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Flappers: The 'New Woman'

Perhaps the most familiar symbol of the "Roaring Twenties" is probably the flapper: a young woman with bobbed hair and short skirts who drank, smoked and said "unladylike" things, in addition to being more sexually "free" than previous generations. In reality, most young women in the 1920s did none of these things (though many did adopt a fashionable flapper wardrobe), but even those women who were not flappers gained some unprecedented freedoms.

They could vote at last: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution had guaranteed that right in 1920, though it would be decades before Black women in the South could fully exercise their right to vote without Jim Crow segregation laws.

Millions of women worked in blue-collar jobs, as well as white-collar jobs (as stenographers, for example) and could afford to participate in the burgeoning consumer economy. The increased availability of birth-control devices such as the diaphragm made it possible for women to have fewer children.

In 1912, an estimated 16 percent of American households had electricity; by the mid-1920s, more than 60 percent did. And with this electrification came new machines and technologies like the washing machine, the freezer and the vacuum cleaner eliminated some of the drudgeries of household work.

Did you know? Because the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act did not make it illegal to drink alcohol, only to manufacture and sell it, many people stockpiled liquor before the ban went into effect. Rumor had it that the Yale Club in New York City had a 14-year supply of booze in its basement.

Fashion, Fads and Film Stars

During the 1920s, many Americans had extra money to spend-and spend it they did, on movies, fashion and consumer goods such as ready-to-wear clothing and home appliances like electric refrigerators. In particular, they bought radios.

The first commercial radio station in the United States, Pittsburgh's KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. Two years later Warren G. Harding became the first president to address the nation by radio -and three years later there were more than 500 stations in the nation. By the end of the 1920s, there were radios in more than 12 million households.

People also swarmed to see Hollywood movies: Historians estimate that, by the end of the decades, three-quarters of the American population visited a movie theater every week, and actors like Charlie Chaplin, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino and Tallulah Bankhead became household names.

But the most important consumer product of the 1920s was the automobile. Low prices (the Ford Model T cost just $260 in 1924) and generous credit made cars affordable luxuries at the beginning of the decade; by the end, they were practically necessities.

By 1929 there was one car on the road for every five Americans. Meanwhile, an economy of automobiles was born: Businesses like service stations and motels sprang up to meet drivers' needs-as did the burgeoning oil industry.

The Jazz Age

Cars also gave young people the freedom to go where they pleased and do what they wanted. (Some pundits called them "bedrooms on wheels.") What many young people wanted to do was dance: the Charleston, the cake walk, the black bottom and the flea hop were popular dances of the era.

Jazz bands played at venues like the Savoy and the Cotton Club in New York City and the Aragon in Chicago; radio stations and phonograph records (100 million of which were sold in 1927 alone) carried their tunes to listeners across the nation. Some older people objected to jazz music's "vulgarity" and "depravity" (and the "moral disasters" it supposedly inspired), but many in the younger generation loved the freedom they felt on the dance floor.

The novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald chronicled the hedonism and excitement of the Jazz Age-Fitzgerald once claimed that the 1920s were "the most expensive orgy in history"-while other writers, artists, musicians and designers ushered in a new era of experimental Art Deco and modernist creativity.

Prohibition Era

During the 1920s, some freedoms were expanded while others were curtailed. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of "intoxicating liquors," and at 12 a.m. on January 16, 1920, the federal Volstead Act closed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United States. From then on, it was illegal to sell any "intoxication beverages" with more than 0.5 percent alcohol.

This drove the liquor trade underground-now, instead of ordinary bars, people simply went to nominally illegal speakeasies, where liquor was controlled by bootleggers, racketeers and other organized crime figures such as Chicago gangster Al Capone. (Capone reportedly had 1,000 gunmen and half of Chicago's police force on his payroll.)

To many middle-class white Americans, Prohibition was a way to assert some control over the unruly immigrant masses who crowded the nation's cities. For instance, to the so-called "Drys," beer was known as "Kaiser brew." Drinking was a symbol of all they disliked about the modern city, and eliminating alcohol would, they believed, turn back the clock to an earlier and more comfortable time

Immigration and Racism in the 1920s

Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. An anti- Communist "Red Scare" in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist and anti-immigrant hysteria. This led to the passage of an extremely restrictive immigration law, the National Origins Act of 1924, which set immigration quotas that excluded some people (Eastern Europeans and Asians) in favor of others (Northern Europeans and people from Great Britain, for example).

Immigrants were hardly the only targets in this decade. The Great Migration of Black Americans from the rural South to Northern cities and the increasing visibility of Black culture-jazz and blues music, for example, and the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance-discomfited some white Americans. Millions of people, not just in the South but across the country, joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

By the middle of the decade, the KKK had two million members, many of whom believed the Klan represented a return to all the "values" that the fast-paced, city-slicker Roaring Twenties were trampling. More specifically, the 1920s represented economic and political uplift for Black Americans that threatened the social hierarchy of Jim Crow oppression.

Early Civil Rights Activism

During this decade, Black Americans sought stable employment, better living conditions and political participation. Many who migrated to the North found jobs in the automobile, steel, shipbuilding and meatpacking industries. But with more work came more exploitation.

In 1925, civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph founded the first predominantly Black labor union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, to draw attention to the discriminatory hiring practices and working conditions for Blacks. And as housing demands increased for Black people in the North, so did discriminatory housing practices that led to a rise of urban ghettos, where Black Americans-excluded from white neighborhoods-were relegated to inadequate, overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions.

