We all know that the Holocaust was a dark time in history, but you may not have realized just how dark it really was. Did you know that during the Evian Conference in France, Hitler offered to hand over all the “Jewish criminals” to any country willing to take them? The US, Britain, Canada, and every other country refused. Only the Dominican Republic offered to take 100,000. In the end Hitler decided to move forward with his “final solution” – total extermination. These are 25 grim and disturbing truths about the Holocaust.
Holocaust featured image via Flickr user: Marion Doss CC2.0
25
About 1/3 of all Jewish people in the world were murdered during the Holocaust
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia24
Over 1 million of them were children
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia23
In 1945, Eisenhower predicted that people would try to deny the holocaust so he urged the press to come and document it
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia22
Hitler planned to collect thousands of Jewish artifacts and build a "museum of an extinct race" when the war was over
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia21
Known as the Leica Freedom Train, Ernst Leitz II of the Leica Camera company relocated many of his Jewish employees before Nazi Germany closed its borders
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia20
Hitler never visited any concentration camps
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia19
Denying the holocaust is considered a crime in 17 nations, including Austria and Germany
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia18
Jewish boxer Salamo Arouch was imprisoned in Auschwitz and forced to fight other prisoners. Losers were executed. He survived for 2 years until the Allies liberated the camp.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia17
Two Polish doctors saved 8,000 Jews by faking an epidemic of typhoid. It prevented the Nazis from entering their town.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia16
The first concentration camp, Dachau, was opened 6 years prior to the start of World War II and mostly housed political prisoners
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia15
99% of Denmark's Jews survived the Holocaust because the country successfully evacuated them to neutral Sweden
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia14
During the Évian Conference, Hitler gave the rest of the world, including the UK and the United States the option of receiving the "Jewish criminals". The offer was rejected, so Hitler implemented his "final solution" - extermination.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia13
The company that created Zyklon B, the gas that was used to kill millions of Jews, still exists today as a pest control company. Its managing partners at the time, however, were convicted and hanged following the war.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia12
The Nokmim, or The Avengers, were a group of partisan Jews who took it upon themselves to go about secretly executing former Nazis
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia11
One of their plans even involved a "reverse holocaust" which consisted of poisoning the German water supply. This plan, however, was foiled by the British.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia10
Nearly 200 former Gestapo officers were employed by the BND (German intelligence agency) following the war
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia9
Helena Citronova, a Slovakian inmate at Auschwitz fell in love with Franz Wunsch, a guard. Franz saved her life several times by giving her jobs sorting the clothes of those sent to the gas chambers.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia8
During WW II, a Japanese consul named Chiune Sugihara saved 6,000 Jews by writing them all visas to Japan, even after the Japanese government told him not to
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia7
The slave labor at Auschwitz generated roughly 60 million Reichmarks, or about 200 million dollars.
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia6
Anne Frank died only weeks before her concentration camp was liberated by Allied troops
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia5
A Polish soldier named Witold Pilecki was voluntarily imprisoned in Auschwitz in order to gather information
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia4
Jewish children were a prime target of the Nazis for extermination. This was because the regime did not want them to grow up into "threats"
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia3
Nazi doctor Josef Mengele (known as the Angel of Death) did numerous "operations" on these children. In one of them, he tried to create siamese twins by sewing two children together
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia2
At Treblinka, nearly 1 million people were exterminated by a staff of only 150 people
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia1
In all, the Holocaust led to the deaths of nearly 11 million people
Source: wikipedia, Image: wikipedia
