Dachau concentration-camp inmates on a death march through a German village in April 1945. Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The death marches refer to the forcible movement in the winter of 1944-5 by Nazi Germany of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, from German concentration camps near the war front to camps inside Germany. The Holocaust is the name applied to the systematic state-sponsored persecution and genocide of the Jews of Europe along with other groups during World War II by Nazi Germany and collaborators. ... Raul Hilberg, a well-known historian of the Holocaust, identified four distinct Phases of the Holocaust. ... The racial policy of Nazi Germany was the set of rascist policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany primarily against Jews. ... This poster reads: 60,000 Reichsmark is what this person suffering from hereditary defects costs the community during his lifetime. ... Prior to and during World War II Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps (Konzentrationslager or KZ) throughout the territory it controlled. ... The following is a list of German concentration camps during World War II. are marked with pink, while major concentration camps of are marked with blue. ... German Jews have lived in Germany and contributed to German culture for over 1700 years, through both periods of tolerance and spasms of anti-Semitic violence, culminating in the Holocaust and the destruction of the Jewish community in Germany and much of Europe. ... Pogrom (Russian: ; from громить - to wreak havoc, to demolish violently) is a form of riot, a massive violent attack on a particular group; ethnic, religious or other, primarily characterized by destruction of their environment (homes, businesses, religious centers). ... Die Kristallnacht, also known as die Reichskristallnacht (literally Imperial Crystal Night), die Pogromnacht and in English as the Night of Broken Glass, was a massive nationwide pogrom in Germany and Austria on the night of November 9, 1938 (including the early hours of the following day). ... The IaÅŸi pogrom of June 27, 1941 was one of the most violent pogroms in Jewish history, launched by governmental forces in the Romanian city of IaÅŸi against its Jewish population, resulting in the brutal mass-murder of 13,266 Jews. ... After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, special Einsatzgruppen were organized to kill as many Jews as it was possible in the Polish areas annexed by Soviet Union. ... Lviv (Ukrainian: Львів, L’viv ; Polish: Lwów; Russian: Львов, Lvov; German: Lemberg; Yiddish: לעמבערג; Latin: Leopolis; see also Cities alternative names) is a city in western Ukraine, the capital city of the Lviv Oblast (province) and one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine. ... The name ghetto refers to an area where people from a given ethnic background or united in a given culture or religion live as a group, voluntarily or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion. ... The Ghetto Heroes Memorial The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in General Government during the Holocaust in World War II. In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps dropped the population of the... The Łódź Ghetto was the second-largest ghetto (after the Warsaw Ghetto) established for Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. ... Deportation of Jews from the Kraków Ghetto, March 1943 The Jewish ghetto in Kraków (Cracow) was one of the five main ghettos created by the Nazis during their occupation of Poland during World War II. It was a staging point to begin dividing able workers from those who... Location of the concentration camp in the Czech Republic Gate Concentration camp Theresienstadt was a concentration camp set up by the Gestapo in the fortress and garrison city Terezín (German name Theresienstadt), located in what is now the Czech Republic). ... Einsatzgruppen (a German military term meaning mission groups, loosely translated as Task Force) were semi-military groups formed in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. These death squads belonged to the SS and followed the Wehrmacht in their attacks first on Poland and then the Soviet Union. ... The massacre at Babi Yar Babi Yar, Russian:Бабий яр, (Ukrainian:Бабин яр, Babyn Yar) is the name of a ravine situated outside the Ukrainian city of Kiev. ... Rumbula Forest is a pine forest enclave in Riga, Latvia. ... Paneriai (Polish Ponary, German Ponaren) is a suburb of Vilnius, some 10 kilometres away from the city centre. ... The Odessa Massacre was the extermination of Jews and Communists in Odessa during the autumn of 1941. ... In a February 26, 1942 letter to Martin Luther (diplomat), Reinhard Heydrich follows up on the Wannsee Conference by asking Luther for administrative assistance in the implementation of the Endlösung der Judenfrage (Final Solution of the Jewish Question). ... The Wannsee Conference was the discussion by a group of Nazi officials about the Final Solution of the Jewish Question (Endlösung der Judenfrage). ... Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard) was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the former General Gouvernement and the Bialystok area. ... Majdanek - crematorium Extermination camp (German: Vernichtungslager) or Death Camp was the term applied to a group of facilities set up by Nazi Germany during World War II for the express purpose of killing the Jews of Europe, although members of some other groups whom the Nazis wished to exterminate, such... CheÅ‚mno concentration camp was a Nazi extermination camp that was situated 70 km from Łódź near a small village CheÅ‚mno nad Nerem (Kulmhof an der Nehr, in German), in Greater Poland (which was, in 1939, annexed and incorporated into Germany under the name of Reichsgau Wartheland). ... Belzec was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust. ... Sobibór was a Nazi extermination camp that was part of Operation Reinhard. ... Treblinka was an extermination camp operated by the Nazis as part of the Holocaust, the systematic murder of Jews and others. ... Auschwitz is the name loosely used to identify the largest Nazi extermination camp along with two main German concentration camps and 45-50 sub-camps. ... Other languages FAQs | Table free Welcome to Wikipedia, the free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit. ... Å»ydowski ZwiÄ…zek Walki (Å»ZW, Polish for Jewish Fighting Union) was an underground organisation operating during World War II in the area of Warsaw Ghetto and fighting during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. ... Ghetto Uprising refers to an armed struggle by people incarcerated in German Ghettos during World War II against the plans to resettle all the inhabitants to concentration and death camps. ... Combatants Nazi Germany Jewish resistance (Å»OB, Å»ZW) Commanders Jürgen Stroop Mordechai Anielewicz Strength 2,054, including 821 Waffen SS 40,000 civilians, 750-1000 fighting Casualties 300 KIA, official reports acknowledge 16 KIA and 85 wounded about 13,000 killed, almost all of the rest sent to extermination camps... Berihah (literally escape in Hebrew) was the organized effort to help Jews escape post-Holocaust Europe for the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Sherit ha-Pletah is a biblical (First Chronicles 4:43) term used by Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust to refer to themselves and the communities they formed following their liberation in the spring of 1945. ... Generalplan Ost (GPO) was a Nazi plan to realize Hitlers new order of ethnographical relations in the territories occupied in Eastern Europe during World War II. It was prepared in 1941 and confirmed in 1942. ... Gypsy arrivals in the Belzec death camp await instructions The Porajmos (also Porrajmos) literally Devouring, is a term coined by the Roma (Gypsy) people to describe attempts by the Nazi regime to exterminate most of the Roma peoples of Europe during the Holocaust. ... The German word Gleichschaltung (help· info) (literally synchronising, synchronization) is used in a political sense to describe the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control over the individual, and tight coordination over all aspects of society and commerce. ... 1932 KPD poster, End This System The Communist Party of Germany (in German, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) was formed in December of 1918 from the Spartacist League, which originated as a small factional grouping within the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and the International Communists of Germany (IKD). ... Once vibrant Eldorado gay night club in Berlin after being shut down, displaying banners promoting Hitler List 1. Prior to the Third Reich, Berlin was considered a liberal city, with many gay bars, nightclubs and cabarets. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... (help· info) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ... Reinhard Heydrich as SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (March 7, 1904 – June 4, 1942) was an SS-Obergruppenführer, chief of the Reich Main Security Office, and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia. ... Adolf Eichmann, Germany 1940 Photo from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives. ... Heinrich Himmler â–¶ (help· info) (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ... The infamous double-sig rune SS insignia. ... The Deaths Head emblem similar to Skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The â–¶ (help· info) (acronym of Geheime Staatspolizei; secret state police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ... During World War II, in April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded. ... Presidential flag of Vichy France Vichy France, or the Vichy regime was the de facto French government of 1940-1944 during the Nazi Germany occupation of World War II. Now known in French as the Régime de Vichy or Vichy, during its existence it referred to itself as L... Functionalism versus intentionalism is a historiographical debate about the origins of the Holocaust. ... The Nuremberg Trials is the name for two sets of trials of Nazis involved in World War II and the Holocaust. ... Chief prosecutor Telford Taylor opens the prosecution case in the Krupp Trial The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials (or, more formally, the Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT)) were a series of twelve U.S. military trials for war crimes against surviving members of the military, political, and... There are many famous Holocaust survivors who survived the Nazi genocides in Europe only to go on to achievements of great fame and notability. ... This is a list of people who helped victims to escape from the Nazi Holocaust during World War II, often called rescuers. The list is not exhaustive, concentrating on famous cases, or people who saved the lives of many potential victims. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... This article is about Dachau town. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, enemy aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ...

