titles for essays about the holocaust

150 Holocaust Essay Topics & Examples

Looking for good titles for a Holocaust project? This is one of the most tragic parts of WW2 that is definitely worth studying.

🔝 Top 10 Holocaust Questions for Essays

📝 holocaust essay: how to write, 🏆 holocaust essay examples & topics, 📌 holocaust thesis ideas, ✍️ holocaust essay topics for college, 💡 most interesting holocaust topics to write about, ❓ holocaust essay questions.

The most popular Holocaust essay topics are:

• The Holocaust and its causes
• Nazi human experiments as a part of the Holocaust
• Jewish ghettos in Poland
• The establishment of Auschwitz concentration camp
• The consequences of the Holocaust

Below you can find much more ideas. In this article, we’ve collected Holocaust thesis ideas and questions for essays. They will suite for middle school, high school, and college-level assignments. You’ll also find tips on writing your introduction, conclusion, and formulating a thesis statement, together with Holocaust essay examples. Write an ️A+ paper with us!

• What were the ideological causes of the Holocaust?
• How was anti-Jewish legislation in Germany established?
• What were the goals of the Nazi Euthanasia Program?
• How and where were the largest ghettos created?
• How did the concentration camp system expand across Europe?
• What were the three types of ghettos?
• How did the resistance efforts in the ghettos look like?
• Who were the key opponents of Nazism inside and outside Germany?
• How did the US government respond to Nazism?
• What were the consequences of the Holocaust?

The Holocaust has affected millions of people around the world. It is one of the most tragic and problematic topics of history. Holocaust essays help students to understand the issue better, analyzing its causes and consequences.

Organizing an essay on the Holocaust may be challenging, as there are many aspects to cover. We have developed some tips to help you through the process.

First, choose the Holocaust issue you want to discuss. Select one of the titles to work on. Some of the Holocaust essay topics include:

• Concentration camps in today’s Europe
• Lessons from the Holocaust: Fostering tolerance
• Present and future of the Holocaust research
• The causes of the Holocaust and discrimination against Jewish people
• How could people have stopped the Holocaust?
• Political issues behind the Holocaust
• The effects of the Holocaust on its survivors
• The factors and issues that contributed to Nazism

You can choose one of these holocaust essay questions or ask your professor for suggestions. Once that you have selected the topic of your essay, you can start working on the paper.

A well-developed structure is highly significant for an outstanding essay. Here are some tips on how to develop a structure for the paper:

• Think of the Holocaust essay prompts you want to discuss first. You can do preliminary research to see what issues you should cover.
• Ask your professor about the type of essay you should write. If it is an argumentative essay, you will need to leave space for at least one refutation paragraph and a rebuttal paragraph.
• Include an introductory paragraph (or several paragraphs if you are working on a longer essay). This paragraph should include the background information on the Holocaust and the problem you have selected. Discuss the goals of the paper and state your main claim at the end of this section.
• The main arguments of your paper will comprise body paragraphs. You may want to dedicate at least one separate paragraph for each of your claims. The number of body paragraphs is up to you, however, we would recommend including at least three of them. Hint: Make smooth transitions between paragraphs to make your paper look more organized.
• Remember that at least one body paragraph should state the general information about the Holocaust, its causes, and effects. You may discuss statistical data, global consequences, and primary victims.
• While working on a refutation paragraph, do not forget to prove that your arguments are more reasonable that the opposing perspectives. You can dedicate a separate paragraph for a rebuttal.
• A concluding section or a summary should state your main arguments again. You can also include a recommendation if necessary.
• Important tip: Do not make your paragraphs too short or too long. We would recommend writing between 65 and 190 words per paragraph and not more than 35 words per sentence. Making all body paragraphs of similar length is also a good idea that will make your paper look more professional.
• Ask your professor whether you need to include a title page and table of contents. Remember that a reference page is a must, as it includes all sources from the essay.
• If you are not sure that the selected structure is good, search for the holocaust essay titles and examples online and see how other students organize their papers. Avoid copying the works you will find.

Remember to look at the samples on our website to get some ideas for your excellent paper!

