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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS...
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... About the Holocaust
1.What is the Holocaust?
2.What is the origin of the word "Holocaust"?
3.When is Holocaust Remembrance Day?
4.What is a yizkor book?
5.When did the American press first report on the "Final Solution"?
6.When did the United States government learn of the Nazis' systematic attempts to kill all of European Jewry?

 
What is the Holocaust?

The Holocaust is the state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims -- six million were murdered; Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), people with mental and physical disabilities, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents, also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi Germany.

To learn more about the Holocaust, visit the Museum's online Holocaust Encyclopedia, which features articles, photographs, maps and other resources.

 
What is the origin of the word "Holocaust"?

The word holocaust comes from the ancient Greek, olos meaning "whole" and kaustos or kautos meaning "burnt." Appearing as early as the fifth century B.C.E., the term can mean a sacrifice wholly consumed by fire or a great destruction of life, especially by fire.

While the word holocaust, with a meaning of a burnt sacrificial offering, does not have a specifically religious connotation, it appeared widely in religious writings through the centuries, particularly for descriptions of "pagan" rituals involving burnt sacrifices. In secular writings, holocaust most commonly came to mean "a complete or wholesale destruction," a connotation particularly dominant from the late nineteenth century through the nuclear arms race of the mid-twentieth century. During this time, the word was applied to a variety of disastrous events ranging from pogroms against Jews in Russia, to the persecution and murder of Armenians by Turks during World War I, to the attack by Japan on Chinese cities, to large-scale fires where hundreds were killed.

Early references to the Nazi murder of the Jews of Europe continued this usage. As early as 1941, writers occasionally employed the term holocaust with regard to the Nazi crimes against the Jews, but in these early cases, they did not ascribe exclusivity to the term. Instead of "the holocaust," writers referred to "a holocaust," one of many through the centuries. Even when employed by Jewish writers, the term was not reserved to a single horrific event but retained its broader meaning of large-scale destruction. For example:
You are meeting at a time of great tragedy for our people. In our ... deep sense of mourning for those who have fallen ... we must steel our hearts to go on with our work ... that perhaps a better day will come for those who will survive this holocaust. (Chaim Weizmann, letter to Israel Goldstein, December 24, 1942)

What sheer folly to attempt to rebuild any kind of Jewish life [in Europe] after the holocaust of the last twelve years! (Zachariah Shuster, Commentary, December 1945, p.10)
By the late 1940s, however, a shift was underway. Holocaust (with either a lowercase or capital H) became a more specific term due to its use in Israeli translations of the word sho'ah. This Hebrew word had been used throughout Jewish history to refer to assaults upon Jews, but by the 1940s it was frequently being applied to the Nazis' murder of the Jews of Europe. (Yiddish-speaking Jews used the term churbn, a Yiddish translation of sho'ah.) The equation of holocaust with sho'ah was seen most prominently in the official English translation of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, in the translated publications of Yad Vashem throughout the 1950s, and in the journalistic coverage of the Adolf Eichmann trial in Israel in 1961.

Such usage strongly influenced the adoption of holocaust as the primary English-language referent to the Nazi slaughter of European Jewry, but the word's connection to the "Final Solution" did not firmly take hold for another two decades. The April 1978 broadcast of the TV movie, Holocaust, based on Gerald Green's book of the same name, and the very prominent use of the term in President Carter's creation of the President's Commission on the Holocaust later that same year, cemented its meaning in the English-speaking world. These events, coupled with the development and creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum through the 1980s and 1990s, established the term Holocaust (with a capital H) as the standard referent to the systematic annihilation of European Jewry by Germany's Nazi regime.

 Sources: Jon Petrie, "The Secular Word 'HOLOCAUST': Scholarly Myths, History, and Twentieth Century Meanings," Journal of Genocide Research 2, no. 1 (2000): 31-63.

Zachariah Shuster, "Must the Jews Quit Europe? An Appraisal of the Propaganda for Exodus," Commentary 1, no. 2 (1945): 9-16.

Chaim Weizmann, Letter 360, in The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann (London: Oxford University Press, 1968-1980), 20:383.

 Further information about the history of the term, Holocaust, can also be gained through the following sources:

  • Bartov, Omer. "Antisemitism, the Holocaust, and Reinterpretations of National Socialism." In The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Abraham J. Peck, 79-80. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
  • Garber, Zev, and Bruce Zukerman. "Why Do We Call the Holocaust 'The Holocaust.'" Modern Judaism 9, no. 2 (1989): 197-211.
  • Tal, Uriel. "Excursus on Hermeneutical Aspects of the Term Sho'ah." Appendix to his article, "On the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide." Yad Vashem Studies 13 (1979): 7-52.
  • Tal, Uriel. "Holocaust." In Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 681. New York: Macmillan, 1990.
  • Young, James. "Names of the Holocaust: Meaning and Consequences." Chap. 5 in Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.
 
When is Holocaust Remembrance Day?

Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known by the Hebrew term Yom Hashoah, falls on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, chose this date because it falls between the date on which the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began and Israel's Independence Day, and also because it occurs during the traditional Jewish period of mourning known as the Counting of the Omer.

Listed below are the dates in the Gregorian calendar on which this memorial day will fall over the next ten years:
2005 Friday, May 6
(commonly observed on May 5)
2006 Tuesday, April 25
2007 Sunday, April 15
2008 Friday, May 2
2009 Tuesday, April 21
2010 Sunday, April 11
2011 Sunday, May 1
2012 Thursday, April 19
2013 Sunday, April 7
2014 Sunday, April 27
2015 Thursday, April 16

Further information about the history and observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day can be gained from the following source:
  • Greenberg, Irving. "The Shattered Paradigm: Yom Hashoah." Chap. 10 in The Jewish Way: Living the Holidays. New York: Touchstone, 1993
 
What is a yizkor book?

Yizkor books, also known as memorial books, chronicle the lives of Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust. These rare books uniquely record the history of the shtetls, cities, or regions of Europe, and are often one of the few remaining sources on a town's people, as well as its cultural, religious, and social institutions. As such, these works are an invaluable resource for scholars and family historians, providing personal glimpses into Jewish life before, during, and after the Holocaust.

The first yizkor books were written immediately following the War, as reassembling the pieces of their community's life and history often became an early focus of Holocaust survivors. Work on some memorial books began as early as the displaced persons' camps, while others emerged later out of the painstaking efforts of the landsmanshaften, the immigrant mutual aid societies in Israel and North and South America. Their collective efforts created an estimated one thousand memorial books honoring the lost lives and destroyed communities of Europe.

Each yizkor book is different, with its content determined in large part by what records, images, and memories survived the War. Nevertheless, they often possess common elements:
  • Text in Hebrew and/or Yiddish, with perhaps an introduction or summary in English and/or German.
  • A history of the shtetl, sometimes as far back as the town's founding.
  • Descriptions of communal life.
  • Accounts of the Holocaust in the community chronicling the establishment of ghettos, executions, deportations, resistance, etc.
  • A list of the town's residents or of Holocaust victims from that town.
  • Descriptions of postwar life, either within the community or for the shtetl's residents who immigrated elsewhere.
  • Photographs of the shtetl and its residents.
With so many of the memorial books written in Hebrew and/or Yiddish, language often proves to be a barrier for family historians. Few works have been translated in their entirety. More commonly, volunteers motivated by their own needs and interests translate portions of a book and make them available to others doing similar research.

