Evidence / Documents

Of thousands of Holocaust related documents, eyewitness accounts, trail testimonies, photos, a few are presented in this section.

I. Testimonies from Nuremberg and other Trials

II. Nazi’s Documents: Nazis Decrees / Speeches

III. Evidences: Death Camps / Ghettos

IV. Eyewitness Account

V. Holocaust in the News Media

I. Testimonies from Nuremberg and other Trials

1. Excerpts from the affidavit given by Auschwitz Kommandant Rudolf Höss at the Nuremberg War Crime trials:
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-hoess.htm

2. The legal reckoning: Nuremberg and other trials: From Danish Center from Holocaust and Genocide Studies:
   http://www.holocaust-education.dk/eftertid/ ansvarskyld.asp

3. From “A-Z”: From Holocaust Museum:
   http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/
   A film from Nuremberg Trails called “WE WILL SHOW YOU THEIR OWN FILMS”.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials

4. The Doctors Trial: From The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings. In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Doctors Trial, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents excerpts from the official trial record. The texts of select documents are available with references to the corresponding page numbers in the printed media from Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Nuremberg, October 1946 - April 1949. Washington D.C.: U.S. G.P.O, 1949-1953. Testimony excerpts come from National Archives Record Group 238, M887.
   http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/index.html

II. Nazi’s Documents:
Nazis Decrees/Speeches/Reports/ Propaganda Materials

1. Race Decrees by the Nazis: The Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 deprived German Jews of their rights of citizenship, giving them the status of "subjects" in Hitler's Reich. The laws also made it forbidden for Jews to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans or to employ young Aryan women as household help. (An Aryan being a person with blond hair and blue eyes of Germanic heritage.)
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-nurem-laws.htm

2. Hitler’s Speech: Appearing before the Nazi Reichstag (Parliament) on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power, Adolf Hitler made a speech commemorating that event and also made a public threat against the Jews.
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-threat.htm

3. Audio: Hitler and the Jews: Hitler's 'Final Solution' to the 'Jewish Question' was the elimination of the Jewish race from the European continent.
   http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/ genocide/hitler_audio.shtml

4. Order from Hermann Göring to Reinhard Heydrich (1941) “…for a total solution (Gesamtlösung) of the Jewish question in all the territories of Europe under German occupation”.
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-order1.htm

5. Wannsee Conference: From Historyplace:”On January, 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution (Endlösung) in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons”. The Wannsee Conference attended by most senior members of the key ministries that were in-charge of implementing the deportation and systematic killing of the Jews. It is a significant meeting in understanding Nazi Germany's policy towards the Jews. The documents and minutes of the meeting survived the war; and in fact after this meeting mass deportations and systematic killings at camp intensified.
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-wannsee.htm
   • View Minutes of the meeting at:
     http://prorev.com/wannsee.htm
   • Also see a letter of Heydrich to Martin Luther, Foreign Office, of February 26, 1942 in connection with sending the minutes of the Conference
     http://www.ghwk.de/engl/february-26-1942.htm
   • The events of the Conference are dramatized in two films. A 1984 German television movie Wannseekonferenz (The Wannsee Conference) runs 85 minutes, exactly the length of the conference itself, and the script was derived from actual minutes of the meeting. 2001 saw the English-language production, Conspiracy, starring Kenneth Branagh as Heydrich and Stanley Tucci as Eichmann. Both films have received high critical acclaim.
     
     
6. Posen Meeting: “we're eliminating the Jews ,exterminating them, ha!, a small matter.” Excerpts (with .wav audio clips and text) from the speech given by Heinrich Himmler to about 100 SS Group Leaders in Posen, occupied Poland On October 4, 1943. ):
   Also available in Real Audio at:
   http://www.historyplace.com/ worldwar2/holocaust /h-posen.htm and
   http://www.holocaust-history.org/himmler-poznan/

7. Einsatzgruppen reports : The Commander of the security police and the SD in Cracow reports from the occupied territories: “ I. Activity report”: “At the time of the report, another 416 persons, most of them Jews, were shot because of Communist activity, such as Communist commissars in the Red Army, murderers of Ukrainians who had nationalistic views or as agents of the NKVD”.
   http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/osr38.html
   View the full set at:
   http://www.einsatzgruppenarchives.com/einsatz.html

8. Auschwitz Document: "unconditional secrecy": In this document dated May 24, 1944, SS-Unterscharführer (Sergeant) Gottfried Weisse formally states that he has been reminded of the Auschwitz camp policies against stealing or revealing secret information:
   http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/ 19440524-weisse/

9. Nazi propaganda toward the Jewish people: Nazis began a brutal crackdown on Austrian Jews, arresting them and publicly humiliating them.
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-austria.htm

10. An anti-Semitic photomontage:
    http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-sturm1.htm

11. Anti-Jewish Propaganda exhibit – Nazi officials at the opening of "The Eternal Jew" exhibition in Munich, Nov. 8, 19:
    http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-eternal.htm

III. Evidences: Death Camps/Ghettos/Picture of Executions

1. Extermination camps: From Danish Center from Holocaust and Genocide Studies: In the period of 1941-1945, for the first time in the history of mankind, industrial plants were used to kill people. Extermination camps were established, where the Nazis in the most terrible way carried out the mass murder of millions of Jews.
   http://www.holocaust-education.dk/ lejre/udryddelseslejre.asp

2. View extensive information about each death camp on this site:
   http://www.deathcamps.org/

3. Timeline and Death Tolls: A graphic demonstration of the death tolls in each year in camps:
   http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/pic/time-table.jpg
   
