The Holocaust: Humanising the inhuman

The Holocaust was without doubt one of the most disturbing and harrowing events of the 20th century; the indisputable proof of man’s inhumanity to man.

Victims were forced from their homes, stripped of their identities and entire Jewish communities destroyed. Six million Jewish men, women and children were murdered in death camps or shot and their bodies burned by the Nazis and their collaborators. Many others were put through forced labour in concentration camps in brutal conditions of terror, hunger and without basic hygiene.

Before the “Final Solution” was implemented and as persecution intensified, some parents sought refuge for their children and attempted to send them abroad to live with strangers hoping that they would be safe. By the end of the Second World War 1.5 million children had been murdered in gas chambers or gas vans or shot. Some were subjected to horrific medical experiments.