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Death Camps. There was no selection process; Jews were destroyed upon arrival.
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Death Camps • There was no selection process; Jews were destroyed upon arrival. • Ultimately, the Nazis were responsible for the deaths of some 2.7 million Jews in the death camps. These murders were done secretly under the ruse of resettlement. The Germans hid their true plans from citizens and inhabitants of the ghettos by claiming that Jews were being resettled in the East. They went so far as to charge Jews for a one-way train fare and often, just prior to their murder, had the unknowing victims send reassuring postcards back to the ghettos. Thus did millions of Jews go unwittingly to their deaths with little or no resistance.
Death Camps • By the end of 1943 the Germans closed down the death camps built specifically to exterminate Jews. The death tolls for the camps are as follows: • Treblinka, (750,000 Jews); • Belzec, (550,000 Jews); • Sobibór, (200,000 Jews); • Chelmno, (150,000 Jews) • Lublin (also called Majdanek, 50,000 Jews). • Auschwitz continued to operate through the summer of 1944; its final death total was about 1 million Jews and 1 million non-Jews. Allied encirclement of Germany was nearly complete in the fall of 1944. The Nazis began dismantling the camps, hoping to cover up their crimes. By the late winter/early spring of 1945, they sent prisoners walking to camps in central Germany. Thousands died in what became known as death marches.
Other Means of Killing • Bullets too costly • Starvation too slow • Gas Vans October 1942 • Gas Chambers (Zyclon B) • Medical Experiments
Medical Experiments • A prisoner who has been subjected to low pressure experimentation. Air pressure was created comparable to that found at 15,000 meters in altitude, in an effort to determine how high German pilots could fly and survive.
View of the entrance to the main camp of Auschwitz. The gate reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work makes one free).
A crate full of rings confiscated from prisoners in Buchenwald and found by American troops in a cave.
Sacks of Human Hair(used for making felt, and stuffing mattresses & coats)
We were given no food. We lived on snow; it took the place of bread. The days were like nights, and the nights left the dregs of their darkness in our souls. The train was traveling slowly, often stopping for several hours and then setting off again. It never ceased snowing. All through these days and nights we stayed crouching, one on top of the other, never speaking a word. We were no more than frozen bodies. Our eyes closed, we waited merely for the next stop, so that we could unload our dead.4--- Elie Wiesel.
Stage 8: DenialDeath Marches • Near the end of the war the Allied armies closed in on the Nazi concentration camps. The Germans began frantically to move the prisoners out of the camps near the front and take them to be used as forced laborers in camps inside Germany. Prisoners were taken by foot on "death marches". Prisoners were forced to march hundreds of miles in bitter cold, with little or no food, water, or rest. Those who could not keep up were shot. • The Nazis began dismantling the camps, hoping to cover up their crimes. By the late winter/early spring of 1945, they sent prisoners walking to camps in central Germany. Thousands died in what became known as death marches.
When the SS guards would sense the closeness of the Allied troops, they would run off in the middle of the night, leaving the prisoners to fend for themselves. Although the prisoners were very glad to be liberated, most were very near death.
Liberation • Allied troops who stumbled upon the concentration camps were shocked at what they found. Large ditches filled with bodies, rooms of baby shoes, and gas chambers with fingernail marks on the walls all testified to Nazi brutality. • Eisenhower insisted on photographing and documenting the horror so that future generations would not ignore history and repeat its mistakes. He also forced villagers neighboring the death and concentration camps to view what had occurred in their own backyards.
The United States Army issued an order that Germans and local townspeople witness the devastation and help with the clean up of the bodies
Camps Liberated • October 1944 • Files were burned • Gas chambers destroyed • Crematorium blown up
Camps Liberated • The Army units witnessed the devastation of human life
Nuremberg Trials • Within weeks after the German surrender, an International Military Tribunal was established in the German city of Nuremberg to try captured Nazi war criminals and other high-ranking Nazis. The Tribunal consisted of eight judges, two each from the countries of the U.S., Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. The charges brought against these men were conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Half of the 22 defendants were sentenced to death, three were acquitted, and the remaining were imprisoned.
First They Came for the Jews First they came for the Jewsand I did not speak outbecause I was not a Jew.Then they came for the Communistsand I did not speak outbecause I was not a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionistsand I did not speak outbecause I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for meand there was no one leftto speak out for me. Pastor Martin Niemöller