• Critique of Elie Wiesel’s Holocaust Book “Night” Like many books on the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel’s Night is a dramatic picture of the horror times in the history of humankind and particularly in the history of the Jewish people.
• Holocaust and Bosnian Genocide Comparison The current paper aims to compare some of the most notable genocides in history, the Holocaust, and the Bosnian mass murder in terms of their aims, death tolls, tactics, and methods.
• The Holocaust: Poem “Tears of Blood” The extermination of the Roma was part of the general policy of the National Socialists to destroy political opponents, homosexual people, terminally and mentally ill, drug addicts, and Jews.
• Holocaust and Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt This paper is devoted to the analysis of the Holocaust in general and the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt in particular. The judges represented the states which were the main winners in the war: Great Britain, […]
• US Holocaust Policy During World War II However, the anti-Nazi campaign was not successful, and the main reason for this was the harsh foreign policy of the USA.
• Reasons Why the Jews Failed to Resist the Holocaust The award-winning book brings the readers to the lives and experiences of Vladek Spiegelman, a holocaust survivor, and his father during the period.
• Discussion of Holocaust and Immigration In “Holocaust Education and Remembrance in Australia,” Suzanne D.and Suzanne H.discuss the adverse effects and after-issues of immigration among the Jewish community and how it led to the concept that the Holocaust had a long-lasting […]
• The Holocaust and the Nakba: Tragedy and Trauma The Nakba refers to the destruction of hundreds of cities and towns and the Palestinian people’s cultural, economic, political, and social backgrounds.
• Holocaust Commemoration in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum This paper is relevant to the understanding of virtual exhibit since it highlights the major notions of memorialization that are included in the exhibition.
• Holocaust: Traditions and Encounters He was the only presenter in the video: he revealed the question about Sephardic Jews in the Holocaust and answered questions from the audience.
• Holocaust: Taking Steps Toward Evil To the Nazi leader, the Jews were an inferior race and were an alien threat to the German racial purity. The Germans blamed the Jews for having lost the World War 1 and accused them […]
• A Visit to the Holocaust Museum Houston The museum emphasizes the perils of intolerance, bigotry, and apathy by drawing on the lessons of the Holocaust and other massive genocides.
• “Holocaust Horror…” by Moore A considerable number of young people do not have the correct knowledge, and the most disturbing fact is that the Holocaust started to be interpreted in different ways.
• The Relationship Between Epigenetics and the Effects of the Holocaust Tests are most likely to identify existing changes of DNA and the proteins related to DNA, which are responsible for the structure of the DNA and the availability of other elements related to the DNA.
• The Terror of the Holocaust in the Book “Hana’s Suitcase” by Karen Levine The story “Hana’s Suitcase” by Karen Levine is not fiction, where heroes and the plot are the imagination of the author; it is a documentary story where the situation and named people are real, they […]
• The Holocaust and Schindler’s List: Transforming the Human Perception of Violence The World War II genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, changed both the Jewish history and the history of the world, transforming the human perception of violence and religious conflicts.
• The Holocaust as a History-Cultural Phenomenon The Holocaust in the narrow sense represents the persecution and mass extermination of Jews who inhabited the German lands, the territories of Hitler’s allies, and the areas occupied during the war.
• Art Spiegelman’s Graphic Novel “Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale”: Author’s Understanding of the Holocaust Spiegelman uses mice to represent Jews because of the oppression they experienced while in Hitler’s concentration camps. The mistreatment the Jews experienced is similar to what mice experience in the presence of cats.
• Holocaust Museum Exhibition “State of Deception” Generally, evaluating a variety of facts from different sources, it becomes evident that the exhibition “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda” in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum can be seen as rather […]
• Holocaust: Ethnic and Cultural Diversity and the Real Face of Prejudice The holocaust refers to the murder of six million European Jews in the course of the Second World War. The holocaust was the highest level of prejudice in society during the time.
• German Attitudes Towards Third Reich and Holocaust Commemoration The Goldhagen debate represents a shift in the attitude of the Germans regarding the commemoration of the Third Reich and the remembrance of the holocaust.
• Jewish Holocaust and the Humour During the Dark Times This is the Jewish long tradition of jokes in Judaism that dates back to the Midrash and the Pentateuch but it generally refers to the more recent group of verbs that were first used in […]
• Human Response to Holocaust in “Nightfather” and “Fugitive Pieces” It is his memory of the nightmare that keeps him imprisoned, he appears in the camp again and again by the volition of his memory that is eager to play painful tricks with him.
• Holocaust Denial: Dynamics of Ethics While keeping this in mind, we will analyze the introduction of “holocaust denial” criminal charges into the penal code of many Western countries that simultaneously take pride in the fact that their democratic form of […]
• American’s Reaction to Jewish Holocaust Later when America joined Russia in the war against the Nazi Regime, the action was selective in that it failed to protect the Jews from genocide.
• Holocaust: From Discrimination to Concentration Camps The discrimination as said at workplaces and other areas was later to escalate to actual killing with the taking of power by the Nazi party establishing legal backing of their activities with the enactment of […]
• Jewish Family’s Experiences During the Holocaust Piecing together everything that I learned from my grandparents and parents, I have come to realize that I was shaped early on by the experience of my ancestors in the Holocaust and in Russia.
• Censorship, Holocaust and Political Correctness In this paper, we will focus on exploring different aspects of formal and informal censorship, in regards to a so-called “Holocaust denial”, as we strongly believe that people’s ability to express their thoughts freely is […]
• The Holocaust: Auschwitz Concentration Camp History In an attempt to dehumanize the victims of the Nazis and as a testament to the resilience of a few of the inmates of the camps, the mentality of the brutal Nazis is worth a […]
• Vatican and Holocaust: Did Pope help Jews The couple later stated that they never wanted the Pope to come out in the open and state that he was against the Nazis because then he will become the center of attention and to […]
• Holocaust: What Were Its Causes and Effects? After the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazis, the goal of the Nazis was to murder every individual of Jewish origin, which the Nazis defined as anyone with a trace of Jewish “blood” dating […]
• Henry Orenstein: Holocaust Survivor and Entrepreneur The Nazi regime, were under the impression that the Germans were ‘racially superior’ to the Jews and believed that the Jews were somehow lesser than them.
• The Holocaust: Historical Analysis The Holocaust, now the example of Jewish pain, has long stopped to be a piece of history, and is now regarded by spiritual and material alike, as a piece of divinity – a sacred text […]
• The Holocaust: Planned Physical Extermination In this essay, we are going to concentrate particularly on the point of the Holocaust in the countries of Eastern and Western Europe, namely the extermination of Jews that took place in Romania and France […]
• Holocaust Tragedy in Nazi Germany Since the forties of the twentieth century, another such theory, called the Holocaust, came into use in the context of the mass extermination of Jews in Europe by the Nazis. It is the education of […]
• The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation The sanctity of life should therefore be respected at all costs and so humanity should strive to coexist in peace and harmony in a manner that is sustainable to prevent the reoccurrence of such atrocities […]
• A Visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC People visited the museum to learn about the atrocities caused to the Jews by the Nazi administration, headed by Hitler. The other piece I learned is that in the museum there was a video of […]
• Holocaust in “Maus” Graphic Novel by Art Spiegelman It is quite peculiar that Spiegelman uses only the black-and-white color perhaps, this is another means to emphasize the gloomy atmosphere of the Nazi invasion and the reign of the anti-Semite ideas.
• Post-Holocaust and Imprisonment Literary Works It is possible that Celan uses repetition to express the feelings of repetitiveness that he and the other people felt during the imprisonment.
• Virginia Holocaust Museum’s Genocide Presentation In terms of the educational objective, I aimed to learn the aspects and details of the Holocaust through the artifacts, objects, and things that belonged to people experiencing these events’ atrocities.
• Virginia Holocaust Museum Trip and Experience I wanted to make sure that I could listen to myself and truly feel what the Holocaust was for humanity and is for me. I felt outraged that someone could think they had the right […]
• Virginia Holocaust Museum Field: Trip Reflection I must admit that the very fact of listening to the voice of somebody who went through the horrors of the Holocaust proved to be at least as revealing as all of the artifacts and […]
• The Poetry of the Holocaust Period In conclusion, it seems appropriate to state that Sutzkever is a metaphysical poet as his creative thought focuses on the beauty of nature and the truthful presentation of events.
• The Public Memory of the Holocaust In addition to his pain, Levi concerns the increasing temporal distance and habitual indifference of hundreds of millions of people towards the Holocaust and the survivors1 It causes the feeling of anxiety that was fuelled […]
• History of the Holocaust They can be outlined as follows: the historical legacy of anti-Semitism in Europe, the particulars of the German national character /the fact that the Nazis did succeed in dehumanizing the Jews, and the irrational hatred […]
• Holocaust Memorial Museum Textiles, for example, badges, uniforms, flags, costumes, and banners are also housed in the museum. Other types of materials housed in the museum are works on paper, such as announcements, posters, broadsides, and maps.
• Holocaust in “Survival in Auschwitz” by Primo Levi Another issue that needs to be discussed is that the economy of Germany was hurt because of the World War I, and it has affected the pride of the nation.
• 1942-1945 Holocaust: Nazi Germany’s Political Reasons Started in 1942 and taking place until the end of the war, the Holocaust was the genocide of Jewish people arranged by Hitler and implemented by the Nazi army.
• Holocaust vs. Japanese Colonial Era in Korea The Holocaust in the history of Jewish people, as well as Japanese occupation in the history of Korean people, was one of the greatest tragedies.
• Holocaust, Antisemitism, and Propaganda That is why, nowadays great attention is given to issues which led to the death of millions of people. Being a part of the ideology of Nazism, it led to the elimination of a great […]
• The Holocaust Effects: Books “Tzili” and “Wartime Lies” The natural experiences of growing up are changed and twisted by the war and its horrors, but the specific developments, their perceptions, and impacts are affected by the children’s personalities and circumstances of their lives, […]
• Nazi Medical Experiments During the Holocaust The information is maintained by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This photograph is maintained and produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• The Holocaust and Jehovas Witnesses The concept of “spiritual resistance” in the case of members of Jehovah’s Witness during the era of the Nazis in Germany focused primarily on continuing the acts associated with their faith despite the persecution they […]
• Holocaust: Nazi Anti-Jewish Policies and Actions The major policy that the Nazi implemented was the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service that excluded Jews from government jobs.
• Holocaust and Nazi’s Racial Imperialism The scholar argues that the event was a result of the racial imperialism championed by the Nazi Party in the country.
• Adolf Hitler and a History of the Holocaust Before going any further it is important to point out the kind of mindset that the German people had back then that made it easier for Hitler to convince them to join him in a […]
• The Holocaust History: the Jewish Community Destruction To achieve its objective, the paper will expound on why the Nazi government targeted the Jews, why did these attacks come during this specific period, the role that average German citizens played and the overall […]
• Holocaust History, Its Definition and Causes Also notable about racism is the fact that it may take several forms and it is not just limited to the literal meaning of racism like the skin color, the size of the eyes, and […]
• Holocaust Experience in the Book ‘Night’ by Elie Wiesel Eliezer’s depiction in the story as the main character in the story is that of a humble and religious young man.
• The Jewish Holocaust Novel ‘Night’ by Eliezer Wiesel Generally, Eliezer admired the fact that his father was prayerful and he kept his utmost faith in God even in the time of oppression.
• History of the Jews and the Holocaust The Nazi regime and its partners became the pioneers of the Holocaust. That being the case, the anti-Semitism ideas and prejudices experienced in Germany before the Second World War led to the infamous Holocaust.
• Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory by Deborah Lipstadt The book is divided into chapters that focus on the history and methods that are used to distort the truth and the memory of the Holocaust.
• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Since its inception in 1993, the museum has served as the nation’s reminder when it comes to issues of the holocaust.
• Iran and Israel’s Nuclear Holocaust and the Gulf Cooperation Council’s Position As such conflict would put a serious threat to the safety of the region, the policy aims at the acceptance of nuclear deal and the development of the effective course of actions aimed at eliminating […]
• Liberal Democracy, Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust The Nazis and other populist political movements in Germany believed that the Jews had undue influence in the country through their prominent positions in the media and the financial system4.
• Was the Holocaust the failure of or the product of Modernity? The date that traditionally marks the beginning of modernist era is 1453, when the City of Constantinople was conquered by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, as far as this date symbolized the end of the Byzantine […]
• Reconsidering the History: Holocaust Denial. The XXI Century Prospects Despite the fact that Holocaust was one of the hideous crimes against the humanity that is never to occur again, some tend to represent the tragic event as the stage of the history that people […]
• Nazi Germany & Holocaust The Nazi movement is a revolutionary movement that was associated with the mass murder of Jews and Communists in an attempt to restore the reputation of Germany at the international level. The Nazi regime under […]
• The Holocaust and Nazi Germany The rise of the Nazis to power in 1933 led to the establishment of thousands of concentration camps, which were centers of mass murders of Jews.
• The Holocaust and Jews Extermination The Nazis perceived Internationalism in the context of the Holocaust to be a global perspective primarily held and advocated by Jews who were using it as a method designed to dominate the whole world.
• The Holocaust: Analysis of Life in the Kovno, Warsaw and Lodz Ghettos Due to the continued capturing and shooting of the Jews at the forts, Rabbi Shapiro felt that the Jews should be separated from the Lithuanians to live into the Ghetto and thus a seven member […]
• How Holocaust Has Been Projected by the Different Historians Over the Years? Several historians claimed that it was unfair as it was an act of barbarism and it promoted wicked behavior with the innocent people of Jewish community while on the other hand, it was said that […]
• Jewish Insight of Holocaust Holocaust, the extermination of Jews from the European land was the example of brutality and viciousness of the Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, many historians were observing the situation critically and wanted to present their ideas about […]
• Shooting At the Holocaust Museum According to the incident report, von Brunn entered the museum and shot the guard. His motive was to hold the board members who were in the building hostage for the economic difficulties that the country […]
• The Nazi Holocaust’s Effects This study aims at analyzing the claim that social and psychological effects of the Holocaust linger in areas of political systems in which the survivors of the holocaust currently reside.
• The History of the Holocaust Hitler said that the root cause of the problems were the despicable Jews of Europe. The direct victims were the Jews but the rest of the world understood the consequences of inaction and the lack […]
• Holocaust and the Cold War Cold war refers to the military and political tension between the United States of America and the Soviet Union immediately after the World War 2.
• Reinhard Heydrich’s Role in the Holocaust With the help of his boss: Himmler[7], they used political forces to influence the police in an attempt to ensure the consolidation of the Nazi administration in the entire nation of Germany[8].
• Doris Bergen: Nazi’s Holocaust Program in “War and Genocide” The discussion of the Holocaust cannot be separated from the context of the World War II because the Nazi ideology of advancing the Aryans and murdering the undesirable people became one of the top reasons […]
• The ‘Banality’ of Abstraction: Western Philosophy’s Failure to Address the Moral Implications of the Holocaust Additionally, I would like to address the relationship of Arendt and Heidegger in the context of The Holocaust, and the effect that it had upon their philosophical works.
• Conduction of The Holocaust Propaganda against Jews The common media the Nazis used for the campaign against the Jews was the Weekly Nazis newspaper, “The attacker”.
• Does Global English Mean Linguistic Holocaust? It is not difficult to find examples of the extinction of languages in the wake of the introduction of English. Some of the most active areas of extinction include the American West, where a variety […]
• The Horror of the Holocaust in Different Styles of Writing One of the thematic thread that unites these three works of the writers from different countries is their attempt to reproduce how cruel and unfair the actions of the Nazi were. The Holocaust, the judgment […]
• Peter Eisenman; Building Germany, the Holocaust Memorial The Jews were not the Nazi’s only victims during the holocaust, other casualties were the weak and disabled people in the society, who were killed on the pretext of the Euthanasia program.
• The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide deals with one of the most debatable issues of the history of the twentieth century, i.e.
• The Holocaust: Religion, Race and Ethnicity Discrimination
• Holocaust Resistance: The Largest Jews Revolt Holocaust
• The Violent Conditions and Dehumanization Faced by the Jewish People During the Holocaust
• Analysis of the Causes of the Holocaust in Germany
• The Anger and Bewilderment of Holocaust Survivors
• Racist and Hate Crimes During the Holocaust
• The Long-Lasting Impact of the Holocaust on the Survivors
• The Holocaust, and the Statistics of the Tragic Events
• General Information About the Holocaust Was Genocide Against the Jewish Race
• The Causes and Effects the Holocaust Was Responsible for the Death of 6 Million
• Overview of the Chinese Holocaust and Experiments on Living People
• The Goals and Impact of the Holocaust Camps in Germany
• General Information About the Horrible Events That Took Place During the Holocaust
• The Different Killing Methods Used by the Nazi Germans During the Holocaust
• The U.S. Government’s Disregard of the Jewish Holocaust
• Survivor’s Syndrome Among Holocaust Survivors
• The German Holocaust: Treatment of the Germans After WWII
• Holocaust Survivor Testimonies: Time, Methodology and Memory
• The Link Between Nazi Propaganda and the Holocaust
• Holocaust Survivor Bewilderment and Anger
• Stolen Art Literature and Music of the Holocaust
• The Genesis and History of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany
• The Knowledge About the Holocaust To Avoid the Same Experience
• Analysis of the Holocaust and the Crisis of Human Behavior
• The Horrific Experience and Fate of the Children During the Holocaust
• How Did the Holocaust Affect the Jewish Community?
• How Does the American Holocaust Show the Huge Decline of Native Americans?
• Was German “Eliminationist Anti Semitism” Responsible for the Holocaust?
• How Were Jews Treated During the Holocaust?
• What Is the Relationship Between Holocaust and Genocide?
• How the Holocaust Took Away the Rights of Jewish People?
• What Was the Strength of the Nazis During the Holocaust?
• With Whom Does Responsibility for the Holocaust Ultimately Lie?
• How the Pope Affected the Holocaust?
• What Events Led to the Holocaust in Germany?
• How Was Survival Possible in the Death Camps of the Holocaust?
• Were the Jehovah’s Witnesses Really Affected by the Holocaust?
• Why Does God Permit Tragic Events Like the Holocaust Terrorist Attacks?
• What Was Hitler’s Role in the Holocaust?
• Why Is Peter Eisenman Building a Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust in Germany?
• How Does the Holocaust Compare to One Other Form of Modern Genocide (Kurdish Genocide)?
• What Are the Problems Between Jews and Christians That Caused the Holocaust?
• How Did Oskar Schindler Act During the Holocaust?
• What Prejudices Were There During the Holocaust?
• How Did People Avoid Removal During the Holocaust?
• What Kind of Medical Experiments Were Carried Out During the Holocaust?
• How Did the Holocaust Affect Ordinary People?
• What Are the Proposals for Preventing a New Holocaust?
• How Did the U.S. React to the Holocaust in Germany?
• Why Was the World Silent During the Holocaust?
• How the Holocaust Affected Its Jewish Victims?
• What Are the Consequences of the Holocaust and Its Consequences for the Jews and the Rest of the Population?
• How the Holocaust Explodes the Concept of Mass Crime?
• Why Are Jews Demanding Compensation for Holocaust Damage?
• What Economic and Social Conditions Led to the Holocaust?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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126 Holocaust Essay Topics & Research Paper Titles

