The
truth of the photos of various crimes and atrocities
included in this Shoah project Holocaust - The Nazi
Genocide needs to be shown. The photographs are of
graphic nature and disturbing - before providing access to
younger learners, parents and teachers should preview the
sites and guide through what they may read and see.
The Shoahwas
the systematic annihilation of 6 million Jews by the Nazis
during World War 2. In 1933 approximately 9 million Jews
lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied
by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three
European Jews had been killed. The European Jews were the
primary victims of the Holocaust.
But the Jews were not the only group singled out for
persecution by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. One-half
million Gypsies, at least 250,000 mentally or physically
disabled persons, and more than three million Soviet
prisoners-of-war also fell victim to Nazi genocide.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Social Democrats,
Communists, partisans, trade unionists, Polish
intelligentsia and other undesirables were also
victims of the hate and aggression carried out by the
Nazis.
The KZ Camp Dachau
was the first concentration camp established in Nazi
Germany - the camp was opened on March 22, 1933. In the
late 1930's the Nazis killed thousands of handicapped
Germans by lethal injection and poisonous gas. After the
German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, mobile
killing units following in the wake of the German Army
began shooting massive numbers of Jews and Gypsies in open
fields and ravines on the outskirts of conquered cities
and towns.
Eventually the Nazis created a more secluded and organized
method of killing. Extermination centers were established
in occupied Poland with special apparatus especially
designed for mass murder. Giant death machines. Six such
death camps existed: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno,
Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Large-scale murder by
gas and body disposal through cremation were conducted
systematically by the Nazis and Hitler's SS
men
..
Victims were deported to these centers from Western Europe
and from the ghettos in Eastern Europe which the Nazis had
established. In addition, millions died in the ghettos and
concentration camps as a result of forced labor,
starvation, exposure, brutality, disease, and execution.
The number of children
killed
during the Holocaust is not fathomable and full statistics
for the tragic fate of children who died will never be
known. Some estimates range as high as 1.5 million
murdered children. This figure includes more than 1.2
million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy
children and thousands of institutionalized handicapped
children who were murdered under Nazi rule in Germany and
occupied Europe.
were established 1996 to
promote education about the history of the
Holocaust and assist visitors in developing
understanding of the ramifications of prejudice
and racism. The resources include essays, poems,
eyewitness testimonies, photographs, documents,
films, literature, timelines, links.
