<< Previous | Displaying results 51-100 of 168 for "death train" | Next >>
The Nazi treatment of Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) was determined by Nazi ideology. Cruel conditions included starvation, no medical care, and death.
In Frankfurt, Ruth's family faced intensifying anti-Jewish measures; her father's business was taken over and Ruth's Jewish school was closed. In April 1943, Ruth and her family were deported to Auschwitz. Ruth was forced to work on road repairs. She also worked in the "Kanada" unit, sorting possessions brought into the camp. In November 1944, Ruth was transferred to the Ravensbrueck camp system, in Germany. She was liberated in May 1945, during a death march from the Malchow camp.
Excerpts from Elie Wiesel's addresses during US Holocaust Memorial Museum Days of Remembrance commemorations in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.
In April 1945, US troops encountered a barn on the outskirts of Gardelegen where the SS and its accomplices had massacred over 1,000 concentration camp prisoners.
The Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), created by Heinrich Himmler, brutally coordinated and perpetrated many aspects of the Holocaust.
Artist Esther Lurie documented life in the Kovno ghetto for its secret archives. Learn about her watercolors and sketches, the majority of which have never been found.
The Mauthausen concentration camp was established following the Nazi incorporation of Austria in 1938. Learn about the harsh conditions in the camp.
At the Berga-Elster subcamp of Buchenwald, prisoners were forced to do dangerous and brutal work in tunnels to support fuel production for the German war effort.
In 1939, Slovak fascists took over Topol'cany, where Miso lived. In 1942, Miso was deported to the Slovak-run Novaky camp and then to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, he was tattooed with the number 65,316, indicating that 65,315 prisoners preceded him in that series of numbering. He was forced to labor in the Buna works and then in the Birkenau "Kanada" detachment, unloading incoming trains. In late 1944, prisoners were transferred to camps in Germany. Miso escaped during a death march from Landsberg and was…
Learn about the background and traditional observances of Purim, a Jewish holiday marking the deliverance of the Jews from a royal death decree.
The War Refugee Board was a significant US attempt to rescue and relieve Jews and other endangered people under German occupation. Learn about its activities.
Kovno had a rich and varied Jewish culture. Learn about the Soviet and German occupations of Kovno, ghettoization, secret archives, and resistance in Kovno during WWII and the Holocaust.
Behind the number of victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution are people whose hopes and dreams were destroyed. Learn about the toll of Nazi policies.
In 1933, Nazi students at more than 30 German universities pillaged libraries in search of boo...
Benjamin Meed, member of the resistance in Warsaw and later a leader of the survivor community, was a founder of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Children's diaries bear witness to some of the most heartbreaking experiences of the Holocaust. Learn about the diary and experiences of Karolina Dresler.
Moringen, Uckermark, and Litzmannstadt were reform camps established to confine young people who were deemed to have strayed from Nazi norms and ideals. Learn more
Read the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation's short biography of Leah Johnson.
Read the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation's short biography of Rae Kushner.
In October 1941, Romania, an ally of Nazi Germany, perpetrated mass killings of Jews in Odesa. Learn more about the Holocaust in Odesa and Ukraine.
Learn about conditions and forced labor in Dora-Mittelbau, the center of an extensive network of forced-labor camps for the production of V-2 missiles and other weapons.
Julo was born to a Jewish family in the city of Stettin in northeastern Germany. From an early age Julo showed an interest in art; at 6 he had collected more than 3,000 pictures. His family hoped he would become a businessman, but his interest in painting absorbed all his energy. In 1926 he graduated from art school and by 1931 he secured his first commission in Duesseldorf. 1933-39: Until the Nazis came to power in 1933, Julo was a highly regarded artist. The Nazis' strict interpretation of art, however,…
Fritzie's father immigrated to the United States, but by the time he could bring his family over, war had begun and Fritzie's mother feared attacks on transatlantic shipping. Fritzie, her mother, and two brothers were eventually sent to Auschwitz. Her mother and brothers died. Fritzie survived by pretending to be older than her age and thus a stronger worker. On a death march from Auschwitz, Fritzie ran into a forest, where she was later liberated.
Klaus Barbie, chief of the Gestapo in Lyon, France, was nicknamed the "Butcher of Lyon" for his brutal actions towards Jews and members of the French Resistance.
Learn about the establishment of and conditions in Melk, a subcamp of the Mauthausen camp system in Austria.
Nazi Germany established the killing centers of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka as part of “Operation Reinhard,” the plan to murder all Jews in the General Government.
German forces razed the town of Lidice in June 1942 in retaliation for the death of Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich. Learn about the assassination and reprisal.
The Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei, SiPo) was a German police organization created by Heinrich Himmler. Learn about its origin and role in the Holocaust.
