The Nazis rose to power, leading to concentration camps being created. The Nazis had a whole system planned out for each concentration camp, but life in the camps was not easy.
The Nazis rose to power, which lead to a time in history that will never be forgotten. The Nazi party came into power in 1933 (Jane 4). Soon after the first concentration camps were made in Germany (ushmm.org). The reason behind the Nazi party rising in power is “the Nazis wanted to create a new German empire, the Third Reich. This empire was to be far bigger than Germany, so it would have to take over other countries. The Nazis wanted the Third Reich to be full of Germans who would obey Hitler and the Nazis” (Jane 4). During the time concentration camps were being made “the police and local authorities organized numerous detention camps to incarcerate real and perceived opponents of the Nazi party (ushmm.org). The Nazis rose to power, which later caused concentration camps to be made.
Each concentration camp has a whole working system that was used. “As Germany conquered much of Europe in the years 1939- 1941, the SS established a number of new concentration camps to incarcerate increased numbers of political prisoners, resistance groups, and groups deemed racially inferior, such as Jews and Roma (Gypsies).” New camps were made for the Extraction of raw materials. The goods that had been extracted or produced by prisoner labor were sold to the German Reich. In the meantime subcamps were made for every concentration camp. They were located in or near sites used for the extraction of raw materials. Meanwhile a SS Death's - Head units was assigned to every concentration camp. They wore a Death's Head symbol on their lapels (ushmm.org). Eventually fifteent...
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...ould be beaten to death in front of all the other prisoners(Jane 27). IN the meantime prisoners were being killed for no reason. Concentration camps became sites of mass murder for small groups called dangerous for political or racial reasons (ushmm.org). One reason so many died is because of the work they were forced to do(David 27). During this period, gas chambers were made to kill several people at the camps. They were in many camps. One was made in Dachau later, but was never used (ushmm.org). In the camps of Belzec and Sobibor, the dead bodies were burned. In Treblinka dead bodies were buried in mass graves, but dug up an burned later. The ashes from the bodies were spread on the surrounding countryside (David 21). The Nazis rising to power lead to concentration camps being made and the suffering that went on in the camps are all part of the Holocaust history.
Jewish citizens and families are being sent to these camps, held there forced to do work. They are put in chambers where multiple people, large groups and families are gassed with Zyklon B, and are left for dead. Nazis are sent to kidnap Jewish people right out of their houses to send them to these camps. Others were also just shot and killed on the spot. The jewish people tried to resist, but it is difficult with lack of weapons and resources. Hitler was trying to gain power and land from this genocide. He thought that if he took over the world he could be the most powerful person. He also wanted revenge, he was angry about the outcome of WWI and this sparked his interest to get back at his
Poland was devastated when German forces invaded their country on September 1, 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. Still suffering from the turmoil of World War I, with Germany left in ruins, Hitler's government dreamt of an immense, new domain of "living space" in Eastern Europe; to acquire German dominance in Europe would call for war in the minds of German leaders (World War II in Europe). The Nazis believed the Germans were racially elite and found the Jews to be inferior to the German population. The Holocaust was the discrimination and the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its associates (Introduction to the Holocaust). The Nazis instituted killing centers, also known as “extermination camps” or “death camps,” for being able to resourcefully take part in mass murder (Killing Centers: An Overview).
While being forced to live in Auschwitz they endured many cruel and harsh punishments. The main form of punishment was the gas chambers. These chambers were cells that were made underground and were able to be sealed. Zyklon-B was the poison used to gas and kill the Jewish people. “It takes about 10 minutes to kill 2,000 to 3,000 people in the gas chamber.” (Saldinger p.57) After gassing they would then be extracted from the chamber and taken to the crematorium where the bodies would be disposed of. Sometimes it wasn’t even the guards who would dispose of the bodies, most of the time it was the prisoners who were forced to extract their own people from the chambers. This was just one of the many forms of punishment; there were many more and some were just as bad.
