Concentration Camps Essay Example
There are many events that take place in history that should be remembered and documented. By knowing what has happened in the past, it may help prevent some disasters from reoccurring. It is also important to know what trials and tribulations we have overcome and grown from. One remarkable event that unfortunately transpired during the Holocaust was the concentration camps. Many people were affected by the reality of what was happening in Germany. Within Germany, there were types of camps that people could be sent to: concentration camps, labor camps, extermination camps and prisoner-of-war camps. Concentration camps were the Nazis’ way of imprisoning the Jews, political antagonists and other people deemed socially unacceptable of the country. If these people were sentenced to a concentration camp and did not arrive, they could and would be shot on the spot. Death camps came into play to make the killings move faster and leave less anguish on the killers, not the victims. June 14, 1940 was the date that Auschwitz first became active in bringing prisoners to the camp. The first prisoners to arrive at the camp were Polish prisoners of war. Later came Soviets, Gypsies and other nationalities. In 1942, after Hitler ordered the destruction of the people, Jews were the main targets to become incarcerated at Auschwitz. This was about the time that the camp began to mass murder citizens of the Jewish community. Once arriving at this ghostly nightmare, people spent little time alive.
“After the transports of children in the summer of 1942, the French authorities came to the same conclusion. So disturbing was the image of small children fending for themselves, deprived of their mothers, that after the last train containing parentless children left Drancy on August 31 an order was given that such transports were not to be repeated. Never again, as far as the French deportations were concerned, would children