Fleeing terror at home, searching for safety and shelter. During the Holocaust, European Jews cried out to the world for help, desperate to escape Nazi persecution. Without legal protection, their lives hung in the balance. Some were granted refuge in foreign countries with an unfamiliar language, new customs, and limited opportunities. Most found nowhere to turn.
Today, war, genocide, and mass atrocities are forcing millions of people around the world from their homes. Often separated from their loved ones, they face an uncertain future. In this digital program, we examine the plight of refugees during the Holocaust and today.
After escaping the Nazis, Arno Mayer and other German Jewish refugees learned how to glean information from the enemy as part of a secret American military operation during World War II.
Mayer faced a moral dilemma when he was ordered to work with German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and other Nazis who immigrated to America after the war. Von Braun’s skills and know-how were considered so valuable that even President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had witnessed Nazi atrocities firsthand, embraced him. In this digital program, learn more about Jewish refugee soldiers and the 1,600 Nazis permitted to immigrate to America.
For as long as there has been war, mothers have risked their lives to protect their children. In Nazi-occupied Poland, Olga Litman did everything she could to save her daughters as they were hunted by the Germans. They moved between towns, hid with farmers, and took on false identities. When a man discovered that Olga and her young daughters, Halina and Ewa, were Jewish, she bargained with him, giving away every last belonging and appealing to his conscience. “I don’t know anybody who was as brave as my mother when it came to her children,” Halina recalled. In this digital program, discover stories of mothers’ devotion during the Holocaust and sacrifices mothers are making today in Ukraine.
Beginning in May 1933, university students in Nazi clubs across Germany orchestrated a destructive campaign to burn thousands of books and other materials considered “un-German.” The works of Jewish writers including Sigmund Freud and political activists such as Helen Keller were among countless others scorched in festive ceremonies celebrating Nazi ideology. Even children’s books were destroyed.
The Nazi regime’s early efforts to control the thoughts and lives of its citizens foreshadowed more brutal threats on the horizon. As campaigns to ban books and control information resurface today, watch this timely digital program.
Hannah Szenes was just 23 years old when she parachuted into enemy territory in an attempt to help her fellow Jews. Five years earlier she had left her home in Budapest, but she risked her life to return to Nazi-occupied Europe. In the Netherlands, Marion Pritchard sheltered a Jewish family. One day, a local Nazi collaborator came to her door when the children were out of their hiding place. He threatened to expose them, and Marion fought back. In this digital program, learn about these dynamic women who resisted the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
Today, the Ukrainian people are under attack. The story of their nation is forever linked to the 1.5 million Jews who were killed in the region during the Holocaust and millions of other Ukrainian civilians who died in the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin has twisted that history to justify an invasion, falsely claiming to be waging war against Nazism and genocide. In this digital program, learn the history of this land and people, including Holocaust survivors who are under threat once again.