Learn about the Flossenbürg camp from its establishment until liberation in April 1945, including conditions, forced labor, subcamps, and death marches.
Key dates illustrating the relationship between Germany’s professional military elite and the Nazi state, and the German military’s role in the Holocaust.
Coenraad was born to a Jewish family in Amsterdam that traced its roots in the Netherlands back to the 17th century. After graduating from public school, Coenraad went on to train as a pastry maker at a trade school. But after completing his training at the age of 13, he decided for health reasons to change professions, and he began to study tailoring. 1933-39: Coenraad finished apprenticing as a tailor in 1937 when he was 20. Then he spent a year working as a nurse in a Jewish home for the permanently…
Explore Estelle Laughlin’s biography and learn about her experiences during the Warsaw ghetto uprising.
As a boy, Bill attended school in Burgsteinfurt, a German town near the Dutch border. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in January 1933, Bill experienced increasing antisemitism and was once attacked on his way to Hebrew school by a boy who threw a knife at him. In 1936, he and his family left Germany for the Netherlands, where they had relatives and thought they would be safe. However, after Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, antisemitic legislation--including the order to wear the Jewish…
As a boy, Bill attended school in Burgsteinfurt, a German town near the Dutch border. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in January 1933, Bill experienced increasing antisemitism and was once attacked on his way to Hebrew school by a boy who threw a knife at him. In 1936, he and his family left Germany for the Netherlands, where they had relatives and thought they would be safe. However, after Germany invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, antisemitic legislation—including the order to wear the…
Explore a biography of Alfred Rosenberg, influential Nazi intellectual who held a number of important German state and Nazi Party posts.
Browse a series of short biographies from the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation.
In 1939, Slovak fascists took over Topol'cany, where Miso lived. In 1942, Miso was deported to the Slovak-run Novaky camp and then to Auschwitz. At Auschwitz, he was tattooed with the number 65,316, indicating that 65,315 prisoners preceded him in that series of numbering. He was forced to labor in the Buna works and then in the Birkenau "Kanada" detachment, unloading incoming trains. In late 1944, prisoners were transferred to camps in Germany. Miso escaped during a death march from Landsberg and was…
In 1940, the Nazis established Lublin (Majdanek) concentration camp in Lublin, Poland. Learn more about camp conditions.
Abraham, known as "Bram," was born to a religious Jewish family in Amsterdam. After graduating from high school, Bram went into the diamond business with his father. By 1924 he and his wife, Tonie, had three children. Bram served as president of the Amsterdam Jewish community. 1933-39: The Soeps had a large and comfortable home. Bram and his wife often traveled abroad, and each summer the family rented a home near the seashore in Zandvoort. In 1937 Bram's son Benno joined him in the diamond…
Barbara and her younger sister, Alice, were born to a Jewish family in the town of Hodmezovasarhely in southeastern Hungary. Barbara married Desider Nemeth, a dentist, and the couple settled in the town of Szentes, not far from the city of Szeged. 1933-39: In 1932 Barbara gave birth to a daughter, Maria. She has been busy trying to find a suitable house for them that would double as an office for her husband. Barbara does a lot of volunteer work. She has taken in a young Austrian woman who lives with them…
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.
Belle Mayer trained as a lawyer and worked for the General Counsel of the US Treasury, Foreign Funds Control Bureau. This bureau worked to enforce the Trading With the Enemy Act passed by Congress. In this capacity, Mayer became familiar with the German I. G. Farben chemical company, a large conglomerate that used slave labor during World War II. In 1945, Mayer was sent as a Department of Treasury representative to the postwar London Conference. She was present as representatives from the Allied nations…
After rising to power, the Nazis eliminated freedom of the press in Germany. Learn more about how they established control over the press and manipulated it.
Anne Frank is among the most well-known of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. Discover who Anne Frank was and what happened to her.
Learn more about the modern misuse of images and symbols from the Holocaust and how this distortion can lead to antisemitism.
Japanese diplomat Chiune (Sempo) Sugihara was recognized as a "Righteous Among the Nations" for his aid to refugees in Lithuania during World War II.
Learn more about Nazi mobile killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) killing activities in the Soviet Union during World War II.
Kalisz had a vibrant Jewish community between WWI and WWII. Learn about its youth movements, schools, cultural life, sports, and religious life.
Olga was born to a large Jewish family living in the Bessarabia province when it was still part of the Russian Empire. In 1918 the province was annexed by Romania. When Olga was 12 years old, she was arrested for the first time for having participated in a strike at the mattress factory where she worked. Despite her youth, she was put in prison and beaten. 1933-39: Olga was an active and vocal member of the local workers' organization. She had been arrested and imprisoned so often that she simply…
In October 1940, Nazi authorities established the Warsaw ghetto. Learn more about life in the ghetto, deportations, armed resistance, and liberation.
We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies and the Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of all donors.