The Holocaust
by Hunter Meredith
In the most despicable act of modern times, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany carried out a program of mass murder and ethnic cleansing throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s. Though most associate the Holocaust with the destruction of Jews, they were not the only groups targeted by the Nazis.
The Jews made up the largest percentage of prisoners in the death camps, with approximately six million killed. To put that into perspective, that number accounts for about two thirds of all the Jews residing in Europe at that time. One million of those were children. Beside them in the camps were prisoners of war (especially Soviets), Romanie gypsies, the mentally ill, the physically or mentally disabled, homosexuals, the Nazi’s political opponents, and religious officials that the party had fallen out with among still more. The final death toll reaches to about 17 million systematically executed.
Life in a concentration camp could most easily be described as hell on earth. The lucky ones rounded up by the Gestapo or the SS would be marked for death as soon as they arrived at the camp. The rest would be forced into brutal slave labor under unhygenic conditions until they dropped dead from exhaustion, disease, or were picked for the gas chamber.
The poor souls inside were treated as worse than animals. Their clothing and anything of value that they had on their person would be forcibly taken from them upon arrival at the camp. They would be forced into tight sleeping quarters where disease could spread rapidly. They were fed very little. They were forced to work long hours manufacturing bullets and machine components to help the German war effort. Any slacking off or misconduct was punishable by either a merciless beating or death. Some prisoners were subjected to cruel medical experiments by Nazi doctors.
When the death camps were finally discovered by the Allies, General Eisenhower ordered that there be as many photographs taken and testimonies recorded as possible. He knew that the atrocities committed had been so hideous and disturbing that without evidence, nobody would ever have believed they had happened.
Many survivors of the Hitler’s “Final Solution” went on to write autobiographies about their experiences inside the camps, and the oppression they suffered under the Nazi’s boot. Works such as Night by Elie Wiesel and All But My Life: A Memoir by Gerda Weissmann Klein offer shocking first-hand accounts of the camps, and ensure that those lost will never be forgotten.
by Hunter Meredith
In the most despicable act of modern times, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany carried out a program of mass murder and ethnic cleansing throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s. Though most associate the Holocaust with the destruction of Jews, they were not the only groups targeted by the Nazis.
The Jews made up the largest percentage of prisoners in the death camps, with approximately six million killed. To put that into perspective, that number accounts for about two thirds of all the Jews residing in Europe at that time. One million of those were children. Beside them in the camps were prisoners of war (especially Soviets), Romanie gypsies, the mentally ill, the physically or mentally disabled, homosexuals, the Nazi’s political opponents, and religious officials that the party had fallen out with among still more. The final death toll reaches to about 17 million systematically executed.
Life in a concentration camp could most easily be described as hell on earth. The lucky ones rounded up by the Gestapo or the SS would be marked for death as soon as they arrived at the camp. The rest would be forced into brutal slave labor under unhygenic conditions until they dropped dead from exhaustion, disease, or were picked for the gas chamber.
The poor souls inside were treated as worse than animals. Their clothing and anything of value that they had on their person would be forcibly taken from them upon arrival at the camp. They would be forced into tight sleeping quarters where disease could spread rapidly. They were fed very little. They were forced to work long hours manufacturing bullets and machine components to help the German war effort. Any slacking off or misconduct was punishable by either a merciless beating or death. Some prisoners were subjected to cruel medical experiments by Nazi doctors.
When the death camps were finally discovered by the Allies, General Eisenhower ordered that there be as many photographs taken and testimonies recorded as possible. He knew that the atrocities committed had been so hideous and disturbing that without evidence, nobody would ever have believed they had happened.
Many survivors of the Hitler’s “Final Solution” went on to write autobiographies about their experiences inside the camps, and the oppression they suffered under the Nazi’s boot. Works such as Night by Elie Wiesel and All But My Life: A Memoir by Gerda Weissmann Klein offer shocking first-hand accounts of the camps, and ensure that those lost will never be forgotten.