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The Liberation of Auschwitz

This footage is among the most famous scenes from the liberation of Auschwitz—a group of surviving children now under the care of nurses.

Video Length

01:12

Subject

History

Language

English — US

Updated

October 7, 2014

The Holocaust

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Among the 2,819 liberated Auschwitz inmates, there were 180 children. 52 of them were under eight years of age. How could they survive this hell? They managed to survive because they were wanted for medical research, instead of mice and rabbits.

But the German murderers with medical degrees were only keen on a particular kind of children. They wanted to experiment on twins. Twins were the special research material of Dr. Mengele and Dr. Schmidt. Children who did not belong to that category were simply murdered. The infants were known by the numbers on their little hands.

Credit:

Footage courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Unit

Explore the motives, pressures, and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism and the humanitarian refugee crisis it provoked during the 1930s and 1940s.

A crowd of American men and women hold signs protesting Nazi Germany's actions.

Lesson

Students examine the steps the Nazis took to replace democracy with dictatorship and draw conclusions about the values and institutions that make democracy possible.

Germans look on as the Reichstag building burns on February 27, 1933.

Lesson

Students prepare for their study of the Holocaust by reflecting on the ways in which memory is an integral part of Jewish identity.

Students sit in a classroom.

Lesson

Students are introduced to the enormity of the crimes committed during the Holocaust and look closely at stories of a few individuals who were targeted by Nazi brutality.

A crowd of women and children, some with Stars of David patches on their clothing.

Lesson

Students deepen their examination of human behaviour during the Holocaust by analysing and discussing the range of choices available to individuals, groups, and nations.

Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst in June 1942.

Lesson

Students both respond to and design Holocaust memorials as they consider the impact that memorials and monuments have on the way we think about history.

Circular stone fountain

Lesson

Students grapple with the meaning of justice and the purpose of trials as they learn how the Allies responded to the atrocities of Nazi Germany.

Criminal proceedings before the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg from 20.11.1945 to 1.10.1946 against leading persons prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against the peace and against the humanity.

Lesson

Students learn about the violent pogroms of Kristallnacht by watching a short documentary and then reflecting on eyewitness testimonies.

Image showing the destruction resulting from Kristallnacht.

Lesson

Students continue to explore the question “Who am I?” by examining the concept of dual or multiple identities and reflecting on their own identities as Jews.

Students sit in a classroom.

Lesson

Students examine the Nazi ideology of “race and space” and the role it played in Germany’s aggression toward other nations, groups, and individuals.

Hitler Youth and League of German Girls in Tianjin, China

Lesson

Students examine how choices made by individuals and groups contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1920s and 1930s.

The Parade of the Political Administrators in Nuremberg, Germany.

Lesson

Students explore the long history of discrimination against Jews and come to understand how anti-Judaism was transformed into antisemitism in the nineteenth century.

Woodcut of a group of men in a pit being set on fire.

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Using the strategies from Facing History is almost like an awakening.

— Claudia Bautista, Santa Monica, Calif

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