Honoring the Unforgettable: A Personal Path to Remembrance

Holocaust History: A Calculated Path to Genocide

The Holocaust was not a single event but the culmination of a deliberate escalation of hate, made possible by a specific moment in history. Rising from the severe political and economic turmoil that engulfed Germany after World War I, the Nazi Party took power in 1933. They immediately began to weaponize centuries-old antisemitism, using powerful propaganda to scapegoat Jewish people as the cause of the nation's struggles.

The path to genocide was methodical. It began with dehumanizing legislation like the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, which stripped Jews of their citizenship, and erupted into state-sanctioned violence during the Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”) pogrom of 1938.

With the outbreak of World War II, the persecution escalated into mass murder. The regime forced Jews into overcrowded ghettos, deployed mobile killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) to murder entire communities, and established a vast network of concentration and forced-labor camps.

This brutal campaign culminated in the “Final Solution,” the state-sponsored plan for the genocide of the Jewish people, which was systematically carried out in purpose-built extermination camps.

Restoring Humanity by Moving from Numbers to Names

The history of the Holocaust is one of overwhelming scale, detailing the systematic destruction of millions of individual lives and an entire world of culture, tradition, and community. Faced with this immensity, it can be difficult to know how to honor the victims in a way that feels meaningful. For many, a powerful answer lies in turning from the vastness of the event to the story of a single person.

Exploring this history through your own family is one way to make that connection, grounding a global tragedy in a legacy that is yours to carry forward. These personal histories reveal the human reality behind the statistics.

Research might trace a family’s difficult journey as they sought to emigrate, or it might document their lives within a ghetto. Records may also shed light on acts of spiritual and physical resistance, or help you understand the fate of a relative within the vast network of Nazi camps and killing sites.

Expanded Access to Records through Ancestry Partnerships

Piecing together this history is now more possible than ever. Through dedicated partnerships, Ancestry provides free access to millions of records that can help illuminate your family's experience during the Holocaust.

• The Arolsen Archives hold a vast collection of documents on Nazi persecution, containing information on millions of victims. This month, more than 10 million new Holocaust-related records are now available on Ancestry, including:
  • Concentration camp lists, which are now fully indexed. These lists feature more than 8 million records and 500,000 images.
  • The tracing and documentation files, which now include more than 2 million records related to postwar inquiries to the International Tracing Service regarding the fates of those persecuted by the Nazi regime.
• The USC Shoah Foundation provides access to nearly 50,000 video testimonies from survivors, enabling you to hear the stories of this generation in their own words.
• Collections from JewishGen and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) provide crucial data to help you trace the movements and fates of individuals and entire communities.

By searching these records, you do more than just build a family tree. You reclaim the names, honor the memories, and bear witness to the lives of those who were targeted. It is a profound act of remembrance that keeps their stories alive for future generations.