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World War II Background - Introduction and Explanation to this brainstorming document

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World War II Background - Introduction and Explanation to this brainstorming document

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This board provides interdisciplinary connections between World War II and the graphic novels that we will be reading. It will provide the background knowledge that students need to comprehend their novels and learn about this historical time period. These videos, articles, maps, and timelines will provide students with a historical, political, and economic understanding of World War II. I envision some of these resources being utilized as a webquest, some as whole class activities, and some as group or partner work. I want to support the students' emotional needs with the difficult topics such as death, violence, and The Holocaust tragedies. I also need to support them with the more challenging topics of the economic reasonings behind the Treaty of Versailles and the reason for the political changes in both Nazi Germany and the Japanese Internment camps. These resources will give me students a multimodal focus and understanding of World War II (while also simultaneously meeting their nonfiction reading standards!). This will help them understand the impact behind the various plot points in their graphic novels.

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The point of this video and Edpuzzle is to provide a multimodal way for students to learn a brief overview of World War II. It's an introduction to the war for students.

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Edpuzzle assignment. Make video delivery an interactive experience. Students watch the lesson while answering the quizzes. The teacher gets the powerful hassle-free analytics.

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The purpose of this website is for students to learn about timing of the major events of the war. It's to help them understand that while the war officially broke out in 1939, the United States did not join until 1941. It helps point out other key features of this war

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The purpose of this article is for students to learn about the two sides of the war and who made alliances with whom. It's an overview of the conflict between the nations.

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There were two major alliances during World War II: the Axis powers and the Allied powers.

The three principal partners in what was eventually referred to as the Axis alliance were . These countries were led by German dictator Each of Germany's six European Axis allies Germany, Italy, and Japan Adolf Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In September 1940, the three countries formalized their alliance through the Tripartite Pact. Five other countries subsequently joined the Tripartite Pact and became Axis powers. They were Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. participated in the Holocaust by murdering Jews or by transferring them to German custody to be murdered.

The Allied Powers were led by . These countries were led by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. They formally allied by signing the Declaration by United Nations on January 1, 1942. Fifteen other independent states also signed the Declaration on that date. In addition, the Declaration was signed by the governments-in-exile of another eight states that were occupied by the Axis powers at the time. Twenty-one other states declared war on Germany and signed the Declaration by March 1945.

Unlike the Allies, the Axis powers never developed institutions to coordinate foreign policy or direct combined military operations. Nevertheless, they pledged mutual military and political support.

Formation of the Axis Alliance

In the late 1930s, each of the three powers that would form the Axis alliance launched campaigns of territorial expansion that alienated most of the world's other major powers.

Italy invaded Ethiopia (then also known as Abyssinia) on October 3, 1935.

Japan had already seized Manchuria (a part of China) on September 18, 1931. Then, on July 7, 1937, Japan invaded the rest of China, initiating the war in the Pacific.

Germany began its prewar expansion in 1938 by annexing Austria and the Sudetenland (a part of Czechoslovakia). In March 1939, the Germans divided the rest of Czechoslovakia between the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the newly created satellite state of Slovakia.

Their aggression against other states left Germany, Italy, and Japan with few friends among the world's countries. To end their isolation, the three nations began to draw closer and entered into treaties and pacts.

Rome-Berlin Axis

Italy and Germany began to pursue closer relations in 1936 after the League of Nations imposed sanctions on Italy for invading Abyssinia and after Italy's alliance with Britain and France ended. On October 25, 1936, Germany and Italy entered into a treaty of friendship in which they pledged to pursue a common foreign policy. Based on a speech given by Mussolini a week later, the alliance became known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.

Anti-Comintern Pact

On November 25, 1936, a month after Germany and Italy entered into a treaty of friendship, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. In this pact, the two countries pledged mutual assistance in combating the threat posed by the Communist International. Although the pact does not mention the Soviet Union, it was directed at that country, which was in hostilities with Japan at the time. Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact on November 6, 1937.

Pact of Steel

On May 22, 1939, Germany and Italy expanded their political alliance into a military one by signing the Pact of Friendship and Alliance. Dubbed the Pact of Steel by Mussolini, the agreement provided for military cooperation and mutual defensive support between Germany and Italy.

World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Germany attacked Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Despite the Pact of Steel, Italy at first remained neutral. On June 10, 1940, shortly before Germany defeated France, Italy joined the war as Germany's ally. In addition to invading France, Italian forces attacked British interests in North and East Africa.

Tripartite Pact

On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact. This pact formalized the alliance between the three countries, which subsequently were referred to as the Axis powers.

In the Pact, Japan recognized "the leadership of Germany and Italy in the establishment of a new order in Europe." In return, Germany and Italy recognized Japan's right to establish a new order "in greater East Asia."

The signatories agreed to come to one another's aid in the event of an attack by a nation with which none of the signatories was then at war. This provision was intended as a warning to the United States to stay out of Germany and Italy's wars in Europe and North Africa. It was also a warning to the United States to refrain from interfering with Japan's conquests in East Asia.

Germany Pressures other European States to Join the Axis Powers

In July 1940, just weeks after the defeat of France, Hitler decided that Nazi Germany would attack the Soviet Union the following spring. To do so, Germany needed to secure raw materials; establish transit rights for German troops; and ensure the cooperation or participation of other European states. Thus, Germany began to cajole and pressure those European states that were sympathetic to the Nazi regime to join the Axis. Nazi Germany offered economic aid to Slovakia. It also offered military protection and Soviet territory to Romania. And it warned Hungary that Germany might retract its recent support for Hungarian annexations of Czechoslovak and Romanian territory.

When Italy failed to conquer Greece in the late autumn and winter of 1940 - 1941, Germany became more concerned about securing its southeastern flank in the Balkans. Greece's success in repulsing Italian forces allowed its ally, Great Britain, to establish a foothold on the European continent. To subdue Greece and move the British off the European mainland, Nazi Germany sought to bring Yugoslavia and Bulgaria into the Axis alliance as well.

Hungary

Hungary was beholden to Germany and Italy for awarding it part of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and approving its annexation of Northern Transylvania from Romania in September 1940. Hungary's leaders were also eager for preferential economic treatment from Nazi Germany. Hungary joined the Axis alliance on November 20, 1940.

Romania

Having requested and received a German military mission in October 1940, Romania joined the Axis on November 23, 1940. The Romanians hoped that loyal support for a German invasion of the Soviet Union and faithful oil deliveries would: 1) destroy the Soviet threat; 2) return to Romania provinces annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940; and 3) win German support for the return of Northern Transylvania.

Slovakia

Slovakia was both politically and economically dependent on Germany for its existence as a sovereign state. Thus, Slovakia followed suit and joined the Axis alliance on November 24, 1940.

Bulgaria

Initially, Bulgarian leaders stalled and resisted German pressure to join the Axis alliance. They were reluctant to get involved in a war with the Soviet Union. They also did not want to antagonize Yugoslavia, which was nominally an ally of Greece. However, Bulgaria joined the Axis after the Germans offered them Greek territory in Thrace. The Germans also exempted Bulgaria from participation in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Bulgaria joined the Axis on March 1, 1941.

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia reluctantly joined the Axis on March 25, 1941. It did so because the Germans agreed to respect Yugoslav neutrality in the war against Greece and did not demand transit rights for Axis troops. Two days later, Serbian military officers who objected to the Tripartite Pact overthrew the Yugoslav government that had signed it. This enraged Hitler. Germany attacked Yugoslavia on April 6 and Italy and Hungary soon joined in the invasion. Yugoslavia was defeated, dismembered, and occupied by the Axis powers by mid-April 1941. Consequently, Yugoslavia never actually became one of the Axis powers.

Croatia

As part of the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, the Axis powers created a satellite state called the Independent State of Croatia. It was run by Croats who belonged to the fascist Ustaša movement. The Independent State of Croatia joined the Axis on June 15, 1941.

