Holocaust
The Holocaust was the systematic murder of over six million Jews by the Nazi regime. In 1933 in Germany, the Nazis came to power. They believed Germans were the superior race. Although the Nazis targeted several racial groups, the Jewish population was affected the most.
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed....Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.” -Elie Wiesel
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Kristallnacht, or the "Night of Broken Glass", occurred on the night of November 9, 1938. Nazi troops executed their plan to destroy Jewish establishments in Munich. In addition, they murdered many Jewish men, women, and children. |
The interior of a Jewish synagogue in Koenigsbach, Germany ruined after Kristallnacht. Source: yadvashem.org
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PBS American Experience: America and the Holocaust (1994)
Time: 40 seconds
Time: 40 seconds
Within concentration camps, living conditions were dreadful. The overcrowding in the barracks caused epidemics and contagious disease to spread rapidly. The barracks were filthy and did not have bathrooms.
" When I walk the ground of the concentration camps, I fear that I am walking on the ashes of the victims."
-Moshe Katsav
Inmates at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Prize winning author of Night, is on the second bunk from the bottom, seventh from the left. Source: history.com
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The inmates slept on wet straw along side vermin. In order to break the prisoners' spirits, they were forced to work 11 hour days. The small rations of food, the intensity of work and the continuous torture caused a high death rate. |
" The best thing that can happen for the Jews of Germany if at all possible would be to take every last one of them out...The situation in Germany in indescribably bad" -Cyrus Adler