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Anti‑Semitism

Anti‑Semitism in Medieval Europe Many of the anti‑Semitic practices seen in Nazi Germany actually have their roots in medieval Europe. In many European cities, Jews were confined to certain neighborhoods called ghettos. Some countries also required Jews to distinguish themselves from Christians with a yellow badge worn on their garment, or a special hat called […]

Raoul Wallenberg

Childhood of Privilege Raoul Gustav Wallenberg was born near Stockholm, Sweden, on August 4, 1912. His parents both hailed from prominent Swedish families, whose members included bankers, bishops, diplomats and professors. Wallenberg’s father, Raoul Oskar Wallenberg (1888‑1912), a lieutenant in the Swedish navy, had died of an illness three months before his son’s birth. His […]

Kristallnacht

Hitler and Anti‑Semitism Soon after Adolf Hitler became Germany’s chancellor in January 1933, he began instituting policies that isolated German Jews and subjected them to persecution. Among other things, Hitler’s Nazi Party, which espoused extreme German nationalism and anti‑Semitism, commanded that all Jewish businesses be boycotted and all Jews be dismissed from civil service posts. […]

Genocide

WHAT IS GENOCIDE? The word “genocide” owes its existence to Raphael Lemkin, a Polish‑Jewish lawyer who fled the Nazi occupation of Poland and arrived in the United States in 1941. As a boy, Lemkin had been horrified when he learned of the Turkish massacre of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during World War I. Lemkin later […]