Finland

On June 26, 1941, four days after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Finland entered the war against the USSR as a "co-belligerent." The Finns sought to regain territory lost during the 1939 - 1940 Winter War with the Soviet Union. Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact or entered into a formal alliance with Nazi Germany. However, it did allow German forces to transit and operate from Finnish territory, and Finnish forces fought alongside the Germans. Since it functioned as an ally of Nazi Germany, Finland is sometimes incorrectly referred to as one of the Axis powers.

Disintegration and Defeat of the Axis

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. Within days, Germany and the European Axis powers declared war against the United States. In response, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and twenty-two other governments formally declared that they would work together to defeat the Axis powers. Twenty-one additional governments joined their alliance before the end of the war.

Consequently, at the start of 1942, Germany and its allies found themselves fighting a world war. By early 1943, accumulating military losses in Europe and Africa began to erode some of the Axis powers' commitments to one another.

Italy

Italy was the first Axis partner to give up.

In late July 1943, leaders of the Italian Fascist Party deposed and arrested Fascist leader and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Italy surrendered to the Allies on September 8, 1943.

German forces occupied the northern half of Italy and freed Mussolini from prison. Mussolini then established the Italian Social Republic, which was based in the northern Italian town of Salò and was completely dependent upon Germany.

Romania

On August 23, 1944, following the overthrow of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, Romania switched sides. Romanian troops fought alongside Soviet troops for the remainder of the war.

Bulgaria

After the Soviets rejected its offer of an armistice, Bulgaria surrendered on September 8, 1944. The Bulgarian Communist-led Fatherland Front seized power in a coup from the pro-Axis Bulgarian government. It then declared war on Nazi Germany.

Finland

On September 19, 1944, Finland signed an armistice with the Soviet Union.

Hungary

In March 1944, Germany forced Hungary to accept occupation by German forces. The primary reason for Germany's occupation was its legitimate fear that Hungary would desert the Axis, as Italy had done six months earlier. Hungary never surrendered. The war ended for Hungary in early April 1945, when the Soviet Union's Red Army drove the last German and Hungarian forces from Hungarian territory.

Slovakia

A national uprising against the pro-Nazi Slovak government broke out in Slovakia in late August 1944. In response, Germany occupied Slovakia to suppress the revolt. Slovakia remained in the Axis until the Soviets captured the capital, Bratislava, in early April 1945.

Croatia

Fanatical remnants of the Croatian Ustaša remained in Croatia until the end of April 1945, when they were captured or driven across the border into German-occupied Slovenia and Austria by Yugoslav Communist-led partisans.

Germany

Following Hitler's suicide on April 30, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 8 - 9.

Japan

After the defeat of all its Axis allies, Japan fought alone during the summer of 1945. It formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.

Last Edited: Apr 22, 2022

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. Learn more about the Axis powers in WW2.

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This article provides an overview of the Treaty of Versailles and why the war began. It helps students understand the shape of the conflict.

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Treaty of Versailles: Definition, Terms, Dates & WWI | HISTORY

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The Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 and set harsh terms for Germany’s surrender to Allied powers after World War I, setting the stage for World War II.

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To continue with thinking of multimodal lessons, this is a video explaining an overview of the Treaty of Versailles for those students who learn better in this format.

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The Treaty of Versailles, What Did the Big Three Want? 1/2

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This article introduce The Holocaust to students. Since many of the graphic novels we will read deal with The Holocaust, this is an important event for students to understand.

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The Holocaust (1933-1945) was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum defines the years of the Holocaust as 1933-1945. The Holocaust era began in January 1933 when 1 Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. It ended in May 1945, when the Allied Powers defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. The Holocaust is also sometimes referred to as "the Shoah," the Hebrew word for "catastrophe."

When they came to power in Germany, the Nazis did not immediately start to carry out mass murder. However, they quickly began using the government to target and exclude Jews from German society. Among other antisemitic measures, the Nazi German regime enacted discriminatory laws and organized violence targeting Germany's Jews. The Nazi persecution of Jews became increasingly radical between 1933 and 1945. This radicalization culminated in a plan that Nazi leaders referred to as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." The "Final Solution" was the organized and systematic mass murder of European Jews. The Nazi German regime implemented this genocide between 1941 and 1945.

Why did the Nazis target Jews?

The Nazis targeted Jews because the Nazis were radically antisemitic. This means that they were prejudiced against and hated Jews. In fact, antisemitism was a basic tenet of their ideology and at the foundation of their worldview.

The Nazis falsely accused Jews of causing Germany's social, economic, political, and cultural problems. In particular, they blamed them for Germany's defeat in World War I (1914-1918). Some Germans were receptive to these Nazi claims. Anger over the loss of the war and the economic and political crises that followed contributed to increasing antisemitism in German society. The instability of Germany under the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), the fear of communism, and the economic shocks of the Great Depression also made many Germans more open to Nazi ideas, including antisemitism.

However, the Nazis did not invent antisemitism. Antisemitism is an old and widespread prejudice that has taken many forms throughout history. In Europe, it dates back to ancient times. In the the myth that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. Suspicion and discrimination rooted in religious prejudices continued in legal restrictions on Jews. This, however, did not mean the end of antisemitism. In addition to religious antisemitism, Middle Ages (500-1400), prejudices against Jews were primarily based in early Christian belief and thought, particularly early modern Europe (1400-1800). At that time, leaders in much of Christian Europe isolated Jews from most aspects of economic, social, and political life. This exclusion contributed to stereotypes of Jews as outsiders. As Europe became more secular, many places lifted most other types of antisemitism

The Nazi Party promoted a particularly virulent form of racial antisemitism. It was central to the party's race-based worldview. The Nazis believed that the world was divided into distinct races and that some of these races were superior to others. They considered Germans to be members of the supposedly superior "Aryan" race. They asserted that "Aryans" were locked in a struggle for existence with other, inferior races. Further, the Nazis believed that the so-called "Jewish race" was the most inferior and dangerous of all. According to the Nazis, Jews were a threat that needed to be removed from German society. Otherwise, the Nazis insisted, the "Jewish race" would permanently corrupt and destroy the German people. The Nazis' race-based definition of Jews included many persons who identified as Christians or did not practice Judaism.

Where did the Holocaust take place?

The Holocaust was a Nazi German initiative that took place throughout German- and Axis-controlled Europe. It affected nearly all of Europe's Jewish population, which in 1933 numbered 9 million people.

The Holocaust began in Germany after Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933. Almost immediately, the Nazi German regime (which called itself the Third Reich) excluded Jews from German economic, political, social, and cultural life. Throughout the 1930s, the regime increasingly pressured Jews to emigrate.

But the Nazi persecution of Jews spread beyond Germany. Throughout the 1930s, Nazi Germany pursued an aggressive foreign policy. This culminated in World War II, which began in Europe in 1939. Prewar and wartime territorial expansion eventually brought millions more Jewish people under German control.

Nazi Germany's territorial expansion began in 1938-1939. During this time, Germany annexed neighboring Austria and the Sudetenland and occupied the Czech lands. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany began World War II (1939-1945) by attacking Poland. Over the next two years, Germany invaded and occupied much of Europe, including western parts of the Soviet Union. Nazi Germany further extended its control by forming alliances with the governments of Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. It also created puppet states in Slovakia and Croatia. Together these countries made up the European members of the Axis alliance, which also included Japan.

By 1942-as a result of annexations, invasions, occupations, and alliances-Nazi Germany controlled most of Europe and parts of North Africa. Nazi control brought harsh policies and ultimately mass murder to Jewish civilians across Europe.

The Nazis and their allies and collaborators murdered six million Jews.

Geography of the Holocaust

How did Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators persecute Jewish people?

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators implemented a wide range of anti-Jewish policies and measures. These policies varied from place to place. Thus, not all Jews experienced the Holocaust in the same way. But in all instances, millions of people were persecuted simply because they were identified as Jewish.

Throughout German-controlled and aligned territories, the persecution of Jews took a variety of forms:

Legal discrimination in the form of antisemitic laws. These included the Nuremberg Race Laws and numerous other discriminatory laws.

These included Various forms of public identification and exclusion. antisemitic propaganda, boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses, public humiliation, and obligatory markings (such as the Jewish star badge worn as an armband or on clothing).

The most notable example is There were also isolated incidents and other Organized violence. Kristallnacht.pogroms (violent riots).