To find translations of some titles, along with other valuable information regarding memorial books, consult JewishGen's Yizkor Book Project online. This site provides translations, lists of libraries and retailers with relevant holdings, and a yizkor book database and a necrology index, both searchable.

The Dorot Jewish Division at the New York Public Library is creating a freely-available collection of digital memorial book reproductions at the Yizkor Books Online page. Reprints of these yizkor books are available through the National Yiddish Book Center.

For the yizkor books held by the Library at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, consult the Memorial Books list in the Family History section of the Library's website.

  
When did the American press first report on the "Final Solution"?

The American press reported Nazi violence toward Jews as early as 1933, and by 1938, published reports of anti-Jewish measures such as the Nuremberg Laws, along with other incidents of antisemitic violence, had multiplied dramatically. In 1941, as the magnitude of anti-Jewish violence increased, newspapers began running descriptions of the Nazi mass murder of Jews, some even using the word "extermination" to refer to these large-scale killings. However, it wasn't until late 1942 that the American public received official confirmation of these reports. On November 24 of that year, Rabbi Stephen Wise disclosed in a press conference that the State Department had investigated and confirmed reports about the Nazis' extermination campaign against European Jews. A few weeks later, on December 17, the United States, Britain, and ten Allied governments released a formal declaration confirming and condemning Hitler's extermination policy toward the Jews. Despite the official status of these announcements, most major dailies in the United States minimized their importance by burying them on inner pages. The New York Times, for example, allocated space on the front page for only the latter of these official reports, relegating Wise's press conference to page ten.

 Sources: Deborah Lipstadt, Beyond Belief: The American Press and the Coming of the Holocaust (New York: Free Press, 1986).

David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (New York: The New York Press, 1998).

"Wise Gets Confirmation: Checks with State Department on Nazis' 'Extermination Campaign,'" New York Times, 25 November 1942, p. 10.

"11 Allies Condemn Nazi War on Jews: United Nations Issue Joint Declaration of Protest on 'Cold-Blooded Extermination,'" New York Times, 18 December 1942, p. 1, 10.

  
When did the United States government learn of the Nazis' systematic attempts to kill all of European Jewry?


Riegner telegram — American Jewish Archives
Though intelligence data and news reports revealed Nazi violence against Jews as early as 1933, and a dramatic increase in that violence in 1941, scholars generally agree that the United States government did not receive reliable confirmation of the full scope of the Nazis' "Final Solution" until August, 1942.

On August 1, 1942, Gerhart Riegner, a representative of the World Jewish Congress in Switzerland, received information from a German source regarding a Nazi plan to exterminate all the Jews in Europe. Due to the shocking and somewhat unbelievable nature of the report, Riegner refrained from passing on this information until he investigated its source. One week later, satisfied with the reliability of the informant - though unable to confirm the news itself - Riegner requested that the American consulate in Geneva cable this information to the American and other Allied governments, along with Rabbi Stephen Wise, president of the World Jewish Congress in New York. However, given the unsubstantiated nature of Riegner's report, the State Department chose not to forward it to Rabbi Wise and instead suppressed it.

In the months that followed, as reports of massacres of Jews steadily increased, a pile of evidence grew validating the idea that the Nazis were carrying out a plan to destroy the Jews of Europe. Finally, on November 24, 1942, Rabbi Wise held a press conference to announce news of the Nazis' "extermination campaign." A few weeks later, on December 17, 1942, the United States, Britain, and ten other allied governments made this news official, feeling confident enough in the evidence to publicly reveal their knowledge of the Nazis' plan to systematically kill all of Europe's Jews.

 Sources: Walter Lacquer, The Terrible Secret: Suppression of the Truth About Hitler's Final Solution (New York: H. Holt, 1998).

David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews (New York: The New York Press, 1998).

David S. Wyman, America and the Holocaust: A Thirteen-Volume Set Documenting the Editor's Book The Abandonment of the Jews (New York: Garland, 1989-1991).

 To learn more about the United States government's response to the persecution of European Jews, see the Holocaust Encyclopedia article "The United States and the Holocaust," as well as the Museum Library's bibliography of books and other resources on this subject.




... About the Camps
7.Can you provide me with a list of the Nazi concentration camps?
8.What were the dimensions of the railway cars used to transport individuals to the Nazi camps?
9.How were the prisoners tattooed in the concentration camps?
10.What did each of the identifying badges mean?
11.What Army units liberated the concentration camps?

 
Can you provide me with a list of the Nazi concentration camps?

Since there were literally thousands of camps and subcamps established during the Nazi regime, it would be impossible to provide an all-inclusive list here. The following are the major camps and their locations, along with a map showing these camps and a few others:
Arbeitsdorf, Germany
Auschwitz/Birkenau, Poland
Belzec, Poland
Bergen-Belsen, Germany
Buchenwald, German
Chelmno, Poland
Dachau, Germany
Dora-Mittelbau, Germany
Flossenbürg, Germany
Gross-Rosen, Poland
Kaiserwald (Riga), Latvia
Klooga, Estonia
Majdanek, Poland
 Mauthausen, Austria
Natzweiler-Struthof, France
Neuengamme, Germany
Plaszow, Poland
Ravensbrück, Germany
Sachsenhausen, Germany
Sobibor, Poland
Stutthof, Poland
Theresienstadt, Czech Republic
Treblinka, Poland
Vaivara, Latvia
Vught, The Netherlands
Westerbork, The Netherlands

A map of the major Nazi camps in Europe, 1943-1944.
A map of the major Nazi camps in Europe, 1943-1944. — USHMM

To learn more about the Nazi concentration camp system, see the Holocaust Encyclopedia article "Nazi Camps," as well as the Museum Library's collection of Web links to online resources regarding individual camps.

 
What were the dimensions of the railway cars used to transport individuals to the Nazi camps?

There were many different kinds of railway cars used for deportations, all varying in size and weight. The railway car on display in the Museum's permanent exhibit is of just one type used.

To give a sense of how the railway cars varied in size, we have provided the dimensions of the railway car on display along with the dimensions of the average freight car used for deportations in Hungary.

 Dimensions of Railway Car on Display
  • 31 ft. 6 in. in length
  • 14 ft. high from the bottom of the wheel to the highest point of the car
  • 13 ft. 2 in. wide (including the roofing)
  • approximately 11 ft. wide inside the car
Dimensions of Hungarian Railway Car
  • 26.8 ft. in length
  • 7.2 ft. in width
Note for teachers: The Museum provides the dimensions of the railway car because of its significance as a historical artifact. However, please refer to the Museum's teacher guidelines for information about the dangers of simulating (based on a set of physical dimensions) the experience of deportation during the Holocaust. For a discussion of the dangers of classroom simulations and roleplays about the Holocaust, please see Guideline 12 in the Online Workshop for teachers or the printable resource Teaching about the Holocaust.

 Source for Hungarian railway car dimensions: Randolph L. Braham, The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, Volume 1 (New York: The Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, 1994), p. 686.

 
How were the prisoners tattooed in the concentration camps?


