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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Affidavit signed by Rudolf Hoess attesting to the gassing of Jews while he was the commandant of the Auschwitz killing center. The German text reads: "I declare herewith under oath that in the years 1941 to 1943 during my tenure in office as commandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp 2 million Jews were put to death by gassing and a 1/2 million by other means. Rudolf Hoess. May 14, 1946." The confession is also signed by Josef Maier of the US Chief of Counsel's office. A photoreproduction of the original…
1939 flyer from the Hotel Reichshof in Hamburg, Germany. The red tag informed Jewish guests of the hotel that they were not permitted in the hotel restaurant, bar, or in the reception rooms. The hotel management required Jewish guests to take their meals in their rooms. Following the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Jews were systematically excluded from public places in Germany.
These ice skates were among the few personal belongings Hanni Sondheimer took with her on her journey from Kaunas (Kovno) to Shanghai. Hanni, who was then only a teenager, also carried a pair of red shoes and a picture of Gary Cooper. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
Identification tag issued to Liesel Weil by the American Friends Service Committee for her voyage to the United States on board the Mouzinho. More than 100 children sailed to New York aboard the Mouzinho, a Portuguese liner. The transport was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, and representatives of several Jewish organizations met the children in New York. Marseille, France, 1941.
The Kobe Municipal Office issued an English-language tourist guide to Kobe and its environs. This illustration comes from the interior pages of the guide. Jewish refugees in Kobe used such pieces of information. Kobe, Japan, 1940-1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
An insert prepared for American soldiers. This diagram, published in the overseas edition of "Newsmap for the Armed Forces," explains the indictment against the Nuremberg defendants. 1945.
Cover of program booklet distributed at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.
Entry pass to the prison housing war criminals at the International Military Tribunal. This pass was issued to a U.S. military guard.
Back side of an entry pass to the prison housing war criminals at the International Military Tribunal. This pass was issued to a U.S. military guard.
Military entry permit allowing Jadwiga Dzido to travel through occupied Germany to appear as a witness in the Medical Case trial at Nuremberg. 1946.
Reverse side of a military entry permit allowing Jadwiga Dzido to travel through occupied Germany to appear as a witness in the Medical Case trial at Nuremberg. 1946.
The table of contents from a Japanese-German phrase book purchased by German Jewish refugees shortly after their arrival in Japan. The phrase book offers useful expressions in Japanese relating to travel, hotel stays, eating, and shopping in Japan. Japan, 1940-1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
A blue and gray striped jacket from the Flossenbürg concentration camp. The letter "P" on the left front of the jacket indicates that it was worn by a Polish, non-Jewish prisoner. "P" stands for "Pole" in German. The jacket was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by the prisoner who wore it, Julian Noga.
Julien Bryan stored his still photo negatives from Nazi Germany 1937 and Poland 1939 in these carefully marked metal canisters.
After being deported from Theresienstadt to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942, Karel Bruml wore this cap as a forced laborer in the Buna synthetic rubber works located in the Buna-Monowitz section of the camp.
Yona Wygocka Dickmann fashioned this jackknife from aluminum and part of a saw after the SS transferred her from Auschwitz to forced labor at an airplane factory in Freiburg, Germany, in November 1944. She used the knife to extend her daily ration of bread by cutting it in half.
In December 1939, German authorities required Jews residing in the Generalgouvernement (which included Krakow) to wear white armbands with blue Stars of David for purposes of identification. The armband pictured here was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2001 by Akiva Kohane.
This large, lidded wooden chest was used by the Council for Aid to Jews (codenamed “Żegota”) to hide false identity documents from Nazi authorities. Żegota was an underground rescue organization of Poles and Jews in German-occupied Poland and operated from December 1942 to January 1945. Supported by the Polish government-in-exile, it coordinated efforts to save Jews in German-occupied Poland from Nazi persecution and murder. One of Żegota’s most impactful clandestine activities was producing and…
This League of German Girls jacket has two embroidered cloth patches handstitched to the upper left sleeve: a dark triangle displaying the name of the member’s region, South Franconia (Süd Franken), and a Hitler Youth insignia. Beginning in 1933, the Hitler Youth and its organization for girls and young women, the League of German Girls, played an important role in the new Nazi regime. Through these organizations, the Nazi regime indoctrinated young people with Nazi ideology, including antisemitism and…
Front cover of a brochure advertising the Lebensborn program. The brochure describes the program's maternity homes and requirements that expectant mothers must meet to be accepted.
