Anne Frank - Biography -

Voices of the Holocaust During the 1930s and 40s, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered six million Jews. Hitler's intention was to destroy all Jewish communities, and to build a 'master race' of Aryans. Many other 'non-aryans' were persecuted including Romanies, homosexuals, and the disabled, as well as those who were politically opposed to the Nazis. Voices of the Holocaust consists of oral history testimonies gathered from Jewish men and women who came to live in Britain during or after WWII. Further interviews with Jewish survivors of the Holocaust can be found on the Sounds website. Survivor testimonies Listen to personal stories from Jewish Holocaust survivors, and learn what life was like for Jews during Hitler's reign. Information cards Discover more about the background to the Holocaust. Reference Consult maps, statistics, a glossary of terms and a chronological chart tracing significant moments of the 1930s and 40s Activities Teachers' pages ShareThis Survivor testimonies Information cards Reference

Auschwitz Concentration Camp What Was Auschwitz? Built by the Nazis as both a concentration and death camp , Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi's camps and the most streamlined mass killing center ever created. It was at Auschwitz that 1.1 million people were murdered, mostly Jews. Auschwitz has become a symbol of death, the Holocaust , and the destruction of European Jewry. Dates: May 1940 -- January 27, 1945 Camp Commandants: Rudolf Höss, Arthur Liebehenschel, Richard Baer Auschwitz Established On April 27, 1940, Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction of a new camp near Oswiecim, Poland (about 37 miles or 60 km west of Krakow). Auschwitz I (or "the Main Camp") was the original camp. Auschwitz II (or "Birkenau") was completed in early 1942. Auschwitz III (or "Buna-Monowitz") was built last as "housing" for the forced laborers at the Buna synthetic rubber factory in Monowitz. Arrival and Selection Gas Chambers and Crematoria at Auschwitz The gas killed quickly, but it was not instantaneous.

The Holocaust Library of Congress Resources Introduction: Nuremberg Race Laws | Kristallnacht | GhettosConcentration Camps: Dachau | Bergen-Belsen | AuschwitzRighteous Among the Nations: Gies | Schindler | Winton | Grueninger Primary Source and Analysis Tools | Library of Congress Resources Primary Source Sets | PDF Version Library of Congress Resources Exhibits Herblock! Herblock's History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium. American Memory The Hannah Arendt Papers at the Library of Congress. American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940. America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Webcasts Holocaust Cantata. Breaking the Holocaust Silence: A Hidden Hasidic Text of 1947. Women Against Tyranny: Poems of the Resistance During the Holocaust. Emissary of the Doomed. Ibsen and Hitler: The Playwright, the Plagiarist and the Plot for the Third Reich. Prints and Photographs Posters: Artist Posters. Miscellaneous Items in High Demand. Exhibits

Concentration camps - Key Stage 3 - The Holocaust Explained A concentration camp is a place where people are detained or confined without trial. Prisoners were kept in extremely harsh conditions and without any rights. In Nazi Germany after 1933, and across Nazi controlled Europe between 1938 and 1945, concentration camps became a major way in which the Nazis imposed their control. The first concentration camps in Germany were set up as detention centres to stop any opposition to the Nazis by so called ‘enemies of the state’. However, after March 1938, when the Germans annexed Austria into German territory, many thousands of German Jews were arrested and detained in Dachau, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. After Kristallnacht (the ‘Night of broken glass’) in November 1938, the Nazis and their supporters arrested many thousands of male Jews above the age of 14 years.

World War II: The Holocaust - The Atlantic One of the most horrific terms in history was used by Nazi Germany to designate human beings whose lives were unimportant, or those who should be killed outright: Lebensunwertes Leben, or "life unworthy of life". The phrase was applied to the mentally impaired and later to the "racially inferior," or "sexually deviant," as well as to "enemies of the state" both internal and external. From very early in the war, part of Nazi policy was to murder civilians en masse, especially targeting Jews. Warning: All images in this entry are shown in full, not screened out for graphic content.

Children's Diaries during the Holocaust BACKGROUND At least 1.1 million Jewish children were murdered during the Holocaust. Of the millions of children who suffered persecution at the hands of the Nazis and their Axis partners, only a small number wrote diaries and journals that have survived. In these accounts, the young writers documented their experiences, confided their feelings, and reflected on the trauma they endured during these nightmare years. THE DIARY OF MIRIAM WATTERNBERG The diary of Miriam Wattenberg (“Mary Berg”) was one of the first children's journals which revealed to a wider public the horrors of the Holocaust. Wattenberg was born in Lódz on October 10, 1924. She began a wartime diary in October 1939, shortly after Poland surrendered to German forces. Shortly before the first large deportation of Warsaw Jews to Treblinka in the summer of 1942, German officials detained Miriam, her family, and other Jews bearing foreign passports in the infamous Pawiak Prison. Each diary reflects a fragment

People's Century | Master Race | Full Program Description Full Program Description Master Race Nazism overtakes German society Original broadcast: Monday, June 15 at 9pm (check local listings for re-broadcast dates) "A sea of swastikas. In Master Race, Germans talk candidly about the initial seduction of Nazism; Gypsies reminisce about life before Hitler; and Jews recall their persecution as Hitler's "Master Race" pursued its destiny -- and descended to the greatest depths of barbarism in human history. Berlin, 1933: With a unique blend of nationalism, militarism, and racial theory, Adolf Hitler persuades millions that they are a unique people -- a master race with a special destiny. An entire generation was taught to live the ideal German life the Nazi's prescribed. The SS had originated as Hitler's bodyguards -- but they would soon spearhead the drive to confirm the German people's supremacy. For those who weren't considered a threat to the German race, life was improving by 1937. Dora Schwartz was sent to a concentration camp.

Holocaust Timeline: The Rise of the Nazi Party While in prison, Hitler wrote volume one of Mein Kampf (My Struggle) , which was published in 1925. This work detailed Hitler's radical ideas of German nationalism, antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. This site discusses many of the ideas contained within Mein Kampf. After Hitler was released from prison, he formally resurrected the Nazi Party. was elected president in 1925, and Germany stabilized. Hitler skillfully maneuvered through Nazi Party politics and emerged as the sole leader. The Nazi Party began building a mass movement. was the paramilitary unit of the Party, a propaganda arm that became known for its strong arm tactics of street brawling and terror. was established as an elite group with special duties within the SA, but it remained inconsequential until Heinrich Himmler became its leader in 1929. , the Student League and the Pupils' League were open to young Germans. elections, winning only 2.6% of the total vote.

Hitler’s ‘master race’ children haunted by their past by Russell Grigg Article from:Creation29(4):32-34September 2007 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Richard Freimark. Between 1935 and 1945, there were born some 10,000 children in Germany and an estimated 9,000 in Norway as part of a Nazi genetic engineering plan to build up an Aryan ‘master-race’ or super-breed of humanity. There were at least ten Lebensborn homes in Germany,2 and nine in Nazi-occupied Norway, where the unmarried pregnant women could give birth in secret away from their homes.3 The babies were christened in a ritual in which an SS dagger was held over them as the mother swore allegiance to Nazi ideology.4 If any of the children born into the program were disabled, they were killed or sent to concentration camps.5 Social Darwinism in action This was social Darwinism or eugenics in action. The Germany of Hitler’s day was steeped in this social Darwinism. Hitler and Darwin In due course, Hitler became the chief promulgator of Darwinist racist views.