A boy displays the tattooed number on his arm.
— USHMM, courtesy of Jack Sutin
"The concentration camp at Auschwitz was the only one to tattoo prisoners for identification. The underlying cause was the high death rate among the prisoners, which sometimes surpassed several hundred in a single day. With such a large number of deaths, there were difficulties in identifying all the corpses. If the clothes with the camp number were removed from the corpse, one could no longer establish what the number of the deceased had been. At the camp hospital (Haftlingskrankenbau, HKB), where many prisoners died, the staff began to write ill prisoner's camp numbers on their chests with indelible ink. Difficulties in identifying corpses increased in...1941, when the mass extermination of Soviet prisoners-of-war began. It was then that the camp administration decided to adopt tattooing, which was first used with several thousand Soviet prisoners-of-war. They were tattooed with a special metal stamp that held interchangeable numbers composed of needles around 1 cm long. This stamp -- when applied to the upper portion of the left breast -- allowed the entire number to be tattooed at once. Next, ink was rubbed into the bleeding wounds. The POWs to be tattooed were so weak that they had to be propped up against the wall so they would not fall down while the number was being applied. In March 1942, the staff began to tattoo in a similar fashion emaciated prisoners at KL Birkenau, whose state of health pointed to rapid death. (Only several Poles with numbers tattooed on their chests during this period survived the camp.)

"Since the metal stamp turned out to be impractical, tattooing was later carried out by puncturing the skin on the left forearm with individual needles. The puncture marks would form the individual digits of the camp number. Jewish prisoners began to be tattooed in this fashion at Birkenau as early as 1942. In spring 1943 the camp administration ordered that all prisoners -- both previously-registered prisoners and new arrivals -- be tattooed with camp numbers. A number of German prisoners and so-called "reformatory prisoners" (Erziehungshaftlinge) received no tattoo. Several categories of prisoners were tattooed with an additional symbol before the number -- e.g., Jews (but not all of them) with a triangular symbol; Gypsies, with the letter "Z" (the first letter of the German word Zigeuner or "Gypsy"); and beginning in May 1944, Jews received an additional letter, "A" or "B", which signified the particular series of numbers being used at the time. For unknown reasons, prisoners from several transports in 1943 were tattooed with camp numbers on the inside of their left shoulder.

"Once they were tattooed, prisoners were identified by the camp number on their forearms. At Birkenau, the corpses of deceased prisoners were laid in front of the housing blocks in such fashion that the prisoner's left hands and tattooed camp numbers were visible."

 Source: Franciszek Piper, and Teresa Swiebocka, eds., Auschwitz: Nazi Death Camp (Oswiecim: The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, 1996), pp. 60-61.

 
What did each of the identifying badges mean?

The Nazis used triangular badges or patches to identify prisoners in the concentration camps. Different colored patches represented different groups. The colors and their meanings were:
Yellow Jew Click to enlarge
A chart of prisoner markings.
— KZ Gedenkstaette Dachau
Brown Gypsy
Violet Jehovah's Witness
Pink Homosexual
Green Habitual criminal
Red Political prisoner
Black Asocial
Blue Emigrant

The "Asocial" category was, perhaps, the most diverse, including prostitutes, vagrants, murderers, thieves, lesbians, and those who violated laws prohibiting sexual intercourse between Aryans and Jews. In addition, while the brown triangle was used for gypsies under certain circumstances, they were more often forced to wear the black triangle categorizing them as "asocials."

Some patches included letters on the triangles to further distinguish among the various groups in the camps. Most commonly, the letter indicated nationality, e.g., "F" for franzosisch (French), "P" for polnisch (Polish), "T" for tschechisch (Czech), etc., but it could also denote special sub-categories of prisoners. For example, the white letter "A" on a black triangle signified a labor disciplinary prisoner (Arbeitserziehungshaftling), while a black "S" on a green triangle identified a strafthaft, or penal prisoner. In addition, the word Blod on a black triangle marked mentally retarded inmates, and a red and white target symbol set apart those who had tried to escape.

For Jewish offenders, triangles of two different colors were combined to create a six-pointed star, one triangle yellow to denote a Jew, the second triangle another color to denote the added offense. For example, a Jewish criminal would wear a yellow triangle overlaid by a green one; Jewish homosexuals wore pink triangles over yellow.

Outside the camps, the occupying Nazi forces ordered Jews to wear patches or armbands marked with the star of David, though the specific characteristics of the badge (size, shape, color) varied by region. For example, some yellow stars were marked with a large "J" in the center, while elsewhere the patches had "Jude" (or "Jood," "Juif," etc.) stitched in the middle. Those who failed to wear the star were subject to arrest and deportation, a fate that frightened most Jews into compliance even though the patch subjected them to restrictions, harassment, and isolation.

 Source: Abraham J. Edelheit, and Hershel Edelheit, History of the Holocaust: A Handbook and Dictionary (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), pp. 218, 239, 266, 448.

For more information about the history of the requirement that Jews wear a distinctive marking or sign, including during the Nazi period, see the entry "Badge, Jewish" in the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Volume 4 (Jerusalem: Macmillan, 1972), pp. 62-73.

 
What Army units liberated the concentration camps?


Mauthausen survivors cheer U.S. soldiers after the camp's liberation. — National Archives
The recognition of U.S. Army Divisions in World War II as "Liberator" units was an outgrowth of cooperation between the U.S. Army, the Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 1985 the United States Holocaust Memorial Council requested that the U.S. Army present its colors and those of the units that participated in the liberation of concentration camps for permanent display in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. At that time, ten liberating units were recognized based on information regarding only the major camps. Later, the inclusion of sub-camps increased the actual number of camps involved to over 5,000. This increase in recognized camps obviously increased the likelihood of liberation by American troops.

These facts, along with additional requests for inclusion by American veterans' organizations and individual veterans, led the U.S. Army to develop the following guidelines governing the recognition of liberating units:
  • Evidentiary basis for a liberating unit must come from a primary source found in unit or other contemporary records. Oral history, testimony or secondary accounts cannot serve as the basis for recognition if they do not conform to primary source documents in official records.
  • Recognition will go to the parent division of the respective lower-echelon unit (regiment, battalion, company or platoon).
  • Recognition will not be limited to only the first division to reach a camp, but will include divisions that arrived at the same camp or camp complex within forty-eight hours of the initial division.
Neither the Museum nor the U.S. Army independently initiates the certification process. Instead, a division's liberation status is researched only after a divisional association asks for such recognition. The association must provide the name of the camp that it liberated, the approximate dates of liberation, the unit's geographical location at the time, and a brief account of the events. Then the information is researched using only official records at the National Archives' Washington National Records Center at Suitland, Maryland. Once a determination is made in favor of the "Liberator" status, a replica of the division flag is ordered from the Institute of Heraldry, and this flag is sent to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for display.

Source: Edward J. Drea, "Recognizing the Liberators: U.S. Army Divisions Enter the Concentration Camps," Army History 24 (1992/1993): 1-5.

The following divisions have been recognized as liberating units by the U.S. Army and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Click on each division's name for a brief description of its activities during World War II. More information about this subject, including a list of Library resources for each division, can be found on the Library's bibliography "Liberators."

 INFANTRY DIVISIONS
ARMORED DIVISIONS
AIRBORNE DIVISIONS




... About the Victims
12.Can I find out what happened to a friend or family member during the Holocaust?
13.How many Jews were killed during the Holocaust?
14.How many Catholics were killed during the Holocaust?

 
Can I find out what happened to a friend or family member during the Holocaust?

The single most important thing to keep in mind when attempting to document victims of the Holocaust is that no single master list of those who perished exists anywhere in the world. This circumstance has frustrated many of those trying to uncover the fate of family members, but the horrible fact remains that millions died with little record of the event.

Despite the German reputation for meticulous recordkeeping, many incidents occurred during the Holocaust without any information being recorded. Jews transported to extermination camps like Belzec or Treblinka were sent to their deaths without documenting their arrival. At concentration camps like Auschwitz, those selected for gassing rather than labor were killed immediately without recording their deaths. Individuals found in hiding and shot, or other incidents of random shootings, also passed without documentation. Mass executions were sometimes documented by date, location, and number of victims, but these records usually did not include individual names. Even where information about individuals was originally documented, we are often left today without that information, since the Nazis destroyed countless records in the last days of the war.

