|
Online Exhibitions
These special online exhibitions present new subjects and also extend the reach of Museum public programs and special exhibitions.
Rescue and Resistance
|
 |
This autumn (2003) marks the 60th anniversary of the rescue of the Jews of Denmark. The Danish resistance movement, assisted by many ordinary citizens, coordinated the flight of some 7,200 Jews to safety in nearby neutral Sweden. Thanks to this remarkable mass rescue effort, at war's end Denmark had one of the highest Jewish survival rates for any European country. |
 |
Oskar Schindler's actions to protect Jews during the Holocaust have earned him a special place among honored rescuers. His transformation from Nazi war profiteer to protector of Jews is the subject of several documentaries, the best-selling novel Schindler's List (1982) by Thomas Keneally, and an Academy award-winning film. |
 |
The NBC miniseries Uprising raises awareness of the Warsaw ghetto and its resistance movement. Based on historical events, the film presents a fictionalized version of these acts of defiance. Collected here are some of the resources available on the Museum's Web site to explore the history that inspired this miniseries. |
 |
The Holocaust is not only a story of destruction and loss; it is a story of an apathetic world and a few rare individuals of extraordinary courage. In remembering those who took a determined stand against Nazism, we honor the memory of those who perished, and are reminded that individuals do have the power, and choice, to make a difference in the fight against oppression. |
 |
Just months before the mass killings of the Holocaust began, some 2,100 Jewish refugees fled war-torn Europe. With the help of Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch businessman, and Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat, the refugees escaped and ultimately found safety in an unlikely destination. |
 |
Relatively few rescued Jews in German-occupied Europe. Indifference, antisemitism, and fear all deterred efforts. But among those risking imprisonment and death to save Jews were individual Christian clergy, who hid thousands of Jewish children in religious institutions or with willing families. Angered at Nazi policies, Father Jacques made the boys' school in Avon, France, a refuge... |
 |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the few church leaders who stood in courageous opposition to the Fuehrer and his policies. To honor his memory, the Church Relations department of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum asked Victoria Barnett to write an essay about Bonhoeffer spanning the years from the rise of Nazism until his death in the Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945... |
Children
|
 |
The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 set off a series of events that forever altered the Jewish community of Lodz, Poland, one of the largest in Europe. Despite the Germans' violent oppression and imposed squalor and hunger, the community leadership strove to create a "normal" world for the children as long as it could. |
 |
In New York City, January 2002, Lola Rein met with a curator of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Lola told the story of her lonely survival during the Holocaust. At the end of the interview she reached into her bag and took out this tiny dress, handing over the only item directly linking her to her mother. Lola had spent seven months hiding in a hole in a ground, wearing only this dress sewn by her mother. It was her only possession. Learn more about this silent witness. |
 |
A Special 10th Anniversary Exhibition, explores the history of children who went underground to escape Nazi persecution. With identities disguised, and often physically concealed from the outside world, these youngsters faced constant fear, dilemmas, and danger. Theirs was a life in shadows, where a careless remark, a denunciation, or the murmurings of inquisitive neighbors could lead to discovery and death. |
 |
Between the ages of 13 and 15, Anne Frank wrote short stories, fairy tales, essays, and the beginnings of a novel. Five notebooks and more than 300 loose pages, meticulously handwritten during her two years in hiding, survived the war. Launch the exhibition 'An Unfinished Story' to reveal the original writings—through sound and images—of a young woman who had great ambition to be a writer and was exploring her craft. |
 |
When World War II ended in 1945, six million European Jews were dead, including more than one million Jewish children. All Jews were targeted for death, but children were among the most vulnerable victims of the Nazi regime and its collaborators. For Holocaust Remembrance Day 2007, the Museum designated "Children in Crisis: Voices from the Holocaust" as the focus for the observance. |
U.S.
