Overview of the Holocaust During World War 2

This is the perfect place for the beginner to start learning about the Holocaust. Learn what the term "Holocaust" means, who the perpetrators were, who the victims were, what happened in the camps, what is meant by "Final Solution," and so much more.

• Holocaust Facts
• Timeline of the Holocaust
• Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah)

Although the term "concentration camps" is often used to describe all Nazi camps, there were actually a number of different kinds of camps, including transit camps, forced-labor camps, and death camps. In some of these camps there was at least a small chance to survive; while in others, there was no chance at all. When and where were these camps built? How many people were murdered in each one?

• Map of the Camps
• Chart of the Camps
• Aktion Erntefest
• Auschwitz Concentration and Death Camp
• Auschwitz Facts
• Babi Yar
• Dachau, the First Concentration Camp
• Death Marches
• Kapos
• Majdanek Concentration and Death Camp
• Muselmann
• Operation T-4 and the Nazi's Euthanasia Program
• Sobibor Death Camp
• Treblinka Death Camp
• Zyklon B

Pushed out of their homes, Jews were then forced to move into tiny, overcrowded quarters in a small section of the city. These areas, cordoned off by walls and barbed wire, were known as ghettos. Learn what life was really like in the ghettos, where each person was always awaiting the dreaded call for "resettlement."

• Lodz Ghetto
• Theresienstadt: The "Model Ghetto"
• Warsaw Ghetto

The Nazis targeted Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Communists, twins, and the disabled. Some of these people tried to hide from the Nazis, like Anne Frank and her family. A few were successful; most were not. Those that were captured suffered sterilization, forced resettlement, separation from family and friends, beatings, torture, starvation, and death. Learn more about the victims of Nazi cruelty, both the children and adults.

• Anne Frank
• Elie Wiesel
• Gypsies
• Hidden Children
• Mengele's Children: The Twins of Auschwitz
• Interview With a Survivor
• Holocaust Survivors: Their Stories

Before the Nazis began their mass slaughter of Jews, they created a number of laws that separated Jews from society. Especially potent was the law that forced all Jews to wear a yellow star upon their clothing. The Nazis also made laws that made it illegal for Jews to sit or eat in certain places and placed a boycott on Jewish-owned stores. Learn more about the persecution of Jews before the death camps.

• The Yellow Star
• The Nuremberg Laws
• Madagascar Plan
• Sterilization
• Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)
• The Struma: The Boat That Never Made It
• Voyage of the St. Louis
• The Evian Conference

Many people ask, "Why didn't the Jews fight back?" Well, they did. With limited weapons and at a severe disadvantage, they found creative ways to subvert the Nazi system. They worked with partisans in the forests, fought to the last man in the Warsaw Ghetto, revolted at the Sobibor death camp, and blew up gas chambers at Auschwitz. Learn more about the resistance, both by Jews and non-Jews, to the Nazis.

• The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
• Abba Kovner and Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto
• The Revolt at Sobibor
• A German Spy in the SS
• Raoul Wallenberg, a Rescuer

The Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler, were the perpetrators of the Holocaust. They used their belief in Lebensraum as the excuse for their territorial conquest and subjugation of people they categorized as "Untermenschen" (inferior people). Find out more about Hitler, the swastika, the Nazis, and what happened to them after the war.

• Adolf Hitler
• Heinrich Himmler
• Albert Speer
• History of the Swastika
• The Nazi Party
• The Nuremberg Trials
• Adolf Eichmann Trial
• Der Stuermer
• Mein Kampf
• Wannsee Conference
• 1936 Nazi Olympics
• SS Ranks

For many people, history is a difficult thing to understand without a place or an item to connect it with. Thankfully, some museums focus solely on collecting and displaying artifacts about the Holocaust. There are also some memorials, located around the world, that are dedicated to never forgetting the Holocaust or its victims.

• U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington DC)
• Sobibor Memorial
• Museum of Jewish Heritage (New York City)
• New England Holocaust Memorial (Boston)

Since the end of the Holocaust, succeeding generations have striven to understand how such a horrific event as the Holocaust could have taken place. How could people be "so evil"? In an attempt to explore the topic, you might consider reading some books or watching films about the Holocaust. Hopefully, these reviews will help you decide where to begin.

• Children's Books About the Holocaust
• Exodus 1947 (Book)
• Life Is Beautiful (Movie)
• Jakob the Liar (Movie)
• The Long Way Home (Movie)
• Apt Pupil (Movie)
• Mr. Death (Movie)