Given all these obstacles to documenting victims, what resources are available for researching individuals?
  • One can still find copies of hundreds of deportation lists for those sent to camps, and numerous camps kept records of those inmates forced into labor.
  • Many death lists have been published by country, region, or camp, though you will not find such lists for every country, region, or camp.
  • Over a thousand memorial books have been published to document the fate of those who perished. Such books, also known as yizkor books, usually focus on a town or a region, detailing the town's history and memorializing those who died. Most are written in Hebrew or Yiddish.
  • The International Tracing Service in Arolsen, Germany maintains a master index of information relating to more than 14 million individuals. More information is available from their Web site, or the Service can be contacted directly at:
    International Tracing Service
    Grosse Allee 5-9
    34444 Arolsen, Germany
  • The Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center of the American Red Cross, in conjunction with the International Tracing Service, can provide assistance in determining the fate of those who died in the Holocaust, in documenting forced labor or internment in a concentration camp, or in locating survivors. Contact your local Red Cross chapter for more information.
  • Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Israel, has documents pertaining to the Holocaust that are not always available elsewhere, including millions of Pages of Testimony provided by those with knowledge of the victims. These pages are a part of Yad Vashem's attempt to document each individual who died in the Holocaust. In November 2004, Yad Vashem launched the Central Database of Shoah Victims Names, which provides information about nearly three million Jewish Holocaust victims drawn from Pages of Testimony and other sources. While Yad Vashem's collection efforts have resulted in the most extensive list of Jewish victims currently available, it, too, is incomplete.
  • Finally, The Benjamin and Vladka Meed Registry of Jewish Holocaust Survivors here at the Museum has over 100,000 records documenting the lives of survivors and their families.
The Museum Library staff is happy to assist you with identifying resources in our collection that can help in your search, but due to the complexity and time-intensive nature of this kind of research we cannot construct your family history for you. If you are visiting the Museum to conduct family history research, you may want to familiarize yourself first with some of the major resources available.

 
How many Jews were killed during the Holocaust?


Victims' shoes found in Majdanek after the liberation. — Archiwum Akt Nowych
 The estimated number of Jewish fatalities during the Holocaust is usually given as between 5.1 and 6 million victims. However, despite the availability of numerous scholarly works and archival sources on the subject, Holocaust-related figures might never be definitively known. Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that the available Holocaust statistics include a wide margin of error because:

  • Not all victims of the Holocaust were registered.
  • Countless records that did exist were destroyed by the Nazis, or lost, burned, or damaged in military actions.
  • Records often contain fragmentary information, failing to include, for example, the victim's ethnic, national, or religious affiliation.
In addition, one should critically examine any statistics presented because:

  • Different scholars have used different base dates for computing their figures, a situation that results in statistical differences due to the changing national borders of the Holocaust period.
  • Figures for victims of a given country usually include not only citizens but also resident aliens and stateless refugees.
  • Scholars have sometimes wrongly equated data about the arrests of various victims with fatalities, particularly in the case of non-Jewish victims.
What follows are two different estimates of Jewish deaths by country and the sources from which those statistics are drawn. Please note that these are just a sampling of the published Holocaust-related statistics. Additional sources for estimates of Jewish deaths are provided following these two examples:
     
Country Number
Poland up to 3,000,000
USSR over 700,000
Romania 270,000
Czechoslovakia 260,000
Hungary over 180,000
Germany 130,000
Lithuania up to 130,000
Netherlands over 100,000
France 75,000
Latvia 70,000
Yugoslavia 60,000
Greece 60,000
Austria over 50,000
Belgium 24,000
Italy (including Rhodes) 9,000
Estonia over 1,000
Norway under 1,000
Luxembourg under 1,000
Danzig under 1,000
Total 5,100,000
Source: Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 3rd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), Vol. 3, p. 1321.
Country Minimum Loss Maximum Loss
Austria 50,000 50,000
Belgium 28,900 28,900
Bohemia and Moravia 78,150 78,150
Bulgaria 0 0
Denmark 60 60
Estonia 1,500 2,000
Finland 7 7
France 77,320 77,320
Germany 134,500 141,500
Greece 60,000 67,000
Hungary 550,000 569,000
Italy 7,680 7,680
Latvia 70,000 71,500
Lithuania 140,000 143,000
Luxembourg 1,950 1,950
Netherlands 100,000 100,000
Norway 762 762
Poland 2,900,000 3,000,000
Romania 271,000 287,000
Slovakia 68,000 71,000
Soviet Union 1,000,000 1,100,000
Yugoslavia 56,200 63,300
Source: Yehuda Bauer, and Robert Rozett, "Estimated Jewish Losses in the Holocaust," in Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p.1799. See this source for a full explanation of these statistics.
For additional Holocaust statistics, see:

  • Benz, Wolfgang, editor. Dimension des Volkermords: Die Zahl der judischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1991.
  • Fleming, Gerald. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
  • Lestchinsky, Jacob. Crisis, Catastrophe, and Survival: A Jewish Balance Sheet, 1941-1948. New York: Institute of Jewish Affairs of the World Jewish Congress, 1948.
  • Levin, Nora. The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry, 1933-1945. New York: Schocken, 1973
  • Reitlinger, Gerald. The Final Solution, the Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1987
  
How many Catholics were killed during the Holocaust?


Friedrich Hoffman, a Czech priest, testifies at the trial of former camp personnel and prisoners from Dachau. — National Archives
Although the Catholic Church was persecuted in the Third Reich, Catholics as a group were not officially targeted by the Nazis merely for practicing the Catholic faith. In fact, a substantial minority of the population of the Third Reich was baptized Catholic, including some members of the Nazi elite. The Nazis did try to systematically undermine the Church's influence and teachings through propaganda and cracked down hard on individual clergymen who dared to criticize the policies of the regime. Members of the clergy who were unwilling to embrace the Nazi state risked arrest for a myriad of violations: refusal to remove religious artifacts from schools; participation in religious processions; political criticism from the pulpit; assistance to public enemies such as Jews; pacifism, etc. Punishment ranged from a few days in jail to internment in a concentration camp to execution. Often, members of the clergy died under ambiguous circumstances while serving a sentence or awaiting trial, with their deaths officially attributed to accident or illness. Catholic laity who were unwilling to submit to Nazi rule faced similar persecution.

In the eastern European regions, millions of Poles -- Jews and Catholics alike -- were murdered by the SS and police personnel in the field or in killing centers such as Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka. In the ideology of the Nazis, the Poles were considered an inferior "race." The Germans intended to murder members of the political, cultural and military elite and reduce the remainder of the Polish population to the status of a vast pool of labor for the so-called German master race. It is estimated that between 5 and 5.5 million Polish civilians, including 3 million Polish Jews, died or were killed under Nazi occupation. This figure excludes Polish civilians and military personnel who were killed in military or partisan operations. They number approximately 664,000.

