk), Calvin Propaganda Archive
Translation of a booklet given to children as they finished their required schooling at age 14.
- Film
- IMAGE: Poster for Propaganda Film “Jud Süss”
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Jud Süß (The Jew Süss), Calvin Propaganda Archive
An eight-page flyer for the film.
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Leni Riefenstahl, USHMM
German filmmaker known for her propaganda films.
- READING: “The Eternal Jew” Exhibition, USHMM
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READING: Propaganda at the Movies, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn how the Nazis used film to create an image of the "national community" and to demonize those they viewed as the enemy, such as the Jews.
- Triumph of the Will, Teacher’s Guide, Social Studies School Service
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VIDEO: Triumph of the Will (1:44:27), Facing History and Ourselves
A Nazi propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl.
- Games
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Juden Raus! board Ggame, The Wiener Holocaust Library
The Wiener Holocaust Library holds two copies of what has been called “history’s most infamous board game.” Using crude antisemitic stereotypes and imagery, the game’s themes reflect racial hatred, forced deportations, and confiscation of Jewish property. The board shows a walled town, through which players move to round up Jews and deposit them outside the city walls, where a slogan reads “Auf nach Palästina!” (English: “Off to Palestine!”) The winner is the first to remove six people. Although the game was not endorsed by the Nazis (it was seen to trivialize Nazi policies) and contains no Nazi insignia, the casual, cheery tone used in the text accompanying the game reveals how socially acceptable bigotry and antisemitism was at the time.
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VIDEO: “Jews Out” Board Game (1:57), BBC/Antiques Roadshow
Includes explanation of how the game is played.
- Hitler Youth
- Hitler Youth, Encyclopedia Britannica
- Hitler Youth, Jewish Virtual Library
- Hitler Youth, Spartacus Educational
- Hitler Youth, The History Place
- Indoctrinating Youth, USHMM
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LESSON: Life for German Youth in the 1930’s: Education, Propaganda, Conformity, and Obedience, Facing History and Ourselves
Students read narratives from German youth in the 1930s and consider how pride, fear, obedience, and peer pressure influenced how young people responded to the Nazis' messages.
- Music Amongst the Hitler Youth, World ORT
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READING: Disillusionment in the Hitler Youth, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why some young people in Nazi Germany chose to drop out of Hitler Youth organizations with this story about a former Hitler Youth member.
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READING: Joining the Hitler Youth, Facing History and Ourselves
Reflect on these firsthand experiences of former members of the Nazi Youth.
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READING: The Birthday Party, Facing History and Ourselves
Gain insight into the pressures that compelled young people and their families to support Nazi youth organizations with this story about a member of the Hitler Youth.
- VIDEO: Alfons Heck-Hitler Youth HBO Special (28:42), YouTube
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VIDEO: Heil Hitler! Confessions of a Hitler Youth (30:22), HBO/YouTube
In this in-depth interview, Alfons Heck recalls how he became a high-ranking member of the Hitler Youth. He talks about the importance of peer pressure and propaganda to Hitler's ability to recruit eight million German children to participate in the "war effort," some as young as twelve participating in murder. The interview is supplemented by archival footage.
- Newspaper
- Caricatures from Der Stürmer: 1933-1945, Calvin Propaganda Archive
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Der Stuermer: An Overview of the Nazi’s Antisemitic Newspaper, ThoughtCo.
Der Stuermer ("The Attacker") was the Nazi's antisemitic, weekly newspaper that was founded and created by Julius Streicher and was published from April 20, 1923, until February 1, 1945. Popular for its antisemitic cartoons, Der Stuermer was a useful propaganda tool that helped Adolf Hitler and the Nazis sway the German public's opinion against the Jewish people.
- Der Stürmer, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
- IMAGE: 1934 Issue of the Fiercely Antisemitic Newspaper Der Stürmer, USHMM
- Writing the News, USHMM
- Posters / Postcards
- IMAGE: Nazi Propaganda Poster Depicting Martin Luther, Facing History and Ourselves
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POSTCARD: “Public Image,” Greetings From the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Hitler's "fatherly" affection for children - healthy German children - appears in the photograph.
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POSTCARD: “The Jewish Threat Among Us,” Greetings from the Fatherland Collection, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Among the crude and hateful public attacks against Jews was the exhibition, also organized by Goebbels' propaganda ministry, "The Eternal Jew." This official postcard from that exhibition was designed, like the exhibition it promoted, to reveal "the Jewish threat among us." It pictures a grotesquely caricatured Jew coveting the money which he holds in one hand while holding in the other the whip which produced it. The red hammer-and-sickle identifies the Jew with Communism. National Socialist propaganda was as unremitting as it was irrational and uncompromising.
- Nazi Racism
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“Against Nazi Euthanasia,” Sermon by Cardinal Clemons von Galen, The History Place
This is an excerpt of the sermon by Catholic Cardinal Clemens von Galen, delivered on Sunday, August 3, 1941, in Münster Cathedral, in which he risked his life by openly condemning the Nazi euthanasia program.
- 14f13, Holocaust Education & Research Team
- Blood Purity and Nazi Germany, The History Learning Site (UK)
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DOCUMENT: Birmingham’s Racial Segregation Ordinances, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
An excerpt from the original city ordinances for the city of Birmingham during the 1920s to 1950s.
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Eugenics, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Eugenics, or “racial hygiene,” was a scientific movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eugenics provided the basis for the Nazi compulsory sterilization View This Term in the Glossary policy and underpinned the murder of the institutionalized disabled in the clandestine “euthanasia” (T4) program.
- Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States, University of Vermont
- Euthanasia Program, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
- Euthanasia Program, Yad Vashem
- Euthanasia, ARC
- EXHIBIT: Deadly Medicine-Creating the Master Race, USHMM
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EXHIBIT: Science and Suffering, Victims and Perpetrators of Nazi Human Experimentation, The Wiener Holocaust Library
Under the Nazis, medical research supported a new vision for a 'racially pure' Europe. Nazi policy eroded the legal basis for the protection of individual rights, including control over one's own body to promote the body politic. Through portraits of victims and perpetrators, this online exhibit explores the legacy of medical research under Nazism, and its impact on bioethics today.
- Final Solutions: Murderous Racial Hygiene, 1939-1945, USHMM
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German Law Authorizes Sterilization for Prevention of Hereditary Diseases, USHMM History Unfolded
On July 14, 1933, the German government promulgated the “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases” (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses). This law mandated the forced sterilization of certain individuals with physical and mental disabilities or mental illness. Individuals who were subject to the law were those men and women who “suffered” from any of nine conditions: hereditary feeblemindedness, schizophrenia, manic-depressive (or bi-polar) disorder, hereditary epilepsy, Huntington’s chorea (a fatal form of dementia), genetic blindness, deafness, severe hereditary physical deformity, and chronic alcoholism. The law also allowed public health officials to apply the law to those, like Roma (Gypsies) and “asocial elements” who were seen to reject German social values.
- IMAGE: Nazi Eugenics Exhibition Poster, Facing History and Ourselves
- Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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LESSON: Nazi Racism, USHMM
Racism fueled Nazi ideology and politics. To critically analyze actions taken by Nazi Germany and its collaborators requires an understanding of the concept of racism in general and Nazi racial antisemitism in particular. This lesson includes a modification for online instruction.
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LESSON: Racial “Science” and Law in Nazi Germany and the US – Timeline Extension, USHMM
Nazism emerged in Germany during the era of “Jim Crow” in the US. Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler, wrote admiringly of American racist practices. Racist ideas were treated as “scientific” during this time: biology linked to physical appearance supposedly determined what people were capable of and what limited them, while “selective breeding” was promoted as a way to eliminate physical and mental disabilities in the population The pseudoscience called eugenics emerged in the late 19th century and became a global movement, providing a veneer of respectability to ideas about “racial purity.” By the 1930s this pseudoscientific approach had found its way into laws in the US and Europe. While eugenics and racism were present in many countries, this lesson is a case study examining Nazi Germany and the US during the 1930s. While racism and racist laws existed in both societies, these histories are presented within their own national and historic contexts.
- LESSON: Teaching Materials on Nazism and Jim Crow, USHMM
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LESSON: The Roots of Nazi “Euthanasia” in Nazi Germany, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains a fact sheet and images that will help you understand some of the key steps taken in the Nazi euthanasia project. By the end of this activity you will have gained a greater understanding of the importance of protecting and upholding democratic values and human rights. In addition you will have reflected on how subtle changes in society and how silence and indifference to the suffering of others can lead to horrific consequences.
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LESSON: Us and Them-Confronting Labels and Lies, Facing History and Ourselves
Students learn about the ways that people throughout history have created myths about race in order to justify discrimination and violence.
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LESSON: Witnessing Jim Crow, USC Shoah Foundation
Many survivors of the Holocaust left Europe after the end of World War II. Those who emigrated from Europe had to adjust to new languages, new customs, and new social expectations when they arrived. Some survivors who immigrated to the United States encountered racism and prejudice and grappled with its repercussions in a variety of ways. This module will examine the testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust who resettled to the United States and will examine the repercussions of racism and race-based prejudice.
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Nazi “Perfect Aryan” Poster Child Was Jewish, The Telegraph/UK
When Hessy Taft was six months old, she was a poster child for the Nazis. Her photograph was chosen as the image of the ideal Aryan baby, and distributed in party propaganda. But what the Nazis didn’t know was that their perfect baby was really Jewish.
- Nazi Racism, USHMM
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Origins of Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist Terms and Symbols, USHMM
Quick description of many facets of Nazi race ideology.
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POLITICAL CARTOON: An Aryan Is, Labor Front Magazine
Originally published in the American magazine, Labor Front, in 1936.
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READING: Breeding the New German Race, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the sterilization law in Nazi Germany and other measures taken by the Nazis to ensure the purity of the Aryan race.
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READING: Bystanders at Hartheim Castle, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why the residents of Hartheim kept silent about the evidence of mass murder they witnessed in their town through World War II.
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READING: Learning to be a Good German, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider how Nazi ideology influenced the morality of a girl growing up in Nazi Germany.
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READING: Protesting Medical Killing, Facing History and Ourselves
Explore the stories of three German ministers who chose to speak out against the Nazis' "euthanasia" program.
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READING: Unworthy to Live, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the Nazis' medical killing program which was responsible for the murder of mentally and physically disabled people during World War II.
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READING: Waging a Racial War, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider how Nazi Germany's ideas about race determined how they treated soldiers, prisoners, and civilians during World War II.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Paul Eggert, Helga Gross, and Dorothea Buck Describe Forced Sterilization (5:01), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Paul Eggert was categorized as "feeble-minded." At age 11, he was institutionalized and sterilized without his knowledge. Helga Gross attended a school for the deaf in Hamburg, Germany. She was sterilized in 1939, aged 16. At age 19, Dorothea Buck was diagnosed as schizophrenic and sterilized without her knowledge.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: The Euthanasia Program (7:55), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Benno Müller-Hill, professor of genetics at the University of Cologne, describes the Nazi "Euthanasia" Program, with oral history excerpts from Antje Kosemund, Paul Eggert, and Elvira Manthey. Antje Kosemund had a disabled younger sister who was admitted to Alsterdorf Institute, Hamburg, December 1933, at the age of three and was subsequently killed in 1944. Paul Eggert was a resident of the orphanage section of the Dortmund-Applerbeck institution from 1942-43 where he witnessed the euthanasia of fellow orphans. Elvira Manthey was taken with her sister from a large, impoverished family and placed in a children’s home, 1938.
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T4 Medical Killing Program, remember.org
Includes information on Operation 14f13 (Special Treatment).
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T4 Program, Encyclopedia Britannica
Written by Michael Berenbaum.
- The “Lebensborn” Program (1935-1945), Jewish Virtual Library
- The Biological State: Nazi Racial Hygiene, 1933-1939
- The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement, The New Yorker, April 2016
- The Murder of the Handicapped, USHMM
- The Nazi Euthanasia (T-4) Program, Jewish Virtual Library
- The Nazi Racial State, BBC
- Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the U.S., PBS
- Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology, USHMM
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VIDEO: Bishop von Galen and the War Against the Disabled (7:04), Facing History and Ourselves
Scholar Doris Bergen discusses Bishop von Galen and his opposition to the Nazi T4 euthanasia program.
