Friday, January 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day, designated by the United Nations in 2005. It commemorates the genocide that resulted in the death of an estimated 6 million Jewish people, 200,000 Romani people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario has created a virtual museum dedicated to helping scholars and the public better understand the Holocaust and resistance movements of World War II.
The University’s newspaper, the Daily News, describes what visitors will see in the online exhibit: “Using passages from concentration camp letters, first-hand accounts, videos, images, and explanatory text, the Madeleine and Monte Levy Virtual Museum of the Holocaust and the Resistance places the Holocaust and underground resistance movements in the larger context of World War II and documents the often devastating and tragic experiences of the people who lived during this time.”
The exhibit is divided into five modules: German Concentration Camps and Prisons; Jewish Underground Resistance collection; Underground Resistance in Europe; and Twin Drivers of Nazi Culture.
The first two modules about concentration camps and Jewish resistance include case studies about individuals and groups who experienced the horror.
Not to be overlooked is the extensive Resources section with links to the German Concentration Camps and Prisons collection, Jewish Underground Resistance, and theses — all free to access.
The Madeleine and Monte Levy Virtual Museum of the Holocaust and the Resistance virtual museum was developed by scholars and librarians at McMaster University Library. It incorporates items from the extensive World War II collections housed in the Library’s William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections.
