entrance to birkenau concentration camp

The Holocaust“Sacrificed by fire”

Entrance to Birkenau Concentration Camp.

Early Persecution

Chart illustrating

the Nuremberg laws. The

figures represent Germans, Jews, and

Mischlinge. Germany,

1935.

Jewish lawyers line up to apply for permission to appear before the Berlin courts. New regulations set forth in the Aryan Paragraph (a series of laws enacted in April 1933 to purge Jews from various spheres of state and society) allowed only 35 to appear before the court. Berlin, Germany, April 11, 1933.

"Aryanization" of Jewish-owned businesses: a formerly Jewish-owned store (Gummi

Weil) expropriated and transferred to non-Jewish

ownership (Stamm and Bassermann). Frankfurt,

Germany, 1938.

Passports issued to a German Jewish couple, with "J" for "Jude" stamped on the cards. Karlsruhe,

Germany, December 29, 1938.

Kristallnacht – “Night of Broken Glass”

Germans pass by the broken shop window of a Jewish-owned business that was destroyed

during Kristallnacht in Berlin, Germany.

Euthanasia Program

Buses used to transport patients to Hadamar euthanasia center. The windows were painted to prevent people from seeing those inside. Germany, between May and September 1941. A victim of the Nazi Euthanasia

Program: hospitalized in a psychiatric ward for her nonconformist beliefs and writings, she was murdered on January 26, 1944. Germany.

This image originates from a film produced by the Reich Propaganda Ministry. It is captioned: "A moral and religious conception of life demands the prevention of hereditarily ill offspring." Nazi propaganda aimed to create public support for the compulsory sterilization effort.

Slide taken from a Nazi propaganda filmstrip, promoting "euthanasia," prepared for the Hitler Youth. The caption says: "Mentally ill Negro (English) 16 years in an institution costing 35,000 RM [Reichsmarks]." Place and date uncertain.

This image originates from a film produced by the Reich Propaganda Ministry. It shows patients in an unidentified asylum. Their existence is described as "life without hope." The Nazis sought, through propaganda, to develop public sympathy for the Euthanasia Program.

Smoke rising from the chimney at Hadamar, one of six facilities which carried out the Nazis' Euthanasia

Program. Hadamar, Germany, probably 1941.

Early Concentration Camps

Arrival of political prisoners at the Oranienburg concentration camp. Oranienburg, Germany, 1933.

Roll call for newly arrived prisoners, mostly Jews arrested during Kristallnacht (the "Night of Broken Glass"), at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Buchenwald, Germany, 1938.

Many of the early concentration camps were improvised. Here, roll call is held for political prisoners aboard a ship used as a floating concentration camp. Ochstumsand camp, near Bremen, Germany, 1933 or 1934.

Ghettos

Deportation of Jews from Hanau, near Frankfurt am Main, to the Theresienstadt ghetto. Hanau,

Germany, May 30, 1942.

A sign, in both German and Latvian, warning that people attempting to cross the fence or to contact inhabitants of the Riga ghetto will be shot. Riga, Latvia, 1941-1943.

450,000 Jews lived in the Warsaw Ghetto alone, approx. the

population of Portland. They were

all confined in an area smaller than the

square mileage of Woodburn.

Child forced laborer in a ghetto factory. Kovno, Lithuania, between 1941 and 1944.

Dead man lying in the street in the Warsaw

ghetto, probably dead of starvation

Children eating in the ghetto streets. Warsaw, Poland,

between 1940 and 1943.

Vendor of bread in the Warsaw ghetto. This photograph was probably taken in 1941. By then, hunger was so relentless

that the bread had to be protected by a cage so that it would not be stolen. (Courtesy Dr. B. Wisniewski)

The Pianist

(14:45 – 20:40 and 39:15 – 41:00)

Resistance

Jewish resistance fighters captured by SS troops during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Warsaw, Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943.

SS and Police Leader Juergen Stroop interrogates two Jews arrested during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, April 19-

May 16, 1943.

Jewish homes in flames after the Nazis set residential buildings on fire in an effort to force Jews out of hiding during the Warsaw ghetto uprising.

Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943.

