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The Order Police (Ordnungspolizei, Orpo) were Nazi Germany’s uniformed police forces. They became perpetrators of horrific crimes and played a significant role in the Holocaust.
SS officer Kurt Gerstein was horrified by what he witnessed at the Belzec killing center. Learn about how he recorded what he witnessed and about his postwar fate.
How involved in the Holocaust were German professionals and civil leaders? What were some of the motivations and pressures that led to a wide range of behavior? What indeed was the range of behavior, from complying to perpetrating?Explore t...
The Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls were developed as Nazi Party youth groups to indoctrinate children and youth in Nazi ideology and policy.
Betje and her sister Saartje were born to Jewish parents in the town of Zwolle in the Netherlands' north central province of Overijssel. Betje was known affectionately as "Bep" to her friends. The Jakobs family owned a successful sporting goods store. 1933-39: As a young girl, Betje enjoyed playing the piano, knitting and tennis. At age 16, while still in secondary school, she began to date Maurits Wijnberg, a boy two years her senior, whose family owned Zwolle's Hotel Wijnberg. 1940-42: The Germans…
Valtr was the fourth of six children born to Jewish parents in a small Moravian town, where his father ran a dry-goods and clothing store. The Krakauers spoke both Czech and German at home. Valtr attended German-language schools and also played soccer for the Maccabi Jewish team. After graduating from secondary school, Valtr enrolled in a fashion-design school in the city of Brno. 1933-39: In Brno, Valtr founded a factory that produced ready-made clothes. He closely followed the rise of Nazism in Germany…
Rudolf, known as Rudi, and his brother were born in Amsterdam to a Jewish family of Spanish descent. The family lived in a pleasant neighborhood in the southern part of the city. Rudi attended Montessori grade school and high school. 1933-39: For summer vacation in 1935 Rudi's parents rented a house near the beach in Zandvoort, near Amsterdam. There he met a girl, Ina, and they became good friends. In the summer they discovered that they would be attending the same Montessori high school. Rudi and Ina 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…
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…
Gideon was known affectionately as "Gi" by his family and friends. His parents were descended from the Huguenots, French Protestants who came to the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gi had two brothers and two sisters, and his father worked in the insurance business. 1933-39: Gi had a large circle of friends, both Christians and Jews, and after school they all liked to get together. He and his friends enjoyed taking bike trips, having parties, and playing records. In the mid-1930s his parents…
Alfred was the fifth of six children born to Jewish parents in a small town in Moravia, where his father ran a dry-goods and clothing store. The Krakauers spoke both Czech and German at home. In 1929 and 1930, after graduating from secondary school, Alfred served in the Czechoslovakian army. He enjoyed skiing and also played soccer for the Maccabi Jewish team. 1933-39: Alfred graduated in 1934 from Prague's Industrial School for Art. He became a graphic artist and decided to remain in Prague because of…
Miles Lerman was a Holocaust survivor, partisan fighter in the forests of Poland, international leader in the cause of Holocaust remembrance, and a "founding father" of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Learn about the establishment of the Theresienstadt camp/ghetto, which served multiple purposes from 1941-45 and had an important propaganda function for the Germans.
Nazi propaganda had a key role in the persecution of Jews. Learn more about how Hitler and the Nazi Party used propaganda to facilitate war and genocide.
Adolf Hitler came to power with the goal of establishing a new racial order in Europe dominated by the German “master race.” This goal drove Nazi foreign policy. Learn more
Despite the Nazi Party's ideology of keeping women in the home, their roles expanded beyond wives and mothers.
The Nazis used propaganda to promote their ideas and beliefs about a "national community." Read more about the principles, goals, and strategies of Nazi propaganda.
The Nazi Party targeted German youth as a special audience for its propaganda messages. Read more about the indoctrination of youth.
Hermann Ludwig Maas, a Protestant pastor in Heidelberg, Germany, was a rescuer and clergyman who stood in solidarity with the Jewish community.
During WWII, a few thousand Polish Jewish refugees lived in Japan. Learn more about the wartime relocation into and the conditions of the Shanghai ghetto.
After rising to power in January 1933, the Nazis began the process of moving Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship. Learn more.
At the July 1938 Evian Conference, delegates from nations and organizations discussed the issue of Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. Learn more
Trials of top surviving German leaders for Nazi Germany’s crimes began in Nuremberg after World War II. Read about the Nuremberg trials.
The War Refugee Board was formed in 1944 by executive order under President Roosevelt. It was tasked with the rescue and relief of victims of Nazi oppression.
After WWII, many Holocaust survivors, unable to return to their homes, lived in displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Read about Feldafing DP camp.
Kalisz had a vibrant Jewish community between WWI and WWII. Learn about its youth movements, schools, cultural life, sports, and religious life.
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.
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was commander of all German armed forces during World War II. Learn about his military career and postwar trial.
