The Story of Nazi Persecution and the Impact of Hate on Humanity R

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The Story of NaziPersecution andthe Impact of Hateon Humanity

FROM THE EDITORS

Learning from the Past 2ON THE EVE OF THE WAR

Life, Lost 4A Shattered History 6HITLER’S WAR

Conquering Europe 8VISUAL HISTORY

A Timeline of the Holocaust 10VOICES OF THE HOLOCAUST

Life Behind Walls 14Facing Destruction 16STATISTICS

Tragedy by the Numbers 18PERPETRATORS AND PROPAGANDA

Hitler ’s Machine 20RESPONSES

To Act or Not to Act? 22Where Was the World? 24THE NAZI DEFEAT

Liberation and Legacy 26A CENTURY OF GENOCIDE

Never Again? 28The Rwandan Genocide: A Survivor ’s Story 29GLOSSARY

Words to Know 31REMEMBERING

No One Left 32

It’s among the most horrific chapters in history. The Holocaust, Nazi Germany’s attempt to murder all the Jews of Europe, took place during the years 1933 to 1945. Before Germany was defeated, 6 million Jews were killed—including more than 1 million children. Five million non-Jews

were also killed. The word Holocaust, of Greek origin, literally

means “burnt whole” or “complete destruction by fire.” The Hebrew term for the Holocaust, Shoah, means catastrophe or destruction. Complete destruction of the Jewish people was indeed Adolf Hitler’s goal, which he came close to achieving with the massacre of two thirds of Europe’s 9.5 million Jews.

Ever since, the world has struggled to understand how the Holocaust could have happened—and how to prevent anything like it from happening again. The first step is remembering the Holocaust by studying its history. In these pages, you’ll read about the people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis. You’ll also learn about the Nazi perpetrators and the brave few who defied them to save Jews.

From these stories, we learn the consequences of extreme prejudice. We learn the dangers of remaining silent as others are mistreated. And with these lessons, we can begin to answer the question: How can we fight hatred and bigotry in the world today?

NOTE TO EDUCATORS: For a teaching Guide and

additional resources, go to

www.scholastic.com /holocaustteacher.

LEARNINGfRom thE PASt

Polish Jews rounded up in the Warsaw ghetto were sent to their deaths in Nazi camps.

Hitler’s rise to power and the Nazi takeover of Germany devastated the lives of millions .

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The Nazis turned the star of David, a Jewish symbol, into a mark of shame. Jews in German-occupied Europe had to wear badges like this one.

This photo, taken after the liberation of Buchenwald (a concentration camp in Germany) shows Elie Wiesel, who later wrote about his experiences in the Holocaust.

The children shown here were among the 500 child prisoners freed from Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. More than 200,000 children were killed there.

Editorial Director: Kaaren Sorensen • Senior Editor: Judy Dick • Art Director: Brenda Jackson • Content Consultant: Jill Vexler, Ph.D. • Contributing Editors: Veronica Majerol, Ian Zack • Photo Editor: Arlete Schaeffer • Senior Copy Editors: Ingrid Accardi, Suzanne Bilyeu • Copy Editor: Troy Reynolds • Senior Cartographer: Jim McMahon • Managing Editor: Marcela Camano • Proofreader: Traci Parks • Intern: Gabriel Tyler • Magazine Group President, Consumer and Professional Publishing: Hugh Roome • VP, Group Editor in Chief: Elliott Rebhun • VP, Creative Director: Judith Christ-Lafond • VP, Marketing: Danielle Mirsky • Publishing Systems Director: David Hendrickson • Executive Director of Production & Operations: Barbara Schwartz • Executive Editorial Director, Copy Desk: Craig Moskowitz • Associate Marketing Director: Leslie Tevlin • President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board of Scholastic Inc.: Richard Robinson. ©2015 Scholastic Inc.

©2015 by Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publications Data available • ISBN-13: 978-0-545-85111-4 , ISBN 10: 0-545-85111-4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 08 17 16 15 14 Printed in the U.S.A. First printing 2015.

Primary source credits:Page 16: From KiNDERlaGER: aN oRal histoRY oF YouNG holocaust suRViVoRs by milton J. Nieuwsma. copyright ©1998 by milton J. Nieuwsma. Reprinted by permission of the Jeff herman agency for the author. Page 17: From sala’s GiFt by ann Kirschner. copyright ©2006 by ann Kirschner. Published by simon and schuster. Reprinted by permission of the author. Pages 20-21: From thE GooD olD DaYs: thE holocaust as sEEN BY its PERPEtRatoRs aND BYstaNDERs by Ernst Klee, willi Dressen and Volkner Riess. copyright ©1998 by s. Fischer Verlag. translation copyright ©1991 by Deborah Burnstone. Reprinted by permission of Free Press, a Division of simon & schuster, inc. Page 22: From VoicEs FRom thE thiRD REich: aN oRal histoRY by steinhoff, Pechel and showalter. copyright ©1994 by Da capo Press. Published by Da capo Press, an imprint of Perseus Books. Page 27: From sala’s GiFt by ann Kirschner. copyright ©2006 by ann Kirschner. Published by simon and schuster. Reprinted by permission of the author.

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The Story of Nazi

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The Story of Nazi

Persecution and

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“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

— Elie Wiesel Holocaust survivor, author, and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize

Smiling babies, kids at play, young students, happy brides, adoring parents and grandparents. Families large and small gathered for birthdays, holidays, picnics, and summer vacations. The photos on these pages offer a glimpse into the lives of Europe’s Jews

before the Holocaust. Some survived. Most did not. Many of these photographs were among the personal

belongings brought to Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp, by Polish Jews uprooted from their homes. They are a haunting reminder of a once-vibrant world destroyed by the Holocaust.

