Tragedy Of The Holocaust

Ashlee Owen

Ms. Meier

English II

24 February 2017

Tragedy of the Holocaust

An article said, “There are some things so horrible that decent men and women find them impossible to believe, so monstrous that the civilized world recoils incredulous before them.” (Hillary). The Holocaust was a horrible time especially for the Jews. They were forced to do things that people in this time could not even imagine doing. The Holocaust started on January 30, 1933 when the Germans captured the Jews and many others and took them to various camps. At these camps they were put to harsh work and did not eat for days. Many people were killed before they even entered the camp. It was a horrible time for families because they had to watch their loved ones die

The living conditions during the Holocaust were unsanitized and uncomfortable for all Jews. “The barracks swarmed with various sorts of vermin and rats. A constant shortage of water for washing, and the lack of suitable sanitary facilities.” (Living Conditions, Labor and Executions). At the beginning Jews drew water from two main wells. There was so little water that the Jews ended up having to lick the floors after they were mopped every month just to get something to drink. Many prisoners dealt with lice since they rarely took showers and it affected every prisoner who entered the camps. During the first months of the Holocaust prisoners went without any furniture and slept on the cold wooden floor or on small patches of straw. Sleeping situations in the barracks were

As soon as an inmate walked into the camps they knew they weren’t going to make it out alive for instance, “The moment an inmate arrived at the camp an orchestra (usually comprised of prisoners) would play obscenely upbeat music which inmates had to sing and march to as they walked towards their death.” (Smallwood). There was death everywhere you looked in the concentration camps. Many Jews would die from gas chambers. They were told by the Germans that they were going to take a shower when really they were all crammed into a chamber and would later die from poison. Many were also shot and killed as they entered the camps based on their strength and how fit they looked. Germans looked for strong men who could last a long time doing hard work. As the prisoners would travel from camp to camp on carts, many would end up dead from either starvation, body temperature, or both. The Germans would leave the dead bodies lying around for days upon days eventually they were picked up and put into the oven to burn. Many people living in the camps not only saw death everywhere they also could smell death in the air from all the ashes and smoke coming from the ovens. Children in the camps were usually killed as they entered, they were very lucky if they made it through inspection when entering. Children that were born on the campsites were killed right away. The Germans were very cruel towards the Jews and wanted to make sure the Jews suffered in