Women in the Third Reich - Photograph

Quakers - Photograph

Drancy - Photographs

The Germans established the Drancy camp in France in August 1941. Drancy later became the major transit camp for the deportations of Jews from France. Fewer than 2,000 of the almost 65,000 Jews deported from the Drancy camp survived the Holocaust.

Drancy - Animated Maps/Maps

The Germans established the Drancy camp in France in August 1941. Drancy later became the major transit camp for the deportations of Jews from France. Fewer than 2,000 of the almost 65,000 Jews deported from the Dranc...

Westerbork - Photographs

Westerbork was located in the Netherlands, which Germany had invaded in 1940. From 1942 to 1944, it served as a transit camp for Jews before they were deported to killing centers. During those two years, the Germans deported 97,776 Jews from Weste...

Westerbork - Animated Map/Map

From 1942 to 1944, Westerbork served as a transit camp for Jews before they were deported to the killing centers.

Westerbork - ID Card/Oral History

Westerbork was located in the Netherlands, which Germany had invaded in 1940. From 1942 to 1944, it served as a transit camp for Jews before they were deported to killing centers.Learn about Holocaust survivors' experiences in Westerbork.&n...

Budapest - ID Card/Oral History

Jewish Councils (Judenraete) - Photographs

The Germans established Jewish Councils (Judenraete) in the ghettos during World War II. Jewish Councils were required to implement Nazi policies in the ghettos. This role meant impossible moral dilemmas. Council members had to decide whe...

Jewish Brigade Group - Photograph

Janowska - Photographs

Janowska was a forced labor camp for Jews in German-occupied Poland. It also served as a transit camp during the mass deportations of Polish Jews to the killing centers in 1942. Jews underwent a selection process in Janowska similar to that used a...

Polish Jews in Lithuania: Escape to Japan - Photograph

Gurs - Photographs

Almost 22,000 prisoners—more than 18,000 of them Jewish—passed through the Gurs camp in France. Living conditions in Gurs were overcrowded. Prisoners faced a constant shortage of water, food, and clothing. Many of the camp's Jewish prisoners were...

Gurs - ID Cards/Oral Histories

Almost 22,000 prisoners—more than 18,000 of them Jewish—passed through the Gurs camp in France. Living conditions in Gurs were overcrowded. Prisoners faced a constant shortage of water, food, and clothing. Many of the camp's Jewish prisoners were...

Płaszów - Photographs

The Płaszów camp was established in 1942 under the authority of the SS and police leaders in Krakow (Cracow). Płaszów was initially a forced-labor camp for Jews, but became a concentration camp in 1944. The largest...

Płaszów - Maps

The Płaszów camp was established in 1942 under the authority of the SS and police leaders in Krakow (Cracow). Płaszów was initially a forced-labor camp for Jews, but became a concentration camp in 1944. The largest number of people confined there...

Natzweiler-Struthof - Maps

Located in eastern France, the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp was one of the smaller camps built by the Germans. From May 1941 to March 1945, between 19,000 and 20,000 people were murdered in the Natzweiler-Struthof camp system.

Salonika - Photograph

Before World War II, Salonika had the largest Jewish community in Greece. In April 1941, Germany occupied parts of Greece, including Salonika. Between 1941 and 1943, Salonika's Jewish community was destroyed. More t...

Breendonk - Photographs

Breendonk was an internment camp in German-occupied Belgium. The site had originally been built in the early twentieth century to serve as a Belgian fortress. After Germany conquered Belgium in May 1940, the Germans turned Breendonk into an internme...

Mechelen - Maps

In the summer of 1942, the Germans made preparations to deport the Jews of Belgium. They converted military barracks in the city of Mechelen into a transit camp. Between August 4, 1942, and July 31, 1944, a total of 28 trains carrying 25,257 Jews left Mechelen for German-occupied Poland; most of them went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. This figure represented more than half of the Belgian Jews murdered during the Holocaust.

Jewish Parachutists from Palestine - Photographs

Between 1943 and 1945, a group of Jewish men and women from Palestine parachuted into German-occupied Europe. The 32 parachutists had volunteered with the British army and were sent on rescue and resistance missions. The Germans captured 12 of the...

Jasenovac - Photograph

Berlin - Animated Map/Map

Gross-Rosen - Maps

Gross-Rosen became an independent concentration camp in 1941. The camp eventually expanded to become the center of an industrial complex and to include a vast network of at least 97 subcamps. 

Gross-Rosen - ID Cards/Oral Histories

It is estimated that of the 120,000 prisoners who passed through the Gross-Rosen camp system, at least 40,000 died either in the camp or during its evacuation. These ID cards and testimonies describe the experiences of individuals who were imprisoned in Gross-Rosen.

