Death Marches Of The Holocaust
Death Marches
In the summer of 1944 the Soviet Army destroyed the German Army Group Center and took over the first of the major Nazi concentration camps, Lublin and Majdanek. SS Chief Heinrich Himmler ordered the prisoners of all subcamps and concentration camps to be evacuated and moved towards the interior of the Reich. The SS had no time to complete the evacuation due to the Soviet advance.(Death Marches. ushmm). During the evacuations prisoners were forced to march by foot for long periods of time. This became known as the Death Marches of the Holocaust.
Death Marches were walks that the prisoners were forced to take, which went on for hundreds of miles (Death Marches of the Holocaust). Prisoners were often times forced to walk on foot or they were herded onto freight cars (What were the Death Marches?). Most of the reason for the Death Marches was because the Soviet and Allied troops were catching up with the SS troops or the Nazis (Death Marches of the Holocaust).
The SS authorities did not want their prisoners to be caught by their enemy and reveal everything that had happened to the Allied and Soviet liberators.The SS thought of needing the prisoners to maintain the amount of …show more content…
During the summer of 1944 the Nazis began liquidating the concentration camps.The first camps to be liquidated where those of eastern and central Poland and in the Baltic States. A death march to Budapest was commenced on November 8, 1944 76,000 Jewish prisoners were forced to march to the Austrian border with Hungarian guards This march lasted a full month. During the march thousands of prisoners died of starvation, disease, coldness, and exhaustion. When they reached the Austrian border they were turned over to German soldiers, who then sent them to concentration camps. The Germans began to think they had lost the war and began evacuate the camps and make the prisoners march from Poland to Germany (Death Marches.
In the summer of 1944 the Soviet Army destroyed the German Army Group Center and took over the first of the major Nazi concentration camps, Lublin and Majdanek. SS Chief Heinrich Himmler ordered the prisoners of all subcamps and concentration camps to be evacuated and moved towards the interior of the Reich. The SS had no time to complete the evacuation due to the Soviet advance.(Death Marches. ushmm). During the evacuations prisoners were forced to march by foot for long periods of time. This became known as the Death Marches of the Holocaust.
Death Marches were walks that the prisoners were forced to take, which went on for hundreds of miles (Death Marches of the Holocaust). Prisoners were often times forced to walk on foot or they were herded onto freight cars (What were the Death Marches?). Most of the reason for the Death Marches was because the Soviet and Allied troops were catching up with the SS troops or the Nazis (Death Marches of the Holocaust).
The SS authorities did not want their prisoners to be caught by their enemy and reveal everything that had happened to the Allied and Soviet liberators.The SS thought of needing the prisoners to maintain the amount of …show more content…
During the summer of 1944 the Nazis began liquidating the concentration camps.The first camps to be liquidated where those of eastern and central Poland and in the Baltic States. A death march to Budapest was commenced on November 8, 1944 76,000 Jewish prisoners were forced to march to the Austrian border with Hungarian guards This march lasted a full month. During the march thousands of prisoners died of starvation, disease, coldness, and exhaustion. When they reached the Austrian border they were turned over to German soldiers, who then sent them to concentration camps. The Germans began to think they had lost the war and began evacuate the camps and make the prisoners march from Poland to Germany (Death Marches.