Browse an alphabetical list of artifacts from the Holocaust and World War II. Each object tells a story about the history and demonstrates human experiences during the time period.
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Alice Goldberger (1897-1986) was born in Berlin, Germany. Trained as a youth-work instructor, she ran a shelter for disadvantaged children and their families. When Hitler came to power, Alice, who was Jewish, had to give up her post. She immigrated to England in 1939. When war broke out, Alice was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. While there, she organized a children's facility. Hearing of Alice's work in the camp, psychoanalyst Anna Freud (daughter of Sigmund Freud) intervened to secure…
Alice Goldberger (1897-1986) was born in Berlin, Germany. Trained as a youth-work instructor, she ran a shelter for disadvantaged children and their families. When Hitler came to power, Alice, who was Jewish, had to give up her post. She immigrated to England in 1939. When war broke out, Alice was interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. While there, she organized a children's facility. Hearing of Alice's work in the camp, psychoanalyst Anna Freud (daughter of Sigmund Freud) intervened to secure…
During the 1943 liquidation of the Lvov ghetto, dozens of Jews fled into the city sewers to escape death. Eight-year-old Krystyna Chiger (later Kristine Keren) hid with her family and 16 others beneath the city's streets for 14 months, during which she wore this sweater.
Yona Wygocka Dickmann fashioned this aluminum comb from airplane parts after the SS transferred her from Auschwitz to forced labor in an airplane factory in Freiburg, Germany, in November 1944. She used the comb as her hair, shaven in Auschwitz, began to grow back.
Two of Julien Bryan's Nazi Germany 1937 contact print booklets of still photographs organized by camera roll. Bryan used these prints to select and crop images for publication or distribution and annotated the covers.
Courtroom sketch by artist David Rose of Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel on the witness stand at the trial of Klaus Barbie. During his testimony, Wiesel stated that "The killer kills twice. First, by killing, and then by trying to wipe out the traces." June 2, 1987.
Cover of a mimeographed program booklet distributed at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.
German Jewish refugees purchased this Japanese-German phrase book shortly after their arrival in Japan. Japan, 1940-1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
Stanislava Roztropowicz kept a diary from 1943-1944. In it, she describes her family's decision to hide an abandoned Jewish girl, Sabina Heller (Kagan). Sabina Kagan was an infant when SS mobile killing squads began rounding up Jews in her Polish village of Radziwillow in 1942. Her parents persuaded a local policeman to hide the family. The policeman, however, soon asked the Kagans to leave but agreed to hide baby Sabina. Her parents were captured and killed. Sabina was concealed in a dark basement,…
Entry pass to a US military dining hall at Dachau, Germany. This card was issued to Anton Litwin, a member of the War Crimes Branch.
Dedication to a set of scrapbooks compiled by Bjorn Sibbern, a Danish policeman and resistance member, documenting the German occupation of Denmark. Bjorn's wife Tove was also active in the Danish resistance. After World War II, Bjorn and Tove moved to Canada and later settled in California, where Bjorn compiled five scrapbooks dedicated to the Sibbern's daughter, Lisa. The books are fully annotated in English and contain photographs, documents and three-dimensional artifacts documenting all aspects of the…
Nazi Germany’s semi-official and fiercely antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer warned of a Jewish program for world domination in this 1934 issue. The article—titled “Who is the Enemy?”—blamed Jews for destroying social order and claimed that Jews wanted war, while the rest of the world wanted peace. Der Stürmer, July 1934.
These Torah scrolls, one from a synagogue in Vienna and the other from Marburg, were desecrated during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"), the violent anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9 and 10, 1938. The pogrom occurred throughout Germany, which by then included both Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. The scrolls pictured here were retrieved by German individuals and safeguarded until after the war.
Zofia Burowska (Chorowicz) donated this doll, which dates from the 1930s, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Zofia's parents gave her the doll before the war and she kept it with her in the Wolbrum and Krakow ghettos, Poland. The doll and some of her family's other belongings were left with non-Jewish friends for safekeeping. Zofia was deported to a forced-labor camp for Jews near Krakow, to the Skarzysko-Kamienna camp (also in Poland), and then to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany,…
Jewish teenager Ava Hegedish drew this poignant picture of her mother's well-worn shoes while in hiding. It was drawn while Ava was in hiding at a farm near Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), between 1941 and 1944. Once Nazi Germany and its Axis partners partitioned Yugoslavia and Belgrade fell under German control, Ava’s father thought the family’s best chance of survival was to separate and go into hiding. Ava ended up at a farm with some extended-family Serbian relatives. Because she…
Drawing of the SS Patria, part of the illustrated diary of Egon Weiss which he compiled during and immediately after his detention in the Atlit internment camp.