Black Americans battled for political and civil rights throughout the Roaring Twenties and beyond. The NAACP launched investigations into Black disenfranchisement in the 1920 presidential election, as well as surges of white mob violence, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

The NAACP also pushed for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, a law to make lynching a federal crime, but it was defeated by a Senate filibuster in 1922. A political milestone for Black Americans finally occurred when Oscar De Priest, a Chicago Republican, became the first Black congressman since Reconstruction to be elected to the House of Representatives in 1928.

The Roaring Twenties ushered in several demographic shifts, or what one historian called a "cultural Civil War" between city-dwellers and small-town residents, Protestants and Catholics, Blacks and whites, "New Women" and advocates of old-fashioned family values.

But coming immediately after the hardships of World War I and the Spanish flu epidemic, the Roaring Twenties also gave many middle-class Americans an unprecedented taste of freedom, unbridled fun and upward economic mobility unsurpassed in U.S. history.

Sources

What Caused the Roaring Twenties? Not the End of a Pandemic (Probably). Smithsonian Magazine.
The Roaring Twenties. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
The Roaring 20s. PBS: American Experience.

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Roaring Twenties: Flappers, Prohibition & Jazz Age - HISTORY

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The Roaring Twenties were a Jazz Age burst of prosperity and freedom for flappers and others during the Prohibition era, until the economy crashed in 1929.

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Just hearing the name F. Scott Fitzgerald evokes the echo of clinking martini glasses, the fizz-pop of champagne, tinkling chandeliers, and the strains of hot jazz sliding forth from a glistening trombone. Sleek women in satin and chiffon dance wildly, beads flying furiously. Ah, but that would be Zelda, his wife. Or perhaps Daisy Buchanan, the pivotal character in his bestselling novel The Great Gatsby, which came to define the Roaring Twenties in all its excess, euphoria, and underbelly.

Fitzgerald began writing The Great Gatsby early in the decade, when the '20s were just starting to rumble-World War I was over and in its wake, the coupled feelings of relief and pride of victory. When the gun smoke cleared, it turned out there was money, lots of it-the Stock Market soared and women could vote, so a broader sense of independence, autonomy, and freedom made the air crackle with promise. With those gifts came responsibilities, but everyone was busy letting the good times roar. The Great Gatsby was published on April 10, 1925, little more than six months before the author's 30th birthday, and it harnessed the heartbeat of the Jazz Age. Like the decade itself, Fitzgerald was full of high hopes for its success. Anything was possible.

In the 1920s spirit of Fitzgerald, here's a glittering glimpse of some of the real-life icons who defined the era.

Exuding a combination of exoticism and eroticism, Josephine Baker catapulted to international fame. Her savvy street smarts and street-corner dancing had landed her a professional career on Broadway by 1921, at the age of 15. She tapped into the energy of the Harlem Renaissance and traveled to Paris to debut "La Revue Nègre" in 1925. Her success was largely in Europe, but she served as muse for American writers like Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Langston Hughes. Her style, complete with a banana skirt and a diamond-collared cheetah named Chiquita, set off a penchant for African sensibilities and Art Deco sophistication.

Louise Brooks morphed Art Deco with flapper fashion for her piquant style on the silver screen. She parlayed her uncredited debut in the 1925 film The Street of Forgotten Men into partying with the likes of William Randolph Hearst and Charlie Chaplin, where her iconic bob became the "Rachel" hairstyle of the day. Although she worked in silent films with stars such as W.C. Fields and Myrna Loy, she eschewed Hollywood and made her way to fame on the European screen, to the point where later audiences didn't realize she was American. But Brooks's portrayal of Lulu, a sexually uninhibited femme fatale in the German silent film Pandora's Box, made her a star and endures as a testament to women's newfound freedom in the 1920s.

Fashion itself was as much a character in the Roaring Twenties cast as the people that wore it. Following in Jeanne Lanvin's footsteps of forgoing the corset in favor of a robe de style, Coco Chanel helped typify the new full-skirted silhouette with her garconne or, "little black dress." Curves were out, and so was milky white skin-she also ushered in the fashion of sunbathing.

Since bare arms had replaced bearing arms, all this free-form fashion made dance the natural expression of the post-war giddiness. Flappers and their cohorts had musicians like Jelly Roll Morton to thank for providing the tunes for their swinging moves. New Orleans-born Morton was at the forefront of standardizing the African-European musical hybrid that became American jazz, and he even claimed to have invented the genre. While his swagger was specious, the outsize behavior is typical of the Age and his talents were more than equal to his bragging rights.

While jazz set the rhythm, booze was the underground river fueling the frantic energy of the decade. It was Prohibition after all, which means the dark side of the Gatsby morality tale had its real-life counterparts in figures such as Al Capone. Capone's bootlegging activities and philanthropy gave gangsters a glamorous patina, until prostitution and mob murders like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre revealed the ugly underbelly of organized crime.

Art more than anything else may have most accurately reflected the distorted reality of the Age. A fan of Picasso, Salvador Dali was just beginning his rise to fame as the Roaring Twenties were waning. His love of excess, expressed through increasingly surrealist images on canvas like his most famous work, The Persistence of Memory, captured deeper truths that were the essence of the decade.

Perhaps because The Great Gatsby's debut perfectly bisected the decade it pegged, no one noticed its prescience. The novel was not an initial success; its esteem only grew in hindsight, well after the author could appreciate its acclaim. Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda were creatures of the interwar years, of an era that fit eerily and neatly into the decade, and ended with a bang louder than any bomb detonated in WWI, the crash of 1929. In 1930, Zelda began struggling with schizophrenia, and Fitzgerald wrote for the rest of his life, which only lasted another 10 years. But the distant roar of that glittering time can still be heard distinctly in the pages of his great story.
From the Bio Archives: This article was originally published on April 10, 2014.

