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Aushwitz Holocaust Essay Research Paper 1 INTRODUCTION

Aushwitz (Holocaust) Essay, Research Paper


(1) INTRODUCTION The Holocaust is the most horrifying


crime against humanity of all times. "Hitler, in an attempt to


establish the pure Aryan race, decided that all mentally ill,


gypsies, non supporters of Nazism, and Jews were to be


eliminated from the German population. He proceeded to


reach his goal in a systematic scheme." One of his main


methods of "doing away" with these "undesirable" was


through the use of concentration camps. "In January 1941, in


a meeting with his top officials the ‘final solution’ was


decided". Jews were to be eliminated from the population.


Auschwitz was the concentration camp that carried out


Hitler’s "final solution" in greater numbers than any other. In


this paper I will discuss concentration camps with a detailed


description of the most well- known one, Auschwitz. (2)


CONCENTRATION CAMPS The first concentration


camps were set up in 1933. In the early days of Hitler,


concentration camps were places that held people in


protective custody. Victims for protective custody included


those who were both physically and mentally ill, gypsies,


homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews and anyone against


the Nazi regime. "Gypsies were classified as people with


atleast two gypsy great grandparents." By the end of 1933


there were atleast fifty concentration camps throughout


occupied Europe. "At first, the camps were controlled by the


Gestapo (police), but by 1934 the S.S. (Hitler’s personal


security force) were ordered, by Hitler, to control the


camps." Camps were set up for different purposes. Some


for forced labor, others for medical experiments and, later


on, for death/ extermination. Transition camps were set up


as holding places for death camps. "Henrick Himmler, chief


of the German police, the Gestapo, thought that the camps


would provide an economic base for the soldiers." This did


not happen. The work force was poorly organized and


working conditions were inhumane. Therefore, productivity


was minimal. Camps were set up along railroad lines, so that


the prisoners would be conveniently close to their


destination. As they were being transported, the soldiers


kept telling the Jews to have hope. (3) When the camps


were finally opened, most of the families who were shipped


out together ended up being separated. Often, the transports


were a sampling of what went on in the camps, cruelty by


the officers, near starvation of those being transported, fetid


and unsanitary conditions on the trains. "On the trains, Jews


were starved of food and water for days. Many people did


not survive the ride to arrive at the camp." Jews were forced


to obey the guard’s orders from the moment they arrived at


the camps. "If they didn’t, they would be beaten, put into


solitary confinement or shot." The prisoners usually had


marks on their clothes or numbers on their arms to identify


them. The sanitary conditions of the camps were horrible.


"There was only one bathroom for four hundred people.


They had to stand for hours in snow, rain, heat, or cold for


role-call, which was twice a day." Within the first few days


of being at the camps, thousands of people died of hunger,


starvation and disease. Other people died from the cruel


punishments of the guards; beatings and torture. "Typhus, a


disease caused by germs carried by flies, was the main


disease that spread throughout the camps. Even when


people were sick, they still continued working because they


did not see that sickness meant death." In 1937, 7,000 Jews


were in camps. By 1938, 10,000 more Jews were sent to


camps. "Jews were taken to camps if they expressed


negative feelings about the government, if they married a


non-Jew, if they were sick (mentally or physically), or if they


had a police record." (4) When someone escaped from the


camp, all the prisoners in that group were shot. Nazis, who


claimed that they did not necessarily hate Jews, but wanted


to preserve the Aryan race, seemed to enjoy making the


Jews suffer. They also felt that slavery was better than killing


their prisoners. "Gold fillings, wedding bands, jewelry, shoes


and clothing were taken from the prisoners when they first


entered the camps and were sold." Surrounding some of the


camps in Poland was a forest, that the Jews who planned to


escape would flee into. Before the escaped prisoners got


very far, they were killed. "When the Germans caught a Jew


planning a rebellion, and the Jew refused to name his/her


associates, the Germans would bring everyone from his/her


barracks out and force him/her to watch the Germans


mutilate the others." The people who could not run away


from the camps dreamt about revolt. Special areas of a


camp were set aside for medical experiments. One doctor in


a medical unit performed an experiment in sterilization. "He


injected a substance into women’s ovaries to sterilize them.


The injection resulted in temperature and inflammation of the


ovaries." Joseph Mengels, one of the most notorious Nazi


doctors, hummed opera tunes when selecting among the new


arrivals the victims for the gas chambers or medical


experiments. His women victims for sterilization were usually


20-30 years of age. "Other experiments included putting


inmates into high pressure chambers to test the effects of


altitude on pilots. Some inmates were frozen to (5)


determine the best way to revive frozen German soldiers."