   
4. Virtual Tours of Camps: The virtual reality movies in this section allows the visitors to visit Auschwitz, Birkenau, Dachau, Oberer Kuhberg, Majdanek, Mauthausen, and several other camps.
   http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/ VR.htm#MAUTHAUS
   
   
5. Images from Buchenwald: by a Minnesota GI, Cyril John Corrigan, born Jan 16, 1920, at 2032 Ashland Ave, St. Paul. Statement describing what he saw.
   http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories Narratives__Documen/Buchenwald/buchenwald.html
   http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories_ Narratives__Documen/Buchenwald/Buchenwald_A/
   buchenwald_a.html

6. Photos from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp at Weimar Germany taken by Members of the 45th Evac Hospital 1st Army. Such sets of official photos were available to members of units who liberated or served to dismantle the camps
   http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives Documen/Buchenwald/Buchenwald_F /buchenwald_f.html

7. Auschwitz: Place Of Horrors: Pictures and Stories fromAwesomeStories.com, on
   http://www.awesomestories.com/history/ auschwitz/auschwitz_place_ch1.htm

8. Images from one of the concentration camps
   http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives Documen/Liberation_of_the_Western_Conc/
   liberation_of_the_western_conc.html

9. The execution of Polish hostages:
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-tasks.htm

10. Graves: Jewish men are forced to dig their own graves before being executed:
    http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-einz-42.htm

11. Jewish Deportees from the Lodz ghetto.
    http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-chelmno.htm

12. Photos of Ghettos: by ARC:The ARC team consists of private Holocaust researchers:
    http://www.deathcamps.org/album/ghettos.html

13. Before Execution: Jewish women from the Mizocz Ghetto in the Ukraine wait in a line before their execution by Germans and Ukrainian collaborators:
    http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-mizocz.htm

14. Mass Killing: Picture of mass killing and Hitler order:
    http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-commissar.htm

15. Arrived at Auschwitz 10.12.43. No news of the child since.
    http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories_ Narratives Documen/Fragments/
    Albelt_Smiel_ieder/albelt_smiel_vieder.html

16. 1.5 million Jewish children died in the Holocaust.
    http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives Documen/Fragments/Shoe/shoe.html

17. Germans Confront Nazi Atrocities: Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida © 1997-2006.
    http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/gallery/ Confront.htm#77021

18. Pictures from Camps:Minnesota and Holocaust: View pictures that were given to the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies taken by American Army units that liberated or came into concentration camps--usually Buchenwald, Ordruf, Mauthausen, Dachau and others in the Western military zones.
    http://www.chgs.umn.edu/Histories__Narratives_ Documen/Minnesotans_and_The_Holocaust/Scenes/
    scenes.html#camps
    
    
19. History of the Nazi's Camps by Wolfgang Sofsky
    http://www.ayandehnegar.org/page1.php?news_id=2961

IV. Eyewitness account

1. A Survivor's Eyewitness Account:
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-b-yar.htm

2. A German Engineer as Witness: On October 5, 1942, by accident, Hermann Graebe, a German engineer and manager of a German construction firm in the Ukraine, and his foreman, came upon an Einsatz execution squad killing Jews from the small town of Dubno in the Ukraine. He gave the following eyewitness account:
   http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/ holocaust/h-engineer.htm

3. Audio: What General Vassily Petrenko a Russian Officer witnessed after liberation: in 1945, the Russian army liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. General Vassily Petrenko was a commanding officer who witnessed the appalling scenes in the early days after the liberation. Hear the audio of interview to Sanchia Berg.
   http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/ general_petrenko_interview.shtml

4. The Jager Report: The "Jager report" was written by a commander of one of the "Einsatzgruppen" (special task forces) which were in charge of liquidating Jews, communist leaders, partisans and others in the Soviet Union.
   http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ Holocaust/jager.html

6. Pictures and Stories from AwesomeStories.com, on Holocaust:
   http://www.awesomestories.com/history/holocaust_ evidence/holocaust_evidence_ch1.htm

7. Audio: First-hand accounts of victims of the holocaust.
   http://voices.iit.edu/

8. Videos: The Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies is a collection of over 4,300 videotaped interviews with witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust. Part of Yale University's department of Manuscripts and Archives, the archive is located at Sterling Memorial Library
   http://www.holocaust-education.dk/eftertid/ansvarskyld.asp
   
   
9. Film clips from the liberation of Bergen-Belsen: From Nizkor Project: In this tape of the 1995 Yom Hashoa ceremony, that held at the site of the notorious concentration camp, you’ll witness crimes of Nazis. Holocaust deniers often claim that the only reason camp victims starved was that the Allies bombed supply lines... view these film clips and note the obviously well-fed, healthy appearance of German military and civilian personnel, and decide for yourself:
   • Part One (RealVideo in German and English)
   • Part Two (RealVideo in German)

V. Holocaust in the News Media

1. BBC World News: Include a web site on “Genocide under the Nazis”:
   http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/
   This site include a comprehensive timeline between 1933-1945, and reports on:
   From Persecution to Genocide - The radicalization of Nazi policy towards the Jews, by David Cesarani
   The Nazi Racial State - How the Nazi state realized its theories of racial purity, by Peter Longerich
   Child Survivors of the Holocaust - Children of the Kindertransport tell their stories
   Denying the Holocaust : Deborah Lipstadt discusses how misinformation and false claims are used to question the reality of the Nazis' attempt to exterminate Europe's Jews:
   http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/ genocide/deniers_01.shtml
   
   
2. Visual histories of witnesses and survivors in wikipedia
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USC_Shoah_Foundation_ Institute_for_Visual_History_and_Education
   http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php? lang=en&ModuleId=10007271