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Jewish Targeting

Decent Essays

Close your eyes and imagine the worst place on the planet and you come close to Auschwitz. Open your eyes and read on to find out more about what a place of complete cruelty looks like.
!!!Jewish Targeting

The facts behind Auschwitz begin with prejudice and intolerance. The discrimination against Jewish people began with the Nazis coming into power in 1933. Specific laws were passed to politically, economically, and socially silence Jewish people. One of the most painful examples are the Nuremburg Laws passed in 1935. These laws deprived Jewish people of citizenship. The Nazis used this form of targeting in order to relocate, and eventually attempt to eliminate, Jewish people.

!!!Expansion of Germany

The need to establish more 'living …show more content…

Nazi officials stationed in Poland saw this and envisioned a prison. The town in which it was located was called Oswiecim, or Auschwitz. Jewish residents of Oswiecim were forced to restore and rebuild the abandoned barracks into a prison named Auschwitz I that would house prisoners of war, the first of which started arriving in May, 1940. The population of the camp grew as more enemies of the Nazis were deported. Auschwitz was envisioned as a concentration camp. Surrounded by barbed wire fences and watchtowers, the camp had written above its black gates, 'Albreit macht free' (~'Work makes you …show more content…

Between 1.2 and 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz, of whom close to one million were Jewish. Auschwitz was the largest death camp in terms of size and number killed. Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, and Anne Frank are three of the millions of people who crossed that gate which read ~'Work will make you free.~' Like the millions of others who walked with them, they saw dreams of freedom evaporate in the plumes of smoke billowing from Auschwitz's chimneys. In 1979, Auschwitz was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site as ~'a symbol of humanity's cruelty to its fellow human beings in the 20th Century.~'

!!!Lesson Summary

Auschwitz started out as a prison for those who were seen as ~'undesirable~' or as enemies. It then became the embodiment of Nazi cruelty and barbarism. Men, women, and children perished while others watched in delight, horror, or apathy. Auschwitz is a reminder of the destruction in prejudice and intolerance. Primo Levi best summarized the value of studying about such a horrible event in human history when he wrote, ~'Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake

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