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On this day in 1925, 29-year-old F. Scott Fitzgerald published 'The Great Gatsby.' While his fictional Jay Gatsby lives on as a literary icon of the Jazz Age, check out this cast of real-life characters who epitomized the glitz, glamour, and promise of the post-war era.

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Twenties fashion is often remembered for its glitz and glamour, though underlying this was a move toward simplicity in dress. For women, this meant shorter skirts and simple shapes, while men enjoyed casual suits.

At the dawn of the 1920s, the world was still reeling from the First World War. The conflict, which ended just over a year before the new decade began, had a fundamental and irreversible effect on society, culture, and fashion. Essential to these new styles was a simplicity that had not previously been seen in women's fashion. Dress historian Jayne Shrimpton writes in Fashion in the 1920s:

"The development of a more convenient, modern female wardrobe was a major trend of the 1920s and was achieved through the progressive simplification of dress as the decade advanced - a rejection of formality and multiple layers, in favour of comfort and a lighter, more natural effect." (13-14)

This simplicity created the popular tubular " la garçonne " look that dominated much of the decade. Also known as the flapper, the look typified 1920s dress with a dropped waist and creeping hemlines that could be created in economical fabrics. Coco Chanel helped popularize this style (Fig. 1) and was a prominent designer during the period. Both waistlines and hemlines followed similar, though inverse, projections throughout the decade, as waistlines dropped until 1923 before beginning to rise again in 1928; while hemlines rose until 1926, when they started to fall again (Pel 51).

Evening dresses sometimes still nearly reached the ground, though many of the popular styles followed the hemline trends of daywear, as demonstrated in the difference between a 1924 evening dress (Fig. 2) and an evening dress from 1929 (Fig. 3). While simplicity in construction was key to both daywear and eveningwear, the latter benefited from ornate decoration: beadwork, sequins, and embroidery all helped create the glamorous nighttime looks of the decade, like this yellow evening dress made of silk and rhinestones (Fig. 2).

Though this was one of the more popular styles, it was by no means the only. In fact, a style popularized by Jeanne Lanvin could not be further from this "androgynous" look. Instead, these dresses had long, full skirts, sometimes even with panniers, like this black and silver "Robe de Style" dress shown here (Fig. 4). They were feminine and romantic, like the pastel dress designed by Lanvin in 1922, accessorized with a straw hat itself removed from the brimless cloche hats that were popular during the twenties (Fig. 5). Lanvin's dresses were starkly different from the shapeless silhouettes of the flapper, though some interpreted this style with her own feminine twist (Fig. 6).

Another trend for women that enjoyed massive popularity in the twenties was that of sportswear worn as daywear. Sportswear had long been an acceptable form of casual wear for men, but in the 1920s, it also became acceptable for women. The popularity of sports clothes in the 1920s is often attributed, like many of the most popular styles of the twenties, to Coco Chanel, but designers such as Jane Regny and Jean Patou also contributed to the sportswear trend. Patou's yellow skirt and sweater set show how much tennis clothes influenced design (Fig. 7).

Tennis was the most popular sport for women and thus the most popular inspiration for fashion. Indeed, one of the most popular fashion stars of the early twenties was tennis star Suzanne Lenglen whose short sleeved, pleated tennis dress and bandeau were created for her by Patou (Pel 14). Her style both on (Fig. 8) and off the court (Fig. 9) inspired the masses. Shrimpton writes, "By the late 1920s, following her lead and embracing wider fashion trends, sleeveless, knee-length shift-like tennis dresses were fashionable" (59). So popular were elements of these sports clothes that in a 1928 issue of The Tatler, M.E. Brooke wrote, "Sports clothes have been developed to such an extent that they may go to lunch at the fashionable restaurants; as a matter of fact they are often worn until the hour of cocktail" (Brooke 276).

Fashion in the 1920s was all about the whole look and there were trends in how the body itself was fashioned. The simple lines and androgynous shapes of fashion looked best on bodies free from curves. Through exercise, diet, and various shaping undergarments, women attempted to achieve this look. The sporting look also helped facilitate a mode for suntanned skin. Many women cut their hair into a bob, a popular hairstyle that emerged early in the decade. Hairstyles kept getting shorter first with the shingle and then with the Eton crop, but like hemlines, as the decade drew to a close, women were starting to grow their hair longer again. The cloche hat became an extremely popular accessory that looked best with these short hairstyles.

While the designers mentioned above created and sold their styles, as did department stores and the like, the simplicity of the prevailing mode throughout the twenties made it easy for women of all means to recreate those styles at home. This, combined with inspiration taken from typical working-class girls' attire and the use of materials such as jersey and artificial silk, led to what has been deemed a "democratization of fashion" in the 1920s. Anyone could achieve the fashionable look even if it meant the simple lines were created with a less expensive material and made at home rather than in an atelier. This phenomenon is studied by fashion historians but was also felt during the period. In her book Success Through Dress, The Hon. Mrs. C.W Forester declared, "Dress is now no sign of social status; in fact, rather the contrary" (62).

As womenswear valued simplicity in the 1920s so, too, did menswear. Men moved away from starched collars and formal three-piece suits during the day. Instead, they adopted soft collars and one- or two-button suit jackets often worn without a waistcoat as seen in the different styles shown on the fashion plate in figure 1. Pinstripes were popular, as were British wools and English tailoring. Martin Pel writes that "British men were perceived to be sartorially the most elegant, and fashionable men hoped to emulate the style and heritage of Savile Row and the English elite" (28). Popular materials were tweeds and flannels, depending on the season (Shrimpton 31).

