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By Carrell Evans
President of the MonDak Historical & Art Society
Part 1 - An Introduction
On January 30, 1933, the twelve year nightmare of the Third Reich began with the appointment of Adolph Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. The Nazi regime launched the Holocaust shortly afterward. "The Holocaust was the state-sponsored, systematic persecution and annihilation of Europe's Jewry by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims - six million were murdered; Gypsies, the handicapped, and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic, or national reasons. Millions more, including homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war, and political dissidents also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny." (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, The World Must Know).
The twelve years of horror, destruction and death were experienced by individuals and peoples who could be generally grouped into four categories: Victims; Perpetrators and Collaborators; Bystanders; and Rescuers. Some of these persons or groups were in different categories at different times depending on the circumstances.
Oskar Schindler, named "Righteous Among Nations" by Yad Vashem for his rescue of over 1000 Jews during the Holocaust, was also, in the beginning, a Collaborator and a Bystander. His story is the subject of the Schindler, traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, which will open August 25, 2006, at the MonDak Heritage Center in Sidney, MT. The MonDak Heritage Center also will have several supporting exhibits on the background and history of the Holocaust.
Through a coming series of articles, information on several aspects of the Holocaust will give background for viewing the Exhibition. The world must learn this history because to allow the Holocaust to ever happen again in any form, anywhere in the world would be an even greater catastrophe.
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