During the Second World War, the Nazi party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler tried to annihilate all the Jews in Europe. The Nazis murdered six million Jewish people, including 1,500,000 children. This terrible period in history is now referred to as the "Holocaust". The term "Holocaust," originally from the Greek word "holokauston" which means "Sacrifice by fire," refers to the Nazi's persecution and planned slaughter of the Jewish people. The Hebrew word "Shoah," which means "devastation, ruin, or waste," is also used for this genocide. Hitler took power in Germany in 1933 and almost immediately began the chain of events that led to the Holocaust. This first phase was the persecution of Jews in Germany and the other countries invaded by Hitler, It lasted until 1941. During this period, while Hitler built his power, Jews were persecuted and brutalized.
After the beginning of World War II, Jews were forced out of their homes and moved into smaller apartments, often shared with other families. Nazis would then order deportations from the ghettos. In some of the large ghettos, 1,000 people per day were loaded up in trains and sent to either a concentration camp or a death camp. Life within Nazi concentration camps was horrible. Prisoners were forced to do hard physical labor and yet given tiny rations. Prisoners slept three or more people per crowded wooden bunk (no mattress or pillow). While concentration camps were meant to work and starve prisoners to death, extermination camps (also known as death camps) were built for the sole purpose of killing large groups of people quickly and efficiently.
Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination camp built. The Nazis also built five other extermination camps: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanek. Prisoners transported to these extermination camps were told to undress and to take a shower. Rather than a shower, the prisoners were herded into gas chambers and killed. (At Chelmno, the prisoners were herded into gas vans instead of gas chambers.) After an early wake-up, daily concentration camp routines would begin with the daily roll call. During the roll call prisoners had to stand in rows, completely still, for hours at a time, and in all weathers. Long lists of orders and instructions would be read out. Then number of prisoners would be counted. After eating a meagre ration of watery soup, a piece of bread and some imitation coffee, a prisoner’s day would follow with work details.
When allied troops stumbled upon the concentration camps they shocked at what they found. Large ditches filled with bodies, rooms of baby shoes, and gas chambers with fingernail marks on the walls all testified to Nazi brutality. General Eisenhower insisted on photographing and documenting the horror so that future generations would not ignore history and repeat its mistakes. He also forced villagers neighboring the death and concentration camps to view what had occurred in their own backyards.
After the beginning of World War II, Jews were forced out of their homes and moved into smaller apartments, often shared with other families. Nazis would then order deportations from the ghettos. In some of the large ghettos, 1,000 people per day were loaded up in trains and sent to either a concentration camp or a death camp. Life within Nazi concentration camps was horrible. Prisoners were forced to do hard physical labor and yet given tiny rations. Prisoners slept three or more people per crowded wooden bunk (no mattress or pillow). While concentration camps were meant to work and starve prisoners to death, extermination camps (also known as death camps) were built for the sole purpose of killing large groups of people quickly and efficiently.
Auschwitz was the largest concentration and extermination camp built. The Nazis also built five other extermination camps: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanek. Prisoners transported to these extermination camps were told to undress and to take a shower. Rather than a shower, the prisoners were herded into gas chambers and killed. (At Chelmno, the prisoners were herded into gas vans instead of gas chambers.) After an early wake-up, daily concentration camp routines would begin with the daily roll call. During the roll call prisoners had to stand in rows, completely still, for hours at a time, and in all weathers. Long lists of orders and instructions would be read out. Then number of prisoners would be counted. After eating a meagre ration of watery soup, a piece of bread and some imitation coffee, a prisoner’s day would follow with work details.
When allied troops stumbled upon the concentration camps they shocked at what they found. Large ditches filled with bodies, rooms of baby shoes, and gas chambers with fingernail marks on the walls all testified to Nazi brutality. General Eisenhower insisted on photographing and documenting the horror so that future generations would not ignore history and repeat its mistakes. He also forced villagers neighboring the death and concentration camps to view what had occurred in their own backyards.