A Cultural Review of Germany in the 1940’s According to

Over one million Jewish children died during the Holocaust. They were ripped out of their homes and taken away from their families, and stripped of their childhoods. Innocent lives were caught in a war that they were not able to stop. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, he promised Germany that he would improve life their by getting rid of the one race that caused the problems, the Jews. Jews, including Jewish children, were sent to concentration camps, inspected, and if approved, were sent to work. All others would have been sent to be killed. Being sent to work did not ensure survival, children would be given very little food and water, and beaten severely, which caused their death. None of the children of the Holocaust will ever

During the Holocaust Jews were often forced from concentration camp to concentration camp where they would only get a ration of bread and soup each day and were often whipped or even killed for doing something wrong or not being strong enough to work. They were also required, during the year of 1942, to wear badges so they can easily be recognized by the Nazis and other non-Jews. The Nazis treated Jews like animals causing them to lose faith in god.

made them live in “ghettos”, and brought them to concentration camps to work to their death (Introduction to The Holocaust). Nazi’s did not only kill Jews, they also killed people who did not behave correctly to their standards, homosexuals, people with disabilities, their political views, communist, socialist, and Jehovah’s witnesses (Introduction to The Holocaust). Millions of people died during The Holocaust and few escaped the wrath of the Nazi’s (Introduction to The Holocaust).

The Germans and their collaborators killed as many as 1.5 million children, including over a million Jewish children and tens of thousands of Romani (Gypsy) children, German children with physical and mental disabilities living in institutions, Polish children, and children residing in the occupied Soviet Union. The chances for survival for Jewish and some non-Jewish adolescents (13-18 years old) were greater, as they could be deployed at forced labor.

Many groups of people were persecuted during the events of World War II. Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals were some of the many victims of cruel and unfair oppression. With no intentions to heil to the Nazis and their ruler, these groups, including numerous others, were imprisoned in concentration camps and punished for their religions, beliefs, and ways of life. Some fell victim to merciless Nazi persecution, while others were murdered almost instantaneously. Many died as prisoners of harsh concentration camps. Upon entering these camps, captives were stripped of their identity and forced into a life of brutal confinement. Jews and gypsies were the main targets of Nazi oppression, but other groups, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses and homosexuals, still died in concentration camps from sicknesses and abusive treatment.

Concentration camps were full of people being murdered. According to USHMM they murdered Jews, Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners, Non-Jewish, Serb, people with disabilities, Roma, Jehovah’s witnesses, repeat criminal offenders, German political opponents, and homosexuals. The top three groups with the most deaths were Jews, Soviet civilians, and Soviet Prisoners of war. They murdered 6 million Jews, 7 million Soviet civilians, and 3 million Soviet Prisoners.

There were over 1,500,000 children killed during the Holocaust. When the camp was liberated on January 27, 1945, there were only 451 children found alive. (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hidden.html) Most who were found alive are now in their 80s and 90s. Some have chosen to share their stories, while others choose to do so with families, or not at all. Children of the ages 13-18 had a greater chance at survival, although some kids below this age survived.

In the time period of January 30, 1933 to May 08, 1945 a total of 11 million people were murdered. These people included Jewish, Homosexuals, Disabled, & Jehovah Witnesses. 1.5 million Of the people that were murdered was children. Innocent children died because they were either non-German or they were too young to help with the war. The other six million where the rest of the population listed above.

The Holocaust was a time of mass genocide. Millions of innocent victims, who ranged in age and gender, lost their lives because of the control one man had on a group of people. A majority of the victims killed practiced Judaism or had ancestors that practiced Judaism. The Holocaust was estimated to have murdered 1.8 million children. The victims had to go through harsh punishment, starvation, and most children were sent to the gas chambers immediately. Even with the cruel and unprecedented actions against the Jewish community many children were still able to survive. The actions and sacrifice from families and strangers helped to keep these children alive throughout the Holocaust. Children survived the Holocaust in many different ways.

Out of six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, over a million and a half of these were children. Only six to eleven percent of Europe’s prewar Jewish population of children survived, as compared with thirty-three percent of the adults. During World War II, Jewish children were a target for being deported to death or concentration camps because of their reputation as unfit to work. Nazi’s took Jewish children from their families because they did not represent the Aryan child. Children, usually under the age of 12, were thought of as unable to work and Jewish people were viewed as enemies. Children did not often survive the concentration camps. One of these camps was Auschwitz-Birkenau, where only 180 children survived. Children who survived were normally male teenagers who faked their ages and claimed to have skills for work. The non-Jewish children were put into Hitler Youth programs to learn how to be a true Nazi and live in a certain way. The Jewish children were sent to death camps or work camps until they starved or were put into gas chambers, where they perished. Over a million and a half children were murdered during the Holocaust because of their inability to work and because the Nazis wanted to cut off the bloodline of all Jewish people, in order to carry out their final solution. Jewish children in World War II were targeted, hidden, and murdered and some took on different skills and identities in order to have a chance of survival.

Later throughout the war, Germans murdered some of the remaining Jewish laborers in the ghettos that were transferred into labor camps. The Germans deported the rest of the death camps that were still in use such as

“The exact number murdered by the Nazis is unknown but it is estimated that 1.5 million Jewish children were killed, victims of genocide.” ("The Holocaust."). Many children, especially Jewish children, were involved in the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a time period during WWII were a German group called the Nazis, targeted different racial groups such as Gypies, Homosextuals, the disabled and sick, Jews, and many other racial groups. The Nazis would kill these people, hurt them or capture them and take them to concentration camps. Many Jewish children were involved in the Holocaust. Some of the children would hide in people’s homes. Others would also hide by living a normal life by hiding their identity. But most Jewish children would go to

Just imagine if yourself, friends or family were sent away to a concentration camp. How would that make you feel? I would feel sad and scared for my family or for myself. It’s an awful thing to think about. Concentration camps were meant to starve and work prisoners to their death. In concentration camps, many prisoners were tortured and soon thereafter, died. There were many concentration camps and a lot of horrible things happened. Such as the number of people dying, and poor treatment of prisoners. Adolf Hitler made this all happen.

The experiences of a Jewish person sent to a concentration camp run by the Nazis were harsh and horrific. These people were mistreated, lived in fear, lost their sense of freedom, dehumanized, lacked sanitation and were forced to do labor work.

The Diary of Anne Frank is a remarkably moving book about the short life of a young girl and her family. The Holocaust was a horrible time for Jewish people and Anne and her Jewish family’s lives were completely turned upside down as a result. The war resulted in the deaths of countless people, mostly innocent people. Before the invasion on D-day and the end of the war not too long after, the rest of the world didn’t know the real disaster going on over seas. Anne Frank’s once secret diary has introduced the immense suffering and horror that occurred during the Holocaust.