What is the Holocaust?
The Holocaust occurred in Germany and German-occupied territory from 1942 to 1945. It involved the systematic segregation, persecution, and murder of Jews, Romani, communists, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners of war, people with disabilities, and other groups deemed to be enemies of the National Socialist Party and German people or otherwise undesirable by Nazi ideology. It involved the German military (both German nationals and conscripts) and a wide-reaching bureaucratic system.
Estimates have put the total death toll of the Holocaust as high as 11 million. Jewish victims were, by far, the largest group targeted; approximately 6 million Jews were killed in total. The specific murder of Jews, separate from other groups, during this period is often referred to as the Shoah.
Smith, P. (2017). Holocaust. In P. Joseph (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of war: Social science perspectives (Vol. 1, pp. 797-800). SAGE Publications, Inc., https://dx.
Women and children survivors in Mauthausen speak to an American liberator through a barbed wire fence. Photo courtesy of Col. P. Richard Seibel. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Discussion Question
Across Europe, the Nazis found countless willing helpers who collaborated or were complicit in their crimes. What motives and pressures led so many individuals to persecute, to murder, or to abandon their fellow human beings?
Further Research
Other resources may be found in the Wright State University Libraries' Catalog and databases.
Choose "View Entire Collection" or "Dunbar Library - Books" from the drop-down box near the Search button.
- Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust TestimoniesConsists of video testimonies of Holocaust survivors, witness and liberators.
Core Scholar: Holocaust Oral Testimonies Video Series
- Faces of the Holocaust
Renate Frydman's Faces of the Holocaust Project took place from 1985 - 1987, in cooperation with the Wright State University Television Center, with support from the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton. The second round of interviews was conducted in 1994 and 1995. These programs were created specifically to supplement the Holocaust curriculum in the classroom and as a resource for Holocaust education.
Books from University Libraries' Catalog
The Holocaust by Call Number: D804.3 .B36365 2020ISBN: 9781138574182Publication Date: 2020-07-12"The Holocaust: The Basics is a concise introduction to the study of this seismic event in mid twentieth-century human history. The book takes an original approach as both a narrative and thematic introduction to the topic and provides a core foundation for readers embarking upon their own study. Supported by a chronology, glosary, questions for discussion and boxed case studies that focus the reader's thoughts and develop their appreciation of the subjects considered more broadly, The Holocaust: The Basics is the ideal introduction to this controversial and widely-debated topic for both students and the more general reader" — Publisher description
Predicting the Holocaust by Call Number: D804.3 .M3738 2019ISBN: 9781538121672Publication Date: 2018-12-14"Historians long have analyzed the emergence of the final solution of the Jewish question primarily on the basis of German documentation, devoting much less attention to wartime Jewish perceptions of the growing threat. Jürgen Matthäus fills this critical gap by showcasing the highly insightful reports compiled during the first half of World War II by two Geneva-based offices: those of Richard Lichtheim representing the Jewish Agency for Palestine and of Gerhart Riegner’s World Jewish Congress office." — Publisher description
Holocaust Theater: Dramatizing Survivor Trauma and its Effect on the Second Generation by Call Number: PN1650.H64 P575 2018ISBN: 9781138685062Publication Date: 2017-12-20Anthology
