History
The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of the European Jewish people by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. The primary victims were Jews; six million were murdered, one and a half million of which were children. Five million more people were killed for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. These victims included Gypsies, the handicapped, Poles, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents.
The Holocaust began following the rise of the Nazi party and the chancellor Adolph Hitler. After taking control of Germany, he enacted a "final solution" to purify the Aryan race. Anyone who was seen as being inferior was dehumanized by the revocation of his or her political rights, economic rights, and finally, the right to exist. These people were marked for extermination by the "master race."
Most of the killing took place in concentration and death camps. In these camps, large scale murder by gas and body disposal by cremation were systematically conducted. Many other victims died in these camps from forced labor, starvation, exposure, brutality, disease, and execution. The main concentration camps were Belzac (600,000 victims), Sobibor (200,000), Treblinka (750,000), Chelmno (320,000), Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau (1.25 million). These sites were chosen due to their proximity to rail lines and their locations in semi-rural areas.
Holocaust Timeline
- JANUARY 1933: Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany.
- SEPTEMBER 1935: Citizenship and racial laws are announced at Nuremberg.
- MARCH 1938: Austria annexed by Germany
- NOVEMBER 1938: Nazis burn synagogues and loot Jewish homes and businesses in nationwide program called Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass"). Nearly 20,000 Jews are deported to concentration camps.
- SEPTEMBER 1939: Germany invades Poland, starting World War II.
- JUNE 1941: Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads, begin mass murders of Jews, Gypsies, and Communist leaders.
- JANUARY 1942: The "final solution to the Jewish question" is discussed by German leaders.
- 1942: Nazi "extermination" camps begin mass murder of Jews in gas chambers.
- APRIL - MAY 1943: Jews in the Warsaw ghetto resist German attempts at deportation.
- MAY-JULY 1944: Over 430,000 Hungarian Jews are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where most of them are gassed.
- JANUARY 1945: Nazis evacuate Auschwitz and begin death marches toward Germany.
- APRIL 1945: Hitler commits suicide.
- MAY 1945: Germany surrenders ending the war in Europe.
- NOVERMBER 1945 - OCTOBER 1946: Nuremberg War Crimes trials
(Some materials from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Click here for a more detailed timeline.
Survivor Stories
- A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
- Excerpts from Testimonies
- Tibor Jankay
- Hear five survivor stories in Real Audio
- Witnesses
- More survivor stories
- Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust
- Holocaust Names - helping people to locate survivors from holocaust