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VIDEO: Caring Corrupted – The Killing Nurses of the Third Reich (56:07) YouTube
Cizik School of Nursing has created a REMI Platinum Award-winning documentary film that tells the grim cautionary tale of nurses who participated in the Holocaust and abandoned their professional ethics during the Nazi era. This film casts a harsh light on nurses who used their professional skills to murder the handicapped, mentally ill and infirm at the behest of the Third Reich and directly participated in genocide
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VIDEO: Exhumations at Hadamar, Historical Film Footage (0:42), USHMM
The Hadamar psychiatric hospital was used as a euthanasia killing center from January until August 1941. Nazi doctors gassed about 10,000 German patients there. Although systematic gassings ended in September 1941, the killing of patients continued through the end of the war. In this footage, American soldiers supervise the exhumation of the cemetery at Hadamar and begin the interrogation of Dr. Adolf Wahlmann and Karl Wilig, who participated in the killings.
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VIDEO: Keeping the Memory Alive-Personal Reflections on the Legacies of Racial Violence and Genocide (54:25), USHMM
On February 22-23, 2018, the USHMM's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies partnered with the Institute for Human Rights at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to host a two-day symposium entitled "Bystanders and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South." The event was co-sponsored by the Alabama Holocaust Education Center. In this video, watch as Riva Hirsch, a Holocaust survivor, and Josephine Bolling McCall, whose father was lynched in Alabama in 1947, offer their thoughts on the personal impact of violent antisemitism and racism in two historical contexts.
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VIDEO: Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education – Race Doctrine (1:39), Yad Vashem
This video outlines the Nazi race doctrine, a key component within Nazi Ideology. The division of races into hierarchical order, with Jews as the "anti-race", had catastrophic consequences for Europe and for the Jews. Part of Yad Vashem's "Key Historical Concepts in Holocaust Education" video series.
- VIDEO: Propaganda Film on Eugenics/Nazi Racial Science (2:42), USHMM
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VIDEO: Race and Society in Nazi Germany and the US: From Swastika to Jim Crow (49:08), USHMM
"From Swastika to Jim Crow" is a film that examines the encounter between Jewish refugee professors who escaped Nazi Germany and their African American colleagues and students at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities where they taught in the American South. Here, this film is discussed with Joyce Ladner, sociologist, author and social activist; Hank Klibanoff, Pulitzer Prize winning Co-Author of the Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle and The Awakening of a Nation and Broderick Johnson, Producer of the March on Washington Film Festival. It is moderated by Jill Savitt, Acting Director, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide.
- VIDEO: The Uniqueness of Nazi Antisemitism (2:17), Yad Vashem/YouTube
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VIDEO: U.S. Soldiers Inspect Hadamar, Historical Film Footage (1:21), USHMM
In Nazi usage, "euthanasia" referred to the killing of those whom the Nazis deemed "unworthy of life." In 1941 the Hadamar psychiatric clinic served as one of the euthanasia killing centers in Germany. Patients selected by German doctors for euthanasia were transferred to Hadamar or one of the other facilities and were killed in gas chambers. Over 10,000 people were gassed at Hadamar before the Euthanasia Program officially ended in August 1941. Although the program had officially ended, killings continued at Hadamar by means of lethal injections. After the war, US personnel filmed the facility and cared for surviving patients
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What is Race? Is Race for Real?, PBS
An interactive site.
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What Was the Nazi Idea of Volksgemeinschaft? ThoughtCo.
The Volk was to be a one party state where the leader – currently Hitler – was accorded unquestioning obedience from his citizens, who handed over their freedoms in exchange for – in theory – their part in a smoothly functioning machine. ‘Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer’: one people, one empire, one leader.
- American Eugenics
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Eugenics, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Eugenics, or “racial hygiene,” was a scientific movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eugenics provided the basis for the Nazi compulsory sterilization View This Term in the Glossary policy and underpinned the murder of the institutionalized disabled in the clandestine “euthanasia” (T4) program.
- Eugenics: Compulsory Sterilization in 50 American States, University of Vermont
- The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement, The New Yorker, April 2016
- Unwanted Sterilization and Eugenics Programs in the U.S., PBS
- Euthanasia (T4) Program
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“Against Nazi Euthanasia,” Sermon by Cardinal Clemons von Galen, The History Place
This is an excerpt of the sermon by Catholic Cardinal Clemens von Galen, delivered on Sunday, August 3, 1941, in Münster Cathedral, in which he risked his life by openly condemning the Nazi euthanasia program.
- 14f13, Holocaust Education & Research Team
- Euthanasia Program, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
- Euthanasia Program, Yad Vashem
- Euthanasia, ARC
- IMAGE: Nazi Eugenics Exhibition Poster, Facing History and Ourselves
- Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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LESSON: The Roots of Nazi “Euthanasia” in Nazi Germany, Eternal Echoes
This exercise contains a fact sheet and images that will help you understand some of the key steps taken in the Nazi euthanasia project. By the end of this activity you will have gained a greater understanding of the importance of protecting and upholding democratic values and human rights. In addition you will have reflected on how subtle changes in society and how silence and indifference to the suffering of others can lead to horrific consequences.
-
READING: Bystanders at Hartheim Castle, Facing History and Ourselves
Consider why the residents of Hartheim kept silent about the evidence of mass murder they witnessed in their town through World War II.
-
READING: Protesting Medical Killing, Facing History and Ourselves
Explore the stories of three German ministers who chose to speak out against the Nazis' "euthanasia" program.
-
READING: Unworthy to Live, Facing History and Ourselves
Learn about the Nazis' medical killing program which was responsible for the murder of mentally and physically disabled people during World War II.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: The Euthanasia Program (7:55), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Benno Müller-Hill, professor of genetics at the University of Cologne, describes the Nazi "Euthanasia" Program, with oral history excerpts from Antje Kosemund, Paul Eggert, and Elvira Manthey. Antje Kosemund had a disabled younger sister who was admitted to Alsterdorf Institute, Hamburg, December 1933, at the age of three and was subsequently killed in 1944. Paul Eggert was a resident of the orphanage section of the Dortmund-Applerbeck institution from 1942-43 where he witnessed the euthanasia of fellow orphans. Elvira Manthey was taken with her sister from a large, impoverished family and placed in a children’s home, 1938.
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T4 Medical Killing Program, remember.org
Includes information on Operation 14f13 (Special Treatment).
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T4 Program, Encyclopedia Britannica
Written by Michael Berenbaum.
- The Murder of the Handicapped, USHMM
- The Nazi Euthanasia (T-4) Program, Jewish Virtual Library
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VIDEO: Bishop von Galen and the War Against the Disabled (7:04), Facing History and Ourselves
Scholar Doris Bergen discusses Bishop von Galen and his opposition to the Nazi T4 euthanasia program.
-
VIDEO: Caring Corrupted – The Killing Nurses of the Third Reich (56:07) YouTube
Cizik School of Nursing has created a REMI Platinum Award-winning documentary film that tells the grim cautionary tale of nurses who participated in the Holocaust and abandoned their professional ethics during the Nazi era. This film casts a harsh light on nurses who used their professional skills to murder the handicapped, mentally ill and infirm at the behest of the Third Reich and directly participated in genocide
-
VIDEO: Exhumations at Hadamar, Historical Film Footage (0:42), USHMM
The Hadamar psychiatric hospital was used as a euthanasia killing center from January until August 1941. Nazi doctors gassed about 10,000 German patients there. Although systematic gassings ended in September 1941, the killing of patients continued through the end of the war. In this footage, American soldiers supervise the exhumation of the cemetery at Hadamar and begin the interrogation of Dr. Adolf Wahlmann and Karl Wilig, who participated in the killings.
-
VIDEO: U.S. Soldiers Inspect Hadamar, Historical Film Footage (1:21), USHMM
In Nazi usage, "euthanasia" referred to the killing of those whom the Nazis deemed "unworthy of life." In 1941 the Hadamar psychiatric clinic served as one of the euthanasia killing centers in Germany. Patients selected by German doctors for euthanasia were transferred to Hadamar or one of the other facilities and were killed in gas chambers. Over 10,000 people were gassed at Hadamar before the Euthanasia Program officially ended in August 1941. Although the program had officially ended, killings continued at Hadamar by means of lethal injections. After the war, US personnel filmed the facility and cared for surviving patients
- Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South
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DOCUMENT: Birmingham’s Racial Segregation Ordinances, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
An excerpt from the original city ordinances for the city of Birmingham during the 1920s to 1950s.
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LESSON: Racial “Science” and Law in Nazi Germany and the US – Timeline Extension, USHMM
Nazism emerged in Germany during the era of “Jim Crow” in the US. Nazi leaders, including Adolf Hitler, wrote admiringly of American racist practices. Racist ideas were treated as “scientific” during this time: biology linked to physical appearance supposedly determined what people were capable of and what limited them, while “selective breeding” was promoted as a way to eliminate physical and mental disabilities in the population The pseudoscience called eugenics emerged in the late 19th century and became a global movement, providing a veneer of respectability to ideas about “racial purity.” By the 1930s this pseudoscientific approach had found its way into laws in the US and Europe. While eugenics and racism were present in many countries, this lesson is a case study examining Nazi Germany and the US during the 1930s. While racism and racist laws existed in both societies, these histories are presented within their own national and historic contexts.
- LESSON: Teaching Materials on Nazism and Jim Crow, USHMM
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LESSON: Witnessing Jim Crow, USC Shoah Foundation
Many survivors of the Holocaust left Europe after the end of World War II. Those who emigrated from Europe had to adjust to new languages, new customs, and new social expectations when they arrived. Some survivors who immigrated to the United States encountered racism and prejudice and grappled with its repercussions in a variety of ways. This module will examine the testimonies of survivors of the Holocaust who resettled to the United States and will examine the repercussions of racism and race-based prejudice.
-
VIDEO: Keeping the Memory Alive-Personal Reflections on the Legacies of Racial Violence and Genocide (54:25), USHMM
On February 22-23, 2018, the USHMM's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies partnered with the Institute for Human Rights at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to host a two-day symposium entitled "Bystanders and Complicity in Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South." The event was co-sponsored by the Alabama Holocaust Education Center. In this video, watch as Riva Hirsch, a Holocaust survivor, and Josephine Bolling McCall, whose father was lynched in Alabama in 1947, offer their thoughts on the personal impact of violent antisemitism and racism in two historical contexts.
-
VIDEO: Race and Society in Nazi Germany and the US: From Swastika to Jim Crow (49:08), USHMM
"From Swastika to Jim Crow" is a film that examines the encounter between Jewish refugee professors who escaped Nazi Germany and their African American colleagues and students at the Historically Black Colleges and Universities where they taught in the American South. Here, this film is discussed with Joyce Ladner, sociologist, author and social activist; Hank Klibanoff, Pulitzer Prize winning Co-Author of the Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle and The Awakening of a Nation and Broderick Johnson, Producer of the March on Washington Film Festival. It is moderated by Jill Savitt, Acting Director, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide.
- Sterilization
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Eugenics, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Eugenics, or “racial hygiene,” was a scientific movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eugenics provided the basis for the Nazi compulsory sterilization View This Term in the Glossary policy and underpinned the murder of the institutionalized disabled in the clandestine “euthanasia” (T4) program.
-
German Law Authorizes Sterilization for Prevention of Hereditary Diseases, USHMM History Unfolded
On July 14, 1933, the German government promulgated the “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases” (Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses). This law mandated the forced sterilization of certain individuals with physical and mental disabilities or mental illness. Individuals who were subject to the law were those men and women who “suffered” from any of nine conditions: hereditary feeblemindedness, schizophrenia, manic-depressive (or bi-polar) disorder, hereditary epilepsy, Huntington’s chorea (a fatal form of dementia), genetic blindness, deafness, severe hereditary physical deformity, and chronic alcoholism. The law also allowed public health officials to apply the law to those, like Roma (Gypsies) and “asocial elements” who were seen to reject German social values.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Paul Eggert, Helga Gross, and Dorothea Buck Describe Forced Sterilization (5:01), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Paul Eggert was categorized as "feeble-minded." At age 11, he was institutionalized and sterilized without his knowledge. Helga Gross attended a school for the deaf in Hamburg, Germany. She was sterilized in 1939, aged 16. At age 19, Dorothea Buck was diagnosed as schizophrenic and sterilized without her knowledge.
