Holocaust Exhibition
Online Activity
The Holocaust was a dark
moment in the history of humankind and the amount of information available on
this period is extensive. Therefore, you will be surveying several online
exhibitions on different areas of the Holocaust.
From the list of
recommended Holocaust exhibitions online, you are to choose two (2)
websites. Try to choose two websites that address different
issues in relation to the Holocaust. (For example, one site about
music related to the Holocaust, one site about survivor stories, and one site
about diplomatic rescues of European Jews.) Please be aware that
some of these links may have changed (for example, all of the ones referring
to Yad Vashem,
just go to the main home page and look from there). Also, be aware that some of
the hyperlinks from this document may not work; if that happens, just
copy-paste the URL. Please let Mrs. Fine know if there are any changes to the
sites.
For each of the two
websites, you are asked to answer the following seven (7)
questions. Don’t forget your name, date and period at the top of
your document.
This assignment is
worth 50 points total! Please see the rubric for
details!
INVESTIGATIVE QUESTIONS:
- Write the proper MLA citation for this
website. You can also use www.easybib.com to help you if the following
example does not.
Author (Last Name, First Name). “Title
of the web page”. Title of Web Site. Publisher, Copyright date. Date visited.URL.
- After noting the title and author of the web site,
would you consider this site a reliable source? Why or why
not?
- Give a one-paragraph description of the
website’s focus. A paragraph is at least 5 complete sentences
long.
- How does this website convey information to
the visitor? (photos, artwork, essays,
artifacts, primary sources, letters, personal narratives. . .)
- List 5 facts you have learned from
this website. List the facts in YOUR OWN WORDS!
- What was the most surprising thing
(issue, event, idea, theory, ideology, story. . . ) you
found on this website? Your response should be in narrative
form and 2-4 sentences in length.
- Would you recommend this website to
someone researching a related topic? Why or why not?
THIS ASSIGNMENT IS DUE ______ AT THE END OF
CLASS!!
Holocaust Exhibitions
Online
http://www.ushmm.org/olympics/
For two weeks in August
1936, Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic
character while hosting the Summer Olympic Games. Soft-pedaling its
anti-Semitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited
the Games to bedazzle many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of
a peaceful, tolerant Germany...This site presents an online version of an exhibition
created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC that
was on display at the Museum from July 1996 - June 1997.
www.ushmm.org/doyourememberwhen
Do You Remember When..., a new online exhibition presented by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum, details the life of Manfred Lewin, a young Jew who was active in one of Berlin’s
Zionist youth groups until his deportation to and murder in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The exhibition centers around the 17-page artifact, which illustrates the
daily life of the young couple and their youth group. It provides a vivid
account of the hopes and fears of Jewish youth during the deportations, as well
as a glimpse into gay Jewish life during the Holocaust.
The Last Expression
project is a forum to explore the roles, functions, meanings and making of art
in the Nazi concentration camps if World War II, focusing on the notorious sire
of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.aspx?c=hkLTJ8MUKvH&b=475889
The remarkable story of Chiune Sugihara,
rescuer of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust. When World War II broke out, Consul Chiune Sugihara's office was flooded with visa requests
from thousands of Jews fleeing German-occupied Poland. With the encouragement
of his wife Yukiko, Sugihara issued Japanese transit visas to as many as 6,000
Polish Jews, risking his job, his career, his future, and even his safety.
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.aspx?c=ivKVLcMVIsG&b=476119
The material contained
in this exhibit, commemorating fifty years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in
1943, documents the confrontation of life against death and the struggle for
human dignity waged on a daily basis by the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto. Its
articles, original documents, photographs and other educational materials all
testify to this enduring spirit of physical, cultural and religious resistance.
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.aspx?c=jmKYJeNVJrF&b=478527
Images of Polish Jews -
Those in the photographs do not know yet that soon their houses will be
deserted, the streets of their towns covered with the black snow of fluff from
slit eiderdowns, that the wisdom of the Book will be able to save no one. All
that will remain after them, when the biblical names have left in cattle cars -
could be put in a drawer, hidden in the attic, buried in junk.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/kovno/
The Hidden History of
the Kovno Ghetto-During
the three-year life of the KovnoGhetto in
Lithuania, members of the terrorized Jewish population engaged in a remarkable,
organized act of defiance. Determined to leave a record of the ghetto’s history for
posterity, many of Kovno's Jews methodically created secret archives,
diaries, drawings, and photographs to document German crimes against their
community. The history begins in
the summer of 1941-soon after German troops invaded Soviet territory, including
Soviet-controlled Lithuania.
http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/
Many people understand
that the policies of the Nazi regime targeted Jews. What many people do not
know is that 5 million non-Jews were also victimized during the Holocaust.
