“Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again.”
― Anne Frank
― Anne Frank
Racism including Anti-semitism (Earliest recorded history-present day)Sometimes called "the longest hatred," anti-semitism has persisted in many forms for over two thousand years. The racial anti-semitism of the National Socialists (Nazis) took hatred of Jews to a genocidal extreme, yet the holocaust began with words and ideas: stereotypes, sinister cartoons, and the gradual spread of hate.
timeline
1918-1933
During the fourteen years following the end of World War I, the Nazi party grew from a small political group to the most powerful party in Germany. |
"The greatness of every mighty organization embodying an idea in this world lies in the religious fanaticism and intolerance with which, fanatically convinced of its own right, it intolerantly imposes its will against all others"
– Adolf Hitler |
January 30, 1933
Appointment of Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor |
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually
they will believe it” - Adolf Hitler |
January 1942
The Wannsee Conference – a meeting by top Nazis to plan the murder of all the Jews of Europe. |
“Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate
all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.” - Elie Wiesel |
September, 1942
All Jews in Nazi controlled areas are ordered to wear a yellow star called the star of David at all times. |
“What exactly was the difference? he wondered to himself. And who
decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms?” ― John Boyne |
DECEMBER 17, 1942
The Allies resolve to inflict punishment on the exterminators of the Jewish people. |
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
― Elie Wiesel |
APRIL 30, 1945
Hitler commits suicide |
“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”
-Adolf Hitler |
MAY 8, 1945
Germany surrenders - the end of the Third Reich |
“We do not know what happens at Zero. If anything happens. Perhaps it is nothing. A sudden silence will grip the world.”
-Kristijana Gunnars |
NOVEMBER 1945- 1949
International War Crimes Tribunal opens in Nuremberg, Germany |
"The learning process is a very difficult one but what is the
alternative?" - Jan Willem Honig |
October 1, 1946
21 major Nazi leaders were in court for the last time to receive the verdicts of the tribunal. |
"I don't make the argument that by putting people from the past on trial you prevent crimes being committed in the future, but it is at least better than nothing - that one has the past as something to learn, or to try and learn, from and hopefully it helps when it
comes to deal with difficult issues again." –Jan Willem Honig |
1949 - Present- day
The Nuremberg Trials established that all humanity would have an international legal shield. Even a head of state would be held criminally responsible and punished for aggression and Crimes Against Humanity |
"It was very much the United States which was instrumental in the development of international criminal law going back to Nuremberg, going back to the International Criminal tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The United States has not always expressed the kind of hostility that listeners might believe the United States has expressed if one listens simply to the comments of professor Rabkin."
– Lawrence Douglas |