(6) DEATH CAMPS "The first death camp, Chelmno, was


set up in Poland on December 8, 1941. This was five weeks


before the Wannsee Conference at which time the ‘final


solution’ was planned out." Usually, the death camps were


part of existing camps, but some new ones were just set up


for this purpose. When the prisoners first arrived at the


camps, those sent to the left were transferred to death


camps. When Jews entered the death camps, their suitcases,


baby bottles, shawls, and eyeglasses were taken and were


sold. Once in the death camps the prisoners were again


divided. Women were sent to one side to have their hair


shaven and the men to the other. "They were all sent to the


showers, naked with a bar of soap, so as to deceive them


into believing that they were truly going into a shower. Most


people smelled the burning bodies and knew the truth. "


There were six death camps; Chelmno, Treblinka,


Auschwitz (Birkenau), Sobibor, Maidanek, and Belzec.


These camps used gas from the shower heads to murder


their victims. A seventh death camp, Mauthausen, used a


method called "extermination through labor". (7)


AUSCHWITZ Auschwitz, located in Poland, was Nazi


Germany’s largest concentration camp. It was established by


order of Himmler on April 27, 1940. At first, it was small


because it was a work camp for Polish and Soviet prisoners


of war. It became a death camp in 1941. "Auschwitz was


divided into three areas: Auschwitz 1 was the camp


commander’s headquarters and administrative offices.


Auschwitz 2 was called Birkenau and it was the death camp


with forty gas chambers. Auschwitz 3 was a slave labor


camp." "On the gate of Auschwitz was a sign in German


which read, ‘Arbeit macht frei’, which means work makes


you free." Auschwitz included camp sites a few miles away


from the main complex. At these sites, slave labor was used


to kill the people. The working conditions were so poor that


death was a sure result. " In March 26, 1942, Auschwitz


took women prisoners, but afte

r August 16, 1942 the


women were housed in Birkenau." When the Jews arrived at


Auschwitz, they were met with threats and promises. "If they


didn’t do exactly as they were told, they would be beaten,


deprived of food, or shot. From time to time, they would be


assured that things would get better." The daily meals in


Auschwitz consisted of watery soup, distributed once a day,


with a small piece of bread. In addition, they got extra


allowance consisting of 3/4 ounce of margarine, a little piece


of cheese or a spoonful of watered jam. Everyone in the


camp was so malnourished that if a drop of soup spilled (8)


prisoners would rush from all sides to see if they could get


some of the soup. "Because of the bad sanitary conditions,


the inadequate diet, the hard labor and other torturous


conditions in Auschwitz, most people died after a few


months of their arrival." The few people who managed to


stay alive for longer were the ones who were assigned better


jobs. "The prisoners slept on three shelves of wooden slabs


with six of these units to each tier. They had to stand for


hours in the wet and mud during role call, which was twice a


day. Some people thought the reason hundreds of people


died, daily, was because when it rained they lay with wet


clothes in their bunks." In place of toilets, there were


wooden boards with round holes and underneath them


concretes troughs. Two or three hundred people could sit on


them at once. While they were on these troughs they were


watched in order to assure that they did not stay too long.


"There was no toilet paper, so the prisoners used linings of


jackets. If they didn’t have they might steal from someone


else." The smells were horrible because there wasn’t enough


water to clean the Latrine, the so called bathrooms. When


people were loaded onto trains to be taken to the gas


chambers, they were told that they were being "resettled" in


labor camps. This was one of the many lies told. It was


impossible for the Jews to make out which building was the


gas chambers because they looked presentable from the


outside, just like any other building. Over the gas chambers


were well kept lawns with flowers bordering them. When the


Jews were being taken to the gas chambers, (9) they thought


they were being taken to the baths. "While people were


waiting for them ‘baths’, a group of women prisoners,


dressed in navy skirts and white shirts, played very delightful


music." "In Auschwitz, Jews were killed by something called


Lykon B. It was hydrogen cyanide which was poured


through the ceiling of the gas chambers and turned into gas.


