The Holocaust Essay

Submitted By deadloxgingecast
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Pages: 3

The Most Devastating Genocide
In order to fully understand the horrors of the concentration camps, we must first understand the dark history behind it. On November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht, also known as the “Night of the Broken Glasses,” triggered the start of the most tragic event in history, The Holocaust. Led by Nazi party leader and chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler encouraged people to attack Jews. During this time, around 91 officially died, but it is suspected that more died.
Then during 1939, Jews were forced to move into specific areas in the city called Ghettoes, where several families lived in one small apartment. There, they were also forced to wear the yellow Star of David so that they could be easily identified by the German soldiers. Most of the plumbing in the apartments were broken and any human waste or trash was thrown out onto the streets. Many people were unable to even wash their hand, causing contagious diseases to spread rapidly. In the ghettoes, Germans only allowed purchases of small rations of bread, potatoes, and fat. During the winters, heating fuel was scarce. In order to survive, children smuggled food through narrow crack in the ghetto walls. Many children were orphans, and some needed to take care of even younger kids. During this time, more and more concentration camps were being built.
Throughout 1933-1938, concentration camps held political groups that talked against Hitler. After Kristallnacht, 1938, persecution of Jews became more organized. Different camps such as concentration camps, labour camps, prisoner-of-war camps, and extermination camps were being built around the time of World War II. Not only were Jews captured, but Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witness and the disabled were also brought into these camps. Jews were liquidated from ghettoes to camps around Europe. The only way to survive longer depended on whether you were capable of doing work. Women, children, and weak or the disabled were first to be killed in gas chambers. Finally on January 1942, the Nazis began the deportation from all over Europe to six extermination camps. The six camps were Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz, Birkenou, and Majdanek. At the extermination camps, they were told to take off all clothing as they were to take a shower. But the rooms disguised as showers were really gas chamber. Auschwitz was the biggest extermination camp, with up to 4 gas chambers. Each day up to 8 000 people were killed in