SS authorities in the concentration camps did not generally record the religious affiliation of a prisoner, with the exception of the Jehovah's Witnesses. As a result it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to reliably estimate the total number of Catholic victims who were persecuted or killed because of some action or position connected to their Catholic faith. Some data exists regarding the number of Catholic prisoners (especially members of the clergy) in individual camps. For example, the following table illustrates the number of clergy incarcerated in the concentration camp at Dachau:
       
Clergy Incarcerated in Dachau Camp
Nationality Catholics Other creeds Total
Poles 1,748 32 1,780
Germans 411 36 447
French 153 3 156
Czechs, Slovaks 93 16 109
Dutch 29 34 63
Belgians 46 - 46
Italians 28 - 28
Luxemburgers 16 - 16
Danes - 5 5
Lithuanians 2 1 3
Hungarians 3 - 3
Stateless 1 2 3
Swiss - 2 2
Greeks - 2 2
British 2 - 2
Albanians - 2 2
Norwegians - 1 1
Rumanians 1 - 1
Spaniards 1 - 1
Totals 2,579 141 2,720

(Of these, a total of 1,034 died in the camp; 132 were transferred to other camps or liquidated; 1,240 were liberated on April 29, 1945; and 314 were released before that date.)
Source: Johann Neuhausler, What Was It Like in the Concentration Camp at Dachau? (Munich: Manz, 1961).

For additional information on the subject of Catholics in the Holocaust, see:

  • Hehl, Ulrich von. Priester unter Hitlers Terror: eine biographische und statistische Erhebung. Paderborn: F. Schonigh, 1996.
  • Helmreich, Ernst Christian. The German Churches under Hitler: Background, Struggle, and Epilogue. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1979.
  • Hlond, August. The Persecution of the Catholic Church in German-Occupied Poland: Reports Presented by H. E. Cardinal Hlond, Primate of Poland, to Pope Pius XII, Vatican Broadcasts, and Other Reliable Evidence. London: Burns, Oates, 1941.
  • Hoffmann, Bedrich. And Who Will Kill You: The Chronicle of the Life and Sufferings of Priests in the Concentration Camps. Posnan: Pallottinum, 1949.
  • Hurten, Heinz. Die katholische Kirche zwischen Nationalsozialismus und Widerstand. Berlin: Gedenkstatte Deutscher Widerstand, 1989.
  • Kempner, Benedicta Maria. Nonnen unter dem Hakenkreuz: Leiden, Heldentum, Tod; die erste Dokumentation uber das Schicksal der Nonnen im 3. Reich. Wurzburg: Naumann, 1979.
  • Kempner, Benedicta Maria. Priester vor Hitlers Tribunalen. Munchen: Rutten & Loening, 1966.
  • Matheson, Peter. The Third Reich and the Christian Churches. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1981.
  • McCauley, M. Janet. The Fate of Catholic Schools in the Third Reich: A Case Study. Posn'n: Pallottinum, 1994.
  • Moll, Helmut. Zeugen für Christus: das deutsche Martyrologium des 20. Jahrhunderts. Paderborn: Schöningh, 2000.
  • Royal, Robert. The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History. New York : Crossroad, 2000.
  • Shuster, George N. Like a Mighty Army: Hitler Versus Established Religion. New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1935.




... About Resistance and Rescue
15.Did King Christian X of Denmark wear a yellow star in support of the Danish Jews?
16.What was the White Rose group?
17.What was the Rosenstraße Protest?
18.How can I find more information about someone listed on the Rescuers' Wall in the Museum's Permanent Exhibition?

 
Did King Christian X of Denmark wear a yellow star in support of the Danish Jews?

According to popular legend, King Christian X chose to wear a yellow star in support of the Danish Jews during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. In another version, the Danish people decided to wear a yellow star for the same reason. Both of these stories are fictional. In fact, unlike Jews in other countries under Nazi rule, the Jews of Denmark were never forced to wear an identification mark such as a yellow star. However, the legend conveys an important historical truth: both the King and the Danish people stood by their Jewish citizens and were instrumental in saving the overwhelming majority of them from Nazi persecution and death.

Click here for background information on Danish resistance.

 Sources: Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1993), p. 158.

Ellen Levine, Darkness Over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews (New York: Holiday House, 2000), p. 28.

Robert Rozett, and Shmuel Spector, "Denmark," in Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (New York: Facts on File, 2000), pp. 186-187.

  
What was the White Rose group?


The verdict
In June 1942 Hans Scholl, age 24, and Alexander Schmorell, age 25, both medical students at the University of Munich, founded the "White Rose," an opposition group established to resist the Nazis. They were later joined by Hans's 22-year-old sister Sophie, 24-year-old Christoph Probst, and others.

The members of the White Rose were outraged that educated Germans went along with Nazi policies. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets and painted slogans like "Freedom!" and "Down With Hitler!" on walls of the university. The last White Rose leaflet, which the Scholls scattered in the entrance hall of the University of Munich on February 18, 1943, aroused a particular stir. The leaflet declared that "The day of reckoning has come, the reckoning of German youth with the most abominable tyranny that our people have ever suffered." The building janitor saw Hans and Sophie distributing this flyer and reported them to the Gestapo. They, along with Christoph, were arrested. Within days, all three were brought before the People's Court in Berlin. On February 22, 1943, in a trial that lasted only a few hours, they were convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Only hours later, the court carried out that sentence by guillotine. All three faced their deaths bravely, Hans crying out his last words, "Long live freedom!"

Later that same year, other members of the White Rose -- Alexander Schmorell (age 25), Willi Graf (age 25), and Kurt Huber (age 49) -- were tried and executed. Most of the other students convicted for their part in the group's activities received prison sentences.

Further information about the White Rose group can be gained through the following sources:
  • Axelrod, Toby. Hans and Sophie Scholl: German Resisters of the White Rose. New York: Rosen Publishing Group, 2001.
  • Chaussy, Ulrich, and Franz Josef Miller, editors. The White Rose: The Resistance by Students against Hitler 1942/43. München: White Rose Foundation, 1991.
  • Dumbach, Annette E., and Jud Newborn. Shattering the German Night: The Story of the White Rose. Boston: Little, Brown, 1986.
  • Forman, James D. Ceremony of Innocence. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1970.
  • Hanser, Richard. A Noble Treason: The Revolt of the Munich Students against Hitler. New York: Putnam, 1979.
  • Scholl, Hans, and Sophie Scholl. At the Heart of the White Rose: Letters and Diaries of Hans and Sophie Scholl. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.
  • Scholl, Inge. The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1983.
  • Die Weisse Rose / The White Rose [videorecording]. Waltham, Mass.: National Center for Jewish Film, Brandeis University, 1983.
 
What was the Rosenstraße Protest?

Rosenstraße 2-4
Rosenstraße 2-4
In what has become known as the Rosenstraße Protest, a group of non-Jewish Germans defied the Third Reich and saved their spouses or "Mischling" children from deportation through a weeklong, non-violent demonstration.

Before dawn on Saturday, February 27, 1943, the Gestapo began a massive action to arrest and deport the last Jews remaining in Berlin. Pulled from their jobs and homes or snatched off the streets, these Jews were herded into trucks that took them to pre-designated assembly points. After the initial collection, the Nazis weeded out one group selected to be housed at a separate location: Jews married to non-Jews and children from these intermarriages ("Mischlinge"). They were separated in an attempt to mislead their families into believing that they would not suffer the same fate as the others.

As word spread that their spouses and children had been arrested, many Germans, mostly women, rushed to the holding site at Rosenstraße 2-4, a local Jewish community center. The small crowd quickly grew into a throng of family members demanding to speak to or see their loved ones. Determined to prevent their deportation, the protesters yelled, chanted, or simply kept their presence on the street, even in the face of threatened gunfire. As a day of protest lengthened to a week and the crowd on Rosenstraße expanded to the thousands, news of the demonstration spread throughout the country and eventually, to the international press.