- Operation Reinhard Camps
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Aktion Reinhard, Profiting from the Holocaust, Holocaust Education Research Team
Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka established working commandos to sort and pack the possessions of the murdered Jews to the Reich, in accordance with August Frank’s orders. This research provide first person testimony to this fact.
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Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, USHMM
May 27, 1942, Czech Agents who had trained in Great Britain parachuted into German-occupied Czech territory to assassinate SS General Reinhard Heydrich in Prague. The Operation Reinhard camps were named after him.
- Belzec, ID Cards, USHMM
- Belzec, The Holocaust Explained
- Belzec, USHMM
- Belzec: Chronology, USHMM
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Jewish Prisoner Uprisings in Treblinka and Sobibor, Jewish Virtual Library
This is a 4-part piece. Advance at the bottom of the page.
- Killing Center Revolts, USHMM
- Killing Centers: An Overview, USHMM
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Lidice, USHMM
Lidice was a small town in the former Czechoslovakia located about 12 miles (20 km) from Prague. German forces destroyed the town and murdered or deported its inhabitants in retaliation for the assassination in 1942 of Reinhard Heydrich, a prominent Nazi official.
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Operation Reinhard (Einsatz Reinhard), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Operation Reinhard (Einsatz Reinhard) became the code name for the German plan to murder the approximately two million Jews residing in the so-called Generalgouvernement (Government General). Though initiated in the autumn of 1941, the operation was later named after SS General Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), who died in June 1942 from injuries sustained during an assassination attempt by Czech partisans.
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Photos of Nazis at Sobibor Death Camp Are the First of Their Kind, Washington Post, January 29, 2020
Historians in Germany have unearthed hundreds of photos of the notorious Sobibor death camp and other key sites in the Nazi extermination machine, stashed for decades in albums belonging to the camp's deputy commandant and in the attic and cupboards of the family home. Previously, only two images of Sobibor existed in the archival record.
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Photos of Sobibor Death Camp May Include John Demjanjuk, Cleveland Jewish News, January 29, 2020
Two photo albums and about 50 loose photographs of Sobibor, “a handful” from the Belzec death camp and 14 loose photographs that show the funeral of Johann Niemann (Deputy Commandant of Sobibor), along with letters to his wife, Henriette, have been turned over to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum by Niemann's grandson. This piece also includes 3 survivor testimonies.
- PHOTOS: Treblinka Memorial, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: Oh Nonsense, It Is Only the Gas, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
The Holocaust was not an event which could be entirely hidden from the people of Europe. Wilhelm Cornides was a German army officer who was travelling by rail through Poland in August 1942. On the train, he got talking to a German policeman and the wife of another policeman. They promised to show him Bełżec extermination camp when the train passed it. Cornides recorded his experiences in his diary.
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READING: A Commandant’s View, Facing History and Ourselves
Get insight into how a commander at a Nazi death camp viewed his victims and coped with his actions.
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READING: A Commandant’s View
In 1971, journalist Gitta Sereny interviewed Franz Stangl, who had been the commandant of the death camp at Sobibór and, later, the camp at Treblinka.
- Sobibor, The Holocaust Explained
- Sobibor, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
- Sobibor: Chronology, USHMM
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES & ID Cards: Treblinka, USHMM
Includes the testimonies of Abraham Bomba & Isadore Helfing.
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Death Camp Treblinka Survivor Stories Documentary (58:55), BBC
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Sobibor, USHMM
Esther Raab describes the arrival of transports (1:57). Selma (Wijnberg) Engel describes deportation from the Netherlands (1:51). Esther Raab describes planning for the uprising (2:33). Chaim Engel describes plans for the uprising (2:14). Esther Raab describes the uprising (3:18). Chaim Engel describes his role in the uprising (1:41). Chaim Engel describes the uprising and his escape (1:29).
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Abraham Bomba (2:43), USHMM
Abraham Bomba, born 1913, Germany, describes cutting women's hair before they were gassed in Treblinka.
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Holocaust Survivors Remember Sobibor Uprising (28:24), USC Shoah Foundation
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Jankiel Wiernik, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Jankiel Wiernik was deported from Warsaw to Treblinka extermination camp on 23 August 1942. On arrival, he was one of the very small number of prisoners selected to work in the camp, disposing of the bodies. He escaped in the Treblinka Uprising of 2 August 1943 and told his story in a pamphlet distributed by the Polish underground in 1944. This was the first detailed account of life in an extermination camp to be published.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Rudolf Reder, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Although knowledge of the Holocaust was fairly widespread by mid-1942, many of the Jews sent to extermination camps still harboured the faint hope of survival. Rudolf Reder was deported to Bełżec from Lwów in August 1942. He later described what happened when his train arrived.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Tomasz (Toivi) Blatt (1:44), USHMM
Tomasz Blatt, born 1927, Isbica, Poland, describes gassing operations in the Sobibor extermination camp.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Uprising in Treblinka by Samuel Rajzman
Samuel Rajzman was one of the very few survivors of the Treblinka death camp - he was lucky enough to escape. The testimony (in writing) he gave, more than 60 years ago, is still important to understand the enormity of the crimes committed in that death camp and in the Final Solution.
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TESTIMONY: Stefan Kucharek, Train Driver to Treblinka (2:32), USHMM
Stefan Kucharek was born in 1922 in Małkinia, Poland, the son of a train engineer. He attended school with Jewish neighbors and later worked in a saw mill. After the German invasion of Poland, Kucharek began working for the railroad doing track maintenance. Later, he drove trains full of Jews to the Treblinka killing center. Kucharek drove these transports regularly for almost a year.
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Treblinka Death Camp Revolt/August 1943, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
Jewish inmates organized a resistance group in Treblinka in early 1943. When camp operations neared completion, the prisoners feared they would be killed and the camp dismantled. During the late spring and summer of 1943, the resistance leaders decided to revolt.
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Treblinka Survivor Recalls Suffering and Resisitance, BBC News, August 4, 2013
Nothing remains of Treblinka extermination camp apart from the ashes of the estimated 870,000 mostly Jewish men, women and children that the Nazis gassed and buried underground. Samuel Willenberg is the last survivor of the Jewish prisoners' revolt in the camp and he had returned for the 70th anniversary.
- Treblinka, The Holocaust Explained
- Treblinka, USHMM
- Treblinka: Chronology, USHMM
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Treblinka: Testimonies of Nazi SS, Jewish Virtual Library
Transcribed testimonials from Nazi SS soldiers who were stationed at the camp and carried out the Nazi murderous actions. Included are those of Franz Stangl, Willi Mentz, Kurt Franz, and Heinrich Matthes.
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VIDEO: Excerpt from Treblinka: Hitler’s Killing Machine (4:48), Smithsonian Channel
Forensic archeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has been granted unprecedented access to excavate one of history's greatest crime scenes: Hitler's secret extermination camp in the Polish village of Treblinka. Here, between 1942 and 1943, 900,000 Jews were sent to their deaths, but for 70 years, all evidence of the camp and its victims had vanished... until now. Follow the quest to unearth the processing rooms, gas chambers, and mass graves Hitler tried to erase from existence and journey into the dark heart of the Nazi's Final Solution. Includes animated recreation of the camp.
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VIDEO: The Treblinka Uprising (1:44), World Jewish Congres
On August 2nd, 1943, the underground Jewish resistance in Treblinka staged a revolt against the Nazi guards. The camp had been created with one sole purpose: To enable the mass murder of Jews. Between 870,000 and 925,000 people were killed in Treblinka; most were gassed upon arrival.
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VIDEO: Treblinka-Digital Reconstruction (8:21)
The video animation is an integral part of the permanent exhibition in the Treblinka Museum on site at the former location of the camp. The camp with all evidences of mass murder was completely destroyed by Germans in Autumn 1943 to hide the truth about this Nazi death factory. The animation recreates the appearance of the camp and informs the visitors about the conditions and methods of mass extermination used.
- Belzec
- Belzec, ID Cards, USHMM
- Belzec, The Holocaust Explained
- Belzec, USHMM
- Belzec: Chronology, USHMM
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PRIMARY RESOURCE: Oh Nonsense, It Is Only the Gas, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
The Holocaust was not an event which could be entirely hidden from the people of Europe. Wilhelm Cornides was a German army officer who was travelling by rail through Poland in August 1942. On the train, he got talking to a German policeman and the wife of another policeman. They promised to show him Bełżec extermination camp when the train passed it. Cornides recorded his experiences in his diary.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Rudolf Reder, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Although knowledge of the Holocaust was fairly widespread by mid-1942, many of the Jews sent to extermination camps still harboured the faint hope of survival. Rudolf Reder was deported to Bełżec from Lwów in August 1942. He later described what happened when his train arrived.
- Sobibor
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Jewish Prisoner Uprisings in Treblinka and Sobibor, Jewish Virtual Library
This is a 4-part piece. Advance at the bottom of the page.
- Killing Center Revolts, USHMM
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Photos of Nazis at Sobibor Death Camp Are the First of Their Kind, Washington Post, January 29, 2020
Historians in Germany have unearthed hundreds of photos of the notorious Sobibor death camp and other key sites in the Nazi extermination machine, stashed for decades in albums belonging to the camp's deputy commandant and in the attic and cupboards of the family home. Previously, only two images of Sobibor existed in the archival record.
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Photos of Sobibor Death Camp May Include John Demjanjuk, Cleveland Jewish News, January 29, 2020
Two photo albums and about 50 loose photographs of Sobibor, “a handful” from the Belzec death camp and 14 loose photographs that show the funeral of Johann Niemann (Deputy Commandant of Sobibor), along with letters to his wife, Henriette, have been turned over to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum by Niemann's grandson. This piece also includes 3 survivor testimonies.
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READING: A Commandant’s View
In 1971, journalist Gitta Sereny interviewed Franz Stangl, who had been the commandant of the death camp at Sobibór and, later, the camp at Treblinka.
- Sobibor, The Holocaust Explained
- Sobibor, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
- Sobibor: Chronology, USHMM
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Sobibor, USHMM
Esther Raab describes the arrival of transports (1:57). Selma (Wijnberg) Engel describes deportation from the Netherlands (1:51). Esther Raab describes planning for the uprising (2:33). Chaim Engel describes plans for the uprising (2:14). Esther Raab describes the uprising (3:18). Chaim Engel describes his role in the uprising (1:41). Chaim Engel describes the uprising and his escape (1:29).
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Holocaust Survivors Remember Sobibor Uprising (28:24), USC Shoah Foundation
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Tomasz (Toivi) Blatt (1:44), USHMM
Tomasz Blatt, born 1927, Isbica, Poland, describes gassing operations in the Sobibor extermination camp.
- Treblinka
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Jewish Prisoner Uprisings in Treblinka and Sobibor, Jewish Virtual Library
This is a 4-part piece. Advance at the bottom of the page.
- Killing Center Revolts, USHMM
- PHOTOS: Treblinka Memorial, A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
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READING: A Commandant’s View
In 1971, journalist Gitta Sereny interviewed Franz Stangl, who had been the commandant of the death camp at Sobibór and, later, the camp at Treblinka.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES & ID Cards: Treblinka, USHMM
Includes the testimonies of Abraham Bomba & Isadore Helfing.
- SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES: Death Camp Treblinka Survivor Stories Documentary (58:55), BBC
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Abraham Bomba (2:43), USHMM
Abraham Bomba, born 1913, Germany, describes cutting women's hair before they were gassed in Treblinka.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Jankiel Wiernik, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
Jankiel Wiernik was deported from Warsaw to Treblinka extermination camp on 23 August 1942. On arrival, he was one of the very small number of prisoners selected to work in the camp, disposing of the bodies. He escaped in the Treblinka Uprising of 2 August 1943 and told his story in a pamphlet distributed by the Polish underground in 1944. This was the first detailed account of life in an extermination camp to be published.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Uprising in Treblinka by Samuel Rajzman
Samuel Rajzman was one of the very few survivors of the Treblinka death camp - he was lucky enough to escape. The testimony (in writing) he gave, more than 60 years ago, is still important to understand the enormity of the crimes committed in that death camp and in the Final Solution.
