Museum Entrance

1. Museum Entrance The Second World War Memorial. Visit the Curator Concentration Camps Japanese Internment Camps German Prisoners of War Room Four Welcome to the Lobby

2. Group #10 Add Picture Here Add biographical statement here Back to Lobby Note: Virtual museums were first introduced by educators at Keith Valley Middle School in Horsham, Pennsylvania. This template was designed by Lindsey Warneka under the direction of Dr. Christy Keeler during a Teaching American History grant module. View the Educational Virtual Museums website for more information on this instructional technique.

3. Concentration Camps Back to Lobby

4. Japanese Internment Camps Back to Lobby

5. German Prisoners of War Artifact 9 Back to Lobby

6. Japanese Internment Camp Pt. 2 Back to Lobby

7. Concentration Camps. Insert Artifact Picture Here The couple first concentration camps in Germany were established soon after Hitler became chancellor in January 1933. In the years 1939–1942 saw a ‘boom’ in the concentration camp system. After the start of the war, the concentration camps also became sites for the mass murder of small targeted groups deemed dangerous for political or racial reasons by the Nazi authorities. For say, several hundred Dutch Jews were rounded up in retaliation for a Dutch transit strike in protest of Nazi persecution of Jews in the Netherlands in the winter of 1941. Some big Concentration Camps are Auschwitz Birkenau, Belzec, Bergen Belsen, Buchenwald, and Flossenburg. Back to the Lobby

8. Buchenwald Liberation. Insert Artifact Picture Here Buchenwald, one of the largest Concentration Camps out of other 20,000 Camps in Germany, near Weimar. The Nazis began to evacuate Buchenwald in early April 1945, causing thousands of prisoners to move farther out of Allied reach. The camp was liberated by four soldiers in the Sixth Armored Division of the US Third Army, commanded by General George S. Patton. There were approximately 21,000 prisoners on the day it was liberated. The camp was constructed in 1937 in a wooded area. In August 1944, the SS staff killed Ernst Thälmann, chairman of the Communist Party of Germany before Hitler's rise to power in 1933, in Buchenwald after holding him there for many years. Back to Room 1

9. Auschwitz Liberation. Insert Artifact Picture Here Auschwitz was one of six Nazi annihilation camps, and was the last one still working in the final months of the war. This took place on January 27, 1945. The Red Army gained detailed information about Auschwitz only after the liberation of Cracow, and was then unable to reach the gates of Auschwitz before January 27, 1945. As the Soviets approached Auschwitz, most of its population was sent west on a death march. More than 15,000 died during the death marches from Auschwitz. “And they said, ‘From now on you do not answer by your name. Your name is your number.’ And the delusion, the disappointment, the discouragement that I felt, I felt like I was not a human person anymore.” -Lilly Appelbaum Lublin Malnik. Back to Room 1

10. Stutthof Liberation. Insert Artifact Picture Here Established in September 1939, the Stutthof Concentration Camp was liberated by the Soviet forces. The Soviet forces also liberated the Sachsenhausen and the Ravensbrueck concentration camps. In late April 1945, the remaining prisoners were removed from Stutthof by sea, since Stutthof was completely surrounded by Soviet forces. The camp was liberated on May 10, 1945 with an estimated 85,000 victims. The camp staff consisted of SS guards and, after 1943, Ukrainian auxiliaries. In late April 1945, the remaining prisoners were removed from Stutthof by sea, since Stutthof was entirely encircled by Soviet forces. The former prisoner of Stutthoff and Lithuanian writer Balys Sruoga later wrote a novel Diev? miškas (The Forest of Gods) describing the daily life of this camp. Back to Room 1

11. Topaz Internment Camp. Insert Artifact Picture Here The Topaz Internment Camp opened in 1942 in the state of Utah. Most of the prisoners were coming from the San Francisco area. The government forced these individuals to abandon businesses, houses, and most of their belongings with very little notice. At first it was not a pleasant place. When the prisoners arrived, they found a dry, windy landscape. Dust blew through the cracks in the barracks walls and covered everything. But many of them got to work making the place more beautiful with gardens. The guards would fire warning shots when people got too close to the barbed wire fence. One man was deaf and shot and killed by a guard. The camp was closed in October of 1945. Back to Room 2

