The Holocaust: I Am The Only Survivor

Being in the camps was horrible. They smelt like dead flesh and were as cold as Antarctic. Ever since I was a kid, my mum said I had a big heart and the camps had proved that. Even though I was on the Germans side, I didn’t support anything they were doing; it was disgusting, to say the least. The Germans would shoot the Jew’s as if they were wild animals just running around waiting to be shot. Their faces so stiff, that they no longer seemed human themselves. Days spent hearing cries of despair and sadness, all caused by one guy who believed that, this is what they had deserved. A human life being put in the hand of another. I hated it, and the worst part was being able to do nothing but watch on and see hundreds, thousands lose their precious lives. It was silly and stupid, an unimaginable experience that doesn’t even sound real. How someone could be that evil is something that I could never comprehend.

Over six million people died in the Holocaust. Family, friends, and other people with the same ethnicity that they didn't even know were killed left and right. From the crematory to getting hung. Was it best for them to help each other or was it to protect themselves and not care about anyone else? (Prompt 5)

The Holocaust was a time that left a big scar on the culture of our world as a whole and there are still people suffering from it still to this day. In my investigation I will be looking at to what extent did the Holocaust affect the survivors, both mentally and physically upon return home from the concentration camps. I will be looking at books, both present and from the time period that talk about how they felt and what happened when they got home. I will also surf the internet, find interviews with survivors, look for articles, and newspapers from the time in order to get a better idea of what was going on in their life. I will then compare and contrast the facts at hand and pull out and mix what is the same and

What would your account of the Holocaust be? The Holocaust was a unique event in twentieth century history which, evolved between 1933 and 1945. Beginning with discrimination; then the Jews were separated from their communities and persecuted; they were treated as less than human beings and murdered. While the Jews of Europe were the Nazis’ primary target, many millions of other people were also imprisoned, enslaved and murdered. These people included Roma, those with mental or physical disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, trade unionists, political opponents, Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. The Nazis did not act alone. They were supported and assisted by people from within the countries they occupied across Europe. Most countries stood by while the Nazis and their accomplices carried out the mass murder of the Jewish people. Thus, in 1941 there were about 11 million Jews living in Europe; by May 1945 the Nazis had murdered six million of them. One-and-a-half million of these were children.

Elizabeth Feldman –de Jang and Nathan Nothman are both survivors of the Holocaust, but just like every individual survivor, they share different stories. One of the few things that may unite them is the specific fact that they are both Jewish and despite all odds, they managed to survive and share their stories.

“I pray you never stand at any crossroads in your own lives, but if you do, if the darkness seems so total, if you think there is no way out, remember, never ever give up. The darker the night, the brighter the dawn, and when it gets really, really dark, this is when one sees the true brilliance of the stars.” These words were spoken by Gerda Klein, a Holocaust survivor. Her story is filled with desperation and an overwhelming sense of hope. Gerda Weissmann was born in Bielsko, Poland. Both of her parents and her older brother died during the Holocaust. She was somehow able to survive “the ghetto, deportation, slave labor camps and a three month death march. She was rescued by an American soldier named Kurt Klein. She ended up marrying him and moving to the United States.

During the reign of the Third Reich, the symbolization of the pink triangle was used to identify the thousands of gay prisoners who were sent to extermination camps under Paragraph 175, the law that criminalized homosexuality between men. Researchers say that an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 gay men died in these camps, however this figure does not include those who were interned and later released, let alone those who died undocumented and forever forgotten to history.¹ These thousands of men were forced through excruciating cruelties with little to no reprieve or recognition of the atrocities perpetrated against them. It is because of this that while they are not a distinct racial, ethnic, or religious group, the treatment of those who bore the pink triangle during the Holocaust follows the genocidal process and as such gay Holocaust victims should be considered sufferers of genocide.

The Holocaust was a very traumatic event in history. Every year in school from about middle school onward students learn specifically about Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party’s cruel treatment of the Jewish culture and people during World War II. The same general knowledge is given to us from middle school up until the ending our high school history careers. We are taught to believe that Adolf Hitler was a corrupt man, who sought control of Germany in the 1930’s. Even though we are given background information on this event, and there are things being told to us, no one knows what actually occurred during this time, except those who lived through it. In the book Night published by Elie Wiesel, he explains the things that happened to his family and the people in his community named Sighet before, during, and after the Holocaust. There is more than what meets the eye to this occurrence. No one sees the bigger picture when it comes to this event because of the fact that such a tragedy occurred in the first place. Although the Holocaust was a very unfortunate event, the Holocaust did benefit the United States in a plethora of different ways. Without the Holocaust, World War II would have never happened, and World War II brought countless positives attributes to America. A myriad of things came out of World War II. For example, women earned the right to attain jobs because of the war. Also, America became a global power due to the fact that the Allies (United States, Britain,

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine." I assured her as a bend to whisper in her ear. I pray my words of comfort are correct.

Who survived the holocaust? What are their lives like today? What has been the government's response towards those who survived after World War II? Have the survivors kept their faith? How has the survivors next generation been affected? The survivors of the holocaust were deeply effected by the trauma they encountered. This unforgettable experience influenced their lives, those around them, and even their descendants.

Hi my name David Morgensztern and i will tell about my life and how i survived the Holocaust i was born in 1925 in a small town called Kaluszyn Poland i am the second child of four my mom and my grandma run a newspaper kiosk in town and my dad had worked as a clerk in the town hall i had attended public school every day it was in 1933 the war had broke out between Poland and Germany me and my family were all scared if the germans occupied poland during the wari was with my dad and we were coming home from the market and it was when we got home we had Got home we saw all of these nazi taking my siblings and my mom into a car then a nazi solider had spotted us and “Hey you stop” and he saw me and my dad and so they pulled us out of the bushes

I don’t quite remember the date, but it was cold, bitter, and snowing too. All I could think about was my dire hunger. Our cabin commander ordered us to get out of bed. I didn’t hear this right away, but I was told later that I was the last one to get up. I just kept dozing off, shivering and cold. Then I felt piercing pain in my chest, then head, then everywhere. Finally, I got up, with my chest and head throbbing.

Budapest in January of 1945. Lantos went around trying to locate his family that he had

Father are you out there, This is your daughter Erika Neumen I survived the holocaust. The last time I saw you were in the ghettos. I miss you dearly and can't stop thinking about you.

One of the many important and most memorable incidents of World War Two would be the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, the Germans who were known as the Nazis, considered the Jews to be “enemy aliens”. As part of this, the Nazis thought that “Aryans” were a master race. Therefore, they decided to destroy the Jewish race, and created genocide. The Jews were put into unbearable torture at many concentration and death camps. In fact, 6 million Jews were killed in this incident; however, there were many victims who survived this anguish. One of the many survivors was Simon Wiesenthal, who survived the Nazi death camps and began his career as a Nazi hunter.