In an effort to alleviate this public relations nightmare and to prevent further protest, Joseph Goebbels, the German propaganda minister, ordered the release of the prisoners at Rosenstraße on March 6, promising, however, to resume the deportations in a few weeks. This declaration proved only partially true. Though the roundup of Jews continued and Goebbels declared Berlin "Jew free" in May 1943, intermarried Jews were permitted to remain with their families. Goebbels even initiated the return of a group of thirty-five intermarried Jews who had previously been deported to Auschwitz. Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Himmler's deputy in charge of the Reich Security Main Office, followed this with an order not to deport intermarried Jews at all and to release those in custody not held on criminal charges.

The Rosenstraße Protest aroused the kind of public unrest and turmoil that tested the tenuous wartime morale in Germany, a risk the Nazi regime was not willing to take again. Although actions against intermarried Jews returned periodically, and some fell victim to the "Final Solution," thousands did survive, including those released from Rosenstraße. The protest there remained, however, the first and only open demonstration to prevent mass deportations from Germany.

 Source: Nathan Stoltzfus, Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstraße Protest in Nazi Germany (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996).

 
How can I find more information about someone listed on the Rescuers' Wall in the Museum's Permanent Exhibition?

Since 1963, a commission at Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority in Israel, has been charged with the duty of identifying and honoring the "Righteous Among the Nations," those persons who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. This commission has gathered evidence on incidents of rescue and carefully scrutinized the witness statements and supporting documentation for each case to determine who should be granted this title. Specific criteria guide the work of the commission, but at minimum, an individual must have risked his or her life, or professional and civil status, in order to assist or aid Jews. To date, over 20,000 individuals have been named "Righteous Among the Nations."

The Rescuers' Wall on the second floor of the Museum's Permanent Exhibition lists the names of the "Righteous Among the Nations" as provided by Yad Vashem. As detailed above, decisions about who is declared "Righteous" are made solely by Yad Vashem, and all evidence in support of these decisions is held there. Therefore, for the most current listing of Righteous, or for background information on the honored rescuers, contact Yad Vashem's "Righteous Among the Nations" Program.

Further information about rescuers and about many of those honored as Righteous can also be gained through the following sources:
  • Bauminger, Arieh L. The Righteous Among the Nations. [Tel Aviv]: Am Oved, 1990.
  • Block, Gay, and Malka Drucker. Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust. New York: TV Books, 1997.
  • Fogelman, Eva. Conscience and Courage: The Rescuers of the Jews During the Holocaust. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.
  • Gutman, Israel, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. Volume 1: France. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2003.
  • Hellman, Peter. Avenue of the Righteous. New York: Atheneum, 1980.
  • Paldiel, Mordecai. The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. Hoboken, N.J.: Ktav, 1992.
  • Paldiel, Mordecai. Saving the Jews: Amazing Stories of Men and Women who Defied the "Final Solution." Rockville, Md.: Schreiber Publishing, 2000.
  • Paldiel, Mordecai. Sheltering the Jews: Stories of Holocaust Rescuers. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996.




... About Anne Frank
19.Who was in the Secret Annex with Anne Frank, who helped them, and what happened to everyone?
20.What was Anne Frank's tattoo ID number?

 
Who was in the Secret Annex with Anne Frank, who helped them, and what happened to everyone?

The Inhabitants of the Secret Annex:
     
Name in the Diary Real Name
(Date of Death)		 Date of Birth
(Place of Death)
Anne Frank Anneliese Frank
(d. March 1945)		 b. June 12, 1929
(Bergen-Belsen)
Margot Frank Margot Frank
(d. March 1945)		 b. February 16, 1926
(Bergen-Belsen)
Otto Frank Otto Frank
(d. August 19, 1980)		 b. May 12, 1889
(Birsfelden, Switzerland)
Edith Frank-Höllander Edith Frank-Höllander
(d. January 6, 1945)		 b. January 16, 1900
(Auschwitz)
Mr. van Daan Hermann van Pels
(Unknown)		 b. March 31, 1890
(Auschwitz)
Mrs. van Daan Auguste van Pels-Röttgen
(d. Spring 1945)		 b. September 29, 1900
(Theresienstadt)
Peter van Daan Peter van Pels
(d. May 5, 1945)		 b. November 8, 1926
(Mauthausen)
Alfred Dussel Fritz Pfeffer
(d. December 20, 1944)		 b. April 30, 1889
(Neuengamme)

The Helpers:
The number of people assisting those hidden in the Secret Annex is generally listed as four, although some sources, like the list below, list five. Four trusted employees of Otto Frank were informed of his plans and are counted as helpers: Miep Gies, Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler, and Elli Voskuijl. The fifth, Miep's husband, Jan Gies, whom she married in 1941, became a helper in a very real and practical sense, though he worked as a social worker, not a Frank employee.

     
Name in the Diary Real Name
(Date of Death)		 Date of Birth
(Place of Death)
Miep van Santen Hermine (Miep) Gies
 b. February 15, 1909
Henk van Santen Jan Gies
(d. January 26, 1993)		 b. February 18, 1905
(Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Koophuis Johannes Kleiman
(d. January 30, 1959)		 b. August 17, 1896
Kraler Victor Kugler
(d. December 16, 1981)		 b. June 5, 1900
(Toronto, Canada)
Elli Vossen Elizabeth (Bep) van Wijk-Voskuijl
(d. May 6, 1983)		 b. July 5, 1919
(Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

More information about Anne Frank can be found through these resources from the Museum Library:

Answers to many other frequently-asked questions about Anne Frank can be found on the Web site of the Anne Frank Center, USA.

 
What was Anne Frank's tattoo ID number?

On September 3, 1944, Anne, along with her mother, Edith, her sister, Margot, and her father, Otto, boarded the last transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The transport arrived in Auschwitz on September 5, 1944 with 1,019 Jews on board. Men and women were separated. The women selected from this transport, including Anne, Edith, and Margot, were marked with numbers between A-25060 and A-25271. Records indicating their exact numbers have not been preserved. Approximately eight weeks later, in late October 1944, Anne and Margot were transferred from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Bergen-Belsen, where they both died sometime in March 1945. Though Anne's death certificate documents her movement between camps, it, too, does not include her tattoo ID number.

Sources: Robert M. W. Kempner, Edith Stein und Anne Frank: Zwei von Hunderttausend (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1968), pp. 60-63.

Danuta Czech, Auschwitz Chronicle (New York: H. Holt, 1997), p. 702.

 More information about Anne Frank can be found through these resources from the Museum Library: Answers to many other frequently-asked questions about Anne Frank can be found on the Web site of the Anne Frank Center, USA.





... About the Museum
21.What are some significant dates in the Museum's history?
22.How did the Museum get started?
23.Who were the members of the President's Commission on the Holocaust?
24.Who are the current members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council?
25.Who has served as Museum Director?
26.Who designed and built the Museum?
27.How long did it take to build the Museum?
28.How much did it cost to build the Museum?
29.How were the funds raised for the Museum's construction?
30.How big is the Museum?
31.How many people have visited the Museum?
32.Who was primarily responsible for the design of the Permanent Exhibition?
33.What is the story behind the Children's Tile Wall?
34.What Special Exhibitions has the Museum displayed?
35.Can you help me find a particular quotation I saw at the Museum?
36.How can I find out more about the Museum, including its history, architecture, and exhibits?

 
What are some significant dates in the Museum's history?

