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Concentration camps research paper
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Concentration camps in germany essay
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It's hard believe, but not all marches are fun. There are many types of marches, but has anyone ever heard of a death march? During the Holocaust, death marches were used as an evacuation technique to lead prisoners to their death in extreme conditions.
To start off, the marches were just used as evacuations from the concentration camps, so the Nazis wouldn't get caught, and most, if not all died on the way. The prisoners were treated terribly even before the march started, and, “they were divided into various “transports”- that is , crammed into open cattle cars and moved across Germany”,(Grunfeld, Benny. "Glossary." Wollheim Memorial. Wollheim Memorial, 11 Sept. 2007. Web. 01 May 2017.).This explains that the prisoners weren't treated
right and a lot died in the cattle cars. Although, there were some that survived the march, but some of those survivors were driven into the water and shot. Also, the prisoners were exposed to extreme conditions such as, temperatures below freezing, and receiving no food, water, or rest. Although, the marchers did stay together, one survivor says,“I was unable to walk and would never have reached the camp were it not for the French Doctor Orenstein and two other friends who helped me alternately¨.(Friedmann, David. "What Were the Death Marches?" The Holocaust Explained. The Wiener Library 2016, 1989. Web. 01 May 2017.) Most did not have adequate shoes for the winter, so a lot of the prisoner´s toes or feet would fall off because of frostbite. Most importantly, the marches were extremely infamous for the amount of casualties there were. For example, ¨During one march, 7,000 Jewish prisoners, 6,000 of them women, were moved from camps in the Danzig region bordered on the north by the Baltic Sea. On the ten-day march, 700 were murdered¨.(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "Death Marches." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 01 May 2017.) The amount of victims there is like a bee to an elephant, it doesn't compare. Sadly, the amount of deaths in the death marches are to much to count. To conclude, these death marches were devastating events that was an escape plan for the Nazis that cost so many lives. The marches were death sentences, for prisoners who did nothing wrong along with the rest of the victims of the Holocaust. The whole war was a tragedy and the death marches weren't even the least of it.
“Pitch darkness. Every now and then, an explosion in the night. They had orders on any who could not keep up.” (Page 91) In the book Night, by Elie Wiesel, this quote refers to what was known as a death march, during the time of the Holocaust. Due to the Soviet army, almost all of the concentration camps had to be evacuated. Most were by train or ship, but further into the war the Soviet army was close enough to put the German skies under their submission. This gave the Germans one choice, which was to move by foot. The only way to transport thousands of people on foot was to march, but not just any march. It was a death march. During these marches people would sing or hum to keep their spirits up. Most of the time it was Beethoven, which was ironic because Beethoven was a German. Most people in the death marches didn’t stand a chance. You either died from exhaustion or died from slowing down, then being shot by a German soldier. In the book, Elie referenced how many
They were forced by the German army to first walk, ride on cattle cars, then walk again for countless number of days. Stragglers and those who could not keep up were shot to death by the Germans, either in the back or in the chest. The long march was known as the Death March because the gutters and the ravines were filled with innocent civilians covered in blood. Bodies were lying all over the place - on top of hills and behind trees. It looked like a war zone. Some people who thought they could escape tried; some were successful, while most of them were killed. Finally, after several days, Lilly and the other prisoners arrived in a camp called
“Where to? Somewhere right in the depth of Germany, to the other camps; there was no shortage of them” (77). When the time had come for evacuation, they were being called off, block by block. Then, their turn : “Block 57, forward march” (80). The high winds contained massive amounts of snow and ice, always penetrating them. They marched relentlessly with a German official always in their ear telling them to move “faster, you filthy sons of bitches” (81). Their pace quickened, eventually forming into a trot and then finally into a full scale run. The German officials ran alongside them in the cold, bitter air. By the time they stopped running they had crossed 42 miles. 42 miles worth of running nonstop. Due to the German officials, if you stopped running they would shoot you before you could start again, and if the officials didn't get to you, the thousands of other running Jews would trample over you. Their legs probably wouldn't be able to stop them. As Elie described, “our legs were moving mechanically, in spite of us, without us”
Most guards treated the prisoners with complete disrespect. “There are eighty of you in the car. If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot, like dogs” (24). They beat the men in front of their own children and did not let them speak. They even called them filthy dogs because that is how they viewed them. “Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of this special pleasure” (Wiesel). This shows that the guards enjoyed killing the jews and did not care about what they wanted. The concentration camps could have easily been stopped simply if the guards refused to murder the innocent jews. By the guards not saying anything is the main reason why they were indifferent. They could have been scared because of their situation. They had weapons though and could have made a
Dehumanization was a big part of these camps. The Nazis would kick innocent Jewish families and send them to concentration or death camps. The main way they dehumanized these Jewish people is when they take all their possessions. In Night they go around taking all there gold and silver, make them leave their small bags of clothing on the train, and finally give them crappy clothing. All this reduces their emotions; they go from owing all these possessions to not having a cent to their name. If I was in that situation I would just be in shock with such a huge change in such a short amount of time. The next way they dehumanized the Jewish people were they stopped using names and gave them all numbers. For example in Night Eliezer’s number was A-7713. Not only were all their possessions taken, but also their names. Your name can be something that separates you from another person. Now they are being kept by their number, almost as if that’s all they are, a number. If I was in their place I would question my importance, why am I here, am I just a number waiting to be replaced? The third way they were dehumanized was that on their “death march” they were forced to run nonstop all day with no food or water. If you stopped or slowed down, you were killed with no regards for your life. The prisoners were treated like cattle. They were being yelled at to run, run faster and such. They were not treated as equal humans. If the officers were tired, they got replaced. Dehumanization affected all the victims of the Holocaust in some sort of way from them losing all their possessions, their name, or being treated unfairly/ like animals.
