Just because it happened, doesn't mean it was inevitable
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| Crowd of Viennese children (#01510) |
| Date: March 1938 |
| Photo Credit: Oesterreichische
Gesellschaft fuer Zeitgeschichte, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives |
| Photographer: No photographer recorded |
Photo description
A crowd of Viennese children looks on as a Jewish youth is forced by Austrian Nazis to paint the word ‘Jude’ or Jew on his father’s store. The Nazi government annexed Austria in March 1938 and within the year expelled more than half of Austria’s Jewish population (Chronicle 122).
Relationship to guideline
The Holocaust was not inevitable; it took place because individuals, groups, and nations made decisions to act or not to act. In the photograph, both the Nazi official and the bystanders made personal choices about their level of participation in this event.