"Holocaust" . . . a Greek word meaning "sacrifice by fire"
WHAT WAS IT- The Holocaust (Shoah) evolved between 1933 and 1945, and it began with the discrimination of the Jews from the Nazi regime. Slowly the Jews were separated from their communities and persecuted. Jewish people weren't people according to the Nazis and they were treated as less than human beings; many being murdered. The Nazis were trying to kill off the entire Jewish population and by 1945 they had succeeded in killing 6 million of the 11 million that were living in Europe. Almost 2 million of the Jews were children.
Concentration Camps
German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived "racial inferiority": Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others).
Auschwitz- The largest of its kind established by the Nazi Regime. It included three camps, all of which made prisoners suffer through forced labor. One of the camps also functioned as a "killing center". The camps were located 37 miles west of Krakow which the Nazis annexed (took over) in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland. Approximately 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz and 1.1 million of them died there.
Auschwitz I (one of the three camps) was constructed to serve three purposes: "1) To incarcerate real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland for an indefinite period of time; 2) To have available a supply of forced laborers for deployment in SS-owned, construction-related enterprises; and 3) To serve as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the population whose death was determined by the SS and police authorities to be essential to the security of Nazi Germany". Auschwitz I included a gas chamber and a crematorium much like most other concentration camps. In Block 10, SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons) physicians conducted medical experiments including pseudoscientific research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations and castrations of adults. The "Black Wall" was located between Block 10, and Block 11 (prisoner block) and that is where guards executed thousands of prisoners.
Auschwitz II (also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau had the largest total prisoner population. It was separated into 10 sections and divided by electric barbed wire fence, along with SS guards. The camp had sections for women, men, gypsies (Roma), and a family camp for Jewish people that were deported from Theresienstadt ghetto. This camp included the facilities for the "killing center" Zyklon B gas was introduced to the camps as means for murder. Zyklon B was sucessfull in Auschwitz I as a mean of mass murder and then was adopted by all the complexes in the Auschwitz. After several gas chambers were built and then dismanteled because the SS didn't feel like they were adequate for the amount of gassing to occur; four large crematorium buildings were built. Each had three components: a disrobing area, a large gas chamber, and crematorium ovens.
Auschwitz III- also called Buna or Monowitz, was made to house the prisoners that were assigned to work at the Buna rubber works. Auschwitz III also had a so-called Labor Education Camp for non-Jewish prisoners who were perceived to have violated German-imposed labor discipline.
On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying.
Auschwitz I (one of the three camps) was constructed to serve three purposes: "1) To incarcerate real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland for an indefinite period of time; 2) To have available a supply of forced laborers for deployment in SS-owned, construction-related enterprises; and 3) To serve as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the population whose death was determined by the SS and police authorities to be essential to the security of Nazi Germany". Auschwitz I included a gas chamber and a crematorium much like most other concentration camps. In Block 10, SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons) physicians conducted medical experiments including pseudoscientific research on infants, twins, and dwarfs, and performed forced sterilizations and castrations of adults. The "Black Wall" was located between Block 10, and Block 11 (prisoner block) and that is where guards executed thousands of prisoners.
Auschwitz II (also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau had the largest total prisoner population. It was separated into 10 sections and divided by electric barbed wire fence, along with SS guards. The camp had sections for women, men, gypsies (Roma), and a family camp for Jewish people that were deported from Theresienstadt ghetto. This camp included the facilities for the "killing center" Zyklon B gas was introduced to the camps as means for murder. Zyklon B was sucessfull in Auschwitz I as a mean of mass murder and then was adopted by all the complexes in the Auschwitz. After several gas chambers were built and then dismanteled because the SS didn't feel like they were adequate for the amount of gassing to occur; four large crematorium buildings were built. Each had three components: a disrobing area, a large gas chamber, and crematorium ovens.
Auschwitz III- also called Buna or Monowitz, was made to house the prisoners that were assigned to work at the Buna rubber works. Auschwitz III also had a so-called Labor Education Camp for non-Jewish prisoners who were perceived to have violated German-imposed labor discipline.
On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army entered Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Monowitz and liberated around 7,000 prisoners, most of whom were ill and dying.
"The Germans ordered Jews residing in ghettos to wear identifying badges or armbands and also required many Jews to perform forced labor for the German Reich"
Ghettos- city districts (often enclosed) in which the Germans concentrated the municipal and sometimes regional Jewish population and forced them to live under miserable conditions.
Ghettos isolated the Jewish population from the Non-Jewish populations, along with other Jewish communities. The Nazis had established approximately 1,000 ghettos in German-annexed and Poland. There were three types of ghettos: closed ghettos, open ghettos, and destruction ghettos. Ghettoization lasted a relatively short time. Some ghettos existed for only a few days, others for months or years. Life in the ghettos was administered by Nazi-appointed Jewish councils (Judenraete). The Germans did not hesitate to kill Jewish policemen who were perceived to have failed to carry out orders.
Updated: 2/11/15
Ghettos isolated the Jewish population from the Non-Jewish populations, along with other Jewish communities. The Nazis had established approximately 1,000 ghettos in German-annexed and Poland. There were three types of ghettos: closed ghettos, open ghettos, and destruction ghettos. Ghettoization lasted a relatively short time. Some ghettos existed for only a few days, others for months or years. Life in the ghettos was administered by Nazi-appointed Jewish councils (Judenraete). The Germans did not hesitate to kill Jewish policemen who were perceived to have failed to carry out orders.
Updated: 2/11/15