Tarnow - ID Cards/Oral Histories

Germany occupied the Polish city of Tarnow in 1939. Deportations from Tarnow began in June 1942, first to the Belzec killing center. Following the June deportations, the Germans forced the surviving Jews in Tarnow, as well as Jews from nearby town...

Romania - Photograph

Romania - Animated Map/Map

Romania - ID Card/Oral History

Concentration Camps, 1939–42 - ID Card/Oral History

Concentration Camps, 1942–45 - Historical Film Footage

Emigration and the Evian Conference - Photographs

In July 1938, delegates from 32 countries met in Evian, France for a conference on the refugee crisis. The delegates expressed sympathy for the Jews who were seeking to flee Nazi persecution. Most countries, however, refused to admit more refugees.

Neuengamme - Photographs

The SS first established Neuengamme in December 1938 as a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. Later, in June 1940, the SS decided to establish an independent concentration camp at Neuengamme. Prisoners of the camp were subjected to horrific living condition...

Neuengamme - Maps

The SS first established Neuengamme in December 1938 as a subcamp of Sachsenhausen. Later, in June 1940, the SS decided to establish an independent concentration camp at Neuengamme. Prisoners of the camp were subjected to horrific living condition...

Polish Jewish Refugees in the Shanghai Ghetto, 1941–1945 - ID Card/Oral History

German American Bund - Photographs

The German-American Bund was an antisemitic, pro-Nazi group for Americans of German descent.

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration - Photograph

The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was created at a 44-nation conference in 1943. Its mission was to provide economic assistance to European nations after World War II and to repatriate and assist refugees. 

Onti Lazar: Maps

Gertruda Nowak: Maps

Gertruda Nowak was born to a Roman Catholic family in Poland. The Germans invaded her country on September 1, 1939. Gertruda's father was later accused of working for the Polish underground and taken away. The Germans then came for the rest of the...

Chaya Szabasson Rubinstein: Maps

Chaya Szabasson Rubinstein was living with her family in Kozienice, Poland, when German troops invaded in September 1939. Within weeks, the Jewish section of town was declared a ghetto. In 1942, Chaya was deported along with her husband, daughter, a...

Hersh Gordon: Maps

Hersh Gordon was born to a Jewish family in Kovno, Lithuania in 1925. After Germany occupied the city in 1941, Kovno's Jews were forced into a ghetto. In 1944, Hersh was deported to Auschwitz and then Dachau. He immigrated to the United States aft...

Guta Blass Weintraub: Maps

Guta Blass Weintraub was born to Jewish parents in Lodz, Poland. Not long after Guta entered secondary school, the Germans invaded Poland. Guta was forced to work in labor camps until 1944, when she was deported to the Majowka camp. From there, sh...

Aaron Lejzerowicz: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Poland, Aaron Lejzerowicz was endangered by the German invasions of Poland and the USSR. These maps offer a small glimpse of German military activity over the course of World War II—events w...

Eva Heyman: Maps

Eva was born to Jewish parents and grew up in a city on the border between Romania and Hungary. On March 19, 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary and Eva was soon forced into a ghetto. She was later deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed at the a...

Eugeniusz Rozenblum: Maps

Eugeniusz Rozenblum was born to Jewish parents in Lodz, Poland. The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939 and in 1940 they forced the Jews of Lodz into a ghetto. In 1944, Eugeniusz was taken to Auschwitz and later to the Dachau camp. Out of the 7...

Chuna Grynbaum: Maps

Chuna Grynbaum was born to Jewish parents in Starachowice, Poland in 1928. When he was 13 years old, Chuna was sent to forced labor at a munitions factory. In 1943, he attempted to escape with his sister, Faiga. Faiga...

Gisha Galina Bursztyn: Maps

Born to Jewish parents in Poland, Gisha Galina Bursztyn moved to the city of Warsaw after she married. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Warsaw fell four weeks later, and a ghetto was set up in November 1940. During a massive roundup i...

Jeno Brieger: Maps

Jeno Brieger was born to a Jewish family in northeastern Hungary. The Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. Jeno was forced into a ghetto and then deported to Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberate...

Joseph Gani: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Preveza, Joseph Gani was endangered by the German occupation of Greece. In March 1944, the Nazis deported the Jews of Preveza to Auschwitz. Joseph was killed several months later, at the age of 18. These maps add geograp...

Jozef Wilk: Maps

Born to Roman Catholic parents in Poland, Jozef Wilk was a teenager when Germany invaded in 1939. Jozef left for Warsaw and joined a special unit of the Polish resistance. During the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, Joz...