The most significant development in men's fashion occurred in two unique kinds of trousers: the Oxford bags and the plus-fours. Oxford bags grew in popularity around 1924-25 when undergraduates at Oxford adopted these wide-legged trousers. Though the origin of the style is contentious, it is generally agreed that it derived from the trousers that rowers on Oxford's crew teams pulled on over their shorts, and you can see how The Bystander satirized this in 1924 (Fig. 2). The original style was about 22 inches wide at the bottom, several inches wider than the average men's trouser leg. Oxford undergraduates began wearing these around the university and soon the style spread. As the style spread, so too did the width of the trouser legs until at one point they reached up to 44 inches wide. The trousers were made out of flannel and came in a variety of colors. They were mostly worn by youths - perhaps the male counterparts of the flapper - and became a favorite of Britain's "Bright Young People," a group of wealthy, aristocrats known for their antics in London's nightlife.

The other development in menswear in the twenties was the plus-fours. Plus-fours developed out of ordinary knickers - short-legged trousers that gather around the knee - and like Oxford bags were a bit baggier version of their precursor. They had four extra inches of material (hence the name) but instead of extending the trouser leg, they still fastened around the knee and the extra material hung over the band, creating the baggy look as seen at a racecourse in 1920 (Fig. 3). Often worn with a sweater, plus-fours were popular golf attire, but much like how tennis-wear crept into casual womenswear, this style was also popular daywear for men, as was tennis-wear for men, too. You can see the casual way men dressed to play tennis, though some still wore ties in 1920 (Fig. 4).

Though many men looked to Britain generally for their sartorial inspiration, one man stuck out for his influence: Edward, Prince of Wales. Though later a controversial figure, in the twenties, the Prince of Wales was the good-looking, well-dressed son of the king who was often seen at parties in London. He had the reputation of a playboy but he was also known for his fashion sense and many men on both sides of the Atlantic aspired to dress like him. Though often photographed in morning suits and tuxedos, he was also a big fan of the plus-fours mentioned above, often wearing them with argyle sweaters and socks both on and off the golf course. This portrait from 1927 showed him in this attire (Fig. 14). He was the epitome of the English style that men looked to in the 1920s.

Like womenswear, the look had to be completed. Men generally wore their hair short and covered with a hat: popular styles included the felt hat, the fedora or trilby, flat caps or the straw boater depending on the season and the man's status. Men moved away from uncomfortable lace-up boots and preferred lower-cut oxfords or brogues (Shrimpton 33-34).

Children's wear in the 1920s benefited from new technology and research into children's development (Shrimpton 49). Freedom of movement and comfort were prioritized as the layers of previous decades came off and, much like womenswear and menswear, simplicity became key as seen in the simple styles that home-sew patterns offered (Figs. 2 & 4).

Young girls wore simple loose dresses often made in cotton or linen, though velvet, like this coat, was popular for special occasions (Fig. 1). The length of the dresses varied by age getting longer as the girls got older (Shrimpton 49). Peter pan collars, smocking, patterned fabrics, and embroidery were all popular in girls' clothing throughout the decade (Shrimpton 49). Many styles looked to womenswear for inspiration, though in the twenties, children's wear was not just a miniature version of adult clothing (Grindstaff). There were modifications, but many popular styles for women in the decade already looked girlish, so it made sense to dress girls in similar styles.

Like girls' clothing, the length of a boys' trouser was determined by his age. Young boys wore shorts with a tunic or sweater, while older boys began wearing long trousers, often with similar tops. Like men, Fair Isle sweaters and blazers were popular for young boys, with blazers often a required component of a school uniform, like the uniforms worn by the young boys below (Fig. 4). Like both womenswear and menswear, boys' clothing was inspired by sportswear as the flannel trousers and woolen blazers of cricket and tennis became acceptable daywear for boys (Shrimpton 51). Uniforms were literally topped off with caps that looked inspired by cricket, like this one below, as well (Fig. 6).

The most important development in babywear during the decade was the rise of the romper which we might now refer to as a onesie, an example seen on the smallest model above (Fig. 3). Shrimpton writes:

"Rompers (first offered by Harrods in 1919) were revolutionary new garments - like small boiler suits, they had long sleeves, a yoked bodice and short knickerbockers. Made in plain, easily laundered fabrics, these were convenient for mothers and enabled much more freedom of movement for babies at the crawling stage and toddlers than traditional cumbersome petticoats." (47)

This new simplicity in dress reached nearly everyone: from women to men, young boys to young girls, and even the tiniest members of society.

Events:

1920 - The 19th Amendment to the US Constitution gives women the right to vote. Some believe that the women's rights movement affected fashion, promoting androgynous figures and the death of the corset. The Prohibition Era begins in the US but is largely ignored by fashionable young men and women of the time. "Flappers" dance the night away to jazz tunes at illegal speakeasies.

1922 - Howard Carter and George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, discover the tomb of Ancient Egyptian ruler Tutankhamun. Fashion designers are inspired to use moths from ancient cultures in their creations.

1923 - The Broadway show Runnin' Wild includes the popular tune 'The Charleston'. It becomes a dance craze, requiring low-waisted dresses with fullness at the hemline to kick up the heels.

1924 - The diplomatic visit of Edward, Prince of Wales to the US popularizes a kind of short breeches for men- plus fours.

1925 - Fashion designers make up a large number of the artists who display their luxury wares at the "Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes" in Paris, which gave art deco its name.

1926 - The ideal haircut for showcasing cloche hats- the fashionable Eton crop- is first mentioned in The Times. It is popularized by Josephine Baker, an African American expatriate singer, dancer, and entertainer, who becomes an overnight sensation at the Foiles Bergere music hall.

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Twenties fashion is often remembered for its glitz and glamour, though underlying this was a move toward simplicity in dress. For women, this meant shorter skirts and simple shapes, while men enjoyed casual suits. At the dawn of the 1920s, the world was still reeling from the First World War.