Physical Displacement. Perpetrators used forced emigration, resettlement, expulsion, deportation, and ghettoization to physically displace Jewish individuals and communities.

in overcrowded Internment. Perpetrators interned Jews ghettos, concentration camps, and forced-labor camps, where many died from starvation, disease, and other inhumane conditions.

Widespread theft and plunder. The confiscation of Jews' property, personal belongings, and valuables was a key part of the Holocaust.

Jews had to perform Forced labor. forced labor in service of the Axis war effort or for the enrichment of Nazi organizations, the military, and/or private businesses.

Many Jews died as a result of these policies. But before 1941, the systematic mass murder of all Jews was not Nazi policy. Beginning in 1941, however, Nazi leaders decided to implement the mass murder of Europe's Jews. They referred to this plan as the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."

What was the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"?

The Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" (" Endlösung der Judenfrage ") was the deliberate and systematic mass murder of European Jews. It was the last stage of the Holocaust and took place from 1941 to 1945. Though many Jews were killed before the "Final Solution" began, the vast majority of Jewish victims were murdered during this period.

Nazi Germany committed mass murder on an unprecedented scale. There were two main methods of killing. One method was As part of the "Final Solution," mass shooting. German units carried out mass shootings on the outskirts of villages, towns, and cities throughout eastern Europe. The other method was asphyxiation with poison gas. Gassing operations were conducted at killing centers and with mobile gas vans.

Mass Shootings

The Nazi German regime perpetrated mass shootings of civilians on a scale never seen before. After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, German units began to carry out mass shootings of local Jews. At first, these units targeted Jewish men of military age. But by August 1941, they had started massacring entire Jewish communities. These massacres were often conducted in broad daylight and in full view and earshot of local residents.

Mass shooting operations took place in more than 1,500 cities, towns, and villages across eastern Europe. German units tasked with murdering the local Jewish population moved throughout the region committing horrific massacres. Typically, these units would enter a town and round up the Jewish civilians. They would then take the Jewish residents to the outskirts of the town. Next, they would force them to dig a mass grave or take them to mass graves prepared in advance. Finally, German forces and/or local auxiliary units would shoot all of the men, women, and children into these pits. Sometimes, these massacres involved the use of specially designed mobile gas vans. Perpetrators would use these vans to suffocate victims with carbon monoxide exhaust.

at these killing sites. At Maly Trostenets, thousands of victims were also murdered in gas vans.

The German units that perpetrated the mass shootings in eastern Europe included (special task forces of the SS and police), units. The provided logistical support and manpower. Some Wehrmacht units also carried out massacres. In many places, local auxiliary units working with the Einsatzgruppen Order Police battalions, and Waffen-SS German military ( Wehrmacht ) SS and police participated in the mass shootings. These auxiliary units were made up of local civilian, military, and police officials.

As many as 2 million Jews were murdered in mass shootings or gas vans in territories seized from Soviet forces.

Killing Centers

In late 1941, the Nazi regime began building specially designed, stationary killing centers in German-occupied Poland. In English, killing centers are sometimes called "extermination camps" or "death camps." Nazi Germany operated five killing centers: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. They built these killing centers for the sole purpose of efficiently murdering Jews on a mass scale. The primary means of murder at the killing centers was poisonous gas released into sealed gas chambers or vans.

German authorities, with the help of their allies and collaborators, transported Jews from across Europe to these killing centers. They disguised their intentions by calling the transports to the killing centers "resettlement actions" or "evacuation transports." In English, they are often referred to as "deportations." Most of these deportations took place by train. In order to efficiently transport Jews to the killing centers, German authorities used the extensive European railroad system, as well as other means of transportation. In many cases the railcars on the trains were freight cars; in other instances they were passenger cars.

The conditions on deportation transports were horrific. German and collaborating local authorities forced Jews of all ages into overcrowded railcars. They often had to stand, sometimes for days, until the train reached its destination. The perpetrators deprived them of food, water, bathrooms, heat, and medical care. Jews frequently died en route from the inhumane conditions.

The vast majority of Jews deported to killing centers were gassed almost immediately after their arrival. Some Jews whom German officials believed to be healthy and strong enough were selected for forced labor.

My mother ran over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders, and she told me "Leibele, I'm not going to see you no more. Take care of your brother."
- Leo Schneiderman describing arrival at Auschwitz, selection, and separation from his family

At all five killing centers, German officials forced some Jewish prisoners to assist in the killing process. Among other tasks, these prisoners had to sort through victims' belongings and remove victims' bodies from the gas chambers. Special units disposed of the millions of corpses through mass burial, in burning pits, or by burning them in large, specially designed crematoria.

Nearly 2.7 million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered at the five killing centers.

What were ghettos and why did German authorities create them during the Holocaust?

Ghettos were areas of cities or towns where German occupiers forced Jews to live in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. German authorities often enclosed these areas by building walls or other barriers. Guards prevented Jews from leaving without permission. Some ghettos existed for years, but others existed only for months, weeks, or even days as holding sites prior to deportation or murder.

German officials first created ghettos in 1939-1940 in German-occupied Poland. The two largest were located in the occupied Polish cities of Warsaw and Lodz (Łódź). Beginning in June 1941, German officials also established them in newly conquered territories in eastern Europe following the German attack on the Soviet Union. German authorities and their allies and collaborators also established ghettos in other parts of Europe. Notably, in 1944, German and Hungarian authorities created temporary ghettos to centralize and control Jews prior to their deportation from Hungary.

The Purpose of the Ghettos

German authorities originally established the ghettos to isolate and control the large local Jewish populations in occupied eastern Europe. Initially, they concentrated Jewish residents from within a city and the surrounding area or region. However, beginning in 1941, German officials also deported Jews from other parts of Europe (including Germany) to some of these ghettos.

Jewish forced labor became a central feature of life in many ghettos. In theory, it was supposed to help pay for the administration of the ghetto as well as support the German war effort. Sometimes, factories and workshops were established nearby in order to exploit the imprisoned Jews for forced labor. The labor was often manual and grueling.

Life in the Ghettos

Life in the ghettos was miserable and dangerous. There was little food and limited sanitation or medical care. Hundreds of thousands of people died by starvation; rampant disease; exposure to extreme temperatures; as well as exhaustion from forced labor. Germans also murdered the imprisoned Jews through brutal beatings, torture, arbitrary shootings, and other forms of arbitrary violence.

Jews in the ghettos sought to maintain a sense of dignity and community. Schools, libraries, communal welfare services, and religious institutions provided some measure of connection among residents. Attempts to document life in the ghettos, such as the Many ghettos also had underground movements that carried out armed resistance. The most famous of these is the Oneg Shabbat archive and clandestine photography, are powerful examples of Warsaw ghetto uprising in 1943. spiritual resistance.

Liquidating the Ghettos

Beginning in 1941-1942, Germans and their allies and collaborators murdered ghetto residents en masse and dissolved ghetto administrative structures. They called this process "liquidation." It was part of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question." The majority of Jews in the ghettos were murdered either in mass shootings at nearby killing sites or after deportation to killing centers. Most of the killing centers were deliberately located near the large ghettos of German-occupied Poland or on easily-accessible railway routes.

Who was responsible for carrying out the Holocaust and the Final Solution?

Many people were responsible for carrying out the Holocaust and the Final Solution.

At the highest level, inspired, ordered, approved, and supported the genocide of Europe's Jews. However, Hitler did not act alone. Nor did he lay out an exact plan for the implementation of the Final Solution. Other Nazi leaders were the ones who directly coordinated, planned, and implemented the mass murder. Among them were Adolf Hitler Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, and Adolf Eichmann.

However, millions of Germans and other Europeans participated in the Holocaust. Without their involvement, the genocide of the Jewish people in Europe would not have been possible. Nazi leaders relied upon German institutions and organizations; other Axis powers; local bureaucracies and institutions; and individuals.