The Holocaust is one of the most tragic events in world history, and writing an essay about it can help you understand it better. Among these Holocaust essay topics, you can find ideas for different types of middle school or college essays. Use them as the Holocaust essay titles or as a starting point for your dissertation research.

🕎 TOP 7 Holocaust Essay Topics

🏆 good titles for holocaust essays, 🎓 most interesting holocaust research paper topics, 💡 simple holocaust essay ideas, ❓ holocaust questions for essays, 📝 holocaust argumentative essay topics, 🔎 holocaust topics for research paper, ✍️ more holocaust essay titles.

• Holocaust and War in “Hiroshima” by John Hersey
• Herero Holocaust Among European Colonial Genocides
• Holocaust in “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” Film
• World War II: Holocaust and Discrimination of the Jews
• Holocaust: Jewish Women’s Experiences
• World History: Researching of Holocaust
• “Children in the Holocaust and World War II” by Holliday
• Perpetrators, Bystanders, and Rescuers During the Holocaust The Holocaust was prevalent, with cruelties, tragedies, and atrocities directed at various groups defined by diverse characteristics.
• Holocaust and Its Physical and Mental Consequences This paper is a detailed and thorough study of the physical and mental consequences of the Holocaust on people who survived this terrible period of history.
• The Holocaust Impact on Jewish Theology Holocaust had a major impact on Jewish theology by providing an earth-shattering tragedy the likes of which the Jewish have never seen in the past, to explain.
• Wiesel’s Holocaust Experiences Eliezer Wiesel’s view of human nature and understanding of God radically changed due to his experience of the Holocaust.
• Behavior of Witnesses in “Holocaust by Bullets” by Desbois Desbois’ book “Holocaust by Bullets” documents in detail the experience of witnesses to the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis.
• Turning Points of the Holocaust The year 1939 started with the Law Excluding Jews from Commercial Enterprises closing all Jewish-owned businesses on January 1.
• Holocaust and Moral Objectivism: “Surviving Auschwitz” “Surviving Auschwitz: Children of the Shoah” by WSGVU is a documentary that follows two Holocaust survivors as they visit their hometown and concentration camps.
• The Extent of the Holocaust as a Christian Problem The events of the Holocaust are considered a regrettable lapse in judgment on the part of the German Christian population and should be remembered to prevent such events.
• Holocaust and the United States To the most basic facts, the holocaust saw the death of approximately eleven million people, six million of these being Jews.
• The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust Comparing the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide the latter is much simpler in terms of cause, method, and outcome. The Holocaust is the direct result of anti-Semitism.
• Third Reich and Holocaust Commemoration The commemoration of the Third Reich and the holocaust through negative publicity like in Goldhaggen and crimes of the Wehrmacht gives the world a chance to ridicule the country.
• Facts of the Holocaust Holocaust was one of the most terrible events in history if the world marked by extreme violence and hostility.
• American Influence on Stopping Holocaust Had America been involved early and acted accordingly, millions of Jews could have been saved from the Holocaust.
• Holocaust and Genocide Analysis The ideology provided by Nazi underlined the descent of the German people from the Aryan race and rejected all other nations.
• “I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala” and “American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World”: Comparison The book titled “I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala” is an autobiography of Rigoberta Menchú that is written in the form of the testimonio.
• Escape from Sobibor: World War 2 Holocaust Escape from Sobibor is one of the many movies that focus on the mass murder of Jews in German concentration camps.
• US Holocaust Memorial and American Indian Museums In this paper, I will evaluate the National Museum of the American Indian and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• Holocaust in “Night” Novel by Elie Wiesel While exterminating Jews, the Nazis were also trying to humiliate the ‘chosen people’ in every way possible. Wiesel’s book Night illustrates the validity of this suggestion.
• Antisemitism Controversy and Holocaust Denial Antisemitism has existed for centuries and taken different forms. This is a very dangerous phenomenon as it often resulted in cruel pogroms and even legal persecutions.
• Holocaust Denial and Antisemitism Ideas Antisemitism has existed for centuries and taken different forms. This is a very dangerous phenomenon as it often resulted in cruel pogroms and even legal persecutions.
• “Night” a Book by Elie Wiesel about Holocaust Literature Analysis Night is a book written by Elie Wiesel that focuses on his experiences while imprisoned in one of the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust.
• Night by Elie Wiesel: A Memoir About the Holocaust Experiences Night by Elie Wiesel describes the little boy Eliezer. In his teens, Eliezer is a perfect embodiment of a child growing up in a perfect society.
• The Rwandan Genocide as One of the Devastating Genocides Since the Holocaust The historic Rwandan Genocide, organized by Hutu hardliners, resulted in the merciless murder of approximately one million individuals after a three months rampage in 1994.
• Environmental Studies: The Global Warming Holocaust Global climate change is a social issue that has captured the imagination of the world’s population. This issue is discussed in mass media and social media platforms.
• Concentration Camps During the Holocaust
• Saving Jews From the Holocaust Examined in Terms of Cognitive Dissonance Theories
• Nazi Beliefs and the Holocaust
• Holocaust Survivor Bewilderment and Anger
• Life During the Holocaust in the Eyes of Jean Amery
• Comparing Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin During the Holocaust
• Christian Churches Should Have Opposed the Nazi Holocaust
• Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Asian Genocide
• Stolen Art Literature and Music of the Holocaust
• German Anti-Semitism Was Responsible for the Holocaust
• Political Ideology and Other Factors Leading to the Holocaust
• Dehumanization During the Holocaust and Iranian Revolution
• Holocaust and Its Sociopolitical Causes
• American Foreign Policy During the Holocaust
• Moral Indifference, the Holocaust & the Directive for Genocide
• Croatia Before and After the Holocaust and World War II
• Death and Concentration Camps in the Holocaust History
• Nazi Propaganda During World War Two and the Holocaust
• Holocaust Victim’s Retribution and Reparations
• Nazi Germany and Virginia Holocaust Museum
• Medical Experiments During the Holocaust
• Pre Nazi Holocaust and the Civil War
• Holocaust and Bosnian Genocide Comparisons
• German Battalion 101’s Role in Perpetuating the Holocaust
• Hypothesis Concerning Holocaust Presented by David Cole
• Emotional Changes During the Holocaust
• Jewish Resistance During WWII and the Holocaust
• Holocaust Bystanders: Placing the Blame on Surrounding Citizens and Allied Nations
• Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust
• Japanese Internment Camps and Holocaust Concentration Camps
• Holocaust and the Response of the American Catholic Church
• Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust
• Holocaust Denial Political Agenda
• Nuclear Holocaust United States
• Advancing the Individual’s Knowledge of the Holocaust
• Holocaust: Monuments, Memorials, and Public Demonstrations
• Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian Holocaust
• Challenges Facing the Nazis and Other Jews in the Holocaust
• Holocaust Survivor Testimonies: Time, Methodology, and Memory
• American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World
• How Did the Holocaust Affect the Development of Military Literature?
• How Did the Native American Removal Compared to the Holocaust?
• How Did the Nazis Use Propaganda During the Holocaust?
• How Ordinary Germans and Their Foreign Allies Willingly Participated in the Holocaust?
• How the Holocaust Affected It’s Jewish Victims?
• Were German Citizens Aware of the Holocaust?
• What Did the Holocaust and Japanese Relocation Act Have in Similarities?
• What Theological Questions Relevant to the Study of Judaism Are Raised by the Holocaust?
• What Was the Involvement of Ordinary Germans in the Holocaust?
• Why Germans Scientist, Engineers and Doctors Asked To Participate in the Holocaust?
• Why Should Future Generations Know About the Holocaust?
• Were the Jehovah Witnesses Really Affected by the Holocaust?
• Was German “Eliminationist Antisemitism” Responsible for the Holocaust?
• What Is Meant by Term the Holocaust Industry?
• Why Does God Permit Tragic Events Like the Holocaust Terrorist Attacks?
• Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?
• What Is the Environmental History of the Holocaust?
• Why Did the World Keep Silent During the Holocaust?
• What Is the Treatment of the Holocaust in High School History Textbooks?
• What Is the Culpability of Accounting in Perpetuating the Holocaust?
• Did Gender Matter During the Holocaust?
• What Are the Reflections on the Historiography of the Holocaust?
• Can There Be a Political Science of the Holocaust?
• How Did Holocaust Show the Problems of Historical Representation?
• Why the Holocaust Does Not Matter to Estonians?
• Bystanders during the Holocaust: should they be morally responsible for not intervening?
• Did the Nuremberg trials achieve justice for Holocaust victims?
• Should teaching the history of the Holocaust be mandatory in schools?
• Should Holocaust denial be legally punishable?
• Does the Holocaust illustrate the dangers of unchecked government power?
• Should Holocaust restitution claims be limited to a specific timeframe?
• The Holocaust and the problem of evil: does this genocide contradict the existence of a benevolent God?
• Should non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust be commemorated equally to Jewish victims?
• Should Holocaust museums adopt a truthful or sensitive approach to showing Holocaust atrocities?
• Is it justifiable for Holocaust victims to seek financial restitution from companies collaborating with Nazis?
• The Holocaust denial: the motivations behind it and its consequences.
• What were the motivations of people participating in the Holocaust genocide?
• The impact of the Holocaust survivors’ testimonies on understanding the history.
• The role of the Holocaust in countering modern hate speech and prejudice.
• Similarities and differences between the Holocaust and other genocides.
• How did the Nazi propaganda incite violence during the Holocaust?
• Evaluating the effectiveness of resistance movements during the Holocaust.
• The psychological effects of the Holocaust on survivors.
• Children’s experiences of separation and survival during the Holocaust.
• Non-Jewish people’s rescue efforts during the Holocaust.
• The ethical challenges involved in the artistic representation of the Holocaust.
• The role of international law in preventing genocide after the Holocaust.
• Beyond Auschwitz: lesser-known Holocaust concentration camps.
• How is the Holocaust remembered and commemorated today?
• The role of ordinary citizens in perpetrating the Holocaust.
• The Warsaw Ghetto uprising and its impact on the Jewish resistance.
• The portrayal of the Holocaust in literature and movies.
• The Holocaust and gender: unique experiences of male and female victims.
• Challenges that followed the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.
• The effects of the Holocaust on the victims’ descendants.

