9781422282878

Prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp at Ebensee, Austria, when they were liberated by the U.S. Army in 1945.

nority religions, women, and others produced instability, poverty, and civil conflict. In Europe itself, the immediate aftermath of the war played out in further ethnic conflicts. The war bred animosities that were carried over into postwar Europe. For instance, ethnic Germans fled or were evicted frommany areas in Eastern and Central Europe in the massive population transfers at the end of the war. Human Rights H uman rights were at the center of many of these conflicts. Since the end of World War II, the international community has tried to find ways to implement policies that would address grievances of minority groups that had suffered. Specifically, the United Nations, formed when the war ended, took the lead in protecting the rights of minorities. Abusing the rights of humans, especially those belonging tominority groups, was not new in world history. However, World War II brought the issue to the forefront in a new way. During the war, the Nazis in Germany exterminated more than 6 million Jews, Roma (gypsies), homosexuals, and persons with mental and physical disabili- ties, an atrocity now known as the Holocaust. The Nazis committed this genocide

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WOMEN, MINORITIES, AND CHANGING SOCIAL STRUCTURES