Jewish partisans, survivors of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, at a family camp in Wyszkow forest. Poland, 1944.

The Final Solution: Einzatsgruppen and Extermination

Camps

Einzatsgruppen

Roundup of the Jews of Lubny, shortly before they were massacred by Einsatzgruppe detachments. This photo, originally in color, was part of a

series taken by a German military photographer. Copies from this collection were later used as evidence in war crimes trials. Lubny, Soviet

Union, October 16, 1941.

Members of an Einsatzkommando (mobile killing squad) before shooting a Jewish youth. The boy's murdered family lies in front of him; the men to the left are ethnic Germans

aiding the squad. Slarow, Soviet Union, July 4, 1941.

Ukrainian Jews who were forced to undress before they were massacred by Einsatzgruppe detachments. This photo, originally in color, was part of

a series taken by a German military photographer. Copies from this collection were later used as evidence in war crimes trials. Lubny, Soviet

Union, October 16, 1941.

Auschwitz

SS chief Heinrich Himmler leads an inspection of the Mauthausen concentration camp. Austria, April 27, 1941.

Forced labor in the quarry of the Mauthausen

concentration camp. Austria, date uncertain.

Prisoners at forced labor in the Siemens factory. Auschwitz camp,

Poland, 1940-1944.

Prisoners at forced labor in the brick factory at Neuengamme concentration camp. Germany, date uncertain.

Concentration camp survivors recreating a picture of what it was

like for sleeping quarters.

Smokestacks from a concentration camp crematorium.

Hairbrushes

Entryway of Auschwitz gas chambers.

Ovens at Auschwitz

Death Marches

Prisoners on a death march from Dachau move towards the south along the Noerdliche Muenchner street in Gruenwald.

April 29th, 1945.

A view of the death march from Dachau passing through villages in the direction of Wolfratshausen. German civilians secretly photographed several death marches from the Dachau concentration camp as the prisoners moved slowly through the Bavarian towns of Gruenwald, Wolfratshausen, and Herbertshausen. Few civilians gave aid to the prisoners on the death marches. Germany, April 1945.

A view of a death march from Dachau. Germany, April 29, 1945.

An American soldier stands among the corpses of prisoners exhumed from a mass grave in a ravine near Nammering. On April 19, 1945, a

freight train with nearly 4,500 prisoners from Buchenwald pulled onto the railroad siding at Nammering. Hundreds of prisoners who had died on the

train were buried in the mass grave along with the prisoners who were forced to carry the corpses to the ravine and were then shot. Germany,

ca. May 6, 1945.

An American soldier looks at the corpses of Polish, Russian, and Hungarian Jews found in the woods near Neunburg vorm Wald. The

victims were prisoners from Flossenbürg who were shot near Neunburg while on a death march. Germany, April 29, 1945.

Burned bodies of former prisoners of Rottleberode, a subcamp of Dora-Mittelbau, lie near the entrance to a barn

that had been set afire by SS troops while the prisoners were on a death march. Gardelegen, Germany, April 18, 1945.

U.S. troops and German civilians from Neunburg vorm Wald attend a funeral service for Polish, Hungarian, and Russian Jews found in the

forest near their town. The victims were shot by the SS while on a death march from Flossenbürg. Neunburg, Germany, April 29, 1945.

German civilians from Volary attend burial services for the Jewish women exhumed from a mass grave in the town. The victims died at the end of a

death march from Helmbrechts, a subcamp of Flossenbürg. Volary, Czechoslovakia, May 11, 1945.

Liberation

Soon after liberation, a Soviet physician examines Auschwitz camp survivors. Poland, February 18, 1945.

Soon after liberation, camp survivors cook in a field. Bergen-Belsen, Germany, after April 15, 1945.

Emaciated survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp soon after the liberation of the camp. Germany, after April 11, 1945.

Piles of corpses, soon after the liberation of the Mauthausen camp. Austria, after May 5, 1945.

An inmate of the Bergen-Belsen camp, after liberation. Bergen-Belsen, Germany, after April 15, 1945.

Band of Brothers “Why We Fight” (33:30-45:32)

Aftermath of the Holocaust