This drawing, titled "L'Attente" [Mother and Son Waiting], was created by German Jewish artist Lili Andrieux (1914-1996) while she was imprisoned in the Gurs internment camp in France in 1940.
A child's dress embroidered with red and blue flowers with small green leaves. This dress was hand embroidered by Lola Kaufman's mother in the Czortkow ghetto. Lola (born Lea Rein) wore this dress when she went into hiding. Lola was hidden first under a bed in the house of the woman who used to deliver milk to the family, then in a dugout under a cellar of a barn where she joined three other Jews in hiding. In March 1944, the Soviets liberated the area. The hidden Jews left their hideout in the middle of…
A blue and white child's dress worn by Sabina Kagan while living in hiding with the Roztropowicz family in Radziwillow, Poland, during World War II. Her rescuers used doll's clothing to make this dress. Sabina was just an infant when SS mobile killing squads began rounding up Jews in the Polish village of Radziwillow in 1942. Her parents persuaded a local policeman to hide the family. The policeman, however, soon asked the Kagans to leave but agreed to hide baby Sabina. Her parents were captured and…
Courtroom sketch drawn during the International Military Tribunal by American artist Edward Vebell. The drawing's title is "Spectators at War Criminals Trial, Nuremberg, Germany." 1945.
Courtroom sketch drawn during the International Military Tribunal by American artist Edward Vebell. The drawing's title is "British Courier for the Correspondents." 1945.
Courtroom sketch drawn during the International Military Tribunal by American artist Edward Vebell. The drawing's title is "German defense counsel -- they are immediately in front of the defendants." 1945.
Courtroom sketch drawn during the International Military Tribunal by American artist Edward Vebell. The drawing depicts defendants Rudolf Hess and Wilhelm Keitel, with this accompanying text: "Hess looked very hollow cheeked and thin necked. He seemed to ignore the proceedings and kept his head down, absorbed in a book. Keitel tried to retain a rigid military bearing and strike haughty poses." Nuremberg, Germany, 1945.
Courtroom sketch drawn during the International Military Tribunal by American artist Edward Vebell. The drawing's title is "A few studies of the German defense counsel." 1945.
Single-use entry pass for the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, Israel. June 8, 1961.
Election poster reading "The People Vote Listing One: Nationalsocialism," 1932-1933
This election poster calls on Germans to vote in support of Hitler's hand-picked candidates to the Reichstag (the German parliament). The poster details Hitler's actions and reads, in part: 'In 8 months two and a quarter million Germans have work and bread again! Class warfare and its parties are eliminated! The Bolsheviks are smashed. Particularism is overcome! A Reich of order and cleanliness is established. One People. One Reich. One Leader. This is what Hitler has accomplished..."
Following the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, the Lifszyc family began to search for ways to leave the country. David Lifszyc obtained a Curacao visa from the Dutch consulate. He also obtained an American visa because he was included on a list of distinguished rabbis submitted to the State Department by the Agudat Israel of America. After obtaining Soviet exit visas, the Lifszycs purchased tickets for Vladivostok on February 5, 1941. They started for Moscow, where they received Japanese transit visas. This…
Evidence tag from the trial of Klaus Barbie in Lyon, France. This standard police form lists Barbie's infractions as crimes against humanity and complicity, concepts defined at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg decades earlier. The line in which the victims' names would be recorded is left blank. February 25, 1983.
Evidence tag from the trial of Klaus Barbie in Lyon, France. This standard police form lists Barbie's infractions as crimes against humanity and complicity, concepts defined at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg decades earlier. The line in which the victims' names would be recorded is left blank. February 25, 1983.
Eva Ostwalt was born in Cologne, Germany, to Jewish parents. She had two younger sisters, Kate and Trude. In 1927, Eva moved with her daughter, Heidemarie, and non-Jewish husband to Dresden. Eva and Karl later divorced, and Eva received custody of Heidemarie. Mother and daughter moved to Merano, Italy. When Eva’s passport expired in 1938, she had to return to Germany. Believing that Heidemarie would be safer with her father, Eva gave custody back to Karl in Dresden. Eva returned to Cologne, where both…
Reproduction of entry pass to the International Military Tribunal visitors' gallery for the sentencing of the defendants. October 1946.
German propaganda leaflet targeting African American servicemen, November 1944. The leaflets falsely suggested that African Americans would receive better treatment by the German military and encouraged them to surrender to German troops.
