Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January

On 27th January 1945 Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp, was freed. 27th January has been chosen as the date to remember the victims of all genocide.

Over one million children under the age of sixteen died in in World War II, not because of the bombs, but because they did not fit in as Hitler’s image of the "perfect" German. Many children and their parents living in countries, which had been invaded by the Germans, were imprisoned and killed because they were Jewish.

Hitler wanted to create what he saw was the perfect German, this meant that anyone who did not fit into his perfect image was persecuted (ill treated) and/or killed. Hitler persecuted German citizens who were Jewish, Gypsies, or otherwise "undesirables". By the end of World War II, six million Jews were killed because they were, in Hitler's eyes, 'different‘.

Anne Frank Anne Frank is one of the most famous victims of the holocaust. She was born on June 12, 1929 in Frankfurt, Germany. She was an ordinary German Jewish girl who enjoyed playing with her toys, riding her bike and going to the seaside.

Anne Frank Timeline 1933 - Adolf Hitler's Nazi party come to power in Germany Hitler begins his campaign against the Jews 1933 Anne Frank and her family move to Amsterdam where they hope to be safe from the Nazi Germans. May, 1940 - the Germans invade the Netherlands May 1942 - all Jews aged six and older are required to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothes to set them apart from non-Jews. Jews are arrested just for being Jews. June 1942 - Anne starts writing her diary July 1942 - Frank family go into hiding August 4, 1944 - Their hiding place is discovered and they are arrested. September 3, 1944 - Frank family are transported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. October, 1944, Anne and Margot are transported from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. March 1945 - Anne dies in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, from Typhus

Anne Frank is well known because of her diary. Anne received a diary from her parents on her 13th birthday in 1942. Through her diary people all over the world are able to see what life as a persecuted Jew was like during World War II. Anne describes in her diary how she felt while she was in hiding, and how it was very hard to survive in such a small living space. Anne Frank did not become famous until after her death in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and after the liberation of all concentration camps. Otto Frank, the only surviving member of the people hiding in the Secret Annex, later had Anne's diary published.

"I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die "I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, and I can't do anything to change events anyway. I'll just let matters take their course and concentrate on studying and hope that everything will be all right in the end." - February 3, 1944

Holocaust Memorial Day is not just about what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany…it also remembers the millions of people who got killed in genocides in other countries like … Bosnia Cambodia and Rwanda

Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January