The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1941 and 1945.
The Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race that posed a deadly threat to the German "Volk."
Soon after taking power, the Nazis adopted measures to exclude Jews from German economic, social, and cultural life and to pressure them to leave the country.
World War II provided Nazi officials with the opportunity to pursue a “final solution" to the Jewish question: the murder of all the Jews in Europe. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/art…
Fifty years ago this week, when I was a 21-year-old college senior, I was in the Soviet Union, sent by the government of Israel to smuggle in Jewish religious items ...
@Google@DennisPrager 2/
and smuggle out names of Jews who wanted to escape the Soviet Union and could then be issued a formal invitation to Israel.
I was chosen because I was a committed Jew and because I knew Hebrew and Russian. I was no hero, but the trip did entail risk.
@Google@DennisPrager 3/
The Soviets did not appreciate people smuggling out names of Soviet citizens who sought to emigrate, information the Israeli government and activist groups in America used to advocate on their behalf.