About Holocaust Survivors
Holocaust survivors included Jews of all ages, unfortunate enough to live in Europe in the 1940s, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis decided to commit genocide on all Jews. Though many Jews were killed, some survived and are still living today. Holocaust survivors have gone on to do amazing things, write incredible books and stories, and others have settled into the simple and good life. Not many would argue that the Holocaust was a time never to be forgotten, and Holocaust survivors remind us of that.
Other People Are Reading
-
The Facts
-
The Holocaust occurred in eastern and central Europe between 1939 and 1945. About 5 to 6 million Jews were brutally killed due to Adolf Hitler's "Final Solution." The Nazis strove to kill all the Jews in Europe. In some areas, almost 90 percent of the Jewish population was wiped out, but not all perished. Some escaped the concentration camps, and even more attempted to emigrate to the U.S. In the 1950s, about 140,000 survivors of the Holocaust came on ships to the U.S.
Time Frame
-
The Nazis invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Nazis surrender was on May 8, 1945. The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 helped enable this genocide to occur. The most deaths happened between March 1942 and February 1943, an estimated 75 percent of Hitler's victims.
When most of the Jewish survivors fled to America after 1948, most were ages 20 to 39. Though many of the survivors have passed on, some are still with us and telling their stories, even though most were children during the time of the Holocaust. -
Size
-
The Holocaust took over Europe in the early 1940s. More than 15 countries had concentration camps, and Jews were taken from Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Greece and 15 other countries. The number of Jews who escaped and survived the Holocaust is difficult to say, but some sources say around 400,000. The vast majority of these fled before the Nazis actually invaded. Other numbers say up to 3 million Jews survived the Holocaust.
Effects
-
Holocaust survivors have made a huge impact on the world, telling their stories of the most horrific destruction humans have brought to each other. Even today, survivors still carry around the weight of those days. In 2007, it was reported in Jerusalem that 1/3 of the Holocaust survivors living in that area were living in poverty. For some, especially those that were trapped in camps and tortured, the scars of all those years ago will never fully disappear.
Significance
-
Many survivors of the Holocaust have gone on to do significant things. The most talked about is of course the "Diary of Anne Frank," which was published by her father Otto, the only survivor in the Frank family. There have been a great number of books, some highly acclaimed, written by survivors, including Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning."
-