Toward the end of World War II in 1944, as The United States, Britain, and Canada moved in on the concentration camps from the west, the Soviet Union was advancing from the east. The Germans decided to abandon the camps, moving or destroying evidence of the atrocities they had committed there. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ...

Prisoners, already sick after months or years of violence and starvation, were marched for tens of miles in the snow to train stations; then transported for days at a time without food or shelter in freight trains with open carriages; and forced to march again at the other end to the new camp. Prisoners who lagged behind or fell were shot.

The largest and best known of the death marches took place in January 1945, when the Soviet army advanced on Poland. Nine days before the Soviets arrived at the death camp at Auschwitz, the Germans marched 60,000 prisoners out of the camp toward Wodzislaw, thirty-five miles away, where they were put on freight trains to other camps. Around 15,000 died on the way. [1] 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ...

The Germans killed large numbers of prisoners before, during, or after death marches. Seven hundred prisoners were killed during one ten-day march of 7,000 Jews, including 6,000 women, who were being moved from camps in the Gdansk region, which is bordered on the north by the Baltic Sea. Those still alive when the marchers reached the coast were forced into the sea and shot. [2] For alternative meanings of Gdańsk and Danzig, see Gdansk (disambiguation) and Danzig (disambiguation) Motto: Nec temere, nec timide (Neither rashly nor timidly) Voivodship Pomeranian Municipal government Rada miasta Gdańska Mayor Paweł Adamowicz Area 262 km² Population  - city  - urban  - density 461 400 (2003) Ranked 6th 1 035 000 1761/km² Founded... The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53 deg. ...

Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize, was forced on a death march, along with his father, Chlomo, from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, which he describes in his 1958 novel Night. Elie Wiesel Eliezer Wiesel (born September 30, 1928) is a world-renowned novelist, philosopher, humanitarian, political activist, and Holocaust survivor. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Nobel Peace Prize Medal featuring a portrait of Alfred Nobel The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequested by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. ... Slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp (Elie Wiesel is second row, seventh from left). ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Night Night is an autobiographical novella by Elie Wiesel based on his experience, as a young Jew, of being deported from the village of Sighet in Transylvania to the German death camp at Auschwitz, and later to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. ...

See also

• March of the Living Dead
• Trail of Tears
• Assyrian genocide

The common phrase Trail of Tears refers to the forced relocation of the Cherokee Native American tribe to the Western United States in 1838, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokee Indians. ... The Assyrian Genocide (Syriac: ) was an alleged genocide against the Assyrian population of the former Ottoman Empire. ...

References

• Holocaust encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York:Hill & Wang, 1960. Originally published as La Nuit by Les Editions de Minuit, 1958

External link

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum