More handpicked essays just for you.
Survival in Auschwitz and experiments
Survival in Auschwitz and experiments
The treatment that the nazis gave the jews in the 1930s and 1940s
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Auschwitz Death Camp
Auschwitz was a death camp in Poland during World War II. Auschwitz held anyone from Jews to anybody that spoke out against Hitler. Auschwitz was not known to the public until after the war. Auschwitz was one of the most horrible camps of World War II because of the setup of the camp, the treatment of prisoners, and the death toll. Auschwitz will always be remembered as one of the worst places during World War II.
The Auschwitz death camp was built in Poland, April 1940. Auschwitz was one major camp that was also separated into three smaller camps; Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz 2; and Auschwitz 3. Known as the Gate To Hell, Auschwitz was the biggest concentration and extermination camp during World War II. Auschwitz had 18 barracks,
A lot of the time a prisoner would wake up to find their bed-mate dead. The entire purpose of the Auschwitz camp was to kill the prisoners within its fences. Everyone from the guards to the cooks worked for that. The prisoners were given a number and that became their name and identity. Afterward, their real identity was lost. The inmates were treated more like animals than humans in the camp.
Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest killing center, also known as Auschwitz II. It was in Upper Silesia. SS authorities established Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. During the deportation of the Hungarian Jews, Auschwitz-Birkenau reached its killing maximum. The SS guards gassed about 6,000 Jews a day. By November of 1944, the SS guards had killed more than one million Jews, and thousands of Romanians, Polish, and Soviet prisoners.
At least 865,000 Jews were killed right when they arrived. The majority were killed in the gas chambers. The best estimate of the number of people who died at the Auschwitz concentration camp between 1940 and 1945 were: Jews (1,095,000 deported to Auschwitz, 960,000 died); Poles (147,000 deported, 74,000 died); Roma (23,000 deported, 21,000 died); Soviet prisoners (15,000 deported and died); and other nationalities (25,000 deported, 12,000
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.
The notorious detention camp, Bergen-Belsen, was constructed in 1940 and “was near Hanover in northwest Germany, located between the villages Bergen and Belsen” (jewishvirtuallibrary.org), hence the name. Originally, the “camp was designed to hold 10,000 prisoners” (jewishvirtuallibrary.org) but, Bergen-Belsen rapidly grew. “In the first eighteen months of existence, there were already five satellite camps.” (holocaustresearchproject.org). Eventually, the “camp had eight sections: detention camp, two camps for women, a special camp, neutrals camp, ‘star camp’, Hungarian Camp, and a tent camp.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) It also held prisoners who were too ill/weak to work at the “convalescent camp” (Bauer, Yehuda, p.359)
“By the end of 1942, over a million Soviet Jews died” (USHMM). This is a very large number of people to die in only half a year. During the summer of 1942, 137,346 Jews were killed, according to S.S. Karl Jaegers report. Almost all Jews in small towns in Lithuania are killed. 35,000 survivors are put into forced labor (USHMM).
Imagine the worst torture possible. Now imagine the same thing only ten times worse; In Auschwitz that is exactly what it was like. During the time of the Holocaust thousands of Jewish people were sent to this very concentration camp which consisted of three camps put into one. Here they had one camp; Auschwitz I; the main camp, Auschwitz II; Birkenau, and last is Auschwitz III; Monowitz. Each camp was responsible for a different part but all were after the same thing; elimination of the Jewish race. In these camps they had cruel punishments, harsh housing, and they had Nazi guards watching them and killing them on a daily basis.
In March of 1933 the first Nazi concentration camp was opened and by the end of World War II there was over 40,000 camps all together. While in these camps Jewish people were subjected to cruel and inhumane punishments
Auschwitz was a very brutal camp as soon as someone stepped off the train. Most people would not last more than an hour at this horrific camp. The largest killing camp is also known for the largest number of deaths. People getting killed, left and right. The number of recorded deaths at Auschwitz was reported to be 1.1-1.3 million Jews (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
The Auschwitz complex was located in Poland and was composed of three main camps (Auschwitz). Auschwitz I, the central camp, was constructed in 1940 and covered approximately 15 square miles (Auschwitz). Auschwitz II, Auschwitz- Birkenau, was constructed in 1941 and became the extermination camp of the Auschwitz complex. In 1943, four large crematorium buildings were constructed (Auschwitz). The Auschwitz-Birkenau crematoriums were the targets of the proposed bombings during WWII. . Auschwitz III was constructed in 1943 and was primarily a labor camp (Auschwitz). These camps composed the largest and most infamous Nazi death camp.
