The Book Thief: Concentration Camps and Death Marches

Notwithstanding the theme of consequences, The Book Thief plays on the causes and effects that shaped Liesel’s life all while informing the reader of the travesties that occurred during the Holocaust.

Jewish prisoners were forced to walk hundreds of kilometers, for up to a month, in freezing cold temperatures by the Nazis of Germany during the Holocaust. The prisoners were forced to go through weeks of suffering, even though they were walking away from their liberators. It is important to remember why death marches were initiated, the suffering the prisoners had to go through, and the major death marches with the most deaths. Death marches were initiated in 1944, and the SS guards called them “evakuierung,” a euphemism meaning evacuation. Most of the time, prisoners were given one loaf of bread for the whole march, and a few rags to keep warm. If they couldn’t keep up, the prisoners were shot. Death marches were an easy and convenient way to evacuate camps and kill off many Jews. There were many different reasons for initiating death marches, the Jews went through a lot of suffering, there were many different major marches, and the prisoners died for many different reasons.

still the Nazis continued to perpetuate the Holocaust. Death marches became a regular part of prisoner life. As would-be liberators drew near, the camp leadership and SS would round up all the able-bodied prisoners and force them to march and run from one camp to another, countless marchers died during these trips. Some prisoners were moved by train, but the conditions were just as bad. Cattle cars would be packed with as many weary bodies as possible and then locked, with little airflow and even less food and water, if any. “The last day had been the most lethal. We had been a hundred or so in this wagon. Twelve of us left it.” (Wiesel).

As the Soviet Union made their way for the camp, the camp began to evacuate its three main camps and 44 subcamps. “SS units forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to march west from the Auschwitz camp system” (“Auschwitz,” n.d.). Prisoners were transported to Germany concentration camps. The travels to these camps were unbearable, and many prisoners lost their lives during the travel or were killed if they could not keep up during the marches. These marches are often referred to as “The Death Marches.” “On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered [Auschwitz-Birkenau camps] and liberated around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying” (“Auschwitz,” n.d.).

The weather was also causing multiple deaths along with them being very tired and hungry. (Death Marches) This shows that everything that the Jewish prisoners were forced to do were planned by their captors to only end with their lives which is why they would run long distances non-stop, being in extreme weather, and being killed if they could no longer keep up with the rest of the group. The Captive Jews would be moved from camp to camp, which are the death marches, by foot although sometimes they used means of transportation such as trains and ships. (Death Marches) In an article it states, “The death marches often lasted for weeks at a time.” “I was unable to walk and would never have reached the camp…” This shows that were pushed to more than their limits to reach to their destination by running rather than using means of transport which caused the range of their deaths purposely closer. The ending result which was the deaths of these people were caused by the way they were treated during the holocaust specifically during the Death

At these death camps they had gas chambers which could hold up to 2000 people at one time. When the cattle carts arrived filled with the Jews they would get told to go either left or right. If they were a young child or an elderly person or someone unfit to do heavy work they would be sent to the gas chambers. We don’t know the exact amount of people that went to the gas chambers as some people got straight off the train and into the gas

Imagine you are in a remote prison camp. Encircling the camp is a thick wall of barbed wire. An cruel and elite force of guards surround you. You have no possessions, barely any clothes, and precious little food. What little food you do get is barely substantial. These conditions are very similar to what survivors of the holocaust had to endure. Many unspeakable,and inhumane things went on in these camps that can only be imagined in nightmares. Elie Wiesel, a Jewish boy at the age of 15 survived the nightmarish death camps. He talks about furnaces and starvation. He speaks of the ruthless SS and the abuse all of the prisoners suffered. But, he also talks about the main reason so many people

The Death Marches occurred when the enemy of the Germans were close to the camps. Thousands of Jews were killed in camps before the Death Marches started. The Jews had to run from camp to camp on foot in snow, rain, and all kinds of conditions, with little or no food, water, or rest. They were even transported in cattle trains. On a six day march, if you were unable to keep up, you were shot. On a different ten days march from Stutthof Camp prisoners were marched to the Baltic Sea. 700 prisoners

On October 14, prisoners killed 11 guards and set the whole camp on fire. Around 300 prisoners escaped, but lots were killed during the manhunt. Only 50 Jews survived at the end of the war. At Auschwitz prisoners of the Sonderkommando the special squad whose job it was to burn the bodies of the murdered victims, learned that there were plans to kill them. On October 7, 1944 a group of them rose up, killing 3 guards and blowing up the crematorium. Hundreds of prisoners escaped, but most were found and killed.Four young women were hung in front of remaining inmates because accused of supplying the dynamite. One of them, 23-year- old Roza Robota, shouted as the trapdoor opened “Be strong, have courage”.

Towards the end of WWII, the German tyranny began collapsing along with the loss of much territory. At this point, Germany began the infamous “death marches”, as prisoners called them. These marches were an attempt to prevent the liberation of as many prisoners as possible. The most notable death marches were the marches from the Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Starting in the summer of 1944 the Nazi were getting defeated and the war was almost over. When they realized that they would lose they wanted to get rid of all evidence of crimes, even the survivors. Nazi’s would burn the bodies of dead people and try to get rid of the camps but, there was still survivors who could tell people what they had happen to them so the Nazi’s walked them on death marches in worse conditions than in the camp. Over 250,000 people died on the marches but some lived to tell what happened and here is one of their stories.

The novel, The Book Thief Written by Markus Zusak is set in 1939 Nazi Germany and is narrated by a personified version of Death, who describes both the beauty and devastation of life in this era. The main character Liesel Meminger (aged 9 years old – at the beginning of the book) is sent with her brother, Werner to foster parents in Munich. On the way there Werner (aged 6) dies. At his burial Liesel finds a book buried partially in snow, belonging to one of the grave diggers. With this book Liesel starts a long fascination for books and words, which she comes to understand and they become a soucre of comfort for her, escaping from her losses and sometimes her life. Her life changes when Max Vandenburg is hidden in her basement, he is a Jew.

However, they were not prepared to fight back and eventually surrendered. Those who surrendered were sent to concentration camps. Around a third of the prisoners did not even survive the transport to the camps. Diseases ran rampant through the camps, and many people died from typhus and smallpox. These camps had similar conditions to what would later be known as Nazi concentration camps. An eyewitness described the people in the camps, “They were in an enclosure on the beach, fenced in with barbed wire, women were made to do hard labor, just like the men, the sand was thick and deep and they were expected to load carts and trolleys” (Fraser). Many men were killed, and women were often raped, or forced into being

The death marches were hideous forced marches made to move Holocaust prisoners from one camp to another. Many of them met their end here, and in fact, “thousands of prisoners died of exposure, starvation, and exhaustion” (ushmm.org 2017).

The prisoners mainly traveled on foot but most of them die from starvation and exestuation. The prisoners would be marched on foot part of the way, and then crowded onto trains, where they were given food and water. There is an estimate of 100,000 Jews that have died while on the death marches. The prisoners that the Nazis thought were unfit for slave labor in Germany was not taken on the death marches. The death marches lasted up to weeks, sometimes even months. During the time, thousands dies from starvation, diseases, and the cold. Some of them were shot along the way and some was recused by the neutral diplomats.