A peace treaty presented to the defeated Germany following World War I. The terms of the treaty imposed severe measures on Germany including significant loss of territory and demilitarization. The treaty further demanded that Germany take sole responsibility for World War I and extracted enormous reparations—payments for war damages—from the German government.
A site where Nazis kept prisoners while waiting to deport them to other camps. Some of these camps were run by SS forces and others were collaborative efforts between SS and local police forces, such as the French Police.
A term indicating the right to vote.
Under the 1933 Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, Nazi health officials required the sterilization of some 400,000 individuals suffering from presumed hereditary conditions, including schizophrenia, epilepsy, genetic deafness or blindness, and chronic alcoholism. Procedures including X-ray, surgery, or drugs intentionally removed a person’s ability to reproduce. Experiments with sterilization methods took place in several concentration camps between the years 1941 and 1945.
A ship carrying over 900 passengers who were mostly Jewish refugees, the St. Louis sailed from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuba in 1939. Cuba did not permit the ship to dock, nor did the United States; the ship was forced to return to Europe with all passengers on board. Over 250 of them were killed in the Holocaust.