Ruthie Schorr

I will continue to edit the work I have already created as well as search for even more information to back up the plot line of my story. I will continue to work on developing my intro paragraph specifically and spend more time inserting facts. I would have liked more time to for proofreading, working on sentence structure, and word choice. I chose this topic to challenge myself. I began my research and then my writing knowing it would difficult but ready to except the challenge and I truly watched myself grow in my writing through this essay Please consider that I have been sick for the past three weeks and illness has hampered me a bit in my ability to work on this essay. Although I still felt like I had a lot of time to work on and edit this essay I still felt as though I was in a bit of a bad situation with being ill while working on it. As you consider my performance, pleaser focus on the large amount of background information I have included for my story line. I am also proud of the way I have organized my essay, which I believe is unique. My endnotes are very specific and, I believe, fit well in supporting this essay. I think it would be really great to focus on the big amount of information I have included as background information for my story line. I also think that some things to focus on would be the way I organized my essay, which I believe is probably pretty different, then many other people. Another good part of this essay I could hope you would focus on is the way I linked in my endnotes to very specific and well fitting spots throughout the essay.

Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:11 AM Comment: There are many things I was looking to edit and continue to fix in this essay and cover letter: -Overall flow -Basic grammar -Introduction and Conclusion -Sentence Structure -Including of Information Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:12 AM Comment: Changed the introduction of this paragraph to more clearly capture what I was trying to relay

Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:12 AM Comment: Change of wording and sentence structure in order to allow for better flow

Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:13 AM Comment: Change of the introduction of this paragraph Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:13 AM Comment: Grammar changes to allow for better sentence structure

Nazi Domination of Europe and The Price paid by Non-Arian Children

World War II was one of the most difficult times ever for Europe. With the Nazi regime rounding up people of non-Arian race from all over Europe and sending them to work and death camps, it destroyed families and left an indelible mark on those who survived There were very few people, the incredibly lucky and powerful ones, who could find a way to escape the grasp of the Nazis and Adolph Hitler. Many of those caught in ravaged Europe were children, split up from their families. Many were taken to their deaths in camps named Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Children were a large part of this heartbreak all throughout the war. Caught between two sides children could not understand, they remained helpless and at the mercy of the Nazi soldiers. The tragedy of the children began to unfold in the late 1930s and accelerated during the heavy fighting of the 40s until liberation in 1945. Children died at a much higher rate than adults. These were years of uncertainty and horror that the children who survived would never forget. For those who made it later to America, their new life would be tinged with the sorrow of memories from the camps and a mission to teach lessons to those who would listen. A Description of Buchenwald Concentration Camp Buchenwald was one of the largest Nazi concentration camps that operated before and during World War II. The camp was built in 1937 in eastern central Germany and operated until liberation by American soldiers in April 1945. This was a key place where political prisoners were sent. But Jews were sent there too. No matter the types of person, Jew or political prisoner, all were treated the same behind the walls of the horrid concentration camp. At one point there were almost 112,000 inmates.1 Besides forced labor at the camp there was medical experimentation, cruelty, and killing. Fortunately, there was also a resistance force and its efforts saved lives. Among them were the lives of children, who were otherwise often the first to die.
Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:19 AM Comment: Added sentence to explain the connection between political prisoners and the Jewish people in Europe at this time Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:19 AM Comment: Grammar changes Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:17 AM Comment: New sentances inserted to help ensure that the introduction of the information of children does not seem out of place, two secntances to ease the idea into the essay and help with the flow Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:14 AM Comment: Changing of order of information in order to allow for better flow or information and also to allow for a better flow to essay overall

Buchenwald was not just one camp but the head of a system of 88 camps throughout Germany that provided forced labor at the expense of political prisoners, gypsies, homosexuals, and Jews. 2 As the Soviets, British and American forces were liberating camps, the Nazis moved prisoners to other camps. Buchenwald was one of the destinations. What the liberators found was shocking: thousands of mens suits, almost a million womens suits, and an obscene amount of human hair. They also found incredibly emaciated human beings. 3And they heard stories of brutal murder. But they also heard stories of resistance and courage. Such was the story of Cellblock 66 ("United states holocaust memorial museum"). There is nothing in the world to this day that is thought to be able to compare to the horror stories of what took place in the quarter. This was located in one of the more remote and disease-infested parts of the camp. 600 children were hidden there (Block 66 at Buchenwald). These were Jewish children who had been sent from other camps. Among them was future Nobel Prize winner Ellie Wiesel. The adults in the camp tried to protect them from harsh duty. They were even funneled Red Cross packages from other prisoners and tutored in school subjects. They were also told stories about life in the outside world to give them hope that a better life awaited them. The Liberation of Buchenwald and Reflection In April, 1945, as liberating forces approached Buchenwald, the Germans began to evacuate 28,000 prisoners from the main camp and subcamps. One third of the prisoners died of exhaustion or were shot by SS guards.4 There was no mercy taken on these prisoners, because the guards and officers were in such a scramble to get as many killed as possible before they were saved by the US troops that were slowly enclosing on the camp.
Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:36 AM Comment: Sentence inserted to explain exactly what was happening and why at the camp at this point in time so it is more clear Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:24 AM Comment: Introduction and more in depth discription of what happened within Block 66 within the concentration camp-in relation to children Ruthie Schorr 4/19/12 11:20 AM Comment: Grammar changes