1978, November 1 President Jimmy Carter establishes the President's Commission on the Holocaust.
1979, April 24 The first Days of Remembrance Ceremony is held in the Capitol Rotunda.
1979, September 27 The President's Commission on the Holocaust submits its report concerning Holocaust remembrance and education in the United States.
1980, October 7 President Carter signs Public Law 96-388 establishing the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.
1983, April 13 Land for the museum building is transferred from the government to the Council in a ceremony held at the Capitol.
1984, April 30 A symbolic ground breaking ceremony is held at the future site of the Museum.
1985, October 16 Actual ground breaking ceremonies take place. Two milk cans containing soil and ashes from different concentration and extermination camps are symbolically buried on site.
1986, October 8 15th Street, adjacent to the future Museum entrance, is officially renamed Raoul Wallenberg Place.
1988, October 5 The cornerstone for the Museum is laid. President Reagan speaks at the ceremony.
1989, July 17 Contract for Museum's construction awarded to Blake Construction Company.
1989, August 2 Construction on the Museum begins.
1990, April 17 Two milk cans containing soil and ashes from different concentration and extermination camps are buried under the basement level of the Hall of Remembrance.
1993, April 21 A Tribute to Liberators and Rescuers is held at Arlington National Cemetery.
1993, April 22 The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is dedicated. Speakers at the ceremony include:
Bill Clinton
Chaim Herzog
 Harvey Meyerhoff
Elie Wiesel
1993, April 26 The Museum opens to the public. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the first visitor.
1994, June 6 The Museum dedicates the plaza on Raoul Wallenberg place to General Dwight David Eisenhower and to the soldiers who fought under his command.
2000, October 12 President Clinton signs Public Law 106-292 granting permanent status for the Museum.
2003, November 1-2 As part of a year-long celebration of the Museum's 10th Anniversary, over 2,200 survivors and their families gather in Washington for the Tribute to Holocaust Survivors: Reunion of a Special Family.

 
How did the Museum get started?

On November 1, 1978 President Carter established the President's Commission on the Holocaust and charged it with issuing a report on the state of Holocaust remembrance and education in the United States. Almost a year later, on September 27, 1979, the President's Commission presented their results and made four main recommendations:
  • That a living memorial be established to honor the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and to ensure that the lessons of the Holocaust will be taught in perpetuity;
  • That an educational foundation be established to stimulate and support research in the teaching of the Holocaust;
  • That a Committee on Conscience be established that would collect information on and alert the national conscience regarding reports of actual or potential outbreaks of genocide throughout the world; and
  • That a national Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust be established in perpetuity and be held annually.
In 1980, Congress unanimously passed legislation to establish the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. The Council, which succeeded the President's Commission on the Holocaust, was charged with carrying out the above recommendations. Elie Wiesel was named the first Chairman of the Council and Mark E. Talisman the first Vice Chairman.

  
Who were the members of the President's Commission on the Holocaust?

Elie Wiesel, Chairman
James J. Blanchard
Hyman H. Bookbinder
Rudy Boschwitz
Robert McAfee Brown
Gerson D. Cohen
John C. Danforth
Lucy S. Dawidowicz
Kitty Dukakis
Benjamin R. Epstein
Juda Glasner
Arthur J. Goldberg
Alfred Gottschalk
S. William Green
Theodore M. Hesburgh
Raul Hilberg
Henry M. Jackson
 Norman Lamm
Frank R. Lautenberg
William Lehman
Claiborne Pell
Arnold Picker
Bernard Raskas
Hadassah Rosensaft
Bayard Rustin
Marilyn Shubin
Isaac Bashevis Singer
Stephen J. Solarz
Richard B. Stone
Sigmund Strochlitz
Mark E. Talisman
Telford Taylor
Glenn E. Watts
Sidney R. Yates

 
Who are the current members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council?

A full list of current members is available on the Council's web page.

  
Who has served as Museum Director?

Sara Bloomfield (1999-present)
Dr. Walter Reich (1994-1998)
Dr. Stephen Katz (1994)
 Jeshajahu Weinberg (1988-1994)
Arthur Rosenblatt (1986-1988)

 
Who designed and built the Museum?

Architect: James Ingo Freed, of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Contractor: Blake Construction Company
  
How long did it take to build the Museum?

Actual construction took almost four years, from July 1989 until April 1993.

 
How much did it cost to build the Museum?

The Museum undergoing construction
The Museum undergoing construction — Kramer
 The Museum cost approximately $168 million to build ($90 million for the building's construction and $78 million for the exhibits).

 
How were the funds raised for the Museum's construction?

Built on land donated by the federal government and funded with more than 200,000 private donations, the Museum is the product of a strong partnership between the government and private philanthropy. As required by law, all funds for planning, constructing and equipping the Museum were raised exclusively from private, tax deductible contributions.

  
How big is the Museum?

The Museum is 161 feet wide, 312 feet long, 91 feet tall, and 265,000 square feet in size. Within that, the Permanent Exhibition occupies 36,000 square feet on three floors.

  
How many people have visited the Museum?

Total (as of May 25, 2005): 22 million since the Museum opened in April 1993. A breakdown of this number includes ...
7.5 million schoolchildren
2.7 million international
2.9 million minority
16.5 million non-Jews
Dignitaries: More than 2,700 officials from 130 countries, including 78 heads of state/government.

NOTE: These figures are correct as of May 25, 2005. For the most recent attendance statistics, please see the General Museum Information Press kit.

  
Who was primarily responsible for the design of the Permanent Exhibition?

Smith and Appelbaum
Smith and Appelbaum — USHMM
  • Michael Berenbaum worked as the Project Director for developing the Permanent Exhibition.
  • Ralph Appelbaum, through his firm, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, served as the Exhibition Designer for the Permanent Exhibition.
  • Martin Smith, a British documentary filmmaker, served as the first Director of the Permanent Exhibition.
  • Raye Farr developed the 70 videos central to the "story telling" exhibition design, and in 1990 she replaced Smith as the Director of the Permanent Exhibition.
  • Cindy Miller and David Luebke wrote the majority of the exhibit texts.
 
What is the story behind the Children's Tile Wall?

In 1990, under the leadership of Adeline Yates, wife of Congressman Sidney R. Yates, a group of Congressional wives and other women formed the Committee to Remember the Children, in honor of the estimated 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust. They invited thousands of young students throughout the nation to help create this wall of remembrance. The children recorded their impressions of the Holocaust on ceramic tiles that were then combined to create this permanent memorial.

 
What Special Exhibitions has the Museum displayed?

 
Can you help me find a particular quotation I saw at the Museum?

The Bible
What have you done? Hark, thy brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!
Source: Genesis 4:10

Only guard yourself and guard your soul carefully, lest you forget the things your eyes saw, and lest these things depart your heart all the days of your life, and you shall make them known to your children, and to your children's children.
Source: Deuteronomy 4:9

I call heaven and earth to witness this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life -- that you and your offspring shall live.
Source: Deuteronomy 30:19

You are my witnesses.
Source: Isaiah 43:10

George Bush
Here we will learn that each of us bears responsibility for our actions and for our failure to act. Here we will learn that we must intervene when we see evil arise. Here we will learn more about the moral compass by which we navigate our lives and by which countries will navigate the future.
Source: George Bush, 41st President of the United States, February 15, 1991.

Jimmy Carter
Out of our memory...of the Holocaust we must forge an unshakeable oath with all civilized people that never again will the world stand silent, never again will the world...fail to act in time to prevent this terrible crime of genocide....we must harness the outrage of our own memories to stamp out oppression wherever it exists. We must understand that human rights and human dignity are indivisible.
Source: Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States, Remarks at the Presentation of the Final Report of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, September 27, 1979.