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The Holocaust

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 11, 2023 | Original: October 14, 2009

The Holocaust was the state-sponsored persecution and mass murder of millions of European Jews, Romani people, the intellectually disabled, political dissidents and homosexuals by the German Nazi regime between 1933 and 1945. The word “holocaust,” from the Greek words “holos” (whole) and “kaustos” (burned), was historically used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar.

After years of Nazi rule in Germany, dictator Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution”—now known as the Holocaust—came to fruition during World War II, with mass killing centers in concentration camps. About six million Jews and some five million others, targeted for racial, political, ideological and behavioral reasons, died in the Holocaust—more than one million of those who perished were children.

Historical Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism in Europe did not begin with Adolf Hitler . Though use of the term itself dates only to the 1870s, there is evidence of hostility toward Jews long before the Holocaust—even as far back as the ancient world, when Roman authorities destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and forced Jews to leave Palestine .

The Enlightenment , during the 17th and 18th centuries, emphasized religious tolerance, and in the 19th century Napoleon Bonaparte and other European rulers enacted legislation that ended long-standing restrictions on Jews. Anti-Semitic feeling endured, however, in many cases taking on a racial character rather than a religious one.

Did you know? Even in the early 21st century, the legacy of the Holocaust endures. Swiss government and banking institutions have in recent years acknowledged their complicity with the Nazis and established funds to aid Holocaust survivors and other victims of human rights abuses, genocide or other catastrophes.

Hitler's Rise to Power

The roots of Adolf Hitler’s particularly virulent brand of anti-Semitism are unclear. Born in Austria in 1889, he served in the German army during World War I . Like many anti-Semites in Germany, he blamed the Jews for the country’s defeat in 1918.

Soon after World War I ended, Hitler joined the National German Workers’ Party, which became the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), known to English speakers as the Nazis. While imprisoned for treason for his role in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923, Hitler wrote the memoir and propaganda tract “ Mein Kampf ” (or “my struggle”), in which he predicted a general European war that would result in “the extermination of the Jewish race in Germany.”

Hitler was obsessed with the idea of the superiority of the “pure” German race, which he called “Aryan,” and with the need for “Lebensraum,” or living space, for that race to expand. In the decade after he was released from prison, Hitler took advantage of the weakness of his rivals to enhance his party’s status and rise from obscurity to power.

On January 30, 1933, he was named chancellor of Germany. After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934, Hitler anointed himself Fuhrer , becoming Germany’s supreme ruler.

Concentration Camps

The twin goals of racial purity and territorial expansion were the core of Hitler’s worldview, and from 1933 onward they would combine to form the driving force behind his foreign and domestic policy.

At first, the Nazis reserved their harshest persecution for political opponents such as Communists or Social Democrats. The first official concentration camp opened at Dachau (near Munich) in March 1933, and many of the first prisoners sent there were Communists.

Like the network of concentration camps that followed, becoming the killing grounds of the Holocaust, Dachau was under the control of Heinrich Himmler , head of the elite Nazi guard, the Schutzstaffel (SS) and later chief of the German police.

By July 1933, German concentration camps ( Konzentrationslager in German, or KZ) held some 27,000 people in “protective custody.” Huge Nazi rallies and symbolic acts such as the public burning of books by Jews, Communists, liberals and foreigners helped drive home the desired message of party strength and unity.

In 1933, Jews in Germany numbered around 525,000—just one percent of the total German population. During the next six years, Nazis undertook an “Aryanization” of Germany, dismissing non-Aryans from civil service, liquidating Jewish-owned businesses and stripping Jewish lawyers and doctors of their clients. 

Nuremberg Laws

Under the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, anyone with three or four Jewish grandparents was considered a Jew, while those with two Jewish grandparents were designated Mischlinge (half-breeds).

Under the Nuremberg Laws, Jews became routine targets for stigmatization and persecution. This culminated in Kristallnacht , or the “Night of Broken Glass” in November 1938, when German synagogues were burned and windows in Jewish home and shops were smashed; some 100 Jews were killed and thousands more arrested.

From 1933 to 1939, hundreds of thousands of Jews who were able to leave Germany did, while those who remained lived in a constant state of uncertainty and fear.

HISTORY Vault: Third Reich: The Rise

Rare and never-before-seen amateur films offer a unique perspective on the rise of Nazi Germany from Germans who experienced it. How were millions of people so vulnerable to fascism?

Euthanasia Program

In September 1939, Germany invaded the western half of Poland , starting World War II . German police soon forced tens of thousands of Polish Jews from their homes and into ghettoes, giving their confiscated properties to ethnic Germans (non-Jews outside Germany who identified as German), Germans from the Reich or Polish gentiles.

Surrounded by high walls and barbed wire, the Jewish ghettoes in Poland functioned like captive city-states, governed by Jewish Councils. In addition to widespread unemployment, poverty and hunger, overpopulation and poor sanitation made the ghettoes breeding grounds for disease such as typhus.

Meanwhile, beginning in the fall of 1939, Nazi officials selected around 70,000 Germans institutionalized for mental illness or physical disabilities to be gassed to death in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

After prominent German religious leaders protested, Hitler put an end to the program in August 1941, though killings of the disabled continued in secrecy, and by 1945 some 275,000 people deemed handicapped from all over Europe had been killed. In hindsight, it seems clear that the Euthanasia Program functioned as a pilot for the Holocaust.

'Final Solution'

Throughout the spring and summer of 1940, the German army expanded Hitler’s empire in Europe, conquering Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Beginning in 1941, Jews from all over the continent, as well as hundreds of thousands of European Romani people, were transported to Polish ghettoes.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 marked a new level of brutality in warfare. Mobile killing units of Himmler’s SS called Einsatzgruppen would murder more than 500,000 Soviet Jews and others (usually by shooting) over the course of the German occupation.

A memorandum dated July 31, 1941, from Hitler’s top commander Hermann Goering to Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the SD (the security service of the SS), referred to the need for an Endlösung ( Final Solution ) to “the Jewish question.”

Yellow Stars

Beginning in September 1941, every person designated as a Jew in German-held territory was marked with a yellow, six-pointed star, making them open targets. Tens of thousands were soon being deported to the Polish ghettoes and German-occupied cities in the USSR.

Since June 1941, experiments with mass killing methods had been ongoing at the concentration camp of Auschwitz , near Krakow, Poland. That August, 500 officials gassed 500 Soviet POWs to death with the pesticide Zyklon-B. The SS soon placed a huge order for the gas with a German pest-control firm, an ominous indicator of the coming Holocaust.

Holocaust Death Camps

Beginning in late 1941, the Germans began mass transports from the ghettoes in Poland to the concentration camps, starting with those people viewed as the least useful: the sick, old and weak and the very young.

The first mass gassings began at the camp of Belzec, near Lublin, on March 17, 1942. Five more mass killing centers were built at camps in occupied Poland, including Chelmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and the largest of all, Auschwitz.

From 1942 to 1945, Jews were deported to the camps from all over Europe, including German-controlled territory as well as those countries allied with Germany. The heaviest deportations took place during the summer and fall of 1942, when more than 300,000 people were deported from the Warsaw ghetto alone.

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Amid the deportations, disease and constant hunger, incarcerated people in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up in armed revolt.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising from April 19-May 16, 1943, ended in the death of 7,000 Jews, with 50,000 survivors sent to extermination camps. But the resistance fighters had held off the Nazis for almost a month, and their revolt inspired revolts at camps and ghettos across German-occupied Europe.

Though the Nazis tried to keep operation of the camps secret, the scale of the killing made this virtually impossible. Eyewitnesses brought reports of Nazi atrocities in Poland to the Allied governments, who were harshly criticized after the war for their failure to respond, or to publicize news of the mass slaughter.

This lack of action was likely mostly due to the Allied focus on winning the war at hand, but was also partly a result of the general incomprehension with which news of the Holocaust was met and the denial and disbelief that such atrocities could be occurring on such a scale.

'Angel of Death'

At Auschwitz alone, more than 2 million people were murdered in a process resembling a large-scale industrial operation. A large population of Jewish and non-Jewish inmates worked in the labor camp there; though only Jews were gassed, thousands of others died of starvation or disease.

In 1943, eugenics advocate Josef Mengele arrived in Auschwitz to begin his infamous experiments on Jewish prisoners. His special area of focus was conducting medical experiments on twins , injecting them with everything from petrol to chloroform under the guise of giving them medical treatment. His actions earned him the nickname “the Angel of Death.”

Nazi Rule Ends

By the spring of 1945, German leadership was dissolving amid internal dissent, with Goering and Himmler both seeking to distance themselves from Hitler and take power.

In his last will and political testament, dictated in a German bunker that April 29, Hitler blamed the war on “International Jewry and its helpers” and urged the German leaders and people to follow “the strict observance of the racial laws and with merciless resistance against the universal poisoners of all peoples”—the Jews.

The following day, Hitler died by suicide . Germany’s formal surrender in World War II came barely a week later, on May 8, 1945.

