The Holocaust was a genocide committed during World War II in which Nazi Germany systematically murdered roughly six million European Jews, around two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. From 1941 to 1945, Germany targeted European Jewish people as well as other groups including the Sinti and Roma, ethnic Poles and Slavs, prisoners of war, homosexuals, Jehova’s Witnesses, black people and political opponents for extermination. The Nazis ran egregious medical experiments, tortured, starved, forced labor, and wantonly murdered the imprisoned.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum calculates at least 220,000 Romani were murdered.
Between 1.8 and 1.9 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished at German hands during the course of the war, about four-fifths of whom were ethnic Poles with the rest ethnic Ukrainians and Belarusians
A British doctor administering delousing treatment of DDT up the skirt of an embarrassed-looking female prisoner at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945. TimeA British doctor uses DDT while delousing newly freed female prisoners at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945. TimeA group of women at the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Lower Saxony during World War II, 1945. TimeA skeletal-looking prisoner stands in front of one of the concentration camp buildings. Ohrdruf concentration camp in Germany was the first that the Americans found. Daily MailA U.S. general inspects the gallows at Ohrdruf concentration camp. Daily MailAnnaliese Kohlmann, former Nazi female guard noted for her cruelty, Bergen Belsen-1945. TimeDying women huddle on the ground behind the barbed-wire enclosure at Bergen-Belsen, 1945. TimeGeneral Eisenhower, later President Eisenhower, tours the Ohrdruf concentration camp shortly after its liberation by U.S. forces. Daily MailOhrdruf concentration camp was part of the Buchenwald network of camps. In this picture taken on April 16, 1945, inmates of the German KZ Buchenwald camp near Weimar are seen inside their barracks, a few days after liberation. Daily MailA Czech doctor (right) prepares to examine a Buchenwald concentration camp inmate while other inmates surround him, awaiting treatment, April 1945. TimeA malnourished Buchenwald prisoner leans against his bunk after trying to walk. Like other imprisoned slave laborers, he worked in a Nazi factory until he was too feeble. TimeA newly liberated prisoner stands beside a pile of human ash and bones, Buchenwald, April 1945. TimeAmerican soldiers stand at the gates of the Dachau concentration camp after its liberation. Inmates were immediately given medical attention. fcitAs Nazi officers and Weimar civilians bear witness, after Buchenwald’s liberation, to atrocities committed at the camp, a dummy in striped prisoner garb hangs from a gallows during a demonstration of one of the many ways that inmates were murdered. TimeExamining a Buchenwald prisoner after the camp’s liberation by U.S. troops, April 1945. TimeFemale prisoners in the newly liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945. TimeGerman civilians are forced to bear witness to Nazi atrocities at Buchenwald concentration camp, April 1945. TimeNew internees of the freshly liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp included this pair of French brothers, Charles and Louis Perret, wearing white boots they took from the Nazis, 1945. TimeNewly liberated prisoners wait in line for food at the Bergen-Belsen, 1945. TimePrisoners at Buchenwald display their identification tattoos shortly after the camp’s liberation by Allied forces, April 1945. TimePrisoners at Buchenwald during the camp’s liberation by American forces, April 1945. TimePrisoners at Buchenwald gaze from behind barbed wire during the camp’s liberation by American forces, April 1945. TimeSurvivors gaze at photographer Margaret Bourke-White and rescuers from the United States Third Army during the liberation of Buchenwald, April 1945. TimeSurvivors eagerly pull down the Nazi eagle over the entrance to Mauthausen concentration camp. National Archives, USHMMIn the women’s camp at Mauthausen, survivors queue up for soup. National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesSurvivors in a crowded Dachau barracks after liberation. Francis Robert Arzt Collection, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesSurvivors in Dachau distribute bread to their comrades after liberation. Frank Manucci Collection, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesEmaciated Jewish survivors, who had been confined to the infirmary barracks at Ebensee, are gathered outside on the day after liberation. The survivor at center-left holding his metal name tag is Joachim Friedner, a twenty-one-year-old Polish Jew from Krakow. National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesAmerican chaplain Rabbi Hershel Schacter conducts Jewish holiday services for Buchenwald survivors shortly after liberation. National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesSick survivors are evacuated from the Woebbeling concentration camp to an American field hospital where they will receive medical attention. Arnold Bauer Barach Collection, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesThree Ebensee survivors, too weak to eat solid food, suck on sugar cubes to give them strength. Dr. Robert G. Waite Collection, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesAn Austrian-Jewish survivor, who had been arrested by the Nazis in Holland, points out mass graves to U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Omar Bradley, during their inspection of the camp. National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives.A United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration worker is calling off names as this six-year-old orphan waits for his name. He is in a group of 350 orphans scheduled for departure to Switzerland. The children, five to eighteen years old, are all orphans of the war. Some of them have been at the Buchenwald camp for as long as six years. National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesA group of survivors in Buchenwald at liberation. The man in the middle has lifted his trousers to show the effects of malnutrition to the photographer. National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesAmerican medical personnel at work in a typhus ward in a hospital for survivors. USHMM Photo ArchivesSurvivors of Bergen-Belsen walk along the main street of the camp, past a pile of victims’ shoes. USHMMSurvivors mill around the former roll call area in the Ebensee concentration camp. The snow-capped peaks of the Alps Mountains loom in the distance. Austrian National ArchivesWomen survivors in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp peel potatoes on April 28, 1945. National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo ArchivesChildren are seen just after the liberation by the Soviets. About 7,000 prisoners were in the camp when the Red Army arrived. Those left behind were too sick and weak to move when the Nazi SS officers forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to march west as the Soviets advanced. CNNIvan Dudnik, a 15-year-old Russian, is rescued. The teen was described as insane from the treatment at Auschwitz. CNNLiberated inmates of Auschwitz speak with Soviet soldiers who liberated them. CNNSurvivors of Auschwitz stand behind a barbed wire fence. Some of the children are wearing clothing given to them by the Soviets. CNN
