Many people struggled during World War II, especially the Jews and Soviets. Majdanek was one of many concentration camps, only Majdanek was mostly for the Soviet Union. There were very few Jews at first that made it to Majdanek. Majdanek was very harsh and was also very large, it was divided into six separate sections as well. I choose Majdanek because not many people know about Majdanek and I think it would be interesting to learn about a camp that not only deals with Jews but also the Soviets. Majdanek was a very harsh concentration camp for the Soviet Union and the Jews. Majdanek was more a working camp than a death camp. Also it was the only camp that held a few American prisoners of war. Majdanek was located in the Polish city of Lublin and was open from October 1, 1941 to July 23, 1944 or open for thirty-four months (Holocaust-History). Many of the Soviet prisoners of war were too weak to work so they were shot. The secret service and police rounded up about 300 Jews and from the 300 they chose 150 to be the first Jews at Majdanek. Both the Jews and Soviet prisoners were forced to do labor work (Holocaust Encyclopedia). …show more content…
Majdanek was not meant to be a concentration camp, it was suppose to be a prisoner of war camp for the Soviet Union and was supposed to hold up to 50,000 prisoners. Anyone who could not work or was too weak to work was shot in a nearby forest. Majdanek did not use gas chambers until September 24, 1942. After they got the gas chambers, that was one of the main ways they executed prisoners but mostly just Jews were gassed. They also used crematoriums, which they burned the bodies in. There crematoriums were in a separate building and Majdanek had three of them. Majdanek was just as harsh as Auschwitz and was just as big as Auschwitz
Another thing about the Majdanek camp was that they had large storage houses to store the Jews clothing and all their personal belongings. Research says that there was said to be the SS deported 74000-90000 jews just to the Majdanek main camp. Not even with the subcamps of Majdanek. The SS had killed hundred of thousands of Jews at Majdanek over the period of time the camp was running. The most common way that people died there was of horrible living conditions and by dying in the gas chambers of the camp.
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.
Kaiserwald and Auschwitz were both concentration camps used for the destruction of the Jewish race during the holocaust. Both camp’s are to blame for the deaths of many. Survivors of both camps live the rest of their lives with PTSD, anxiety and depression. Though they were freed they are stuck living a life sentence.
(United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) “Special Camp housed Jews from Poland who held papers, passports, entrance visa, etc. issued by foreign countries” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The “Neutral Camp was reserved for several hundred Jews who were citizens of neutral countries.” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The "Star Camp was reserved for about 4,000 Jewish prisoners who were to be exchanged for German nationals interned by the Allies” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, p.165) The living conditions were appalling.
The Nazis also gassed Jews in other extermination camps in Poland: Auschwitz. Berkenau (the largest of all camps), Majdanek and Chelmno. At Majdanek, groups of Jews who were considered incapable of doing the work required were gassed. In Chelmno all of the Jews were gassed in.
The Holocaust will forever be known as one of the largest genocides ever recorded in history. 11 million perished, and 6 million of the departed were Jewish. The concentration camps where the prisoners were held were considered to be the closest one could get to a living hell. There is no surprise that the men, women, and children there were afraid. One is considered blessed to have a family member alongside oneself.
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.
Five thousand to seven thousand Jews arrived each day, increasing to about 12,000 a day, though thousands were dead on arrival. This camp was the the last camp whose sole purpose was “extermination”. It was only fifty miles from the large city of Warsaw, which blows my mind that people will still fully confidently try to convince people that the camps never happened. It became known as Treblinka I when the death camp, Treblinka II, was built.
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.
The concentration camps were an important feature of the Nazi regime between 1933-1945 (Caplan and Wachsmann 17). The camps had harsh conditions and no regard for the acceptable legal norms of arrest and detainment adopted by constitutional democratic countries.
Wars are good business. They create an immediate demand for a wide variety of materials needed by the government in order to fight the war. They create work opportunities for people that might not ordinarily be considered part of the normal work force. And, while not necessarily good for the soldiers engaged in the fighting, wars are always good for the businesses that provide the materials used in a war. The Second World War was very good for business.
During the Holocaust the Jewish people and other prisoners in the camps had to face many issues. The Holocaust started in 1933 and finally ended in 1945. During these 12 years all kinds of people in Europe and many other places had so many different problems to suffer through. These people were starved, attacked, and transported like they were animals.
The Holocaust was a very hard period of time for Jews from 1933-1945. The Final Solution called for the removal of Jews and other undesirables from their homes and eventually moving them to concentration camps in big crowded cattle cars. There were really only two possible options for these prisoners which included being executed in the gas chambers. Concentration camps were a place for Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and the disabled to be held and put to work. They were brought to concentration camps because they did not meet Hitler's standards. There were many different ways prisoners were executed including being experimented on, thrown into fires, shot, and gassed.
Auschwitz I was built in 1940, as a site for Polish political prisoners. This was the original camp and administrative center. The prisoners’ living conditions were inhumane in every respect, and the death rate was quite high. Auschwitz I was not meant ...