In the Holocaust, also referred to as the Shoah, Nazis systematically murdered some 6 million European Jews. Between 1941 and 1945, around two-thirds of the Jewish population in Europe were killed. Jews were part of a larger group that included anyone the Nazis considered to be ‘Untermenschen’, or subhumans, which included Roma, gay men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Soviet and Slavic citizens. The victims were deported from ghettos in sealed freight trains and sent to concentration centers or death camps, where the majority would be executed. Up to 17 million people were murdered in this way over the course of the Holocaust. Auschwitz was the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps and extermination centers. Over 1.1 million men, women and children lost their lives there. Enemies of the Reich would walk under the chilling slogan, ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ or ‘work sets you free’, and many would be killed within their first few hours at the camp. Others would work in horrific conditions with few provisions, often dying from malnourishment or illness. In this exclusive interview with Miroslaw Obstarczyk, a curator at Auschwitz, we hear about the horrors of the camp and the bravery of the people who died there.
Professor Mary Fulbrook's book Reckonings won the 2019 Wolfson History Prize for its unique approach to the Holocaust, and in particular, those who perpetrated the atrocities. Fulbrook claims that the West German justice process was far too lenient on many ex-Nazis, who had condemned thousands or...
Throughout Germany post World War Two monuments can be found in all shapes and sizes. But what they are memorialising is unique: ‘Erinnerungskultur’ – ‘culture of memory’. Focused around the sins of Nazi Germany, these memorials were designed to commemorate the country’s sins between 1933 and 194...
Over the course of his 106 years, Doctor William Frankland has experienced more than most. He served with the Royal Medical Corps during World War Two, spending more than three years as a prisoner of war of the Japanese following the fall of Singapore. After the war, his medical career focused on...
