Holocaust help!?

Question

How large was the Nazi party? How many Jews Gypsies Homosexuals were exterminated by the Nazis? How many concerntration camps did the Nazi Party create and how many Jews were killed in each camp?


I really need this info

if your going to be ignorant dont even reply to my question i looked all over and i couldnt find anything and if someone was going to do my "project" i wouldnt have to be incharge of finishing it i could have easily given it to someone else in my group and risked a chance of failing because of them

Answer 1

It's a large subject ... and there's information everywhere online ... but here's a good place for you to start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust

Answer 2

The Nazi party was made up of about 10% of the Germanic people. The number exceeded 6 million, but most records were destroyed and so this is the basis of many Neo-Nazi groups, that and the first rough guesstimate of the American Red Cross which initially reported "in excess of 50,000". When looking into the camps, look for concentration as well as death camps.

Answer 3

I am posting four good websites.
The third link actually focuses on Auschwitz, but will give you a good understanding of the scope and depth of the Holocaust, from just one death camp operation.
And the last link (wikipedia) has a nice, brief recap of events.

In addition to Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals, there were also anti-government types (mainly, communists) and anyone who vocally opposed the nazi party (including your average blond-haired blue eyed Catholics and such (think of Sophie Scholl as one very good example).

Answer 4

This is not a simple Yahoo answer type of question. Crack the books for yourself. If you don't have any google for them.

Answer 5

Dude! That's why you have the Internet! Search "Holocaust" on google.

Answer 6

Why don't you research it...you asked too many questions. I am not doing your project :P

Answer 7

hello there!
Go to www.nazi.com website and you will find your answers there. Or try googling your questions and you will find your answers.

Answer 8

Few would have thought that the Nazi Party, starting as a gang of unemployed soldiers in 1919, would become the legal government of Germany by 1933. In fourteen years, a once obscure corporal, Adolf Hitler , would become the Chancellor of Germany.

World War I ended in 1918 with a grisly total of 37 million casualties, including 9 million dead combatants. German propaganda had not prepared the nation for defeat, resulting in a sense of injured German national pride. Those military and political leaders who were responsible claimed that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by its leftwing politicians, Communists, and Jews. When a new government, the Weimar Republic , tried to establish a democratic course, extreme political parties from both the right and the left struggled violently for control. The new regime could neither handle the depressed economy nor the rampant lawlessness and disorder.
This site explores the consequences of Germany's defeat in WWI.


The German population swallowed the bitter pill of defeat as the victorious Allies punished Germany severely. In the Treaty of Versailles , Germany was disarmed and forced to pay reparations to France and Britain for the huge costs of the war.
This site contains the complete Treaty of Versailles as well as maps and related material.

The German Workers' Party , the forerunner of the Nazi Party, espoused a right-wing ideology, like many similar groups of demobilized soldiers. Adolf Hitler joined this small political party in 1919 and rose to leadership through his emotional and captivating speeches. He encouraged national pride, militarism, and a commitment to the Volk and a racially "pure" Germany. Hitler condemned the Jews, exploiting antisemitic feelings that had prevailed in Europe for centuries. He changed the name of the party to the National Socialist German Workers' Party, called for short, the Nazi Party (or NSDAP). By the end of 1920, the Nazi Party had about 3,000 members. A year later Hitler became its official leader, or Führer.


Adolf Hitler's attempt at an armed overthrow of local authorities in Munich, known as the Beer Hall Putsch , failed miserably. The Nazi Party seemed doomed to fail and its leaders, including Hitler, were subsequently jailed and charged with high treason. However, Hitler used the courtroom at his public trial as a propaganda platform, ranting for hours against the Weimar government. By the end of the 24-day trial Hitler had actually gained support for his courage to act. The right-wing presiding judges sympathized with Hitler and sentenced him to only five years in prison, with eligibility for early parole. Hitler was released from prison after one year. Other Nazi leaders were given light sentences also.
This site details Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch.


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. Linked with Social Darwinism, the human struggle that said that might makes right, Hitler's book became the ideological base for the Nazi Party's racist beliefs and murderous practices.
This site discusses many of the ideas contained within Mein Kampf.

After Hitler was released from prison, he formally resurrected the Nazi Party. Hitler began rebuilding and reorganizing the Party, waiting for an opportune time to gain political power in Germany. The Conservative military hero Paul von Hindenburg was elected president in 1925, and Germany stabilized.

Hitler skillfully maneuvered through Nazi Party politics and emerged as the sole leader. The Führerprinzip, or leader principle, established Hitler as the one and only to whom Party members swore loyalty unto death. Final decision making rested with him, and his strategy was to develop a highly centralized and structured party that could compete in Germany's future elections. Hitler hoped to create a bureaucracy which he envisioned as "the germ of the future state."

The Nazi Party began building a mass movement. From 27,000 members in 1925, the Party grew to 108,000 in 1929. The SA was the paramilitary unit of the Party, a propaganda arm that became known for its strong arm tactics of street brawling and terror. The SS was established as an elite group with special duties within the SA, but it remained inconsequential until Heinrich Himmler became its leader in 1929. By the late twenties, the Nazi Party started other auxiliary groups. The Hitler Youth , the Student League and the Pupils' League were open to young Germans. The National Socialist Women's League allowed women to get involved. Different professional groups--teachers, lawyers and doctors--had their own auxiliary units.

