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Thomas was born to a Jewish family who moved to Paris when he was 6. His father's outspoken criticism of the fascist government and his affiliation with the Hungarian Communist Party led to the family's expulsion from Hungary in 1930. With the help of his father, a professor of modern languages, Thomas quickly learned French and excelled in school. He had a special interest in poetry and music. 1933-39: Thomas's father often argued against fascism, and he was greatly disturbed when Hitler became the…
Gabriele was the only child of Jewish parents living in the German capital of Berlin. Her grandfather owned a pharmacy and a pharmaceuticals factory, where Gabriele's father also made his living. 1933-39: In 1938 the Nazis forced Ruth's grandfather to sell his factory and pharmacy for very little money to an "Aryan" German. After that, her father decided they should move to Amsterdam where it was safer for Jews. She was 5 years old and wanted to stay in Berlin. She didn't understand why she had to leave…
Fritz was the youngest of two sons born to a Jewish family in the German capital of Berlin. In the late 1920s he earned a doctorate in chemistry and pharmacy. In 1931 he married Ilse Teppich, and in 1933 the couple had a daughter, Gabriele. 1933-39: Fritz worked in his father's pharmacy until 1938, when the Nazis forced them to sell the business for a fraction of its value to an "Aryan" German [Aryanization]. Leaving his parents behind was agonizing, but concern for the safety of his wife and daughter…
Ida was the oldest of three children born to a Jewish family in northeastern Poland in Malkinia, a town situated on the right bank of the Bug River. Ida's father was a grain merchant and her family lived in the same house that her grandfather had owned. 1933-39: Ida was 9 when Germany invaded Poland. At once her family hid on some nearby farms but a few weeks later they returned home. When their neighbor, her father's best friend, became a Nazi informant, her father had them each pack a small bag--they…
The older of two sisters, Helga was raised by prosperous, non-religious Jewish parents in the small Catholic town of Duelmen in western Germany. Her family owned a linen factory. Before marrying Helga's much older father in 1927, her mother had been a Dutch citizen. As a child, Helga looked forward to vacations in the Netherlands with its comparatively relaxed atmosphere. 1933-39: At age 6 Helga began attending a Catholic elementary school. Antisemitism wasn't a problem until the night of November 9, 1938…
Judith was the older of two children born to Jewish parents in the town of Kiskunfelegyhaza in southeastern Hungary. Her mother, Anna, and her mother's sister, Kornelia, were close in age and had a contest to see who would be the first to have a baby. Judith's Aunt Kornelia won the contest and cousin Maria was born in December 1931, just three weeks before Judith. 1933-39: Judith's father had a prosperous wholesale business that sold goose meat, down, feathers and quilts. In 1939, the same year that…
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…
Isaac lived with his parents and three sisters in Split, on the Dalmatian coast of Yugoslavia. When German and Axis forces invaded and partitioned Yugoslavia in 1941, Italian forces occupied Split along with other coastal areas of Yugoslavia. Italian occupation authorities in Yugoslavia generally prevented violent attacks on Jews. The Italian zone became a safe haven for those fleeing the Nazis or the Ustase (Croatian fascists). After Italy signed an armistice with the Allies in 1943, the area was occupied…
In 1942, Sam was forced into a ghetto in his hometown and assigned to work in a munitions factory. In 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz and then forced to work in a train factory. He survived eight days on a death march after the evacuation of Auschwitz by the Nazis. He was liberated by Soviet units in January 1945. He lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany where worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1947, he immigrated to the United States.
Leo was seven years old when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Before the war, Leo's father was a mathematics teacher and member of the Bialystok City Council. Fearing arrest, Leo's father fled Bialystok for Vilna just before the German occupation. Leo and his mother eventually joined his father in Vilna. After the Soviets occupied Vilna, Leo's father obtained transit visas to Japan. The family left Vilna in December 1940, traveled across the Soviet Union on the Trans-Siberian Express, and arrived…
In 1942, Sam was forced into a ghetto in his hometown and assigned to work in a munitions factory. In 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz and then forced to work in a train factory. He survived eight days on a death march after the evacuation of Auschwitz by the Nazis. He was liberated by Soviet units in January 1945. He lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany where worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1947, he immigrated to the United States.
Benno Müller-Hill, professor of Genetics, University of Cologne, and author of Murderous Science, discusses genetics and eugenics. [Photo credits: Getty Images, New York City; Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Max-Planck-Institut für Psychiatrie (Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Psychiatrie), Historisches Archiv, Bildersammlung GDA, Munich; Bundesarchiv Koblenz, Germany; Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes, Vienna; Kriemhild Synder: Die Landesheilanstalt Uchtspringe und ihre Verstrickung in…
Drexel Sprecher was educated at the University of Wisconsin, the London School of Economics, and at the Harvard School of Law before receiving a position at the US Government's Labor Board in 1938. He enlisted in the American military after the United States declared war on Germany, and was posted to London. After the war, Sprecher served as a prosecutor of Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials.
In 1942, Sam was forced into a ghetto in his hometown and assigned to work in a munitions factory. In 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz and then forced to work in a train factory. He survived eight days on a death march after the evacuation of Auschwitz by the Nazis. He was liberated by Soviet units in January 1945. He lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany where worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1947, he immigrated to the United States.
In 1942, Sam was forced into a ghetto in his hometown and assigned to work in a munitions factory. In 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz and then forced to work in a train factory. He survived eight days on a death march after the evacuation of Auschwitz by the Nazis. He was liberated by Soviet units in January 1945. He lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany where worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. In 1947, he immigrated to the United States.
Killing centers (also referred to as "extermination camps" or "death camps") were designed to carry out genocide. Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis established five killing centers in German-occupied Poland—Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau (part of the Auschwitz camp complex). Chelmno and Auschwitz were established in areas annexed to Germany in 1939. The other camps (Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka) were established in the General Government (an administrative unit of occupied…
Learn about the “Tehran Children,” a group of Polish-Jewish refugees. In 1942, they were resettled from the Soviet Union to Palestine via Iran.
From 1940 to 1944, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon and neighboring villages provided shelter to some 5,000 people, among them Jews fleeing persecution.
In July 1936, the SS opened the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as the principal concentration camp for the Berlin area.
Learn about the network of camps that the French collaborationist Vichy authorities established in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and French West Africa.
David Bayer lived in Kozienice, Poland. Explore his biography and learn about his experiences during World War II and the Holocaust.
Karl was born in the small town of Bad Zwishenahn in northern Germany. When he was 2, his family moved to the port of Bremerhaven. His father was a sailor and his mother became a nurse in a local hospital. After his father died, Karl continued to live with his mother. Karl was 20 when he began training as a deacon at his parish church. 1933-39: Karl was 26 when his jealous lover denounced him and he was arrested at his house under Paragraph 175. Paragraph 175 was a statute of the German criminal code that…
Ernest's father, František, was a professional musician who toured with a band and was often away for several months at a time. At home in Teplice-Šanov, a town in the Sudetenland on the Czechoslovak side of the Czechoslovak-German border, Ernest's mother Emilie took care of Ernest and Elizabeth (born 1927), his younger sister. Emilie also cared for the children's invalid grandmother, Friedericke, until she died in 1940 of natural causes. Ernest's maternal uncles, Rudolf and Viktor, helped the…
May 1940. Approximately 338,000 Allied troops evacuate Dunkirk with the help of British ships and boats.
Eleanor Roosevelt, longest serving First Lady in US history, used her social and political influence to intervene on behalf of refugees before and during WWII.
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