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The Holocaust

The holocaust is the term used to refer to the period from 1933 to 1945, before and during World War II, when Adolph Hitler and the Nazis systematically persecuted and murdered nearly six million Jews. More than one third of the world's Jewish people, as well as another five million non-Jews throughout Europe, were killed during this period. This genocide was what the Nazis referred to as the "Final Solution".

Sample some of the following activities to learn more about the holocaust.

 

Places To Go    People To See    Things To Do    Teacher Resources    Bibliography

Places To Go

The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out about the holocaust.

Auschwitz Alphabet
Concentration camps stand as a silent reminder of the horror of the Holocaust. Today, the remains of some of the concentration camps have been turned into museums and memorials. This site about Auschwitz has information about the camp from its survivors.
The Forgotten Camps
The names of some of the most horrific Nazi concentration camps are well known: Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Treblinka, Belsen. From this site, learn about some of the lesser known camps. According to this site, the Nazis government established over 15,000 camps.
Museum of Tolerance
Visit this online museum and experience its virtual exhibits such as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. The site contains a multimedia learning center and teacher resources that include a glossary, timeline, bibliographies, 36 questions and answers about the Holocaust, and curricular resources.
Nuremberg Trials
Virtually travel to Nuremberg, Germany. After the war, Nuremberg was the seat of the international tribunal for war crimes.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Virtually visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Its website contains a variety of resources designed for use by teachers and students.
The Warsaw Ghetto
Travel back in time to the Warsaw Ghetto. The word ghetto refers to a section of a city where members of any racial group are segregated. During World War II the Nazis set up ghettos in many towns in eastern Europe from where Jewish families were kept captive until they could be transported to concentration camps for liquidation. The Warsaw ghetto was the most famous of the Jewish ghettos.

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People To See

Anne Frank Online 
The Anne Frank Center USA is a not-for-profit organization that promotes the universal message of tolerance by developing and disseminating a variety of educational programs, including exhibitions, workshops, and special events.
Holocaust Heroes
Holocaust Heroes is a recently launched site devoted to honoring the brave men and women who risked their lives to rescue and shelter Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi reign of terror.
Holocaust Survivors
Holocaust Survivors, an excellent educational resource about the Nazi Holocaust of Jews in World War II, includes interviews, photographs and audio recordings of survivors. Other features include interactive discussions, a Holocaust encyclopedia and a bibliography. The site is both emotionally moving and factually informative.
The Jewish Student Online Resource Center: Oskar Schindler
Oskar Schindler was not necessarily an exemplary man in his early years. Yet, later he would spend his personal fortune and work tirelessly to save over 1200 Jews who worked in his ammunition factory. Read his story.
The Jewish Student Online Resource Center: Raoul Wallenberg
Meet Raoul Wallenberg. He was a Swedish diplomat and businessman working in Budapest. He helped save approximately 100,000 Hungarian Jewish individuals from Nazi extermination by issuing Swedish passports to about 20,000 of them and sheltering others in houses he bought or rented.
Simon Wiesenthal
Meet Simon Wiesenthal. A total of eighty-nine members of both his wife's and his families perished in the holocaust. He has devoted his life to gathering and preparing evidence on Nazi atrocities.

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Things To Do

About.Com - Holocaust
Find links to information about Adolph Hitler and other Nazi officials, death camps, allied liberation of the camps, and several dozen more topics relating to the holocaust. 
Cybrary of the Holocaust 
Become involved with the Legacy Forum at this Cybrary. It's a place for teachers to exchange lesson plans, share new ideas, and help students learn about the Holocaust. The URL of this site is www.remember.org. Its goal is to preserve powerful memories about the Holocaust.
The History Place: Holocaust Timeline
Beginning in 1933, learn about Hitler's rise in German politics, about the war years in Europe, and about the Nazi war crime trails.
The Jewish Student Online Resource Center
Find links to 30+ concentration camps or topics relating to them.
Jewish Terminology
Learn Jewish terms from this long glossary of Jewish words and phrases. Shoah is the Hebrew word for holocaust.
March of the Living
Read about Auschwitz, Majdanek, Schindler's factory, and more.
The Nizkor Project
Find out about Treblinka. It was a Nazi concentration camp in Poland, near Warsaw. Read the accounts of survivors of this camp. It is estimated that 700,000 to over 1,000,000 people died there. This site also has information about other death camps, about the Nuremberg trials, and about some of the key figures in the Nazi government.
Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story
Visit your school or public library and check out this book by Ken Mochizuki. It is the true story of Chiune Sugihara. He saved the lives of 10,000 Jewish people while he was serving as a Japanese diplomat in Lithuania in 1940. Going against the explicit orders of his government, he sat night after night hand-writing exit visas for people trying to escape from the Nazis. This is a 32-page, beautifully illustrated book that won the 1998-1999 Utah Informational Book Award.
Yad Vashem
Learn about a group of people called Righteous Among the Nations. These men and women risked their lives to save the lives of Jews during World War II.

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Teacher Resources

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Bibliography

  • Altman, Linda Jacobs. The Holocaust Ghettos. Springfield, NJ: Enslow, 1998.
  • Altman, Linda Jacobs. The Holocaust, Hitler, and Nazi Germany. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, c1999.
  • Ayer, Eleanor H. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: America Keeps the Memory Alive. New York: Dillon Press, c1994.
  • Bachrach, Susan D. Tell Them We Remember: The Story of the Holocaust. Boston: Little, Brown, c1994.
  • Bachrach, Deborah. The Resistance. San Diego, Calif.: Lucent Books, 1998.
  • Byers, Ann. The Holocaust Camps. Springfield, NJ: Enslow, c1998.
  • Byers, Ann. The Holocaust Overview. Springfield, NJ; Aldershot, U.K. : Enslow, c1998.
  • Finkelstein, Norman H. Remember not to forget: a memory of the Holocaust. New York: Mulberry Books, 1993.
  • Grant, R. G. The Holocaust. Austin, Tex.: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, c1998.
  • Jeffrey, Laura S. Simon Wiesenthal: Tracking Down Nazi Criminals. Springfield, NJ, USA: Enslow Publishers, c1997.
  • Kallen, Stuart A. Bearing Witness: Liberation and the Nuremberg Trials. Edina, Minn.: Abdo & Daughters; Minneapolis, Minn.: Library bound edition distributed by Rockbottom Books, c1994.
  • Kallen, Stuart A. The Holocaust 1939-1946. Edina, Minn.: Abdo & Daughters, c1994. b
  • Kallen, Stuart A. The Faces of Resistance. Edina, Minn.: Abdo & Daughters, c1994.
  • Lace, William W. The Death Camps. San Diego, Calif.: Lucent Books, 1998.
  • Rice, Earle. The Final Solution. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, c1998.
  • Strahinich, Helen.The Holocaust: Understanding and Remembering. Springfield, N.J.: Enslow, c1996.