From 1925 to 1927, the Nazi Party failed to make inroads in the cities and in May 1928, it did poorly in the Reichstag elections, winning only 2.6% of the total vote. The Party shifted its strategy to rural and small town areas and fueled antisemitism by calling for expropriation of Jewish agricultural property and by condemning large Jewish department stores. Party propaganda proved effective at winning over university students, veterans' organizations, and professional groups, although the Party became increasingly identified with young men of the lower middle classes.


The Great Depression began in 1929 and wrought worldwide economic, social, and psychological consequences. The Weimar democracy proved unable to cope with national despair as unemployment doubled from three million to six million, or one in three, by 1932. The existing "Great Coalition" government, a combination of left-wing and conservative parties, collapsed while arguing about the rising cost of unemployment benefits.
Reich president Paul von Hindenburg's advisers persuaded him to invoke the constitution's emergency presidential powers. These powers allowed the president to restore law and order in a crisis. Hindenburg created a new government, made up of a chancellor and cabinet ministers, to rule by emergency decrees instead of by laws passed by the Reichstag. So began the demise of the Weimar democracy.

Heinrich Brüning was the first chancellor under the new presidential system. He was unable to unify the government, and in September 1930, there were new elections. The Nazi Party won an important victory, capturing 18.3% of the vote to make it the second largest party in the Reichstag.

The Great Depression has a large impact on Germany.

This is a description of the Nazi Party's 1930 campaign for Reichstag seats.


Hindenburg's term as president was ending in the spring of 1932. At age 84, he was reluctant to run again, but knew that if he didn't, Hitler would win. Hindenburg won the election, but Hitler received 37% of the vote.
Germany's government remained on the brink of collapse. The SA brownshirts, about 400,000 strong, were a part of daily street violence. The economy was still in crisis. In the election of July 1932, the Nazi Party won 37% of the Reichstag seats, thanks to a massive propaganda campaign. For the next six months, the most powerful German leaders were embroiled in a series of desperate political maneuverings. Ultimately, these major players severely underestimated Hitler's political abilities.

A more complete account of the complexity of German politics in 1932 is available.

Interactive quiz on the rise of the Nazi Party.

Lesson plans, discussion questions, term paper topics, reproducible handouts, and other resources for teaching about the rise of the Nazi Party are available here.

With Adolf Hitler's ascendancy to the chancellorship, the Nazi Party quickly consolidated its power. Hitler managed to maintain a posture of legality throughout the Nazification process.
Domestically, during the next six years, Hitler completely transformed Germany into a police state. Germany steadily began rearmament of its military, in violation of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles . Internationally, Hitler engaged in a "diplomatic revolution" by skillfully negotiating with other European countries and publicly expressing his strong desire for peace.

Starting in 1938, Hitler began his aggressive quest for Lebensraum,or more living space. Britain, France, and Russia did not want to enter into war and their collective diplomatic stance was to appease the bully Germany. Without engaging in war, Germany was able to annex neighboring Austria and carve up Czechoslovakia. At last, a reluctant Britain and France threatened war if Germany targeted Poland and/or Romania.

In September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France had no choice but to declare war on Germany. World War II had begun.


On January 30, 1933, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor.
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building went up in flames. Nazis immediately claimed that this was the beginning of a Communist revolution. This fact leads many historians to believe that Nazis actually set, or help set the fire. Others believe that a deranged Dutch Communist set the fire. The issue has never been resolved. This incident prompted Hitler to convince Hindenburg to issue a Decree for the Protection of People and State that granted Nazis sweeping power to deal with the so-called emergency. This laid the foundation for a police state.

This site covers the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor and the political infighting leading up to that event.

The Reichstag fire and the ensuing emergency decree restricting personal liberties are discussed.

Within months of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, the Dachau concentration camp was created. The Nazis began arresting Communists, Socialists, and labor leaders. Dachau became a training center for concentration camp guards and later commandants who were taught terror tactics to dehumanize their prisoners. Parliamentary democracy ended with the Reichstag passage of the Enabling Act, which allowed the government to issue laws without the Reichstag.

As part of a policy of internal coordination, the Nazis created Special Courts to punish political dissent. In a parallel move from April to October, the regime passed civil laws that barred Jews from holding positions in the civil service, in legal and medical professions, and in teaching and university positions. The Nazis encouraged boycotts of Jewish-owned shops and businesses and began book burnings of writings by Jews and by others not approved by the Reich.

"The Burning of the Books in Nazi Germany, 1933: The American Response" by Guy Stern.

Nazi antisemitic legislation and propaganda against "Non-Aryans" was a thinly disguised attack against anyone who had Jewish parents or grandparents. Jews felt increasingly isolated from the rest of German society.

Fifteen photographs record Nazi indoctrination of Germany's youth.


The SA (Sturmabteilung) had been instrumental in Hitler's rise to power. In early 1934, there were 2.5 million SA men compared with 100,000 men in the regular army. Hitler knew that the regular army opposed the SA becoming its core. Fearing the power of the regular army to force him from office, Hitler curried their favor by attacking the leadership of the SA in the "Night of the Long Knives." Hitler arrested Ernst Röhm and scores of other SA leaders and had them shot by the SS , which now rose in importance.
This site recounts the events of the "Night of the Long Knives," Hitler's bloody action against the SA.

On August 2, 1934, President Hindenburg died. Hitler combined the offices of Reich Chancellor and President, declaring himself Führer and Reich Chancellor, or Reichsführer (Leader of the Reich).