-
TESTIMONY: Stefan Kucharek, Train Driver to Treblinka (2:32), USHMM
Stefan Kucharek was born in 1922 in Małkinia, Poland, the son of a train engineer. He attended school with Jewish neighbors and later worked in a saw mill. After the German invasion of Poland, Kucharek began working for the railroad doing track maintenance. Later, he drove trains full of Jews to the Treblinka killing center. Kucharek drove these transports regularly for almost a year.
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Treblinka Death Camp Revolt/August 1943, Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
Jewish inmates organized a resistance group in Treblinka in early 1943. When camp operations neared completion, the prisoners feared they would be killed and the camp dismantled. During the late spring and summer of 1943, the resistance leaders decided to revolt.
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Treblinka Survivor Recalls Suffering and Resisitance, BBC News, August 4, 2013
Nothing remains of Treblinka extermination camp apart from the ashes of the estimated 870,000 mostly Jewish men, women and children that the Nazis gassed and buried underground. Samuel Willenberg is the last survivor of the Jewish prisoners' revolt in the camp and he had returned for the 70th anniversary.
- Treblinka, The Holocaust Explained
- Treblinka, USHMM
- Treblinka: Chronology, USHMM
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Treblinka: Testimonies of Nazi SS, Jewish Virtual Library
Transcribed testimonials from Nazi SS soldiers who were stationed at the camp and carried out the Nazi murderous actions. Included are those of Franz Stangl, Willi Mentz, Kurt Franz, and Heinrich Matthes.
-
VIDEO: Excerpt from Treblinka: Hitler’s Killing Machine (4:48), Smithsonian Channel
Forensic archeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls has been granted unprecedented access to excavate one of history's greatest crime scenes: Hitler's secret extermination camp in the Polish village of Treblinka. Here, between 1942 and 1943, 900,000 Jews were sent to their deaths, but for 70 years, all evidence of the camp and its victims had vanished... until now. Follow the quest to unearth the processing rooms, gas chambers, and mass graves Hitler tried to erase from existence and journey into the dark heart of the Nazi's Final Solution. Includes animated recreation of the camp.
-
VIDEO: The Treblinka Uprising (1:44), World Jewish Congres
On August 2nd, 1943, the underground Jewish resistance in Treblinka staged a revolt against the Nazi guards. The camp had been created with one sole purpose: To enable the mass murder of Jews. Between 870,000 and 925,000 people were killed in Treblinka; most were gassed upon arrival.
-
VIDEO: Treblinka-Digital Reconstruction (8:21)
The video animation is an integral part of the permanent exhibition in the Treblinka Museum on site at the former location of the camp. The camp with all evidences of mass murder was completely destroyed by Germans in Autumn 1943 to hide the truth about this Nazi death factory. The animation recreates the appearance of the camp and informs the visitors about the conditions and methods of mass extermination used.
- Other Camps (alphabetical)
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“Coping Through Art – Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Theresienstadt”, Yad Vashem
Conditions in Theresienstadt were appalling, and even more so for children who had to first cope with the enormous trauma and life-changing upheaval that deportation wreaked upon their young lives. Realizing that art could be a therapeutic tool to help children to deal with their feelings of loss, sorrow, fear, and uncertainty, Friedl set about teaching over 600 children with the enormous enthusiasm and energy that her friends, colleagues and students remember as being so typical for her.
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[Roddy Edmonds] VIDEO TEACHING GUIDE: Footsteps of My Father, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous
The Holocaust is a story of persecution, mass murder, and genocide. It is important that students understand that history is not inevitable. This lesson focuses on individual action, personal choice, and moral responsibility that resulted in saving the lives of 200 Jews, American GIs captured during the Battle of the Bulge.
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[Roddy Edmonds] VIDEO: Following in the Footsteps of My Father, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (14:23)
During the Battle of the Bulge, Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds was captured by the Germans along with more than 20,000 GIs. The NCO's, 1,292 men, were taken to Stalag IXA in Ziegenhain. Edmonds was the highest ranking officer of the group. This is his story.
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[Roddy Edmonds] VIDEO: GI Jews – Battle of the Bulge (2:56), PBS
Includes story of Master Sergeant Roddy Edmonds.
- A Working Map of Buchenwald Comes To Light, Museum of Jewish Heritage, April 2021
- ANIMATED MAP: Dachau Concentration Camp, USHMM
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ART: “Couple with Czech Shield, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It depicts a couple leaning on a shield bearing the Czech coat of arms. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
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ART: “Next Year in Jerusalem” by Jo Spier
Watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier and given to Moritz and Hildegard Henschel while they were imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people dancing through a stone gate, leaving behind a trail of Star of David badges. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after liberation. Moritz was an influential lawyer in Berlin when Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. As government persecution of Jews intensified, Moritz and Hildegard sent their daughters Marianne, 15, to Palestine and Lilly, 13, to England in 1939. Moritz was on the board of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, created by the Nazi government in February 1939 to organize Jewish affairs. The Association was eventually forced to assist with deportations. In 1940, Moritz became president of the Berlin Jewish Community. In January 1943, Moritz became president of the Reich Association, when Leo Baeck was deported. On June 10, 1943, the Reich Association was shut down and Moritz and Hildegard were deported to Theresienstadt. Moritz was elected to the Jewish Council and put in charge of the Freizeitgestaltung, which produced cultural events and materials. On May 9, 1945, the camp was liberated by Soviet forces. Moritz and Hildegard went to Deggendorf displaced persons camp, then immigrated to Palestine in 1946.
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ART: “Transport Arrival, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people walking along a city street, many disabled or crutches; others pull a wagons, one with a Star of David. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943. He was deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
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ART: My Nazi Death Camp Childhood Diary-in Pictures, by Helga Weiss
Helga Weiss, a Czech Jewish girl, was sent with her parents to the concentration camp at Terezin, a few days after her 12th birthday in 1941. She kept a diary, in words and pictures, and when she and her mother were sent on to Auschwitz in 1944, her uncle hid the diary in a brick wall for safekeeping. These are some of the pictures from her diary, which has only now been published.
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Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Jewish Museum Berlin
The exhibition "Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto" presents works by the graphic artist Bedřich Fritta (1906–1944), produced between 1942 and 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The majority of Bedrich Fritta's large ink drawings and sketches, numbering more than one hundred, survived in hiding. This survey exhibition focuses on the aesthetic techniques through which Fritta interpreted and commented on daily ghetto life. It reveals the diversity of his visual language and the extraordinary artistic quality of his drawings and sketches.
- Berga am Elster, Jewish Virtual Library
- Berga am Elster: American POWs at Berga, Jewish Virtual Library
- Bergen-Belsen in Depth: The Camp Complex, USHMM
- Bergen-Belsen, The Holocaust Explained
- Bergen-Belsen, USHMM
- Bergen-Belsen, Yad Vashem
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BROADCAST: Buchenwald (11:36),BBC
Reporter Edward Ward files his account of entering one of the earliest built and biggest of the Nazi concentration camps, sharing everything that he saw and heard. The details are distressing.
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BROADCAST: Richard Dimbleby Describes Belsen (11:52), BBC
Richard Dimbleby describes the scenes of almost unimaginable horror that greeted him as he toured Belsen concentration camp shortly after its liberation by the British in April 1945.
- Buchenwald and Dora Mittelbau Memorial Foundation
- Buchenwald, USHMM
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Butterflies in the Ghetto, Stories of the Artists of Terezin Concentration Camp
This blog is dedicated to sharing the stories of the many incredibly talented artists, writers and musicians who were imprisoned by the Nazis in the Terezin ghetto and concentration camp. It includes many of their drawings and writings.
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Camps in the Netherlands, Kamparchieven.NL
This site offers you a survey of the archives and collections of the German camps that existed in the Netherlands during the Second World War. Kamparchieven.nl is an initiative of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in collaboration with several other institutions.
- Chelmno Concentration Camp: History and Overview, Jewish Virtual Library
- Chelmno, USHMM
- Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
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Dachau, International Archives
American report from 1945, shortly after liberation.
- Dachau, USHMM
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Documenting Ohrdruf: The 1945 Diary of US Solder John Beckett, Museum of Jewish Heritage, May 2021
John W. Beckett, who served in the Third Army’s 734th Field Artillery Battalion, helped to liberate the subcamp of Buchenwald known as Ohrdruf. In 1991, he donated to the Museum the photographs he took at Ohrdruf, as well as his war diaries, written in field transit books.
- Drancy, USHMM
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Eli Leskley’s Ghetto Diary, University of Minnesota
Born in 1911, Leskley painted 70 satiric watercolors while he was interned in Theresienstadt. The works are reflective of daily life in the ghetto. Fearing for his and his wife's life he cut up many of the originals into small fragments, which his wife smartly hid. They were retrieved after the war and Leskley recreated each one. All of the following images relate to life in Theresienstadt. They reflect the irony and the complexities that was life in Theresienstadt.
- How the Red Cross Failed Europe’s Jews and American POWs, Jewish Virtual Library
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IMAGE: Albert Levaton at Drancy
Albert Levaton was the brother of Birmingham's Debra Ghigna's sister's husband.
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IMAGE: Facades for the International Commission, Facing History and Ourselves
Illustration by Bedřich Fritta, a prisoner at Terezín, depicting the “beautification” of the ghetto-camp undertaken by the SS before the Red Cross visit in 1944.
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IMAGE: Liberation of Buchenwald
Famous photo of the barracks of Buchenwald at liberation that includes Elie Wiesel. This interactive photo allows you to see the fate of many of the survivors pictured.
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In Holland, the Nazis Built a Luxury Camp to Lull the Jews Before Murdering Them, July 7, 2017, The Times of Israel
While Jews in much of Europe were subjected to violence, torture, abuse and murder in camps, in Westerbork there was an eerie illusion of civility.
- Inside Majdanek, Jewish Virtual Library
- Killing Center Revolts, USHMM
- Killing Operations Begin at Chelmno, USHMM
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Last Letters From The Holocaust: 1941 (Drancy), Yad Vashem
There are thousands of personal letters in the Yad Vashem Archives, which were sent by Jews - adults and children - to their relatives from their homes, the ghettos, and the camps; while fleeing and while wandering from place to place. Some letters were sent to destinations outside Europe, and thus survived. Each reveals the inner world and fate of Jews in the Holocaust. For many recipients, these were the last greetings from home and family they had left behind. The writers of these letters were all murdered in the Holocaust.
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Last Letters From The Holocaust: 1941 (Mauthausen), Yad Vashem
There are thousands of personal letters in the Yad Vashem Archives, which were sent by Jews - adults and children - to their relatives from their homes, the ghettos, and the camps; while fleeing and while wandering from place to place. Some letters were sent to destinations outside Europe, and thus survived. Each reveals the inner world and fate of Jews in the Holocaust. For many recipients, these were the last greetings from home and family they had left behind. The writers of these letters were all murdered in the Holocaust.
- LESSON: Between the Worlds: Social Circles in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Yad Vashem
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LETTERS: The Wilsey Collection, Holocaust Center for Humanity
In 2016, Clarice Wilsey donated the remarkable letters of her father, Captain David B. Wilsey, M.D., an army anesthesiologist present at the liberation of Dachau concentration camp, to the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Although Dr. Wilsey rarely discussed his experiences at Dachau after the war, he wrote to his wife Emily in several letters in 1945 “to tell thousands so that millions will know what Dachau is and never forget the name of Dachau.” The Wilsey collection features 280+ letters, photographs, and more from Dr. Wilsey’s time in the U.S. Army, including the liberation of Dachau and experiences thereafter healing survivors. This browse-able collection allows the public to experience these letters for the first time and includes resources for educators.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: James A. Rose, Liberation of Dachau (1:20), USHMM
James A. Rose, of Toledo, Ohio, was with the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. In this clip, Rose describes his impressions of Dachau.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: Eyewitness to Buchenwald (5:20), Facing History and Ourselves
Leon Bass, an African American soldier, describes his experiences entering the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: George Mitnick’s Letter Home from Ordruf, April 13, 1945
J. George Mitnick of Jasper, AL served as a Captain in the US Army, 65th Infantry Division, in Europe where his unit liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp (a subcamp of Buchenwald) in Germany and assisted in the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. This artifact is part of collection at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, donated in 2006 by his daughter, by Ronne Mitnick Hess of Birmingham.
