What Was the Holocaust?

THE HOLOCAUST What was the Holocaust? The Holocaust, of greek origin, means “sacrifice by fire”, but when Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the term eventually took on a whole new meaning and was used to describe the infamous mass murder of antisemitism Nazi germany. It was the fully state - sponsored murder of millions of people of many races, but is notoriously known for its horrifying discrimination and torture of approximately six billion Jews.

Antisemitism is what stemmed the Holocaust. This term refers to the inappropriate suspicion of jews, discrimination towards them, and irrational hatred. The Germans believed that they were racially superior while the Jews on the other hand were seen as highly inferior. Due to this ideology, years of torture commenced.

The Holocaust is very well known for its vast methods of murder, torture, and brutal discrimination. It is well known in particular for its use of gas chambers, concentration camps, and medical experiments. Millions of Jews were prosecuted and evacuated from their homes, sent in crowded transportation to concentration camps, and tortured in the cruelest of conditions. Tattooed with a number, survivors to this day are always reminded of the years they spent in unimaginable places and constantly fearing for their lives.

Upon being brought to these camps, women and children were separated from men. Both were given striped uniforms and stripped of all possessions. The camps were fenced in with barbed wire, leaving almost no chance to escape from the hell they were sent to. In the mornings, they were forced to stand outside in lines in unpleasant conditions for several hours while roll call was being taken. Prisoners were put to work for 14 hours a day and forced to move heavy, bulky things fast as there was always possibility of death in the camps.

Gas chambers were used on a daily basis and used at random. At random, officers would pile in as many prisoners as physically possible into the chamber, all stripped of uniforms. These prisoners were gased with several poisonous chemicals, all leading them to their deaths.

Few survived the brutal years of the Holocaust, but those who did have been able to tell their dark stories to the public and given a first hand account of conditions at that time.

CAMPS: Auschwitz: largest German concentration camp. known for its brutal and unethical medical experiments on Jews and death toll of 1.1 million.

"The snow was falling like today. We were dressed in stripes and some of us had bare feet. These were horrible times." Kazimierz Orlowski, former prisoner

"We knew it was an abattoir when we arrived. We could smell the melting flesh. We got there at 10 in the morning, and by 2 in the afternoon, my mother and father had been gassed.” Alberto Israel, former prisoner Roll Call in Auschwitz

Gas Chamber in Auschwitz ARTICLE FROM A SURVIVOR: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1957088,00.html

Alberto Israel still remembers the date he arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp: Aug. 3, 1944. He and his family had just been transported to Nazi-occupied Poland from their home on the Italian-occupied island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean — a 14-day journey by boat and by train in a stifling cattle car. "We knew it was an abattoir when we arrived. We could smell the melting flesh," he recalls during a return visit to the death camp 65 years later, his eyes welling up with tears. "We got there at 10 in the morning, and by 2 in the afternoon, my mother and father had been gassed." Now 82, Israel was one of a handful of survivors who joined dignitaries like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday for an emotionally charged ceremony to mark the camp's liberation on Jan. 27, 1945, a date now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. "It's hard to explain how I feel," Israel says. "I feel stress all over, my body shuts down, and I want to leave. But I must come back."

An estimated 1.1 million people died at the camp — the vast majority of them Jews from occupied Europe. Most were killed in gas chambers. They accounted for about one-sixth of all the Jews exterminated during the Holocaust. Speaking to some 1,500 people gathered in a tent near one of the railroad tracks used to bring prisoners to the camp, Netanyahu described the genocide as "the greatest crime of humanity" and "the greatest tragedy in Jewish history." Israel, who now lives in Brussels, has been back to Auschwitz five or six times over the years, often acting as a tour guide for other visitors. But he says the visits always fill him with dread. "Every trip is painful. Even last night, I couldn't sleep. I finally got out of bed at 4 a.m., had a coffee and tried to read," he says. When I am alone, I still cry." The memories are as real as one physical reminder: he rolls up his sleeve to reveal the identification tattoo on his forearm, "B- 7394."

Inside the camp, Israel ambles through the thick snow with no gloves on a 2°F day, pointing to the sparse bunker where he slept crammed together with other prisoners on tiny bunks. Then, next to the railroad tracks, he spots the location where the "selection" process took place. This was where Nazi officers separated those deemed able to work from the other new arrivals, most of whom were immediately taken to the gas chambers. Israel, then 17, and his two brothers, Eli and Aaron, last saw their parents here. Within weeks, Israel's brothers would also be dead. Israel says he survived in part because he learned German on the spot at Auschwitz. "It probably saved my life," he says. "If you didn't understand the SS and the Kapos [the prisoners who supervised work gangs] when they gave orders, then you risked death." During his time there, Israel worked in the coal mines around Auschwitz.

When the Soviet Red Army liberated the camp, only a few thousand prisoners remained. Just a week earlier, Nazi officials had evacuated the facility, destroyed the camp's records and blown up the gas chambers. Most of the prisoners, some 60,000 of them, were then sent on a death march to other camps as their Nazi guards fled the Soviet advance. Israel was one of the marchers. He says they walked for about 60 miles in temperatures dipping to –10°F until they reached the town of Wodzislaw Slaski in southern Poland. "We only had our thin prison clothes and broken shoes. If you wanted a warm drink, you had to drink your urine," he recounts. From there, he was sent by train to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, where he stayed for four months until it was liberated by the U.S. Army in May 1945. When he was finally freed, Israel weighed a mere 64 lb. He gained 17 lb. after only a week in the Americans' care. When he recovered, Israel didn't want to return to Rhodes. Before the war, the island — now part of Greece — had a vibrant, 1,700-strong Sephardic Jewish community, but afterward, only 151 remained. So he found work as a trader in the Belgian Congo instead and then moved to Brussels, where he has remained ever since.

As he leaves the camp on Wednesday, dusk is falling and the light from candles flickers on the snow. Looking back at the desolate, snow-covered compound, Israel winces. "We have to remember, always," he says. "But it's never easy." Hitler leading Nazis

A survivor shows the striped uniform she kept all these years A survivor shows his Auschwitz identification tattoo

VIDEOS:

• A survivor tells how she escaped the gas chamber: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=2sK5AEd8bCw

• A documentary on a Nazi’s wife who used the prisoners for her own entertainment ( Ilse Koch): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a1NJGuqUnU&feature=related

• A man talks about how his father unknowingly was taken to the gas chamber of Auschwitz: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKPeYWYGYuY

• Twin survivors talk about arriving at Auschwitz: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=MWJyjAYyF8E&feature=related

• A video on the medical experiments done during the Holocaust: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWVKaYtxlns&feature=related A timeline of the Holocaust:

http://www.historyonthenet.com

BIBLIOGRAPHY: • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocaust#Extermination_camps

• http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143

• http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_chamber

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp#Medical_experiments

• http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1957088,00.html

• www.youtube.com

Thanks Sydney. Please do remember that any websites cited must always have the date accessesd… meaning that for authenticity ..you must note down the date on which you referred to the website.

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