Hitler announced the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. These laws stripped Jews of their civil rights as German citizens and separated them from Germans legally, socially, and politically. Jews were also defined as a separate race under "The Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor." Being Jewish was now determined by ancestry; thus the Germans used race, not religious beliefs or practices, to define the Jewish people. This law forbade marriages or sexual relations between Jews and Germans. Hitler warned darkly that if this law did not resolve the problem, he would turn to the Nazi Party for a final solution.
More than 120 laws, decrees, and ordinances were enacted after the Nuremburg Laws and before the outbreak of World War II, further eroding the rights of German Jews. Many thousands of Germans who had not previously considered themselves Jews found themselves defined as "non-Aryans."

This discussion of 1932-1935 includes Hitler's rise to power, the instruments of Nazi terror, and the Nuremberg Laws.

Read about the Hitlerjugend , a Nazi organization that counted 60% of Germany's youth among its members by 1935.

Jump to the Resource section to view photos of the Third Reich from 1933-39 including book burnings, Hitler, and Hitler Youth.



In 1936, Berlin hosted the Olympics. Hitler viewed this as a perfect opportunity to promote a favorable image of Nazism to the world. Monumental stadiums and other Olympic facilities were constructed as Nazi showpieces. Leni Riefenstahl was commissioned to create a film, Olympia, for the purpose of Nazi propaganda. Some have called her previous film in 1935, Triumph of the Will, one of the great propaganda pieces of the century. In it, she portrayed Hitler as a god.
International political unrest preceded the games. It was questioned whether the Nazi regime could really accept the terms of the Olympic Charter of participation unrestricted by class, creed, or race. There were calls for a U.S. boycott of the games. The Nazis guaranteed that they would allow German Jews to participate. The boycott did not occur.

While two Germans with some Jewish ancestry were invited to be on the German Olympic team, the German Jewish athlete Gretel Bergmann, one of the world's most accomplished high jumpers, was not.

The great irony of these Olympics was that, in the land of "Aryan superiority," it was Jesse Owens, the African-American track star, who was the undisputed hero of the games.

The Resource section offers photos from the 1936 Berlin Olympics showing street decorations, the arrival of the US team, and the Olympic stadium.

This Resource gallery consists of recent photos showing the Olympic stadium in Berlin.

Recent photos of sculptures on the grounds of the Olympic stadium in Berlin.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum offers a Web tour of its Olympics exhibit.



In March 1938, as part of Hitler's quest for uniting all German-speaking people and for Lebensraum, Germany took over Austria without bloodshed. The Anschluss occurred with the overwhelming approval of the Austrian people. No countries protested this violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
In September 1938, Hitler eyed the northwestern area of Czechoslovakia, called the Sudetenland , which had three million German-speaking citizens. Hitler did not want to march into the Sudetenland until he was certain that France and Britain would not intervene. First, he met with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and threatened to go to war if he did not receive the territory. Then at the Munich Conference, Hitler prevailed upon Britain, France and, Italy to agree to the cession of the Sudetenland. The Western powers chose appeasement rather than military confrontation. Germany occupied the Sudetenland on October 15, 1938.

These photographs show the German annexation of the Sudetenland. In Germany, open antisemitism became increasingly accepted, climaxing in the "Night of Broken Glass" (Kristallnacht) on November 9, 1938. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels initiated this free-for-all against the Jews, during which nearly 1,000 synagogues were set on fire and 76 were destroyed. More than 7,000 Jewish businesses and homes were looted, about one hundred Jews were killed and as many as 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps to be tormented, many for months. Within days, the Nazis forced the Jews to transfer their businesses to Aryan hands and expelled all Jewish pupils from public schools. With brazen arrogance, the Nazis further persecuted the Jews by forcing them to pay for the damages of Kristallnacht .

This Nazi order instigated Kristallnacht "measures."

This gallery shows the desecration of synagogues, some of which were damaged during Kristallnacht.

Movie clip documenting the violence of Kristallnacht.

An extended article on Kristallnacht including an introduction, fact sheet, personal profiles, documents, eyewitness accounts, and an epilogue.


On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, officially starting World War II. Two days later, Britain and France, now obliged by treaty to help Poland, declared war on Germany. Hitler's armies used the tactic of Blitzkrieg, or lightning war, a combination of armored attack accompanied by air assault. Before British and French power could be brought to bear, in less than four weeks, Poland collapsed. Germany's military conquest put it in a position to establish the New Order, a plan to abuse and eliminate so-called undesirables, notably Jews and Slavs.
These photographs document the invasion of Poland and the Nazi mistreatment of Polish Jews.

This discussion of Nazi Germany from 1936-1939 covers euthanasia, Aryanization, and Kristallnacht.

Interactive quiz on the Nazification of Germany

Lesson plans, discussion questions, term paper topics, reproducible handouts, and other resources for teaching about the Nazification of Germany are available here.

Confining Jews in ghettos was not Hitler's brainchild. For centuries, Jews had faced persecution, and were often forced to live in designated areas called ghettos . The Nazis' ghettos differed, however, in that they were a preliminary step in the annihilation of the Jews, rather than a method to just isolate them from the rest of society. As the war against the Jews progressed, the ghettos became transition areas, used as collection points for deportation to death camps and concentration camps .

Hitler incorporated the western part of Poland into Germany according to race doctrine. He intended that Poles were to become the slaves of Germany and that the two million Jews therein were to be concentrated in ghettos in Poland's larger cities. Later this would simplify transport to the death camps. Nazi occupation authorities officially told the story that Jews were natural carriers of all types of diseases, especially typhus, and that it was necessary to isolate Jews from the Polish community. Jewish neighborhoods thus were transformed into prisons. The five major ghettos were located in Warsaw , Lódz, Kraków, Lublin, and Lvov.
On November 23, 1939 General Governor Hans Frank issued an ordinance that Jews ten years of age and older living in the General Government had to wear the Star of David on armbands or pinned to the chest or back. This made the identification of Jews easier when the Nazis began issuing orders establishing ghettos.

