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The Holocaust historical photos are divided into four periods:
- Images 1: Before The Storm
The election of 1932, the opening of the first camp at Dachau in 1933, and a gradual political and social storm starts. Featuring the art of A. Paul Weber.
- Images 1: It Starts
Kristallnacht, the dehumanization of medieval symbols to be worn, more and more camps, as refugees try to flee for safety.
- Images 2: Shoah
Shoah, a Hebrew word for catastrophe. Images from the camps and Eastern Europe.
- Images 2: Liberation
What the world found: the survivors and a challenge to remember.Before the Storm
The Election of 1932
- 1932 Poster from Hitler’s and Hindenburg’s campaign.
- Rough translation: “Fight with us for Peace and Equal Rights”.
- Source: Dachau Memorial Museum
- Social Democrats, the Worker’s Party, poster. Source: Dachau Memorial Museum
- Only three of the 11 ministers elected to the first Hitler cabinet were NSDAP members.Source: Dachau Memorial MuseumPropaganda and the First Camps
- The Sturmer
- 1934 issue of the newspaper The Sturmer, which names the Jews as ritual murderers of non-Jews. The lies of this famous issue brought protest driven by the headlines: “Jewish Murder Programme Against Non-Jewish Humanity Unveiled” and at the bottom, “The Jews are our Downfall!”. Source: Dachau Memorial Museum.
- An anti-semitic sign: “Recognize the true enemy with the yellow star.” Source: Dachau Memorial Museum
- The leader of the SS visits the Dachau camp, a model for other camps, in 1936. Dachau opened in 1933. Source: Dachau Memorial Museum.
- Prisoners were forced to stand for hours as punishment in the camps. Source: Dachau Memorial Museum
- An Artist’s View: A. Paul Weber
- Paul Weber’s work speaks for itself. Source: A. Paul Weber, Hamburg, and the Dachau Memorial Museum.
- “A German Destiny” 1932
- Go to the top of the page.
It Starts
- A Jewish Family is Taken Away
- A family in Amsterdam is taken from their homes. Their destination might be a ghetto or a concentration camp. Source: Dachau Memorial Museum
- A Jewish Family is Taken Away
- Prisoners at Work
- The early camps were primarily for slave labor. Prisoners built the camps, provided construction labor, worked in administration, worked outdoors in quarries and sand gravel pits, or worked in armaments factories. Source: Dachau Memorial Museum.
- Pushing to Survive
- Source: Dachau Memorial Museum
- Jewish Prisoners
- A photo of Jewish prisoners in 1938.
- Source: Dachau Memorial Museum
Refugees
- Escape from Germany required a visa. Getting out became harder as the Thirties came to a close.
- Shanghai Visa with Chinese symbol for Jew
- The only place that didn’t require a visa to enter. Problem was, you still needed a visa to get out. Source: The Fugu Plan by Martin Tokayer
Symbols
These are symbols that the Nazis forced people to wear to indicate their identity, as well as some from the various workgroups in the ghettoes.
- Categories and Marks for Prisoners
- 33 variations for Dachau prisoners which were sewed onto their clothing. Categories across the top include: Political, Professional Criminals, Emigrants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Homosexuals, Asocials. On the side: Basic color, multiple offenders, prisoners in punishment battalions, Jews, along with special badges for racial law violations and nationalities.
- Ghetto Worker
- Source for these: The Write Thing videotape of Yad Vashem.