Many medical experiments went on during the holocaust, mostly in concentration camps. These subjects included Jews, Gypsies, twins, and political prisoners. The experiments included many of these people never survived many were killed for further examination. The Jewish people got the full wrath of the injections, inhumane surgeries, and other experimentations. Twins were also desirable in these experiments to show a controlled group. Gypsies and political prisoners were experimented with, because they were there for the Germans disposal. Thousands of people died in these horrible experiments. These experiments were performed to show how the Jewish race was inferior to the Aryan race.
How would you feel if you were forced out of your home to go to a camp where you shall be incarcerated for an unknown amount of time in an unknown location. You have no idea what will happen to you and your family. Why were you forced into the camps? Because of your ethnicity or beliefs. Japanese internment camps and Holocaust concentration camps both left their hateful marks in the fabric of history. During World War II, the Holocaust concentration camps were located around Central or Eastern Europe while the Japanese internment camps were located in the Western United States. Both types of camps have interesting similarities. However, one must realize that despite this similarities, these camps were very different in many ways. Yet, one thing is certain. We must learn more about this dark time in history in order to prevent such acts of hatred and paranoia from ever happening again.
The Third Reich sought the removal of the Jews from Germany and eventually from the world. This removal came in two forms, first through emigration, then through extermination. In David Engel’s The Holocaust: The Third Reich and the Jews, he rationalizes that the annihilation of the Jews by the Germans was a result of how Jews were viewed by the leaders of the Third Reich-- as pathogens that threatened to destroy all humanity. By eliminating the existence of the Jews, the Third Reich believed that it would save the entire world from mortal danger. Through documents such as Franzi Epsteins’s, “Inside Auschwitz-A Memoir,” in The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, one is able to see the struggle of the Jews from a first-hand account. Also, through Rudolf Hoess’s “Commandant of Auschwitz,” one is able to see the perspective of a commandant in Auschwitz. In Auschwitz: A History, Sybille Steinbacher effectively describes the concentration camp of Auschwitz, while Hermann Langbein’s People in Auschwitz reflects on Rudolf Hoess’s power and control in Auschwitz as commandant. Through these four texts, one is able to see the effects that the Third Reich’s Final Solution had on the Jews and the commandants.
Having such large authority, Hitler persuaded the SS, police, SA, and the local civilian consultants to design and produce the first of many concentration camps located near Munich (Vasham). This building was used as a model for the other remaining 15,000 sites. These locations were constructed to conceal Jews, Homosexuals, gypsies, and the mentally ill along with Communist, Socialist, German liberals, and anyone who was considered an enemy of the Reich (Vasham). In 1939 there were six main sites, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Flossenbeurg, Mauthausen, and, for women, Ravensreuck. Each of these places held circa 25,000 prisoners that were surrounded by filth and bounded by barb wire on fences. The labor camps w...
The Jews, leftwing politicians, and Communists were the scapegoats of the crushing German loss of World War I. These groups were called traitors and hated for “stabbing Germany in the back.” The German Nazi party’s sense of national pride led to the want to “cleanse” Germany and create a “pure German people.” This caused tem to force this group of people into concentration camps where many died. Although the Allied forces did strive to free those kept in concentration camps and death camps in World War II, more could have been done to have stopped the murder and persecution perpetrated by the Nazis.
