Auschwitz-Birkenau: A Very Brief History Of The Holocaust

The Holocaust was the murder and persecution of approximately 6 million Jews and many others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The Nazis came to power in Germany in January of 1933. The Nazis thought that the “inferior” Jews were a threat to the “racially superior” German racial community. The death camps were operated from 1941 to 1945, and many people lost their lives or were forced to work in concentration camps during these years. The story leading up to the Holocaust, how the terrible event affected people’s lives, and how it came to and end are all topics that make this historic event worth learning about.

“…Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same

Auschwitz- the most populated and popular concentration camp within the Holocaust. Soviet troops freed the people incarcerated within the camp. That day, over 7,000 prisoner were released, mostly ill and dying because of the long term effects of the camps. Between 1940 and 1945, over 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz and over 1.1 million were murdered.

During World War II, there were many horrific reports of cruelty and torture towards people of Jewish descent in a camp known as Auschwitz. In the article “Auschwitz: The Camp of Death”, the main topic that is addressed in the article is the basic layout and cruelty that took place in this camp of cruelty. In the article, the author mentions that the camp in Auschwitz was “[d]ivided into three sections, Auschwitz I . . . Auschwitz II . . . and Auschwitz III” (“ Auschwitz: The Camp of Death”). What this helps the reader understand about Auschwitz is that it was separated into three sections, one of which being Auschwitz I, which was the base camp and the central office. The second section was known as Auschwitz II, which is also known as Birkenau. The third section, known as Auschwitz III, was known as Monoscwitz with the sub-camp and buna. These three sections were all part of the cruelty that took place in Auschwitz. Another piece of information mentioned in the article is that when the prisoners entered Auschwitz I, they saw the words “ [A]rbeit Macht Frei” (“Auschwitz: The Camp of Death”). What is so important as well as interesting about this phrase is that it translates to “ work will set you free” in English. This gave the prisoners of Auschwitz the false hope that if they worked hard enough, they would earn their freedom, which was not true. In the article, the author also states that Auschwitz II contained the gas chambers and crematoriums, which was a constant reminder that at any given moment they could be “[s]ent to the showers to be gassed and cremated” (“Auschwitz: The Camp of Death”). The importance behind this statement is that this idea of having the gas chamber and crematorium in that camp was to ignite fear into the prisoners to work their hardest to avoid that punishment, which was another sign of false hope. This fits into the larger idea that Auschwitz a very horrific example of human indecency. This idea is not only in the article “Auschwitz: The Camp of Death,” but in Elie Wiesel’s nonfiction book, Night, that shares his experience in Auschwitz.

“Holocaust” hails from two Greek words “holos” meaning whole and “kaustos” meaning burned. The Holocaust is a name that was used to historically define a sacrificial offering that was burned on an altar. However, from 1945, the word holocaust attained a new and horrible meaning. It was used to define the mass murder of 6 million European Jews. The Jews were killed along with some other persecuted groups such as homosexuals and gypsies. Now, the term Holocaust is used to define the mass murder of the Jews and this paper will explore the occurrences surrounding the Holocaust.

The Holocaust is known as one of the darkest side and one of the most vast hardships in the 20th century. “Holocaust,” comes from the Greek words, “holos” and “kaustos.” The word, “holos,” means whole and the word, “kaustos,” means burned. It was historically used to illustrate a sacrificial offering of the burning on an altar. Ever since 1945, this word has been taken to a whole other level. Today, the meaning behind this word is the universal murder of 6 million Jews ("The Holocaust"). In 1933, more than 60% of the world’s Jewish population lived in Europe. In a little more than a decade, most of Europe would be conquered by the Nazis and every two out of three would be

The word “Holocaust,” from the Greek words “holos” which means whole and “kaustos” which means burns, was previously used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. Since 1933, this word has taken on a new, dreadful and awful meaning. The Holocaust was a genocide in which about 11 million people, including about 6 million Jews were brutally murdered by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. It was the systematic and state-sponsored mass murder to try to eliminate the Jewish race completely, known as Hitler’s “Final Solution.” The Holocaust lasted from January 30, 1933 to May 8, 1945. It primarily took place in Germany, Ukraine, and Latvia yet its lasting impact affected the whole world. The Holocaust was so important because it forever