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The term "organized crime" didn't really exist in the United States before Prohibition. Criminal gangs had run amok in American cities since the late 19th-century, but they were mostly bands of street thugs running small-time extortion and loansharking rackets in predominantly ethnic Italian, Jewish, Irish and Polish neighborhoods.

In fact, before the passing of the 18th Amendment in 1919 and the nationwide ban that went into effect in January 1920 on the sale or importation of "intoxicating liquor," it wasn't the mobsters who ran the most organized criminal schemes in America, but corrupt political "bosses," explains Howard Abadinsky, a criminal justice professor at St. John's University and author of Organized Crime.

"The gangs were thugs in the employ of the political machines," says Abadinsky, intimidating opposition candidates and funneling votes to the boss. In return, the politicians and police chiefs would turn a blind eye to illegal gambling and prostitution rings.
READ MORE: Al Capone
But the underworld power dynamics shifted dramatically with the onset of Prohibition and the overnight outlawing of every bottle of beer, glass of wine and shot of booze in America. With legitimate bars and breweries out of business, someone had to step in to fuel the substantial thirst of the Roaring Twenties. And no one was better equipped than the mobsters.

Mobsters Hired Lawyers

The key to running a successful bootlegging operation, Abadinsky explains, was a paramilitary organization. At first, the street gangs didn't know a thing about business, but they knew how to handle a gun and how to intimidate the competition. They could protect illegal breweries and rum-running operations from rival gangs, provide security for speakeasies and pay off any nosey cops or politicians to look the other way.

It wasn't long before the mobsters were raking in absurd amounts of money and it was bosses and cops who were taking the orders. As the money kept pouring it, these formerly small-time street thugs had to get smart. They had to hire lawyers and accountants to launder the millions in ill-gotten cash piling up each month. They had to start thinking about strategic partnerships with other gangs and shipping logistics and real estate investment.

"They had to become businessmen," says Abadinsky. "And that gave rise to what we now call organized crime."

Before Prohibition, criminal gangs were local menaces, running protection rackets on neighborhood businesses and dabbling in vice entrepreneurship. But the overwhelming business opportunity of illegal booze changed everything. For one thing, sourcing and distributing alcohol is an interstate and even international enterprise. Mobsters couldn't work in isolation if they wanted to keep the liquor flowing and maximize profits.

"Suddenly gang leaders are making deals with each other," says Abadinsky, forging mutual protection pacts across state and international borders, and across ethnic lines, to ensure that shipments of illegal alcohol poured freely into the big cities.

"These are very violent people who are used to solving problems by killing them, but eventually they sit down and say, 'We'll guarantee peace in your area if you guarantee peace in our area.' That's called syndicated crime, this cooperation between criminal groups," says Abadinsky. "In the absence of Prohibition, we wouldn't have had the kind of syndicated criminality that occurred. Prohibition was the catalyst."

Turf Wars Turn Deadly

In the 1920s, Charles "Lucky" Luciano was famous for bringing together some of New York's biggest Italian and Jewish mobsters to dominate the city's bootlegging business. In Chicago, Johnny Torrio kept a fragile peace between his Italian-run bootlegging operation in the city's South Side and the Irish and Polish gangs working the North Side. But it didn't last. By the time Torrio's protege Al Capone took over, it was an all-out turf war. In the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929, Capone's men dressed as police officers and gunned down seven of the rival gang's henchmen.
READ MORE: See the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929 in Color
Some of the biggest and most lucrative Prohibition-era bootlegging operations imported illegal booze from Canada via the Great Lakes. Underworld profiteer Arnold Rothstein, famous for fixing the 1919 World Series, ran shipments of alcohol through Lake Ontario, over to the Hudson River and down into the thousands of speakeasies of New York City. And the Mayfield Road Gang in Cleveland became famous for its rum-running speedboats criss-crossing Lake Erie.

Kingpins Made Millions Each Year

The demand for illegal beer, wine and liquor was so great during the Prohibition that mob kingpins like Capone were pulling in as much as $100 million a year in the mid-1920s ($1.4 billion in 2018) and spending a half million dollars a month in bribes to police, politicians and federal investigators.

Making money was easy, says Abadinsky. The hard part was figuring out what to do with all the cash. Money laundering was another way in which organized crime was forced to get far more organized. When gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931, loads of Prohibition-era mob money was funneled into the new casinos and hotels. Underworld accountants like Meyer Lansky wired money to brokers in Switzerland who would cover the mobster's tracks and reinvest the cash in legitimate business. Others, like Capone, weren't as savvy and got sent up river on tax evasion charges.

When Prohibition was finally repealed in 1933, the cash grab was over, but the sophisticated black-market business schemes and money-laundering tactics of organized crime were here to stay. The biggest gangs shifted their operations away from alcohol and into secondary businesses like drugs, gambling and prostitution. They also profited greatly from the Great Depression.

"The gangs had cash in a cash-starved economy," says Abadinsky. "If you wanted to set up a legitimate business, have to go to organized crime. Loansharking becomes a major industry."

In hindsight, it's clear that Prohibition, a national temperance campaign aimed at reforming America's worst tendencies, that gave birth to one of the nation's worst criminal traditions.
READ MORE: The Night Prohibition Ended

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How Prohibition Put the 'Organized' in Organized Crime | HISTORY

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Before the 18th amendment made alcohol into a high-demand illegal item, criminal gangs in the United States were mostly small and local.

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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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World War II Holocaust Images | Eisenhower Presidential Library

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Anne's first years

Anne Frank was born in the German city of Frankfurt am Main in 1929. Anne's sister Margot was three years her senior. Unemployment was high and poverty was severe in Germany, and it was the period in which Adolf Hitler and his party were gaining more and more supporters. Hitler hated the Jews and blamed them for the problems in the country. He took advantage of the rampant antisemitic sentiments in Germany. The hatred of Jews and the poor economic situation made Anne's parents, Otto and Edith Frank, decide to move to Amsterdam. There, Otto founded a company that traded in pectin, a gelling agent for making jam.

