Tragedy During The Holocaust
Tragedy, defined as “a lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair; calamity; disaster,” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tragedy) was prominent between 1939 and 1945. An alternate definition, “a disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life,” was also prominent during these 6 long years, due to the Holocaust’s estimated death toll being that of 9 to 11 million. The Holocaust, (Holocaust derived from the Greek word “holos,” meaning completely, and “kaustos,” meaning burnt), refers to Germany’s NAZI (National Socialist political party) regimes deliberate extermination of 9 to 11 million Jews, Poles, Slavs, Soviet POW’s, Romans, physically disabled people, mentally ill people, gay men, Freemasons,
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Inside these camps, there were many ways to die; starvation, disease, suicide, to be exterminated/murdered, or to be exterminated through labour, meaning one would work themselves to death. Prior to being transported to these camps, Jews were kept in the Ghetto, defined as “a section of a city where the Nazis forced all Jews to live. A ghetto was often sealed off with walls, barbed wire and armed guards, preventing people from entering or leaving.” The largest was Warsaw, containing 380,000 people, and out of those, 43,000 died before ever leaving the …show more content…
After the gas was pumped out, the prisoners were found, according to Joann Kremer, an SS doctor, “half-squatting, their skin coloured pink with red and green spots, some foaming at the mouth or bleeding from the ears,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust#Origins) the bodies were then removed, which was a lengthy process, by the Sonderkommando, (Jews who hoped to buy themselves a few extra months of life,) gold fillings were extracted and the women’s hair was then cut, when they were finished with the bodies, the SS made sure that all the gold had been removed from the victims’ mouths, and if not, the prisoner responsible was thrown into the furnace, alive. The Sonderkammando would then clean the floors of the gas chamber and whitewash the walls, they either lived in the attic above the crematoria or inside the gas chambers themselves. The bodies were initially buried in pits, but were dug up and burned
Inside these camps, there were many ways to die; starvation, disease, suicide, to be exterminated/murdered, or to be exterminated through labour, meaning one would work themselves to death. Prior to being transported to these camps, Jews were kept in the Ghetto, defined as “a section of a city where the Nazis forced all Jews to live. A ghetto was often sealed off with walls, barbed wire and armed guards, preventing people from entering or leaving.” The largest was Warsaw, containing 380,000 people, and out of those, 43,000 died before ever leaving the …show more content…
After the gas was pumped out, the prisoners were found, according to Joann Kremer, an SS doctor, “half-squatting, their skin coloured pink with red and green spots, some foaming at the mouth or bleeding from the ears,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust#Origins) the bodies were then removed, which was a lengthy process, by the Sonderkommando, (Jews who hoped to buy themselves a few extra months of life,) gold fillings were extracted and the women’s hair was then cut, when they were finished with the bodies, the SS made sure that all the gold had been removed from the victims’ mouths, and if not, the prisoner responsible was thrown into the furnace, alive. The Sonderkammando would then clean the floors of the gas chamber and whitewash the walls, they either lived in the attic above the crematoria or inside the gas chambers themselves. The bodies were initially buried in pits, but were dug up and burned