The Ending

The Holocaust ended in 1944 and 1945, when the Allied armies began to liberate the concentration camps one by one from July 1944 on. The Allied forces defeated and occupied Nazi Germany and took control of the country. They liberated the camps, one by one, from July 1944 onwards. For most it was too late: the victims were dead. Hitler committed suicide and after his death many leading Nazis and war criminals went into hiding for fear of punishment. The Allies defeated Nazi Germany, and that ended the Holocaust. There were no Allied actions that specifically targeted the Holocaust.

 

HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY (Heb. יוֹםהַשּׁוֹאָה; Yom ha-Sho'ah). In a resolution passed by the Knesset (April 12, 1951) the 27^th day of Nisan was proclaimed as "Holocaust and Ghetto Uprising Remembrance Day – a day of perpetual remembrance for the House of Israel." This date was chosen because it falls between that of the *Warsaw Ghetto uprising (which began on the first day of Passover) and the Israel War of Independence Remembrance Day (on Iyyar 4), and also because it occurs during the traditional mourning of the Counting of the Omer. The Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Law of *Yad Vashem (1953) determined that one of the tasks of the Yad Vashem Authority is to inculcate in Israel and its people awareness of the day set aside by the Knesset as Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. On March 4, 1959, the Knesset passed the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day Law, which determined that tribute to victims of the Holocaust and ghetto uprising be paid in public observances. An amendment to the law (1961) required that places of entertainment be closed on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Outside Israel, however, Holocaust Remembrance Day is usually celebrated on April 19, the day on which the Warsaw Ghetto uprising broke out according to the civil calendar. The rabbinate in Israel has ruled Tevet 10 as the Day of Kaddish on which persons commemorate the Yahrzeit ("memorial anniversary") of relatives, victims of the Holocaust, whose date of death is unknown, with prayer and study.

Eck, Nathan, and Michael Berenbaum. "Holocaust Remembrance Day." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 9. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 495. Gale World History In Context. Web. 12 Aug. 2011.



"The Hall of Remembrance at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum." Encyclopaedia Judaica. Ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 9. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. Gale World History In Context. Web. 12 Aug. 2011.

 

 

"Dachau." Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction. Ed. John Merriman and Jay Winter. Vol. 2. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 763-766. Gale World History In Context. Web. 12 Aug. 2011