The Main Symbol For The Holocaust

The Holocaust can be called one of the darkest sides and the biggest tragedies of the human civilization. The German concentration Camp has become a main symbol for the Holocaust. Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established about 20,000 camps and killed 11 million people. There are three major concentration camps Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, and Bergen-Belsen. These camps were very overpopulated and the prisoners did not eat well, wore cloth rags as clothing and were forced into labor for more than half of the day. “The first concentration camps opened in 1940 and Jews were gassed in mobile vans which brought around the idea of the gas chambers” (Holocaust Encyclopedia – Nazi Camps).
“Auschwitz concentration camp complex was the largest
of its kind established by the Nazi regime” (Holocaust Encyclopedia – Auschwitz). Auschwitz is located in southern Poland. Auschwitz was built in 1940 and was first used to hold polish political prisoners.
In September 1941 the first extermination of prisoners took place. Auschwitz became a major site to the Nazi Final Solution. From 1942 to 1944 transport trains transported Jews from all over German controlled Europe to the gas chambers in Auschwitz. 1.1 million People were killed at Auschwitz and ninety percent of them killed where Jews. Others groups of people killed at Auschwitz included 150000 Poland’s , 23000 Romani, 15000 Soviet prisoners, 400 Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and tens of thousands of people of diverse nationalities. Approximately 1 and 6 Jews killed in the holocaust died in Auschwitz. “Children born in the camp were generally killed on the spot. Near the end of the war, in order to cut expenses and save gas, cost-accountant considerations led to an order to place living children directly into the ovens or throw them into open burning pits” (Gate to Hell Auschwitz). Living conditions in this camp were brutal, if you weren’t killed in a concentration camp you died from the forced labor, starvation, or infectious diseases. Some of the Prisoners were also to medically experiment on by Josef Mengele. Throughout the war 6,500 to 7,000 members of the German Schutzstaffel staffed the Concentration camp. Fifteen percent of the concentration staff has been
convicted of war crimes. Countries around the world refused to believe that this was going on in Europe and did not bomb Auschwitz which still remains controversial to the present. There has been 140 successful prisoner escapes from the concentration camp. In January 1945 Auschwitz evacuated its camp as Soviet troops approached; most of the population of Auschwitz when on a death march. The rest of the population left at Auschwitz when liberated on January 27, 1945. This day has become known as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Auschwitz has become a symbol of the holocaust and in 1947 Poland founded a museum on the site of Auschwitz and in 1979 it was named a UNESCO heritage site.
The Second major concentration camp Belzec and was the first concentration camp build for the specific use of killing Jews.
During the holocaust 500,000 Jews were killed at Belzec. The camp was located in German occupied Poland about a half a kilometer south of the local railroad station. Forty to sixty rail trucks holding about two thousand to twenty five hundred Jews would be dropped off at Belzec. They would then be quickly divided into groups which would be pushed into the camp. When they got into the camp they were assigned their jobs and the Men and the Women were divided. The men were disinfected and showered and the women had to get there head shaved and were marched off to large huts with their children. They were then brutally pushed into gas chambers which were disguised as showers and before they knew what had happen they were gone. The concentration camp Belzec was quite small, with a circumference of +- 1,220 yards” (Belzec Poland). Belzec was divided into two separate camps each camp was surrounded by barb wire and the first camp was in charge of sorting the prisoners into groups and the living places of the prisoners. “The second camp housed the gas chambers and burial pits. “It was reached by a long, narrow passageway with barbed wire fencing on either side, known as 'the tube” (Belzec Poland).This concentration camp ran from March 17, 1942 to the end December 1942. At Belzec they burned the dead bodies on an open air grid and crushed the bones. This
continued even after the closing of the concentration camp until March 1943. There are an unknown number of Poland’s and Romani people killed at this concentration camp. Only seven prisoners from this camp have survived to tell their stories. This is the primary reason why we only know so little about this camp despite the enormous number of victims.
The third major concentration camp is Bergen-Belsen. Bergen-Belsen is located in Saxony which is Northern Germany and was established in 1940. Bergen-Belsen was originally a prisoner of war camp but in April 1943 half of the POW camp was converted to a residence camp. Couple month’s later in1943 parts of the prisoner of war camp became an exchange camp. An exchange camp consists of Jews being held hostage with the intensions of trading them for German prisoners of war held overseas. The camp was expanded after to accommodate Jews from other camps. “Over the course of its existence, the Bergen-Belsen camp complex held Jews, POWs, political prisoners, Roma (Gypsies), "asocial," criminals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals”(Holocaust Encyclopedia/Bergen – Belsen). July 1944 there were 7,300 prisoners in Bergen-Belsen. December 1944 there were 15,000 prisoners and by April the prisoner count of Belgen-Belsen hit over 60,000. “Overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, and the lack of adequate food, water, and shelter led to an outbreak of diseases such as typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and dysentery, causing an ever increasing number of deaths”(Holocaust Encyclopedia/ Bergen-Belsen). From 1941 to 1945; 20,000 soviet prisoners of war and 50,000 inmates died. At least 35,000 people died from the disease typhus. On April 15, 1945 Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British Armoured Division. They liberated 53,000 prisoners from the camp and discovered another 13,000 corpses lying on the ground unburied. Most of the prisoner the British liberated where starved and seriously ill. After the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, British forces burned the whole camp down to prevent the spread of typhus. Famous journal found at Belsen-Bergen was Anne Franks. Anne Frank and her sister Margot died at Belsen-Bergen of the disease Typhus. The horrible things that happen at Bergen-Belsen will live on forever in the videos and photos taken. Today at Bergen-Belsen there is a memorial exhibition hall to remember what happen at this site.
David Tuck is a survivor of the concentration camp Mauthausen in Austria. This tragedy was seventy years ago but is still fresh in Dave’s memories. Memories of the cemeteries where he was forced to loot the jewels off of the dyed prisoners and take there gold fillings out for the Nazi’s. “And the numbers 176, which became his "name" in the labor camps, and 141631, the tattoo still inked on his left forearm” (Dana Difilippo). He has talk to over 10,325 to tell them about his experience of one of the world’s worst atrocities. Tuck in currently 91 and is worried that one day people will forget about this Genocide that killed 6 million people. Firsthand accounts of actual survivors resonate with students better than a textbook. “Yet a Holocaust survivor dies every 45 minutes, according to the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel”(Dana Difilippo). Their entire Holocaust survivors are in there eighty’s at the youngest. There are more than 5,100 holocaust survivors and witnesses. In Philadelphia, film maker Grant Schmidt aims to create cinematic documentaries about the Holocaust. The film maker himself plans to post these films online and to give copies of them to the survivors. He wants to make these documentaries because he wants this to be a resource to teachers and students who want to know about the holocaust. The survivors who are in the documentaries are 25 people who have participated in the museum’s speaker series. Ever since 2001 the museum has been telling up the number of people the speakers spread their stories to and they have hit 130,000 students and others. “The project has proven popular already. A Kick starter campaign to fund it hit its $36,717 goal a week early, and supporters still are pledging money”(Dana Difilippo). Many of the survivors feel obligated to tell their stories. David Tuck Said "Some people deny it. That hurts me," This fuels him to keep his stories alive and he keeps telling them all around the world.
The Holocaust was a very terrible even in history. The concentration camp became a major symbol of the Holocaust. There were over 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust. The people varied from Jews, Poland’s, Romani, Soviet prisoners, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals. Obviously this wasn’t history’s greatest moment, as over 11 million people were either tortured or executed, simply because of their heritage, race, religion, or even sexuality. The Holocaust will never be forgotten as long as the stories keep getting passed on from person to person.