Terror was omnipresent throughout the Nazi rule, particularly because they made these camps where people would be tortured and brutally murdered (“Life in Nazi-Controlled Europe”). Between the years of 1941 and 1944, the Nazis sent millions of Jews from Germany to the killing camps, so they could be killed by the gas chambers (“Introduction to the Holocaust”). Many of the people being deported to the camps died before even arriving at the camps because they were being taken in cattle wagons without the proper necessities of human survival. There was no food or water and they didn’t have a place to use the restroom (Lehnardt). This was actually purposeful of the SS; the Schutzstaffel moved camp prisoners and made them do what is called “death marches,” to prevent the allied forces against Germany from liberating some of the Jewish people in the camps (“Introduction to the Holocaust”).

What was Auschwitz and it’s significance in World War 2? Auschwitz was a concentration camp located near the town of Oswiecim, Poland. The Nazis operated Auschwitz during 1940 through 1945. The purpose of Auschwitz was to perform work by the Jewish people and Political Prisoners, until they were no longer able to work. In 1941 the camp started to exterminate Jews and Political prisoners.

The man who ran auschwitz was Rudolf Hess. There were about 1,100,000 jews that lived in Auschwitz, you didn't have to be a Jew to be put in Auschwitz. What is Auschwitz? To understand Auschwitz you must learn who the leader was, what the camp consisted of, and how many people died. (“Auschwitz)

The first two huts in each camp section were washrooms and toilets. In place of toilets, there were wooden boards with round holes and underneath them concrete troughs. Prisoners had only a standard 30 seconds on the toilet and risked being beaten for taking too long or sneaking back. The smells were horrible because there wasn't enough water to clean the latrine. One prisoner said, "The smell of death and excrement was everywhere. Diarrhea was so rampant that people were dying left and right." (Nyiszli, 113)

A large proportion of stories and poems that describe the truth of Auschwitz concentration camp are written by the survivors who gets out of there. The author - Tadeusz Borowski, who have been through the deadly gas situation and he used his pen to telling people what truly happened in Auschwitz. Just like what he mentioned in the short story, “There can be no beauty if it is paid for by human injustice, nor truth that passes over injustice in silence, nor moral virtue that condones it.”, he is the one record and make known to the public to remain everyone, that wars never bring us peace, no matter what kind of reasons that careerists are using to cover their ambition and evilness.

“Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz; I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don 't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response” (Wiesel). It is fair to say that Auschwitz was one of the most gruesome death camps during World War two. I have looked into many different parts of Auschwitz. I found out what Auschwitz was, what it was used for, and many of the different parts of the camp.

The words inscribed above the Auschwitz concentration camp read: "Arbeit Macht Frei,” meaning, “work brings freedom.” These deceiving words gave unsuspecting prisoners hope that they could get out of the most destructive concentration camp during the entire Holocaust. This concentration camp would kill over one million people. Auschwitz will be fully analyzed, starting with the early stages of Auschwitz, then the Jews and the horrors of Auschwitz, and finally the final days of Auschwitz. The events that took place at Auschwitz concentration camp are very horrifying and lead to the death of millions.

Concentration camps were a sickening place that had horrid environment. For example, according to the historical journal from Karel Margry, “lack of hygiene, starvation diets, hard labour and infectious diseases caused the mortality rate to soar…” (www.tandfonline.com). The camps didn’t support cleanliness of the prisoners or camp itself. Prisoners had no control over what was kept clean, they were expected to live in the those conditions with no say of the situation. Simply stated, Harvey A. Barocas explains that ”Without exception, inmates complained of starvation and infectious disease as a result of extremely poor hygienic conditions…” (journals.sagepub.com). The prisoners kept by their own will were very mistreated and they