The Holocaust

created by:

Deepa Patel

               In the book Night Weisel illustrates a mental image of what it was like to be in the holocaust. The Holocaust was the murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators. Jews were taken to concentration camps with no belongings with them. If they were lucky they would get there cloths. They were put into overcrowded camps were they had lack of hygiene, extreme starvation, and denial of basic medicines which led to widespread epidemics in many of the camps. The nazis used many different methods to kill the Jews. In Night  Jews were burned to death on a stake while family, friends, and neighbors were forced to walk by watching them burn. Another method they used was called the gas vans. They would generate carbon dioxide by the combustion of truck and gas poison them. The first concentration camp was established at Dachau on March 23, 1933. This was two months after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Its purpose was to spread fear among the populace, and it became an effective tool for silencing and breaking opposition to the Nazi regime.  Below I've gathered pictures from various photographer that I've found pertaining to the Holocaust.

This is a gassing and kremating facility. It was one of the largest of the slave labors and extermination system.

  Here are picture of women in the holocaust at work behind the gates.

This is a piece of the device that was used to thrust bodies into the oven chambers.  The ovens had to be turned on by the prisoner that were forced to work there, therefore they were forced to burn their own kind.

These are the barrack or also known as the beds that the men were forced to sleep on. These barracks were originally designed as horse stables, but then they became beds for up to 6-8 men on each barrack. They were locked at night and the men were given buckets for toiler use. Here is a quote describing the conditions they faced on these barracks:

"Many times I felt I was dreaming. I would have to call to, my self: 'Wake up! Wake up! You are having a nightmare!" I would look around me, trying to wake up, but alas my eyes would keep seeing the same dismal picture. Finally I would start to shake all over, I would say to myself: 'You are in a concentration camp, in an annihilation camp. Don't let them get you down.' I didn't want to end up in the furnace."*

*Judith Sternberg Newman. In the Hell of Auschwitz (New York: Exposition, 1964. p.20 (In: Terrence Des Pres. The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps (Pocket Books: New York, 1976, p. 95).

Here we have a disturbing picture of the children who were crying without anyone crying in the ghettos.

 These are the Jews being patrolled while they are marching to lunch.

Here we have a picture of the streets that are covered with barbed wire fences to keep the Jews in the ghettos.

A mother hold her child while waiting to be mass executed.

If you didn't walk fast enough, you were shot and left behind.

This is a graveyard of starving Jews dying in their left bones and transparent skin.

Picture of the Jewish children who were starved and effected by the various diseases in the concentration camp.

After killing the Jews they used there body parts for scientific experiments. Here we have the chopped up legs and different part of the bodies of the killed Jews.

          Through the researching for this I've learned alot about the holocaust. Its really made me understand and appreciate the beauty of life I have. And how I should take things for granted, because for all I know I could've been one of those starving children parent less. Or I could've been the one standing in front of a burning stake watching my son or daughter fried alive. The Holocaust was one of the most traumatic experiences in world history. There was nothing that they possibly had done to cause so much anger to the Nazis to make them take the suffering actions that they took.

In conclusion I have here a web site that pertain to the holocaust: