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K n o w l e d g e i s p o w e r |
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| The haunting words
of George Santayana reminds
us that the lessons of history are invaluable in determining the
course of the future: "Those who forget the past are
condemned to repeat it." The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews during World War 2. In 1933 nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Nazi Germany during the war. By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed. The European Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust - but Jews were not the only group singled out for persecution by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime. As many as one-half million Gypsies, at least 250,000 mentally or physically disabled persons, and more than three million Soviet prisoners-of-war also fell victim to Nazi genocide. Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, Social Democrats, Communists, partisans, trade unionists, Polish intelligentsia and other undesirables were also victims of the hate and aggression carried out by the Nazis. |