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Liberator Testimony: The Granite of Mauthausen by Fred Friendly, Jewish Virtual Library
Based on a letter written home.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: The Red Army Enters Majdanek (3:30), Facing History and Ourselves
Bernhard Storch, a soldier in the Soviet Army during World War II, describes what he saw as he and his fellow soldiers liberated the Majdanek concentration camp in 1944.
- Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp: Conditions, USHMM
- MAP: Buchenwald Subcamps 1938-1945, USHMM
- MAP: Dachau Subcamps 1938-1945, USHMM
- Mauthausen Memorial
- Mauthausen, USHMM
- Mauthausen: Resistance, Liberation, and Postwar Trials, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
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Music in the Terezin Concentration Camp, Boosey & Hawkes
Some of Europe’s most gifted musicians were among those deported to Terezín.
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Nazi POW Camps, Jewish Virtual Library
List of camps and locations.
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Our Will to Live by Mark Ludwig
In Terezín, a Nazi camp where 33,000 people died, a remarkable community of musicians and artists answered despair with creativity. Here is their astonishing world. Includes musical selections from Terezin.
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PERPETRATOR TESTIMONY: Franz Schalling, Chelmno Gas Vans (29:01), USHMM
A hidden camera interview with a member of Ordnungspolizei in Chelmno. Franz Schalling describes the process of execution by gas vans at Chelmno. From Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah." Film has no English, but transcript is below.
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PICTORIAL DIARY: Erich Lichtblau-Leskly, Theresienstadt 1942-1945
While imprisoned in Theresienstadt (Terezin) Ghetto, Erich Lichtblau-Leskly artistically depicted the daily lives of its residents, poignantly capturing the complications and ironies of ghetto life. His paintings are rendered in a cartoon style, and many are sarcastic commentary on the desperate conditions under which the Jewish prisoners existed, contradicting Nazi propaganda that promoted Theresienstadt as a model facility where Jews supposedly were well treated. It’s clear that he’s only showing them to his wife and not to other people, because he’s making fun of a lot of the other people, including people who could have punished him. In the spring of 1945, Lichtblau-Leskly cut most of his artwork into pieces. His wife, Elsa Lichtblau, hid the fragmented artwork under the floorboards of the barracks, and Lichtblau-Leskly was able to retrieve it after liberation. While living in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s, he reworked these fragments into larger watercolor illustrations.
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PODCAST: Leon Merrick-Evacuation and Arrival at Buchenwald (8:59), USHMM
AUDIO ONLY: In December 1944, as the Soviet army approached the slave labor camp in Poland where Leon Merrick was imprisoned, the Germans evacuated him to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Leon shares his recollections of the evacuation and his first day in Buchenwald.
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POEM: “We Are the Last Witness” by Moses Schulstein, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
The murder of millions of people in the camps was accompanied by plunder on an unprecedented scale. All of the possessions of victims were exploited, either for the personal enrichment of the perpetrators or for redistribution amongst the German population. When Majdanek concentration camp in Poland was liberated by the Red Army in 1944, thousands of pairs of shoes were discovered, prompting this reflection from the Yiddish poet Moses Schulstein.
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PRIMARY SOURCE: Alice Ehrmann’s Diary
By reading diary entries from a survivor of the Theresienstadt Ghetto, students consider the complex emotional state of survivors in the final days of the war.
- Ravensbrück, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
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READING: A Basic Feeling of Human Dignity, Facing History and Ourselves
Diary entries from a Jewish woman imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen shed light on how prisoners in the camps and ghettos were deprived of dignity.
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READING: Terezin: A Site for Deception, Facing History and Ourselves
Discover how the Nazis used the ghetto-camp Terezin as a propaganda tool to hide what they were really doing to the Jews of Europe.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Edith Sheldon, Judy Nachun, and Gerty Skalsky (3:35), Sydney Jewish Museum
Survivors shares her memories of Terezin (Theresienstadt) and the making of the propaganda film "Hitler Gives the Jews a City."
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Harold Osmond le Druillenec (:02), BBC
Belsen survivor Harold Osmond le Druillenec, a Channel Islander, recounts the appalling conditions inside the concentration camp during its final days, describing it as 'the foulest and vilest spot that ever soiled the surface of this Earth'.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Martin Aaron (2:42), USC Shoah Foundation
Martin Aaron, from Birmingham, relates his experience of being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Max Steinmetz, Birmingham, APT
Birmingham Holocaust survivor Max Steinmetz tells his story via an interview with a high school student. Part I: 11:04 Part II: 10:01 Part III: 9:52
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Peter Ginz and the Boys of Vedem (19:22), Centropa
Traces life of Peter Ginz beginning with invasion of Czechoslovakia, his transport and life in Theresienstadt, and ultimate death at Auschwitz.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun (2:09), USHMM
Born: 1930, Cristuru-Secuiesc, Romania. He describes playing the violin for SS guards in Dachau. The two prisoners before him had been killed.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: The Chelmno Death Camp-Shimon Srebrnik (4:17), Yad Vashem
Holocaust survivor Shimon Srebrnik describes the Chelmno death camp. In Hebrew with English subtitles.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: William (Bill) Lowenberg, USHMM
Born: 1926, Westphalia, Germany. Describes forced labor in Kaufering, a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp, toward the end of World War II.
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Terezin (Theresienstadt), Jewish Virtual Library
Includes links to many topics.
- The Drancy Memorial
-
The Heroines of Ravensbrück, Daily Mail Online, May 17, 2019
How four fearless young women who survived a Nazi death camp exposed the horrific experiments they were subjected to in coded letters using urine as invisible ink.
-
The White Buses: The Swedish Red Cross Rescue Action in Germany During The Second World War, The Swedish Red Cross, January 2000
At the end of the Second World War, when Germany was heading for military and political breakdown, the large Swedish lead rescue action known as "the White Buses" was accomplished. It was initiated by the government and was carried out by the Swedish Red Cross, lead by its vice president Folke Bernadotte.
- Theresienstadt, USHMM
- Theresienstadt: A Case Study, The Holocaust Explained
- Timeline of Dachau, Jewish Virtual Library
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VIDEO: “Draw What You See” by Helga Weissova (3:54)
On an Auschwitz platform in 1944, Helga Weiss and her mother fooled one of the most reviled men in modern history, Josef Mengele, and managed to save their lives. Not long into her teens, Weiss lied about her age, claiming she was old enough to work for her keep. Her mother persuaded the Nazis that Helga was in fact her daughter's older sister, and she was sent to the forced labor barracks and not the gas chamber. Throughout her journey, Helga's father told her, "Draw what you see." And she did. This video tells her story through her drawings.
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VIDEO: Aerial View of Dachau Concentration Camp, Historical Film Footage (:52), USHMM
The Dachau concentration camp, northwest of Munich, Germany, was the first regular concentration camp the Nazis established in 1933. About twelve years later, on April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were some 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. This footage shows an aerial view of the camp and the entrance gate to the prisoner compound.
-
VIDEO: Allied Prisoner of War Describes Work Details, Historical Film Footage (0:57), USHMM
Most Allied prisoners of war (POWs) were treated well compared to inmates of concentration camps. But, as former Dutch POW Captain Boullard explains here at Dachau concentration camp, some were subject to severe beatings and forced to work in harsh labor assignments.
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin – Leo Haas (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the work "SS Dog", created in the camp by Leo Hass, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction "SS Dog" by Leo Hass
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin-Petr Ginz (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the children's newspaper "Vedem", created in the camp by Petr Ginz and his friends, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Petr Ginz - "Vedem"
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VIDEO: Berga, Soldiers of Another War
Story of a group of more than 300 American soldiers who were captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. Because the soldiers were either Jewish or, to the Germans, "looked" Jewish, they were sent to concentration camps instead of POW camps, where many of them subsequently died. Director Charles Guggenheim, who is Jewish, was himself a member of the unit that was captured, but an illness he contracted before the unit left for the front lines caused him to be left behind, and he was not with them when the Nazis captured them.
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VIDEO: Bergen-Belsen After Liberation, Historical Film Footage (1:43), USHMM
As Allied forces approached Germany in late 1944 and early 1945, Bergen-Belsen became a collection camp for tens of thousands of prisoners evacuated from camps near the front. Thousands of these prisoners died due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and lack of adequate food and shelter. On April 15, 1945, British soldiers entered Bergen-Belsen. They found 60,000 prisoners in the camp, most in a critical condition. This footage shows Allied cameramen filming the condition of the prisoners and the filthy conditions found in Bergen-Belsen after liberation.
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VIDEO: Bergen-Belsen Survivor Reunited with One of Camp Liberators (3:06), BBC
A woman who survived the Holocaust and was in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as World War Two ended, has finally met one of the British soldiers who liberated the camp. The BBC's Fiona Bruce reports on the emotional reunion between camp survivor Zdenka Fantlova and George Leonard.
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VIDEO: Brundibar (1:19), Sydney Jewish Museum
Extract of actual performance of Brundibar at Terezin.
-
VIDEO: Dachau Concentration Camp (37:11), Chronohistory
Provides historical background leading up to the creation of Dachau as a the first Nazi concentration camp. Includes historical footage juxtaposed with current images.
-
VIDEO: Dachau, Historical Film Footage (:47), USHMM
On April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were about 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. Here, soldiers of the US Seventh Army document conditions in the camp. They also require German civilians to tour the camp and confront Nazi atrocities.
-
VIDEO: Howard Cwick, Liberator: Eyewitness to History, USC Shoah Foundation
Young American soldier Howard Cwick, son of Polish Jewish immigrants, unexpectedly arrived at the gates of Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945, armed with a rifle and his camera. In his testimony, Howard provides an eloquent, striking account of his experiences. The lesson’s theme, Eyewitness to History, explores Howard’s roles as eyewitness, liberator, and activist. Include video (30:18), background on Buchenwald, Lesson Packet
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VIDEO: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Historical Film Footage (:57), USHMM
After British soldiers liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, they forced the remaining SS guards to help bury the dead. Here, survivors of the camp taunt their former tormentors, who prepare to bury victims in a mass grave.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Historical Film Footage (0:53), USHMM
British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. They filmed statements from members of their own forces. In this British military footage, British army chaplain T.J. Stretch recounts his impressions of the camp.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (1:01), USHMM
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. This footage records examples of Nazi atrocities (shrunken head, pieces of tattooed human skin, preserved skull and organs) discovered by the liberating troops.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (1:24), USHMM
The Buchenwald camp was one of the largest concentration camps. The Nazis built it in 1937 in a wooded area northwest of Weimar in central Germany. US forces liberated the Buchenwald camp on April 11, 1945. When US troops entered the camp, they found more than 20,000 prisoners. This footage shows scenes that US cameramen filmed in the camp, survivors, and the arrival of Red Cross trucks.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (2:06), USHMM
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. Here, US soldiers escort German civilians from the nearby town of Weimar through the Buchenwald camp. The American liberating troops had a policy of forcing German civilians to view the atrocities committed in the camps.
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VIDEO: Liberation of Dachau, Historical Film Footage (0:49), USHMM
The Dachau concentration camp, northwest of Munich, Germany, was the first regular concentration camp the Nazis established in 1933. About twelve years later, on April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were about 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. Here, soldiers of the US Seventh Army document conditions in the camp. They also require German civilians to tour the camp and confront Nazi atrocities.
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VIDEO: Lt. Col. Jack Williams, An Alabama Liberator (25:15), University of Alabama Honors College/Lights Camera Alabama
When a boy finds a movie projector among the relics his father brought him from World War II, he wonders where it came from – and why. This movie tells that story and more – about the Holocaust in Germany and the full experience of liberation from the perspective of the liberators as well as townspeople. Lt. Col.Jack Williams liberated Dachau. WARNING: THIS MOVIE CONTAINS DIFFICULT IMAGES
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VIDEO: Peter Ginz and the Boys of Vedem (19:21), Centropa
Includes written history of Peter Ginz' life and the story of Vedem, a boys magazine published in Terezin.
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VIDEO: Terezin Stories (1:16:53), Museum of Jewish Heritage
Yvonne Weisgrab shares her extensive knowledge of the Terezin camp-ghetto, focusing on Jewish inmates who became unlikely heroes in their struggle to maintain life, religion, and hope under the most infernal conditions.
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VIDEO: The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City
Nazi propaganda film about Terezin. (Part I - 7:48, Part II - 8:12)
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VIDEO: The Gift of a Town/Terezin (9:48), You Tube
On June 23, 1944, the Nazis permitted the visit by representatives from the Danish Red Cross and the International Red Cross in order to dispel rumors about the extermination camps. [...] To minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt, the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz. [...] The hoax against the Red Cross was apparently so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a propaganda film at Theresienstadt. Production of the film began on February 26, 1944. Directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron (a director, cabaret performer, and actor who appeared with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel), it was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of the Third Reich. [...] After the shooting of the film, most of the cast and even the filmmaker himself were eventually deported to Auschwitz.
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VIDEO: The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Imperial War Museums
Includes narrative and various video pieces.
-
VIDEO: U.S. Forces Liberate Buchenwald (1:24), USHMM
Historical film footage. No sound.
- Westerbork Transit Camp: History & Overview, Jewish Virtual Library
- Westerbork, The Holocaust Explained
- Westerbork, USHMM
- What Was Life Like in Westerbork?, The Holocaust Explained
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What Were Transit Camps?, The Holocaust Explained
The Nazis set up a number of transit camps in occupied lands. After being rounded up, Jews were imprisoned in transit camps before being deported to a concentration camp, labour camp or one of the six Nazi extermination camps in Poland. Examples of transit camps include Pithiers and Drancy in France, Mechelen in Belgium and Vught and Westerbork in the Netherlands.
- Bergen-Belsen
- Bergen-Belsen in Depth: The Camp Complex, USHMM
- Bergen-Belsen, The Holocaust Explained
- Bergen-Belsen, USHMM
- Bergen-Belsen, Yad Vashem
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BROADCAST: Richard Dimbleby Describes Belsen (11:52), BBC
Richard Dimbleby describes the scenes of almost unimaginable horror that greeted him as he toured Belsen concentration camp shortly after its liberation by the British in April 1945.
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READING: A Basic Feeling of Human Dignity, Facing History and Ourselves
Diary entries from a Jewish woman imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen shed light on how prisoners in the camps and ghettos were deprived of dignity.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Harold Osmond le Druillenec (:02), BBC
Belsen survivor Harold Osmond le Druillenec, a Channel Islander, recounts the appalling conditions inside the concentration camp during its final days, describing it as 'the foulest and vilest spot that ever soiled the surface of this Earth'.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Martin Aaron (2:42), USC Shoah Foundation
Martin Aaron, from Birmingham, relates his experience of being liberated from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945.
-
VIDEO: Bergen-Belsen After Liberation, Historical Film Footage (1:43), USHMM
As Allied forces approached Germany in late 1944 and early 1945, Bergen-Belsen became a collection camp for tens of thousands of prisoners evacuated from camps near the front. Thousands of these prisoners died due to overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and lack of adequate food and shelter. On April 15, 1945, British soldiers entered Bergen-Belsen. They found 60,000 prisoners in the camp, most in a critical condition. This footage shows Allied cameramen filming the condition of the prisoners and the filthy conditions found in Bergen-Belsen after liberation.
-
VIDEO: Bergen-Belsen Survivor Reunited with One of Camp Liberators (3:06), BBC
A woman who survived the Holocaust and was in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as World War Two ended, has finally met one of the British soldiers who liberated the camp. The BBC's Fiona Bruce reports on the emotional reunion between camp survivor Zdenka Fantlova and George Leonard.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Historical Film Footage (:57), USHMM
After British soldiers liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, they forced the remaining SS guards to help bury the dead. Here, survivors of the camp taunt their former tormentors, who prepare to bury victims in a mass grave.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Historical Film Footage (0:53), USHMM
British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. They filmed statements from members of their own forces. In this British military footage, British army chaplain T.J. Stretch recounts his impressions of the camp.
-
VIDEO: The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, Imperial War Museums
Includes narrative and various video pieces.
- Buchenwald
- A Working Map of Buchenwald Comes To Light, Museum of Jewish Heritage, April 2021
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BROADCAST: Buchenwald (11:36),BBC
Reporter Edward Ward files his account of entering one of the earliest built and biggest of the Nazi concentration camps, sharing everything that he saw and heard. The details are distressing.
- Buchenwald and Dora Mittelbau Memorial Foundation
- Buchenwald, USHMM
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Documenting Ohrdruf: The 1945 Diary of US Solder John Beckett, Museum of Jewish Heritage, May 2021
John W. Beckett, who served in the Third Army’s 734th Field Artillery Battalion, helped to liberate the subcamp of Buchenwald known as Ohrdruf. In 1991, he donated to the Museum the photographs he took at Ohrdruf, as well as his war diaries, written in field transit books.
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IMAGE: Liberation of Buchenwald
Famous photo of the barracks of Buchenwald at liberation that includes Elie Wiesel. This interactive photo allows you to see the fate of many of the survivors pictured.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: Eyewitness to Buchenwald (5:20), Facing History and Ourselves
Leon Bass, an African American soldier, describes his experiences entering the Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: George Mitnick’s Letter Home from Ordruf, April 13, 1945
J. George Mitnick of Jasper, AL served as a Captain in the US Army, 65th Infantry Division, in Europe where his unit liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp (a subcamp of Buchenwald) in Germany and assisted in the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. This artifact is part of collection at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, donated in 2006 by his daughter, by Ronne Mitnick Hess of Birmingham.
- MAP: Buchenwald Subcamps 1938-1945, USHMM
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PODCAST: Leon Merrick-Evacuation and Arrival at Buchenwald (8:59), USHMM
AUDIO ONLY: In December 1944, as the Soviet army approached the slave labor camp in Poland where Leon Merrick was imprisoned, the Germans evacuated him to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. Leon shares his recollections of the evacuation and his first day in Buchenwald.
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VIDEO: Howard Cwick, Liberator: Eyewitness to History, USC Shoah Foundation
Young American soldier Howard Cwick, son of Polish Jewish immigrants, unexpectedly arrived at the gates of Buchenwald concentration camp in April 1945, armed with a rifle and his camera. In his testimony, Howard provides an eloquent, striking account of his experiences. The lesson’s theme, Eyewitness to History, explores Howard’s roles as eyewitness, liberator, and activist. Include video (30:18), background on Buchenwald, Lesson Packet
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VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (1:01), USHMM
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp on April 11, 1945. This footage records examples of Nazi atrocities (shrunken head, pieces of tattooed human skin, preserved skull and organs) discovered by the liberating troops.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (1:24), USHMM
The Buchenwald camp was one of the largest concentration camps. The Nazis built it in 1937 in a wooded area northwest of Weimar in central Germany. US forces liberated the Buchenwald camp on April 11, 1945. When US troops entered the camp, they found more than 20,000 prisoners. This footage shows scenes that US cameramen filmed in the camp, survivors, and the arrival of Red Cross trucks.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Buchenwald, Historical Film Footage (2:06), USHMM
US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany in April 1945. Here, US soldiers escort German civilians from the nearby town of Weimar through the Buchenwald camp. The American liberating troops had a policy of forcing German civilians to view the atrocities committed in the camps.
-
VIDEO: U.S. Forces Liberate Buchenwald (1:24), USHMM
Historical film footage. No sound.
- Chelmno
- Chelmno Concentration Camp: History and Overview, Jewish Virtual Library
- Chelmno, USHMM
- Killing Center Revolts, USHMM
- Killing Operations Begin at Chelmno, USHMM
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PERPETRATOR TESTIMONY: Franz Schalling, Chelmno Gas Vans (29:01), USHMM
A hidden camera interview with a member of Ordnungspolizei in Chelmno. Franz Schalling describes the process of execution by gas vans at Chelmno. From Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah." Film has no English, but transcript is below.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: The Chelmno Death Camp-Shimon Srebrnik (4:17), Yad Vashem
Holocaust survivor Shimon Srebrnik describes the Chelmno death camp. In Hebrew with English subtitles.
- Dachau
- ANIMATED MAP: Dachau Concentration Camp, USHMM
- Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site
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Dachau, International Archives
American report from 1945, shortly after liberation.
- Dachau, USHMM
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LETTERS: The Wilsey Collection, Holocaust Center for Humanity
In 2016, Clarice Wilsey donated the remarkable letters of her father, Captain David B. Wilsey, M.D., an army anesthesiologist present at the liberation of Dachau concentration camp, to the Holocaust Center for Humanity. Although Dr. Wilsey rarely discussed his experiences at Dachau after the war, he wrote to his wife Emily in several letters in 1945 “to tell thousands so that millions will know what Dachau is and never forget the name of Dachau.” The Wilsey collection features 280+ letters, photographs, and more from Dr. Wilsey’s time in the U.S. Army, including the liberation of Dachau and experiences thereafter healing survivors. This browse-able collection allows the public to experience these letters for the first time and includes resources for educators.
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: James A. Rose, Liberation of Dachau (1:20), USHMM
James A. Rose, of Toledo, Ohio, was with the 42nd (Rainbow) Division. In this clip, Rose describes his impressions of Dachau.
- MAP: Dachau Subcamps 1938-1945, USHMM
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Max Steinmetz, Birmingham, APT
Birmingham Holocaust survivor Max Steinmetz tells his story via an interview with a high school student. Part I: 11:04 Part II: 10:01 Part III: 9:52
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun (2:09), USHMM
Born: 1930, Cristuru-Secuiesc, Romania. He describes playing the violin for SS guards in Dachau. The two prisoners before him had been killed.
-
SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: William (Bill) Lowenberg, USHMM
Born: 1926, Westphalia, Germany. Describes forced labor in Kaufering, a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp, toward the end of World War II.
- Timeline of Dachau, Jewish Virtual Library
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VIDEO: Aerial View of Dachau Concentration Camp, Historical Film Footage (:52), USHMM
The Dachau concentration camp, northwest of Munich, Germany, was the first regular concentration camp the Nazis established in 1933. About twelve years later, on April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were some 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. This footage shows an aerial view of the camp and the entrance gate to the prisoner compound.
-
VIDEO: Dachau Concentration Camp (37:11), Chronohistory
Provides historical background leading up to the creation of Dachau as a the first Nazi concentration camp. Includes historical footage juxtaposed with current images.
-
VIDEO: Dachau, Historical Film Footage (:47), USHMM
On April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were about 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. Here, soldiers of the US Seventh Army document conditions in the camp. They also require German civilians to tour the camp and confront Nazi atrocities.
-
VIDEO: Liberation of Dachau, Historical Film Footage (0:49), USHMM
The Dachau concentration camp, northwest of Munich, Germany, was the first regular concentration camp the Nazis established in 1933. About twelve years later, on April 29, 1945, US armed forces liberated the camp. There were about 30,000 starving prisoners in the camp at the time. Here, soldiers of the US Seventh Army document conditions in the camp. They also require German civilians to tour the camp and confront Nazi atrocities.
-
VIDEO: Lt. Col. Jack Williams, An Alabama Liberator (25:15), University of Alabama Honors College/Lights Camera Alabama
When a boy finds a movie projector among the relics his father brought him from World War II, he wonders where it came from – and why. This movie tells that story and more – about the Holocaust in Germany and the full experience of liberation from the perspective of the liberators as well as townspeople. Lt. Col.Jack Williams liberated Dachau. WARNING: THIS MOVIE CONTAINS DIFFICULT IMAGES
- Drancy
- Drancy, USHMM
-
IMAGE: Albert Levaton at Drancy
Albert Levaton was the brother of Birmingham's Debra Ghigna's sister's husband.
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Last Letters From The Holocaust: 1941 (Drancy), Yad Vashem
There are thousands of personal letters in the Yad Vashem Archives, which were sent by Jews - adults and children - to their relatives from their homes, the ghettos, and the camps; while fleeing and while wandering from place to place. Some letters were sent to destinations outside Europe, and thus survived. Each reveals the inner world and fate of Jews in the Holocaust. For many recipients, these were the last greetings from home and family they had left behind. The writers of these letters were all murdered in the Holocaust.