Nazi Germany invades the Netherlands

Before long, Anne felt right at home in the Netherlands. She learned the language, made new friends and went to a Dutch school near her home. Her father worked hard to get his business off the ground, but it was not easy. Otto also tried to set up a company in England, but the plan fell through. Things looked up when he started selling herbs and spices in addition to the pectin.

On 1 September 1939, when Anne was 10 years old, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and so the Second World War began. Not long after, on 10 May 1940, the Nazis also invaded the Netherlands. Five days later, the Dutch army surrendered. Slowly but surely, the Nazis introduced more and more laws and regulations that made the lives of Jews more difficult. For instance, Jews could no longer visit parks, cinemas, or non-Jewish shops. The rules meant that more and more places became off-limits to Anne. Her father lost his company, since Jews were no longer allowed to run their own businesses. All Jewish children, including Anne, had to go to separate Jewish schools.

Anne has to go into hiding in the Secret Annex

The Nazis took things further, one step at the time. Jews had to start wearing a Star of David on their clothes and there were rumours that all Jews would have to leave the Netherlands. When Margot received a call-up to report for a so-called 'labour camp' in Nazi Germany on 5 July 1942, her parents were suspicious. They did not believe the call-up was about work and decided to go into hiding the next day in order to escape persecution.

In the spring of 1942, Anne's father had started furnishing a hiding place in the annex of his business premises at Prinsengracht 263. He received help from his former colleagues. Before long, they were joined by four more people. The hiding place was cramped. Anne had to keep very quiet and was often afraid.

Anne keeps a diary

On her thirteenth birthday, just before they went into hiding, Anne was presented with a diary. During the two years in hiding, Anne wrote about events in the Secret Annex, but also about her feelings and thoughts. In addition, she wrote short stories, started on a novel and copied passages from the books she read in her Book of Beautiful Sentences. Writing helped her pass the time.

When the Minister of Education of the Dutch government in England made an appeal on Radio Orange to hold on to war diaries and documents, Anne was inspired to rewrite her individual diaries into one running story, titled Het Achterhuis ( The Secret Annex).

The hiding place is discovered

Anne started rewriting her diary, but before she was done, she and the other people in hiding were discovered and arrested by police officers on 4 August 1944. The police also arrested two of the helpers. To this day, we do not know the reason for the police raid.

Despite the raid, part of Anne's writing was preserved: two other helpers took the documents before the Secret Annex was emptied by order of the Nazis.

Anne is deported to Auschwitz

Via the offices of the Sicherheitsdienst (the German security police), a prison in Amsterdam, and the Westerbork transit camp, the people from the Secret Annex were put on transport to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. The train journey took three days, during which Anne and over a thousand others were packed closely together in cattle wagons. There was little food and water and only a barrel for a toilet.

Upon arrival at Auschwitz, Nazi doctors checked to see who would and who would not be able to do heavy forced labour. Around 350 people from Anne's transport were immediately taken to the gas chambers and murdered. Anne, Margot and their mother were sent to the labour camp for women. Otto ended up in a camp for men.

Anne dies from exhaustion in Bergen-Belsen

In early November 1944, Anne was put on transport again. She was deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp with Margot. Their parents stayed behind in Auschwitz. The conditions in Bergen-Belsen were horrible too. There was a lack of food, it was cold, wet and there were contagious diseases. Anne and Margot contracted typhus. In February 1945 they both died owing to its effects, Margot first, Anne shortly afterwards.

Anne's father Otto was the only one of the people from the Secret Annex to survive the war. He was liberated from Auschwitz by the Russians and during his long journey back to the Netherlands he learned that his wife Edith had died. Once in the Netherlands, he heard that Anne and Margot were no longer alive either.

Anne's diary becomes world famous

Anne's writing made a deep impression on Otto. He read that Anne had wanted to become a writer or a journalist and that she had intended to publish her stories about life in the Secret Annex. Friends convinced Otto to publish the diary and in June 1947, 3,000 copies of Het Achterhuis ( The Secret Annex) were printed.

And that was not all: the book was later translated into around 70 languages and adapted for stage and screen. People all over the world were introduced to Anne's story and in 1960 the hiding place became a museum: the Anne Frank House. Until his death in 1980, Otto remained closely involved with the Anne Frank House and the museum: he hoped that readers of the diary would become aware of the dangers of discrimination, racism, and hatred of Jews.

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The life of Anne Frank in brief. Watch the video and read more about her diary and her life in hiding in the Secret Annex.

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Behind Every Name a Story consists of essays describing survivors' experiences during the Holocaust, written by survivors or their families. We encourage all survivors to share their unique experiences to ensure their preservation for future generations.

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.

I had little confidence when I started. My hands were so shaky I could barely read my own writing. As I started writing, I was given confidence, support, and encouragement. If I can do this, then you can too.

Manya's Memory Project
Manya's biography

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.

The Gestapo visited us in the morning. They knew my father from his visits as Seelsorger (minister) to the Jews in the local prison.

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Behind Every Name a Story consists of essays describing survivors' experiences during the Holocaust, written by survivors or their families. We encourage all survivors to share their unique experiences to ensure their preservation for future generations. 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.

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The Nuremberg Trials | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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After the war, Allied powers-United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union-came together to form the International Military Tribunal (IMT). From 1945 to 1946, Nazi Germany leaders stood trial for crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes.

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A proliferation of colorful and striking posters emerged as, in effect, the social media of the time during World War II.

