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| The Holocaust | ||||||||||||||||
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| What was the Holocaust? The Holocaust was Nazi Germany's systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Since the 1950s the term has been applied primarily to the Nazi regime's attempted annihilation of the Jews of Europe. Six million Jews-two out of every three living at the time in Europe-were murdered as part of a systematic genocide. Millions of other people also were killed because of their ethnicity, culture, political ideas, sexual orientation, or physical or mental handicaps. Some of the primary groups effected by the Holocaust? Jews Serbs Poles Soviets Communists Roma (also known as gypsies) Roman Catholics Some Africans Asians Jehovah's Witnesses Protestant Clergy Trade Unionist Political Activists Physically Disabled Homosexuals Mentally Disabled What ultimately ended the Holocaust? The Allied armies, coming from both the East (Russians) and the West ( British Canadians Poles Americans ) forced the Germans to stop fighting and surrender their armies. The camps were discovered, and the inmates were liberated. Most of them were too sick to go anywhere for a few months. They needed to be fed and given medical treatment. Many died despite the best efforts of the Allies, due to their advanced state of starvation. (www.faqfarm.com) What was America’s Role? During World War II the United States took virtually no action to impede the Holocaust or rescue the victims from the concentration camps even though both Great Britain and the United States knew about that genocide. Such proposals as bombing the rail system that brought victims to Auschwitz was rejected. The United States even refused to admit the few Jews who were able to escape Europe. One historian has labeled the failure of the United States to aid the Jews of Europe as the greatest single failure of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (www.holocaust-history.org) |
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| Rail Car prisoner's were transported in. (www.ushmm.org/) | ||||||||||||||||
| Informational Links | ||||||||||||||||
| United States Holocaust Memorial Meseum | ||||||||||||||||
| The Holocaust History Project Homepage | ||||||||||||||||
| The Holocaust | ||||||||||||||||
| A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust | ||||||||||||||||
| Name: | Brooke Sterling | |||||||||||||||