Plaszow Concentration Camp
It is well known that the Holocaust concentration camps were a gruesome place to be. People are aware of the millions of deaths that have occurred in these concentration camps. The Plaszow concentration camp was a dreadful place for Jews everywhere in Europe at the time. Beginning with the history of Plaszow, to the man who enjoyed torturing Jews and then the man who salvaged thousands of lives, Plaszow concentration is remembered vividly in many Jewish people’s minds.
The Plaszow concentration camp had many distinct physical features. Before Plaszow was a concentration camp it was two Jewish cemeteries (Plaszow-Krakow Forced Labour Camp). The camp was twenty-five acres large and was originally meant to hold 2,000 to 4,000 prisoners (Plaszow-Krakow Forced Labour Camp). Plaszow was surrounded by barbed wire and the camp was broken up into many different sections (Plaszow). The camp had barracks designated for the Germans, factories, warehouses, a woman’s and men’s camp, and an educational labor camp for prisoners that broke the rules (Plaszow).
The prisoners were ordered to do many horrific things in this camp. Plaszow was the most common forced labor camp for Jews located in Krakow
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Oskar Schindler was a German Industrialist and a previous member of the Nazi Party (Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) ). Schindler had many jobs, including working in his father’s machinery business, opening a driving school, selling government property, and serving in the Czechoslovak army (Oskar Schindler). At first, Oskar was motivated by money and he did not care if the way he got that money was unfair or illegal, but then his mindset changed when he noticed all of the victims from the Holocaust (Oskar Schindler (1908-1974) ). He then changed his goal from making as much money as possible to saving as many Jews as he could from Plaszow and Auschwitz (Oskar
Thousands upon thousands of innocent Jews, men, women, and children tortured; over one million people brutally murdered; families ripped apart from the seams, all within Auschwitz, a 40 square kilometer sized concentration camp run by Nazi Germany. Auschwitz is one of the most notorious concentration camps during WWII, where Jews were tortured and killed. Auschwitz was the most extreme concentration camp during World War Two because innumerable amounts of inhumane acts were performed there, over one million people were inexorably massacred, and it was the largest concentration camp of over two thousand across Europe.
(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) “Special Camp housed Jews from Poland who held papers, passports, entrance visa, etc. issued by foreign countries” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The “Neutral Camp was reserved for several hundred Jews who were citizens of neutral countries.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The "Star Camp was reserved for about 4,000 Jewish prisoners who were to be exchanged for German nationals interned by the Allies” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The living conditions were appalling.
In the height of the war, Oskar Schindler recognized that he could use his power and prestige to do more good by saving people’s lives rather than just by making money. As the persecution of the Jews increased, Schindler felt compelled to save lives by hiring the Jewish people to work for him in his factory. If a Jewish person was not considered skilled or useful, they were in danger of being sent off to death camps. Oskar Schindler would hire many Jews (skilled or unskilled) to prevent them from being sent to their death. Not only did he employ them, he also housed...
As common knowledge, people normally recognize the term “concentration camp” and immediately refer to the prison camps the Jews were sent to during the Holocaust. In Corrie Tenboom’s famous collective story of her imprisonment, The Hiding Place, she writes in visual description of exactly how the Jews were treated in these camps. Women were forced to stand naked in front of Nazi guards for not much reason at all and made them feel less than human and animalistic. The people were beaten and killed on a regular day basis. One of the worst parts of these camps were the barbaric gas chambers. Men, women, and children would be fooled and dragged into chambers in groups to stand and be slaughtered by the dozen. Concentration camps are what can be known as the cruelest and most barbaric part of World War II history.
"Treblinka Death Camp Revolt". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Niau S. Archer H.E.A.R.T., n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
Oskar Schindler accomplished many things within his life, such as saving the Jews, being a German spy, and helping the economy. His accomplishments have benefited those throughout his life. Although his kindness for his fellow man ran deep, so did his greed for boosting his own personal status within the community. There are still those today that believe that Oskar Schindler only saved the Jews for his own personal gain, but there are also those that believe that he did it out of kindness. Whether he did it out of good morale or simply for his own greed, Oskar Schindler 's many accomplishments have impacted plenty of lives.
