The history of the holocaust And how it affects us to this day by Eun
The history of the holocaust
And how it affects us to this day
Can you imagine being ripped away from your family in the middle of the night, stuffed inside a cattle cart, taken to a prison like building, stripped of your clothes, starved, shaved of your hair and forced to do labor to hold on to a thin thread of hope. You say “that’s terrible! That could never happen in real life!” you’d be surprised to know that this is true. Oh so terrifyingly true. In 1933, the holocaust started and it went unnoticed for 12 years. During the the holocaust, innocent victims suffered beatings and hard labor. Others ceased in mass executions and gas chambers, those who had survived examinations went on death marches where over a hundred thousand innocent lives were buried in the blood stained snow. The holocaust had shocked the world, leaving it to take precaution against genocide.
After the First World War, Germany had to pay retributions to the Allies. But because they had to pay their own war dept, they suffered an economic crisis. Many people were left angry and poor. A man named Adolf Hitler took power during that time. He manipulated the public’s anger by making himself into a hero through a movie that made him loved by the public. His effective use of propaganda won his people over, on the 30th of January 1933 Hitler became Germany’s chancellor, he and his regime soon began the mass genocide of the Jewish population. He started with his infamous Enabling Act on March 23rd 1933 that gave him absolute power over the government, he started by ordering the making of a new textbook, in the textbook young people would be taught that the Jewish were the cause of all their problems which stirred hate and racism. He also created an army of devoted soldiers, they called him the Führer (Fuehrer) and because much of Germany’s youth were Nazi soldiers, they had a sense of belonging and marched through the streets blinded by mob mentality. From there, he started to nibble away at the Jewish population; he began little by little, such as forcing the Jewish to wear arm bands to distinguish the Jews and closing Jewish owned businesses one by one. Then his actions grew louder, moving them in cramped cattle carts from one ghetto to another until they finally entered the concentration camps where they would be immediately killed or become slaves to hard labor. The Jewish were mainly targeted but they weren’t the only victims; gypsies, the Polish, Slavs, homosexuals, the disabled, and Jehovah’s Witness were also targeted.
Once they stepped out of the cattle carts, they formed lines and they would be categorized into groups that would decide their life. Men on one side, women/children/elderly/disabled on another, and twins were separated. The men would be physically evaluated, if they passed, they would be given a uniform and a tattoo with their number. On the other hand, those who failed would be executed alongside the women/children/elderly/disabled. Twins and a selected few would be taken into Dr.Mengele’s laboratory. The twins would be part of a study to maximize the German population, other of Dr.Mengele’s infamous experiments include attaching extra limbs to a person’s body or testing the human body in harsh conditions like timing how long a person could survive in ice cold water.
Another World War broke out and when the American allied troops entered the concentration camps they were horrified. The troops described the victims as walking skeletons. When the camps were infiltrated, they had been abandoned as most of the troops would try to kill off the rest of the prisoners by taking them on death marches in the freezing cold, they ran for miles and it resulted in nearly 60,000 lost lives. The troops had found a total of 358,000 men’s suits, 837,000 women’s outfits in Birkenau (January 18th 1945) alone and 15,400 pounds of human hair. It is estimated that the number of victims is around 6,400,000. The main concentration camp known as Auschwitz had 7,500 people alive compared to an estimated 4.5 million out of the 6.4 million victims died inside concentration camps. The survivors still continued to die in rates of 400 people a day from their illnesses and over-consuming. The victims were starved for so long that even though plenty were given, their bodies couldn’t adjust, victims had to gradually increase in intake; it took months to get back on a regular diet. When they recovered, they hoped and searched for their families but almost none of them could.
In 2012, 67 years have passed since the liberation of death camps and we are still being affected by the holocaust. One way is through prevention. During world history class, a whole chapter consists of the holocaust. During English class, we are assigned at least one book about the holocaust during our high school experience. All this is done to educate the future generation. Tons of movies and books were made about the holocaust, such as The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the Night, Diary of Anne Frank, Hiding Place, Schindler’s List, Shoah and more! Being possibly the last few generations to ever see a survivor in person is unfortunate but it is that much urgent to educate the young people. They say that history is constantly repeating itself. Therefore, if we are educated on genocide, it could prevent another from happening. After all, they say that knowing the past is the most important tool for the future.