German General Erich Ludendorff was a key proponent of the fictitious “Stab-in-the-Back” myth which blamed Jews and others for Germany’s defeat in WWI.
To implement their policies, the Nazis had help from individuals across Europe, including professionals in many fields. Learn about the role of the German police.
Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (My Struggle) is the best known and most popular Nazi text ever published with over 12 million copies sold from 1925 to 1945.
Many German businesses were involved in the policies of the Third Reich. Learn about Topf and Sons, which sold ovens to the SS for major concentration camps in Germany.
French policeman Théophile Larue, who warned his Jewish neighbors of an upcoming roundup.
November 3, 1943. On this date, SS and police units implemented "Operation Harvest Festival" (also known as Aktion Erntefest).
August 1, 1944. On this date, the Warsaw uprising began with the Polish Home Army rising against the Nazis in an attempt to liberate Warsaw.
May 10, 1933. On this date, books deemed "un-German" are publicly burned throughout Germany.
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is the most widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times. Although repeatedly discredited, it continues to circulate.
After WWII and the fall of the Nazi regime, Holocaust survivors faced the daunting task of rebuilding their lives. Listen to Regina Gelb's story.
Ben was one of four children born to a religious Jewish family. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. After the Germans occupied Warsaw, Ben decided to escape to Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. However, he soon decided to return to his family, then in the Warsaw ghetto. Ben was assigned to a work detail outside the ghetto, and helped smuggle people out of the ghetto—including Vladka (Fagele) Peltel, a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), who later became his wife. Later, he went into…
Beginning in 1933, the Nazi regime harassed and destroyed lesbian communities and networks that had developed during the Weimar Republic.
After WWII, prosecutors faced the challenge of assessing the guilt of propagandists whose words, images, and writings had supported Nazi brutality and mass murder.
The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker relief organization, helped thousands of people before, during, and after World War II. Learn about its refugee aid work.
Danuta was born to Roman Catholic parents in the small industrial town of Piotrkow Trybunalski in central Poland. Her father and mother were school teachers. She and her younger sister, Maria, became friends with two Jewish girls, Sabina and Helena Szwarc. Although their houses were more than a mile apart, the girls often played together. 1933-39: Danuta was planning on attending college in September 1939, but on September 1 Germany invaded Poland. Four days later, German soldiers streamed into Danuta's…
Maria was born to Roman Catholic parents in the industrial town of Piotrkow Trybunalski in central Poland. Her father and mother were school teachers. Maria attended grade school and secondary school in Piotrkow. She and her older sister, Danuta, became friends with two Jewish girls, Sabina and Helena Szwarc. Although their houses were more than a mile apart, the girls often played together. 1933-39: The Germans invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and occupied Piotrkow four days later. Most schooling for…
David was the second of four children born to religious Jewish parents in Kozienice, a town in southeastern Poland. His father, Manes, owned a shoe factory that supplied stores throughout the country. His mother, Sarah, took care of the home and children, and helped in the factory. Kozienice had a thriving Jewish community that constituted over half of the town's population. 1933–39: For most of the 1930s, David spent his days going to school, playing sports, and working in his father's shoe factory.…
Gisella lived with her parents, grandparents, uncle, and older sister, Inge, in Lechenich, a small village outside of Cologne. The Bergs were an observant Jewish family. Gisella's grandfather was the president of the local synagogue association and her uncle was the cantor. Her father, Josef was a respected cattle dealer, who had many business and personal contacts with their Jewish and non-Jewish neighbors. 1933–39: Gisella was born several months after the Nazis came to power. Her parents feared for…
Kurt was born to Jewish parents in the city of Aachen, where his mother's family had resided since the 18th century. His father, though trained as a chef, worked as a butcher and also managed several stores for his father-in-law. The Paulys lived over one of those shops in the nearby suburb of Eilendorf. Kurt enjoyed large family gatherings, where he would play with his cousins, Anne and Margot Frank. 1933–39: When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the situation drastically changed for the Paulys.…
Susan grew up in Vacha, a small Thuringian town where her family had lived for more than 400 years. Her father, Herman, owned a general store and her mother, Bertha, took care of the home and children. Susan had a younger sister Brunhilde. The Strausses were one of about 25–30 Jewish families living in Vacha. 1933–39: Soon after the Nazis took power, many of Susan's friends stopped playing with her. In 1938 she was forced to leave the public school. That November, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms…
The Martons were one of 35 Jewish families in the small northern Transylvanian town of Beliu. Barbara's father owned a grocery, and her mother helped out in the store. The Martons lived in a comfortable home with a flower garden, and enjoyed friendly relations with the townspeople. As a child, Barbara learned Hebrew on Sunday mornings at the home of Beliu's rabbi. 1933-39: Barbara's father's business began to fall off when another grocery opened nearby in Beliu. By 1937 business was so bad that they sold…
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