German Institutions, Organizations, and Individuals

(the SD), the the Nazi leaders relied on many German institutions and organizations to help them carry out the Holocaust. Members of Nazi organizations initiated and carried out many anti-Jewish actions before and during World War II. These organizations Schutzstaffel , Protection Squadron). Once the war began, the SS and its police affiliates became especially deadly. Members of the Sicherheitsdienst Gestapo ,Criminal Police (Kripo), and the Order Police played particularly active and deadly roles in the mass murder of Europe's Jews. Other German institutions involved in carrying out the Final Solution included the German military; the German national railway and healthcare systems; the German civil service and criminal justice systems; and German businesses, insurance companies, and banks.

chose to implement the regime's policies. Ordinary Germans also participated in the Holocaust in a variety of ways. Some Germans cheered as Jews were beaten or humiliated. Others denounced Jews for disobeying racist laws and regulations. Many Germans bought, took, or looted their Jewish neighbors' belongings and property. These Germans' participation in the Holocaust was motivated by enthusiasm, careerism, fear, greed, self-interest, antisemitism, and political ideals, among other factors.

Non-German Governments and Institutions

Nazi Germany did not perpetrate the Holocaust alone. It relied on the help of its allies and collaborators. In this context, "allies" refers to Axis countries officially allied with Nazi Germany. "Collaborators" refers to regimes and organizations that cooperated with German authorities in an official or semi-official capacity. Nazi Germany's allies and collaborators included:

The European Axis Powers and other collaborationist regimes (such as Vichy France). These governments passed their own antisemitic legislation and cooperated with German goals.

These organizations helped round up, intern, and deport Jews even in countries not allied with Germany, such as German-backed local bureaucracies, especially local police forces. the Netherlands.

Local auxiliary units made up of military and police officials and civilians. These German-backed units participated in massacres of Jews in eastern Europe (often voluntarily).

The terms "allies" and "collaborators" can also refer to individuals affiliated with these governments and organizations.

Individuals across Europe

Throughout Europe, individuals who had no governmental or institutional affiliation and did not directly participate in murdering Jews also contributed to the Holocaust.

One of the deadliest things that neighbors, acquaintances, colleagues, and even friends could do was denounce Jews to Nazi German authorities. An unknown number chose to do so. They revealed Jews' hiding places, unmasked false Christian identities, and otherwise identified Jews to Nazi officials. In doing so, they brought about their deaths. These individuals' motivations were wide-ranging: fear, self-interest, greed, revenge, antisemitism, and political and ideological beliefs.

Individuals also profited from the Holocaust. Non-Jews sometimes moved into Jews' homes, took over Jewish-owned businesses, and stole Jews' possessions and valuables. This was part of the widespread theft and plunder that accompanied the genocide.

Most often individuals contributed to the Holocaust through inaction and indifference to the plight of their Jewish neighbors. Sometimes these individuals are called bystanders.

Who were the other victims of Nazi persecution and mass murder?

The Holocaust specifically refers to the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews. However, there were also millions of other victims of Nazi persecution and murder. In the 1930s, the regime targeted a variety of alleged domestic enemies within German society. As the Nazis extended their reach during World War II, millions of other Europeans were also subjected to Nazi brutality.

The Nazi regime also targeted Germans whose activities were deemed harmful to German society. These included men accused of homosexuality, persons accused of being professional or habitual criminals, and so-called asocials (such as people identified as vagabonds, beggars, prostitutes, pimps, and alcoholics). Tens of thousands of these victims were incarcerated in prisons and concentration camps. The regime also forcibly sterilized and persecuted Afro-Germans.

People with disabilities were also victimized by the Nazi regime. Before World War II, Germans considered to have supposedly unhealthy hereditary conditions were forcibly sterilized. Once the war began, Nazi policy radicalized. People with disabilities, especially those living in institutions, were considered both a genetic and a financial burden on Germany. These people were targeted for murder in the so-called Euthanasia Program.

The Nazi regime employed extreme measures against groups considered to be racial, civilizational, or ideological enemies. This included Roma (Gypsies),

How did the Holocaust end?

so-called The Holocaust ended in May 1945 when the major Allied Powers (Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union) defeated Nazi Germany in World War II. As Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives, they overran concentration camps. There they liberated the surviving prisoners, many of whom were Jews. The Allies also encountered and liberated the survivors of death marches. These forced marches consisted of groups of Jewish and non-Jewish concentration camp inmates who had been evacuated on foot from camps under SS guard.

But liberation did not bring closure. Many Holocaust survivors faced ongoing threats of violent antisemitism and displacement as they sought to build new lives. Many had lost family members, while others searched for years to locate missing parents, children, and siblings.

How did some Jews survive the Holocaust?

Despite Nazi Germany's efforts to murder all the Jews of Europe, some Jews survived the Holocaust. Survival took a variety of forms. But, in every case, survival was only possible because of an extraordinary confluence of circumstances, choices, help from others (both Jewish and non-Jewish), and sheer luck.

Survival outside of German-Controlled Europe

Some Jews survived the Holocaust by escaping German-controlled Europe. Before World War II began, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated from Nazi Germany despite significant immigration barriers. Those who immigrated to the United States, Great Britain, and other areas that remained beyond German control were safe from Nazi violence. Even after World War II began, some Jews managed to escape German-controlled Europe. For example, approximately 200,000 Polish Jews fled the German occupation of Poland. These Jews survived the war under harsh conditions after Soviet authorities deported them further east into the interior of the Soviet Union.

Survival in German-Controlled Europe

A smaller number of Jews survived inside German-controlled Europe. They often did so with the help of rescuers. Rescue efforts ranged from the isolated actions of individuals to organized networks, both small and large. Throughout Europe, there were non-Jews who took grave risks to help their Jewish neighbors, friends, and strangers survive. For example, they found hiding places for Jews, procured false papers that offered protective Christian identities, or provided them with food and supplies. Other Jews survived as members of partisan resistance movements. Finally, some Jews managed, against enormous odds, to survive imprisonment in concentration camps, ghettos, and even killing centers.

Aftermath

While the Holocaust ended with the war, the legacy of terror and genocide did not. By the end of World War II, six million Jews and millions of others were dead. Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators had devastated or completely destroyed thousands of Jewish communities across Europe.

In the those Jews who survived were often confronted with the traumatic reality of having lost their entire families and communities. Some were able to go home and chose to rebuild their lives in Europe. Many others were afraid to do so because of aftermath of the Holocaust, postwar violence and antisemitism. In the immediate postwar period, those who could not or would not return home often found themselves living in displaced persons camps. There, many had to wait years before they were able to immigrate to new homes.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the world has struggled to come to terms with the horrors of the genocide, to remember the victims, and to hold perpetrators responsible. These important efforts remain ongoing.

Last Edited: Nov 5, 2021

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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Introduction to the Holocaust: What was the Holocaust?

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Learn about the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

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In the interest of keeping with multimodal activities, this article provides a variety of maps of the war. This will help students see and picture the landscape of the war and where all the various events took place.

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The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims - six million were murdered. Roma (Gypsies), physically and mentally disabled people and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons.

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This video will provide the students with a firsthand account of the Japanese American relocations. This will help them connect deeper to Takei's graphic novel.

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Why I love a country that once betrayed me | George Takei

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This article provides an overview on the Japanese American relocation during World War II. This will help connect to some of the graphic novels that they will read.

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Note on Terminology

Words used during the 1940s to describe Japanese relocation were often misleading and intended to sound benign or even helpful to those individuals who were being forcibly removed from their homes. Terms like "evacuation" and "exclusion" masked the reality of forced removal. Some Japanese Americans today prefer using the terms "concentration camp" and "incarceration" to "relocation camp" and "internment." (The word " internment " should be used to describe legally permissible detention of enemy aliens, and therefore does not properly describe the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans, most of whom were US citizens.)

The camps were sometimes called "concentration camps" during the war, though after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, the phrase tended to be associated with Nazism rather than with incarceration of Japanese Americans.

During World War II, Americans often used the derogatory word "Jap" to describe people of Japanese descent. That term is now considered an offensive ethnic slur.

Historical Context

The United States had a history of racist laws against people of Asian descent before World War II. In the mid-19 th century, some Americans believed that the influx of immigrant Chinese laborers, most of whom built railroads, competed with Americans for jobs. Popular newspapers of the time coined the phrase "Yellow Peril" to convey the "threat" these immigrants posed, not just to the labor market but also to the nation's "racial stock."

