Holocaust Unsuspecting Children Essay

The book Night by Elie Wiesel portrays him as a young boy living and surviving through one of the most horrific moments in history, the Nazis and all the concentration camps including Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald. As a young boy Elie grew up in Sighet, a small town in Romania. Elie and the rest of the town, including his father mother and siblings were captured by the Germans and were taken to many of the concentration camps. While at the camps Elie was left with his father and experienced many of the horrors of the camps. Throughout the book Elie and his father saw some of the awful things that happened at the camps including people burned, hanged, murdered, beaten, starved, and put to work under terrible conditions.

More than 12,000 children under the age of 15 passed through the Terezin Concentration Camp, also known by its German name of Theresienstadt, between the years 1942 and 1944. Out of all the children, more than 90% lost their lives during the time of the Holocaust. Additionally, throughout this time, children would write poetry describing how they would like to be free and their faith in believing they would one day be free again and see the light of the sun. They would also write about the dreadful experiences they suffered through. To add on, the poet’s word choice helps to develop the narrator’s point of view.

The Holocaust is a unit that is taught in school every year. Children start learning about it in fifth grade, and it lasts all throughout high school. However, it wasn’t until my sophomore year where I realized just how terribly difficult it was for the Jewish people. Not only were they victims of the Nazis, but they were also victims of each other. The Judenrat was a Jewish council who had the responsibility of deciding which Jews would either stay or leave the ghettos.

“By the end of 1938, the regime was receiving requests from the families of newborn or very young children with severe deformities and brain damage for the grant of a “mercy killing”(“Introduction to Nazi Euthanasia”). Why were parents asking the Nazis to kill their own children? As a result, disabled Germans were subjected to starvation, sterilization, and ultimately mass murder based on the Nazi 's propaganda campaign and their belief that these individuals were inferior. The Nazi’s main goal of the Holocaust was to create a master race.

In the camps more than one million people died during World War II, other sources say 1.1 million died in Auschwitz. There are many reasons of death caused by the Nazis in Auschwitz such as in the gas chambers, the Nazis use Zyklon-B as a way to murder the Non-Aryans, once they were murdered they were put into a crematorium which was used to burn the bodies. If the Jews or Non-Aryans disrespected or did not follow the Nazi’s commands they were either shot or hanged if the non-Aryans were not fed enough they either starved to death or got sick and died. One source said 2.1 to 2.5 million Non-Aryans died in the gas chambers. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Krakow and liberated the Auschwitz Death Camps.

The Holocaust occurred in Europe in the early 1940’s (Altman 1). Constructed by Adolf Hitler, Germany’s first and only Führer, the Holocaust is a horrible event (Introduction). Jewish people were treated in cruel and brutal ways. Over six million died in concentration camps, ghettos, or death marches (Rice 11). The Holocaust is a time in history when millions of people were persecuted in Europe by being sent to live in ghettos and eventually being deported to concentration camps where they were systematically annihilated until the Allied forces liberated the remaining survivors.

The horrible event of the Holocaust persecuted , forced jewish people to leave their home, and sent to camps to work till death. The holocaust left many people homeless and orphaned. There are books, movies and autobiographies describing the tragic time of the Holocaust. The first book ever written was “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank which is about a young girl hiding in the “Secret Annexe” during Nazi invasions. Secondly, there is a movie called Life is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni which is about a father, Guido, and his son, Joshua in terrible conditions at a concentration camp.

The world could be a definition of a utopia or a dystopia, though our world tends to be leaning towards a dystopia. This world we live in is filled with depression, hate, and even pain because all the conflicts and deaths that is happening all around the world. A point in history that is a clear example of a dystopian society was the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, shows a normal child during the Holocaust being put through camps after camps as a result of being Jewish. He was forced to grow up fast; having to take care of his father, encountering millions of deaths, and tortured by the S.S. Guards, living a life like no child should.

In the end of it all, many belonging where found, including human hair, hair brushes, and clothes, along with the suitcases of the Jews who were forced to give them up (Liberation). The total death count from the Holocaust was around seven million Jews, and other individuals (The Holocaust). The Holocaust was a time in history when about seven million people were killed in Europe by being forced to live in ghettos and eventually being deported to live in concentration camps where they were gassed, tortured, worked, or starved to death, until the Allied forces liberated the small amount of remaining survivors. The world has learned of dictatorship, war, and mass genocide, creating a larger understanding of the world.

In WW2 the holocaust clamed 6 million Jews lives, and over 7 million soviets died too and 1.7 million of those soviets were also counted towards the 6 million Jews. The holocaust was a genocide during World War II in when Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany tried to take over then world and also attempted to kill off all the Jews. They would send Jews and people who opposed them to concentration camps where they were either durned or worked till they couldn’t. Night is an autobiography by Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor. Auschwitz death camp is a video documentary with oprah winfrey and Elie Wiesel.

Since Hitler was control of Nazis part, the children 's joined the Hitler Youth where they learned outdoor skilled. The boys also faced military-style drills. The girls were used to go door to door collecting for the many Nazi charities. The children of Jewish have to wear a badge of identification. Document 7 states,” In may 1942, all Jews aged six and older are required to wear a yellow star of David on their clothes to set them apart from non-Jews.”

Poor innocent Jewish babies were thrown into the air. Another example in the worst of humanity was when the camp that Elie had been in before everyone had to leave it. Instead of taking a train the prisoners had to run to their new camp. It was pouring snow everyone was tired and freezing, they didn’t have a lot of clothes on, if the stopped or took a break or even walked they were shot and killed. Many of the prisoners dies but somehow Elie and his dad survived.

As the young man was sent to many concentration camps he saw many things even upon a young age. His own people killed in front of him his own family too. But he survived through all the harsh condition the Nazi leaders and soldiers gave him. Through all the abuse or little food that was given and through all the disease that was sent by.

Ellie Wiesel was a Jew who was captured by the German Nazi’s during the Holocaust in 1944. He was only 15 years old when he was sent to the Concentration Camp. Ellie, his mom, his sister, and his dad was sent to the Concentration Camp in Auschwitz. In January 1945 Ellie was transported from Auschwitz to the camp in Buchenwald. He talked about how he remembered walking by the Crematorium and watching them throw babies into the ovens.

During their time at Auschwitz, Eva and Miriam were put through many extremely harsh surgeries and experiments. Josef Mengele did many medical experiments at Auschwitz using twins. He did experiments without using anesthesia, and performed transfusions of blood to one twin to another. Mengele would also make injections with lethal germs, do sex change operations, and even removed organs and limbs of some helpless twins. The children that were as old as five and six years were usually murdered after the experiment was over.