The Tragic Truth
Hitler and his men truly believed that it was their responsibility to get rid of the Jewish population. Sometimes when someone thinks they have a responsibility, they will stop at nothing to make it happen. Of course it was just as much not their right to exterminate the Jewish population as it was for the Jewish population's right to live where and when and how they wanted. It's believed that these camps and their Nazi officers murdered approximately 11 million Jews. Hitler never killed anyone besides himself, but he was definitely the man that everyone looked to for what to do next. People started to believe that Hitler's wishes to exterminate the Jewish population and pretty much everyone who didn't have blonde hair and blue eyes, and soon enough he had a whole army behind him. There were not only Nazi soldiers behind him, but civilians and leaders, and soon most of the population wanted Hitler to succeed in his devious plan, and I believe it's our responsibility as a world today to remember what happened during the Holocaust.
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Auschwitz/Birkenau |
Auschwitz had three camps, Auschwitz I, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau and Auschwitz III-Monowitz. Auschwitz I was the base camp, and Auschwitz II was the extermination camp. Auschwitz III was a labor camp to staff an IG Farben company. Auschwitz original purpose was to hold Polish political prisoners in May 1940. The first time they killed prisoners was in September of 1941. Jews would take the train to the camp where they would be exterminated with the chemical Zyklon B, which was a pesticide. At least 1.1 million prisoners perished at Auschwitz and about 90% of them were Jews. About 1 in 6 Jews were murdered here during the Holocaust. If you weren't led to the gas chambers, you had a very slim chance of surviving in Auschwitz. One could die from starvation, being forced to do hard labor, disease, and medical experiments.
There was a staff of about 6,500 to 7,000 German SS, and about 15% of them were convicted of war crimes later on. Only 144 prisoners escaped from Auschwitz as far as we know. |
More information about Henia: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/henia-bryer-survived-four-nazi-1556662#.Ut1wihAo7IU
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