Writing Resources
The Holocaust was the systematic bureaucratic state sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators In 1933 the Jewish population in Eourope was over nine million most living in countries that Nazi Germany would occupy or influence during World War II By 1945 the Germans and their collaborators killed nearly two out of every three European Jews as part of the Final Solution the Nazi policy to murder the Jews of Europe The opinion on Jews to non Jewish civilians ranged from indifference to complete hostility and as the danger and tension grew for European Jews so did the need for help People began to harbor Jews hiding them from German officials to avoid being taken away They risked their own lives to save what little of the population remained and for that reason we acknowledge and appreciate their efforts today There are countless people this essay could be on but one of the most interesting people was by far Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Elisabeth Wittelsback was born in Munich Bavaria Named after father s sister the Empress of Austria she was the fourth child of the ten born to Prince Maximilian of Bavaria and his wife Princess Ludovika in Possenhofen Castle To her friends and family Elisabeth was known as Sissi In August 1853 she went to Bad Ischl with her mother and older sister Helene to celebrate Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph’s 23rd birthday
