Aushwitz Holocaust Essay Research Paper 1 INTRODUCTION

Aushwitz (Holocaust) Essay, Research Paper

(1) INTRODUCTION The Holocaust is the most horrifying

crime against humanity of all times. "Hitler, in an attempt to

establish the pure Aryan race, decided that all mentally ill,

gypsies, non supporters of Nazism, and Jews were to be

eliminated from the German population. He proceeded to

reach his goal in a systematic scheme." One of his main

methods of "doing away" with these "undesirable" was

through the use of concentration camps. "In January 1941, in

a meeting with his top officials the ‘final solution’ was

decided". Jews were to be eliminated from the population.

Auschwitz was the concentration camp that carried out

Hitler’s "final solution" in greater numbers than any other. In

this paper I will discuss concentration camps with a detailed

description of the most well- known one, Auschwitz. (2)

CONCENTRATION CAMPS The first concentration

camps were set up in 1933. In the early days of Hitler,

concentration camps were places that held people in

protective custody. Victims for protective custody included

those who were both physically and mentally ill, gypsies,

homosexuals, Jehovah Witnesses, Jews and anyone against

the Nazi regime. "Gypsies were classified as people with

atleast two gypsy great grandparents." By the end of 1933

there were atleast fifty concentration camps throughout

occupied Europe. "At first, the camps were controlled by the

Gestapo (police), but by 1934 the S.S. (Hitler’s personal

security force) were ordered, by Hitler, to control the

camps." Camps were set up for different purposes. Some

for forced labor, others for medical experiments and, later

on, for death/ extermination. Transition camps were set up

as holding places for death camps. "Henrick Himmler, chief

of the German police, the Gestapo, thought that the camps

would provide an economic base for the soldiers." This did

not happen. The work force was poorly organized and

working conditions were inhumane. Therefore, productivity

was minimal. Camps were set up along railroad lines, so that

the prisoners would be conveniently close to their

destination. As they were being transported, the soldiers

kept telling the Jews to have hope. (3) When the camps

were finally opened, most of the families who were shipped

out together ended up being separated. Often, the transports

were a sampling of what went on in the camps, cruelty by

the officers, near starvation of those being transported, fetid

and unsanitary conditions on the trains. "On the trains, Jews

were starved of food and water for days. Many people did

not survive the ride to arrive at the camp." Jews were forced

to obey the guard’s orders from the moment they arrived at

the camps. "If they didn’t, they would be beaten, put into

solitary confinement or shot." The prisoners usually had

marks on their clothes or numbers on their arms to identify

them. The sanitary conditions of the camps were horrible.

"There was only one bathroom for four hundred people.

They had to stand for hours in snow, rain, heat, or cold for

role-call, which was twice a day." Within the first few days

of being at the camps, thousands of people died of hunger,

starvation and disease. Other people died from the cruel

punishments of the guards; beatings and torture. "Typhus, a

disease caused by germs carried by flies, was the main

disease that spread throughout the camps. Even when

people were sick, they still continued working because they

did not see that sickness meant death." In 1937, 7,000 Jews

were in camps. By 1938, 10,000 more Jews were sent to

camps. "Jews were taken to camps if they expressed

negative feelings about the government, if they married a

non-Jew, if they were sick (mentally or physically), or if they

had a police record." (4) When someone escaped from the

camp, all the prisoners in that group were shot. Nazis, who

claimed that they did not necessarily hate Jews, but wanted

to preserve the Aryan race, seemed to enjoy making the

Jews suffer. They also felt that slavery was better than killing

their prisoners. "Gold fillings, wedding bands, jewelry, shoes

and clothing were taken from the prisoners when they first

entered the camps and were sold." Surrounding some of the

camps in Poland was a forest, that the Jews who planned to

escape would flee into. Before the escaped prisoners got

very far, they were killed. "When the Germans caught a Jew

planning a rebellion, and the Jew refused to name his/her

associates, the Germans would bring everyone from his/her

barracks out and force him/her to watch the Germans

mutilate th

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