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Cioma Schönhaus
Samson "Cioma" Schönhaus (28 September 1922 in Berlin – 22 September 2015 in Biel-Benken) was a German graphic artist and writer who lived illegally as a Jew in hiding in Berlin during World War II. He forged hundreds of identity documents to help other Jews survive during this time. He worked closely with members of the Confessing Church, including Franz Kaufmann and Helene Jacobs. He ultimately escaped from Berlin to Switzerland by bicycle in 1943, where he remained until his death. For the escape, he used a military identity card that he had forged himself. His memoir, "The Forger," was published by Granta Books in 2007, translated from the German original (''Der Passfälscher'', published 2004). The feature film ''Der Passfälscher (The Passport Forger)'' from 2022 is also dedicated to his life; Schönhaus is portrayed here by Louis Hofmann. Schönhaus was interviewed for the docudrama ''The Invisibles (2017 film), The Invisibles'' that was released after his death in 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of Germany, being the List of German states by area, third smallest state in the country by area. Berlin is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and Brandenburg's capital Potsdam is nearby. The urban area of Berlin has a population of over 4.6 million and is therefore the most populous urban area in Germany. The Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr region, as well as the List of EU metropolitan areas by GDP, fifth-biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army (which embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces alongside the Soviet Navy) was renamed the "Soviet Army". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was split between the post-Soviet states, with its bulk becoming the Russian Ground Forces, commonly considered to be the successor of the Soviet Army. The Red Army provided the largest land warfare, ground force in the Allies of World War II, Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II, and its Soviet invasion of Manchuria, invasion of Manchuria assisted the un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Majdanek Concentration Camp
Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had three gas chambers, two wooden gallows, and some 227 structures in all, placing it among the largest of Nazi concentration camps. Although initially intended for forced labor rather than extermination, it was used to murder people an estimated 78,000 people during Operation Reinhard, the German plan to murder all Polish Jews within their own occupied homeland. In operation from 1 October 1941 to 22 July 1944, it was captured nearly intact. The rapid advance of the Soviet Red Army during Operation Bagration prevented the SS from destroying most of its infrastructure, and Deputy Camp Commandant Anton Thernes failed to remove the most incriminating evidence of war crimes. The camp was nicknamed Majdanek ("little Majdan") in 1941 by local residents, as it was adjacent to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theresienstadt Ghetto
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination camps. Its conditions were deliberately engineered to hasten the death of its prisoners, and the ghetto also served a propaganda role. Unlike other ghettos, the use of slavery was not economically significant. The ghetto was established by the transportation of Czech Jews in November 1941. The first German and Austrian Jews The history of the Jews in Austria starts after the Jewish diaspora, exodus of Jews from History of ancient Israel and Judah#Roman occupation, Judea under Roman occupation. There have been Jews in Austria since the 3rd century CE. Over the cour ... arrived in June 1942; Dutch and Danish Jews came in 1943, and prisoners of a wide variety of nationalities were sent to Theresienstadt in the last months of the war. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Free State of Prussia, Prussia into one organisation. On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), Heinrich Himmler, who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936. Instead of being exclusively a Prussian state agency, the Gestapo became a national one as a sub-office of the (SiPo; Security Police). From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). It became known as (Dept) 4 of the RSHA and was considered a sister organisation to the (SD; Security Service). The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. The power of the Gestapo was used to focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious org ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-Jewish Laws
Anti-Jewish laws have been a common occurrence throughout the history of antisemitism and Jewish history. Examples of such laws include special Jewish quotas, Jewish taxes and Jewish "disabilities". During the 1930s and early 1940s, some laws were adopted in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. During World War II, they were exported to European Axis powers and puppet states. Such legislation generally defined Jews, deprived them of a variety of civil, political, and economic rights, and laid the groundwork for expropriation, deportation, and ultimately, they laid the groundwork for the Holocaust. Early history 19th century * May Laws: Temporary regulations regarding the Jews (also known as May Laws) were proposed by the minister of internal affairs Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev and enacted on 15 May (3 May O.S.), 1882, by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. 20th century Nazi Germany The 1933 Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service excluded all "non-Aryans", incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Judenvermögensabgabe
