Gunshots fired, glass shattered, blood everywhere, cattle cars, concentration camps, gas chambers, deaths. What happened to the Jews of Hungary at Auschwitz? In the 1940s Hungary put anti-Jewish laws into place. These laws required Jews to be separate from other people. They went as far as not allowing Jews to go to the same school with other people and not letting Jews get married to other people. As of 1941 the Jewish population in Hungary was 825,000. Germany wanted Hungary to deport Hungarian Jews however Hungary refused due to political reasons. By 1944 German forces occupied Hungary. In May 1944 the Nazi’s were rounding up the Hungarian Jews to put them on trains and deport them to concentration camps. The Jewish population in Hungary decreased to 255,000 in 1944. In 1942 Auschwitz became the largest site for the murder of Jews and more than 1.1 million men, women, and children lost their lives here-most were Jews. Adolf Eichmann was the one who was in charge of the deportation of Hungarian Jews. Between May 14 and July 9, approximately 440,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The SS administration was trying to prepare for the arrival of a mass amount of Hungarian Jews. They wanted to expand the extermination machinery (Braham). They wanted to be able to kill Jews faster than their normal pace. How could they be so cruel and cold hearted to want to kill Hungarian Jews? They were reinforced and “experts” were called in to oversee the operations (Braham). The “experts” were Karl Hocker, Rudolf Hoss, Otto Moll, and Richard Bar (Braham). What they did was they increased the groups of prisoners responsible for working the gas chambers (Braham). Moll renovated the crematoriums (Braham). The crew made fu...
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...ny. If there was a single action I can demonstrate about what learning about the Holocaust means to me is to keep researching about it and learn more about the experiences of the Jews and how I would feel if that was me in their situation. I would look up a list of some of the Hungarian Jews that have also been a part of the Holocaust. The Holocaust means to me a lot because I feel lucky that I am not in the same trouble as the Jews in the 1930s were.
Works Cited
Braham, Randolf L. "Hungarian Jews: Prepatory Work in Auschwitz." Gutman, Yisrael and Michael Berenbaum. Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. n.d. 462-463.
"1944." Czech, Danuta. Auchsiwtz Chronicle 1939-1945: From the Archives of the Auschwitz Memorial and the German Federal Archives. 1989.
Grossman, Clara. Clara Grossman Audio Testimony Midwest Center for Holocaust Education. 26 August 1999. Audio.
Shields, Jacqueline. "Concentration Camps: The Sonderkommando ." 2014. Jewish Virtual Library. 20 March 2014 .
Between May and July, they deported most of Hungarian Jewry to Auschwitz-Birkenau.” German SS Colonel Adolf Eichmann was named chief of the team of deportation experts. “One of the salient points about the deportation of the Jews of Hungary is the extent of the involvement of the local authorities. Eichmann was impressed by the eagerness and zeal of the local auxiliaries.” This massive and rapid deportation led to problems for the Germans.
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.
1. Gutman, Yisrael. “Nazi Doctors.” Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Indiana University Press: 1994. 301-316
"Treblinka Death Camp Revolt". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Niau S. Archer H.E.A.R.T., n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
Epstein shows the process that the majority of Jews were being put through, such as the medical examinations, medical experimentations, gas chambers and crematoriums. Medical examinations were used to determine if the Jews were healthy enough to work. Dr. Mengele used the Jews as “lab rats” and performed many experiments such as a myriad of drug testing and different surgeries. The gas chamber was a room where Jews were poisoned to death with a preparation of prussic acid, called Cyclo...
Even when US troops liberated the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, the stories still never made it to the front page of the paper and people still did not believe in the reliability of the stories (Leff 52). In 1943, a survey w...
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. New York: Classic House, 2008. Print.
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Evens, Richard; Gotfried, Ted; Lipsadt, Deborah; Zimmerman ,John; Sherman, Michael; Globman, Alex. “Holocaust Encyclopedia.” http://www.ushmm.org United States Holocaust
Morrison, Jack G.. Ravensbrück: Everyday Life in a Women's Concentration Camp, 1939-45. Princeton, NJ: Wiener, 2000. Print.
Dwork, Deborah, and R. J. Van Pelt. Holocaust: a History. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
The Holocaust was one of the most tragic and trying times for the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and other minorities that the Nazis considered undesirable were detained in concentration camps, death camps, or labor camps. There, they were forced to work and live in the harshest of conditions, starved, and brutally murdered. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek during the Holocaust that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” –Fidel Castro
... I 1944 [Over Warsaw - Warsaw Thermopylae 1939 and 1944], Warsaw: Fundacja Wystawa Warszawa Walczy 1939-1945, 2000.