The Horrors of the Holocaust Essay - 1170 Words

The Horrors of the Holocaust Eighteen million Europeans went through the Nazi concentration camps. Eleven million of them died, almost half of them at Auschwitz alone.1 Concentration camps are a revolting and embarrassing part of the world’s history. There is no doubt that concentration camps are a dark and depressing topic. Despite this, it is a subject that needs to be brought out into the open. The world needs to be educated on the tragedies of the concentration camps to prevent the reoccurrence of the Holocaust. Hitler’s camps imprisoned, tortured, and killed millions of Jews for over five years. Life in the Nazi concentration camps was full of terror and death for its individual prisoners as well as the entire Jewish†¦show more content†¦Even though these two camps had the facilities of the killing centers, execution was not their only purpose. These centers also used the Jews for labor exploitation.6 The eleven concentration camps were created to house la rge numbers of people in a limited, structured, and defined area . . . until they died or were killed.7 Although thousands of camps existed, these were the Big Nineteen. The smaller camps were attached to, allied with, or under the supervision of the Big Nineteen.8 The basic purpose of the camps was to use the Jews for labor and then kill them. There was more to it than that, however. Konnilyn G. Feig describes the purpose of the camps as follows: The system strove to develop from a primitive incarceration project to a vast unprecedented network for the suppression, containment, exploitation, and extermination of millions of people of various nationalities who were designated as enemies of the state or as members of a nonhuman or inferior population.9 Hitler thought of the Jewish population as a worthless society and treated the individuals as worthless creatures. When Hitler came to power, he established the camps for the purpose of isolation, punishing, torturing, and killing Germans suspected of opposition to his regime.10 The Germans wanted to guarantee the death of as many Jews as possible while extracting some useful labor from the doomed.11 The camps were set up technically and psychologically toShow MoreRelatedThe Horror Of The Holocaust859 Words   |  4 PagesThe Holocaust was perhaps the darkest event in the twentieth century. This genocide resulted in the death of six million Jews -not counting the death of soldiers from World War II. Although many Jews died during the Holocaust, some survived and spoke about their struggles and experiences. Art Spiegelman, an American cartoonist, interviewed his father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Holocaust survivor. After collecting information from the interviews with his father, Spie gelman, created Maus, a comic book novelRead MoreThe Horrors Of The Holocaust1271 Words   |  6 PagesThe word Holocaust in ancient Greek means burnt offering, and the term has become common only in the mid-20th century, is really very clearly describes the horrors of the Holocaust. In the history of humanity, perhaps there will be no crime more brutal than the Holocaust (Shoah in Hebrew). The beginning of this huge tragedy was initiated January 30, 1933, when German Chancellor Adolf Hitler was elected. Less than two months later, on March 23rd, 1933, with the enactment of the Emergency PowersRead MoreThe Horrors Of The Holocaust1605 Words   |  7 PagesSpeculations about the grim events during the very horrific Holocaust are unfortunately being denied stating it was not as gruesome as many may have stated it was or did not even exist to begin with. This is not only outrageous but disrespectful to those who lost their lives during the gruesome time. History states that the Holocaust was a period in time where a very fascist dictator, Adolf Hitler, killed over six million European Jews who did not fit the criteria of genetically having blonde hairRead MoreThe Horrors of the Holocaust967 Words   |  4 Pagesinnocent people floating in the wind. That is what most of the people in the holocaust witnessed as they lost their loved ones and completed countless hours of la bor. They were put through unbelievable amounts of torture and pain. Who put them through all of this? Adolf Hitler. Of course you have heard of this terrible incident in our history. But, do you really know what happened and who Hitler was? 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During the Holocaust it would have been better to not be Jewish and to stay out of the way, or go with the flow. Even though being Non-Jewish and not fighting back is the easiest way to go, being Non-Jewish and fighting back is the most sincere thing to do. FightingRead MoreThe Horrors of the Jewish Holocaust530 Words   |  2 Pagesescaped. They were even luckier if they were helped out of camps by other Jewish people and brought home to their families. Now just imagine if all of the Jewish people fought back. Opposing views claim that the Jewish people during the Holocaust should not have fought back; nevertheless, fighting back would have been very dangerous. Admittedly fighting back could have caused a lot more problems for the Jewish people. Because Hitler liked everything to go his way, he may have gotten reallyRead MoreThe Horrors of Killing Centers During the Holocaust829 Words   |  4 Pageswar in the minds of German leaders (World War II in Europe). The Nazis believed the Germans were racially elite and found the Jews to be inferior to the German population. The Holocaust was the discrimination and the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its associates (Introduction to the Holocaust). The Nazis instituted killing centers, also known as â€Å"extermination camps† or â€Å"death camps,† for being able to resourcefully take part in mass murder (Killing Centers: An Overview)Read MoreThe Horror Of The Holocaust In Spiegelmans Maus : A Survivors Tale?724 Words   |  3 Pagesnovel which portrays the horror of the Holocaust through the use of animals. The mice are the narrators, representing the oppressed Jews while the cats represent the Nazis. This story is told as a first-person narrative, explaining in depth the horrors lived by Vladek, a Polish Jew reliving his tale by sharing his story with his son, Artie. Spiegelman uses this novel to tell his own life story as a Holocaust survivor. Unlike his father, he may not have lived through the horrors the Nazis have broughtRead MoreHow Night by Elie Wiesel Helped People Connect to the Horrors of the Holocaust709 Words   |  3 PagesWords, the written language, a way to express feelings, emotions, experiences, and all that your mind can recall from life or fantasy. Although many have heard of the terrors faced by the Jews in countries that were under German control during World War II, few have stepped back and really thought about the weight of what really happe ned to the people in the concentration camps. I believe Night helped people connect to what really happened. This is an actual persons life, their story, poured out