The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis during World War 2. In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be military occupied by Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed by the Nazis. 1.5 million children were murdered. This figure includes more than 1.2 million Jewish children, tens of thousands of Gypsy children and thousands of handicapped children.

The Holocaust is a history of enduring horror and sorrow. It seems as though there is no spark of human concern, no act of humanity, to lighten that dark history.

Yet there were acts of courage and kindness during the Holocaust - let me mention Emilie and Oscar Schindler, who continually risked their lives to protect and save their Jewish workers. To more than 1200 Jews the Schindlers were all that stood between them and death at the hands of the Nazis. But they remained true to the Jews. In the shadow of Auschwitz they kept the SS out and everyone alive - the Schindler-Jews miraculously survived ..

Today there are more than 7,000 descendants of the Schindler-Jews living in US and Europe, many in Israel. Before the Second World War, the Jewish population of Poland was 3.5 million. Today there are between 3,000 and 4,000 left.

You find the story of Oscar and Emilie Schindler here:
www.oskarschindler.com  www.emilieschindler.com


- Louis Bülow