The ''Judenvermögensabgabe'' ("Jewish Capital Levy") was an arbitrary special tax imposed on German Jews under the Nazi dictatorship. The tax was only a part of a larger series of actions taken by the Nazis to systematically plunder Jewish assets. After the assassination attempt on the German Legation Secretary Ernst Eduard vom Rath and the November pogroms in 1938, Hermann Göring demanded a contribution payment of one billion Reichsmark () as "atonement" for "the hostile attitude of Judaism towards the German people". The decree of 12 November 1938 on the expiation of Jews of German nationality ( RGBl. I p. 1579) was signed by Hermann Göring, who had been granted a general power of attorney in 1936 to issue ordinances. On the same day, the "Ordinance on the Elimination of Jews from German Economic Life" and the "Ordinance on the Restoration of the Street Image in Jewish Commercial Operations" were issued, followed three weeks later by the "Ordinance on the Use of Jew ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aryanization
Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis powers, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It entailed the transfer of Jewish property into "Aryan race, Aryan" or non-Jewish hands. "Aryanization" is, according to Kreutzmüller and Zaltin in ''Dispossession: Plundering German Jewry, 1933-1953'', "a Nazi slogan that was used to camouflage theft and its political consequences." The process started in 1933 in Nazi Germany with transfers of Jewish property and ended with the Holocaust. Two phases have generally been identified: a first phase in which the theft from Jewish victims was concealed under a veneer of legality, and a second phase, in which property was more openly confiscated. In both cases, Aryanization corresponded to Nazi policy and was defined, supported, and enforced by Germany's legal and financial bureaucracy. Michael Baz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mittelschule
''Mittelschule'' is a German term literally translating to "Middle School" (i.e. a level "intermediate" between elementary and higher education). It is used in various senses in the education systems of the various parts of German-speaking Europe, not necessarily equivalent the English term middle school (which is itself used in various meanings in various parts of the English-speaking world). Examples of such use include: *Austria, lower secondary education for pupils aged 10–14, see education in Austria *Germany **in some States of Germany, a school analogous to a ''Hauptschule'' **in other States of Germany, a combination of ''Hauptschule'' and '' Realschule'' **an education level positioned between ''Hauptschule'' and ''Gymnasium'' (i.e. the middle group of pupils in terms of academic ability in a system of parallel schools). *Switzerland, see also education in Switzerland **a general German term for a ''Gymnasium'', a secondary education, either for ages 15–18/19 (''S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Real School
Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), Finland (''reaalikoulu''), Hungary (''reáliskola''), Latvia (''reālskola''), Slovenia (''realka''), Serbia (''realna gimnazija/realka''), and the Russian Empire (''реальное училище''), including partitioned Poland (''szkoła realna''). Germany Situation of the school In the German secondary school system, ''Realschule'' is ranked between Hauptschule (lowest) and Gymnasium (school), Gymnasium (highest). After completing the ''Realschule'', good students are allowed to attend a professional Gymnasium or a general-education Gymnasium. They can also attend a ''Berufsschule'' or do an apprenticeship. In most states of Germany, students start the ''Realschule'' at the age of ten or eleven and typically finish school at the age ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Boycott Of Jewish Businesses
The Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses () in Germany began on April 1, 1933, and was claimed to be a defensive reaction to the anti-Nazi boycott, which had been initiated in March 1933. It was largely unsuccessful, as the German population continued to use Jewish businesses, but revealed the intent of the Nazis to undermine the viability of Jews in Germany. It was an early governmental action against the Jews of Germany by the new National Socialist government, which culminated in the "Final Solution". It was a state-managed campaign of ever-increasing harassment, arrests, systematic pillaging, forced transfer of ownership to Nazi Party activists (managed by the Chamber of Commerce), and ultimately murder of Jewish business owners. In Berlin alone, there were 50,000 Jewish-owned businesses. Earlier boycotts Antisemitism in Germany grew increasingly pervasive after the First World War and was most prevalent in the universities. By 1921, the German student union Deutscher Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scheunenviertel
(''German'': "Barn Quarter") is a neighborhood of Mitte in the centre of Berlin. It is situated to the north of the medieval Altberlin area, east of the ''Rosenthaler Straße'' and '' Hackescher Markt''. Until the Second World War it was regarded as a slum district and had a substantial Jewish population with a high proportion of migrants from Eastern Europe. History The name derives from several barns erected here outside the city walls in 1672 by order of Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg. The barns were used to store hay for use at a large cattle market at nearby Alexanderplatz. In 1737 King Frederick William I of Prussia required Berlin Jews to settle here. Prior to World War I, the Berlin City Council (''Magistrat'') redeveloped parts of the area. Since then the core of the neighborhood is the triangular Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, former ''Bülowplatz'', where on 9 August 1931 the Communist and later Stasi Executive Erich Mielke shot two police officers. Mielke fl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