- The Drancy Memorial
-
What Were Transit Camps?, The Holocaust Explained
The Nazis set up a number of transit camps in occupied lands. After being rounded up, Jews were imprisoned in transit camps before being deported to a concentration camp, labour camp or one of the six Nazi extermination camps in Poland. Examples of transit camps include Pithiers and Drancy in France, Mechelen in Belgium and Vught and Westerbork in the Netherlands.
- Majdanek
- Inside Majdanek, Jewish Virtual Library
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LIBERATOR TESTIMONY: The Red Army Enters Majdanek (3:30), Facing History and Ourselves
Bernhard Storch, a soldier in the Soviet Army during World War II, describes what he saw as he and his fellow soldiers liberated the Majdanek concentration camp in 1944.
- Lublin/Majdanek Concentration Camp: Conditions, USHMM
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POEM: “We Are the Last Witness” by Moses Schulstein, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
The murder of millions of people in the camps was accompanied by plunder on an unprecedented scale. All of the possessions of victims were exploited, either for the personal enrichment of the perpetrators or for redistribution amongst the German population. When Majdanek concentration camp in Poland was liberated by the Red Army in 1944, thousands of pairs of shoes were discovered, prompting this reflection from the Yiddish poet Moses Schulstein.
- Mauthausen
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Last Letters From The Holocaust: 1941 (Mauthausen), Yad Vashem
There are thousands of personal letters in the Yad Vashem Archives, which were sent by Jews - adults and children - to their relatives from their homes, the ghettos, and the camps; while fleeing and while wandering from place to place. Some letters were sent to destinations outside Europe, and thus survived. Each reveals the inner world and fate of Jews in the Holocaust. For many recipients, these were the last greetings from home and family they had left behind. The writers of these letters were all murdered in the Holocaust.
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Liberator Testimony: The Granite of Mauthausen by Fred Friendly, Jewish Virtual Library
Based on a letter written home.
- Mauthausen Memorial
- Mauthausen, USHMM
- Mauthausen: Resistance, Liberation, and Postwar Trials, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
- POW Camps
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[Roddy Edmonds] VIDEO TEACHING GUIDE: Footsteps of My Father, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous
The Holocaust is a story of persecution, mass murder, and genocide. It is important that students understand that history is not inevitable. This lesson focuses on individual action, personal choice, and moral responsibility that resulted in saving the lives of 200 Jews, American GIs captured during the Battle of the Bulge.
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[Roddy Edmonds] VIDEO: Following in the Footsteps of My Father, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous (14:23)
During the Battle of the Bulge, Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds was captured by the Germans along with more than 20,000 GIs. The NCO's, 1,292 men, were taken to Stalag IXA in Ziegenhain. Edmonds was the highest ranking officer of the group. This is his story.
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[Roddy Edmonds] VIDEO: GI Jews – Battle of the Bulge (2:56), PBS
Includes story of Master Sergeant Roddy Edmonds.
- Berga am Elster, Jewish Virtual Library
- Berga am Elster: American POWs at Berga, Jewish Virtual Library
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Nazi POW Camps, Jewish Virtual Library
List of camps and locations.
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VIDEO: Allied Prisoner of War Describes Work Details, Historical Film Footage (0:57), USHMM
Most Allied prisoners of war (POWs) were treated well compared to inmates of concentration camps. But, as former Dutch POW Captain Boullard explains here at Dachau concentration camp, some were subject to severe beatings and forced to work in harsh labor assignments.
-
VIDEO: Berga, Soldiers of Another War
Story of a group of more than 300 American soldiers who were captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. Because the soldiers were either Jewish or, to the Germans, "looked" Jewish, they were sent to concentration camps instead of POW camps, where many of them subsequently died. Director Charles Guggenheim, who is Jewish, was himself a member of the unit that was captured, but an illness he contracted before the unit left for the front lines caused him to be left behind, and he was not with them when the Nazis captured them.
- Ravensbrück
- Ravensbrück, USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
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The Heroines of Ravensbrück, Daily Mail Online, May 17, 2019
How four fearless young women who survived a Nazi death camp exposed the horrific experiments they were subjected to in coded letters using urine as invisible ink.
-
The White Buses: The Swedish Red Cross Rescue Action in Germany During The Second World War, The Swedish Red Cross, January 2000
At the end of the Second World War, when Germany was heading for military and political breakdown, the large Swedish lead rescue action known as "the White Buses" was accomplished. It was initiated by the government and was carried out by the Swedish Red Cross, lead by its vice president Folke Bernadotte.
- Terezin
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“Coping Through Art – Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Theresienstadt”, Yad Vashem
Conditions in Theresienstadt were appalling, and even more so for children who had to first cope with the enormous trauma and life-changing upheaval that deportation wreaked upon their young lives. Realizing that art could be a therapeutic tool to help children to deal with their feelings of loss, sorrow, fear, and uncertainty, Friedl set about teaching over 600 children with the enormous enthusiasm and energy that her friends, colleagues and students remember as being so typical for her.
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ART: “Couple with Czech Shield, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It depicts a couple leaning on a shield bearing the Czech coat of arms. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
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ART: “Next Year in Jerusalem” by Jo Spier
Watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier and given to Moritz and Hildegard Henschel while they were imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people dancing through a stone gate, leaving behind a trail of Star of David badges. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943 and deported to Theresienstadt with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after liberation. Moritz was an influential lawyer in Berlin when Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. As government persecution of Jews intensified, Moritz and Hildegard sent their daughters Marianne, 15, to Palestine and Lilly, 13, to England in 1939. Moritz was on the board of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany, created by the Nazi government in February 1939 to organize Jewish affairs. The Association was eventually forced to assist with deportations. In 1940, Moritz became president of the Berlin Jewish Community. In January 1943, Moritz became president of the Reich Association, when Leo Baeck was deported. On June 10, 1943, the Reich Association was shut down and Moritz and Hildegard were deported to Theresienstadt. Moritz was elected to the Jewish Council and put in charge of the Freizeitgestaltung, which produced cultural events and materials. On May 9, 1945, the camp was liberated by Soviet forces. Moritz and Hildegard went to Deggendorf displaced persons camp, then immigrated to Palestine in 1946.
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ART: “Transport Arrival, Theresienstadt 1943,” by Jo Spier
Ink and watercolor drawing created by Jo Spier while imprisoned in Theresienstadt ghetto-labor camp from June 1943-May 1945. It shows people walking along a city street, many disabled or crutches; others pull a wagons, one with a Star of David. Spier, a Jewish artist from the Netherlands, was arrested for creating a satirical cartoon of Hitler in 1943. He was deported to Theresienstadt in German occupied Czechoslovakia with his wife and three children. They returned to Amsterdam after May 9, 1945, when the camp was liberated by Soviet forces.
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ART: My Nazi Death Camp Childhood Diary-in Pictures, by Helga Weiss
Helga Weiss, a Czech Jewish girl, was sent with her parents to the concentration camp at Terezin, a few days after her 12th birthday in 1941. She kept a diary, in words and pictures, and when she and her mother were sent on to Auschwitz in 1944, her uncle hid the diary in a brick wall for safekeeping. These are some of the pictures from her diary, which has only now been published.
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Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Jewish Museum Berlin
The exhibition "Bedřich Fritta. Drawings from the Theresienstadt Ghetto" presents works by the graphic artist Bedřich Fritta (1906–1944), produced between 1942 and 1944 in the Theresienstadt ghetto. The majority of Bedrich Fritta's large ink drawings and sketches, numbering more than one hundred, survived in hiding. This survey exhibition focuses on the aesthetic techniques through which Fritta interpreted and commented on daily ghetto life. It reveals the diversity of his visual language and the extraordinary artistic quality of his drawings and sketches.
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Butterflies in the Ghetto, Stories of the Artists of Terezin Concentration Camp
This blog is dedicated to sharing the stories of the many incredibly talented artists, writers and musicians who were imprisoned by the Nazis in the Terezin ghetto and concentration camp. It includes many of their drawings and writings.
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Eli Leskley’s Ghetto Diary, University of Minnesota
Born in 1911, Leskley painted 70 satiric watercolors while he was interned in Theresienstadt. The works are reflective of daily life in the ghetto. Fearing for his and his wife's life he cut up many of the originals into small fragments, which his wife smartly hid. They were retrieved after the war and Leskley recreated each one. All of the following images relate to life in Theresienstadt. They reflect the irony and the complexities that was life in Theresienstadt.
- How the Red Cross Failed Europe’s Jews and American POWs, Jewish Virtual Library
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IMAGE: Facades for the International Commission, Facing History and Ourselves
Illustration by Bedřich Fritta, a prisoner at Terezín, depicting the “beautification” of the ghetto-camp undertaken by the SS before the Red Cross visit in 1944.
- LESSON: Between the Worlds: Social Circles in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, Yad Vashem
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Music in the Terezin Concentration Camp, Boosey & Hawkes
Some of Europe’s most gifted musicians were among those deported to Terezín.
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Our Will to Live by Mark Ludwig
In Terezín, a Nazi camp where 33,000 people died, a remarkable community of musicians and artists answered despair with creativity. Here is their astonishing world. Includes musical selections from Terezin.
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PICTORIAL DIARY: Erich Lichtblau-Leskly, Theresienstadt 1942-1945
While imprisoned in Theresienstadt (Terezin) Ghetto, Erich Lichtblau-Leskly artistically depicted the daily lives of its residents, poignantly capturing the complications and ironies of ghetto life. His paintings are rendered in a cartoon style, and many are sarcastic commentary on the desperate conditions under which the Jewish prisoners existed, contradicting Nazi propaganda that promoted Theresienstadt as a model facility where Jews supposedly were well treated. It’s clear that he’s only showing them to his wife and not to other people, because he’s making fun of a lot of the other people, including people who could have punished him. In the spring of 1945, Lichtblau-Leskly cut most of his artwork into pieces. His wife, Elsa Lichtblau, hid the fragmented artwork under the floorboards of the barracks, and Lichtblau-Leskly was able to retrieve it after liberation. While living in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s, he reworked these fragments into larger watercolor illustrations.
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PRIMARY SOURCE: Alice Ehrmann’s Diary
By reading diary entries from a survivor of the Theresienstadt Ghetto, students consider the complex emotional state of survivors in the final days of the war.
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READING: Terezin: A Site for Deception, Facing History and Ourselves
Discover how the Nazis used the ghetto-camp Terezin as a propaganda tool to hide what they were really doing to the Jews of Europe.
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Edith Sheldon, Judy Nachun, and Gerty Skalsky (3:35), Sydney Jewish Museum
Survivors shares her memories of Terezin (Theresienstadt) and the making of the propaganda film "Hitler Gives the Jews a City."
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SURVIVOR TESTIMONY: Peter Ginz and the Boys of Vedem (19:22), Centropa
Traces life of Peter Ginz beginning with invasion of Czechoslovakia, his transport and life in Theresienstadt, and ultimate death at Auschwitz.
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Terezin (Theresienstadt), Jewish Virtual Library
Includes links to many topics.
- Theresienstadt, USHMM
- Theresienstadt: A Case Study, The Holocaust Explained
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VIDEO: “Draw What You See” by Helga Weissova (3:54)
On an Auschwitz platform in 1944, Helga Weiss and her mother fooled one of the most reviled men in modern history, Josef Mengele, and managed to save their lives. Not long into her teens, Weiss lied about her age, claiming she was old enough to work for her keep. Her mother persuaded the Nazis that Helga was in fact her daughter's older sister, and she was sent to the forced labor barracks and not the gas chamber. Throughout her journey, Helga's father told her, "Draw what you see." And she did. This video tells her story through her drawings.
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin – Leo Haas (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the work "SS Dog", created in the camp by Leo Hass, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction "SS Dog" by Leo Hass
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VIDEO: Artists of Terezin-Petr Ginz (3:52), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
More than 150,000 Jews passed through Terezin until its liberation in 1945. Of these, over 80% were murdered, either in Terezin or after deportation to the east. One of the fascinating aspects of Terezin is that many of the Jews sent there were prominent in the fields of culture: painters, artists, musicians, educators, philosophers and others. In the video, "Artists of Terezin: Guidelines for Educators", ISHS staff member Liz Elsby presents the children's newspaper "Vedem", created in the camp by Petr Ginz and his friends, and demonstrates how we may use it teach about the Holocaust. Liz Elsby is an artist, graphic designer, and guide at Yad Vashem. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Petr Ginz - "Vedem"
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VIDEO: Brundibar (1:19), Sydney Jewish Museum
Extract of actual performance of Brundibar at Terezin.