Every day was a constant battle for their lives, and they never got a break. So many people died from getting sick or from the things the guards would do and no one could save them. The food was bad and they had to hurt each other to get more food so that they wouldn’t starve. They were forced to turn against each other to survive when they never should have had to. Life was never the same for those who went to Auschwitz and survived.
...nal months of the war, SS guards moved camp inmates by train or on forced marches, often called “death marches,” in an attempt to prevent the Allied liberation of large numbers of prisoners.
Resistance: it takes many forms, from the simplest denial to an armed revolt. The Jews exhibited almost every form of resistance against the
During the Holocaust there were many different forms of resistance undertaken by Jewish people. These can be categorised into two main forms, armed resistance and passive resistance. Armed resistance was resistance by Jews and civilians who actively fought back, sometimes they managed to scavenge weapons and use them in attacks on Germans and the different enforcement groups such as the SS. Armed resistance took place mainly in ghettos and concentration camps however, also occurred on the streets of Nazi occupied Europe. Passive resistance was less aggressive and usually meant that Jewish people refused to deny their faith and still practiced their religion in some form. Illegal organisations, Jewish militias and underground political groups also formed, planning and executing attacks and resisting the Nazi rule in occupied Europe.
Genocide is the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group (Merriam-Webster). This is what Hitler did to the six million Jews during the Holocaust, which led to many Jews fighting back. This paper will talk about how the Holocaust victims fought back against Hitler and his army. The Holocaust was a mass killing of Jews and non-Jews who were viewed as unneeded within the world by Adolf Hitler. Hitler became leader of Germany and tortured and killed many people. With Nazi Germany killing and torturing millions of Jews and non-Jews, victims decided to fight back with armed and spiritual resistance.
Jewish people weren’t the only ones sent to concentration camps. People such as people with disabilities, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, and Socialists (Byers.p.12). Everyone that was sent to concentration camps was sent via train cars (www.historychannel.com). They had no food, water, or restrooms for up to 18 days. Many people died from the lack of food and water (Byers, p.15).
When I was younger, I always knew that my mom took her job very seriously, but I was never able to fully comprehend what she did as a teacher. Once I started getting older, I understood that in order to teach certain topics to students, she had to understand a lot about history. One of the topics she studied in order to teach her students was the history of the Holocaust, which indeed is very serious. Then I began hearing that word, “Holocaust,” in school and made the connection. That’s when the seriousness of her job started to resonate with me as a student as well as her daughter. One could probably say that this topic is interesting to virtually everyone who comes across it. However, for the reasons I indicated, it sparks a little bit more of an interest in me than the average person.
mythological names for the Parades for more of a rich tradition. Many of the Popular Parades are named after Greek Gods such as Bacchus, Orpheus, Endymion, and even the African parade, Zulu.
Thousands of people died in the hands of the Nazis in many camps they had. Only one comes to my mind the Treblinka Concentration Camp. The Treblinka camp was a secret weapon for the Germans to get rid of the Jews and Gypsies. There were two camps to Treblinka that was used to kill the innocent people. Walking in the footsteps of the innocent people to explore the camps. The revolt that brought an end to Treblinka Concentration Camp.
World War II was one of the biggest parts of the Holocaust. Not only did it change the course of the Holocaust but a part of the war was also to fix it. Initially, Hitler had complete control over what he was pulling off because nobody knew about it. He even covered it up during the Olympics to keep safe. But during the course of the war he had to change up his tactics. He knew he was going down so he decided to take down as many people with him as he could. He moved the captured "undesirables" to 'safer' places so he could continue his work. Death marches were a large part of this transition because he could kill of many people by moving them from one place to another and not have to waste any supplies on them. After the liberation at the end of the war most did not survive because the body does not easily recover from the torture that the Holocaust presented. But World War II was not the only aspect of the Holocaust.