US Holocaust Museum
@HolocaustMuseum
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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders to confront antisemitism and hatred, #PreventGenocide, and promote human dignity.
Washington, DC
Joined August 2007
Holocaust survivors are shocked and heartbroken by the rise of antisemitism. Ruth is calling on all of us to speak out.
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The Holocaust is a fact. Here are resources for educators.
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Vladimir Putin has repeatedly employed antisemitic lies and distorted the Holocaust to justify his brutal invasion of Ukraine. We condemn his recent remarks denigrating Ukrainian President Zelensky and the Jewish people.
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1/ Maus has played a vital role in educating about the Holocaust through sharing detailed and personal experiences of victims and survivors. On the eve of International #HolocaustRemembranceDay, it is more important than ever for students to learn this history.
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1/2 To all our new followers, it has never been more important to learn about the Holocaust. Get the facts, learn the history, and speak out against Holocaust denial, antisemitism and hate.
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Karl Gorath was just 26 when his jealous lover denounced him as a gay man. He spent years in the concentration camp system until he was liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. But after liberation, he faced another set of difficulties. 1/5
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The Holocaust—the murder of six million Jews—is one of the most well documented crimes in history, made possible by antisemitic conspiracy theories. Invoking those dangerous theories and calling for the mass murder of Jews is an outrage.
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Ten-year-old Thomas Buergenthal managed to avoid being sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, though most children deported there were murdered upon arrival. He later survived a death march. Thomas was one of the very few Jewish children under 15 to survive Auschwitz.
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As they exited the rail car at the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center in 1944, Beno Helmer was surrounded by his family for the last time. After the war, he searched for them town by town. On #NewYearsDay 1947, he reunited with his sister. She recognized him and then fainted.
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1/2 Our Museum is the national memorial to the six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. It is deeply offensive to survivors and the memory of the victims to exploit Holocaust history.
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Opposing calls for genocide against Jews shouldn’t be difficult or controversial.
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#OTD in 1938, the first Kindertransport arrived in Great Britain. These rescue missions would save thousands of mostly Jewish children from an uncertain fate in Nazi Germany. Seven-year-old Dorrith Oppenheim arrived in July 1939. Both her parents were likely killed at Auschwitz.
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Weaponizing the Holocaust is always wrong and especially when it comes from a head of state. That Brazilian President Lula did so to promote a false, antisemitic claim is outrageous and should be condemned.
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The loss of life in Ukraine today is our primary concern. We are also outraged at the damage inflicted on the Babyn Yar memorial by Russia’s attack today. #BabynYar was the site of one of the largest mass shootings during the Holocaust. It is sacred ground. Learn more.
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#OnThisDay in 1944, German and Dutch authorities discovered and arrested Anne Frank, her family, and the other residents of the secret annex in Amsterdam. Anne's father was the only one to survive the Holocaust. Anne's words live on in her diary, read by millions.
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Vladimir Putin has misrepresented and misappropriated Holocaust history by claiming falsely that democratic Ukraine needs to be “denazified.” We strongly condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine and are concerned about threats to civilians and loss of life.
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He became one of the first gay survivors of the concentration camp system to publicly tell his story. He died in 2003 without having received reparations for his suffering under the Nazis. 5/5.#PrideMonth #LGBTHistory.
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It is impossible to picture six million people at once; to read six million names; to know six million stories. This Holocaust Remembrance Day, #WeRemember and reaffirm our enduring commitment to keep the memory of the victims of the Holocaust alive.
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“I’ll never forget the desperate faces and empty stares of the prisoners …”. Before he was a famous singer, Tony Bennett helped liberate a subcamp of Dachau in April 1945 as part of the US Army’s 63rd Infantry Division.
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While Auschwitz's liberation brought an end to the atrocities there, survivors would forever be haunted by their experiences. Learn more about Auschwitz this #HolocaustRemembranceDay.
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90 years ago #OTD in 1933, the Nazi German regime enacted the first major law discriminating against Jews. The Civil Service law, which forcibly retired civil servants of "non-Aryan descent," marked an important and ominous step in the Nazification of the German government.
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In just hours, they were tried, convicted, and beheaded for treason. Brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friend Christoph Probst were members of the “White Rose" resistance group. They spoke up when so many other Germans remained silent. #InternationalYouthDay.
