Holocaust Education
There are many places that you can go to learn about the Holocaust. Educational resources are available for students, educators, college and university scholars, and even the general public. The goal is to provide everyone with the resources that they need to learn about this historic event so that they can understand it better and learn how it impacted history so greatly during the 20th century. The Holocaust lasted for 12 years (1933-1945) and involved the deaths of more than 11 million people in total, including approximately 6 million Jews and about 1.1 million children. It is known today as one of the largest cases of genocide in history.
The Holocaust started as simple discrimination against the Jews and other 'inferiors', including Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, the disabled, and the elderly. Of course, this quickly evolved into removing them from their homes and then forcing them to live in cramped ghettos, where living conditions were less than desirable even for animals. Eventually, they were shipped off to camps. Although most people think of concentration camps when they hear about the Holocaust, there were a few different kinds of camps that people could be sent to. There were labor camps, concentration camps, prisoner of war camps, and death camps.
Auschwitz, one of the most infamous camps of WWII, was a concentration camp and death camp, where more prisoners were killed than any other camp. They were systematically transported into the camps, told to undress to go to the showers, and then herded into gas chambers and killed by the hundreds. This happened at many camps, but none were as notorious as Auschwitz for the senseless murder of men, women, and children. Jews were persecuted for many years as a result of the Nazi regime, but when the Holocaust turned deadly, something needed to be done.
Finally, in 1944, the Allies started gaining ground in Europe. They began taking over Nazi-occupied countries and liberating concentration camps. By 1945, the war was all but over and Hitler was removed from power completely. In April, he committed suicide to avoid capture and punishment. Over the course of the next year, many Nazi leaders and party members followed suit or went into hiding. Only a small fraction of those involved in the Holocaust were ever held accountable for their involvement because it was so hard to track them down and prove their crimes. Today, Holocaust education helps everyone learn about this horrific time during modern history and how it affected the people involved.