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VIDEO: Peter Ginz and the Boys of Vedem (19:21), Centropa
Includes written history of Peter Ginz' life and the story of Vedem, a boys magazine published in Terezin.
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VIDEO: Terezin Stories (1:16:53), Museum of Jewish Heritage
Yvonne Weisgrab shares her extensive knowledge of the Terezin camp-ghetto, focusing on Jewish inmates who became unlikely heroes in their struggle to maintain life, religion, and hope under the most infernal conditions.
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VIDEO: The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City
Nazi propaganda film about Terezin. (Part I - 7:48, Part II - 8:12)
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VIDEO: The Gift of a Town/Terezin (9:48), You Tube
On June 23, 1944, the Nazis permitted the visit by representatives from the Danish Red Cross and the International Red Cross in order to dispel rumors about the extermination camps. [...] To minimize the appearance of overcrowding in Theresienstadt, the Nazis deported many Jews to Auschwitz. [...] The hoax against the Red Cross was apparently so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a propaganda film at Theresienstadt. Production of the film began on February 26, 1944. Directed by Jewish prisoner Kurt Gerron (a director, cabaret performer, and actor who appeared with Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel), it was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of the Third Reich. [...] After the shooting of the film, most of the cast and even the filmmaker himself were eventually deported to Auschwitz.
- Westerbork
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Camps in the Netherlands, Kamparchieven.NL
This site offers you a survey of the archives and collections of the German camps that existed in the Netherlands during the Second World War. Kamparchieven.nl is an initiative of the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD) in collaboration with several other institutions.
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In Holland, the Nazis Built a Luxury Camp to Lull the Jews Before Murdering Them, July 7, 2017, The Times of Israel
While Jews in much of Europe were subjected to violence, torture, abuse and murder in camps, in Westerbork there was an eerie illusion of civility.
- Westerbork Transit Camp: History & Overview, Jewish Virtual Library
- Westerbork, The Holocaust Explained
- Westerbork, USHMM
- What Was Life Like in Westerbork?, The Holocaust Explained
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What Were Transit Camps?, The Holocaust Explained
The Nazis set up a number of transit camps in occupied lands. After being rounded up, Jews were imprisoned in transit camps before being deported to a concentration camp, labour camp or one of the six Nazi extermination camps in Poland. Examples of transit camps include Pithiers and Drancy in France, Mechelen in Belgium and Vught and Westerbork in the Netherlands.
- Plays
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[Irena Sendler] Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project
A play created by students in Kansas and the website that developed from that experience.
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Holocaust Theater Catalog, National Jewish Theater Foundation
Includes index of plays.
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Plays (Middle & High School), A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust
List of plays and resources.
- Poetry
- “Hunger Camp at Jaslo,” Waslawa Szymborska
- “Still,” Wislawa Szymborska
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Campo dei Fiori
A reflective philosophical poem with a subtle moralizing message in which the Christian martyr of 16th century Rome is juxtaposed with the contemporary Jewish victims of the Nazi terror.
- Czeslaw Milosz Interview, Nobel Prize in Literature 1980
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Five Poems by Dan Pagis (1930-1986), Yad Vashem
Five poems of Dan Pagis are presented in this selection, focusing on various aspects of the Holocaust. Included are: Testimony, The Roll Call, Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car, Instructions for Crossing the Border, Draft of a Reparations Agreement.
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Hannah Szenes (Senesh) (1921-1944), USHMM Holocaust Encyclopedia
Hannah Szenes (Senesh) was one of 32 Jewish volunteer parachutists from Palestine that the British Army sent behind German lines for resistance and rescue efforts. On June 7, 1944, Szenes infiltrated German-occupied Hungary. The Germans captured her and, after several months of torture, they executed Szenes by firing squad. She was 23 years old.
- Jewish Parachutists From Palestine, USHMM
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LESSON: Teaching the Holocaust Through Poetry, Yad Vashem
The students will confront the question of man’s inhumanity to man through the insights of the artist who works with words, the poet. Toward the end of the lesson-plan, we will also ask the pupil to consider other art forms such as painting and photography in an attempt to expose the students to the possibilities offered by these various disciplines in conveying the inside human experience of difficult historical periods. Can the art forms add to our historical knowledge? Do they deepen the impact? We hope that the student who experiences this lesson plan in his/her class and is exposed to class discussion on the subject will also increase his/her awareness not only of the plight of refugees during the war but also of the relevance of the subject in today’s world.
- Martin Niemoller, “First They Came for the Socialists…”, USHMM
- Martin Niemoller, Biography, USHMM
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POEM: “But She Was” by Władysław Szlengel, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
In this poem, written in August 1942 in response to deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka extermination camp, Władysław Szlengel encouraged readers to remember the humanity of the victims by focusing on the fate of an apparently unremarkable Jewish mother.
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POEM: “That’s How You’ll End Too” by Miklós Radnóti
As Germany and its allies retreated in 1944, Jews were forcibly marched from the camps towards those areas of central Europe still under Axis control. Miklós Radnóti was a Hungarian Jewish poet who had been forced to serve in a slave labor battalion in Ukraine and Yugoslavia. As his battalion was driven back to Hungary, he scribbled poems in a notebook. This was his final entry.
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POEM: “The Dice Rolled” by Hannah Szenes, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
For Jews living beyond Nazi-occupied Europe, the Holocaust often created a sense of impotence, especially as they generally did not wish to criticize the Allied governments who represented the only hope of ending the Holocaust by defeating Germany. However, some took action by enlisting in the armed forces. Hannah Szenes was a Hungarian-born paratrooper from British Mandate Palestine who was dropped into Yugoslavia in an attempt to help the Jews of Hungary. However, she was arrested when she tried to enter Hungary. Hannah was a talented poet; this verse was later found in her prison cell.
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POEM: “We Are the Last Witness” by Moses Schulstein, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
The murder of millions of people in the camps was accompanied by plunder on an unprecedented scale. All of the possessions of victims were exploited, either for the personal enrichment of the perpetrators or for redistribution amongst the German population. When Majdanek concentration camp in Poland was liberated by the Red Army in 1944, thousands of pairs of shoes were discovered, prompting this reflection from the Yiddish poet Moses Schulstein.
- POEM: “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Freightcar,” by Dan Pagis, Yad Vashem
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POEM: Never Say This is the Final Road for You by Hirsh Glik, 70 Voices/Holocaust Education Trust
From late 1942 onwards, increasing numbers of young Jews escaped from ghettos and formed partisan groups which fought the Nazis. The largest groups of Jewish partisans were based in the forests of eastern Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The following song became the anthem of these partisan groups. It was written in Yiddish by Hirsh Glik, a young poet in the Vilna Ghetto, after he heard news of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
- Poetry & Literature, USHMM
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Poetry in Hell: Yiddish Poetry in the Ringelblum Archives
Poetry in Hell is a web site dedicated to the poets, both in the Warsaw Ghetto and elsewhere whose poetry, under the leadership of Emanuel Ringelblum, was secretly collected by the members of the “Oneg Shabbat Society“, preserved and buried in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Nazi occupation.
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Prism Journal, Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education & Administration, Yeshiva University
Azrieli Graduate School publishes "PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators." "Prism" offers educators a practical, scholarly resource on teaching the Holocaust at the high school, college and graduate school levels. Each issue examines a specific topic through a variety of lenses, including education, history, literature, poetry, psychology and art. Experts from high schools, colleges, universities, museums and resource centers in the United States and Israel bring diverse perspectives highlighting particular facets of the issue at hand.
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Riddle by William Heyen
This poem is part of the AP literature curriculum.
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Seven Poems, Seven Paintings: A teacher’s Guide to Selected Holocaust Poetry, Yad Vashem
This unit is a new interdisciplinary resource to assist educators in teaching the Holocaust. It consists of seven poems, presented together with original artwork especially created for the unit. Included are the following poems: Shema / Primo Levi; Heritage / Hayim Gouri; Psalm / Paul Celan; The Butterfly / Pavel Friedman; Could Have / Wisława Szymborska; Written in Pencil in the Sealed Freightcar / Dan Pagis; First They Came For The Jews / Martin Niemöller
- Sonia Weitz, Facing History and Ourselves
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The Value of Holocaust Poetry in Education, Yad Vashem
This article explores how poetry can be used by educators to teach and commemorate the Holocaust.
- VIDEO: “Could Have” by Wislawa Szymborska
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VIDEO: “Testimony” by Dan Pagis (7:23), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
Dan Pagis was a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor who wrote about the Holocaust some 25 years after the events. The poem "Testimony" deals with complex ethical, philosophical and theological issues that troubled Pagis, such as man's inhumanity to man, the question of God during the Holocaust, the essence and role of testimony, and other issues pertaining to guilt and to forgiveness. The poem "Testimony" allows a glympse into these complex questions and is fertile ground for classroom discussion.
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VIDEO: Poetry in Holocaust Education Part 1/4: Introduction (1:30), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
How do we teach the Holocaust using interdisciplinary methods? How can poetry, art, film, and literature contribute to the study of this complex subject? In this video Jackie Metzger, of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, presents three poems by Primo Levi, Dan Pagis, and Haim Gouri, outlining possible uses in the classroom for ages 16 and above. The ideas, imagery, dilemmas and contemplation inherent in such poems allow for a deeper study of the subject.
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VIDEO: Poetry in Holocaust Education Part 2/4: “Shema” by Primo Levi (3:44), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
How do we teach the Holocaust using interdisciplinary methods? How can poetry, art, film, and literature contribute to the study of this complex subject? In this video Jackie Metzger, of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, presents three poems by Primo Levi, Dan Pagis, and Haim Gouri, outlining possible uses in the classroom for ages 16 and above. The ideas, imagery, dilemmas and contemplation inherent in such poems allow for a deeper study of the subject.
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VIDEO: Poetry in Holocaust Education Part 3/4: “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway Car” by Dan Pagis (3:44), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
How do we teach the Holocaust using interdisciplinary methods? How can poetry, art, film, and literature contribute to the study of this complex subject? In this video Jackie Metzger, of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, presents three poems by Primo Levi, Dan Pagis, and Haim Gouri, outlining possible uses in the classroom for ages 16 and above. The ideas, imagery, dilemmas and contemplation inherent in such poems allow for a deeper study of the subject.
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VIDEO: Poetry in Holocaust Education Part 4/4: “Heritage” by Haim Gouri (3:44), Yad Vashem, Holocaust Education Video Toolbox
How do we teach the Holocaust using interdisciplinary methods? How can poetry, art, film, and literature contribute to the study of this complex subject? In this video Jackie Metzger, of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, presents three poems by Primo Levi, Dan Pagis, and Haim Gouri, outlining possible uses in the classroom for ages 16 and above. The ideas, imagery, dilemmas and contemplation inherent in such poems allow for a deeper study of the subject.
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We the Six Million [AUDIO RECORDING] (3:22), Poem by Rabbi Davin Schoenberger
A dramatic reading by Brian Kurlander.
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We the Six Million People Speak, Poem by Rabbi Davin Schoenberger
This poem was written by the late Rabbi Davin Schoenberger, a native of Germany and Chief Rabbi in Aachen Germany. He was the rabbi who married Anne Frank's parents. Davin and Ilse Schoenberger and their daughter, Elaine (Katz), fled Europe after their synagogue in Aachen was burned to the ground during the events of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. In the U.S., Rabbi Schoenberger had pulpits in Chicago, IL and Selma, AL. Upon his retirement in 1960, Rabbi Schoenberger resided in Birmingham until his death in 1989. A dramatic reading by Brian Kurlander is available in the Curriculum Links under “Remembrance.”
- Wislawa Szymborska, Nobel-Winning Polish Poet, Dies at 88, New York Times
- Writers and Poets in the Ghetto, USHMM
- Czeslaw Milosz
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Campo dei Fiori
A reflective philosophical poem with a subtle moralizing message in which the Christian martyr of 16th century Rome is juxtaposed with the contemporary Jewish victims o