This photograph shows some of the 190 granite blocks donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by the Mauthausen Public Memorial in Austria. The Nazis established the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1938 near an abandoned stone quarry. Prisoners were forced to carry these granite blocks up more than 180 steps. The small blocks weighed between 30 and 45 pounds each. The larger blocks could each weigh more than 75 pounds. Prisoners assigned to forced labor in the camp quarry were quickly worked…
Hana Mueller altered this skirt issued to her in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 by using the hem to make pockets.
A red and yellow floral handkerchief belonging to Judit Gondos that she took with her when she left Budapest on the Kasztner rescue train.
Diaries reveal some of the most intimate, heart-wrenching accounts of the Holocaust. They record in real time the feelings of loss, fear, and, sometimes, hope of those facing extraordinary peril. The diary of Hans Vogel, who fled Paris with his family while his father was interned, contains hand-drawn and colored maps of their flight. This page describes receiving papers allowing the family to immigrate to the United States. Hans was born in Cologne, Germany on December 3, 1926. The family left Germany…
Hans Vogel and his family fled Paris following the German invasion. They eventually received papers allowing them to immigrate to the United States. During this time, Hans kept a diary that contains postcards, hand-drawn maps, and other illustrations of their flight. This page describes the voyage on board the Nyassa to the United States. Hans was born in Cologne, Germany on December 3, 1926. The family left Germany in 1936, settling in Paris. They remained there until the outbreak of World War II.…
Hans Vogel and his family fled Paris following the German invasion. They eventually received papers allowing them to immigrate to the United States. During this time, Hans kept a diary that contains postcards, hand-drawn maps, and other illustrations of their flight. This page describes arriving in New York. Hans was born in Cologne, Germany on December 3, 1926. The family left Germany in 1936, settling in Paris. They remained there until the outbreak of World War II. Hans's father, Simon, was interned…
Hans Vogel and his family fled Paris following the German invasion. They eventually received papers allowing them to immigrate to the United States. During this time, Hans kept a diary that contains postcards, hand-drawn maps, and other illustrations of their flight. This page describes the lead-up to their departure for the United States, from Lisbon, on the Nyassa. Hans was born in Cologne, Germany on December 3, 1926. The family left Germany in 1936, settling in Paris. They remained there until the…
One of the primary documents used to calculate the number of deaths in the Nazi "euthanasia" program is this register discovered in a locked filing cabinet by US Army troops in 1945 at a killing site in Hartheim, Austria. The right page details by month the number of patients who were "disinfected" in 1940. The final column indicates that 35,224 persons had been put to death that year.
Headphones used by defendant Hans Frank during the International Military Tribunal. Headphones like these enabled trial participants to hear simultaneous translation of the proceedings.
Headphones used by defendant Hermann Göring during the International Military Tribunal. Headphones like these enabled trial participants to hear simultaneous translation of the proceedings.
Headphones used by defendant Albert Speer during the International Military Tribunal. Headphones like these enabled trial participants to hear simultaneous translation of the proceedings.
Hitler Youth knife and case shaped like a military bayonet, with the emblem of the Hitler Youth, emphasizing the paramilitary nature of the organization.
Poster urging young Germans to join the Hitler Youth Landdienst [agricultural service]. It reads "Volunteers to the front! Youth to the land service of the Hitler Youth."
This Hitler Youth proficiency badge would have been awarded for the successful completion of a series of tests measuring physical and ideological proficiency. Success in these tests was rated according to criteria in the Hitler Youth identity document and performance book known as the Leistungsbuch. On this badge, the arrow shape (the tyr-rune) represents the warrior god Tyr. Beginning in 1933, the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls had an important role to play in the new Nazi regime. Through…
Hitler Youth summer uniform jacket with an armband and insignia designating the regiment and district to which the member belonged. Beginning in 1933, the Hitler Youth and its organization for girls and young women, the League of German Girls, played an important role the new Nazi regime. Through these organizations, the Nazi regime indoctrinated young people with Nazi ideology, including antisemitism and racism. All prospective members of the Hitler Youth had to be "Aryans" and "genetically healthy."…
This badge shows the Hitler Youth insignia and Nazi German national symbol superimposed over ring bearing the raised text, "Deutsches/Jugendfest 1936." Beginning in 1933, the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls had an important role to play in the new Nazi regime. Through these organizations, the Nazi regime planned to indoctrinate young people with Nazi ideology. This was part of the process of Nazifying German society. The aim of this process was to dismantle existing social structures and…
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