Resources

Franziska was a German woman who was persecuted by the Nazis – because she was deaf. Under the 'Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring', more than 400,000 people were sterilised by the Nazis between 1933 and 1939 due to alleged genetic diseases. Under this law, every person diagnosed with schizophrenia, hereditary blindness, or any other condition that was believed to be genetic was forcefully sterilised; they would no longer be able to produce offspring. Franziska Mikus was one of more than 10,000 deaf victims.

When Debay was a child, government militia attacked his village in Darfur. He spent years living in a refugee camp and moving around Sudan. In 2015, he was forced to flee when he was arrested and condemned to death.

Helen was only twelve years old when the German army arrived at her home. She was one of around only 750 people to be liberated from the Łódź Ghetto, out of 250,000 people sent there. Her mother and brother survived with her, but her father was murdered at Chełmno.

Denise Uwimana lost many of her relatives in the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. She survived, but faced a difficult journey to forgive her neighbours who had murdered her family and stolen from her home. Hers is an inspiring story of courage, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Nisad is from Prijedor in Bosnia. He was imprisoned in the notorious Omarska Concentration Camp with four of his brothers in 1992.

Var’s life was changed forever in 1975, when Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge regime forced her family from their homes and into slave labour.

Helen was only twelve years old when the German army arrived at her home. She was one of around only 750 people to be liberated from the Łódź Ghetto, out of 250,000 people sent there. Her mother and brother survived with her, but her father was murdered at Chełmno.

Pastor Martin Niemöller is best known for writing First They Came - one of the most famous poems about the Holocaust - but he is a complicated figure. Initially an antisemitic Nazi supporter, his views changed when he was imprisoned in a concentration camp for speaking out against Nazi control of churches. He later encouraged Germans to take responsibility for Nazi atrocities.

Pierre Seel grew up in France, and was imprisoned by the Nazis for being gay at the age of 17. This life story explains how Pierre spoke out about his persecution.

Helene Melanie Lebel was one of approximately 250,000 people murdered by the Nazis because they were physically or mentally disabled.