Holocaust: Definition and Facts

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Watch towers surrounded by high voltage fences at Auschwitz II-Birkenau which was built in March 1942. The camp was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945.

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The Holocaust

Historical Anti‑Semitism Anti‑Semitism in Europe did not begin with Adolf Hitler. Though use of the term itself dates only to the 1870s, there is evidence of hostility toward Jews long before the Holocaust—even as far back as the ancient world, when Roman authorities destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and forced Jews to leave Palestine. […]

Anne Frank

Who Was Anne Frank? Anne Frank was born Annelies Marie Frank in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929, to Edith Hollander Frank (1900‑45) and Otto Frank (1889‑1980), a prosperous businessman. Less than four years later, in January 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany and he and his Nazi government instituted a series of measures […]

Anti‑Semitism

Anti‑Semitism in Medieval Europe Many of the anti‑Semitic practices seen in Nazi Germany actually have their roots in medieval Europe. In many European cities, Jews were confined to certain neighborhoods called ghettos. Some countries also required Jews to distinguish themselves from Christians with a yellow badge worn on their garment, or a special hat called […]

Kristallnacht

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s), was a prolonged series of violent attacks on Jewish people, homes, businesses and synagogues in 1938 Germany.