Eight images show different ways that Jews were segregated from the rest of society.



In total, the Nazis established 356 ghettos in Poland, the Soviet Union, the Baltic States, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungary between 1939 and 1945. There was no uniformity to these ghettos. The ghettos in small towns were generally not sealed off, which was often a temporary measure used until the residents could be sent to bigger ghettos.
Larger cities had closed ghettos, with brick or stone walls, wooden fences, and barbed wire defining the boundaries. Guards were placed strategically at gateways and other boundary openings. Jews were not allowed to leave the so-called "Jewish residential districts," under penalty of death.

All ghettos had the most appalling, inhuman living conditions. The smallest ghetto housed approximately 3,000 people. Warsaw, the largest ghetto, held 400,000 people. Lódz, the second largest, held about 160,000. Other Polish cities with large Jewish ghettos included Bialystok, Czestochowa, Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, Lvóv, Radom, and Vilna.



Many of the ghetto dwellers were from the local area. Others were from neighboring villages. In October 1941, general deportations began from Germany to major ghettos in Poland and further east. Also, Jews from Austria and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were sent to the ghettos.
Ghetto life was wretched. The ghettos were filthy, with poor sanitation. Extreme overcrowding forced many people to share a room. Disease was rampant. Staying warm was difficult during bitter cold winters without adequate warm clothes and heating fuel. Food was in such short supply that many slowly starved to death.

Additional notes on ghetto nutrition including examples of daily caloric rations.

Even in the midst of these horrible conditions, many ghetto dwellers resisted dehumanization. Parents continued to educate their children, although it was considered an illegal activity. Some residents secretly continued to hold religious services and observe Jewish holidays.

The Nazis established the Theresienstadt (or Terezín) ghetto in northwestern Czechoslovakia as a so-called model Jewish settlement to counter rumors in the international community about the poor conditions in the ghettos. Flower gardens, cafés, and schools were constructed to demonstrate to visiting International Red Cross inspectors and audiences of Nazi propaganda films the humane conditions of a "typical" ghetto. Terezín also functioned as a transit camp for many who were later sent to Auschwitz or other death camps.

Visit the Janusz Korczak site to learn more about the teacher who resisted by carrying on his work in an orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto.

More information about Terezín, before, during, and after the war, is available at this Web site.

Photographs, maps, and an article about the Theresienstadt ghetto.

The story of Valie Borsky who spent four years in Theresienstadt.

Scenes of Warsaw ghetto life including arrival of inmates, the Jewish police, and the walls.

Scenes of Warsaw ghetto life including crowded streets, forced labor, smuggling, and homeless children.

Images of life in other Polish ghettos outside of Warsaw including a marketplace, an execution, and a ghetto newspaper.

Artworks by four ghetto artists.

Many photographs of life (and death) in the ghettos.

A history of the Vilna ghetto including maps, documents, and many photographs.

"The Cultural Life of the Vilna Ghetto" by Solon Beinfeld.

Photographs, documents, maps and an extensive article about the Lodz ghetto.

Photographs, maps and an article about the Lvov ghetto.

Read a translation of Kovno Ghetto Diary by Dmitri Gelpernus.

The Nazis undertook to liquidate the ghettos as they began full implementation of "The Final Solution to the Jewish Question" in 1942. Massive deportations of Jews to concentration and death camps continued until the summer of 1944. By that time, almost all of the ghettos had been liquidated.

Interactive quiz on the ghettos.

Lesson plans, discussion questions, term paper topics, reproducible handouts, and other resources for teaching about the ghettos are available here.


Camps were an essential part of the Nazis' systematic oppression and mass murder of Jews, political adversaries, and others considered socially and racially undesirable. There were concentration camps, forced labor camps, extermination or death camps, transit camps, and prisoner-of-war camps. The living conditions of all camps were brutal.
Dachau , one of the first Nazi concentration camps, opened in March 1933, and at first interned only known political opponents of the Nazis: Communists, Social Democrats, and others who had been condemned in a court of law. Gradually, a more diverse group was imprisoned, including Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies , dissenting clergy, homosexuals, as well as others who were denounced for making critical remarks about the Nazis.

Six death or extermination camps were constructed in Poland. These so-called death factories were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec , Sobibór, Lublin (also called Majdanek ), and Chelmno . The primary purpose of these camps was the methodical killing of millions of innocent people. The first, Chelmno, began operating in late 1941. The others began their operations in 1942.


In the beginning of the systematic mass murder of Jews, Nazis used mobile killing squads called Einsatzgruppen. The Einsatzgruppen consisted of four units of between 500 and 900 men each which followed the invading German troops into the Soviet Union. By the time Himmler ordered a halt to the shooting in the fall of 1942, they had murdered approximately 1,500,000 Jews. The death camps proved to be a better, faster, less personal method for killing Jews, one that would spare the shooters, not the victims, emotional anguish.
Five photographs and a map of Einsatzgruppen activities may be viewed in the Resources section.

A chilling report by the commander of one of the Einsatzgruppen, detailing the murders of 137,346 persons in a five month period.

Detailed information about the Einsatzgruppen, with primary source material.

A growing collection of documents related to the Einsatzgruppen is available at this site.

Map of Einsatzgruppen massacres in Eastern Europe, 1941-1942.

