Two+pieces+of+writing+that+represent+the+holocaust+to+me

Two pieces of writing that represent the holocaust to me

The Holocaust had nothing but a negative impact on the world. As a result to the Holocaust the Jewish people lost their rights and extermination camps were established. When German soldiers first invaded Jewish areas, they would take their rights away. The German soldiers would first force them into an unpleasant living situation, ghettos. Ghettos were established throughout 1941 and 1942, and held Jews until they were deported to the concentration camps. While living in ghettos Jews were not aloud out on the streets after a certain time. As well as living in ghettos, Jews were forced to wear a yellow badge that was in the shape of the Star of David. Theses badges marked Jews in public. Some even died before deportation, starvation and disease lurked in every ghetto. When the time of deportation came, all rights were taken away. Jewish people were deported to concentration camps. In 1933, with the cooperation of local authorities, the Nazis set up camps as concentration centers within Germany. At these camps prisoners would be tortured or killed. The conditions of the camps were unbearable. The most famous concentration camp was Aushwitz, located in Poland. Up to three million people were killed in Aushwitz. During the Holocaust a totaly of six million Jews were killed. That number was about seventy-eight percent of the 7.6 million Jews living in Europe at the time. However, Jews were not the only group executed during the Holocaust. Soviet POWs, Ethnic Poles, Romanians, the disabled, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and gypsies were also victims. In conclusion the results of the Holocaust affected the rights of Jewish people and the establishment of concentration camps. []

When people think of what happened during the Holocaust, their minds usually turn to concentration and death camps. Although the camps do play a huge role in the outcome of the Holocaust, it was not the only hardship that the Jewish people had to face. First, Hitler began taking privileges away from the Jewish community. The History Place Holocaust Timeline states that by 1938, most Jewish rights were long gone. At that point, Jews were already being deported to concentration and death camps. These people were taken (sometimes violently) from their homes, and forced to board a freight train. With days of travel, no food, and no room to even sit down on the train, several people died before the train arrived at the camp. Perhaps they were they lucky ones, for the ones who dismounted the train had no idea what terrors were to follow. Louis Bulow says that after getting off the train, germans examined each Jew. Some were told they would be getting and led to large buildings. The ‘showers’ that the prisoners were led to were in fact, large gas chambers. After undressing and given a piece of soap, the giant doors were shut, and the gas was released. Within twenty minutes everyone inside the chamber was dead. Those who had been fortunate enough to avoid the gas chambers were immediately put to work, most of them perished. According to 'Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race' website, the Nazis at the camps conducted awful medical experiments on the prisoners. This is shown in the novel 'Night' by Elizer Wiesel, Elie undergoes an operation without anesthesics "They had not put me to sleep" (Wiesel, 75). They viewed the Jewish as people who could just be disposed. One experiment that the Nazis did was they put people in the freezing cold, to first, establish how long it would take to lower the body temperature to death and second, how to best resuscitate the frozen victim. Over 6 million people died, and several were very near-death when the Americans finally came to release the prisoners from the death camps.

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