Perhaps the most iconic was the Uncle Sam poster, created by James Montgomery Flagg and captioned: "I Want You for the U.S. Army." Flagg actually created the poster during World War I, and due to its enduring popularity, it was used again during World War II with some minor modifications.

The British, however, originated the Uncle Sam concept in 1914, with their own finger-pointing war hero - Lord Kitchener - depicted. Its caption was "Your Country Needs You," an idea Flagg borrowed to create the Uncle Sam version.

However, posters and other incentives were not quite enough to entice a sufficient number of enlistees, so in World War II, as in World War I, Congress found it necessary to draft men into service.

Wartime posters were not just about military recruiting. Attracting women to military-industrial factories to produce planes, tanks and munitions was epitomized by artist J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It" poster, which featured a woman in a red and white polka-dot headscarf and blue shirt flexing her bicep.

Other wartime posters were aimed at those on the home front, emphasizing the importance of buying war bonds; rationing gas, fuel and clothing; and urging Americans to make do with less so troops would have enough.

Some posters emphasized security, the most iconic being the poster by artist Seymour R. Goff depicting a sinking ship and captioned: "Loose Lips Might Sink Ships."

Perhaps the most famous artist to produce a poster was Norman Rockwell, who illustrated a soldier manning a gun, captioned: "Let's Give Him Enough and On Time." The message was aimed at Americans on the home front who were encouraged to give to the war effort and to scale back consumption so that factories could prioritize arms production.

Although Rockwell painted some posters, he was much better known for illustrating Saturday Evening Post magazine covers in support of the war effort.

Many posters depicted the enemy as menacing. One striking poster illustrates a missile with USA stamped on the fin and "MORE PRODUCTION" written on the body. Its target was a swastika set in the red circle of Japan's Rising Sun flag. It was produced by an artist in the War Production Board.

After World War II, posters continued to be used by the military, two iconic ones being the Marine Corps' "We Don't Promise You a Rose Garden: The Marines are Looking for a Few Good Men," published in 1971; and the Army's "Be All You Can Be," illustrated in a great variety of posters that came out at various times during and after the Vietnam War.

Today, the military continues to produce posters, not just to attract recruits, but also to send messages to troops, such as instilling values, promoting safety and preventing sexual assault.

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WWII Posters Aimed to Inspire, Encourage Service

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A proliferation of colorful and striking posters emerged as, in effect, the social media of the time during World War II. Perhaps the most iconic was the Uncle Sam poster, created by James Montgomery Flagg and captioned: "I Want You for the U.S. Army."

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Kids learn about the Allied Powers of World War II in history. The Allies such as Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States fought the Axis Powers.

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World War II involved combatants from most of the world's nations and was considered the deadliest war in history. ,

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Japan and the Path to War

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades.

The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan's increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor's territory and take over its import market.

To this end, Japan declared war on China in 1937, resulting in the Nanking Massacre and other atrocities.

American officials responded to this aggression with a battery of economic sanctions and trade embargoes. They reasoned that without access to money and goods, and especially essential supplies like oil, Japan would have to rein in its expansionism.

Instead, the sanctions made the Japanese more determined to stand their ground. During months of negotiations between Tokyo and Washington, D.C., neither side would budge. It seemed that war was all but inevitable.

Where Is Pearl Harbor?

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is located near the center of the Pacific Ocean, roughly 2,000 miles from the U.S. mainland and about 4,000 miles from Japan. No one believed that the Japanese would start a war with an attack on the distant islands of Hawaii.

Additionally, American intelligence officials were confident that any Japanese attack would take place in one of the (relatively) nearby European colonies in the South Pacific: the Dutch East Indies, Singapore or Indochina.

Because American military leaders were not expecting an attack so close to home, the naval facilities at Pearl Harbor were relatively undefended. Almost the entire Pacific Fleet was moored around Ford Island in the harbor, and hundreds of airplanes were squeezed onto adjacent airfields.

To the Japanese, Pearl Harbor was an irresistibly easy target.

USS Arizona

The Japanese plan was simple: Destroy the Pacific Fleet. That way, the Americans would not be able to fight back as Japan's armed forces spread across the South Pacific. On December 7, after months of planning and practice, the Japanese launched their attack.

At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained onto the vessels moored below. At 8:10, a 1,800-pound bomb smashed through the deck of the battleship USS Arizona and landed in her forward ammunition magazine. The ship exploded and sank with more than 1,000 men trapped inside.

Next, torpedoes pierced the shell of the battleship USS Oklahoma. With 400 sailors aboard, the Oklahoma lost her balance, rolled onto her side and slipped underwater.

Less than two hours later, the surprise attack was over, and every battleship in Pearl Harbor- USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, USS California, USS West Virginia, USS Utah, USS Maryland, USS Pennsylvania, USS Tennessee and USS Nevada-had sustained significant damage. (All but USS Arizona and USS Utah were eventually salvaged and repaired.)

Impact of the Pearl Harbor Attack

In all, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes. Dry docks and airfields were likewise destroyed. Most importantly, more than 2,000 people died.

But the Japanese had failed to cripple the Pacific Fleet. By the 1940s, battleships were no longer the most important naval vessel: Aircraft carriers were, and as it happened, all of the Pacific Fleet's carriers were away from the base on December 7. (Some had returned to the mainland and others were delivering planes to troops on Midway and Wake Islands.)

Moreover, the Pearl Harbor assault had left the base's most vital onshore facilities-oil storage depots, repair shops, shipyards and submarine docks-intact. As a result, the U.S. Navy was able to rebound relatively quickly from the attack.

How Many People Died in Pearl Harbor?

The attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 U.S. personnel, including sailors, soldiers and civilians. Additionally, 1,178 people were wounded. 129 Japanese soldiers were killed.