|
 |
Explore the links on this page to find out more about American responses to some of the events described in the Museum's Permanent Exhibition, The Holocaust. |
 |
The Holocaust was primarily a European story in which the Jews of that continent were targeted for total destruction. Yet, many Jews in the United States were also part of this history — whether as vocal citizens publicly protesting for a more humane refugee policy or as patriotic members of the U.S. armed forces. |
 |
"Life After the Holocaust" is an oral history project documenting the life experiences of Holocaust survivors from the end of World War II to the present time.. |
 |
On May 10, 1933, German university students launched an "Action Against the Un-German Spirit" targeting authors ranging from Helen Keller and Ernest Hemingway to Sigmund Freud. Americans quickly condemned the book burnings as antithetical to the democratic spirit. Fighting the Fires of Hate: America and the Nazi Book Burnings is one of a series of programs highlighting the Museum's 10th Anniversary. |
 |
During the first half of the 20th century, Polish-born Jewish artist Arthur Szyk raised his pen against antisemitism and Nazi tyranny. Through his artwork, Szyk exposed the persecution of Europe's Jews and pushed for international intervention to end the Holocaust. |
 |
The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder. The number of black people living in Nazi-occupied Europe was relatively small and there was no systematic program for their elimination. |
Antisemitism
|
 |
Prejudice against or hatred of Jews — known as antisemitism — has plagued the world for more than 2,000 years. The Holocaust, the state-sponsored persecution and murder of European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945, is history's most extreme example of antisemitism. Yet even in the aftermath of the Holocaust, antisemitism remains a continuing threat. |
Persecution
|
 |
The Nazi persecution of persons with disabilities in Germany was one component of radical public health policies aimed at excluding those Germans designated as hereditarily "unfit" from the national community. These strategies began with forced sterilization and escalated toward mass murder. The most extreme measure, the Euthanasia Program, was in itself a rehearsal for Nazi Germany's broader genocidal policies. |
 |
German society of individuals viewed as biological threats to the nation's "health." Enlisting the help of physicians and medically trained geneticists, psychiatrists, and anthropologists, the Nazis developed racial health policies that began with the mass sterilization of "genetically diseased" persons and ended with the near annihilation of European Jewry. |
 |
After taking power in 1933, the Nazis persecuted homosexuals as part of their so-called moral crusade to racially and culturally purify Germany. In Nazi eyes, gay men were weak and unfit to be soldiers, as well as unlikely to have children and thereby contribute to the racial struggle for Aryan dominance. |
 |
Through reproductions of some 250 historic photographs and documents, Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945 examines the rationale, means, and impact of the Nazi regime's attempt to eradicate homosexuality that left thousands dead and shattered the lives of many more. This exhibition is the first in a series about the lesser-known victims of the Nazi era. |
 |
"The Holocaust took place across more than 20 European countries which during World War II were in the grip of Nazi Germany... It is impossible to learn and understand Holocaust history without complementing the chronological description and analysis of the events with adequate information on the geography underlying this chapter of modern history." Jeshajahu Weinberg, Founding Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1996. |
 |
The items people chose to take with them as they fled Nazi persecution; a mother's efforts to protect her child; the atmosphere in ghettos in the aftermath of roundups and deportations; conditions in cattle cars during deportation -- these are among the experiences described in videotaped survivor testimony and textual narratives in this "Personal Histories" section of the Museum's Web site. |
|
A Special 10th Anniversary Exhibition, explores the history of children who went underground to escape Nazi persecution. With identities disguised, and often physically concealed from the outside world, these youngsters faced constant fear, dilemmas, and danger. Theirs was a life in shadows, where a careless remark, a denunciation, or the murmurings of inquisitive neighbors could lead to discovery and death. |
 |
Mothers, daughters, housewives, physicians, teachers, athletes—women of all ages and backgrounds were confronted with the horrors of the Holocaust. |
 |
In March 2002, the donation to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum of a Nazi wartime questionnaire for medical personnel became part of a quest to reconstruct the life of a Holocaust victim. The document shows a slight, frail-looking Jewish woman, Dr. Lucja Frey Gottesman. This yellowed, bureaucratic form opens a window into an otherwise forgotten life and medical talent cut short by the Holocaust. Read more about the investigation into Frey's life and fate. |
 |
After Germany and its Axis allies invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Nazis permitted the fascist and terrorist Ustaša organization to found the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska). The new regime was highly dependent upon German support for survival. |
 |
January 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. Explore the links on this page to learn more about the history and liberation of the camp. |
 |
During the three-year life of the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania, members of the terrorized Jewish population, determined to leave a record for posterity, methodically created secret archives, diaries, drawings, and photographs to document German crimes against their community. Most of these works were buried beneath the ghetto. Dug up after the war, wooden crates reveal the history of the ghetto... |
 |
The indigenous Jewish communities of Greece represent the longest continuous Jewish presence in Europe. These communities, along with those who settled in Greece after their expulsion from Spain, were almost completely destroyed in the Holocaust. In the spring of 1941, the Germans defeated the Greek army and occupied Greece until October of 1944... |
|