These fears helped to support a series of laws meant to limit-or block entirely-Asian immigrants from coming to the United States. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which forbade any new immigration from China, and, in 1907, the "Gentleman's Agreement" limited the ability of Japanese citizens to enter the United States. The 1917 Immigration Act expanded these restrictions by creating an "Asiatic Barred Zone," a large area encompassing most of central Asia, and including India, the Arabian Peninsula, and Pacific Islands, from which immigration to the United States was forbidden. The 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act placed an overall limit of 1,424 immigrants per year from the areas of Asia where immigration had not already been banned. Under these racist laws, no one born in Asia could become a naturalized United States citizen, unless the US government decided that he or she was white.

Japanese Americans in the United States

By 1940, most Japanese immigrants and their descendants lived on the West Coast, especially in California. While US laws had limited immigration from most of Asia, Japanese arrivals in the territory of Hawaii were largely unrestricted, since Hawaii was not yet a US state. About 158,000 people of Japanese descent lived there, making up 40% of the total population of the islands. Japanese in the continental United States called themselves: ("first generation," or immigrants) and ("second generation," or children of immigrants). The approximately 47,000 were born in Japan, and US law barred them from becoming American citizens. The 80,000 the children of , were born in the United States and were American citizens.

Impact of Pearl Harbor

Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans worried that Japanese Americans were disloyal to the United States. As US relations with Japan deteriorated, President Franklin D. Roosevelt commissioned a secret study of the "Japanese situation" on the West Coast, to see if people of Japanese descent would pose a threat in the event of war with Japan. Roosevelt's investigator, Curtis B. Munson, determined that more than 90% were loyal to the United States.

The Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise air attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and other US bases in the Pacific on December 7, 1941. The Japanese American community quickly experienced an increase in racism. Popular magazines included drawings to help Americans distinguish between people of Chinese ancestry, American allies, and people of Japanese ancestry, whose loyalty was in doubt. The governor of Idaho, Chase A. Clark proposed that "A good solution to the Jap problem would be to send them all back to Japan, then sink the island. They live like rats, breed like rats, and act like rats." Congressman John E. Rankin of Mississippi declared: "This is a race war. . . . I am for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii now and putting him in concentration camps." Popular syndicated columnist Walter Lippmann wrote that Japan was preparing a raid on the West Coast, and the fact that there had been no evidence of sabotage by Japanese Americans only meant that "the blow is well organized and it is held back until it can be struck with maximum effect."

Executive Order 9066

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized military commanders to designate zones "from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion."

Although Japanese Americans were not mentioned in the text of the Executive Order, they were immediately targeted. A new government agency called the "War Relocation Authority" (WRA) was tasked with removing "enemy aliens" from these designated zones. The WRA forcibly deported approximately 120,000 and to ten relocation camps in seven states:

In a March 1942 poll, 93% of Americans supported moving Japanese "aliens" from the Pacific coast. 59% of Americans also approved removing the to camps, even though they were American citizens.

It is clear that the and were targeted because of their ancestry. The War Relocation Authority detained only 14,000 "enemy aliens" born in Europe (most from Germany or Italy, both were. Axis powers and wartime enemies of the United States) out of the more than one million European immigrants living in the United States who were not yet US citizens. The millions of Americans whose parents had immigrated from Europe were not forcibly removed, but the

Deportation and Life in the Camps

Local authorities on the West Coast forced all "persons of Japanese ancestry" to register. The and were then deported, first to temporary "assembly centers" and from there to relocation centers. They were allowed to bring only a few personal belongings, and many were forced to sell businesses, homes, and farms at great losses to white Americans in the process. Historians estimate that Japanese Americans lost $350 million through these sales (the equivalent of more than $5 billion in 2018).

Japanese American Relocation: Photographs At the camps, deportees found rudimentary barracks and other buildings surrounded by barbed-wire, and guarded by the US Army. The Manzanar camp in eastern California, established on the Paiute Native American tribal lands, ultimately had 504 barracks, and families were each allocated 20 x 25 feet of living space. Toilets, laundry, and bathing facilities were communal.

Despite these austere conditions, internees attempted to make their lives feel as normal as possible through gardening, cultural events, and playing sports such as baseball. Interned prisoners attended schools, joined scout troops, or opened small businesses that catered to their fellow prisoners.

men forcibly relocated to these camps were not permitted to enlist in the US military until 1943. (Men of Japanese ancestry living in Hawaii were allowed to serve immediately after Pearl Harbor.) The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, formed in 1943 and led by white commanders, was made up entirely of , most of whom still had families in the camps. The 442nd's soldiers fought in Italy, southern France, and Germany, and became the most decorated military unit for its size and length of service in American history. Members of the 552nd Field Artillery Battalion, part of the 442nd, liberated Kaufering IV Hurlach, a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp.

Opposition to Relocation

Not all Americans supported the forced removal of and . Milton Eisenhower, the brother of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, opposed relocation, even though he served as the first director of the War Relocation Authority. (He resigned his position as director after just three months and was replaced by Dillon Myer.) In 1943, First Lady " caused by "unreasoning racial feeling." Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Gila River camp and gave a speech to the internees in which she called their removal a "mistake

Japanese Americans challenged curfew, evacuation, and detention orders in US courts at least 12 times during the war. Four cases reached the US Supreme Court. In each, the court concluded that the war powers of Congress and the president justified forcibly detaining Japanese American citizens in camps. In 1944 the US Supreme Court decided in that removal of Japanese American citizens in this case was in fact constitutional. In 2018, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts condemned that decision, writing, "The forcible relocation of U.S. citizens to concentration camps, solely and explicitly on the basis of race is objectively unlawful... Korematsu v. United States Korematsu was gravely wrong the day it was decided, has been overruled in the court of history, and-to be clear-'has no place in law under the Constitution.'"

The End of the War

In July 1944, General Charles Bonesteel, the head of the Western Defense Command, wrote to the War Department that "there is no longer a military necessity for the mass exclusion of the Japanese from the West Coast as a whole." Still, many internees remained incarcerated at the end of the war. After the War Relocation Authority closed camps, US officials gave internees little or no financial or material support, simply forcing them to leave the camps.

Upon their return from imprisonment, Japanese Americans often discovered that their homes, lands, and businesses had been confiscated by the US government or by other Americans. Many sought to regain their prewar property, often unsuccessfully.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act, formally apologizing on behalf of the US government and granting $20,000 to each surviving detainee. The act explained that "racial prejudice, wartime hysteria and a lack of political leadership" led to the forced removal of people of Japanese ancestry. Some of the relocation camp sites have become National Historic Sites under the US National Park Service.

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Words used during the 1940s to describe Japanese relocation were often misleading and intended to sound benign or even helpful to those individuals who were being forcibly removed from their homes. Terms like "evacuation" and "exclusion" masked the reality of forced removal.

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In all my research, I found this website the most helpful when selecting the graphic novels for my students to read.

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World War Two graphic novel stories for young readers — a staff-created list from San Francisco Public Library

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Living in a post 2020 USA Presidential election world, the news has been filled with stories of fear, hate, and discrimination - stories that resonate with many things the world went through World War 2 (1939-1945). SFPL Main Children’s Center Librarians have curated a reading list of graphic novels telling stories (some real, some retold, others realistically imagined) of this very difficult historical period that held much pain and death for millions of people around the world. These are very heavy topics we caution parents and educators to proceed with caution and empathy. But there are many young readers who are very intrigued by the horrors and stories of this era. And interestingly enough, there are many graphic novel stories for one to use as a learning tool. Let us use these stories as a way to not forget our histories.

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This video is of Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann and her accounting of her experience with The Holocaust. This will help students to see and understand this tragedy.

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[Text on screen] In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the following film presents the story of one Holocaust survivor as a tribute to the millions whose stories cannot be told.

Narrator: During the final days of World War II, in the hills of southern Czechoslovakia, U.S. Army cameras recorded the aftermath of a little-known Nazi atrocity. American troops had come upon the bodies of young women who had been killed during the final stages of a three-month death march.

