Arrival and selection of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz (#77324)

Date: May 1944

Photo credit: Yad Vashem Photo Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives

Photographer: Bernhard Walter

Photo description

Arrival and selection of Hungarian Jews at Auschwitz. At left, Rosa Goldenzeil holds her grandson Dani Jakubovitch. On the right is Armin Riter who had accompanied his mother and sisters to the women’s side before rejoining his brothers and father on the men’s side.

Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust.  The Jews in this photograph are wearing the Yellow Star of David that was required by the Nazis as a means of identification and humiliation.  In 1933 approximately nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Germany during the war.  By 1945, two out of every three European Jews had been killed.