Gracie Muth

Mr. Palcsey

English 10

April 24, 2018

Concentration Camps during the Holocaust

Life before and after the Holocaust was completely different. The Jewish population in

Europe was over nine million in 1933. Before World War II had begun it was not uncommon to

see Jews in different parts of the world. In his life time, Adolf Hitler developed many systems

that reformed the Holocaust. Stripping the populations rights, propaganda, ghettos, and uses of

different technology are examples of systems Hitler utilized. By the time the Holocaust was

coming to an end it was almost rare to see Jews in different parts of the world. A key factor that

Hitler used in order to exterminate the Jews and completely dehumanize them, was by setting up

concentration camps.

In 1934, the president of Germany tragically died, and Adolf Hitler became the

chancellor and president at the same time. Hitler made many promises to his people. He made it

clear that he would, expand the amount of Germany’s land, reestablish their integrity and bring

back its lost wealth. In order to do this however, Hitler alleged he must annihilate all Jews. He

believed that blonde haired blue-eyed Germans were ultimately the high-class race. Every

capability, gift, power, or fortune the Jews of Germany controlled or had was seen as a hazard by

the Nazis. “As the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, Hitler ranted against

Communists, Jews and Gypsies, and against Slavic peoples, such as Poles and Russians, all of

whom he considered inferior” (Perl 12). In hopes to be victorious in his fight against the Jewish
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population, he was hoping only the superior races would continue to live. Everyone else would

need to be killed immediately.

From the start of the Holocaust Jews were dehumanized. Between 1941 and 1944 Nazi’s

deported millions of Jews from Germany and brought them to concentration camps or

immediately executed them. The Schutzstaffel guards moved the Jews by train or on forced

death marches. This series of deportations to concentration camps continued until May 1945.

"Allied forces moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they began to

encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, as well as prisoners in route by forced

march from one camp to another” (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 7).

Every Jew that was captured was immediately stripped of his or her rights. Anyone who

was healthy enough to actually work was working from morning until night with barely any food

or water. If anyone looked or felt even the slightest bit sick, the Nazi’s would slaughter them.

The Schutzstaffel guards immediately took over any pre-owned territory that was left behind by

the deported Jews. They stripped any hope the Jews had of coming home and left them with

nothing. Jewish deportees made attempts to grab any food, clothing, and personal items they

needed for their unknown futures. As time progressed, German consultants began exiling

clusters of convicts from other occupied countries in addition to Gypsies and Soviet POWs.

Once a Jew was captured they were immediately taken to a concentration camp where their fate

was eventually determined.

The first person to create a concentration camp was Theodore Fiche. He revolutionized

the history of the Holocaust. Not only did he develop these camps, he also operated a school

where he trained people towards commanding them. In total, there were four main types of

concentration camps that were used during the Holocaust. The concentration camps used were
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labor camps, gassing, mass shooting, and medical testing extermination camps. The different

types of camps were established by Germany, however the idea of concentration camps itself

was developed by Theodore Fiche. The reason these were developed by Germans during the

Holocaust was to be able to test, examine and watch over the Jews.

The concentration camps during the Holocaust were completely overcrowded and

congested. There was rarely any space for anyone to lay down and sleep at night. The camps

were completely isolated from the rest of the world. It was nearly impossible for anyone to

receive or deliver messages, in or out of the camp. Everyone was forced to stay in their ghetto

and it was completely forbidden to try to enter. The entire camp was surrounded by barbed wire.

Any attempts to escape would result in immediate death in a number of atrocious ways. After

selection was performed by the Schutzstaffel, doctors examined the Jews. Those who looked as

if they were in shape enough to work or selected to go through medical treatments or

experiments were registered in the camp. Anyone who looked the slightest bit ill was sent

immediately to the crematorium to die. Pregnant women, elderly, young children, and those who

were classified as unfit to work were also sent to their death. “Of more than one million people,

50% died of hunger, excessive forced labor practices, terror, executions, appalling conditions,

illness and epidemics, punishment, torture and criminal medical experiments. Some 200,000

prisoners were transferred by the Germans to other concentration camps, where a significant

number of them died” (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum).

Auschwitz began operating as a full-time concentration camp on June 14, 1940. Jews

were deported directly to Auschwitz based off of just getting rounded up from street raids, or

straight up getting taken from their homes. Over one million people were transported to

Auschwitz and only about 400,000 were actually registered and placed in the camp.
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"Approximately 150,000 Poles, 23,000 Gypsies, 15,000 Soviet POWs and 25,000 prisoners

belonging to other nationalities were in Auschwitz” (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum 8). This

camp was the most brutal camp that was in full operation during the time of the Holocaust.

Auschwitz was so intense that it was separated into three main camps, all of which were

incredibly inhumane. The three main camps inside of Auschwitz are: Auschwitz 1, Auschwitz

Birkenau, and Monowitz/Bona. Auschwitz 1 was filled with roughly 12,000 and 20,000 Jews.

Auschwitz Birkenau was the largest camp, with 90,000 prisoners in 1944. The Nazi’s built here

the gas chambers. This was the greatest induction of a large area slaughtering in Europe. The

majority of Jews were exterminated by the gas chambers in Auschwitz Birkenau. In 1944, Buna

held over 11,000 prisoners. The three sections of Auschwitz were primarily organized by Buna.

Auschwitz was also separated into multiple scattered sub camps. The sub camps ran off of

complete slave labor. “Auschwitz was to serve three main purposes: To incarcerate real and

perceived enemies of the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland for an

indefinite period of time, to have available a supply of forced laborers for deployment in SS-

owned, construction-related enterprises (and, later, armaments and other war related production)

and to serve as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the of the populations

whose death was determined by the SS and police authorities to be essential to the security of

Nazi Germany” (U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum 2).

The Holocaust was a traumatic time of dehumanization and multiple forms of

extermination. Vast numbers of innocent people were brutalized. There was nothing that any of

the blameless Jews could do to help themselves. Nazi’s took over any rights these people had

and completely demolished them. Houses were destroyed, families were separated, people were

slaughtered, and the entire world was in complete chaos. By the end of the Holocaust there was
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not many Jews left. Anyone that was leftover was starved, diseased, or in horrible shape. There

are very few survivors left over from the concentration camps. It is a shame the world was put

through such a dreadful genocide.

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English Research Work Cited

1. “Introduction to the Holocaust.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United

States Holocaust Memorial Museum

2. Schultz, Angela Michelle. “Facts about Concentration Camps.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 23

March 2018, owlcation.com/humanities/Conditions-In-Concentration-Camps.

3. “Auschwitz Birkenau: The past and present” Memorial Museum.

4. Perl, Lila. “Four Perfect Pebbles: A True Story of the Holocaust”

5. Bitton-Jackson, Livia “I have Lived a Thousand Years, Growing up in the Holocaust”