Of the 2,000 women who began the march, fewer than 150 would survive to be liberated. For each of the survivors, liberation would mark the end of a six-year nightmare through ghettos, deportations, slave-labor camps, and forced marches. These are the memories of one of those survivors.

Gerda Weissmann: I was the only one from my family who survived. The only one of my dearest friends.

Narrator: In August 1939, 15-year-old Gerda Weissmann returned from a summer vacation to her family home in Bielsko, Poland. She was to begin school within a few weeks. On September 1, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. Within hours, the peaceful city of Bielsko was overtaken by the German army.

Gerda Weissmann: We were sitting at breakfast. It was a beautiful, beautiful autumn day-very bright, very golden. We were all together, and it seemed all activity outside has stopped as well. And it was sort of a very, very special, memorable day because it had no...no intrusion whatsoever.

Then, in the evening, a great deal of activity started. There was shooting, there were planes, there were some explosions. We went to the basement. My cat was outside, and my brother went out to let the cat in; the cat was meowing. And he came back with a hole in his trousers. And he said there was shooting from the rooftops, and the Germans were coming.

And at that moment, we heard an incredible roar, and a motorcycle came down the street, and it had a sidecar, and there were people in different uniforms. You know, our army, the Polish army, had sort of beige-khaki uniforms, and those uniforms were green. People were shouting, you know, "Heil Hitler! Long live the Führer!" And people were waving flags with swastikas. There was a feeling of complete betrayal. Suddenly, you were home-and you were not home anymore.

[Text on screen] Gerda Weissmann's brother Arthur was 19 years old. He was a student of chemistry at the local technical college.

He was really my hero. Very accomplished in everything he touched, he seemed to be able to do well. And he was a wonderful brother. He always protected me. And, of course, he had his friends coming to the house. So there were boys around, you know. I started to get interested in boys. And a lot of my friends were seeking my friendship because of my brother.

[Text on screen] Within weeks of the invasion, the able-bodied Jewish men of Bielsko were ordered to register for forced labor.

Unfortunately, pretty soon orders came for all young men to register, between 16 and 50. And...And they were taken away. The last day before Arthur left-as a matter of fact the night before-I went to his room. And when I was little, I used to always go, and he would read me stories, and then he would throw me out of his room. But apparently he didn't that night. I must have fallen asleep at the foot of his bed. When he left, he asked me to be strong and to look after my parents. My mother didn't make his bed for a very long time for the imprint of his head. I guess the loss of my brother is the hardest one to bear.

[Text on screen] Many ethnic Germans living in Bielsko welcomed the German invasion and were given the homes of displaced Jewish families. The Weissmans were confined to the basement of their home.

The war started in September. By Christmas, we had to move to the basement of our home. It was very cold and clammy. We had no running water, no electricity, and things were really quite bad, but we were still in our own home. And spring was very difficult because I always loved my garden. I used to spend a lot of time there as a child. And a sign appeared there that dogs and Jews were not permitted to enter. I remember I said, "I don't care what they're going to do. I have to see my garden again." It was a beautiful and fragrant spring morning. It was in April. And I remember I jumped over the fence and went to the garden and pretended that I was just picking violets. I could see from the garden the room which had been mine, the wallpaper. Even though we lived in the basement, I was still there. And I pretended just for a little bit what it would be like if the war hadn't happened. I would be going in, my mother would say I need to take my raincoat to school, and my brother would be hurrying off. My father would be going to his office. My mother would be setting the table for breakfast and urging us to do this or that. And I remember it was sort of the most incredible thing that the reality, which I had always taken for granted, now became the most remote fantasy.

[Text on screen] In 1942, Polish Jews were deported to slave labor, concentration camps, and killing centers.

The worst day of my life: the 28th of June, '42. That is when I saw my father for the last time. The day before, we were... I... I heard my parents-of course, you know, we all lived in one room-and I heard my parents talk through the night. And I still cannot comprehend their incredible bravery. They spoke only of their lives together, their love, the good times, their children, their parents. And with that, they faced the morning. After my father left, my poor mother, you know, I remember I begged her to have something to eat, and she wouldn't. But she had also...saved from before the war a bit of cocoa and...and some jam. And she decided to make that cocoa for me that morning. I remember all those years looking at that cocoa with great longing-we didn't have any throughout-but it didn't taste particularly sweet on that morning.

[Text on screen] On June, 29, 1942, the Jewish women of Bielsko and their children were deported by the German authorities.

We had to march through our town. And...I guess it is sort of a similar journey than a journey to execution when I think of it now, because, you know, you saw people looking out from behind curtains, some waving sort of a mute farewell. Seeing somebody was painting a new sign on a shop. The movie was putting a new feature on the marquee, and we were marching.

There was an SS man there that was near the railroad tracks where the circus used to come. It was sort of an empty place. I was with my mother and a number of my friends as well, with their mothers. And we heard that Merin was there. Merin was a man of-if the stories were to be believed-not anyone to be greatly admired. He was working with the government there. He was standing to the side. We had to form a line, and an SS man stood there with a little stick. And I was holding hands with my mother, I came up to him, and he looked at me, and he says, "How old?" I said, "18," and he sort of pushed me to one side and my mother to the other side. I wasn't aware what was happening at that particular point, but shortly thereafter, when I stood with my other friends who were also separated from their mothers, we realized that we were going to go to separate places. There was an enclosure, an enclosure there, with barbed wire to the right where our mothers were, and we were immediately taken to the left. Now, again, I don't remember the time sequence at all. I just remember the tremendous panic. And shortly thereafter, some trucks arrived, open trucks, with sort of a gate behind it, and we were loaded on the truck. And I heard my mother's voice from very far ask, "Where to?" And I shouted back, "I don't know." And I guess I must have been aware that I was taken away from my mother, so I jumped off. And Merin came. And he was very slight, a small man. I didn't expect such strength from him. And he picked me up bodily, and he threw me on the truck, and he says, "You are too young to die." And I guess the trucks were set in motion. I just heard my mother's voice, and it came like an echo, and she was saying, "Be strong." You know, "Sei stark," in German. And then the trucks rolled out of there, and, ironically, the sun came out, sort of. I still see it, the rooftops looked wet, illuminated by the sun, and the church bells ringing, and that was the last view.

We were taken to a train. And, of course, I was with my friends, and I think we all started to talking and facing the reality of what was probably happening. And I had a friend by the name of Ilse Kleinzähler. I'd known Ilse since childhood. Ilse was a little younger than I, and we looked quite a bit alike, and people took us as sisters. And, as a matter of fact, Ilse had a horrible headache on the train, and she said, "Oh, if somebody would just have an aspirin or something." And there was this really stunning, beautiful, tall, slim, redheaded girl, very friendly face, and she said, "Oh, I have one," and she gave it to me, and I gave it to Ilse. And she introduced herself in sort of a very open manner, and she said, "My name is Suse Kunz." And, of course, I told her mine, and we started talking. And the windows of the train were open. It was a beautiful summer day, and we said, "Won't it be fun when we make the journey back?" And we were sort of looking back and forth, and she said, "That war is going to go on for a long time," and I said, "No, it won't." And she said, "It's going to be years." I said, "No, it's going to be less than six months." And she said, "I wouldn't bet on that." And I said, "I would." And we made a bet and shook hands on that. And the bet was for a quart of strawberries and some whipped cream, to be payable after the war. I lost that bet.

[Text on screen] Gerda Weissmann was deported to a slave labor factory that produced fabric for the German military.

The camp we came to was a small town called Bolkenhain. I remember we were marched from the railroad station. People looked very curiously at us. We came to an enclosure adjacent to a factory which had a couple...a barrack, and it was a tremendous click as the gates closed, sort of that finality. And there stood a woman clad all in black, and she was literally barking. I've never heard a human voice being that harsh. She looked like a bulldog, you know. And I said, "This is going to be absolutely the worst." We were supposed to refer to her as Frau Kügler. She turned out to be the hope, the inspiration, and the knowledge that perhaps not all Germans were cruel. She was a decent, wonderful, warm, caring human being. No doubt she was picked for her position because of her looks, but the looks completely belied what was underneath it all.