The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 set off a series of events that forever altered the Jewish community of Lodz, Poland, one of the largest in Europe. Despite the Germans' violent oppression and imposed squalor and hunger, the community leadership strove to create a "normal" world for the children as long as it could. |
 |
The recently released movie The Pianist is set in Holocaust-era Warsaw and tells the remarkable story of Polish-Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman. |
 |
On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. This event came to be called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") for the shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets. |
 |
On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. This event came to be called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") for the shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets... |
|
The fate of black people from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder. The number of black people living in Nazi-occupied Europe was relatively small and there was no systematic program for their elimination. |
Aftermath
|
 |
As the Allies advanced across Europe, they encountered and then liberated Nazi concentration camps and the inmates they found there. In 2004, with the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the Museum honors the brave men and women who risked their lives to free their fellow human beings from Nazi oppression. Explore the links on this special focus page to learn about their experiences during the war as Allied troops moved across Europe. |
 |
May 8, 1945, marked the end of hostilities and a turn toward peace for war-ravaged Europe. For those who had survived the Nazi Holocaust, however, the end of the war brought the beginning of a long and arduous period of rebirth. As many as 100,000 Jewish survivors found themselves among the seven million uprooted and homeless people classified as displaced persons (DPs)... |
 |
On December 9, 1946, an American military tribunal opened criminal proceedings against 23 leading German physicians and administrators for their willing participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity. For the 50th anniversary, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents excerpts from the official record: Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. |
 |
In the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust, the world was faced with a challenge—how to seek justice for an almost unimaginable scale of criminal behavior. The International Military Tribunal held at Nuremberg, Germany, attempted to broach this immense challenge on a legal basis. This year, we mark the 60th anniversary of the IMT, a watershed moment in international justice. |
 |
The theme for this year's commemoration is "Legacies of Justice," in honor of the courage of, and the precedents set by, those who testified during the trials of Nazi war criminals. |
|
"Life After the Holocaust" is an oral history project documenting the life experiences of Holocaust survivors from the end of World War II to the present time.. |
Ghettos
|
|
The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 set off a series of events that forever altered the Jewish community of Lodz, Poland, one of the largest in Europe. Despite the Germans' violent oppression and imposed squalor and hunger, the community leadership strove to create a "normal" world for the children as long as it could. |
|
"The Holocaust took place across more than 20 European countries which during World War II were in the grip of Nazi Germany... It is impossible to learn and understand Holocaust history without complementing the chronological description and analysis of the events with adequate information on the geography underlying this chapter of modern history." Jeshajahu Weinberg, Founding Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1996. |
|
During the three-year life of the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania, members of the terrorized Jewish population, determined to leave a record for posterity, methodically created secret archives, diaries, drawings, and photographs to document German crimes against their community. Most of these works were buried beneath the ghetto. Dug up after the war, wooden crates reveal the history of the ghetto... |
|
The NBC miniseries Uprising raises awareness of the Warsaw ghetto and its resistance movement. Based on historical events, the film presents a fictionalized version of these acts of defiance. Collected here are some of the resources available on the Museum's Web site to explore the history that inspired this miniseries. |
|
The recently released movie The Pianist is set in Holocaust-era Warsaw and tells the remarkable story of Polish-Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman. |
Propaganda
|
 |
For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the Summer Olympics. |
Documentation and Evidence
|
 |
In January 2007, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives acquired an album of photographs from Auschwitz providing a chilling look at the Nazi leadership of the camp. |
 |
To learn more about the years-long effort to open the International Tracing Service (ITS), the largest closed Holocaust-era archive in the world, explore the links on this page. |
 |
During the Holocaust much of Jewish cultural heritage was destroyed — religious objects melted down and books burned or sent for pulp. Only a sample of Jewish culture was preserved by the Nazis for their own 'scientific' purposes. At war's end Allied forces uncovered huge stores of looted books, often lying strewn in makeshift depots. What was to be done with this valuable cultural legacy? |
 |
In May 1939, the St. Louis left Hamburg, Germany, with 937 passengers holding landing permits for Havana, Cuba. After being denied entry the ship sailed toward the coast of Miami, only to be refused entry into the United States. The ship returned to Europe. Now, after seven years of searching, investigators at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have uncovered the fates of all but two St. Louis passengers. |
 |
Throughout the Reich, tens of thousands lined up at consulates desperate for visas. Few countries, not even the United States, were willing to open doors any wider. In April 1939, Germany's Hamburg-America Line announced a special voyage to Havana on the luxury liner St. Louis, departing May 13. The 937 tickets were quickly sold out, with more than 900 of them purchased by Jews... |
|