12. Life In Japanese Internment Camps. Insert Artifact Picture Here Japanese Americans were required to live in Animal Stalls such as horse, pig, and, cow stalls. You had no privacy and the mattresses were made of hay, the roofs had cracks so dust could get in and easily which could possibly suffocate someone. During Free time they would have fun and play games and sports. Sometimes they would have talent shows. Most people found jobs in the camps such as schools, stores, barbers, etc. Others found jobs outside of camps but were usually helping farmers. Back to Room 2

13. How Japanese Camps Began. Insert Artifact Picture Here The Japanese Camps were started because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The U.S. was scared that the Japanese Americans might give information to Japan and another attack would take place. About 120,000 of people put into the camps were US citizens. They were not allowed to take anything that wasn’t carried by hand so often their washers, dryers, and other possessions were sold. Back to Room 2

14. German P.O.W. In The U.S. Insert Artifact Picture Here From 1942 to 1945, 425,000 German prisoners were shipped to the United States and detained in camps in the rural areas of the country. There were 700 camps in 46 of the 50 states. Prisoners were paid military wages which was a minimum of 80 cents per day. They could work on farms or anywhere else but only if they were paid for their labor. As the United States sent millions of soldiers overseas, the resulting shortage of labor eventually meant that German POWs worked toward the Allied war effort by helping out in canneries, mills, farms and other places deemed a minimal security risk. Its estimated that the United States saved 80 million dollars by using the prisoners as military installations. Back to Room 3

15. Nazi P.O.W. In The U.S.S.R. Insert Artifact Picture Here Approximately three million German prisoners of war were captured by the Soviet Union during World War II, most of them were captured after the soviet union liberated the concentration camps. The prisoners were employed as forced labor in the economy and post war reconstruction. By 1950 almost all had been released. In 1956 the last surviving German POW returned home from the Soviet Union. A German historian maintains that it seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that one million died in Soviet custody. He also believes that there were men who actually died as prisoners of war amongst those as listed as missing. Back to Room 3

16. Nazi P.O.W. In The U.K. Insert Artifact Picture Here Large numbers of German prisoners of war were held in Britain between September 1939 and late 1948. Their numbers reached a high of around 400,000 in 1946. The treatment of the prisoners was generally humane, while still strict. The British government also introduced a program intended to demonstrate to the prisoners the evils of the Nazi regime. Some 25,000 German prisoners remained in the United Kingdom voluntarily after being released from prisoner of war status. Back to Room 3

17. Poston Memorial Monument Insert Artifact Picture Here The Poston Relocation Center was made up of three camps, Poston I, II and III. The internees dubbed them Roasten, Toasten and Dustin. Contractor Del Webb brought in a crew of 5,000, who worked double shifts. Construction on Poston I began March 27, 1942, and was finished in three weeks. The other camps were done in fewer than 120 days. Guard towers were not built because the location was so remote. The Poston Relocation Center was made up of three camps, Poston I, II and III. The internees dubbed them Roasten, Toasten and Dustin. Contractor Del Webb brought in a crew of 5,000, who worked double shifts. Construction on Poston I began March 27, 1942, and was finished in three weeks. The other camps were done in fewer than 120 days. Guard towers were not built because the location was so remote. Back to Room 4

18. Granada Internment Camp. Insert Artifact Picture Here The Granada War Relocation Center, better known as Amache, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Found near the Town of Granada in southeastern Colorado, Amache is a nationally significant, outstanding example of a WWII relocation center. Amache opened in August 1942 and remained open during the duration of WWII until 1945. Amache today is underutilized despite its exemplary historic national significance. The site exists today as it did when the War Relocation Authority selected the site in 1942 – a generally treeless prairie controlled by sagebrush, sunflowers, and prickly pear cactus. It does, however, retain remarkable intact tangible historic, namely archaeological, resources that consist of foundations of camp facilities, trees planted by former Amache internees, one of three surviving relocation center cemeteries and original dirt and gravel roads. Back to Room 4

19. Manzanar Internment Camp. Insert Artifact Picture Here There were ten war relocation centers were built in remote deserts, plains, and swamps of seven states; Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Manzanar, located in the Owens Valley of California between the Sierra Nevada on the west and the Inyo mountains on the east, was typical in many ways of the 10 camps. The first couple of Japanese Americans to arrive at Manzanar, in March 1942, were men and women who volunteered to help build the camp. On June 1 the War Relocation Authority (WRA) took over operation of Manzanar from the U.S. Army. Back to Room 4