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To learn more about the people

in the pictures, go to the Teaching

Guide at www.scholastic.com /holocaustteacher.

look closely at the photographs. think about the lives reflected in each one. ask yourself: why were these people murdered? and how could it have happened?

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Susan Strauss was 12 years old on November 10, 1938, when an angry mob wielding shovels stormed into the apartment where she lived in Frankfurt, Germany. She

watched in terror as they smashed dishes, ripped books, and hurled furniture. They “demolished the whole apartment,” recalls Strauss, now living in the U.S.

All over Frankfurt, Nazis were setting synagogues on fire, breaking the windows of Jewish-owned businesses, and beating Jews in the streets. Similarly vicious attacks were taking place across Germany and German-occupied Austria, and Czechoslovakia.

Anti-Semitism, discrimination against Jews, had steadily increased in Germany after Hitler and his Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) came to power in 1933. But this was the first time it had escalated into widespread violence. By the time the riots ended, the Nazis had destroyed nearly 300 synagogues, looted 7,500 Jewish businesses, and vandalized countless Jewish cemeteries and homes. They had killed nearly 100

Jews, and tortured thousands of others. About 30,000 Jewish men—including Strauss’s father—were arrested and sent to concentration camps, centers in which so-called enemies of the Nazis were imprisoned.

In the aftermath, glass from smashed windows

littered the streets, giving rise to the name Kristallnacht, or “Night of Broken Glass.” The event marked a turning point in Nazi violence against Jews. Almost overnight, a long history of Jewish culture in Germany was shattered. German Jews could no longer convince themselves that the Nazi threat would pass.

Broken Hopes

Before Hitler became chancellor in 1933, Strauss lived a happy life in a small German town called Vacha. Her parents owned a general store, and she and her younger sister had both Jewish and Christian friends. But

A ShAttERED hIStoRy

Susan Strauss (left) with her mother

near their home in Germany

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Kristallnacht, a brutal Nazi attack on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues, unleashed a wave of terror across Europe

Roots of hate

The synagogue in Baden-Baden, Germany, is set on fire during Kristallnacht.

Passersby look at the broken windows of a Jewish-owned shop in Berlin.

Jewish men arrested by the Nazis are marched through the streets of Baden-Baden.

By 1933, Jews had been living in different parts of Germany for more than 1,500 years. German Jews were proud citizens, studying and working alongside their fellow Germans as doctors and lawyers, artists and athletes. However, this coexistence was marked by a long history of anti-Semitism that reached back centuries. In just over a decade, the Nazis took this hatred to a new extreme, nearly wiping out Jewish life in Europe.

in the middle ages, Jews in some European cities were forced to live in special quarters. later called ghettos after the Jewish quarter in Venice, they were abolished in the 19th century. starting in 1939, the Nazis created new ghettos and restricted Jews to these areas.

in 1941, the Nazis decreed that Jews in German-occupied areas wear yellow badges in the shape of the Jewish star.During the First crusade,

in 1096, christian soldiers attacked and murdered Jews in the German cities of worms, mainz, and speyer. in worms, the crusaders destroyed the city’s synagogue. it was rebuilt in 1175—and then reduced to rubble by the Nazis on Kristallnacht.

The Worms Synagogue before World War II

A 17th-century print depicts an attack on the Frankfurt ghetto in 1614.

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a yellow ringon his cloak.

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in 1215, the Fourth lateran council, a church council organized by Pope innocent iii, decreed that Jews wear clothing setting them apart from christians.

“everything changed very quickly in 1933,” says Strauss. Hitler hated Jews, whom he irrationally blamed for

Germany’s defeat in World War I (1914-1918). In 1935, he stripped German Jews of their citizenship and the right to vote. Before long, Jews weren’t allowed to hold certain jobs or attend public school. Many Jewish businesses were seized. Strauss’s Christian friends stopped talking to her and she was forced to transfer to a Jewish school in Frankfurt. At this point, Hitler wanted Jews to leave the country. But Jews had deep roots in Germany, so many chose not to leave.

In October 1938, Hitler began expelling Polish Jews living in Germany. Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old Polish Jew living in France, learned that his family had been forced to leave their home. On November 7, he went to the German embassy in Paris looking for revenge and shot a German official. Shortly after the news broke, Nazi leaders used the assassination as an excuse to launch the Kristallnacht riots.

In the weeks that followed, thousands of Jews tried to flee Germany and Austria. But many had nowhere to go. Most nations, including the U.S., refused to take in the majority of the refugees. Although Strauss’s father was released and managed to escape to the U.S., he was

unable to get his family out. Strauss, her mother, and her sister were trapped.

Survival Against the OddsStrauss and her family were deported to

a ghetto in Latvia in 1942. In 1943, Strauss was sent to a concentration camp, and then to a death camp in Poland. In 1945, she was freed by Soviet forces after surviving a death march to another camp, walking nearly 100 miles in freezing weather.

Strauss says she can’t believe she survived. She eventually was reunited with

her father, the only member of her family to survive. It was “one of the darkest chapters in man’s history,” says Strauss. “It should never happen again.”

—Rebecca Zissou

Torah scrolls (part of the Hebrew Bible) from the Worms Synagogue, burned during Kristallnacht