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“You—my only and dearest one—do not blame yourself for what happened. … Take care of the golden boy and don’t spoil him too much. ” Vilma Grunwald wrote this to her husband after choosing to accompany their son to the gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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When David Bayer arrived at Auschwitz in 1944, the Nazis assigned him to forced labor. Against all odds, David survived the Holocaust. Today, David, a longtime Museum volunteer, celebrates his 100th birthday. Join us in showing our appreciation by signing his birthday card.
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Ester Bachar was taken in by a Roma family as a toddler and spoke only Romani. She wound up at an orphanage where no one understood her, until she found a caretaker who spoke some Romani. It turned out to be her mother, who had survived the war.
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"She was my first and only love." Jacob Guttman and his then-girlfriend Bela are pictured here in the Radom ghetto, which was established in April 1941. Jacob kept this photo through several labor and concentration camps. The couple reunited and married after liberation.
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In the Theresienstadt ghetto—established #OTD in 1941—Jewish prisoners received meager rations. Using a secret code, Hilde Gutfreund wrote to her sister, Renée, in Vienna asking her to send food. Hilde and her son, Kurt, survived.
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During Hanukkah in 1931, Rabbi Akiva Posner’s family placed a menorah in the window—an outward sign of their faith. Through the panes, a swastika flag is seen on a Nazi Party office. The family fled Nazi Germany in 1933 with the candleholder. Their descendants still light it.
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Anna Heilman's sister, Ester, was one of four Jewish women executed after the Sonderkommando revolt at Auschwitz, which began #OTD in 1944. "I have to believe they didn't die in vain, they did it for something,” Anna later reflected.
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#OTD 93 years ago, #AnneFrank was born. For millions, she is their window into the Holocaust. Her diary was a treasured 13th birthday gift. Though she wrote most of it while in hiding from the Nazis, Anne inspires us with her ability to believe in the enduring power of hope.
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2/2 Our long-standing policy against protests in our Museum preserves this space for the solemn memory of victims, the reflections of survivors, and its educational mission.
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Under Adolf Hitler's leadership and imbued with his racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the mass murder of 6 million Jews and millions of other victims. Learn the history:
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Eva and Miriam Mozes survived SS doctor Josef Mengele's notorious experimentation on twins at Auschwitz. The only members of their family to survive, they are seen in this film still walking hand in hand after liberation in January 1945.
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A successful pianist and actor, Robert T. Odeman was arrested for violating Paragraph 175, the German statute banning sexual relations between men. He was imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, but survived by escaping during a forced march. 📷: Schwules Museum
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Today, @BenFerencz turns 103. At age 27, with no prior trial experience, he prosecuted “the biggest murder trial in history.” Bringing Nazis to justice shaped the course of his life. He is the last living Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor. Learn why his motto is "never give up.".
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1/5 Josef Kohout, 24, was young and in love. When he sent a Christmas card to his boyfriend in 1938, he had no idea that it would end up in the hands of the Vienna Gestapo and he would be arrested months later. #PrideMonth
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Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse undermine the truth and our understanding of history. Get the facts.
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"One person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death.". When Elie Wiesel died #OTD seven years ago, the world lost one of its strongest advocates for Holocaust memory. He devoted his life to fulfilling the promise of Never Again.
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A little over a year after this Purim portrait was taken in March 1943, seven-year-old twins Yehudit and Lea Csengeri were deported to Auschwitz. There, Josef Mengele selected them for experimentation. Purim, which begins tonight, is a festive and celebratory Jewish holiday.
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Liane and Eva are pictured here with their younger brother, Al, who is a Museum volunteer. "I never knew my sisters," Al recalled. "And it's one of the terrible losses that I suffered . that they did not survive when I did.”.
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Today the world lost a leader in the quest for justice for victims of genocide and related crimes. We mourn the death of Ben Ferencz—the last Nuremberg war crimes prosecutor. At age 27, with no prior trial experience, he secured guilty verdicts against 22 Nazis.
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After the Holocaust, Agi Geva’s mother made her promise never to remove the tattoo inked on her arm at Auschwitz-Birkenau at age 14. “This is proof of us being there," her mother said. "The letter A and the number.” Today, the tattoo is a symbol of all that Agi has survived.
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Adolf Hitler personally ordered the secret police to expel American journalist Dorothy Thompson from Germany in August 1934 due to her critical coverage of him years before. On #WorldPressFreedomDay, we remember the journalists who sought to warn the world about the Nazi threat.