In September 1941, the Nazis began using gassing vans--trucks loaded with groups of people who were locked in and asphyxiated by carbon monoxide. These vans were used until the completion of the first death camp, Chelmno, which began operations in late 1941.

Nazi correspondence detailing the operation of gassing vans.

Nazi testimony regarding gassing vans.

On December 7, 1941, the Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) order was issued to deter resistance by allowing military courts to swiftly sentence resisters to death. Those arrested under this order were said to have disappeared into the "night and fog."

More on the Night and Fog order from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.



In January 1942, SS official Reinhard Heydrich held a meeting of Nazi government officials to present the Final Solution. At this meeting, known as the Wannsee Conference , the Nazi officials agreed to SS plans for the transport and destruction of all 11 million Jews of Europe. The Nazis would use the latest in twentieth century technology, cost efficient engineering and mass production techniques for the sole purpose of killing off the following racial groups: Jews, Russian prisoners of war, and Gypsies (Sinti-Roma). Their long-range plans, unrealized, included targeting some 30 million Slavs for death.
Wannsee Conference entry from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.

Minutes of the Wannsee Conference planning the annihilation of over 11 million European Jews.

Starting early in 1942, the Jewish genocide (sometimes called the Judeocide) went into full operation. Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau), Treblinka, Belzec, and Sobibór began operations as death camps. There was no selection process; Jews were destroyed upon arrival.

Ultimately, the Nazis were responsible for the deaths of some 2.7 million Jews in the death camps. These murders were done secretly under the ruse of resettlement. The Germans hid their true plans from citizens and inhabitants of the ghettos by claiming that Jews were being resettled in the East. They went so far as to charge Jews for a one-way train fare and often, just prior to their murder, had the unknowing victims send reassuring postcards back to the ghettos. Thus did millions of Jews go unwittingly to their deaths with little or no resistance.

The total figure for the Jewish genocide, including shootings and the camps, was between 5.2 and 5.8 million, roughly half of Europe's Jewish population, the highest percentage of loss of any people in the war. About 5 million other victims perished at the hands of Nazi Germany.

View hundreds of archival photographs of camps in the Resource section.

View hundreds of recent photographs of camps in the Resource section.

This table gives the name, location, type, years of operation, closure, and present status of the major concentration camps.

Many photographs of Buchenwald.

History of Buchenwald from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.

This site contains photos and maps of tunnels, shelters, and underground production facilities built with forced labor from nearby camps.

Soviet cameramen made the first pictures of the camp Auschwitz-Birkenau with its prisoners' barracks from the air.

Slideshow of Auschwitz and Birkenau camps by Scott Sakansky.

History of the Auschwitz camp from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.

Information about Chelmno, the first Nazi extermination camp.

Notes on the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women.

A collection of 11 articles about the Belzec, Sobibór, and Treblinka extermination camps.

An extensive article about Treblinka from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.

Article and photographs of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

This article provides a concise history of the Majdanek camp.

"Majdanek: Cornerstone of Himmler's SS Empire in the East" by Elizabeth B. White.

This article traces the phases of the Final Solution, from early resettlement plans, through ghettoization, to the death camps.

Nazi correspondence and reports on "medical" experiments carried out on camp inmates.

An extensive bibliography related to Nazi medical experimentation is available at the Wiesenthal Center site.

Nazi correspondence concerning plans to sterilize Jews needed as slave laborers for the Reich.

A lengthy article (with photographs) on Nazi medical experiments.

"Holocaust Numismatics," an article by Joel Forman about monetary systems used in concentration camps.

Richard Sufit's story of his captivity in Auschwitz and Buchenwald contains many details of camp life.

Staff Sgt. Albert J. Kosiek describes the liberation of Mauthausen and Gusen camps.

Article, maps, and photographs of the Stutthof concentration camp.

By the end of 1943 the Germans closed down the death camps built specifically to exterminate Jews. The death tolls for the camps are as follows: Treblinka, (750,000 Jews); Belzec, (550,000 Jews); Sobibór, (200,000 Jews); Chelmno, (150,000 Jews) and Lublin (also called Majdanek, 50,000 Jews). Auschwitz continued to operate through the summer of 1944; its final death total was about 1 million Jews and 1 million non-Jews. Allied encirclement of Germany was nearly complete in the fall of 1944. The Nazis began dismantling the camps, hoping to cover up their crimes. By the late winter/early spring of 1945, they sent prisoners walking to camps in central Germany. Thousands died in what became known as death marches.

Map of major death marches and evacuations, 1944-45.

Fritzie Weiss Fritzshall describes a death march from Auschwitz and her escape into the forest.

Interactive quiz on the camps.

Lesson plans, discussion questions, term paper topics, reproducible handouts, and other resources for teaching about the camps are available here.

Resistance against the Nazis--planned and spontaneous, armed and unarmed--took many forms throughout WWII and the Holocaust. For many, the resistance was a struggle for physical existence. Some escaped through legal or illegal emigration. Others hid. Those who remained, struggled to obtain life's essentials by smuggling the food, clothing, and medicine necessary to survive.
Resistance was very hazardous. In addition to the direct threat to those engaged in resistance, there was a great risk of immediate retaliation by the Nazis to the larger population after an insurrection.

