Jewish deportees march through the German town of Würzburg to the railroad station on April 25, 1942.
US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration
Wolf Gruner, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Holocaust scholars long relied on documents and survivor testimonies to help reconstruct the history of that tragic event. Now, they’re turning to wordless witnesses to learn more: pictures.
A looted Jewish shop in Aachen, Germany on the day after Kristallnacht, Nov. 10, 1938.
Wolf Gruner and Armin Nolzen (eds.). 'Bürokratien: Initiative und Effizienz,' Berlin, 2001.
Wolf Gruner, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Most histories highlight the shattered storefronts and synagogues set aflame. But it was the systematic ransacking of Jewish homes that extracted the greatest toll.
Passengers aboard the MS St. Louis from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo Archives.
Courtesy of Dr. Liane Reif-Lehrer. Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
We can learn a lot about our past from fictional stories. In ‘What is Left the Daughter,’ author Howard Norman presents a cautionary tale from the Second World War of xenophobia and prejudice.
Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History; Founding Director, USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences