THE HOLOCAUST
60 years ago, prejudice, discrimination, and racism led to the murder of more than eleven million people. The Holocaust was not an accident. It was a series of deliberate choices made by individuals who were determined to deny an entire people their rights, their dignity, and their very lives.
Before the Nazis came to power, the Jews of Europe were a vital part of the European community and led ordinary lives.
They married.
They had children and dreams about their children's futures.
The children played in their neighborhoods.
Shopkeepers conducted business as usual.
Jewish families took vacations just like everyone else.
Everything changed when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power in Germany in World War II
On September 15, 1935, the Nazis passed a series of laws known as the Nuremberg Laws. These laws stripped Jews of their German citizenship and almost all of their legal rights. "A Reich citizen is a subject of the state who is German or related blood, who proves by his conduct that he is willing and fit to serve the German people and Reich. A Reich citizen is the sole bearer of all political rights."
The Nazis even believed that they could determine "racial heritage" by studying facial features.
Boycotts of Jewish business were organized. Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews! Boycotts of Jewish business were organized.
Even children were targets of humiliation.
Jewish businesses were looted and destroyed. Kristallnacht, “Night of the Broken Glass”, refers to the wave of violent anti-Jewish programs which took place on November 9-10, 1938. Jewish businesses were looted and destroyed.
Thousands of synagogues were burned.
Jewish homes were ransacked.
“Now judgment has begun, and it will reach its conclusions only when knowledge of the Jews has been erased from the earth.” - Der Sturmer Nazi newspaper
Jews were rounded up and deported to camps.
The Nazis established a series of concentration camps and death camps all across Europe.
Individuality was erased. Prisoners all wore uniforms . . .
Hundreds of prisoners were crammed into barracks made to hold sixty.
“ I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feelings of pity “ I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feelings of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them…” - Hans Frank Gauleiter of Poland
Suitcases were all that remained of millions.
“I ask nothing of the Jews except that they should disappear.” - Hans Frank Gauleiter of Poland
Some did manage to survive.
Before World War II, there were approximately 9 Before World War II, there were approximately 9.5 million Jews living in Europe. After World War II, there were about 3 million Jews left alive in Europe.