German forces had begun evacuating many of the death camps in the fall of 1944, sending inmates under guard to march further from the advancing enemy’s front line. These so-called “death marches” continued all the way up to the German surrender, resulting in the deaths of some 250,000 to 375,000 people.

In his classic book Survival in Auschwitz , the Italian-Jewish author Primo Levi described his own state of mind, as well as that of his fellow inmates in Auschwitz on the day before Soviet troops liberated the camp in January 1945: “We lay in a world of death and phantoms. The last trace of civilization had vanished around and inside us. The work of bestial degradation, begun by the victorious Germans, had been carried to conclusion by the Germans in defeat.”

Legacy of the Holocaust

The wounds of the Holocaust—known in Hebrew as “Shoah,” or catastrophe—were slow to heal. Survivors of the camps found it nearly impossible to return home, as in many cases they had lost their entire family and been denounced by their non-Jewish neighbors. As a result, the late 1940s saw an unprecedented number of refugees, POWs and other displaced populations moving across Europe.

In an effort to punish the villains of the Holocaust, the Allies held the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46, which brought Nazi atrocities to horrifying light. Increasing pressure on the Allied powers to create a homeland for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust would lead to a mandate for the creation of Israel in 1948.

Over the decades that followed, ordinary Germans struggled with the Holocaust’s bitter legacy, as survivors and the families of victims sought restitution of wealth and property confiscated during the Nazi years.

Beginning in 1953, the German government made payments to individual Jews and to the Jewish people as a way of acknowledging the German people’s responsibility for the crimes committed in their name.

The Holocaust. The National WWII Museum . What Was The Holocaust? Imperial War Museums . Introduction to the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . Holocaust Remembrance. Council of Europe . Outreach Programme on the Holocaust. United Nations .

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Behind Every Name a Story

Behind Every Name a Story consists of essays describing survivors’ experiences during the Holocaust, written by survivors or their families. The essays, accompanying photographs, and other materials, including submissions that we are unable to feature on our website, will become a permanent part of the Museum’s records.

Read the Essays

Marian kalwary.

In normal circumstances, time goes fast, but in the ghetto, it dragged exceedingly long. Every day passed very slowly, as if to spite us.

Green and Hoffer Families

My mother and aunt worked for the Russians until my mother was smuggled out of Poland to the American Zone in Germany, where she lived in a displaced persons camp, Feldafing, and married my father on October 16, 1946. They lived in the DP camp until they could immigrate to the United States in November, 1947.

Naki Touron-Fais

In the car I tried to be excited about finally ending this ordeal, but I felt I was dying from agony and fear. I was trying to find a way out. If we went to Lehonia, it would be the end of us. Nobody knew us there. After a while, I asked, “Where are we going?”

Andrew Glass

Finding a way to remain in the United States as an illegal alien proved to be one heck of a sweet bargain.

Simon Family

While in Westerbork, Selma Simon wrote to her daughters, Ruth and Hilda in England. The last letter was written four or five days before they were deported to Poland in which, sadly, Selma said, “We hope to see you soon.”

When Marcel got the news of her deportation, he knew that he would never see his mother again—the person he adored beyond anyone else. It was with a broken body and a broken heart that he arrived in Paris.

Sima Gleichgevicht-Wasser

Sima could easily pass as a non-Jewish Pole because she had a light complexion and was blonde, but to be able to live as a Pole, she needed a Kennkarte (identification card), and to get a Kennkarte she needed a Polish birth certificate.

Rosa Marie Burger

I saw girls weeping—my friends, girls I had grown up with. Their bundles were placed in the last car and the people were herded onto the train. We lived not far from Dachau.

After three weeks in the ghetto of Czernowitz, we were sent to the camps in Transnistria for three terrible years of poverty, hunger, typhus, and fear for the future. We had hope in our hearts and only that kept us alive.

Ester Lupyan

In the memories of those who lived through the occupation, the recollection of the existence and survival in the ghetto is still frightening. I will only say that out of our family, my mother and I were the only ones to survive.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Holocaust — Information On The Holocaust

Information on The Holocaust

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Published: Mar 20, 2024

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Background and historical context, implementation of the final solution, resistance and resilience, legacy and remembrance.

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Holocaust Literature by Matthew Boswell LAST REVIEWED: 26 July 2017 LAST MODIFIED: 26 July 2017 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780190221911-0009

In a 1977 lecture collected in Dimensions of the Holocaust , the Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel famously argued: “If the Greeks invented tragedy, the Romans the epistle and the Renaissance the sonnet, our generation invented a new literature, that of testimony.” This article offers some illustrative examples of the forms that testimonial writing can take, and of other “new literatures” and fields of intellectual inquiry that have developed alongside it, such as Holocaust fiction and memory studies. For the purposes of this article, Holocaust literature encompasses a broad range of documentary and fictional texts, including memoirs, diaries, essays, novels, poetry, drama, fake memoirs, and children’s literature as well as critical, theoretical, and philosophical reflections on this writing and on the Holocaust more broadly. Given the complexity and boundary-breaking nature of much Holocaust literature, many of the texts included in the article defy straightforward classification and could be included under multiple headings. The scope of this article is such that it does not include historical studies of the Holocaust, or critical works which focus principally on historiography or art forms other than literature.

From the mid-1970s to the turn of the 21st century, critical debates about Holocaust literature evolved through a series of landmark studies, such as Langer 1975 , Ezrahi 1980 , Rosenfeld 1980 , Friedlander 1992 , and Lang 2000 , which explored diaries, poems, and memoirs of survivors as well as works of history and fiction. Often preoccupied by the question of the adequacy or otherwise of different forms of Holocaust writing, this generation of critics tended to be skeptical about the value of Holocaust fiction, which was thought to trivialize the experiences of Holocaust victims, with Lang 2000 and others arguing that silence often formed a more respectful and fitting response. During this period, landmark edited collections of essays, such as Friedlander 1992 , were characterized by interdisciplinary conversations between historians and literary critics, with anxieties about fictionalization linking to attendant concerns about postmodern approaches to history and Holocaust denial. Works such as Young 1988 and Lang 2000 drew on narrative theory to offer sophisticated analyses of the relationship between literary form and the understanding of history. From the 2000s onward a new generation of critics, including voices emerging from outside this male American Jewish tradition, steered the discussion about representational ethics toward broader questions concerning the historical and (trans)cultural contexts that inform Holocaust writing, while being generally more open to the possibilities of fiction. Widening understandings of historical memory led to new literary and critical engagements with subjects such as transgenerational transmission, transnationalism, perpetrator perspectives, transgression, and the interconnectedness of Holocaust memory with other histories. These new directions are charted in detail in Adams 2014 and covered more fully in the Critical Studies section.

Adams, Jenni, ed. The Bloomsbury Companion to Holocaust Literature . London: Bloomsbury, 2014.

A valuable recent resource for students and experienced scholars, with chapters on various aspects of Holocaust literature such as postmemory, transgression, and ethics. Comprehensive and meticulously edited, includes a section on “New Directions in Holocaust Literary Studies,” an annotated bibliography, and a glossary of major terms and concepts.

Ezrahi, Sidra DeKoven. By Words Alone: The Holocaust in Literature . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226233376.001.0001

Discusses testimony and fiction, drawing particular attention to the religious and mythological schemas employed in this writing, and to continuities and ruptures with Jewish thought.

Friedlander, Saul, ed. Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the “Final Solution.” Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

A seminal volume on Holocaust representation, drawing together leading historians, theorists, and critics to consider the virtues and limits of diverse cultural and historical texts. Crystallizes debates about representational adequacy, which dominated the field in the 1990s.

Lang, Berel. Holocaust Representation: Art within the Limits of History and Ethics . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Builds on previous investigations into the aesthetics and ethics of Holocaust literature in works such as the edited collection Writing and the Holocaust (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1988). One of the last major attempts to make a case for the inherent limits of Holocaust writing.

Langer, Lawrence L. The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975.

Argues that Holocaust literature cannot be regarded as the exclusive domain of the victims alone, or even Jewish writers. An early study of the “art of atrocity.” The volume contrasts with Lang’s more proscriptive style of criticism.

Rosen, Alan, ed. Literature of the Holocaust . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Contributions from a wide range of scholars, affording an excellent general introduction to Holocaust literature. Consists of three parts covering wartime victim writing, postwar responses in different national literatures, and alternative approaches such as song and anthologization.

Rosenfeld, Alvin H. A Double Dying: Reflections on Holocaust Literature . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980.

Outlines how Auschwitz marks a threshold moment for literature. Rosenfeld argues that literature must record both the extermination of the Jews and the death of the Enlightenment idea of the human (hence “a double dying”), with writers and critics brought to a new awareness of the limits of their language and methodological frameworks.

Young, James E. Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.

Investigates the interrelatedness of literature, narrative, and historical understanding, exploring the phenomenon of interpretation through analysis of documentary and fictional sources, as well as oral history and memorials, which all contribute to what Young terms the “texture of memory.”

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The Holocaust: Students reflect in award-winning essays, projects

In her award-winning high school essay, Emily Salko asks others to imagine the freedoms that Mira Kimmelman lost as Nazi Germany intensified its persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. 

“The freedom that we possess is something that we all take for granted each day,” she wrote. “Ask yourself, are you allowed to attend school? Walk the streets of your town? Ride a bus? Live in your own house? Answering ‘yes’ means that you already have 10 times the freedom that Mira Kimmelman had, and this little freedom is what sparked her appreciation of the things such as the clothes on her back, her shoes, and even her own roof.” 

Emily, a sophomore at Oak Ridge High School, is one of the 14 students who won awards in the first Mira Kimmelman “Learning from the Holocaust” Contest in 2021.  Kimmelman told her story of surviving the Holocaust to students, civic and religious groups in East Tennessee for more than 50 years before her death in 2019. 

Her sons, Benno and Gene Kimmelman, created the essay and project contest for Tennessee high school and middle school students, sponsored by the Tennessee Holocaust Commission, to carry on her legacy and ensure that her voice continues to be heard through her books and recorded talks. The contest offers prize money ranging from $150 to $750. 

Emily watched videos of Kimmelman's speeches and read articles about her and about anti-Semitism before writing her essay while she was in the ninth grade. She noticed that Kimmelman, as a teen, chose to take family photos, rather than other possessions, when her family was forced to leave home for a ghetto.

“She was so brave to continue moving forward and just fighting to stay alive for her family,” Emily said of Kimmelman after she received the first place high school essay award. She wrote the essay when the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining attention in the news, and she realized that people facing discrimination need to have strength and resilience.

“I think her biggest message I would continue to use is just kindness toward everyone. You shouldn’t judge people based on who they are as a group, based on race or religion. You should get to know someone,” Emily said. “You should not treat them differently because you might look different or believe in something different.” 

