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Martha and Waitstill Sharp, American Unitarian aide workers, helped thousands of Jews, intellectuals, and children in Prague, Lisbon, and southern France in 1939–1940.
The Germans established an internment camp at Drancy in August 1941. The following summer, Drancy became the main transit camp for deportations of Jews from France.
Leading German officials were tried before the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, Germany. The IMT consisted of judges from Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The overwhelming majority of post 1945 war crimes trials, however, involved lower-level officials and officers. Among them were concentration camp guards and commandants, police officers, members of the mobile killing squads, and doctors who participated in medical experiments. These war criminals were…
In 1942, Germany dominated most of Europe. Greater Germany had been enlarged at the expense of its neighbors. Austria and Luxembourg were completely incorporated. Territories from Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, Belgium, and the Baltic states were seized by Greater Germany. German military forces occupied Norway, Denmark, Belgium, northern France, Serbia, parts of northern Greece, and vast tracts of territory in eastern Europe. Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Finland, Croatia, and Vichy France…
Kristallnacht—literally, "Crystal Night"—is usually translated from German as the "Night of Broken Glass." It refers to the violent anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9 and 10, 1938. The pogrom occurred throughout Germany, which by then included both Austria and the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Hundreds of synagogues and Jewish institutions all over the German Reich were attacked, vandalized, looted, and destroyed. Many were set ablaze. Firemen were instructed to let the synagogues burn but to…
Learn about trends that developed during and immediately after WWI that brought antisemitism, including its racist variant, into the mainstream of European politics.
Before the Nazis seized power in Germany in 1933, Europe had a richly diverse set of Jewish cultures. Learn more about the Jewish population of Europe.
Forced labor played a crucial role in the wartime German economy. Many forced laborers died as the result of brutal treatment, disease, and starvation.
Learn about the Nazi concentration camp system between 1942 and 1945. Read about forced labor, evacuations, medical experiments, and liberation during this period.
Before the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Europe had a vibrant, established, and diverse Jewish culture. By 1945, two out of every three European Jews had been killed.
At the beginning of WWII, people with mental or physical disabilities were targeted for murder in what the Nazis called the T-4, or "euthanasia," program.
Explore a timeline of the history of the Ravensbrück camp in the Nazi camp system from its establishment in 1938 until the last of the Ravensbrück trials in 1966.
After WWII, many Holocaust survivors, unable to return to their homes, lived in displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Read about Landsberg DP camp.
After WWII, many Holocaust survivors, unable to return to their homes, lived in displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Read about Santa Maria di Bagni DP camp.
After WWII, many Holocaust survivors, unable to return to their homes, lived in displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Read about Cinecittà DP camp.
Read the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation's short biography of Leah Johnson.
US radio and TV journalist Edward R. Murrow reported live from London during the Blitz; he also broadcast the first eyewitness account of the liberation of Buchenwald.
May 15-July 9, 1944. On this date, Hungarian officials (under guidance from the German SS) deported some 440,000 Hungarian Jews.
Mass atrocities and genocide are often perpetrated within the context of war. Learn more about World War I and the Armenian genocide.
The 11th Armored Division participated in major WWII campaigns and is recognized for liberating Mauthausen and Gusen in 1945.
Roma (Gypsies) were persecuted in Europe before and during World War II. This history is well documented in archives throughout Europe and the United States. Learn more.
The Nazis frequently used propaganda to disguise their political aims and deceive the German and international public. Learn more.
The Auschwitz camp system, located in German-occupied Poland, was a complex of 3 camps, including a killing center. Learn about the history of Auschwitz.
On November 9–10, 1938, the Nazi regime coordinated a wave of antisemitic violence. This became known as Kristallnacht or the "Night of Broken Glass." Learn more
Nazi Germany’s territorial expansion and the radicalization of Nazi anti-Jewish policies triggered a mass exodus. Learn about the US and the refugee crisis of 1938–41.
Learn about the history of discrimination against Roma in Europe and how the Nazi regime committed genocide against European Roma during WWII.
With help from allies and collaborators, German authorities deported Jews from across Europe to killing centers. The vast majority were gassed almost immediately after their arrival in the killing centers.
Explore the story of over 2,000 Polish Jewish refugees who fled east to escape war-torn Europe. They sought safety in such distant places as China and Japan.
The Chelmno killing center was the first stationary facility where poison gas was used for mass murder of Jews. Killing operations began there in December 1941.
Learn about early concentration camps the Nazi regime established in Germany, and the expansion of the camp system during the Holocaust and World War II.
