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Poster: "We Women Are Voting Slate 2 National Socialists." German women were an important voting bloc. The Nazis made a concerted effort to appeal to women, as exemplified by this 1932 election poster. The Nazis had to repackage their messages to de-emphasize military aims. Hitler consciously modeled some Nazi propaganda appeals to German women on speeches delivered by Benito Mussolini in Fascist Italy, who also had to calm the fears of Italian war widows after World War I. Nazi propagandists attempted to…
The German-Soviet Pact paved the way for the joint invasion and occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in September 1939.
On April 1, 1933—less than 3 months after rising to power—the Nazis staged a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses. The boycott signaled the start of the Nazi movement to exclude Jews from all aspects of German soci...
On February 27, 1933, the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down due to arson. The...
Poster: Nuremberg / Guilty! After the end of the war and the defeat of Nazi Germany, Allied occupation authorities in Germany used posters such as this one to emphasize the criminal nature of the Nazi regime.
The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. Learn more about the Axis powers in WW2.
Martin Niemöller was a prominent Protestant pastor in Germany who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler. His postwar words, “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out…” continue to be used in popular culture and public...
Onlookers in front of the Reichstag (German parliament) building the day after it was damaged by fire. On this same day, the Nazis implemented the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and the State. It was one of a series of key decrees, legislative acts, and case law in the gradual process by which the Nazi leadership moved Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship. Berlin, Germany, February 28, 1933.
Headquarters of the Nazi Gestapo (secret state police) and of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). Berlin, Germany, date uncertain.
The Kusserow family home in Bad Lippspringe. The family, Jehovah's Witnesses, kept religious materials in the trunk of the car and distributed them from it as well. The Kusserow family was active in their region distributing religious literature and teaching Bible study classes in their home. Their house was conveniently situated for fellow Witnesses along the tram route connecting the cities of Paderborn and Detmold. For the first three years after the Nazis came to power, the Kusserows endured moderate…
A runner begins the torch relay (the first "Olympia Fackel-Staffel-Lauf") in Oympia, Greece., ca. July 1936. The 1936 Games were the first to employ the torch run. Each of 3,422 torch bearers ran one kilometer (0.6 miles) along the route of the torch relay from the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece, to Berlin. Former German Olympian Carl Diem modeled the relay after one that had been run in Athens in 80 B.C. It perfectly suited Nazi propagandists, who used torchlit parades and rallies to…
The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were the first to employ the torch relay, an Olympic ritual. The Nazi regime used the Olympics to present the false image of a peaceful Germany.
Members of a German Zionist youth group learn farming techniques in preparation for their new lives in Palestine. Many Jewish youths in Nazi Germany participated in similar programs, hoping to escape persecution by leaving the country.
Karl-Heinz Kusserow, a Jehovah's witness who was imprisoned by the Nazis because of his beliefs. He was a prisoner in the Dachau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps in Germany.
At Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew), a Nazi anti-Jewish propaganda exhibition, a case features "typical Jewish external features." Munich, Germany, November 1937.
Horst Wessel leads his SA formation through the streets of Nuremberg during the fourth Nazi Party Congress in August 1929.
Police search members of the SA (Sturmabteilung) for weapons as they gather for a rally. This photo was taken during the years of the Weimar Republic, before the Nazi rise to power. Germany, 1929–1932.
View an animated map showing key events in the history of the Dachau concentration camp, which was established by the Nazi regime in 1933.
When Wolfgang was an infant, his parents became Jehovah's Witnesses. His father moved the family to the small Westphalian town of Bad Lippspringe when Wolfgang was 9. Their home became the headquarters of a new Jehovah's Witness congregation. Wolfgang and his ten brothers and sisters grew up studying the Bible daily. 1933-39: The Kusserows were under close scrutiny by the Nazi secret police because of their religion. As a Jehovah's Witness, Wolfgang believed that his highest allegiance was to God and His…
Signs excluding Jews, such as the sign shown here, were posted in public places (including parks, theaters, movie houses, and restaurants) throughout Nazi Germany. This sign states in German: "Jews are not wanted here."
The Hadamar psychiatric hospital was used as a euthanasia killing center from January until August 1941. Nazi doctors gassed about 10,000 German patients there. Although systematic gassings ended in September 1941, the killing of patients continued through the end of the war. In this footage, American soldiers supervise the exhumation of the cemetery at Hadamar and begin the interrogation of Dr. Adolf Wahlmann and Karl Wilig, who participated in the killings.
The Buchenwald camp was one of the largest concentration camps. The Nazis built it in 1937 in a wooded area northwest of Weimar in central Germany. US forces liberated the Buchenwald camp on April 11, 1945. When US troops entered the camp, they found more than 20,000 prisoners. This footage shows scenes that US cameramen filmed in the camp, survivors, and the arrival of Red Cross trucks.
Poster for the antisemitic museum exhibition Der ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew) characterizes Jews as Marxists, moneylenders, and enslavers. Munich, Germany, November 8, 1937. Nazi propagandists also created a film of the same name.
German citizens stand outside the decorated Hotel Dreesen, where Neville Chamberlain and Hitler held their second meeting on the Sudetenland and German demands for Czech territory. Nazi flags and the Union Jack fly from the building. Bad Godesberg, Germany, September 22, 1938.
A chart of prisoner markings used in German concentration camps. Dachau, Germany, ca. 1938–1942. Beginning in 1937–1938, the SS created a system of marking prisoners in concentration camps. Sewn onto uniforms, the color-coded badges identified the reason for an individual’s incarceration, with some variation among camps. The Nazis used this chart illustrating prisoner markings in the Dachau concentration camp.
Fritz was one of three sons born to a Jewish family in the university city of Goettingen, where the Rosenbergs had lived since the 1600s. His father owned a linen factory. Fritz worked as a salesman there, and later he and his brothers inherited the business. In 1913 Fritz married Else Herz. By the early 1920s they had two sons and a daughter. 1933-39: In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany. A year later the Rosenbergs' factory was seized and three Nazis came to the family's home. An officer set a gun…
Learn more about the Reich Citizenship Law and the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, collectively known as the Nuremberg Race Laws.
Shortly after taking power in January 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis took control of German newspapers, detailing how the news was to be reported.
Learn about the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
The Ministries Case was Case #11 of 12 Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings against leading German industrialists, military figures, SS perpetrators, and others.
Soon after Hitler came to power, debates began outside Germany about taking part in Olympics hosted by the Nazi regime. Learn more about calls to boycott the Games.
The SA (Sturmabteilung) was a paramilitary organization integral to Hitler’s ascension to power. Learn more about the rise and fall of the SA.
Born at the beginning of World War I, Wilhelm was patriotically named after Germany's emperor, Wilhelm II. The eldest son, Wilhelm was raised a Lutheran, but after the war his parents became Jehovah's Witnesses and raised their children according to their faith. After 1931, their home in the rustic town of Bad Lippspringe became known as a center of Jehovah's Witness activity. 1933-39: The Kusserows were under close scrutiny by the Nazi police because Witnesses believed that their highest loyalty was to…
This footage shows the Reichstag (German parliament) building on the day after it was set on fire. While the origins of the fire on February 27 are still unclear, Hitler blamed Communists for the incident. The Reichstag Fire Decree of February 28, 1933, suspended constitutional guarantees. Communist and Socialist deputies were expelled from the parliament. Shortly after the decree was issued, the Nazis established concentration camps for the internment of political opponents.
Hermann Göring held many positions of power and leadership within the Nazi state. Learn about key dates in the life of Hermann Göring.
Key dates in the life of Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Security Main Office, the SS and police agency most directly concerned with implementing Final Solution.
In 1945, the power and influence of the SS in Nazi Germany started to decline. Learn more about the subsequent disintegration and postwar trials.
Ernest was one of three children born to a Jewish family in the commercial city of Breslau, which had one of the largest Jewish communities in Germany. His father, a World War I veteran, owned a factory that made matzah, the unleavened bread used during the Jewish holiday of Passover. Ernest was 12 when Hitler took power in 1933. 1933-39: Ernest often got in trouble at school because people called him names. "Christ-killer" and "your father kills Christian babies for Passover" were common taunts. Many…
The 1936 Summer Olympic Games were held in Berlin. For two weeks, Adolf Hitler camouflaged his antisemitic and expansionist agenda while hosting the games. Hoping to impress the many foreign visitors who were in Germany for the games, Hitler authorized a brief relaxation in anti-Jewish activities (including the removal of signs barring Jews from public places). The games were a resounding propaganda success for the Nazis. They presented foreign spectators with the image of a peaceful and tolerant Germany.…
Thousands of Nazi criminals were never arrested. Learn more about the postwar efforts to bring Nazi perpetrators to justice.
Adolf Hitler established himself as absolute Führer, or leader, of the Nazi Party by 1921. Learn more about Hitler in the years 1919-1924.
A mass marriage of 50 couples in Berlin. All of the couples belonged to the Nazi Party. Berlin, Germany, July 2, 1933.
From a window in the Reich Chancellery, German president Paul von Hindenburg watches a Nazi torchlight parade in honor of Adolf Hitler's appointment as German Chancellor. Berlin, Germany, January 30, 1933.
Entrance to the Ploetzensee prison. At Ploetzensee, the Nazis executed hundreds of Germans for opposition to Hitler, including many of the participants in the July 20, 1944, plot to kill Hitler. Berlin, Germany, postwar.
The International Military Tribunal charged 24 defendants representing a cross-section of German diplomatic, economic, political, and military leadership.
Learn more about the 1936 German Supreme Court decision on the Nuremberg Race Laws.
Leni Riefenstahl, with Adolf Hitler in the background, directs the shooting of a film about the Reich Party Day. Here she is shooting a segment called "Day of the Reich Work Service." Nuremberg, Germany, 1936.
Each cookbook or recipe in the Museum’s collection tells a story. Learn more about the significance of these documents during the Holocaust.
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