Near the end of World War 2, the allies (France, Britain, Denmark, China, USSR, U.S, etc.) starting to invade Germany, taking control of the concentration camps. These concentration camps in Germany and surrounding countries were quickly evacuating prisoners to other, central concentration camps. These camps include, but are not limited to Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen, Gross-Rosen, Dachau, Flossenbuerg, and Buchenwald. Death marches were used to evacuate, or evakuieren in German, prisoners of concentration camps during the end of the Holocaust and the end of World War 2. The term ‘death march’ was actually created by the victims of these marches. One of the most well-known death marches was the march from Auschwitz to Wodzislaw. On January 18, 1945, prisoners of Auschwitz were taken to Wodzislaw. The prisoners were then taken to other concentration camps, such as the one listed in the previous paragraph. Seven days later Stutthof, a concentration camp located on the northern coast of Germany. Four months later, the Buchenwald concentration camp begins evacuation and death marches. In …show more content…
However, prisoners were killed in large groups before and after death marches. The victims of the death marches were dehumanized, seen as nothing more than objects or prey. Surprisingly, prisoners were sometimes treated worse on these marches than they were at the concentration camps. The conditions of the marches were horrible; while on the trains, the guards forced approximately 70 passengers in one freight car. 1 in 4 prisoners died on the way. Some died because of the blunt fact that if the guards saw that a prisoner could not keep up with the others, they would be shot on sight. Others died from famine, disease, and being injured by the guards. Oddly enough, the death marches did not focus on the Jewish prisoners, but rather non-Jews, such as the disabled, homosexuals, POWs (Prisoners of War) and other
The Jews were packed tightly and stuck in train cars for days or even a week depending on where they were going. These people had no clue where they were going, no clue how much longer it would take, and no clue what would happen once they stepped off of the train. In the book Night it explains how Elie was transported in a cattle car with about a hundred more people shoved into it. Some people in these cattle cars could not survive the long journeys and died. The prisoners in the cars went to the bathroom on the floors which just worsened the conditions. Halfway through the journey, the train would stop and any dead prisoners would be thrown out of the cattle cars. Anybody who was still alive went on to their destination. In an internet source is talks about how cruel and horrible the conditions were inside of these transport cars.
“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
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)
According to a man helping rescue the prisoners of the camps, “In each of them the floor of the car was covered with dead, emaciated bodies. In some of these cars there were more than enough to cover the floors.” (THE 45TH INFANTRY DIVISION). This would be horrifying for the people who didn’t die in the cars, owning to the fat that they were in a car with a decomposing body for days, sometimes even weeks. This would be traumatizing for any person of any age, especially children. “This authentic 15-ton freight car is one of several types that were used to deport Jews. Its cramped interior would have held 80 to 100 people. Deportation trains usually carried between 1,000 and 2,000 people whose crushing weight slowed the speed of travel to about 30 mph, greatly prolonging the ordeal.” (The Holocaust: Railway Car). This decrease in speed made it severely painful for the already sick, and those who had to watch their relatives die. (The Holocaust: Railway Car); (THE 45TH INFANTRY
As he stated in his interview, "When I see a child, I go to pieces. Any child. " (Wiesel 98). During the death marches, prisoners would be forced to run all day and sometimes all night as well.
...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.
In March, 1942, the Jews of the Lublin Province of Poland are deported to the Belzec death camp.
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.
“Concentration camps (Konzentrationslager; abbreviated as KL or KZ) were an integral feature of the regime in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). The 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. “A typical concentration camp consisted of barracks that were secured from escape by barbed wire, watchtowers and guards.
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).
In the aftermath of the war, foreign troops invaded concentration camps in Europe to set
Being confined in a concentration camp was beyond unpleasant. Mortality encumbered the prisons effortlessly. Every day was a struggle for food, survival, and sanity. Fear of being led into the gas chambers or lined up for shooting was a constant. Hard labor and inadequate amounts of rest and nutrition took a toll on prisoners. They also endured beatings from members of the SS, or they were forced to watch the killings of others. “I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time” (Night Quotes). Small, infrequent, rations of a broth like soup left bodies to perish which in return left no energy for labor. If one wasn’t killed by starvation or exhaustion they were murdered by fellow detainees. It was a survival of the fittest between the Jews. Death seemed to be inevitable, for there were emaciated corpses lying around and the smell...
Sick or injured prisoners were usually killed before marches started. Jewish concentration camps were evacuated as Nazis tried to erase all evidence of their crimes. “SS authorities did not want prisoners to fall into enemy hands and tell their Holocaust stories” [Death Marches 2015]. Nazis and other German parties would be hated more in the world if stories of what they did to prisoners were told. This caused more prisoners to be killed during death marches and also liberated. “Some SS leaders believed irrationally that they could use Jewish concentration camp prisoners as hostages to bargain for a separate peace in the west and guarantee the survival of Nazi regime” [Death Marches 2015]. Nazis also believed that if they had Jewish prisoners in their hands, enemy troops would let them go to save the prisoners. This did not work due to prisoners being killed before enemies got to them or officers abandoning their prisoners to save themselves. Most prisoners did not reach the end point of the march due to being killed or, in rare cases,
Soon after Germany separated from Austria in March 1938, the Nazi soldiers arrested and imprisoned Jews in concentration camps all over Germany. Only eight months after annexation, the violent anti-jew Kristallnacht , also known as Night of the Broken Glass, pogroms took place. 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 exis...
The Sandakan the death march forced Allied P.O.Ws to trek 250km through the searing heat and humidity of Borneo’s jungles. Almost 2,500 Allied soldiers were imprisoned by the Japanese, forced to trek 250km through the searing climate of Borneo’s jungles and incarcerated within merciless camps. The result of these activities was an exceedingly high death rate of 99.75%, leaving only 6 survivors, all of whom were Australian and only survived because they escaped.