Jayden Barton

Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History P.3
4 April 10, 2016

Death Marches
The death marches were a big part of the holocaust in general because without those death
marches then the Jews would have never been transported to the death camps. The death marches
were not just one thing during the war because they were one simple idea that lead to three
horrifying places and rules. Death marches mostly associated with an Auschwitz, Rajsko,
Brzeszcze these are the most known death camps.
In Auschwitz there where death marches all over happening that way slaves/Jews would
get to their camp. A march (as of prisoners of war) in which those unable to go on are left to die
as they fall to their death. Once the Jews got there after their horrific march they were
slaughtered or sometimes spared. In many of these death marches you can assume that death
would happen. Such as A good dozen prisoners die during the journey to Mauthausen
which lasts several days, arriving in the camp on the 29 January 1945. (Jew death march).
Which is saying that once they got to their destination they had just enough they could deal with.
But in some cases this encouraged an understandable perception among the prisoners that
the Germans intended them all to die on the march. The term death march was probably
coined by concentration camp prisoners(. remember.org). this is sad but true because the
people controlling the death march didnt want to be there as much as the Jews.

During the war with Americans and the Germans death marches where still happening all
over. At the almost end of the war Almost 30,000 prisoners are forced on death marches
away from the advancing American forces. About a third of these prisoners die during the
marches. On April 11, 1945, the surviving prisoners take control of the camp, shortly before
American forces enter on the same day(remember.org). during the war the Germans had to
evacuate some death camps in order for the death marches to keep happening. The SS begins
evacuating Auschwitz and its satellite camps. Nearly 60,000 prisoners are forced on death
marches from the Auschwitz camp system. Thousands are killed in the days before the
death march. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to the city of
Wodzislaw in the western part of Upper Silesia. SS guards shoot anyone who falls behind
or cannot continue. More than 15,000 die during the death marches from
Auschwitz(rememeber.org). meaning that these were actually death marches the Germans
were doing this for their own reason that way the Americans wouldnt catch or help the Jews.
During this the Nazis where telling everyone that the Jews are a waste and should not be
here on earth. Such as the Nazi ideology said that Germans were racially superior and that
Jews were an inferior race and a threat to the survival of Germany. Anti-Semitism, or
hatred of Jews, had a centuries-long history in Germany and throughout Europe, but
reached its height during the Nazi era (1933-1945). The Nazis also claimed that Roma
(Gypsies), Slavs (Poles, Russians), and physically and mentally disabled people were
Untermenschen, or sub-human, and could therefore be treated inhumanely. Communists,
socialists, Jehovahs Witnesses, homosexuals and anyone who publicly disagreed with the
Nazi regime were also persecuted, imprisoned and murdered(nationalww2). Not making

the issue any better but are known to say and think that this was the beginning of the death
camps which lead to the transportation part which lead to death marches.
In conclusion the death marches where such a big part of history just like the death
camps. The main reason is because that the death marches did their own amount of damage to
the Jewish population that this could not go without being brought up. Such as before the history
was shown by the death marches mostly associated with an Auschwitz, Rajsko, Brzeszcze these
are the most known death camps.