United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

06/12/2026

For many Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt ghetto, soccer kept hope alive. Leave a ⚽ below in their memory.

06/10/2026

These people were punished for something they didn't do.

In May 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking N**i official, was assassinated in Prague. The N**is needed someone to blame for his death, so they randomly chose to punish the nearby Christian town Lidice.

In early June 1942, German police and SS officers shot all of the men and boys in the town. Most of the women and children were sent to concentration camps and killing centers.

Then the N**is burned Lidice to the ground.

The brutal destruction of Lidice was a warning sign to any who dared to defy the N**is.

Photo: Library of Congress

06/10/2026

Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns was fatally shot on June 10, 2009, by an avowed antisemite, Holocaust denier, and racist, while protecting visitors and colleagues.

Officer Johns’s outgoing personality and generous spirit endeared him to all who entered the Museum. His memory occupies a permanent place in our hearts. https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/in-memoriam/stephen-tyrone-johns-1969-2009?utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=otd&utm_content=officerjohnsmemorialpost20260610

06/06/2026

D-Day helped turn the tide against the N**is. It began on this day in 1944.

Thousands of US, British, and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, in the largest sea and air invasion in history.

By D-Day, the N**is and their collaborators had murdered more than five million European Jews. Jews still in ghettos, concentration camps, and in hiding celebrated the invasion, hoping the end of the war was near. 📷: National Archives

The D-Day invasion was the largest amphibious attack in history. Read articles and browse photos and videos of Allied forces invading Normandy on June 6, 1944.

06/04/2026

One essay at a time, Holocaust survivors are ensuring their experiences are never forgotten and their lessons echo through time.

06/04/2026

The N**is created the Lebensborn program to increase the number of "A***n" German children. But eventually the program became involved in something terrible.

06/01/2026

Thousands of miles away from N**i Germany, Heskel Haddad could have never imagined that N**i propaganda would lead to violence in his native Iraq.

When Iraq formed a pro-German government in 1941, antisemitic propaganda was already widespread throughout the country.

The new Iraqi government hoped to secure full independence from Great Britain by allying itself with Germany and the Axis powers. In response, the British occupied the country. Because they perceived Jews as collaborating with the British, Iraqi policemen and soldiers incited a pogrom—a violent attack against the Jewish community—in June 1941 in Baghdad.

Eleven-year-old Heskel remembered the moment he realized the violent mob was attacking Jewish homes. He heard a neighbor scream, “God save us.” Then came his striking realization: “‘Us’ meant more than just a single Jew in jeopardy. This wasn't just another sickening but isolated outrage. The unseen sword hung over all of ‘us.’”

As the mob moved through the Jewish quarter, Heskel and his family hid on the roof of their home. When the mob grew closer—even breaking down the door to their home—Heskel began throwing bricks at their attackers. Eventually, he scared them away.

The pogrom, now known as the Farhud, resulted in the deaths of 150–180 Iraqi Jews.

Photo: The Otniel Margalit Collection, Yad Yitzhak Ben Zvi Archive

05/25/2026

They weren't just fighting a war; they were trying to destroy an ideology that had targeted them.

Thousands of young men who had fled N**i persecution, including many Jews, joined a secret US military intelligence program that helped defeat the Germans during World War II.

Using their language skills and knowledge of local culture and geography, the soldiers interrogated thousands of civilians and N**i war criminals. They discovered German tactics and contributed information to counter them.

Starting with D-Day, these American refugees were involved in every major battle the US Army fought in Europe. Some even lost their lives while helping their new country to victory. 📸 US Army

“Ritchie Boys” is a term used for American soldiers who trained at Camp Ritchie during World War II. Several thousand were Jewish refugees from Europe.

05/16/2026

This 23-year-old helped change the course of history.

During the Holocaust, the N**is trapped about half a million Jews inside the Warsaw ghetto, where they lived and died in terrible conditions.

Believing he and others left in the ghetto would soon be sent to their deaths, Mordecai Anielewicz made a plan to fight back. In spring 1943, about 700 resistance fighters—mostly young adults—armed themselves with whatever they could use or find and held off N**i forces for 27 days.

The N**is were taken by surprise. They burned the ghetto block by block to crush the uprising. Thousands of Jews were killed. Those captured were murdered in a killing center or imprisoned in N**i camps.

The ghetto fighters' determination inspired Jews to fight back across N**i-occupied Europe.

Before he died in a bunker, Mordecai wrote: “Jewish self-defense in the Warsaw ghetto has become a fact. Jewish armed resistance and revenge have become a reality.”

Click the link to learn more.

Photo 1: USHMM, courtesy of Louis Gonda
Photo 2: Yad Vashem

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/warsaw-ghetto-uprising?utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=otd&utm_content=warsawghettouprisingends20260516

05/15/2026

These photos were never meant to be found.