Holocaust significance
The Holocaust shaped postwar global politics and ethics.
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The Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946) tried Nazi leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the new charge of genocide. The trials established that obedience to orders was not a defense and that there was an international law beyond the laws of individual states.
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The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) was written in direct response to Nazi crimes, establishing rights that no government could legitimately violate.
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The Genocide Convention (1948) made genocide a crime under international law.
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The State of Israel (1948) was created partly in response to the Holocaust, fulfilling Zionist aspirations and providing a national home for Jewish survivors and refugees.
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Memorial institutions (Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust museums in many countries) work to preserve memory of the Holocaust.
<mark>Why this matters for Maria's essay work:</mark> The Holocaust is the most powerful single case for the enduring issue of power and abuse of power, and the most powerful case for the enduring issue of human rights violations (which is its own enduring issue category on the test). It is also frequently used as a turning-point case for the development of international human rights law. Maria should be able to discuss the Holocaust in any of these frames.