Between the ages of 13 and 15, Anne Frank wrote short stories, fairy tales, essays, and the beginnings of a novel. Five notebooks and more than 300 loose pages, meticulously handwritten during her two years in hiding, survived the war. Launch the exhibition 'An Unfinished Story' to reveal the original writings—through sound and images—of a young woman who had great ambition to be a writer and was exploring her craft. |
 |
What was it like to live as a young Jew in Berlin during the Nazi deportations? This exhibition details the life of Manfred Lewin, who was active in one of Berlin's Zionist youth groups until his deportation to and murder in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Manfred recorded these turbulent times in a small, hand-made book that he gave to his Jewish friend and gay companion, Gad Beck... |
|
In March 2002, the donation to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum of a Nazi wartime questionnaire for medical personnel became part of a quest to reconstruct the life of a Holocaust victim. The document shows a slight, frail-looking Jewish woman, Dr. Lucja Frey Gottesman. This yellowed, bureaucratic form opens a window into an otherwise forgotten life and medical talent cut short by the Holocaust. Read more about the investigation into Frey's life and fate. |
|
In New York City, January 2002, Lola Rein met with a curator of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Lola told the story of her lonely survival during the Holocaust. At the end of the interview she reached into her bag and took out this tiny dress, handing over the only item directly linking her to her mother. Lola had spent seven months hiding in a hole in a ground, wearing only this dress sewn by her mother. It was her only possession. Learn more about this silent witness. |
 |
Music was heard in many ghettos, concentration camps, and partisan outposts of Nazi-controlled Europe. While popular songs dating from before the war remained attractive as escapist fare, the ghetto, camp, and partisan settings also gave rise to a repertoire of new works. These included topical songs inspired by the latest gossip and news, and songs of personal expression that often concerned the loss of family and home. |
 |
The journal depicted in this Web site is compiled from the impressions and contributions of UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie, John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group, and two photographers. Use this journal to witness the Congo for yourself. |
 |
Brian Steidle, a former U.S. Marine, was a member of the African Union team monitoring the conflict in Darfur. He took hundreds of photographs documenting atrocities. Learn about what he witnessed in Darfur and see the evidence he gathered. |
 |
Jerry Fowler, staff director of the Museum's Committee on Conscience, recently traveled to Chad to meet refugees from Sudan. View the photo essay and read the commentary. |
 |
In 2001, photojournalist Kimberlee Acquaro traveled to Rwanda, meeting and photographing women who survived the genocide. This photo essay documents Rwandan women's emerging rights and roles in the country's reconciliation and reconstruction. |
Remembrance/Commemoration/Legacy
|
 |
Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day that has been set aside for remembering the victims of the Holocaust and for reminding Americans of what can happen to civilized people when bigotry, hatred, and indifference reign |
 |
On Saturday, January 27, 2007, the Museum observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day, first set aside in 2006 by the United Nations General Assembly. Every member nation of the U.N. has an obligation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and develop educational programs as part of the resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide. |
 |
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, champion of human rights and advocate for awareness of past and potential acts of genocide, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. |
|
January 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz camp. Explore the links on this page to learn more about the history and liberation of the camp. |
 |
In conjunction with National Poetry Month, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presented a special one-day program devoted exclusively to poetry inspired by the Holocaust. |
|
On November 9, 1938, the Nazis unleashed a wave of pogroms against Germany's Jews. In the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses and homes were damaged or destroyed. This event came to be called Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass") for the shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets. |
 |
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum joins the rest of the nation in commemorating the tragic events of September 11, 2001. In keeping with our mission of remembrance, Holocaust survivors read the names of those who died in the terrorist attacks. |
 |
In the aftermath of World War II, the world confronted the legacy of the Holocaust. Many of the issues raised by this cataclysmic event continue to have an impact on our lives and the world in which we live. |
General Reference
|
|
The items people chose to take with them as they fled Nazi persecution; a mother's efforts to protect her child; the atmosphere in ghettos in the aftermath of roundups and deportations; conditions in cattle cars during deportation -- these are among the experiences described in videotaped survivor testimony and textual narratives in this "Personal Histories" section of the Museum's Web site. |
|
"The Holocaust took place across more than 20 European countries which during World War II were in the grip of Nazi Germany... It is impossible to learn and understand Holocaust history without complementing the chronological description and analysis of the events with adequate information on the geography underlying this chapter of modern history." Jeshajahu Weinberg, Founding Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1996. |
 |
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's online encyclopedia containing articles, film, photographs, individual histories, survivor testimony, chronologies, maps, artifacts, music, and links to resources. Major topics covered include the history of the Holocaust, the Aftermath, Antisemitism, the Camp System, Children, Einsatzgruppen, Extermination Camps, Final Solution, Forced Labor, Ghettos, Jewish Resistance, Liberation of Nazi Camps, Mosaic of Victims, Non-Jewish Resistance, Pogroms, Racism, Refugees, Rescue, Third Reich, United States and the Holocaust, War Crimes Trials, Women, and World War II. |
|
