The Holocaust
Description
History
Victims
Concentration Camps
Liberation and Beyond
Description
What is The Holocaust?
Holocaust was originally a Jewish term
that meant "a burnt sacrifice offered to
God"
Now refers to the systematic
annihilation (complete removal) of
European Jews and other minority
groups by Nazi Germany
History
Timeline
The Holocaust is considered to have
taken place between 1933-1945
World War II officially took place
between 1939-1945
1933 Hitler comes to power, along with
his Nazi Party (National Socialist
German Workers
1933 “Nuremberg Laws” make Jewish
people second class citizens and
Jewish businesses are boycotted
1933-1935 plans to reduce genetic
inferiors by sterilization
1933-1939 minorities are sent to
concentration camps
1937-1939 Jews are not allowed to
attend public schools or theatres, and
could not live or even walk within
certain sections of town
Plundered items from Jewish homes
 1938
During Kristallnacht (Night of Broken
Glass), Jews are arrested, and their homes
and synagogues are destroyed
 1939 Germany invades Poland, start of
WWII, Germans view Polish as subhuman
 1942-1944 Polish Jews sent to
extermination camps
 May 1945 Defeat of Nazi Germany
Victims
“While not all victims
were Jews, all Jews
were victims.”
~Elie Wiesel
Gestapo beating a Jew
“There may be times when we are
powerless to prevent injustice,
but there must never be a time
when we fail to protest.”
~Elie Wiesel
Other minorities
targeted
Physically handicapped
Mentally handicapped
Gypsies
Homosexuals
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Gypsies in Concentration Camp
“Wartime was the best
time for the elimination of
the incurably ill.”
~Adolf Hitler
Children
Did not escape the terror
 1 ½ million Jewish and minority
children were murdered
Jewish child in Ghetto
Children being deported
Concentration Camps
Women and children were usually
seen as useless
Only those who could work or perform
jobs were kept alive
Those who were allowed to live were
disinfected and their heads were
shaved
Many were killed in the “poison gas”
showers
Crematory from Concentration Camp
Men in Concentration Camp
Wiesel is in this picture
Glasses of those murdered in
Concentration Camp
Sorting through clothes of people
murdered in concentration camp
Mass Grave
Mass Burning
“Indifference makes that
person dead before the
person dies.”
~Elie Wiesel
Liberation
Most people had few family members
left
Many people left Germany and Poland
for other countries
Some went to “Displaced Persons”
camps
Liberation from a Concentration
Camp
Removal of the Nazi Symbol after
Liberation
Elie Wiesel 1928-
1986 won Nobel Peace Prize
Currently a professor at Boston
University
Survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald
Published Night, a memoir of his time
in the concentration camps, in 1960.
(Left) Wiesel at age 15, (Right) Wiesel in
Concentration Camp
Oprah’s interview with
Elie Wiesel
Click Here