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Dutch musician Frieda Belinfante risked her life to create fake ID cards for Jews throughout World War II. She was also openly lesbian. Frieda survived as a member of the resistance by hiding in plain sight dressed as a man. Learn more about Frieda from the Museum’s podcast.
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Primo Levi, born #OTD in 1919, survived Auschwitz as a young man. He detailed his experiences there in his memoir, "If This Is a Man" (also known as "Survival in Auschwitz"). Today, it is considered one of the most significant literary accounts of the Holocaust. 📷: Yad Vashem
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“I have a very strong obligation that people ought to know the history.”. Nechama Tec survived the Holocaust using a false Christian identity. She later became a scholar and author, bringing stories of rescue and Jewish resistance to light. She died this month at age 92.
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#OTD in 1942, the Council for Aid to Jews ("Żegota")—a secret rescue organization supported by the Polish government-in-exile—was established. Co-founder Władysław Bartoszewski and other Żegota members risked their lives to provide fake IDs to tens of thousands of Jews. 📷: JHI.
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When German soldiers tried to take away his teddy bear, Hans Butzke screamed until it was given back to him. His mother had sewn a few pieces of jewelry into the toy and told him not to lose track of it. The valuables helped the family start a new life in the United States.
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Once a week for more than 20 years, Holocaust survivor Henry Greenbaum spoke with Museum visitors about his time in a ghetto, Auschwitz, and on a death march. He projected warmth and kindness, yet was determined to share his history so others might be inspired to act differently.
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“They were most kind to me,” Sally Wasserman recalled about her Polish rescuers, Mikołaj and Ewa Turkin. “But the most important thing … is that they saved my life.” In 1943, the couple rescued 8-year-old Sally in occupied Dąbrowa Górnicza, saving her from transport to Auschwitz
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“They were starting to not let Jews go to the swimming pool, not let Jews go to the skating rink, not to allow you to sit on certain park benches,” remembered Ilse Sakheim. Facing antisemitism in Nazi Germany, Ilse's parents sent her to England at age 13, saving her life.
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At age 16, Elie Wiesel was one of the more than 21,000 people liberated from Buchenwald #OTD in 1945. "I knew I would have to bear witness. Everyone who was there is a witness, and everyone who was there is a true witness," he told NPR in 1988. 📷: National Archives.
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Benjamin Doron was a boy when, in 1942, Italian and German authorities in control of his home city of Benghazi began sending Jews in Libya to concentration camps there. Benjamin and some of his family survived in hiding until their liberation in January 1943. 📷: Yad Vashem
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In 1944, after Germany had occupied Northern Italy, Tatiana and Andra Bucci, ages 5 and 7, were sent to Auschwitz. They survived, and after a year in England, learned their parents were alive. They were given dolls and dressed alike for the trip home. They later visited #USHMM.
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After surviving #Auschwitz, Elie Wiesel arrived at Buchenwald concentration camp this week in 1945. "I held onto my father's hand—the old, familiar fear: not to lose him. Right next to us the high chimney of the crematory oven rose up. It no longer made any impression on us.".
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Five-year-old Robert Wagemann was in a checkup when his mother overheard doctors discussing murdering him due to his disability: a shattered hip he had suffered at birth. Robert and his mother fled and he survived, but about 10,000 German children with disabilities did not.
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Joseph "Muscha" Müller was 12 when strangers took him from his classroom, claiming he had appendicitis. Although he protested, the Sinti boy was taken into surgery and sterilized. Afterward, he was slated for transport to Bergen-Belsen, but his family managed to hide him.
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Italian Jewish chemist Primo Levi survived Auschwitz as a young man. He detailed his experiences there in his memoir, "If This Is a Man" (also known as "Survival in Auschwitz"). It is considered one of the most significant literary accounts of the Holocaust. #NationalReadABookDay.
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#OTD in 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally, formally ending the war in Europe. While celebrations erupted around the world, Victory in Europe Day (or V-E Day) was a time to remember those killed during the war, including the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
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At age 14, with her nation at war with Nazi Germany, then-Princess Elizabeth gave her first radio address, urging children to be brave. At 18, she joined the war effort, training as a mechanic. As Queen, she inspired many with a life of service and left a lasting legacy. 📸 Alamy
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Italian chemist Primo Levi survived Auschwitz as a young man. He detailed his experiences there in his memoir, "If This Is a Man" (also known as "Survival in Auschwitz"). Today, it is considered one of the most significant literary accounts of the Holocaust. 📷: Yad Vashem
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Virginia Hall was a most unlikely spy—a woman with only one leg. She supplied the French resistance with weapons, helped sabotage German supply lines, and was so effective that Klaus Barbie, the infamous Gestapo torturer, issued wanted posters for the "limping lady." #IDPD.
