What
is the Holocaust?
The
Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six
million Jews by the Nazi regime 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. But Jews were
not the only group singled out for persecution by
Hitler’s 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.
Jehovah’s Witnesses, 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.
How many Jews were murdered?
While it is impossible to ascertain the exact number
of Jewish victims, statistics indicate that the total
was over 5,830,000. Six million is the round figure
accepted by most authorities.
How many children were murdered?
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.
Why
did Hitler hate the Jews?
Holocaust happened because Hitler and the Nazis were
racist. They believed the German people were a
'master race', who were superior to others. They even
created a league table of 'races' with the Aryans at
the top and with Jews, Gypsies and black people
at the bottom. These 'inferior' people were seen as a
threat to the purity and strength of the German
nation. When the Nazis came to power they persecuted
these people, took away their human rights and
eventually decided that they should be exterminated.
How
did the Nazis carry our their policy of genocide?
In the late 1930's the Nazis killed thousands of
handicapped Germans by lethal injection and poisonous
gas. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in
June 1941, mobile killing units following in the wake
of the German Army began shooting massive numbers of
Jews and Gypsies in open fields and ravines on the
outskirts of conquered cities and towns. Eventually
the Nazis created a more secluded and organized method
of killing. Six extermination centers were established
in occupied Poland where large-scale murder by gas and
body disposal through cremation were conducted
systematically. Victims were deported to these centers
from Western Europe and from the ghettos in Eastern
Europe which the Nazis had established. In addition,
millions died in the ghettos and concentration camps
as a result of forced labor, starvation, exposure,
brutality, disease, and execution.
When
was the first concentration camp established?
Dachau was the first concentration camp established
and was opened on March 22, 1933. The camp's first
inmates were primarily political prisoners (Communists
or Social Democrats), habitual criminals, homosexuals,
Jehovah's Witnesses, and anti-socials (beggars,
vagrants, hawkers). Others considered problematic by
the Nazis were also included (Jewish writers and
journalists, lawyers, unpopular industrialists, and
political
What
is a death camp? How many? Where?
A death camp camp is a concentration camp with special
apparatus especially designed for mass murder. Six
such camps existed: Auschwitz-Birkenau,
Belzec,
Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor,
and Tremblinka.
All were located in Poland.
What
was Auschwitz-Birkenau?
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.
Alois
Brunner
Bibliography/Sources:
BBC News: Simon
Wiesenthal: Nazi-hunter
Beate
and Serge Klarsfeld
Bolivia Web "The Outsiders"
Dokumentationsarchiv
des Osterreichischen Wiederstandes
Philippe Brunet-Lecomte, "Les trois traîtres
français d'Izieu," Lyon Figaro 2 June, 1987
Pierre Bois, "D'Izieu à Auschwitz, le martyre
de 44 enfants," Le Figaro 28 May, 1987
Letter from Izieu By Raphael Rothstein
Musee Memorial des Enfants d’Izieu (Memorial
Museum of the Children of Izieu)- www.izieu.alma.fr/
Photographs from French Children of the Holocaust
A Memorial by Serge Klarsfeld
Pursuing Alois Brunner Until The Day He dies
by Jay Bushinsky, The Jewish Voice
Swastika Over Paris by Jeremy Josephs
The Consortium by Martin A. Lee
The History of Espionage - www.theoffice.net/1spy
The Last Nazi - www.tabloid.net
- AFP
The Macedonian News Service
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Simon Wiesenthal Center - www.wiesenthal.com/
The
Holocaust Website