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.
