Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
Move to the violin on exhibit to learn Robert Kahn’s history. Mr. Kahn recounted his experience in a letter: “59 years ago on November 9, 1938, a teenager 15 years old, experienced the most violent, barbaric display of anti-Semitic acts ever recorded in history. I was that teenager! The day began by witnessing the purposeful destruction of the only Jewish school in the area, while people......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
Go to the glass exhibit case containing a leather pilot’s jacket. This jacket belonged to Sgt. Delbert Cooper. In 1943, Cooper served as a solider in the U.S. Army’s 14th Regiment, 71st Infantry Division. His story can be heard in the video in this exhibit. He was among the first Americans to enter and assist in liberating Gunzkirchen Lager, which was part of the Mauthausen-Gusen......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
Near the “Places of Ha’Shoah” images is another grouping titled “Fragments of the Budapest Ghetto.” These scenes are from an old Jewish section of Pest, Hungary, a district of 19th century buildings near the Danube River. Here the Nazis established a large ghetto in June 1944, several months after occupying Hungary and deporting virtually every Jew living in the provinces.......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
Move to the long striped jacket in the glass exhibit case. Perhaps the rarest artifact in this exhibit, this concentration camp uniform is one of very few still in existence. It was given to the exhibit by Jack Bomstein, whose father Moritz wore the uniform while he was imprisoned at Buchenwald. Allied Prisoners of War, or POWs, interned at Buchenwald in 1944, had their U.S. uniforms taken......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
Along the floor path of the Holocaust exhibit, you will find a timeline of a brief history of human rights in the 20th century. This retrospective includes not only issues relevant to the Holocaust, but to all matters of human rights from across the globe from 1901 to 1950....
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
By May 1945, Nazi Germany had collapsed. American and Soviet troops liberated the camps and were shocked at the conditions they found. They were sickened by the sight of thousands of dead bodies stacked on top of each other. Most of the survivors resembled living skeletons. Even after they were freed, the Jews had problems. Most survivors had no homes to return to and so they immigrated to......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
In June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Following the army were special mobile killing units known as Einsatzgruppen. They rounded up Jews and murdered them. More than one million Jews and millions of Soviet citizens were killed. In January 1942 Nazi leaders decided to kill all Jews living in the areas occupied by the German army. This project, which became a national priority for......
Audio by NMUSAF PA | National Museum of the U.S. Air Force | 09.10.2015
Hitler came to power legally in January 1933, promising to remove Jewish influence from German life. In April 1933, Germans burned Jewish books and forced most Jewish government employees and professionals to leave their jobs. Jewish life was further restricted by September 1935 by the passage of the Nuremburg Laws. These laws identified Jews by the religion of their grandparents. Some people......
