CONCENTRAITION CAMPS

The Final Step for a Complete Genocide of a Race

Before the Final Solution

Before the Concentration Camps started, the Jewish community was already feeling the heat from Hitler’s wrath. Adolf Hitler was a very racist man and he wanted a complete wipe out of the Jewish race. When he first became chancellor, he ordered to take away the luxury’s the Jews had. As Hitler gained more power, he started to take away more and more assets that average people would need to survive with. Within a matter of a few years, all of the Jews who lived in Poland or German were forced to live in ghetto’s. This was only a temporary plan though, because the next step was the Final Solution.

Definition of Concentration Camp:

A group of labor and death camps located in Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe for the incarceration of Nazi opponents, other "undesirables," political dissidents, Gypsies, Russian POWs and Jews. Conditions were so terrible that most inmates died after about four months. The death camps in Poland were Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka.

Transportation:

The Nazis would not tell the Jews that they were going to a concentration camp. They just told them that they were being moved, and many of the victims believed that this would be a better place. They were shoved into a train cart, filled with other victims, and they would all be stuck in there for days until they arrived at that concentration camps. They were provided with no food or water, had to depose their waste in public, and it was often hot in there because of the large amount of people squeezed in there. Words can not honestly describe how horrid it was just to travel to your death

Ella Liebermann-Shiber : In the Freight Wagon

Once There

There are three different types of camps. There was the Death Camp, which would kill the all the Jews who arrived. There were the Work Camps that would work the Jews to death. Then there was the odd few Camps (most famously, Auschwitz) that would have both death and work camps combined. At these camps, the victims that usually were sent to the Work Camp side were healthy, young, and strong. They were also usually men, but women and children did also make it to that other side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYQjsbn4KCM&feature=related

*Clip from the film Sophie’s ChoiceThe scene where Sophie is being held at a concentration camp and an SS

officer talks to her

Once ThereOnce sorted out, the Nazis would take away their possessions (if they had brought any), they would shave their hair, give them an outfit, and sign them off to work right away.

David Brainin :"Selection" in Compiègne Camp, June 1942

*the artist died on the same year this piece was made

Living ConditionsEven though they survived living in Hitler’s Germany, the Ghetto, that train ride over, and the selection process, they were still not safe. They were forced to work starving and sleepless. When they were not working, they were sent to their beds, which at most camps, resembled a horses stable, and sleep thousands of people crowded around you.

Ella Liebermann-Shiber: In the Barracks

Russian Roulette Everyday, there was a good chance of death. There were Gas chambers filled with Zykon B that could kill thousands of Jewish people at once. There were also time when the Nazis would have thousands of Jews lined up naked in front of a hole. The person in front of that line would be shot. Then the line would move up. And of course, there was always a chance of getting shot at for just believing in another god.The worst part about it was, you would never know who, what, where, when, and how you were going to die, until you are.

David Olère :18.8.1940, Emile Gladel, Aged 17, Killed while Riding his Bicycle

Pieces from ArtistsThe collage below is a number of pieces of art that were created by numerous Holocaust victims.

After DeathAfter the massive killing spree the Nazis had done day to day, they would reuse the Jew's possessions. If they had hair, they would shave it off and use it for stuffing up pillows or mattresses. If they had gold teeth, the Nazis would melt it down and save it. Their clothes went to German families. The rest of their bodies would be cremated and reused as compost for agriculture. Because this genocide was going on during WW2, and because Germany was already deep in debt (they were blamed for WW1, so they had to pay all the costs, which put Germany in a rut), Hitler’s government believed that they could get some profit by selling off or using the dead Jewish people’s possessions.

The Ending of the Holocaust

Liberation of these Camps only came around 1944-1945. Since people were in Concentration camps since 1942, there have been an outstanding number of deaths. The second division of Auschwitz alone had 1,400,000 deaths. The American and British armies had been the ones to release the death camps, and they could not believe their eyes at how barbaric and inhumane the camps were. In total, 6,559,955 (estimated) had died from these camps.

Auschwitz

Auschwitz was the biggest and most notorious Concentration Camp throughout the genocide. It was so huge, it had 3 parts (Auschwitz I,II, and III). At Auschwitz, they had medical centers where they would test medicines on the prisoners. This would usually result in torture and death. They also had the hugest gas chambers for killing thousands of people per day. There were so many deaths at Auschwitz, there is not a set death toll.

