The
truth of the photographs of various crimes and atrocities
included in this Holocaust project needs to be shown. The
photos may be of graphic nature and disturbing - before
providing access to younger learners, parents and teachers
should preview the sites and guide through what they may
read and see.
Adolf
Hitler, murderer
of millions, master of destruction and organized insanity,
announced at many occasions the "annihilation of the Jews"
living in the territory under his control. His Nazi Regime led to Holocaust
- the systematic annihilation of six million Jews during World War
2. In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21
countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the
war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed.
The European Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust.
The number of children killed during the Holocaust is not
fathomable and full statistics for the tragic fate of children who
died will never be known. Some estimates range as high as 1.5
million murdered children. This figure includes more than 1.2
million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and
thousands of institutionalized handicapped children who were
murdered under Nazi rule in Germany and occupied Europe.
But the Jews were not the only group singled out for persecution
by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime. As many as one-half million
Gypsies, at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons,
and more than three million Soviet prisoners-of-war also fell
victim to Nazi genocide.
Homosexuals, Social Democrats, Communists, partisans, trade
unionists, Polish intelligentsia and other undesirables
were also victims of the hate and aggression carried out by the
Nazis.
The death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau
became the killing centre where the largest numbers of European
Jews were killed. After an experimental gassing there in September
1941 of 850 malnourished and ill prisoners, mass murder
became a daily routine. By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using
Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on
an industrial scale with some estimates running as high as three
million persons eventually killed through gassing, starvation,
disease, shooting, and burning.
were established 1996 to promote
education about the history of the Holocaust and assist visitors
in developing understanding of the ramifications of prejudice and
racism. The resources include essays, poems, eyewitness
testimonies, photographs, documents, films, literature, timelines,
links.