Eliza Taub , Section Editor January 16, 2020
Over the course of the Holocaust, six million Jews were murdered. Approximately 42,500 ghettos and camps came into existence throughout Hitler’s rule in Germany from 1933-1945. The Holocaust is considered one of the most horrific war crimes ever committed. The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located in Battery Park, is a memorial dedicated to the horrifying events of the Holocaust. The museum is mainly focused on the Jews who were murdered during World War II. These photos capture the horror and tough truths of the Holocaust.
This train car has been positioned outside the entrance to the museum. This individual car held at least 150 people at one time, carrying them to their deaths. One Holocaust survivor quoted in the exhibit claimed that everyone was “pushed like sardines” into the train cars by SS men (Schutzstaffel organization).
One of the very first things you see when you enter the exhibit is barbed wire from Auschwitz.
Soon, you work your way to this poster. This poster is from 1934, and it portrays the Nuremberg Laws. The first Nuremberg law, known as the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor, declared that anyone with three to four Jewish grandparents counted as a Jew, could only marry another Jew, and would have Jewish children. This poster is also what classified Jews as a race, not a religion. Jews were defined as a biologically separate group, and this poster excluded them from German citizenship.
This is a uniform from an individual who was locked away and working in a concentration camp. Some of the work was as useless as moving gigantic heavy rocks one day from one side of the field and then back to the original spot during the following day. Another job was sorting clothes. One Holocaust survivor, who later tells her story on film, said that she was sorting clothing one day that came off those thrown into gas chambers, the top sweater happened to be her brother’s.
This is a “doctors” uniform. One of the primary jobs for doctors was to evaluate inmates regarding their value for work capacity or to decide if they should be put to death. Georg Renno, a doctor, became the director of the mass murder T4 program (program to kill mentally disabled, ill, and elderly people) in 1943.
This chart shows how people’s hair, eye, and skin color were assessed. Being born in Germany just was not enough to be considered German. You had to look the part too. In order to be a “pure” German, you had to have blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin.
The photo on the bottom left is a picture of someone being evaluated for “purity.”
There is another wall in the museum full of mugshots. This young girl is just fourteen years old. She was taken to a concentration camp with her mom in 1942, and they were separated from each other later on. The child was beaten on the face just before this photo was taken, and she later died in 1943.
This is a gas mask worn by one of the many Nazis that contributed to the mass murders of the Holocaust.
This whip was once used at Auschwitz. Individuals were whipped for trying to get extra food, not working hard enough, for creating a toy, and even for no reason at all. Nazis viciously used these whips. People’s lives could be ended from one harsh beating.
This sign, originally from Auschwitz, indicated where people were headed.
When you reach the third floor of the exhibit, things start to become the most heartbreaking. This is a pair of socks once worn by an eight year old girl. She wore these socks, handmade by her mother, to muffle her footsteps when in hiding.
This is a young boy’s shoe and sock, taken off before entering what he thought was just a shower. He left that shoe and sock waiting, but never got to put them back on.
This is an image projected in a video focused on the Death March. Jews walking this march had to continue walking all through the day and all through the night, until they reached a huge field, where they could finally get some rest. Everyone was so hungry that all the grass in the field was gone in a matter of minutes. Along the walk, many of the people died from starvation and exhaustion, as shown above.
This is a pot from which soup was served. Soup was made from foods loaded with starch, which didn’t make for a healthy or satisfying meal.
This is a map and model of Auschwitz. It is set toward the very end of the third floor, just before you exit the whole exhibit.
This quote from Auschwitz survivor, Charlotte Delbo, is shown at the very end of the exhibit. So many people were murdered purely because their religion or their physical traits did not meet German standards proclaimed by Hitler. This survivor is encouraging all of us to make it a point in our lives to do something that matters. We must do something to validate our existence so that the 6 million Jewish deaths will not have been for nothing.