Holocaust Concentration Camps During World War II

Imagine being pried away from your family. Not only that, but being left at the concentration camps, knowing that you are about to face the dreaded word “death”. Concentration camps broke people’s hearts and changed them forever. They had to encounter many terrifying and petrifying medical experiments. Alongside that, the so called “concentration camps” were basically almost becoming, or were, actual death camps. The things that they had to endure were heartbreaking and agonizing. They were starved from the moment that they got there until the end. If they were lucky, their concentration camp would’ve been liberated by the Allies. Most were not so lucky. During the Holocaust, many different concentration camps were built that were to change the lives of people forever.

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.

First, Hitler and the Nazi’s created a “work/concentration camp” called Dachau. In fact, “From the start, camp detainees were subjected to harsh treatment,” (history.com 2009). This explains that although Germany called them work camps, the prisoners put in there were exposed to far worse than just overwork. For example, there were many murders classified as unknown deaths

In late 1938, the Jews revolted and formed a riot which in turn ended up burning down about 1,440 synagogues, and killed about 91 individuals. Many Jews were sent to Dachau, Buchenwald, and other concentration camps. Once WW2 started, many Jews were shipped to ghettos, which were walled sections in which many Jews were crammed into, and were usually overcrowded and unsanitary. During this time, many Jews were provided with a scarcity of food, and medical services, which led many to go into hiding. Many non-Jewish friends helped the Jewish community hide, but with the law overlooking this, and ensuring that the ones helping the Jews were put into prison or put to death. Many Jews were unable to hide throughout the war, and were caught and sent to concentration camps. In not only the concentration camps, but the ghettos as well, there were many efforts to resist the Holocaust, however it was short lived as the Nazis immediately shut them down. Fortunately, a few were able to escape the treatment of the Germans, and joined movements determined to eliminate Nazi troops. While many Jews took a stand against the Nazis, and acted in defiance, these actions resulted in brutal murders of the Jews. If the treatment thus far wasn’t enough, once the Soviets, Americans, and the British began to close in on Germany, the Jews were forced out of the camps and ghettos and were made to march long distances. In turn, hundreds of thousands died of not only violence, but also starvation on these long marches. As the American troops liberated many of the concentration and extermination camps, what they witnessed showed the true nature of the camps

Just last week, the Nazis have established over 40,000 concentration camps. These horrifying concentration camps are facilities were designed to kill and enforce labor on the Jews. The labor includes working machinery, airplanes, and separating materials. Many inmates include German Communist, Socialist, Social Democrats, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Roma. All of these camps are located mostly within Germany. Everyday, thousands of fearful Jews are being killed by exhaustion, starvation, and even the crematory. Nazi doctors performed medical experiments which caused many Jews to die a painful death.

The goal of this concentration camp was to stop communism, so there were about 200 communist prisoners (Dunn, 1995). The Nazi party was slowly starting to take control by burning books that they felt would be threatening to their power (Dunn, 1995). Over the next several years Hitler began to show who his real targets were, Jews. He started by taking away basic aspects like a Jewish newspaper. Eventually, he and the Nazi party deprived them of their citizenship and other basic rights (Dunn, 1995). He did this by convincing his followers that Jews were the inferior race, and they did not deserve basic rights. Jews eventually became the enemy of Nazis and were treated like animals. They were only allowed to go certain places at certain times, they no longer had the right to own businesses, and they were required to hand over their car registrations and ID cards (Dunn, 1995). Shortly after World War II began in 1939, Jews were starting to be placed in concentration camps and deported to Poland. The Jews that were allowed to stay in Germany had no rights; they could not “subscribe to newspapers; keep dogs, cats, birds, etc.; keep electrical equipment including typewriters; own bicycles; buy meat, or egg,; use public transportation; attend school” (Dunn, 1995). By February of 1943, hundreds of thousands of Jews have been murdered, 80-85% of Jews that died during the Holocaust died before this