Only 7,000 emaciated survivors of a Nazi extermination process that killed an estimated six million Jews were found at Auschwitz” (Rice, Earle). Most of these deaths occurred towards the end of the war; however, there were still a lot of lives that had been miraculously spared. “According to SS reports, there were more than 700,000 prisoners left in the camps in January 1945. It has been estimated that nearly half of the total number of concentration camp deaths between 1933 and 1945 occurred during the last year of the war” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events in the world’s history.
The Holocaust was one of the most horrifying crimes against humanity. "Hitler, in an attempt to establish the pure Aryan race, decided that Jews, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma (Gypsies), and homosexuals amongst others were to be eliminated from the German population. One of his main methods of exterminating these “undesirables” was through the use of concentration and death camps. In January of 1941, Adolf Hitler and his top officials decided to make their “final solution” a reality. Their goal was to eliminate the Jews and the “impure” from the entire German population. Auschwitz was not only the largest concentration camp that carried out Hitler's “final solution,” but it was also the most extensive. It was comprised of three separate camps that encompassed approximately 25 square miles. Although millions of people came to Auschwitz, it is doubted that more than 120,000-150,000 ever lived there at any one time. (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust)
After World War II the world began to here accounts of the atrocities and crimes committed by the Nazi’s to the Jews and other enemies of the Nazis. The international community wanted answers and called for the persecution of the criminals that participated in the murder of millions throughout Europe. The SS was responsible for playing a leading role in the Holocaust for the involvement in the death of millions of innocent lives. Throughout, Europe concentration camps were established to detain Jews, political prisoners, POW’s and enemies of the Third Reich. The largest camp during World War II was Auschwitz under the command of SS Lieutenant Colonel Rudolf Hoess; Auschwitz emerged as the site for the largest mass murder in the history of the world. (The, 2005)
At first, the camps were controlled by the Gestapo (police), but by 1934 the S.S. (Hitler's personal security force) was ordered, by Hitler, to control the camps. (Feig, 20) These camps were set up for many different purposes: Some for forced labor, others for medical experiments and, later on, for the mass destruction of the Jews. (Feig, 21) However, there was never a clear idea from camp to camp as to the true purpose. Was it to extract labor or merely to kill? We do know that Auschwitz was designed for those three reasons stated. Its ultimate goal though was to exterminate as many people possible in the shortest amount of time.
Though the sands of time are ever shifting, there remain some events in human history that should never be forgotten. One such event is the Holocaust, and one of the most infamous objects to come out of the Holocaust was the death camp known as Auschwitz. Auschwitz open in 1940 and would become the largest concentration camp under the Third Reich. During World War II, more than 1 million people would lose their lives in that camp. The first Commandant of this horrible killing center would be Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Höss.
Auschwitz was comprised of three death camps, all in which are located in Poland. In May of 1940, Auschwitz I was built. Auschwitz I was equipped with a gas chamber and crematorium for elimination of small groups. Experiments by Josef Mengele were held at Auschwitz I. One thing that Auschwitz was known for was the labor work. A famou...
Edward Bond, a playwright who lived through WW2, says that, “Humanity has become a product and when humanity is a product, you get Auschwitz” (BrainyQuote 1). This means that when humanity becomes a privilege to some and not a natural right to all, then things like Auschwitz and in turn the Holocaust happen. The Holocaust death camps were considered both mentally and physically inhumane; the total effect of them shows the true level of inhumanity they installed. The death camps were mentally inhumane to the prisoners especially during the first few days because most inmates had some to all of their family taken away and killed. The camps tore families apart and people watched as their loved ones were left to be killed.
...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