Jews were the primary targets for mass murder by the Nazis and their collaborators. Nazi policies also led to the brutalization and persecution of millions of others.
Ida, born Ida Kohn, was the oldest of four children born to a Jewish family in the village of Hostoun, near Prague. Her father owned a grocery store in the village, and also recorded the birth, death and marriage certificates in the Jewish community. In 1912 Ida married Josef Edelstein and they moved to Vienna. By 1920 the couple had a son, Wilhelm, and a daughter, Alice. 1933-39: In March 1938 the Germans annexed Austria. In the next few weeks, Ida, along with other Jews, was forced to scrub sidewalks.…
Benjamin, called "Benno" by his family and friends, grew up in a religious Jewish household in Amsterdam. Benno's father, a successful diamond manufacturer, was president of the Amsterdam Jewish community. Benno had two younger sisters and enjoyed collecting stamps. 1933-39: After he obtained some work experience in a department store, Benno joined his father in the diamond business. Benno adhered strictly to Jewish law. He loved tennis and skiing, and in 1938, while skiing in Switzerland, he met a girl…
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…
Istvan was born to a Jewish family in the small agricultural city of Torokszentmiklos, about 65 miles from Budapest. Istvan worked for the Hungarian railroads during World War I, and afterwards earned a degree in pharmacology. In the 1920s Istvan married Barbara Nemeth and they settled in Torokszentmiklos. In 1929 the couple had a son, Janos. 1933-39: During the early 1930s, after the onset of the Depression, Istvan helped his father in the family's grain exporting business. In 1933 Istvan and Barbara…
Maria's parents lived in Szentes, a town in southeastern Hungary, located 30 miles from the city of Szeged. Her mother, Barbara, was born in the neighboring town of Hodmezovasarhely, but moved to Szentes when she married. Maria's father was a dentist. 1933-39: Maria was born in 1932. In 1937 her mother took in a young Austrian woman who lived with the family and helped Maria learn German. 1940-44: In March 1944 German troops occupied Hungary. Members of the Hungarian fascist party, Arrow Cross,…
Safe conduct pass issued to Hans Landesberg in the Djelfa internment camp, releasing him to leave for Algiers. Djelfa, Algeria, January 26, 1943. Hans was born in Vienna, Austria, and went to medical school. After graduating, he left for Paris and joined a battalion of the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He returned to France in February 1939, only to be interned first in Argeles and then in Gurs. Some time after the French surrender to Nazi Germany in June 1940, Hans and other…
Allied forces occupied most of Germany by the end of April 1945. German forces fighting in Italy were the first to surrender unconditionally to the Allies. Representatives of the German command in Italy signed the surrender on April 29, and it became effective on May 2, 1945. Five days later, on May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the western Allies, ending the war in Europe.
A pogrom took place in Kielce, Poland, in July 1946. Forty-two Jews were massacred and about 50 more were wounded. The event touched off a mass migration of hundreds of thousands of Jews from Poland and other countries of eastern and central Europe. This clip shows Jewish refugees, survivors of the pogrom, waiting to leave Poland and crossing into Czechoslovakia.
The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. Leo and his family were confined to a ghetto in Lodz. Leo was forced to work as a tailor in a uniform factory. The Lodz ghetto was liquidated in 1944, and Leo was deported to Auschwitz. He was then sent to the Gross-Rosen camp system for forced labor. As the Soviet army advanced, the prisoners were transferred to the Ebensee camp in Austria. The Ebensee camp was liberated in 1945.
Learn about the voyages of the ships Orduña, Flandre, and Orinoco in May 1939, carrying Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany and seeking safety in Cuba.
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
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg led an extensive rescue effort during the Nazi era. His work with the War Refugee Board saved thousands of Hungarian Jews.
Jehovah's Witnesses were subjected to intense persecution under the Nazi regime. Read more to learn why and how the Nazi regime targeted them.
The Theresienstadt camp/ghetto served multiple purposes during its existence from 1941-45 and had an important propaganda function for the Germans. Learn more.
The Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944 to prevent the government from negotiating an armistice with the Allies. Learn more about conditions in occupied Hungary.
After WWII, many Holocaust survivors, unable to return to their homes, lived in displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Learn about the experiences of Jewish DPs.
German forces occupied Riga, Latvia in July 1941. Learn more about the establishment of the Riga ghetto, mass shootings of Jews, and Jewish resistance.
In July 1938, 32 nations met in Evian, France, to discuss immigration policies for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Learn how these discussions impacted Jewish lives.
Learn more about Aliyah Bet, the clandestine immigration of Jews to Palestine between 1920 and 1948, when Great Britain controlled the area.
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