Leon Jakubowicz, a shoemaker by training and a native of Lodz, began constructing this model of the Lodz ghetto soon after his arrival there from a prisoner-of-war camp in April 1940. The case holds a scale (1:5000) model of the ghetto, including streets, painted houses, bridges, churches, synagogue ruins, factories, cemeteries, and barbed wire around the ghetto edges. The model pieces are made from scrap wood. The case cover interior is lined with a collection of official seals, a ration card, and paper…
The Kobe Municipal Office issued an English-language tourist guide to Kobe and its environs. The tourist map of Kobe pictured here was included with the guide. Jewish refugees in Kobe used such pieces of information. Kobe, Japan, 1940-1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
This map accompanied a secret undated German report on the mass murder of Jews by Einsatzgruppen A (mobile killing unit A). During the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the map was introduced as evidence by both the American and British prosecution teams. The document, entitled "Jewish Executions Carried Out by Einsatzgruppen A" and stamped "Secret Reich Matter," shows the number of Jews executed (symbolized by coffins) in the Baltic states and Belorussia by late 1941. The legend near the…
This map of the Treblinka I forced-labor camp was drawn by Holocaust survivor Manfred Kort in 1946. In 1990 Kort donated the map to the United States Holocaust Memorial Musem. In March 1997, at the request of the Office of Special Investigations, the Museum sent the original drawing to Chicago to be used as evidence at the trial of one Bronislaw Hajda. At the conclusion of Hajda's trial on April 10, 1997, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that "a federal judge in Chicago has revoked the naturalized…
During the war the Japanese flooded Shanghai with anti-American and anti-British propaganda, including this image from a matchbox cover. It depicts a Japanese plane dropping a bomb on the U.S. and British flags. Shanghai, China, between 1943 and 1945. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
During the war the Japanese flooded Shanghai with anti-American and anti-British propaganda, including this image from a matchbox cover. It depicts Japanese planes flying in formation over the U.S. and British flags, with the Japanese flag rising in triumph. Shanghai, China, between 1943 and 1945. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
During the war the Japanese flooded Shanghai with anti-American and anti-British propaganda, including this image from a matchbox cover. It depicts a Japanese tank rolling over the U.S. and British flags. Shanghai, China, between 1943 and 1945. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
During the war the Japanese flooded Shanghai with anti-American and anti-British propaganda, including this image from a matchbox cover. It depicts United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt--dressed in rags, on a raft in the ocean, and holding onto the U.S. flag--in the view of a Japanese submarine periscope. Shanghai, China, between 1943 and 1945. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
During the war the Japanese flooded Shanghai with anti-American and anti-British propaganda, including this image from a matchbox cover. It depicts a Japanese bomb landing in the United States heartland and knocking the stars off the U.S. flag. Shanghai, China, between 1943 and 1945. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
A diagram showing the medical chain of command in the Third Reich, drawn up as evidence for the Doctors Trial. Nuremberg, Germany, December 1946.
One of the ten metal boxes in which portions of the Oneg Shabbat archive were hidden and buried in the Warsaw ghetto. The boxes are currently in the possession of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. This view is of an open box without the lid.
One of the ten metal boxes in which portions of the Ringelblum Oneg Shabbat archives were hidden and buried in the Warsaw ghetto. The boxes are currently in the possession of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
One of the two milk cans in which portions of the Ringelblum Oneg Shabbat archives were hidden and buried in the Warsaw ghetto. The milk cans are currently in the possession of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.
One of the milk cans used by Warsaw ghetto historian Emanuel Ringelblum to store and preserve the secret "Oneg Shabbat" ghetto archives.This milk can, identified as no. 2, was unearthed at 58 Nowolipki Street in Warsaw on December 1, 1950.
A page from the Mishneh Torah, one of many texts reprinted in Shanghai during the war. Yeshiva students spent part of each day listening to teachers lecture on the Talmud, the collection of ancient Rabbinic writings and commentaries composed of the Mishnah and the Gemara that form the basis of religious authority in Judaism. During the rest of the day, students paired up to review selections from the lecture. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
Leon Jakubowicz, a shoemaker by training and a native of Lodz, began constructing this model of the Lodz ghetto soon after his arrival there from a prisoner-of-war camp in April 1940. The case holds a scale (1:5000) model of the ghetto, including streets, painted houses, bridges, churches, synagogue ruins, factories, cemeteries, and barbed wire around the ghetto edges. The model pieces are made from scrap wood. The case cover interior is lined with a collection of official seals, a ration card, and paper…
Nazi banner with a swastika. The swastika became the most recognizable symbol of Nazi propaganda, appearing on the Nazi flag, election posters, arm bands, medallions, and badges for military and other organizations.
Election poster reading "We workers have awakened: We’re voting National Socialist List 2 ," 1932.
Nazi propaganda poster titled “The Stalin Constitution?” printed October 10, 1943. The Nazis often used propaganda in occupied territories to secure the compliance and even support of local populations. In Ukraine and other occupied regions of the Soviet Union, the Nazis created propaganda that exploited preexisting discontent with the Soviet regime. They also tried to exploit preexisting anti-Jewish sentiment and sharpen divisions between Jews and non-Jews. One way of achieving this was by creating…
A March 3, 1967, New York Times article about Simon Wiesenthal entitled, "Relentless Nazi-Hunter."
The front page of the New York World Telegram newspaper from Tuesday, October 1, 1946, announcing the sentences of the International Military Tribunal defendants.
An illustration in the North-China Daily News following the arrival of a group of Jewish refugees in Shanghai, in Japanese-occupied China. August 24, 1941. [From the USHMM special exhibition Flight and Rescue.]
Many of Julien Bryan's original 35mm nitrate film rolls were actively deteriorating when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired the collection in 2003.
First page of a list of defendants at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. This material appears in a mimeographed program booklet distributed at the IMT. This page includes: Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Alfred Rosenberg, along with brief biographical information for each.
Second page of a list of defendants at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. This material appears in a mimeographed program booklet distributed at the IMT. This page includes: Hans Frank, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Wilhelm Frick, along with brief biographical information for each.
Third page of a list of defendants at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. This material appears in a mimeographed program booklet distributed at the IMT. This page includes: Julius Streicher, Wilhelm Keitel, Walter Funk, and Hjalmar Schacht., along with brief biographical information for each.
Fourth page of a list of defendants at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. This material appears in a mimeographed program booklet distributed at the IMT. This page includes: Hjalmar Schacht, Karl Dönitz, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel, and Albert Speer, along with brief biographical information for each.
Fifth page of a list of defendants at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. This material appears in a mimeographed program booklet distributed at the IMT. This page includes: Albert Speer, Franz von Papen, Alfred Jodl, Konstantin von Neurath, Artur Seyss-Inquart, Erich Raeder, and Hans Fritzsche, along with brief biographical information for each.
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,…
Page from volume 1 of 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…
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