Important Information

This is some important information that helped me to understand the background information about what is really going on in my book.

•  The Holocaust began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and ended in 1945 when the Nazis were defeated by the Allied powers.
• It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. Six million of these were Jews.
• The Nazis killed approximately two-thirds of all Jews living in Europe.
• An estimated 1.1 million children were murdered
• After World War II started in 1939, the Nazis began ordering Jews to wear a yellow star of David on their clothing so that Jews could be easily recognized and targeted.
• After the beginning of World War II, Nazis began ordering all Jews to live within certain, very specific, areas of big cities, called ghettos.
• To get them to cooperate, the Nazis told the Jews they were being transported to another place for labor
• The term "Holocaust," originally from the Greek word "holokauston" which means "sacrifice by fire," refers to the Nazi's persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people. The Hebrew word "Shoah," which means "devastation, ruin, or waste," is also used for this genocide.
•  There were only about 200,000 Jewish survivors by the end of the liberation and the death counts from the holocaust were estimated to be around 6 million Jews and millions of other people who did not fit the Aryan mold. [Blonde hair, Blue Eyes (Germans- Racially Superior)]
• The greatest mass-arrest of Jews ever carried out on French soil is known as the Vél’ d’hiv’ Round-up. It involved 13 000 victims from Paris and its suburbs. 
• Over slightly more than two days, the Round-up involved nearly a third of the 42,000 Jews deported to Polish death camps in 1942. The statistics for this terrible year account for over half of the total 76,000 Jewish deportations from France
• The initial establishment of concentration camps in France was a result of the French government, not because of pressure of the Germans
  Concentration and Extermination CampsConcentration camps- work and starve to death
  Extermination camps- the actual execution of the prisoners
  
  Places in Europe where Concentration and Extermination camps were:

Rosenberg, By Jennifer. "Holocaust Facts - 33 Facts You Should Know About the Holocaust." 20th Century History. Web. 11 Oct. 2010. http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/holocaustfacts.htm