As the war continued and conditions for Jews throughout Europe worsened, their resistance intensified. With a growing awareness of the "Final Solution," resistance turned to forms of guerrilla warfare . In addition to widespread partisan movements across Europe, armed rebellions occurred in Jewish ghettos and concentration camps. It was clear that the insurgents did not have a real chance to stop the Nazis, but their efforts were an affirmation of the determination to prevail. Secretly participating in Jewish rituals was also a form of spiritual resistance, which helped to sustain a sense of dignity and heritage for Jews in ghettos and camps. Printing underground newspapers, hiding written accounts of daily life, and holding concerts or plays in the ghettos were other ways that some defied the Nazi authorities. A few Jews were able to escape the ghettos and join existing partisan forces.



Eastern Europe, especially Belorussia, the western Ukraine, and Lithuania, had wide expanses of forests and swamps which were ideal for guerrilla warfare. Joseph Stalin called for the establishment of an underground movement in the occupied territories to fight the enemy, and in June 1942, central headquarters were established for the entire partisan movement.

With the influx of Jews into the partisan movement, family camps evolved, especially in Belorussia. These camps ranged from a few families to several hundreds of families. The families took refuge in forests primarily in an effort to save their lives, and secondarily to fight the enemy.

In western Europe, large scale guerrilla movement was impossible due to the more open topography. However, there were acts of organized armed resistance.

In total, partisans were relatively few in number, but because of their ability to move within enemy territory they could disrupt Nazi activity. Partisans interfered with enemy communication by cutting telephone, telegraph, and electrical lines and by destroying power stations. They sabotaged transportation links by blowing up bridges, roads, and railway equipment, and they sabotaged factories that produced materials for the Axis war effort.

Nine photographs of resistance groups in the forest, in the ghetto, and even in death camps.

Map of Jewish Partisan activity in Eastern Europe, 1942-43.


April 19, 1943 marked the beginning of an armed revolt by a courageous and determined group of Warsaw ghetto dwellers. The Jewish Fighter Organization (ZOB) led the insurgency and battled for a month, using weapons smuggled into the ghetto. The Nazis responded by bringing in tanks and machine guns, burning blocks of buildings, destroying the ghetto, and ultimately killing many of the last 60,000 Jewish ghetto residents. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the first large uprising by an urban population in German-occupied territory.
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising gallery 1.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising gallery 2.

Excerpts from General Stroop's report on the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising article from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.

An extensive Warsaw Ghetto Uprising bibliography is available at the Wiesenthal Center site.

Vladka Meed tells of how she watched the burning of the Warsaw ghetto from a building outside the ghetto.

Late summer of 1943 saw armed uprisings at several ghettos and camps. On August 2, seven hundred Jews torched parts of the Treblinka death camp. Most of the rebels were killed within the compound and of the 150-200 who escaped, only a dozen survived. Two weeks later, Jewish paramilitary organizations within the Bialystok ghetto attacked the German army. The revolt ended the same day with the death or capture of all the resisters. Later, on September 1, inhabitants of the Vilna ghetto revolted. Most of the participants were killed, but some managed to escape and joined partisan units.

The following month, 600 Jewish and Russian prisoners attempted an escape at the Sobibór death camp. About 60 survived and joined the Soviet partisans. An embarrassed Heinrich Himmler ordered the gas chambers closed down and the camp leveled.

Esther Raab, one of the few who escaped Sobibór, describes the preparations for the uprising.

Read about the Rosenstrasse Protest staged by women in Berlin.


On October 7, the sonderkommando (prisoners forced to handle the bodies of gas chamber victims) succeeded in blowing up one of the four crematoria at Auschwitz . All of the saboteurs were captured and killed.
Resistance continued until the end of the war.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum publication, Resistance during the Holocaust, describes examples of armed and unarmed resistance by Jewish and non-Jewish Holocaust victims. This 56 page PDF booklet requires Adobe Acrobat for viewing.

Resisters, Rescuers, and Bystanders page at the Cybrary.

"Encyclopedia of the Holocaust" article on the Partisans.

Visit the Resisters page of the People section for more information about resisters.

Visit the Resistance Literature page of the Arts section for an annotated bibliography of recommended works.

Interactive quiz on resistance.

Lesson plans, discussion questions, term paper topics, reproducible handouts, and other resources for teaching about resistance are available here.




Throughout the Holocaust, victims received help from rescuers. Courageous citizens were able to hide and protect thousands of Jews and other victims of oppression until the defeat of Nazi Germany and the liberation of the death camps by the Allied forces.


Those who attempted to rescue Jews and others from the Nazi death sentence did so at great risk to their own safety. Anyone found harboring a Jew, for example, was shot or publicly hanged as a warning to others. Sharing scarce resources with those in hiding was an additional sacrifice on the part of the rescuer. Despite the risks, thousands followed the dictates of conscience. In Denmark, 7,220 of its 8,000 Jews were saved by a citizenry who hid them, then ferried them to the safety of neutral Sweden.
Map showing the rescue of Danish Jews in the fall of 1943.

Better known rescuers include Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who led the effort that saved 100,000 Hungarian Jews in 1944. Another rescuer, Oscar Schindler, saved over 1,000 Polish Jews from their deaths. Huguenot Pastor André Trocme led the rescue effort in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, which hid and protected 5,000 Jews. Over 13,000 men and women who risked their lives to rescue Jews have been honored as "Righteous Gentiles" at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. Thousands more remain unrecognized.

Photo of a group of children who were sheltered in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a town in southern France.

Visit the Rescuers page of the People section for more information about rescuers and Web links to many individual accounts.

The Holocaust Heroes Website is an ongoing effort to document the rescue of Jews by church groups.

Varian Fry was an American who went to France on behalf of the Emergency Rescue Committee with the mission of rescuing artists, writers, academics, and others at risk.