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Teacher Elisabeth Abegg helped save dozens of Jews during the Holocaust. She helped secure safe houses for them, and sometimes offered to have them stay in her Berlin apartment. #WorldTeachersDay 📷: Yad Vashem
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At his trial, Karl realized that he recognized the judge. The judge sentencing him to jail that day was the same man who had sent him to a concentration camp in the 1930s, for the same "crime." 3/5.
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At the time of this photo, no one knew that Regina Rotenberg (age 2–3) would one day be in danger. But after Hitler came to power in Germany, Regina's family fled to Belgium. From there, Regina and her parents were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her parents did not survive.
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Jacob Gutgeld survived the Holocaust by hiding in the home of Polish couple Aleksander and Amelia Rosłan. The Rosłans brought Jacob and his brothers into their home in German-occupied Warsaw and took care of them until they reunited with their father in 1947.
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“My number is A-10572. That is what I was, they did not call us by our name. We were no longer humans.”. Lily Ebert (center) and her two sisters endured unimaginable dehumanization at Auschwitz. All three survived. Lily was born #OTD 100 years ago. 📷: Courtesy of Lily Ebert
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Rose Levin was just a baby when her mother gave her up to save her life. In German-occupied Wilno (today Vilnius, Lithuania), she was taken in and adopted by the non-Jewish Martul family. For more than a decade, the family cared for Rose as one of their own. #FosterCareMonth
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In 1939, 15-year-old Eva Hayman escaped Prague to Great Britain on a Kindertransport organized by London stockbroker Nicholas Winton and his colleagues. In 1988, after she discovered he was her rescuer, she wrote him the following note:. "How does one thank someone who has saved
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Hedwig de Levie is pictured here playing with a kitten shortly before her life was changed forever. She was eight when the Nazis rose to power in 1933. Hedwig fled Germany in 1937 for British-controlled Mandatory Palestine, where she and her mother survived the Holocaust.
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Hannah Szenes was just 22 years old when she parachuted into enemy territory. She had left her home in Budapest five years earlier, but risked her life to return to Nazi-occupied Europe and try to aid her fellow Jews. She was caught, tortured, and executed #OTD in 1944.
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Hungarian Jewish businessman George Mandel-Mantello led one of the largest rescue efforts of the Holocaust. With the help of the consul general from El Salvador, Colonel José Castellanos, he issued thousands of Salvadoran citizenship papers to Jews across German-occupied Europe.
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On a deportation train to Auschwitz, Erwin Haber, 17, wrote letters to his family. He threw them out a window with a note: “Dear Finder! I’m asking you politely to send these letters . I beg you to do this favor for me … ” Learn more about Erwin in the Museum's podcast.
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After the Germans invaded Belgium, Josie Traum's mother feared for her daughter’s life. She sent her into hiding with strangers. After they were reunited, six-year-old Josie would tie their nightgowns together at night because she feared losing her mother again. #MothersDay
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We just witnessed the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust. This outrageous massacre and hostage-taking of innocent civilians perpetrated by Hamas terrorists must be universally condemned.
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In 1941, Wilhelm and Johanna Schischa posed for this photograph, later given to their daughter, Lilli. They had secured Lilli passage on a Kindertransport, saving her life. They are pictured in the Opole ghetto wearing armbands identifying them as Jews. They did not survive.
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As an Auschwitz prisoner, Dr. Gisella Perl treated fellow inmates for illnesses caused by starvation, infection, and torture at the hands of their captors. After the war, she delivered more than 3,000 babies. On #NationalDoctorsDay, we thank the doctors who save lives every day.
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In November 1944, the Nazi SS began dismantling Auschwitz-Birkenau’s gas chambers and crematoria in an attempt to erase the evidence of mass killings. Erich Kulka was one of the prisoners forced to help dismantle these structures.
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The vandalism at a Holocaust memorial in Thessaloniki, which once had the largest Jewish community in Greece, is an attack on Holocaust memory, an assault on the vibrant Jewish community that once lived there, and a reminder of rising antisemitism today.
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For Chaim and Chaya Kleinhandler, the birth of their granddaughter, Varda, in 1948 was a particularly special occasion. They had defied the odds to survive the Holocaust in their early 50s. While Chaya was liberated at Auschwitz, Chaim survived a forced march from Buchenwald.
