With Hitler's rise to power in 1933, the Nazi Party achieved dictatorial rule in Germany. One of the characteristics of the Nazi regime was the deification of the leader. Intense propaganda and large scale events, along with Hitler’s charismatic personality, sought to control the citizens under a pseudo-religious cult of leadership.

View images of Hitler and the Nazi Party.

By 1942, the Nazis had devised a more "efficient" way of commiting mass murder, and established death camps. A network of railway lines transported people to mechanized killing factories, where they were murdered step by carefully worked out step. In these death camps, using a unique, industrialized form of genocide, the Nazis murdered millions of Jews.

Follow the industrialized murder process established by the Nazis.

At the end of the war, an estimated 50,000 Jews were liberated from concentration and forced labor camps. These survivors saw no future for themselves in their home countries. Many of these Jewish displaced persons (DPs) wanted to emigrate to Palestine and the U.S., but immigration restrictions barred them from doing so. In the meantime, they were housed in DP camps, temporary shelters where some waited for years for new laws that would help them begin lives overseas. They used the waiting period to study, work, establish political parties and newspapers, and rebuild their health and their lives.

View images of survivors beginning to rebuild their lives in DP camps.