19505_HMD_Cover:Layout 1 - Holocaust Education Trust Ireland

It is true that not all victims were Jews...
T-4 Euthanasia Programme – The Murder of People with Disabilities
Hitler initiated this programme in 1939 to kill elderly people, the terminally ill and people
with disabilities, whom the Nazis referred to as ‘life unworthy of life’. Although it
was officially discontinued in 1941 due to public outcry, the killings continued covertly
until 1945. It is estimated that 200,000 people with disabilities in Germany and Austria
were murdered.
Manfred Bernhardt, USHMM
Political opponents
The torching of the Reichstag national parliament building in 1933 gave the Nazis a
pretext for brutally suppressing the Communists and later the Social Democrats. The
Nazis abolished trade unions and co-operatives, confiscated their assets and prohibited
strikes. As early as 1933, the Nazis established the first concentration camp, Dachau, as
a detention centre for political prisoners.
Political opponents being arrested. Berlin, Germany, 1933
Poles and Slavs
Hitler ordered that the Polish intelligentsia and professionals were to be destroyed. Tens
of thousands were murdered or sent to concentration camps. Polish children did not
progress beyond elementary school, and thousands were forcibly taken to Germany to
be ‘Aryanised’ and reared as Germans. Three million Poles were murdered by the Nazis.
A Polish prisoner, Julian Noga, at the Flossenbürg concentration camp, Germany
Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)
The Nazis deported thousands of Gypsies to many of the ghettos and concentration
camps. In 1941 Himmler ordered the deportation of all Romanies living in Europe to
be murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000
Roma-Sinti people were murdered by the Nazis.
Amalie Schaich survived the Gypsy camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Black, mixed race and ethnic minorities
In 1933 the Nazis established Commission Number 3, in which hundreds of children
and adults of African ancestry were forcibly sterilised. According to Nazi philosophy,
this would preserve the ‘purity of the Aryan population’. By the outbreak of the Second
World War, thousands of black, mixed race and ethnic people had fled, and most of
those who remained were annihilated.
Images used for lectures on genetics, ethnology, and race breeding, USHMM
Homosexual victims
Thousands of gay men were arrested by the Nazis and sent to prison or concentration camps, where
they were subjected to harder work, less food and stricter supervision than other inmates. Hundreds
were put to death, and thousands died from the appalling conditions and brutality. Homosexuality
remained on the German statue books as a criminal offense until 1969, and many former gay internees
had to serve out their original prison sentences with no allowance for the time they had
served in the camps. This deterred many of the survivors from telling their stories.
Albrecht Becker, ©Schwules Museum, Berlin
Christian victims: Priests, nuns and religious leaders
Thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses were murdered by the Nazis for their refusal to salute
Hitler as ‘Saviour’ or to serve in the German armed forces. Thousands of Catholics,
Protestants, and others of Christian affiliation were persecuted and killed. There were
also hundreds of Christians, Quakers and others who actively opposed the Nazi regime,
many of whom risked their lives to save Jews.
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Magdalena Kusserow, Jehovah’s Witness, Photograph courtesy IWM