Along with the mantra of “never forget” often heard in relation to the Holocaust, Benno and Gene hope students entering the contest learn their mother’s lessons of tolerance and kindness. The essays reflect that, as the students wrote about being moved by her bravery and resilience and about how they are applying her lessons today. 

“Many of the essays touched on current injustices and suggested ways they could be addressed,” said contest judge Katie High, of Knoxville, a retired University of Tennessee vice president for academic affairs and a member of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. “The writers were giving world-wide atrocities serious thought, which was impressive. I wanted to cheer the students, and their teachers, because it was obvious teaching and learning were going on.” 

High, who served as interim dean at the UT Martin College of Business after her retirement, said much of the Holocaust Commission’s work is focused on middle school students, and that work becomes more difficult as more Holocaust survivors die. 

“When they talk to a group of middle school students and show their tattoos and talk about what it’s like to be in the camps, kids are horrified, but in awe of these survivors, because of their resilience,” High said. “You have planted something in their hearts.”

Emmanuelle Wolf-Dubin, first-place winner in the middle school essay contest, wrote that hearing a rabbi challenge listeners to think not only of Israelis and their suffering but Palestinians, as well, reminded her of Kimmelman’s message of seeing the kindness in all people. Her story, she wrote, is a message of ideals that Emmanuelle can only hope to achieve.

“As a young adult, she would be imprisoned in the deadliest concentration camp called Auschwitz and was forced into the nearly unimaginable march to Bergen-Belsen,” wrote Emmanuelle, a student at Meigs Magnet Middle School in Nashville. “Yet, after all of these horrors at the hands of one of the most evil men in recorded history, she still preached lovingkindness in a world that seemed apathetic to her plight. Instead of focusing on that, she zeroed in on the people who helped, the people of all nationalities, races, and religions who saved her and her counterparts across Europe,” Emmanuelle wrote. 

Chloe Collins, a student at Oakdale Middle School in Morgan County, said she read Kimmelman’s first book, "Echoes from the Holocaust," before writing her essay, which was awarded second place in the middle school contest. 

“Mira Kimmelman … had to say good-bye to the family she loved, she had all of her dignity stripped away, she saw things that no one should ever have to see, she lived in a world of hate, and she felt unwanted in a country that was once her own,” wrote Chloe, an eighth grader this year. “I am thankful for Mira Kimmelman’s message of hope and tolerance that will live on forever.” 

Though not a Tennessee student, Soha Sherwani earned a “Notable Achievement” award from contest judges for her essay comparing the Holocaust with the current Chinese government repression of the Uigher people, a small and mostly Muslim minority. 

“The Uigher population is being forced into concentration camps, which are dubbed ‘re-education’ camps by the government, and are forced to partake in direct violations of their Islamic faith,” Soha wrote as a high school senior in Houston, Texas. “The Uighur Muslims are exploited for cheap labor and physically abused ... it is happening again.”

Now a college freshman, Soha said she read about the essay contest online as she was seeking scholarship opportunities and was moved by the emotion in Kimmelman’s words. She could teach and spread love through her pain, Soha said. 

“For Ms. Kimmelman, her perception was undoubtedly changed by the two integral lessons she learned surviving the Holocaust: that there are always beacons of light in the darkness and that humanity must uphold its responsibility to learn and act from instances of injustices,” Soha wrote. In her essay, Soha urges those concerned to join her with their voices in protesting, spreading awareness, and educating others on the injustice happening now. 

First- and second-place awards for middle school contest projects went to teams of students at Oak Ridge’s Robertsville Middle School.

“The Shoah Proliferates” won first place. The team used an online survey to ask students to allow their names to be used on a poster to help remember the 6 million who died in the Holocaust, saying that people remember what they can be part of. Nathanael Peters, Lennox Pack, Aiden Cantu and Kyleigh Langdale are the team members who created the project, using a QR code for business cards that students used to access the survey. All are ninth graders at Oak Ridge High School now. 

A poster with a poem and image of broken glass, symbolizing Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass when Nazis targeted synagogues, was included. Kyleigh created the poster, and Lennox wrote the poem:

Think of them not as 6 million lives lost,

But 6 million lives remembered.

Thousands more put through exhaust,

And families dismembered.

These depressing tales aren’t fiction,

Rather they are tales to stand the test of time.

It is our job to remember,

These lives left devoured. 

The second-place team, Julia Hussey, Alia Oakes, Teagan Tate and Audrey Thompson, proposed a mural for a hallway at their school. They created artwork with Holocaust symbols, including  barbed wire on a red background on one side, and symbols of peace and hope, including swallows and flowers on a blue background. A Star of David represents martyrdom and heroism. 

Haley Braden, second-place high school essay winner from Anderson County High School, wrote that she knew little about the Holocaust before entering the contest. Her essay urges her generation to follow in Kimmelman’s footsteps, to “keep a positive attitude and mindset through the darkest hours. Because with this hope comes peace and love.”

Haley wrote, “We can embody her message when looking at the face of injustice. When you see something that is wrong, be sure to right it. Stand up for people who are treated wrongly and cannot stand up for themselves.” 

Elizabeth Bernheisel, of Dyersburg Middle School, focused on Kimmelman’s second book, "Life Beyond the Holocaust: Memories and Realities," in her third-place middle school essay. The book, she wrote, offers insights on how Holocaust survivors recover, rebuild and live normal lives after experiencing unimaginable trauma. 

“Through letters, reunions, and travels back to Europe, Mira Kimmelman tells her story, as well as the stories of those no longer able to speak for themselves,” Elizabeth wrote. “She also highlights the importance of remembering the atrocities of the Holocaust, as well as the restoration that must follow.” 

HIST B323 History of the Holocaust

• Finding Books
• Sources for Researching the Holocaust
• Develop a Research Question
• Primary Sources
• Cite Sources
• Scholarly vs Popular
• Thesis Statements

Guide created by Scott Libson. Updated in January 2024 by Catherine J. Minter. Feel free to contact Catherine if you need help.

The Holocaust

• Search Terms/Subjects
• Bibliographies
• Encyclopedias
• Scholarly Journals & Articles

Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Anti-Nazi Movement
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Fiction
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Germany
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Historiography
• Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Influence
• Holocaust Denial
• Holocaust Memorials
• Holocaust Survivors
• Germany--Politics and government--1933-1945.
• Germany--History--1933-1945.
• Jews--Germany--History--1933-1945.
• Jews--Persecutions--Germany.
• National Socialism
• World War, 1939-1945
• World War, 1939-1945--Concentration Camps
• Basic Bibliography of the Holocaust (Yad Vashem) Comprehensive and current, this bibliography is subdivided into various Holocaust-related topics and includes about four to twenty-five books on each topic.
• Bibliography of Holocaust Literature by Abraham J. Edelheit; Hershel Edelheit Call Number: Wells Library - Stacks -- Z6374.H6 E33 1986 (a second copy with the same call number is in the Wells Library Reference Reading Room) ISBN: 081337233X Publication Date: 1986-11-09 This is a massive, if dated, bibliography of English-language materials on the Holocaust. It includes an author index, introductory essays, and some annotations. See also the Edelheits' supplement , with 6,500 additional entries, published in 1990.
• The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust by Donald L. Niewyk; Francis R. Nicosia Call Number: E-book, also available in print: Wells Library - Stacks -- D804.3 .N54 2000 ISBN: 9780231505901 Publication Date: 2000 This invaluable resource provides a multidimensional survey of the Holocaust, essentially integrating five separate books into one comprehensive reference tool: a historical overview; a guide to Holocaust controversies; an A-to-Z encyclopedia of people, places, and terms; a chronology; and a comprehensive resource guide. Whether used separately for their individual merits or approached as an integrated whole, the five sections of this informative volume constitute an indispensable contribution to the study of the Holocaust.
• European Jewish Research Archive A free-to-use and comprehensive repository of social research on European Jews since 1990.
• The Oryx Holocaust Sourcebook by William R. Fernekes Call Number: Wells Library - Reference Reading Room -- Z6374.H6 F47 2002 ISBN: 1573562955 Publication Date: 2002-05-30 The Oryx Holocaust Sourcebook provides a comprehensive selection of high quality resources in the field of Holocaust studies. The Sourcebook's 17 chapters cover general reference works; narrative histories; monographs in the social sciences; fiction, drama, and poetry; books for children and young adults; periodicals; primary sources; electronic resources in various formats; audiovisual materials; photographs; music; film and video; educational and teaching materials; and information on organizations, museums, and memorials. In addition, each chapter begins with a concise overview essay.

Selective bibliography of academic articles covering all of the fields of Jewish studies as well as the study of Eretz Israel and the State of Israel. RAMBI is based largely on the collections of the National Library of Israel. Includes references to articles in Hebrew, Latin, or Cyrillic letters.