Map showing rescue and escape from German-occupied Europe in 1942.

Visit the Rescue Literature page of the Arts section for an annotated bibliography of recommended works.



As Allied troops entered Nazi-occupied territories, the final rescue and liberation transpired. Allied troops who stumbled upon the concentration camps were shocked at what they found. Large ditches filled with bodies, rooms of baby shoes, and gas chambers with fingernail marks on the walls all testified to Nazi brutality. General Eisenhower insisted on photographing and documenting the horror so that future generations would not ignore history and repeat its mistakes. He also forced villagers neighboring the death and concentration camps to view what had occurred in their own backyards.
Scenes of Allied troops advancing into German territory and the liberation of the camps, part 1.

Views of the camps immediately following liberation as well as inspection tours by General Eisenhower.

Movie clip of children in Auschwitz shortly after liberation.

Map of the liberation of major Nazi camps, 1944-45.

An extensive liberation bibliography is available at the Wiesenthal Center site.

Visit the Liberators page of the People section for more information, quotations from liberators, and Web links to individual liberation accounts.

Interactive quiz on rescue and liberation.

Lesson plans, discussion questions, term paper topics, reproducible handouts, and other resources for teaching about liberation and rescue are available here.

Two large and on-going international needs emerged as World War II was ending: 1) retribution for perpetrators, and 2) the re-settlement of people uprooted by the war. These complex issues have occupied the hearts and minds of thousands around the world for decades. Even today, unresolved issues about the Holocaust remain.
International and national trials conducted in the Soviet Union, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and other European countries indicted hundreds of war criminals. Defendants ranged from Hitler's deputy minister, to the editor-in-chief of a malicious antisemitic newspaper, Der Stürmer, to concentration camp guards and members of Einsatzgruppen.

Seven to nine million people were displaced by the end of the war. At the end of 1945, 1.5 to 2 million displaced persons (DPs) did not want to return to their homes, fearing economic and social repercussions, or even annihilation. About ten percent of these people were Jewish. The Allies set up DP camps in Germany, which American, British, and French military controlled, and the United Nations took care of. One question that faced the Western world was, "who will offer a home to these displaced people?"

Ten scenes recording the treatment of collaborators after the War and two photos of Nazi plunder of gold and artwork.


Beginning in the summer of 1945, a series of high-level visitors examined the DP camps. Visitors included Earl G. Harrison, President Truman's envoy; David Ben-Gurion, future Prime Minister of Israel; and the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry. Harrison wrote, "We appear to be treating the Jews as the Nazis treated them, except that we don't exterminate them."

Reports by these influential visitors resulted in improved living conditions in the DP camps. Jewish DPs were recognized as a special ethnic group, with their own needs, and were moved to separate camps enjoying a wide degree of autonomy. Agencies of the United Nations and of Jews from Palestine, the United States, and Britain became involved with the camps. They provided vocational and agricultural education, and financial, legal, and psychological assistance. Several newspapers were published in the camps, keeping communication open between the DPs and the rest of the world.

Organizations, many with a Zionist focus, formed within the camps. Some Jews envisioned a Jewish homeland, considered by many to be Palestine. The British White Paper of 1939, however, still restricted immigration to Palestine by Jews.

While some of the international community were focusing on the survivors of the Holocaust, others were dealing with punishing to the perpetrators. The Allied troops were so outraged at what they found at concentration camps that they demanded German civilians directly confront the atrocities. U.S. troops led compulsory tours of concentration camps to the neighboring population. Some German citizens were forced to partake in the burial of countless corpses found in the camps.

Other more formal punishment was being discussed in the courtroom. Of the many post-war trials, those held at Nuremberg are the most well known. During the last years of the war, responding to reports of death and labor camps, the Allied countries created a War Crimes Commission and began the process of listing war criminals with the intent to prosecute. After the war, the International Military Tribunal was chartered. It composed of the four Allied nations: the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and was charged with the task of prosecuting major Nazi war criminals.

Ten photographs of Germans forced to view Nazi atrocities and help with the burial of victims.

International conventions that formed the basis for the Nuremberg Trials.

In Nuremberg, a war-ravaged town in southern Germany, 22 high ranking Nazi officials were named and brought to trial before the world. Robert Jackson, Chief Prosecutor for the United States at the Nuremberg Trials, addressed the International Military Tribunal on November 20, 1945, the first day in court:

The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated. That four great nations, flushed with victory and stung with injury, stay the hands of vengeance and voluntarily submit their captive enemies to the judgment of the law, is one of the most significant tributes that Power ever has paid to Reason.
Complete text of Jackson's opening remarks.

With newspaper and radio coverage broadcasting news globally, much of the world first learned the full extent of the "Crimes against Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity." Half of the 22 defendants were sentenced to death, three were acquitted, and the remaining were imprisoned.
Among the International Military Tribunal's conclusions were the following:

A war of aggression, in any form, is prohibited under international law.
The individual is responsible for crimes carried out under superior orders.
The Gestapo , Nazi Party , SS , and SA were criminal organizations.
The leaders and organizers of these criminal organizations were guilty of crimes carried out by others in executing the criminal plan.

This file contains eleven photographs of the Nuremberg War Trials.
This Web site gives a synopsis of defendants and sentences.

The Werner Von Rosenstiel Collection, at the library of the University of South Florida in Tampa, contains a transcript of Von Rosenstiel discussing his experiences as an interpreter at the Nuremberg War Trials.