The Nazi Party, controlled by Adolf Hitler, ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. In 1933, Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany and the Nazi government began to take over. Hitler became a very influential speaker and attracted new members to his party by blaming Jews for Germany’s problems and developed a concept of a “master race.” The Nazis believed that Germans were “racially superior” and that the Jewish people were a threat to the German racial community and also targeted other groups because of their “perceived racial inferiority” such as Gypsies, disabled persons, Polish people and Russians as well as many others. In 1938, Jewish people were banned from public places in Germany and many were sent to concentration camps where they were either murdered or forced to work. Many individuals and groups attempted to resist Nazism in Germany, but were unsuccessful. The White Rose, The Red Orchestra and the Kreisau Circle all advocated non-violent resistance to oppose the Nazi regime and even with the high risk of getting caught and potentially killed, the courageous members of these groups went after what they believed was right despite the serious consequences.
form of hard labor, for weeks or months. Auschwitz was the end of the line
The first concentration camps were set up in 1933. Hitler established the camps when he came into power for the purpose of isolating, punishing, torturing, and killing anyone suspected of opposition against his regime. In the early years of Hitler's reign, concentration camps were places that held people in protective custody. These people in protective custody included those who were both physically and mentally ill, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews and anyone against the Nazi regime. By the end of 1933 there were at least fifty concentration camps throughout occupied Europe.
The Nazi soldiers arrested masses of male adult Jews and held them captive in camps for short periods of time. A death camp is a concentration camp designed with the intention of mass murder, using strategies such as gas chambers. Six death concentration camps existed: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka.... ... middle of paper ...
The Holocaust was a state sponsored, systematic, mass genocide of around six million Jews that started in 1933. The Holocaust was initially fueled by the thought by the German Nazi’s that Germans with blonde hair and blue eyes were superior over any other group that did not match up to the Germans appearance wise.. With the Jewish people generally not fitting the so called perfect racial and physical criteria, Jews were persecuted by the Nazis. The Nazi leader , Adolf Hitler was the poster man of the campaign against the Jews. Hitler is well known for his “ toothbrush ” moustache and his responsibility of the Holocaust. Hitler and his fellow German leaders used the term “The Final Solution” to disguise their ultimate plan for total Jewish annihilation. To accomplish Hitler’s mission for Jewish extinction, Hitler had Jews taken to concentration camps that ranged from Germany and Poland to Ukraine and all the way back to France. Concentration camps served two main purposes. To dehumanize and to demoralize. Concentration camps were meant to make the Jewish people so desensitized and so fearful that they would never think to rise up in rebellion. Jews were taken to concentration camps for mainly three reasons alone. To be killed, to be laborers, or to be held before being killed. One particular camp in itself had over one million casualties, the same camp is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable and commonly talked about concentration camps even in the modern world today. That particular camp is known by the name of Auschwitz.
On both sides of the walls there were deep ditches running the entire length of the perimeter. Inside, the camps always had an Appellplatz, meaning a roll call square. An Appellplatz was a stand where prisoners would often stand for hours while waiting to get their names called indicating that they were present, many times prisoners would often be executed on the blocks as well. Prisoners of these camps didn’t just die of execution many died from hunger, and disease as well due to the inhumane way they were treated. The estimated number today that died from result from inhuman slave labor, hunger and disease is at least 500,000. In the camp the sick the old and those who couldn’t keep up with the work were selected and then killed with gas, injections, or shot. Others were chose for “Pseudo- scientific experiments” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2016), which meant they most often lost their life’s. Concentration camps were horrific but the Nazis found a way to top the idea of a concentration camp and that idea was an extermination camp dating from 1941-1945. An extermination camp was a camp constructed with the purpose of mass murdering Jews. A total of 6 extermination camps were established for the genocide of the Jews. Nazis murdered around three million Jews which was half of the six million
...throughout Europe as they did in Auschwitz and Majdanek. These horror stories are only a few out of the hundreds of camps that the Nazis built during World War Two. The Holocaust was a devastating event for the Jewish population as well as many other minorities in Europe. The Holocaust was the largest genocide that has ever occurred. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. This death toll is extremely high compared to smaller camps. These camps were some of the largest concentration/death camps that existed during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a tragic time where millions of people considered undesirable to the Nazis were detained, forced to work in the harshest of conditions, starved to death, or brutally murdered.“The Holocaust was the most evil crime ever committed.” –Stephen Ambrose