Here, you will investigate Hitler's policies of targeting people of mixed
races, gays and lesbians, gypsies, and the handicapped during the Holocaust.
http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/survivors.shtml
Beginning in March 1942,
a wave of mass murder swept across Europe. During the next 11 months 4,500,000
human beings were eliminated. By the end of World War II the toll had risen to
approximately 6,000,000 Jews, which included 1,500,000 children, who perished
at the hands of the Nazi murderers. When the killing ended those who survived
were released from the concentration camps and came out of hiding. Six detailed
accounts, in audio and transcript form, include family photographs as well as
links to encyclopedia references and related resources.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/flickers_of_light/index.asp
Non-Jews who saved Jews
during the Holocaust, often at great personal risk, are honored by Yad Vashem as the "Righteous Among
The Nations". By saving
Jews, these people proved that rescue was possible and by so doing they
enhanced the dignity of humanity.
http://www.humboldt.edu/rescuers/
TO SAVE A LIFE: STORIES
OF HOLOCAUST RESCUE--In this book you will find true stories narrated by six
rescuers accompanied by the narratives of thirteen people whom they rescued.
Three stories take place in Holland; the others are set in Poland and
Czechoslovakia.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_Auschwitz/index.asp
The Auschwitz Album is
the only surviving visual evidence of the process of mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The photos were taken at the end of May or beginning of June 1944, by two SS
men whose task was to take ID photos and fingerprints of the inmates (not of
the Jews who were sent directly to the gas chambers). The photos show the
arrival of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/vilna/after/valley.asp
The Valley of the
Communities in Yad Vashem is a massive 2.5-acre monument literally dug out
of natural bedrock. Over 5000 names of communities are engraved on the
stonewalls in the Valley of the
Communities. Each name recalls a Jewish community, which existed for hundreds
of years; for the inhabitants, each community constituted an entire world. Today,
in most cases, nothing remains but the name.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/nochildsplay/index.asp
Approximately one and a
half million of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust were children.
The number of children who survived is estimated in the mere thousands. This exhibition opens a window into the world of
children during the Shoah. Unlike other Holocaust exhibitions, it does
not focus on history, statistics or descriptions of physical violence. Instead,
the toys, games, artwork, diaries, and poems displayed here highlight some of
the personal stories of the children, providing a glimpse into their lives
during the Holocaust.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/our_collections/purim/index.asp
A photo archive demonstrating various events and holidays before,
during and after the Holocaust.
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/warsaw_ghetto/index.asp
Of particular note among
the vast quantity of documentation pertaining to the Warsaw Ghetto found in
various archives and libraries, is the tremendous number of photographs. There
are photos portraying almost every aspect of life and death there. These photos
fall into several categories: from amateur pictures, through photos taken by
journalists and professional propagandists, to three-dimensional and color
photos. Generally speaking there are two types of photos that were taken in the
ghetto, and these can be further divided into sub-categories: photos that were
taken by the Germans, and those that were photographed by others. These
collections cover four completely different perspectives of the ghetto, and
they are a sampling of the various spheres that were documented on film in the
ghetto, as well as the different photographers who worked there.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/museum/art_museum.asp
The Yad Vashem Art Museum comprises the largest collection of
Holocaust Art in the world. This art was predominantly created by Jewish artists
living under German occupation, in cities, ghettos and concentration camps
during WWII.
http://www.chgs.umn.edu/museum/exhibitions/rescuers/savingDiplomats.html
Diplomats enjoyed a
special status in the countries where they served and were in a unique position
to extend significant help to refugees. For persecuted Jews desperately seeking
visas to escape Nazi terror, the actions of these diplomats often were the
difference between life and death. Many used every nuance of the regulations to
keep Jews from entering their countries. Yet a few shine as beacons of light in
the vast darkness...lone lighthouses guiding refugees past the lethal rocks and
deadly minefields of the Holocaust.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristalltoc.html
On November 9, 1938, the
Nazis unleashed a series of riots against the Jews in Germany and Austria. In
the space of a few hours, thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses and
homes were damaged or destroyed. For the first time, tens of thousands of Jews
were sent to concentration camps simply because they were Jewish. This
event came to be called Kristallnacht ("Night of the Broken Glass") for the
shattered store windowpanes that carpeted German streets. At this site there
are a variety of on-line resources about Kristallnacht that will enhance your understanding of the event
and provide visual documentation.
On May 13, 1939, the
German transatlantic liner St. Louis set sail from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana,
Cuba. Almost all of the 937 passengers were Jews fleeing from the Third Reich.
Tragically, most would be sent back to a continent about to be engulfed in Hitler's war. Through historical research, detective work, and
an exhaustive media campaign, Museum researchers tried to piece together the
fates of the passengers.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/kristallnacht/frame.htm
Overview of the events, victims and political outcomes of Kristallnacht, 9 November, 1938.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hsx/
Through reproductions of
some 250 historic photographs and documents, Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945 examines the rationale, means, and impact of the
Nazi regime's attempt to eradicate homosexuality that left thousands dead and
shattered the lives of many exhibition is the first in a series about the
lesser–known victims of the Nazi era.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/szyk/
During the first half of
the 20th century, Polish-born Jewish artist Arthur Szyk raised
his pen against anti-Semitism and Nazi tyranny. Through his artwork, Szyk exposed
the persecution of Europe’s Jews and pushed for international intervention to
end the Holocaust.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/music/
Music was heard in many
ghettos, concentration camps, and partisan outposts of Nazi-controlled Europe.
While popular songs dating from before the war remained attractive as escapist
fare, the ghetto, camp, and partisan settings also gave rise to a repertoire of
new works. These included topical songs inspired by the latest gossip and news,
and songs of personal expression that often concerned the loss of family and
home.
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/dp/
May 8, 1945, marked the
end of hostilities and a turn toward peace for war-ravaged Europe. For those
who had survived the Nazi Holocaust, however, the end of the war brought the
beginning of a long and arduous period of rebirth. As many as 100,000 Jewish
survivors found themselves among the seven million uprooted and homeless people
classified as displaced persons (DPs)...
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/publicprograms/programs/poetry00/
In conjunction with
National Poetry Month, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presented a
special one-day program devoted exclusively to poetry inspired by the
Holocaust. This exceptional day of events included a reading byCzeslaw Milosz, recipient of the Nobel Prize for
Literature and the National Medal of Arts...
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/greece/eng/biblio.htm
The indigenous Jewish communities
of Greece represent the longest continuous Jewish presence in Europe. These
communities, along with those who settled in Greece after their expulsion from
Spain, were almost completely destroyed in the Holocaust. In the spring of
1941, the Germans defeated the Greek army and occupied Greece until October of
1944...
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/oad/hist1.htm
During the Holocaust
much of Jewish cultural heritage was destroyed — religious objects melted down
and books burned or sent for pulp. Only the Nazis preserved a sample of Jewish
culture for their own 'scientific' purposes. At war's end Allied forces uncovered huge stores of
looted books, often lying strewn in makeshift depots. What was to be done with
this valuable cultural legacy?
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/jacques/
Relatively few rescued
Jews in German-occupied Europe. Indifference, anti-Semitism, and fear all
deterred efforts. But among those risking imprisonment and death to save Jews
were individual Christian clergy, who hid thousands of Jewish children in
religious institutions or with willing families. Angered at Nazi policies,
Father Jacques made the boys' school in Avon, France, a refuge...
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005677
Josef Nassy (1904–1976),
a black expatriate artist of Jewish descent, was one of 2,000 civilians holding
American passports who were confined in German internment camps during World
War II. While imprisoned for three years, Nassycreated a unique visual diary of more than 200
paintings and drawings.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005479
Blacks suffered racism
during World War II, but did not often suffer the same fate as Jews and other
undesirables during the Holocaust. This web page takes a look at the black
experience during World War II.
http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/
On December 9, 1946, an
American military tribunal opened criminal proceedings against 23 leading
German physicians and administrators for their willing participation in war
crimes and crimes against humanity. For the 50th anniversary, the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum presents excerpts from the official record: Trials of
War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law
No. 10.
Ken McVay founded Nizkor to answer the claims of those who say that the Holocaust did not
happen. Although it fulfills that role extremely well, it is also simply an
excellent source for scientific and historical information about the Holocaust.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/nurem-laws.htm
This page from the
History Place describes the laws and includes a photograph of a chart used to
explain who the Nazis did and not consider Jewish.
http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007698
This page from the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum gives more information about the Evian
Conference.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005477
The Wannsee Conference -- More information on the Wannsee Conference can be found on this page from the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum.
http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/index.html
This page from the
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum focuses on the series of Nuremberg
Trials begun in December of 1946. Twenty-three doctors and administrators were
accused of crimes against humanity for their work on Nazi euthanasia programs
and in medical experiments conducted with concentration camp inmates.
http://www.remember.org/jacobs/index.html
This page offers a
gallery of photographs of Auschwitz-Birkenau taken by Alan Jacobs.
http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/
This page from Nizkor gives an overview of the facts surrounding the murders and medical
experiments, which took place at Auschwitz.
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/Poland/Treblinka/index.html
A very thorough and informative online exhibit about the Treblinka
camp with links to other camps.
http://www-lib.usc.edu/~anthonya/war/main.htm
Anthony Anderson wrote
this history of the Netherlands under the Third Reich.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/horonczyk/index.asp
From Hope to Despair tells
of a family that moves to France for a better life, but faces destruction.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/spots_of_light/index.asp -- Spots of Light (women during the Holocaust)
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/youth_lodz/index.html -- Youth Groups in the Lodz Ghetto (a large ghetto in Poland, this
documents the formation and struggles of the youth groups there before and
during the Holocaust)
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/tolkatchev/index.asp -- Private Tolkatchev at the Gates of Hell (one artist's documentation of the liberation
at Auschwitz)
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/virtues_of_memory/index.asp -- Virtues of Memory: Six decades of Holocaust Survivors'
Creativity (art created by survivors tells their stories through the Holocaust
and after)