In addition to the well-known Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46, there were Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings held between December 1946, and April 1949, which tried 177 persons. Individual countries also prosecuted war criminals in national courts of law. The British held trials of the commandant and staff of the Bergen-Belsen camp, those responsible for forced labor, and the owners and executives of the manufacturer of Zyklon B , among others. The Netherlands, Hungary, Norway, Poland, West Germany, and Romania were some of the other countries that brought war criminals to trial.

As the perpetrators were being tried, many survivors were still in limbo, waiting for an opportunity to emigrate from Europe. Joining these survivors, in large numbers in 1946, were Jews who had remained throughout eastern Europe. They felt they could no longer continue living in their former villages which, during the war, had become Jewish graveyards.

Many of these Jewish refugees turned to the American DP camps for temporary asylum. This organized and illegal mass movement of Jews throughout Europe, known as "B'richa," added to the displaced persons' dilemma.

The United States and Britain were the two countries in a position to help resolve this crisis. However, the U.S. was reluctant to increase its immigration quota. Britain, which held Palestine as a mandated territory, was hesitant to take a stand that would alienate the Arabs, who did not want to see Palestine become a Jewish homeland.

Nineteen photographs of displaced persons and the camps established for them after the War.

Henry Cohen, director of the Foehrenwald DP Camp, tells of life at the camp in 1946.

Map of DP camps in Germany and Austria, 1945-46.



It became increasing clear that the problem of approximately one million displaced people, about 80% Christian and 20% Jewish, would not be resolved easily. In 1947, a series of bills was introduced in the U.S. Congress to relax immigration quotas, but none passed.

In the meantime, the British turned to the United Nations, hoping that an international organization could resolve this thorny issue. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a plan that divided Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state, with Jerusalem under international control.

Eight photographs related to Jewish immigration to Palestine.



On May 14, 1948, the Jews proclaimed the independent State of Israel as theirs, and the British withdrew from Palestine. The next day, neighboring Arab nations attacked Israel.

In this same month, the U.S. legislature passed the Displaced Persons' Act of 1948. However, the law had strong antisemitic elements, limiting the number of Jewish displaced persons who could emigrate to the United States. Truman reluctantly signed it. Two years later, in June 1950, the antisemitic provisions were finally eliminated.



An on-going aspect of the aftermath of the Holocaust has been the quest to track down and bring to justice Nazi war criminals who escaped. Simon Wiesenthal is a prominent figure who has devoted much of his life to hunting down Nazis in hiding and prosecuting them.

The capture of war criminal Adolf Eichmann was an historic event. In May 1960, Eichmann was kidnapped by Israeli agents in Argentina. They brought him to Israel, where Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced in the Israeli Parliament, "Adolf Eichmann...is under arrest in Israel and will shortly be put on trial." He was charged with crimes against Jews, Poles, Slavs, Gypsies, and others, including their arrest and imprisonment, deportation to extermination camps, theft of property, mass expulsions, and murder. Eichmann was sentenced to death, and executed at midnight May 31, 1962. The trial brought to light, especially for a new generation of Israelis and Germans, as well as for the entire world, the brutality and inhumanity of the Nazis.

Visit the Rember.org site on the Eichmann trial for more information, transcripts, photographs, and a teacher's guide.


More than fifty years after the end of World War II, a new chapter of Holocaust history is unfolding. Evidence is emerging of the complicated financial transactions between the Nazis and the European countries and businesses that profited by the genocide. Released on May 7, 1997, a United States study, directed by Commerce Undersecretary Stuart Eizenstat, describes "one of the greatest thefts by a government in history."

The Eizenstat report on U.S. and Allied efforts to recover and restore gold and other assets stolen or hidden by Germany during World War II.

The Eizenstat report shows that between January 1939, and June 1945, Nazi Germany transferred $400 million (equivalent to $3.9 billion in today's dollars) worth of looted gold to the Swiss National Bank, in exchange for foreign currency and materials vital to Germany's war machine.
The Eizenstat report also documents that gold, jewelry, coins and melted down dental fillings of concentration camp victims were taken, mixed with plundered bank gold, and resmelted into gold bars that were traded to other countries.
There are still many unresolved issues related to the unlawful taking of property, including real estate and works of art, from the victims of the Holocaust. For example, the city of Paris possesses a number of apartments seized from deported Jews. The Louvre Museum owns pieces of art which were confiscated from Jews by the Nazis. Many of these Jews were sent to the camps and never returned to claim their property.
Belgium and the Netherlands have recently demanded to know what happened to the gold that was taken from their treasuries by the invading German army.
A March 1997 lawsuit accused seven existing insurance companies that conduct business in the United States today of failing to honor insurance policies bought before the war. These German, French, Italian, and Austrian companies are charged with acting in bad faith and enriching themselves at the expense of Holocaust victims.
PBS presents "Nazi Gold," a Frontline site exploring Switzerland's wartime actions and role as banker and financial broker for Nazi Germany.
Proceedings of the Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets held at the Department of State November 30 through December 3, 1998.

There are many more stories, of both great and small magnitude, which recount the widespread injustices of the Holocaust. Due in part to the fiftieth anniversary of the end of World War II, observed in 1995, there is now a new awareness of the tragedy and a heightened interest in discovering the truth about this horrific event. And, just as new revelations about the period are coming to light, the generation of Holocaust survivors is aging and passing away. With a growing sense of urgency, the world continues its search for answers.

Visit the Aftermath Literature page of the Arts section for an annotated bibliography of recommended works.

Interactive quiz on Aftermath.

Lesson plans, discussion questions, term paper topics, reproducible handouts, and other resources for teaching about the aftermath are available here.


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