Topics to study

The Museum has identified topic areas for you to consider while studying the Holocaust. An introduction to the topic areas is essential for a sense of the breadth of the history of the Holocaust.

The following topics also provide context for the events of the Holocaust: antisemitism, Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust, the aftermath of World War I, and the Nazi rise to power.

Introduction to the Holocaust

• Dictatorship under the Third Reich
• Early Stages of Persecution
• The First Concentration Camps

• World War II in Europe
• Murder of the Disabled ("Euthanasia" Program)
• Persecution and Murder of Jews
• Ghettos
• Mobile Killing Squads (Einsatzgruppen)
• Expansion of the Concentration Camp System
• Killing Centers
• Additional Victims of Nazi Persecution
• Resistance (Jewish Resistance and Non-Jewish Resistance)
• Rescue
• United States
• Death Marches
• Liberation

• Postwar Trials
• Displaced Persons Camps and Emigration