We stayed in that camp for a little over a year. No one was sent to Auschwitz. I don't know if she particularly loved us, but she pinned a lie to the lips of all those who said they had no choice. I personally am indebted to her for my own life at one point, when this infamous Lindner, who was known for his cruelty, swooped down for an inspection of the camp. And I had been very ill at the time-I was running a very high fever-and I was permitted to stay in my bunk. And she came in-there were two, no, there were three of us who were ill-and she came and she said, "Girls, get yourself together." I remember she stooped down to tie my boots, and she literally dragged me and the two other girls to the factory. And she set my looms in motion, and she said, "Pull yourself together. This is life or death today."

[Text on screen] Gerda Weissmann would spend three years in camps along the Polish-german border. For Gerda, the conditions of slaver labor in Marzdorf, Germany, were the most intolerable.

Marzdorf was a horrible camp. We were housed in a building maybe on the sixth or seventh or eighth floor, way up, and it was terribly hot. We worked at different jobs there. There were several that were dreadful. And I remember my resistance really weakening there. And I said to myself, once, after the...the coal car was empty and I was with that, standing on that, with that shovel in my hand, and I said, "It would be so easy now to jump an oncoming train, and it will be over in a couple seconds." Become a part of that stillness, not to have to face tomorrow. What's going to be tomorrow? It's going to be flax in the morning, and the bundles at night, and the swamp again, and the hunger and that, and I just felt I had enough. And I said to myself, "It's time to do it." And I heard very faint oncoming of a train, very far away, probably. Suddenly, I felt a pain in both sides of my neck, very sharp.

And it was right at the beginning of the war, when we had not heard from my brother, and my mother was sick, and we were told that we had to leave, with 20 pounds of our belongings, our home. And I remember standing there, and we heard of a family who committed suicide together, and I sort of half-wished that my parents had suggested that. And I remember standing at the window and thinking about that. My father came up behind me-and he always knew what I was thinking-and he said to me, "What you are thinking is wrong. It's cowardly, it's terrible." He said, "You promise me never to do that, no matter what." And I didn't answer him. And then he sort of took me, he took my head, like that, and he turned it toward me, toward him, and he looked at me, and he said, "I want your promise now." And I said, "Papa, I promise." And during those last days in Märzdorf, that promise became pretty faint. And I knew that the train was going to come, and I figured, I'm going to jump. Suddenly I felt that very sharp pain in my neck. And the promise came back, and obviously I didn't.

[Text on screen] During the final stages of the war, the Nazis tried to destroy all evidence of their crimes, especially the living witnesses. Prisoners were forcibly evacuated from the camps, largely on foot. These evacuations became known as "death marches."

It was bitter cold-it was in January-and I was coughing terribly. I had a very bad cold. And my three dearest friends-Suse Kunz, Liesel Steppe, and Ilse Kleinzähler-and I-we huddled together, the four of us. And they were very concerned about me. They said, you know, "If you can only pull through with that terrible cold and that terrible cough." It was like pneumonia or what have you. And in the morning, very early, the doors opened, not to the type of freedom we had hoped, but it opened to an incredible picture. There was freshly fallen snow for as far as the eye could see... an enormous sort of plateau, and then we came up to a gentle hill, and it was covered with snow. It was gray, it was snowing, and we were told to assemble four abreast. So, of course, it was the four of us, and we held hands, and we took the first step. And I guess we all knew that this was going to be the first step to the end of the road, either to liberation or to doom. And in front of us stretched this incredible line. Well, people looked, you know, with gray camp blankets over them-and they looked like winged death. That's all you could see. Way, way ahead, four thousand girls. And on the side were the SS men and the SS women, and they lifted their whips, and they said, "Forward, march!" And we started to march.

It was the 29th of January. We left a lot of girls back in the snow. Many were killed. That was something one can barely...can really not describe. My father had asked me when I last saw him in June-the very last day, practically in the last moment-before he left, he said to me, "Where are your skiing boots?" And I said, "Why?" And he said, "I want you to wear them today." I said, "Papa, skiing shoes in June?" He said, "I want you to wear them." One didn't argue with one's father. So I put on those boots, and I wore them throughout my entire stay in the camps for three years. And in them I'd also hidden the pictures of my parents and my brother. I didn't know, and I don't know, how my father could have known that those boots were really instrumental in saving my life on that march. I had ski shoes. Some girls had sandals. We slept outside. The frost. I saw girls breaking off their toes like twigs. And I had my ski boots.

[Text on screen] The women were divided into two groups. Gerda Weissmann and her fellow prisoners were to endure three months of exposure, starvation and arbitrary execution.

We didn't get anything to eat for days, literally. We were bitter cold and hungry and everything. And I was planning a party after the war, and I had the dilemma for almost an entire day if I should have a blue velvet dress or a red velvet dress. I couldn't resolve it. I really liked the color blue much better as a color, but I knew that red looked better on me. So... But you could occupy your mind and hang your thoughts on trivia of that nature-it became very important, and this is how you passed the hours and forgot the hunger and the cold. And I do believe that if you were blessed with imagination, that you could work that. If, unfortunately, you were a person that faced reality, I think you didn't have much of a chance.

[Text on screen] This death march would continue into the spring of 1945.

We devised sort of what we thought an incredible plan to run away. That was when we saw refugees on the road who spoke similar German than we did. So we thought at the next stop we are going to disappear in the woods. And we stopped for that rest, and I remember giving Ilse sort of a sign with my eyebrows that we should now disappear into the woods, pretending that we needed to go to relieve ourselves. And suddenly she looked up, and she said, "I'm afraid." And normally, I must say, I overruled her, you know, in most instances, and suddenly I lost, I think, my courage as well. And I said, "Okay, maybe, maybe we'll do it on the next stop." And we came out of the forest, and then we heard horrible screams. And 14 girls had hidden, had the same ideas we did, and they were all killed in front of us. That's when I decided, no matter what, I'm never going to try to run away. We'll go to the end whatever the end will be.

On the 28th of April, Ilse wasn't well at all. She was sort of hallucinating. She was saying things, which I didn't know what she meant. But then she became totally lucid. And one of the most shocking things was that one of my other friends had somehow found two potatoes. And she gave them to me, she said, "For you and for Ilse." And I gave Ilse this potato, and she said she wasn't hungry. That was the most incredible statement, not to be hungry. And she said to me, "You eat it." And then she said...she said, "I'm angry at no one. And I hope nobody is angry at me." And then she said, "If my parents and Kitty"-Kitty was her little sister-she said, "If they survive, don't tell them how I died." And then she said to me, "You'll be alone." She said, "But you have always been lucky." And there was a little brook nearby, so I got up and I wanted to get it, and an SS man came, and he shoved me, and I begged him to let me have water for her, and he kicked her head. So it was raining and so I caught some water in my hands and gave it to her. And I held her, and we both fell asleep. I woke up but she didn't.

[Text on screen] By May of 1945, the death march had come to a halt in the town of Volary, Czechoslovakia.

And I remember sitting there and really knowing that this was definitely the end. I heard American planes overhead. There was shooting. The German army was running away. There were people on the roads with children, with animals-tremendous chaos.

[Text on screen] The SS guards abandoned the survivors of the march in a vacant bicycle factory on the outskirts of Volary.

We were very, very ill. I weighed 68 pounds. My hair was white. So I was going to be 21 the following day. That morning, I went to look for Suse because Liesel said to me, "Suse went out to get some water and she has not returned." So I went out to look for her. And I found her near the pump. I thought she had fainted, but I touched her, and she was gone. I wanted to tell her, "Suse"-and I did tell her-I said, "Suse, we are liberated! We are free!" We had made a bet more than three years earlier on the train which took us to camp-a bet for a quart of strawberries and cream, to be payable after the war. I said we will be liberated, and she said we would not.

[Text on screen] U.S. Army troops entered Volary on May 7, 1945.

My very clear view of freedom and liberation came that morning when I stood in the doorway of that abandoned factory, and I saw a car coming down the hill. And the reality of that came when I saw the white star on its hood and not the swastika. There were two men in that car; one jumped out.

Kurt Klein: I saw some skeletal figures trying to get some water from a hand pump, but over on the other side, leaning next to the...against the wall, next to the entrance of the building, I saw a girl standing, and I decided to walk up to her.

Gerda Weissmann: I remember the aura of him, of that awe, of that disbelief in daylight to really see someone who fought for our freedom, for my ideals, and he looked like a god to me.

Kurt Klein: And I asked her in German and in English whether she spoke either language, and she answered me in German.

Gerda Weissmann: I knew what I had to say, and I said to him, "We are Jewish, you know." For a very long time, at least to me it seemed very long, he didn't answer me. And then his own voice betrayed his emotion-he was wearing dark glasses, I couldn't see his eyes-he said, "So am I."

[Text on screen] Lieutenant Kurt Klein was born in Waldorf, Germany. In 1937, his parents had sent him to safety in the United States.

Kurt Klein: I asked about her companions, and she said, "Come, let me show you."

Gerda Weissmann: He said, "May I see the other ladies?"-a form of address we hadn't heard for six years. I told him that most of the girls were inside and were too ill to walk. And he said to me, "Won't you come with me?" I didn't know what he meant. So he held the door open for me and let me precede him. And that was the moment of restoration of humanity, humaneness, dignity, and freedom.

Kurt Klein: We went inside the factory. It was an indescribable scene. There were women scattered over the floor on scraps of straw, some of them quite obviously with a mark of death on their faces. Something that I have never been able to forget was an extraordinary thing that happened. The girl who was my guide made sort of a sweeping gesture over this scene of devastation, and said the following words: "Noble be man, merciful and good." And I could hardly believe that she was able to summon a poem by the German poet Goethe, which was called...is called "The Divine," at such a moment. And there was nothing that she could have said that would have underscored the grim irony of the situation better than what she did.

Gerda Weissmann: And this first young American of liberation day is now my husband. He opened not only the door for me, but the door to my life and my future.

Narrator: Gerda Weissmann and Kurt Klein were married in June of 1946. Gerda Weissmann would never find out what happened to her brother. Her father and mother are known to have been deported to Auschwitz. Kurt Klein's parents were unable to escape Nazi Germany. They, too, are reported to have died in Auschwitz.

Of the 2,000 women who began the death march, most would die along the route to Czechoslovakia. Ninety-five of these women are memorialized in this small cemetery in Volary. Among the monuments are those dedicated to Liesel Steppe, Suse Kunz and Ilse Kleinzähler-the friends of a young survivor named Gerda Weissmann.

[Text on screen] Gerda Klein lives in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2002, Kurt, 82, died after 56 years of marriage to Gerda.

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In this film, Gerda Weissmann shares her account of surviving the Holocaust. It was produced in 1995 by HBO and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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Additional World War II Graphic Novel Resources

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Additional World War II Graphic Novel Resources

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This article also provided additional resources and suggestions of World War II graphic novels. I found this article tying graphic novels and World War II together very helpful. It helped to formulate my thoughts for this unit.

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From biographies and historical and political analyses to historical fiction and spy novels, much has been written about World War II. The graphic novel format offers a unique way to approach this era as it creates a multisensory experience to depict dramatic events, convey unspeakable cruelties, and explore complex emotions. Below is a select list of graphic novels for adults and teens about this defining era of history.

A Brief History

World War II was a global conflict that began on September 1, 1939 when German forces invaded Poland. Lead by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, the Germans committed countless atrocities across Europe as they sought to eradicate the Jewish population and establish European dominance. The Holocaust, the eradication of European Jews, resulted in the deaths of an estimated six million Jews as well as millions of others.

Jewish people and other "undesirables," such as homosexuals, Romani, the disabled, etc., were routinely rounded up, brutalized, experimented on, murdered, or sent to concentration camps such as Auschwitz. Germany later joined with Italy, Japan, and other countries to form the Axis Powers. After the invasion of Poland, the forces of the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and others rose up against them as the Allies. The war lasted from 1939 to 1945 and resulted in the deaths of millions.

The United States of America remained neutral regarding the war until December 7, 1941 when Japanese bomber planes attacked the American naval base Pearl Harbor. Other American as well as British naval bases and fleets were attacked leading to 2,403 American deaths and 1,178 Americans wounded. After this, America joined the Allies and created a massive propaganda campaign to drum up support. Soldiers from all races and all walks of life were sent to the front lines while their families struggled to support them from home.

While these soldiers were off fighting to topple inhumane regimes and liberate concentration camps, many of their families were experiencing horrendous conditions on American soil. Segregation in the south was still in place during this time. German and Japanese Americans experienced racism and discrimination led by their own neighbors who believed they were secretly linked to the Axis powers.

On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which allowed government officials the authority to relocate any and all persons they deemed a threat to national security. Soon after, Japanese Americans were forcefully relocated and incarcerated by their own government. They were placed in internment camps while their properties, businesses, and bank accounts were seized. About 120,000 Japanese Americans, many whose sons and brothers were fighting for America, were forced into these camps with challenging living conditions. These camps remained operational until around the end of the war. The last camp was closed in March 1946. Forty years later, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act which compensated the descendants of those incarcerated Japanese Americans and offered an official apology.

Around 1942, the American government created the Manhattan Project, which rounded up the expertise of nuclear physicists and engineers to develop new nuclear-based weapons and technology for the war starting around 1942. Through their efforts, the atomic bomb was created.

After several successful campaigns such as the invasion of Normandy (D-Day, June 6, 1944), victory for the allies was on the horizon. On January 27, 1945, Soviet forces liberated the concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland. In April 1945, allied forces captured Berlin. Soon afterwards, Hitler committed suicide. Several days later on May 7, 1945 Germany surrendered. At this time, Japan refused to surrender.

On August 6, 1945, American bomber planes dropped the first atomic bomb to ever be used in warfare on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, the city of Nagasaki received the second atomic bomb. The total death toll is unknown, but it is estimated at 150,000 people in Hiroshima and 75,000 people in Nagasaki. The bombs were used as a way to speed along the end of the war and ultimately save American lives. On August 15, 1945 Japan surrendered, and the war was officially over.

Aftermath

While the war has been over for more than seventy years, the world has not forgotten, nor can we be allowed to forget. Six million Jews were murdered in the name of racial purity. The liberation of concentration camps revealed the full extent of the Nazi's cruelty and the suffering of its inmates. In the years following the end of the war, survivors on all sides began producing content that not only reflected their experiences but also expressed their hopes and fears regarding the future. Works such The Diary Of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel's allowed further insight into the Jewish experience during this time.

Originally serialized from 1980 to 1991, Art Spiegelman's depicts the experiences of his father, a Holocaust survivor, in graphic novel form. Not only did this work bring attention to the validity of graphic novels as a storytelling format, but it also brought readers a moving, insightful story that stuck with them long after they finished reading.

In the decades since, others have come forward with either their own stories of survival or their own understanding of events. In Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima, creator Keiji Nakazawa depicts a fictionalized version of his very real experience of living as a boy in Hiroshima before and after the drop of the atomic bomb. Nakazawa has been a very vocal critic of Japan's role in the war as well as an advocate for nuclear disarmament, which he explores within his work.

Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's brings much needed attention to the oft-overlooked and seldom talked about experiences of the Korean women who were sold into sexual slavery for the Japanese Imperial Army. Most of the media based around WWII tend to focus on the experiences of Allied soldiers or concentration camp survivors. While these are important and should not be discounted, they tend to skew the perspective of readers into believing that WWII was mainly a European conflict. There were plenty of atrocities and horror happening on the Pacific side of the world that unfortunately has not received nearly the same amount of coverage.

The graphic novel format allows creators to not only write their own stories but also to control the visuals so that we can quite literally see events through their point of view.

Below I have gathered a few other graphic novels that can further your insight into this time period.

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Art and War: World War II Graphic Novels | The New York Public Library

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Art Spiegelman's Maus brought attention to the validity of graphic novels as a storytelling format. In the decades since, others have come...