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Bibliographies The bibliographies "list only materials that are in the Museum Library’s collection or available online. They are not meant to be exhaustive. In most cases, annotations are provided to help the user determine each item’s focus, and call numbers for the Museum’s Library are given in parentheses following each citation."
• Children of the Holocaust by Paul R. Bartrop; Eve E. Grimm Call Number: E-book ISBN: 9781440868535 Publication Date: 2020 This important reference work highlights a number of disparate themes relating to the experience of children during the Holocaust, showing their vulnerability and how some heroic people sought to save their lives amid the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi regime. In addition to more than 125 entries, this book features 10 illuminating primary source documents, ranging from personal accounts to Nazi statements regarding what the fate of Jewish children should be to statements from refugee leaders considering how to help Jewish children after World War II ended.
• The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust by Shmuel Spector (Editor); Geoffrey Wigoder (Editor); Elie Wiesel (Introduction by) Call Number: Wells Library - Reference Reading Room -- DS135.E8 E45 2001 ISBN: 0814793568 Publication Date: 2001-07-01 "Today throughout much of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, only fragmentary remnants of once thriving Jewish communities can be found as evidence of more than two thousand years of vibrant Jewish presence among the nations of the world. These communities, many of them ancient, were systematically destroyed by Hitler's forces during the Holocaust. Yet each of their stories-from small village enclaves to large urban centers-is unique in its details and represents one of the countless intertwined threads that comprise the rich tapestry of Jewish history. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life before and during the Holocaust captures these lost images. In three volumes, it chronicles the people, habits and customs of more than 6,500 Jewish communities that thrived during the early part of the twentieth century only to be changed irrevocably by the war."
• Encyclopedia of the Holocaust by Schmuel Spector (Editor); Robert Rozett (Editor) Call Number: Wells Library - Reference Reading Room -- D804.25 .E53 2000 ISBN: 0816043337 Publication Date: 2000 Written in association with Yad Vashem, this encyclopedia features eight essays on the Holocaust on such topics as the history of European Jewry, Jewish achievements and contributions to European culture, and the rise of antisemitism.
• The Holocaust: an Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 Volumes] by Paul R. Bartrop (Editor); Michael Dickerman (Editor) Call Number: E-book, also available in print: Wells Library - Undergraduate Services - Core Collection -- D804.25 .H655 2017 ISBN: 9781440840845 Publication Date: 2017 This four-volume set provides reference entries, primary documents, and personal accounts from individuals who lived through the Holocaust that allow readers to better understand the cultural, political, and economic motivations that spurred the Final Solution.
• The Holocaust Encyclopedia by Walter Laqueur (Editor); Judith Tydor Baumel Call Number: E-book, also available in print: Wells Library - Reference Reading Room -- D804.25 .H66 2001 ISBN: 0300084323 Publication Date: 2001 The Holocaust has been the subject of countless books, works of art, and memorials. Fifty-five years after the fact the world still ponders the enormity of this disaster. The Holocaust Encyclopedia is the only comprehensive single-volume work of reference providing both a reflective overview of the subject and abundant detail concerning major events, policy decisions, cities, and individuals.
• Holocaust Survivors by Emily Taitz (Editor) Call Number: Wells Library - Undergraduate Services - Core Collection -- D804.3 .T34 2007 ISBN: 9780313336768 Publication Date: 2007 Although there are more and more Holocaust memoirs on the market, this essential collection is the first to present such a large number of biographical profiles of survivors for a broad readership. Holocaust Survivors: A Biographical Dictionary comprises 278 entries on more than 500 survivors of the World War II genocide. The profiles, averaging 500 words, are mostly of Jews, both individuals and family members, from throughout Europe. Organized alphabetically, the essays cover their background, circumstances and ordeals during the war, aftermath, and life achievements, including family and career. Most are on ordinary people who have extraordinary life stories.
• Perpetrating the Holocaust: Leaders, Enablers, and Collaborators by Paul R. Bartrop; Eve E. Grimm Call Number: E-book, also available in print: ISBN: 9781440858970 Publication Date: 2019 Weaving together a number of disparate themes relating to Holocaust perpetrators, this book shows how Nazi Germany propelled a vast number of Europeans to try to re-engineer the population base of the continent through mass murder.
• The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Volume I by Geoffrey P. Megargee (Editor) Call Number: E-book, also available in print: Wells Library - Stacks -- D805.A2 U55 2009 ISBN: 9780253353283 Publication Date: 2009 The Nazis and their allies ran more than 44,000 camps, ghettos, and other sites of detention, persecution, forced labor, and murder during the Holocaust. Few people know about the breadth of the Nazi camp system and the conditions in those places—including the broad range of prisoner experiences. The Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945 , aims to answer basic questions about as many of those sites as possible. As of July 2020, three of the expected seven volumes have been published. Volumes I and II are available for free from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum . The link above goes to the IUCAT record for volume I. Here are the links for volume II and volume III .

Freely Available Websites:

• Guide to Holocaust Websites List created by Professor Mark Roseman. Largely primary sources, but also many secondary sources.
• AHEYM: The Archive of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories The Archives of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories (AHEYM—the acronym means "homeward" in Yiddish) includes approximately 800 hours of Yiddish-language interviews with 350 individuals, most of whom were born between 1900 and 1930. The interviews were conducted in Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Slovakia. The interviews include: linguistic and dialectological data; oral histories of Jewish life in Eastern Europe; Holocaust testimonials; musical performances (including Yiddish folk songs, liturgical and Hasidic melodies, and macaronic songs); folklore, including anecdotes, jokes, stories, children's ditties, folk remedies, and Purim plays; reflections on contemporary Jewish life in the region, and; guided tours by local residents of sites of Jewish memory in the region.
• Arolsen Archives The Arolsen Archives are an international center on Nazi persecution with the world’s most comprehensive archive on the victims and survivors of National Socialism. The collection has information on about 17.5 million people and belongs to UNESCO’s Memory of the World. It contains documents on the various victim groups targeted by the Nazi regime and is an important source of knowledge for society today.
• Duane Mezga Holocaust Sites Photograph Collection The Duane Mezga Holocaust Sites photograph collection consists of 682 digitized Kodachrome 64 color slides. Almost all of the photographs were taken in 1992, of concentration camps and other historically significant sites related to the Holocaust. Twenty-one sites in Austria, then-Czechoslovakia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland are included. The photographs were taken using the progressive-realization technique, which captures the experience of walking through a site. Memorials present at these sites were a focus of the documentation.
• Holocaust Denial on Trial Documents the trial of David Irving v. Penguin Books Ltd. and Deborah Lipstadt.
• Nuremberg Trials Project The Harvard Law School Library's Nuremberg Trials Project is an open-access initiative to create and present digitized images or full-text versions of the Library's Nuremberg documents, descriptions of each document, and general information about the trials.
• Pogrom: November 1938--Testimonies from Kristallnacht (Wiener Library) In the months following November 1938, Alfred Wiener and his colleagues at the Central Jewish Information Office in Amsterdam collected over 350 contemporary testimonies and reports of the November Pogrom in Germany and Austria. These documents are now available here, for the first time in English.
• Simon Wiesenthal Center Digital Archives The Digital Archives images are owned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center Library and Archives. The Archives database and low-resolution images are available here.
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Digitized Collections Includes interviews, objects, newspapers, books, and many other types of material. You can also limit results based on events, cities, camps, and ghettos.
• Yad Vashem Documents Archive Includes posters, personal documentation, official documentation, lists, letters, memoirs, testimonies, diaries, and legal documentation. Advanced search allows you to limit results to English-language documents.
• Yizkor Books at the New York Public Library Yizkor (memorial) books document Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust. Most yizkor books are in Hebrew and/or Yiddish. Most are available for download.
• Conditions & Politics in Occupied Western Europe, 1940-1945 Features full-text documents received in the British Foreign Office from all European states under Nazi occupation during World War II.

The Fortunoff Archive and its affiliates recorded the testimonies of willing individuals with first-hand experience of the Nazi persecutions, including those who were in hiding, survivors, bystanders, resistants, and liberators. Please note: To access users need to create an account and submit a request.  Click more for instructions to create account and submit request, as well as more details about the archive.

The Fortunoff Archive currently holds more than 4,400 testimonies, which are comprised of over 12,000 recorded hours of videotape. Testimonies were produced in cooperation with thirty-six affiliated projects across North America, South America, Europe, and Israel. Testimonies were recorded in whatever language the witness preferred, and range in length from 30 minutes to over 40 hours (recorded over several sessions). Create Account & Request Testimony: 1. To create an account select Log In, and then Join Now. Users will then receive a confirmation email. 2. Login and then enter a search term. Click on a testimony in the search results and request access. Please note that records truncate last names of those who gave testimony to protect their privacy. If you are looking for a specific person’s testimony, either shorten their last name to the first initial (“Eva B.”) or contact the archive directly. You only need to request access to one testimony to obtain viewing access for the entire collection. 3. Once the approval email is received, users may view testimonies. A browser refresh may be necessary.

Digital access to 170 German-language titles of books and pamphlets. The collection presents anti-Semitism as an issue in politics, economics, religion, and education.

Most of the writings date from the 1920s and 1930s and many are directly connected with Nazi groups. The works are principally anti-Semitic, but include writings on other groups as well, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Jesuits, and the Freemasons. Also included are history, pseudo-history, and fiction.

An archive of primary source documents, covering the repatriation and emigration of the Displaced Persons and survivors of the Holocaust and World War II.

Files include original reports on orphans and Unaccompanied Children Under UNRRA Care, Voluntary Societies British Zone Monthly Reports, 1949-, Welfare Work Amongst Jewish Prison Inmates, DPs in Assembly Stations, 1950, Displaced persons and prisoners of war to and from Italy, Complaints about Russian refugees and displaced persons (DPs); allegations of mistreatment of Soviet nationals, and Repatriation and disposal of prisoners of war, surrendered personnel, displaced persons etc.

• Archives of the Holocaust : an international collection of selected documents by Henry Friedlander and Sybil Milton (general editors) Call Number: Wells Library - Research Coll. - D810.J4 A73 Publication Date: 1989- Contains reproductions of files and documents from a number of relief and charitable organizations dealing with the plight of the Jews during the 1930s and 1940s.

• The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany, 1933–1945 Call Number: e-books ISBN: 9783110435191 Publication Date: 2019- This landmark collection of primary sources provides unique first-hand insights into the persecution and murder of the Jews of Europe under Nazi rule. The documents, all translated from the language of the original source, range from the police orders and administrative decrees issued by the Nazi apparatus across Germany and occupied Europe to the diaries and letters of Jewish men, women, and children facing discrimination, impoverishment, violent assaults, incarceration, deportation, and death.
• The trial of German major war criminals by the International Military Tribunal sitting at Nuremberg, Germany [e-book] by H.M. Attorney-general by H.M. Stationery Off Call Number: E-book Publication Date: 1946-1951

Scholarly Journals Related to the Holocaust

• Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal Call Number: Electronic resource

Databases Containing Scholarly Articles

Provides full-text coverage of magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles for most academic disciplines.

This multi-disciplinary database provides full-text for more than 4,500 journals, including full text for more than 3,700 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.

Full-text access to a searchable online archive of academic e-journals and e-books in the Humanities and Social Sciences from and about Central and Eastern Europe.

Provides access to all journals and articles, more than 4,370 open access e-books, and over 9,400 open access grey literature items (institutional reports, working papers, government documents, white papers, etc.). Currently, the archive’s content comes from over 1400 publishers. Indiana University Libraries’ subscription does not include full access to all e-books and grey literature, so some paywalls are expected.

Full text database with a focus on how gender impacts a variety of subject areas.

GenderWatch is a full text database of nearly 400 periodicals and other publications that focus on how gender impacts a variety of subject areas. Publications include academic and scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings, and government, and special reports.

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) indexes articles, books, studies, selected official documents and other resources on public policy issues, public administration, law, politics and government.

Includes journal articles, books, government documents, pamphlets and the reports of public and private bodies.  Also indexes publications in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Print source: PAIS bulletin (1915-1990), PAIS Foreign Language Index (1968-1990), PAIS International in Print (1991-)

Access to political science, public policy, and international relations journals. Also includes thousands of recent full-text doctoral dissertations on political science topics, together with working papers, conference proceedings, country reports, policy papers and other sources.

Provides full text access and indexing for e-journals and e-books from a variety of scholarly publishers. Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.

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Browse an alphabetical list of curated media essays that explore various topics pertaining to the Holocaust and World War II. These essays give a brief overview of the topic and provide related media, including photographs, maps, oral histories, and films.