William J. Clinton
This museum will touch the life of everyone who enters and leave everyone forever changed -- a place of deep sadness and a sanctuary of bright hope; an ally of education against ignorance, of humility against arrogance, an investment in a secure future against whatever insanity lurks ahead. If this museum can mobilize morality, then those who have perished will thereby gain a measure of immortality.
Source: William J. Clinton, 42nd President of the United States, Dedication Ceremonies for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, April 22, 1993.

Albert Einstein
A desire for knowledge for its own sake, a love of justice that borders on fanaticism, and a striving for personal independence -- these are aspects of the Jewish people's tradition that allow me to regard my belonging to it as a gift of great fortune.

Those who today rage against the ideals of reason and individual freedom and who seek by means of brutal force to bring about a vapid state-slavery are justified in perceiving us as their implacable enemies. History has imposed on us a difficult struggle; but so long as we remain devoted servants of truth, justice, and freedom, we will not only persist as the oldest of living peoples, but will also continue as before to achieve, through productive labor, works that contribute to the ennoblement of humanity.
Source: Translation by David Luebke of a passage from Albert Einstein's Mein Weltbild (Amsterdam: Qerido Verlag, 1934), p. 133.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower inspecting Ohrdruf concentration camp.
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower inspecting Ohrdruf concentration camp. — National Archives
 The things I saw beggar description...The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were...overpowering...I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to 'propaganda.'

Source: General Dwight D. Eisenhower's letter to General George C. Marshall dated April 15, 1945.

Anne Frank
I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and the capitalists alone, are guilty of the war. Oh no, the little man is just as guilty, otherwise the peoples of the world would have risen in revolt long ago. There's in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rage, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated, and grown will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again.
Source: Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, [1952]: May 3, 1944.

Hermann Göring
I herewith commission you to carry out all preparations with regard to...a total solution of the Jewish question in those territories of Europe which are under German influence...I furthermore charge you to submit to me as soon as possible a draft showing the...measures already taken for the execution of the intended final solution of the Jewish question.
Source: Hermann Göring's July 31, 1941 directive to Reinhard Heydrich, quoted in William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960), p. 964.

Willy Heidinger (speaking about the Hollerith machine)
We are recording the individual characteristics of every single member of the nation onto a little card....We are proud that we can contribute to such a task, a task that provides the physician of our German body politic with the material [he needs] for his examination, so that our physician can determine whether, from the standpoint of the nation's health, the data thus arrived at correlate in a harmonious, that is, healthy, relationship -- or whether diseased conditions must be cured by corrective interventions....We have firm confidence in our physician and will follow his orders blindly, for we know that he will lead our nation toward a great future. Heil to our German people and their leader!
Source: "Festrede des Grunders, Generaldirektor Willy Heidinger," in Denkschrift zur Einweihung der neuen Arbeitsstatte der Deutschen Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft m.b.H. in Berlin, Lichterfelde am 8. Januar 1934 (Berlin: Deutschen Hollerith Maschinen Gesellschaft m.b.H., 1934), p. 39.

Heinrich Heine
Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned.
Source: Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), German Jewish poet, from Almansor: A Tragedy, [1823].

Adolf Hitler
The great mass of the people...will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one.
Source: Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf.

Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!
Source: Translation from J. Noakes and G. Pridham, Nazism 1919-1945, Volume 3 (Exeter: University of Exeter, 1988), p. 1049.

I have issued the command -- and I'll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by firing squad -- that our war aim does not consist of reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness -- for the present only in the East -- with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (Lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?
Source: Adolf Hitler, Obersalzberg, August 22, 1939, speech delivered by Hitler to the Supreme Commanders and Commanding Generals; as stated by Former Bureau Chief of the Associated Press in Berlin, Louis Lochner, in his book What About Germany? (New York: Dodd, Mead, & Company, 1942), p. 2. This particular language does not appear in any of the other primary source accounts of Hitler's speech.

Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner testifies during the trial of Adolf Eichmann.
Abba Kovner testifies during the trial of Adolf Eichmann. — Israel Government Press Office
 January 1, 1942: Before our eyes they took away our parents, our brothers and sisters....

Of those taken out through the gates of the Ghetto not a single one has returned....

You who hesitate, cast aside all illusions. Your children, your wives and husbands are no longer alive....

Hitler plans to destroy all the Jews of Europe, and the Jews of Lithuania have been chosen as the first in line. We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter! True, we are weak and defenseless, but the only reply to the murderer is revolt! Brothers! Better to fall as free fighters than to live by the mercy of the murderers. Resist! Resist with your last breath!

Source: Abba Kovner, "A First Attempt to Tell," in The Holocaust as Historical Experience, edited by Yehuda Bauer and Nathan Rotenstreich (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981), p. 81.

Primo Levi
My number is 174517; we have been baptized, we will carry the tattoo on our left arm until we die.
Source: Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz (New York: Summit Books, 1986), p. 27.

Pastor Martin Niemoller
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
Source: Attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller, as stated in Franklin H. Littell's forward to Exile in the Fatherland, Martin Niemoller's Letters from Moabit Prison, edited by Hubert G. Locke (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Company, 1986), p. viii.

Ronald Reagan
We who did not go their way owe them this. We must make sure that their deaths have posthumous meaning. We must make sure that from now until the end of days all humankind stares this evil in the face...and only then can we be sure it will never arise again.
Source: Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, Remarks at the Site of the Future United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, October 5, 1988.

Hannah Senesh
Blessed is the match consumed
in kindling flame
Blessed is the flame that burns
in the secret fastness of the heart.
Blessed is the heart with strength to stop
its beating for honor's sake.
Blessed is the match consumed
in kindling flame.
Source: Hannah Senesh (1921-1944), Sardice, Yugoslavia, May 2, 1944.

Moishe Shulstein
I Saw a Mountain
We are the shoes, we are the last witnesses.
We are shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers,
From Prague, Paris and Amsterdam,
And because we are only made of fabric and leather
And not of blood and flesh, each one of us avoided the hellfire.
Source: Translated by Beatrice Stadtler and Mindele Wajsman in From Holocaust to New Life, edited by Michael Berenbaum (New York: The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, 1985), p. 121.

Harry S. Truman
There are left in Europe 1,500,000 Jews, men, women and children, whom the ordeal has left homeless, hungry, sick, and without assistance. These, too, are victims of the crime for which retribution will be visited upon the guilty. But neither the dictates of justice nor that love of our fellowman which we are bidden to practice will be satisfied until the needs of these sufferers are met.
Source: Remarks to a Delegation from the United Jewish Appeal, February 25, 1946, Public Papers of the United States, Harry S. Truman, January 1-December 31, 1946 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1962), p. 131.

George Washington
The government of the United States...gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.
Source: George Washington's letter "To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island," August 17, 1790.

Elie Wiesel
Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.

Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.
Source: Elie Wiesel, Night (New York: Bantam, 1982), p. 32.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko
The wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar.
The trees look ominous,
like judges.
Here all things scream silently,
and, baring my head,
slowly I feel myself
turning gray.
And I myself
am one massive, soundless scream
above the thousand thousand buried here.
Source: Yevgeny Yevtushenko, in The Collected Poems 1952-1990, edited by Albert C. Todd with the author and James Ragan (New York: Henry Holt, 1991), pp. 102-4.

 
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This page last updated January 18, 2005.