1/10 During the Holocaust, European Jews cried out to the world for help, desperate to escape Nazi persecution. Without legal protection, their lives hung in the balance. Some were granted refuge in foreign countries. Most found nowhere to turn. #WorldRefugeeDay 2/10 When thousands of Polish Jewish refugees arrived in Kobe, Japan, in 1940–41, the small Jewish community there coordinated a massive refugee relief effort.

1/5 Josef Kohout, 24, was young and in love. When he sent a Christmas card to his boyfriend in 1938, he had no idea that it would end up in the hands of the Vienna Gestapo and he would be arrested months later. #PrideMonth 2/5 Josef spent six years in prisons and concentration camps. He was one of 5,000–15,000 men sent to concentration camps for allegedly having sexual relations with other men. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/art…

1/9 The Museum is frequently asked how the photographs in our collections survived the Holocaust. This #WorldPhotographyDay, explore how photos were saved in different and sometimes miraculous ways. A thread: 2/9 Sophie Rakowski kept these photos of her sons, Sam and Israel, in her shoe while imprisoned in forced labor and concentration camps. Sophie and Sam survived. Israel did not.

1/ Making reckless comparisons to the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews, for a political agenda is outrageous and deeply offensive. Those who carelessly invoke Anne Frank, the star badge, and the Nuremberg Trials exploit history and the consequences of hate. 2/ Anne Frank was one of the 1.5 million children who died during the Holocaust. Her diary and tragic story is the first encounter many people have with the Holocaust. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/art…

Karl Gorath was just 26 when his jealous lover denounced him as a gay man. He spent years in the concentration camp system until he was liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. But after liberation, he faced another set of difficulties. 1/5 #PrideMonth #Pride2020 West Germany used the Nazi version of Paragraph 175, the law criminalizing homosexuality, for decades after the war. Under that law, Karl was arrested again in the 1950s. 2/5 #PrideMonth #Pride2020

Josephine Baker was at the peak of her fame in 1939—she had risen from a teenage vaudeville performer in America to the brightest star in Paris. But then, the Nazi regime began its stranglehold on Europe, and with it came the offer that changed her life. #BlackHistoryMonth (1/7) A French intelligence officer, Jacques Abtey, visited Josephine and asked her to become part of his network. “The Parisians gave me their hearts,” she responded, “and I am ready to give them my life.” (2/7)

Pierre Seel’s mother made this small memento out of a toy and her wedding veil while her son was imprisoned. In 1941, Pierre was arrested, tortured, and sent to a concentration camp in Alsace, France, for being a gay man. 1/5 His six-month imprisonment in the Schirmeck-Vorbrüch camp was one of hunger, hard labor, and brutal beatings. On one occasion, he was forced to watch as the SS used their dogs to kill Jo, his teenage sweetheart. 2/5

Karl Gorath was just 26 when his jealous lover denounced him as a gay man. He spent years in the concentration camp system until he was liberated from Auschwitz in 1945. But after liberation, he faced another set of difficulties. 1/5 West Germany used the Nazi version of Paragraph 175, the law criminalizing homosexuality, for decades after the war. Under that law, Karl was arrested again in the 1950s. 2/5