Importance of the Shoah

The Jewish people have a long history of persecutions. In this sense, anti-Semitism is a phenomenon as old as Hebrew culture itself. During World War II an event of a terrible magnitude occurred: six million Jews were exterminated in Nazi concentration camps. To refer to this episode, the term holocaust is normally used, but the Jews use the Hebrew word shoah, which literally means catastrophe.

Although more than 70 years have passed, the Shoah remains firm in the collective memory of the Jewish people, as it should.

Main consequences of the Shoah

After World War II ended, the surviving Jews had to face a painful period of mourning and a deep sense of alienation. Many suffered from anxiety, memory problems, and infectious diseases.

Some scholars have claimed that the survivors had been freed but were not free.

After the end of the Holocaust, those who managed to survive were faced with a dilemma: tell what had happened or remain silent.

Another of the direct consequences was a wave of migration to Israel and the United States. In any case, those who survived had to rebuild their lives with very few resources.

The end of the world war meant that European Jews had to be placed in different camps refugees, especially in Germany, Austria, France and Great Britain (the Soviet Union did not accept the refugees).

It is estimated that at the end of 1946 more than 250,000 Jews were displaced and without families. In this way, some of the former concentration camps became displacement camps.

The "final solution" of the Nazis particularly affected two sectors of the population Jewish: children and the elderly.

The most despicable behaviors and the most noble

The Jewish Holocaust reveals the worst of the human condition. call the attention that those responsible for the Nazis were cultured and educated people and despite this they launched a ruthless machine of mass extermination.

Although the Shoah is a story of terror and suffering, there were also notable episodes of nobility and dignity.

The different acts of generosity and dignity that many non-Jews had during the Holocaust are recognized annually by an organization, Yad Vashem. This institution pays tribute to those who acted with special courage during one of the most horrifying episodes that humanity has witnessed.

The awarded people are known with a typical denomination of the Judaism: righteous among the nations.

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