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1936 Olympics: Torch Relay

The 1936 Olympics in Berlin were the first to employ the torch relay, an Olympic ritual. The Nazi regime used the Olympics to present the false image of a peaceful Germany.

82nd Airborne Division

The 82nd Airborne Division is recognized as one of the 36 liberating units of the US Army during World War II. On May 2, 1945, troops of the 82nd Airborne and the 8th Infantry Division overran Wöbbelin, a subcamp of t...

9th Armored Division

The 9th Armored Division is recognized as one of the 36 liberating units of the US Army during World War II. On May 8, 1945, troops of the 9th and 1st Infantry Divisions liberated two subcamps of the Flossenbürg conce...

Aaron Lejzerowicz: Maps

Born to a Jewish family in Poland, Aaron Lejzerowicz was endangered by the German invasions of Poland and the USSR. These maps offer a small glimpse of German military activity over the course of World War II—events w...

African American Soldiers during World War II

During World War II, African American and white soldiers who were bonded on the battlefie...

Aftermath of the Holocaust (Abridged Article) - Animated Map/Map

Aftermath of the holocaust (abridged article) - historical film footage, aftermath of the holocaust (abridged article) - oral histories.

The end of World War II brought new challenges for Jews who survived the Holocaust. In these oral histories, survivors describe personal experiences after the war.

Aftermath of the Holocaust (Abridged Article) - Photograph

Albert gani: maps.

Born to a Jewish family in Preveza, Albert Gani was endangered by the German occupation of Greece. In March 1944, the Nazis deported the Jews of Preveza to Auschwitz. Albert was killed several months later, at the age...

Alfred Rosenberg: Biography - Photographs

Alfred Rosenberg was one of the most influential Nazi ideologues. He held several positions in the Nazi Party over the course of his career. During World War II, Rosenberg played key roles in the looting of art and the implementation of the “Final S...

Aliyah Bet - Photograph

American jewish congress - photograph, american jewish joint distribution committee and refugee aid - photograph, amsterdam - animated map/map, amsterdam - id card/oral history, anna gutman (boros) visits rescuer dr. mohamed helmy after the war, anne frank (abridged article) - photograph, anne frank - photograph, anti-jewish legislation in prewar germany - photographs.

The Nazi regime issued more than 400 anti-Jewish decrees in its first six years of power. These policies gradually stripped Jews of their rights, livelihoods, and property. Altogether, the decrees functioned to sepa...

The word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. The Holoca...

Antisemitism (Abridged Article) - ID Card/Oral History

The word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. The Holocaust is history’s most extreme example of antisemitism.

Antisemitism (Abridged Article) - Photograph

The word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. The Holocaust is history’s most extreme example of antisemitism.The Nazi Party spread antisemitic propag...

Antisemitism - Artifact/Document

The word antisemitism means prejudice against or hatred of Jews. The Holocaust is history’s most extreme example of antisemitism.These artifacts reflect some of the anti-Jewish policies that permeated daily life in the period of the Holocau...

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How Postwar Paris Changed the Expat Artists

An exhibition at the Grey Art Museum explores the fervid postwar scene in Paris, where Ellsworth Kelly, Joan Mitchell and others learned lessons America couldn’t teach them.

By Karen Rosenberg

Most people looking to make it as artists today are advised to follow a hyper-professionalized path, beginning with enrollment at one of a select group of M.F.A. programs. But as a new exhibition reminds us, it wasn’t always this way. “Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946-1962,” at the Grey Art Museum at N.Y.U., celebrates the convivial, informal and often self-directed education of expatriates in the French capital after World War II.

“Americans in Paris” inaugurates the university’s relocated and renamed art space; it has moved from Washington Square, where it was known as the Grey Art Gallery, several blocks east, to Cooper Square.

The show devotes a lot of scholarly attention to a slice of art history — abstract painting in Western Europe in the 1950s and ’60s — that is not exactly understudied. And it arrives at a moment when the 2024 Venice Biennale, “Foreigners Everywhere,” is advancing a very different idea of the expatriate (with a focus on the Global South, and on queer and Indigenous artists). The exhibit’s title inevitably brings to mind the classic 1951 Vincente Minnelli film, “ An American in Paris ,” starring Gene Kelly as a World War II veteran turned painter, whose dancing and wooing prove to be more accomplished than his brushwork.

But within familiar terrain, the show (organized by the Grey’s director, Lynn Gumpert, with the independent curator Debra Bricker Balken) finds new voices and perspectives. Among its 70 artists are a number who have been receiving overdue attention from the academy and the market (including Ed Clark , Beauford Delaney and Shirley Jaffe ), and a couple of others who haven’t been but should be (foremost among them the sculptor Shinkichi Tajiri ).

At heart, the exhibition is also about how artists learn and develop. It would not be inaccurate to call “Americans in Paris” an advertisement for the G.I. Bill of Rights, which financed college educations for veterans and covered many living expenses. (However, some of the show’s most significant figures — Joan Mitchell and Claire Falkenstein, as well as writers like James Baldwin who were critical to the development of the scene — had to make their way to France without government support.)

The curators are also careful to note that while the G.I. Bill helped enable the expat boom, women and men of color who had served often faced discrimination when applying for their benefits. Many of those who could leverage the bill enrolled in an art school or a private atelier and received a monthly stipend of $75 — enough to cover food and accommodations without having to take a day job.

The real schooling took place outside of formal classes: in other artists’ studios, on trips to museums in Paris, over long cafe lunches or through participation in exhibitions and salons.

Ellsworth Kelly, who was a veteran, skipped classes at the École des Beaux-Arts, where the focus was figure drawing (something he had already studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston). His more formative education overseas took place on a visit to the studio of the elder avant-garde artist Jean Arp in 1950, where he saw collages made with chance processes. And Kelly was also affected by just being out in the public spaces of Paris and its environs, where he took photographs of the shadows cast by balconies, staircases and other architectural features. His marvelous 1951 painting “Talmont” attests to both influences, arranging irregular green curves derived from cut-paper collages into a precise grid.

Hanging opposite Kelly’s work in the exhibition are paintings by the Cuban-born American artist Carmen Herrera , who exhibited alongside him at the annual Salon des Réalités Nouvelles (Salon of New Realities), an incubator of geometric abstraction. Herrera later said the salon offered “the type of art that my whole life I wanted to make.” Its impact on Herrera’s trajectory can be seen in three canvases on view, which find her gradually paring down her compositions while calling attention to the edges and surfaces of her supports.

Other artists had similarly transformative experiences in Paris’s museums. When the Musée de l’Orangerie reopened in 1953 after repairs to wartime damage, its galleries dedicated to Monet’s late murals of waterlilies astonished the painters Beauford Delaney and Sam Francis. Delaney, as seen in loans from MoMA and the Whitney, started to make allover abstractions of small gestural marks irradiated with golden light; Francis adopted a new palette of deep blues and greens, used to majestic effect in the large-scale canvas “Blue Out of White” (1958), on loan here from the Hirshhorn.

For Tajiri, a Japanese American who was imprisoned in California and Arizona internment camps after Pearl Harbor and later served with the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team, known as the “Yankee Samurai,” Paris offered a reprieve from the discrimination he had faced in the United States and its military (and at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he had briefly enrolled on the G.I. Bill). He found a sense of belonging as a founder of the artist-run Galerie Huit, where the other members included the Black Americans Harold Cousins, Herbert Gentry and Haywood Rivers.

Tajiri, like Kelly, found material in easily overlooked features of the city, scavenging scrap metal and machine parts from junkyards along the Seine, composing transient “One-Day Sculptures” that now exist only as documentation by the photographer Sabine Weiss.

Among Tajiri’s extant works at the Grey are two extraordinary sculptures on loan from collections in the Netherlands, where he eventually settled. “Lament for Lady (for Billie Holiday),” a 1953 assemblage, honors Holiday with a small photographic portrait perched atop an unusual metal instrument incorporating trumpet valves and a shower head. “Wounded Knee,” from the same year, extends Tajiri’s personal experiences of pain and displacement to Indigenous Americans, with whom he felt a kinship. (His internment in Arizona was at a camp within the Colorado River Indian Reservation.) The work’s title and its red-tinged spikes of welded iron allude to the artist’s leg injury during his wartime service, as well as to the 1890 massacre of the Lakota people at Wounded Knee in South Dakota.

While Tajiri found community in Paris, other artists arrived in the city looking for productive isolation. Joan Mitchell, represented by two robustly gestural green-on-white canvases from 1960, was looking to escape what she called the “star system” of the New York art world Claire Falkenstein, the mathematically and scientifically inclined sculptor, left the Bay Area “to be alone and work out certain problems that I had to have answered for myself,” as she later put it .

Still, art critics of the time often wrote about Mitchell and Falkenstein’s work in relation to art being made back in the United States. Michel Tapié, for instance, linked Falkenstein to Francis and Mark Tobey in what he called the “Pacific School” (a sort of West Coast variant of Abstract Expressionism).

The show’s substantial publication has much more on the international rivalries of the day and the movements and sub-movements that defined the Paris scene. (A partial list would include Art Informel, Tachisme, Nouvelle Réalisme and Abstraction Chaude.) And it has a crucial narrative thread that is not as present in the show, linking Black American artists such as Delaney and Clark with writers, including James Baldwin , who were following the civil rights movement in the United States and, in Paris, the struggle for Algerian independence.

Baldwin is quoted throughout the book’s main curatorial essay, and a passage from his 1961 essay “The New Lost Generation” stands out: “What Europe still gives an American — or gave us — is the sanction to become oneself. No artist can survive without this acceptance.” Among the many invaluable forms of art education detailed in “Americans in Paris,” this may be the most important one.

Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946-1962

Through July 20, Grey Art Museum, 18 Cooper Square, Manhattan; 212-998-6780, greyartmuseum.nyu.edu.

Arts and Culture Across Europe

Our theater critics and a reporter discuss the big winne r —  Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard” — and the rest of the honorees at this year’s Olivier Awards .

New productions of “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” in Paris follow a French tradition of adapting familiar works . The results are innovative, and sometimes cryptic.

The internet latched on to 16-year-old Felicia Dawkins’ performance as The Unknown at a shambolic Willy Wonka-inspired event . Now she’s heading to a bigger and scarier stage in London.

When activists urged Tate Britain in London to take an offensive artwork off its walls, the institution commissioned Keith Piper  to create a response instead. The result recently went on display.

The new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam has been in the works for almost 20 years. It is the first institution to tell the full story  of the persecution of Dutch Jews during World War II.

At a retrospective of John Singer Sargent’s portraits in London, where the American expatriate fled after creating a scandal in Paris, clothes offer both armor and self-expression .