The seeds of hatred
The Jewish people
An introduction to the Jewish people, their religious and cultural beliefs.
The origins of anti-Semitism
Anti-Jewish prejudice has religious and cultural origins and dates back to ancient times.
Medieval anti-Semitism
During the Middle Ages, European Jews were isolated, marginalised and persecuted.
The blood libel
The most pernicious anti-Jewish claim was the allegation they murdered children.
19th century anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism persisted in the 19th century, fuelled by Zionism and conspiracy theories.
The Protocols of Zion
A forged pamphlet provided the impetus for 20th century anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism outside Europe
Though less intense than in Europe, anti-Semitism could be found around the world.

Who were the Nazis?
Adolf Hitler
His miserable youth in Vienna fuelled the Nazi leader’s embittered anti-Semitism.
Nazi anti-Semitism
The Nazi Party was a safe harbour for ultra-nationalists and bigoted Jew-haters.
Heinrich Himmler
The chicken farmer turned SS commander who oversaw the Final Solution.
Joseph Goebbels
The failed writer whose speeches and propaganda fuelled anti-Jewish sentiment.
Julius Streicher
The teacher who whipped up anti-Semitism with stories of smut and scandal.

The enemy within
Anti-Jewish laws
In the 1930s the Nazis enacted laws to extract Jews from German public life.
‘Kristallnacht’
In November 1938 the Nazis launched a three-day orgy of anti-Semitic destruction.
World War II
The 1939 invasion of Poland triggered a world war – and the Nazi conquest of Europe.
Europe under the Nazis
Nazi occupation cast a dark cloak over Europe, particularly for its Jewish population.
Jewish resettlement and ghettos
The SS began identifying Jews and forcing them from their homes into overcrowded ghettos.
Jewish property seizures
Under the cover of war, corrupt Nazis pilfered vast amounts of Jewish wealth and property.
The Warsaw ghetto uprising
Not all Jews accepted their fate submissively – like a band of partisans in the Polish capital.
Forced labour
The Jews, like the other conquered peoples of Europe, were forced to labour by the Nazi war machine.

The Final Solution
The Wannsee conference
The 1942 Berlin meeting where Nazi hierarchs signed the death warrant of European Jews.
The SS
The Nazi paramilitary elite was responsible for carrying out the horrors of the Final Solution.
The einstazgruppen
The first wave in the Nazi genocide was conducted by mobile killing squads.
Concentration camps
The network of Nazi labour and extermination camps extended across occupied Europe.
Auschwitz
The most notorious death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was built in 1942 in southern Poland.
Oskar Schindler
Czech-born Nazi businessmen Oskar Schindler saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews.

Aftermath
Liberation of the camps
Allied liberated a string of Nazi concentration camps, uncovering evidence of atrocities.
The Nuremberg trials
Nazi war crimes convinced the Allies that a multinational legal response was needed.
Nazi fugitives
The hunt for Nazi war criminals continued for decades and spanned five continents.
Holocaust denial
Some modern historians and extremists claim the Holocaust to be fraudulent or exaggerated.
Anti-Semitism today
Nazism may have perished but anti-Jewish prejudice lives on in the modern world.