Politically Correct

As a side note, I would like to say that The European Jewish community was not the only type of people who had to endure the Camps. There were also prisoners of war, Polish Catholics, Serbians, Germans who resisted the Holocaust, Germans who were handicapped, homosexuals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. The reason why I only mentioned the Jews is because they had suffered the most deaths and they are what one usually considers the only victims of the holocaust.

Artists

Throughout the next few sides, there is be a bit of information about the artists who made the pieces that have been shown throughout the slideshow. Some of them have been privileged throughout the holocaust because of their talent, others have not. But they have all seen the same horrors and they have all been emotionally affected by it.

Ella Liebermann-Shiber

Born: Berlin; 1927Died: Haifa; 1998

Before the war, her father was a fur merchant and her mother was a housewife. Ella was the second youngest out of a group of 4 siblings. Her mother was from a Polish decent so in 1938, the family was forced to move to Poland from Germany. They lived in a ghetto until 1942 when an SS officer beaten a man to death looking for the family in hiding. That was when the family was sent to Auschwitz. Lucky, Ella was not separated from her mother and they both worked at an munitions factory. Soon after, an SS officer found out about Ella’s talent for art and asked her to portrait of his relatives who died in battle (WW2). She did. That is when all the SS of took advantage of her and made her paint portraits of their family in exchange for Ella to never leave her mothers side. When she was liberated from camp, she married and had children. She died in Israel in 1998. After her death, she received a certificate of merit and appreciation for her contribution to Holocaust remembrance and assurance of the future

David BraininDavid was born in 1905 to a Jewish tailor in the Ukraine. At 14 he moved to Palestine. At 19 he moved to Paris to study painting and choreography. He made his living off of dancing. He joined a Russian dance group and met his future wife. They traveled around Europe to perform. In 1931, he studied set design and worked as a scenery designer for films. During the war, David was sent to Compiègne where he depicted the conditions he witnessed onto paper. Soon after, he was deported to one of the camps in the East and never returned.Born: Ukraine; 1905

Died: Unknown location; 1942

David OlèreAt a young age, David had always been interested in art. So much so, he moved to Berlin at the tender age of 16 to exhibit wood cuts he made. He moved onto making promotion art for a film company. After awhile, he moved to Paris and became intrigued with the art immerging from there are moved onto working for French film companies. He had married and had a son before World War Two. In WW2, he fought for France. When France lost, he was sent to die at Auschwitz. Lucky, the SS officers had realized that he had many talents, like knowing 6 languages and being artistic. Because of this, the officers got him to write letters in pretty calligraphy. He was also drafted into the Sonderkommando. This meant he had to witness all the cruel things the Nazis did. He was sent to several camps afterward and was only liberated in 1945. He continued to draw paintings of all the sights he saw. In 2000, there was a trial were his works were the main evidence that was used, showing that his art and horrifying work with the Sonderkommando wasn’t for nothing.

Born: Warsaw; 1902Died: 1985

DenialAs of present times, there are a lot of people who do believe that these camps and the tortures that they held were real. But, sadly, there are a group of former Nazis, called Anti-Semitist, who believe that the Jews played this trick on Germany to gain a financial and political stance. They do not have a great case though, because all the evidence and files point to this actually happening. They do not rest though, and this hot topic is now gained to a religious belief.

The Affects on the Holocaust todayToday, The holocaust is a touchy subject. There are survivors who tell their tale, but there are few who do. All across the world, we have museums and memorials where you can learn about the experience and emotions that happened back then. In fact, there are concentration camps that people can visit and see how much the Nazi’s tortured those millions of innocent people. Also, there are over a million sites about the holocaust and it is taught in many schools across North America and Europe. And, of course, there is the art that was created by the survivors and witnesses as well. With all these resources, the holocaust will stay in history forever has the saddest, most inhumane event that has ever happened throughout time.

Works Cited:• http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/uploads/pics/An_aerial_photograph_of_the_Dachau_concentration_camp.

__Photograph__06737___Small_.jpg• http://www.adl.org/children_holocaust/more_resources.asp• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=311&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=143&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=314&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=290&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=161&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=275&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=282&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=299&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=283&referer=s• http://art.holocaust-education.net/explore.asp?langid=1&submenu=104&id=326&referer=s• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust#Aftermath_and_historiography• http://www.holocaustchronicle.org/holocaustappendices.html• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Did_six_million_really_die.jpg• Notes taken in my history class