Auschwitz Concentration Camp “Get off the train!”. Hounds barking loud and the sound of scared people, thousands of people. The “Now!”. I am a shaman. All sorts of officers yelling from every angle.
Primo Levi tells the readers the explicit details of the concentration camp Auschwitz, in his memoir, “Survival in Auschwitz.” The way in which the author talks about the camp is as if it is its own society. There is a very different and very specific way of life at the camp; their basic needs are provided for them, but only in the simplest form in order to have a small chance of survival. There is no clean, drinkable water, so instead they drink coffee, they eat soup twice a day, and a small amount of bread (26). There are thousands of diverse people living in the camp, who are forced to live with each other and work in a factory, reducing their self-worth to merely factors of production. The author illustrates the only purpose for the Jews is work; “This camp is a work-camp, in German one says Arbeitslager; all the prisoners, there are about ten thousand, work in a factory which produces a type of rubber called Buna, so th...
Living conditions in these camps were absolutely horrible. The amount of people being kept in one space, amongst being unsanitary, was harsh on the body.
Questioning the holocaust ever happening can be disputable, yet evidence of gas chambers inside surviving Nazi camps proves murders were in fact committed inside the camps. Concentration camps were estimated to have killed 6 million Jews, yet the total number of deaths committed in such a structure has people doubting whether these camps were capable of such slaughter. However, evidence found in the surviving structures reveal that camps like Auschwitz had the capability to exterminate thousands. A supporter of this theory is Filip Muller, a surviving Jew forced to dispose of dead bodies into gas chambers, better known as a Sonderkommano. In his book Eyewitness Auschwitz, Muller reveals blueprints found in Auschwitz labeled “Auschwitz II-Birkenau extermination camp,” discovered in the Nazi archives (174). These blueprints are similar to the surviving concentration camps such as Treblinka, Warsaw, and Belzec. Each exter...
Swieboka, Teresa. “Memorial and Museum: Auschwitz-Birkenau.” Online Posting. 21 Oct 1999. Panstwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau. 19 April 2005. http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/html/eng/s_techniczna/indes.html>.
The holocaust was a horrific period of time where unbelievable criminal acts were carried out against the Jews, Gypsies, and other racial gatherings. These defenseless individuals were sent from unsanitary ghettos to death camps, one being Auschwitz. The Auschwitz death camp comprised of three camps, all in which are placed in Poland. Numerous forms of extermination came about overtime to speed up the killing process. Life at the death camps was cut short for those who weren’t fit to work; such as the elderly, women, the mentally disabled, and young children. The others were put work while being starved to death. Experiments were held on dwarfs, twins, and other misfits were carried out by Josef Mengele. These inhuman acts against the Jews were all held in secret from society by the Nazis until liberation day.
" The businessman, Oskar Schindler, demonstrated a powerful example of a man who was moved emotionally to step in and take action to save the lives of the Jewish people. His bravery still commands great respect today. His role shows the great significance of speaking up against injustice and choosing not to be silent.
The Auschwitz camp was incredibly big and horrific that it was known as a “death factory.” The death rate of this camp ranged from three to four million people. Closely by the camps, one witnessed the horrors, the guard towers, the barracks, the barbwire fences, gas chambers, furnaces, and even...
Oskar Schindler was a very complex and dynamic man. When the Nazi party rose to power and began to dominate and discriminate against people of Jewish decent, he took advantage of the situation and joined the Nazi party and moved to Poland to start a new business using the cheapest labor available—Jews. Schindler became congenial with the Nazis in authority there, partying, schmoozing, and sharing his wealth with them. From this he gained influence and contracts to produce goods.