They had a “Death Block” house at the camp for the prisoners. These barracks held “courtrooms” where the prisoners were tortured to death. They also had a firing wall located on the side of the block, which was used for them to line up and shoot. After that their bodies were placed in gravel pits around the main camp. Camp doctors would torture Jewish and Gypsy children. Patients were put into chambers, tested with drugs, castrated, frozen to death and exposed to others various traumas. One of the so called doctors sewed twins together to make siamese twins. Their hands were badly infected because their veins had been resected. They also injected chemicals into their eyes to change their eye color. Women were injected with a chemical substance into the womb and sent the woman’s ovaries to Berlin.Mostly all of the prisoners died from gas chambers with a gas called Zyklon-B.There were four gas chambers at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. In each gas chamber, they put 6,000 people with different ethnics.Most of the corpses were found near the door where the victims were trying to escape from the spreading of the gas. The corpses covered the entire floor of the gas chamber. They had their knees half bent and were often cloven together. All the bodies were smeared with excrement, vomit and blood and their skin was a pink like hue

Auschwitz consisted of three main camps, which consisted of killing centers, and forced labor. Auschwitz initially served as a detention center, but soon it was turned into a human-killing machine. Auschwitz I was made in April of 1940, while Auschwitz II (Auschwitz-Birkenau) was made in October of 1941, then Auschwitz III (Auschwitz-Monowitz) was made in October of 1942. Upon arrival in Auschwitz, you were either sent to the left or to the right. If you did not meet the expectations of the SS, you were sent to the left. People sent to the left included mothers or fathers with children, the elderly, those too sick to work, or those who just did not meet

The concentration camps formed an important part of the Nazi regime’s systematic suppression of Jews, gypsies, political dissident, homosexuals and other groups that were viewed as socially and racially “undesirable” in the Nazi state.

Auschwitz itself consisted of three different camps all located thirty-seven miles west of Krakow, one of which served as a killing center for an extended period of time (“Auschwitz”). The first camp founded, referred to as Auschwitz

Auschwitz was a large Concentration camp out of three other camps. The three concentration camps are located in Poland in a town called Oswiecim. Auschwitz was not just Jews there was children, a their families too. Auschwitz leader was Rudolf Hoss. “During WWII more than 1 million people, by some accounts, lost their at Auschwitz.

Jews were not the only people brought to these camps, gays, handicaps, gypsies Roman Catholics, Russian POWs, and anyone who was a non-aryan. These camps may have been the most brutal form of punishment in the history of mankind.

Hitler introduced the death camp. All of those he viewed as unfit were victimized and deported to these camps, including Soviet POW’s, Jews, Gypsies, the handicapped, homosexuals, artist, intellectuals, and anyone who opposed his authority (Nazi Party). By utilizing these establishments, he could work thousands of individuals for his benefit, essentially killing them and feeding the efforts of the Holocaust all at once. Prisoners were severely malnourished, infected, diseased, beaten, and received few hours of sleep, yet they were worked over ten hours each day . Unbelievably, on March 31, 1942 a minimum working day of eleven hours was established (Auschwitz-Birkenau: Living Conditions, Labor, and Executions). Those who were sent to concentration camps and, after being examined by doctors, declared unable to work were handed a different kind of fate. Upon being told that they would be taking a shower, hundreds of individuals would be shut in a room and showered with toxins which resulted in instant death (Auschwitz). Millions were executed in the infamous gas

Hitler constructed three types of concentration camps offering multiple uses, including working, transporting, and killing the prisoners. The first type of concentration camps were the labor camps, and they worked various jobs under harsh and gruesome conditions(Nardo 14). The prisoners worked up to twelve-hour shifts six times a week(Byers 31). “The labor

Auschwitz was Established in 1940 by Germans (Memorial and Museum). There were 3 main camps located 37 miles west of Krakow. They were all open for the soul purpose of killing. Auschwitz I opened in April 1940. Auschwitz II was opened October 1941 and one year from then they opened Auschwitz III. All three camps were big and did a lot of killing. Rudolph Hoss was the first commandant of Auschwitz (Auschwitz United States Holocaust).