Half of the dead at Pearl Harbor were on the USS Arizona. Today the sunken battleship serves as a memorial to all Americans who died in the attack.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress on December 8, the day after the crushing attack on Pearl Harbor.

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan."

He went on to say, "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again."

America Enters World War II

After the Pearl Harbor attack, and for the first time during years of discussion and debate, the American people were united in their determination to go to war.

The Japanese had wanted to goad the United States into an agreement to lift the economic sanctions against them; instead, they had pushed their adversary into a global conflict that ultimately resulted in Japan's first occupation by a foreign power.

Did you know? The single vote against Congress's declaration of war against Japan came from Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana. Rankin was a pacifist who had also voted against the American entrance into World War I. "As a woman," she said, "I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else."

On December 8, Congress approved Roosevelt's declaration of war on Japan. Three days later, Japan's allies Germany and Italy declared war against the United States.

For the second time, Congress reciprocated, declaring war on the European powers. More than two years after the start of World War II, the United States had entered the conflict.

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Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.

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Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs - State of Delaware

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World War I Begins - Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs - State of Delaware

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World War I Begins At the dawn of the 20th century, few anticipated a global war, but what came to be known as the Great War began on June 28, 1914, with the assassinations of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, while they were visiting Sarajevo, Bosnia, a country recently annexe…

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World War I Era Posters Gallery Exhibit | Center of Military History

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Timeline (1914 - 1921) | A World at War | Articles and Essays | Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

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Wilhelm became emperor of the German Empire in 1888. He was a militaristic leader and competed with Britain and France to have the most battleships and colonies. In 1914 he encouraged the Austro-Hungarian Empire to take revenge for the Serbian attack on Franz Ferdinand.

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For Kids

The most significant effect of World War I was World War II. Because of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, forced upon an exhausted Germany and her allies, the defeated countries could not recover from World War I. The collapse of their economies and the demand for reparations caused intense hardship, with no end in sight. World War II was a direct outcome of the harsh treatment imposed by the peace treaty that ended World War I.

World War I caused great economic hardship to Britain and her allies as well. The economies of these countries were devastated by massive spending on the war effort. France also suffered enormous property damage as most of the war on the Western Front was fought on French soil. In part, as a result of Russia's involvement in World War I, a civil war broke out in Russia, whose aftermath left millions of Russian people starving.

In the United States, however, World War I stimulated the US economy. Prior to US entry into the war, American industry realized great profit through the production and sale of tanks, bullets, uniforms, and other materials needed to fight the war. The United States emerged from World War I with a healthy economy. This helped to push the United States into a position of world leadership before the American people were ready to accept such a responsibility. For example, the United States did not join the newly formed League of Nations, whose purpose was to provide an opportunity for countries to work out conflicts without the outbreak of another war. The US Congress had good reasons for not joining, but a compelling one was that the American people wanted other countries to fight their own battles in the future and to leave America out of their conflicts entirely.

The political and geographical shape of countries: As part of the peace treaty, some countries gained land, some lost land, and some disappeared entirely. For example, Austria-Hungary collapsed and was torn apart. Rumania was given a large share of land inhabited by Hungarians. Different ethnic groups were included together in the new multi-national state of Yugoslavia. These groups were concerned about the uncertain future of their individual language and culture. These and other rearrangement of borders caused many problems, some of which are still continuing today.

Loss of manpower during World War I: About 15 million military and civilian people died during World War I. The United States lost about 100,000 people. Britain, Russia, Germany, and Austria-Hungary suffered collective losses in the millions. France lost a generation of young men.

Loss of manpower continues, the Spread of the Spanish Flu: No one knows, even today, what caused a deadly disease, nicknamed the Spanish Flu, that became a world-wide epidemic in 1918. What they do know is that the filthy trenches of World War I created a breeding ground for the spread of this disease. After the war, armies on both sides were demobilized. They headed home to many different countries around the world. Many carried this highly contagious disease home with them. As a result, about 1/3 of the world's population soon became violently ill. Unlike most plagues that target the very young and the very old, this strain of influenza hit healthy young adults the hardest. These young adults, including doctors, nurses, medical researchers, and others, were the very people needed to fight the epidemic, but they were sick themselves. The medical profession as a whole was exhausted by the war. Today, we have a vaccine for the flu. Back then, no vaccine existed. Some people were helped by medicines that did exist. Some recovered on their own. But many did not survive. It is estimated that as many as 50 million people died between 1918 and 1920 from this disease, a disease carried home from the trenches of World War I.

New Weapons: Tanks, Machine Guns, and Planes: Prior to World War I, battles were fought with sabers and canons and guns that shot a few bullets before reloading was necessary. During World War I, a water-cooled machine gun was invented. This was used as well as air-cooled machine guns. These guns could fire hundreds of bullets in a rapid stream before reloading. The water-cooled machine gun did not need time to cool down and could be used continuously. The use of both guns allowed attacks and casualties to be bigger and more devastating than ever before. The machine gun is still an important weapon in use by the military today. Planes and tanks were still primitive and limited during World War I, but the military recognized their potential. Great effort was spent after the war improving these new inventions. Tanks remained a tool for the military. But planes became important not only to the military but also to carry civilian goods and passengers, which changed many things.

Women get the right to vote: One good thing that happened as a result of World War I is that women entered the work force during the war, many remained in the work force after the war, and all adult women acquired the right to vote as an outcome of the war in most countries in Europe and in the United States.

The Global Effect of World War I

World War I Warfare

World War I Quiz

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Significant effects of World War I for Kids

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The most significant effect of World War I was World War II. Because of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, forced upon an exhausted Germany and her allies, the defeated countries could not recover from World War I. The collapse of their economies and the demand for reparations caused intense hardship, with no end in sight.