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Karl Gorath was 26 when a purported jealous lover denounced him to the Nazi regime for being gay. He spent years in concentration camps until he was liberated from Mauthausen in 1945. He was one of the first gay concentration camp survivors to publicly tell his story. #PrideMonth.
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It is impossible to picture six million people at once; to read six million names; to know six million stories. This Holocaust Remembrance Day, #WeRemember and reaffirm our enduring commitment to remember the victims of the Holocaust and the other victims of Nazi persecution.
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Krystyna Chiger, age 7, wore this sweater during 14 months in hiding in the sewers of Lwów. Hand knit by her grandmother, Krystyna treasured it before WWII. "I was always wearing it." When the Germans purged the ghetto, her family fled underground. "It was like going to hell.”
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“I'm afraid they'll mock me, think I'm ridiculous and sentimental, and not take me seriously.” #OTD in 1944, Anne Frank wrote her last diary entry. It is filled with self doubt. Millions would come to know Anne through her writing.
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Simone Finifter (right) inscribed this photo to her daughter, writing, "Your mother, who suffers a lot." . She is pictured here in June 1942 when Parisian Jews were first required to wear the yellow star. That same month, her husband was deported to Auschwitz. He never returned.
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Five-year-old Robert Wagemann was in a checkup when his mother overheard doctors discussing murdering him due to his disability: a shattered hip he had suffered at birth. Robert and his mother fled and he survived, but about 10,000 German children with disabilities did not.
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The Germans established the Auschwitz camp complex in the spring of 1940 in German-occupied Poland. By the time Soviet troops liberated the remaining prisoners in Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, approximately 1.1 million people had been murdered there. #HolocaustRemembranceDay.
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Anne Frank is among the most well-known of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust. For many students around the world, her diary is the first encounter they have with the history of Nazi Germany's attempt to murder all the Jews of Europe during World War II.
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After surviving Nazi labor camps and a death march, Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein spent her life educating others about the need for tolerance and understanding. She died Sunday at age 97. Hear about the moment she met the American liberator she later married.
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WATCH: Footage from our collection shows what US forces discovered when they liberated #Buchenwald.
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This is Zadok Parsser with his adoptive sister, Mara. He was one of 33 children rescued by Jan Bosch, a Dutch teenager, who helped hide and care for Jewish children. During #NationalAdoptionMonth, we remember those who risked their lives to save others during the Holocaust.
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Adolf Hitler made the swastika the centerpiece of the Nazi flag. Today it is known as a symbol of hate. Learn how a sign once associated with good fortune became the most recognizable icon of Nazi propaganda.
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Brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl rebelled against the Nazi regime and paid the ultimate price. On the anniversary of their execution, 2/22, at 9:30 am ET, watch live on Facebook to learn what compelled them to risk their lives when so many other Germans remained silent.
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The Germans established the Piotrków Trybunalski ghetto in early October 1939, just weeks after the German invasion of Poland. It was the first ghetto established by the Nazis. In October 1942, more than 20,000 Jews from the ghetto were deported to Treblinka and murdered.
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When this photo was taken in August 1940, the family of Doris Bloch (pictured right) had already fled Nazi Germany, hoping to find safety in the Netherlands. Two years later, Doris's family went into hiding. Doris and her sister survived. Their parents were killed at Auschwitz.
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Beginning #OTD in 1942, French police arrested some 13,000 French Jews in Paris. Many, including Marcelle Burakowski and her twin sisters, were then held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver, a winter cycling track. While Marcelle managed to escape, her sisters were deported to Auschwitz.
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“And then came that infamous day, August 2, 1944, when the Gypsy camp was dissolved,” remembered Karl Stojka. That night, German authorities in Auschwitz-Birkenau murdered between 4,200 and 4,300 Roma and Sinti. Approximately 21,000 Romani people were murdered at Auschwitz.
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“It is still the child in me that asks the questions,” reflected Elie Wiesel, born #OTD in 1928 in Sighet, Romania. Elie's parents and younger sister were murdered in the Holocaust. After the war, Elie advocated for remembering the victims and learning from the Holocaust.
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#OTD 94 years ago, #AnneFrank was born. For millions, she is their window into the Holocaust. Her diary was a treasured 13th birthday gift. Though she wrote most of it while in hiding from the Nazis, Anne inspires us with her ability to believe in the enduring power of hope.
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