The S.S. commanders of Auschwitz preferred Lykon B.


because it worked fast." At first, there were five gas


chambers in Auschwitz, the procedure for gassing was as


follows : "About 900 people were gassed at a time. First


they undressed in a nearby room. Then, they were told to go


into another room to be deloused, They filled the gas


chambers like packed like sardines. After a few minutes of


horrible suffering, the victims died. The bodies were then


transported to ovens where they were burned." The gas


chambers were not large enough to execute great numbers at


a time, so crematoria were built. The crematoria would burn


2,000 bodies in less than 24 hours. An elevator would take


them from the dressing room to the crematoria. "It took 30


minutes to kill 2,500 victims, but close to 24 hours to burn


the bodies." Many Jews and non – Jews tried to escape from


Auschwitz. Some succeeded. Of course they wanted to


inform the world of what was going on. Those who escaped


wrote descriptions of the horrors they suffered. Information


spread to many countries, yet no countries seemed to do


anything to help the situation. In fact, as the war progressed,


the number of prisoners increased. "In total, between 1.5


and 3.5 million Jews were murdered at Auschwitz between


the (10) years 1940 and 1945." Where were our brothers in


America when millions of Jews died? (11) CONCLUSION


The Nazis, under Hitler, organized the destruction of the


Jews. Why they did it is unknown. Perhaps it was because


of a history of tension between the Christians and Jews, or


perhaps, because Hitler needed a scapegoat for Germany’s


problems. People throughout history have been murdered;


but never as many people as during the Holocaust in such a


short period of time. 1/3 of all the Jews in the world were


eliminated. "The estimated total is somewhere around six


million. This number included Jews from all over Europe.


There were also 500,000 non- Jews murdered." Hitler’s


method of killing the jews and other undesirable people was


first by torture and then by plain murder. In the early days of


his leadership, he took away their rights as citizens and then


as people. They were treated like slaves and lived like


animals. After 1942, his goal was to exterminate all Jewish


and "unpure" people. Many Jews were killed before that


date, but they were a small number compared to the mass


murdering of the Holocaust. " We Must Never Forget " are


the words that every Jew must remember. By not forgetting,


we are preventing another holocaust from occurring. We are


also letting the entire world know and remember the millions


of loved ones lost in the horrible killing that we call the


holocaust. (12) BIBLIOGRAPHY Bauer, Yehuda. A


History of the Holocaust. New York: Franklin Watts, 1982.


Chartock, Roselle. The Holocaust Years: Society on Trial.


New York: Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith, 1978.


Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust – A History of the Jews of


Europe During the Second World War. New York: Holt,


Reinhardt & Winston, 1985. Meltzer, Milton. Never to


Forget the Jews of the Holocaust. New York: Harper &


Row, 1976. Rossel, Seymour. The Holocaust. New York:


Franklin Watts, 1981. "Concentration Camps",


Encyclopedia Judaica. 1972 ed., Keter Publishers.


"Concentration Camp Conditions Reported Worse", New


York Times, (March 7, 1940), page 8. "It Happened to


Me", Sassy, (May 1991), page 24. TABLE OF


CONTENTS Introduction page 1 Concentration Camps


pages 2-5 Death Camps page 6 Auschwitz pages 7-10


Conclusion page 11 Bibliography page 12 Endnotes pages


13-14 AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP /


DEATH CAMP CLASS 8-J . Milton Meltzer. Never to


Forget the Jew of the Holocaust. (New York; Harper &


Row, 1976) page 3 . Meltzer, page 5 . Yehuda Bauer. A


History of the Holocaust. (New York; Franklin Watts,


1982) page 205 . Meltzer, page 28 . Bauer, page 208 .


Seymour Rossel. The Holocaust. (New York; Franklin


Watts, 1981) page 76 . Rossel, page 77 . Rossel, page 77 .


Rossel, page 78 . Martin Gilbert. The Holocaust – A History


of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War. (New


York; Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1985) page 127 . Rossel,


page 86 . Rossel, page 101 . Bauer, page 219 . Bauer, page


219 . Bauer, page 208 . Rossel, page 79 . Gilbert, page 210


. Bauer, page 214 . " It Happened to Me ". Sassy, New


York. May, 1991, page 24 . "Auschwitz". Encyclopedia


Judaica, Volume 1, page 854 . Gilbert, page 376 . Roselle


Chartock, The Holocaust Year; Society on Trial. (New


York; Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith, 1978) page 5


. Chartock, page 4 . Chartock, page 7 . Chartock, page 3 .


Meltzer, page 130 . "Concentration Camp Conditions


Reported Worse".The New York Times, New York,


March 7, 1940, page 8 . Baker, page 215 . Baker , page


215 . Rossel, page 1

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