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Arek Hersh And The Holocaust

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The word Holocaust comes from the origin “Sacrifice by Fire”. Living up to the name, the Holocaust occurred because Germans believed they were racially superior to Jews and felt their race was a threat to the European society. Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor of Germany, ordered that all Jews be killed. This began a mass genocide of six million Jews. The deceased were worked to death in labor camps or gassed, burned, or tortured in concentration camps. By the time the killings stopped in 1945, the Jewish population had dwindled to just three million survivors. One of those survivors was Arek Hersh, a Polish citizen. When Poland was attacked in 1939, Arek’s family left everything behind as they fled persecution. After spending nearly seven devastating …show more content…

He grew up living a normal childhood, going to the park in the summer, ice skating on the local river in the winter and singing in the choir. He went to a Jewish elementary school and a mixed religion secondary school. Although life was pretty idyllic for Arek, prejudice against Jews was growing. The Jews in Poland were already troubled with the religion difference, after 1938 when the Germans forced its Polish Jewish citizens across the border. A famous quote of Arek is "I was coming out from the school and a few Polish children shouted me "Go back to Palestine". My parents were born, my grandparents were born in Poland and I was born in Poland, a Polish subject, but according to them we weren't Polish. And that was a terrible situation.” This is explaining that even in his hometown in Poland he was not accepted by his Jewish …show more content…

They were forced to leave all their whole lives behind them and walk 40 miles to stay with relatives in Lodz. One year later they made the Jews wear the Star of David and were forced into ghettos, crammed and poor living conditions. Later on, his father and older brother were chosen to go to a different camp and escaped form leaving causing Arek to go instead. At eleven years old, Arek was taken to Otoschno, leaving his family behind, where he survived by stealing food while cleaning the camp commander’s office. In 1942, he was sent back to Lodz ghetto and upon his arrival many people asked about his relatives, not being able to tell the truth about all the pain, he told them everyone was working. In August, the Nazis liquidated the ghetto causing 400 people to assemble in a church. They were put in the left like for working people and the other side non-working; he was put on the right but ran to the working side causing him to survive. He later found out the non-working were sent to gas chambers. Arek and the other 150 survivors were taken to Lodz. The commander of the ghetto wanted for 10,000 children to be handed over. Arek knew he fell into that category so he managed to hide from the SS officers where as the other children were sent to gas chambers. In 1944, the Germans once again liquidated the ghetto because the Russian army was approaching. The remaining survivors

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