On April 11, 1945, even before liberators came in, prisoners attacked the guards. The communist inmates took over ("United states holocaust memorial museum"). They had killed some of the guards. In the unmanageable madness, some of the Jewish people That afternoon American soldiers entered the camp and liberated Buchenwald. On the next day prisoners were in the neighboring town of Weimar hunting down SS guards and killing ones they found. The town was bombed out and the townspeople were in hiding (Block 66 at Buchenwald). Left at the camp were approximately 21,000 inmates and this included 900 children, among them the residents of Cellblock 66 (Abzug). The American soldiers, in shock at what they were seeing, had no sympathy for the residents of the town of Weimar, just five miles from the camp. While those residents said they didnt know what was happening at Buchenwald, the Americans doubted that, knowing the people had seen full trains going in but no trains coming with passengers out. General Dwight Eisenhower visited one of the Buchenwald subcamps on April 15, 1945 and sent a letter to his commander: The things I saw beggar description.the visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality wereoverpowering. On June 5, 2009 President Obama visited the site. His great-uncle had been one of the liberators (Abzug). As part of his speech the President commented how the nearby town of Weimar was a vibrant art center. However, he pointed out this was not the case at Buchenwald, This, however, was not a place for living, but a place for dying. Unimaginable horror, shock -there are no words to adequately describe what we feel when we look at the suffering inflicted so cruelly upon so many people here and in other concentration and extermination camps under National Socialist terror. I bow my head before the victims.

The Story of the Survivors After liberation, as tormented as adult survivors were, many assumed the children were spared, that they didnt remember the atrocities. Adults told the children that they were lucky. However, the children were very aware. And as they reconnected with the relatives they had left, it was apparent so many had died: lost friends, lost parents, lost aunts and uncles. Children tried to make sense of it all and they could not. The children, along with the adult survivors were sent to displaced persons camps in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium. 5 At first they were housed behind barbed wires and the treatment was harsh. Sanitation and nutrition conditions were poor. In 1946 conditions started to improve. There were schools in the camps and people made friends and even married. Many people waited years for a chance to leave the camps, for a chance to emigrate to the United States, Canada, or Palestine. They feared going back to their former homes because of anti-Semitism. Fortunately, organizations tried to train them to give them skills to make a new life in a new place. Opportunities to emigrate to the United States were limited. In 1945. President Truman ordered a loosening of the quotas for emigration to the U.S. and 41,000 people were allowed in. 28,000 were Jews. In 1948, the U.S. Congress allowed for 400,000 more in including another 68,000 Jews. Others went to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, Western Europe, and South America ("United states holocaust memorial museum"). 6

Work Citied Abzug, R. H.. "Liberation of Nazi camps." United States Holocausst Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2011. Web. 12 Feb 2012. <http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131> "Buchenwald." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2011. Web. 12 Feb 2012.<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005198> "Buchenwald Concentration Camp." Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. N.p., 2007. Web. 12 Feb 2012. <http://www.holocaustresearchproject.net/othercamps/buchenwald.html> "Block 66 at Buchenwald." Jewish Library. N.p., Jan. Web. 12 Feb 2012. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/block66.html> "Scrapbookpages." Liberation of Buchenwald Concentration Camp. N.p., 2008. Web. 12 Feb 2012. <http://www.scrapbookpages.com/buchenwald/Liberation0.html>

11-year-old Rebecca Friedman, my character, was one of the children housed in Cellblock 66 at Buchenwald. She had been separated from her family at another camp, the famous death camp, Auschwitz. As Soviet liberators approached, SS guards evacuated her and other children to Buchenwald. It saved her life because political prisoners there protected her. 2 Rebecca got placed in this camp specifically because of the childrens community that Buchenwald had. She was also placed there because of where she was taken from as a prisoner of the Nazi regime.

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There were many obstacles that Rebecca had to face even after being liberated from Buchenwald and being separated from her family. Many children left the work camps, if they left at all, very hurt, weak, and malnourished.

On liberation day, adults tried to shield her from the revolt of the prisoners against the guards and the killing that followed. But when the Americans came in she wandered to the center of the camp.

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One of the Americans scooped her up. He cradled her, trying to protect her from the ravages around her. Rebecca cried for the first time in years. It was tears of joy that the nightmare might be over.

The struggle wasnt over. It was just another chapter that would take her to a displaced persons camp. Eventually she would be united with the few relatives who still were alive. But her parents were gone. There was no point sending her back to her hometown in Austria. No, she would be going to America to be taken in by distant relatives who yearned to give her a new start and erase the horrors of war. This new life is the focus of our story.