The Holocaust

                The Holocaust was a devastating time that happened during World War II, which

 changed the lives of many people all over the world. The Nazis who came to power in Germany

 believed that they were the only race of superiority and that the Jews were beneath them, and a

 threat to their perfect race. This Nazi regimen murdered and persecuted approximately six

 million Jews. The name holocaust comes from the Greek word “holokauston” meaning “sacrifice

 by fire” (USHMM). There cannot be a greater horror and horrifying story in world history than

 The Holocaust at the Nazi camps.

              The Germans solution to rid this so called inferior race, was to gather and move all of the

 Jews, out of their homes and make them live in marked off sections of confinement in towns and

 cities called, “ghettos” or “Jewish residential quarters” (USHMM). These quarters were not fit

 for any human being. Many were enclosed with barb wire, fences and walls. Armed guards were

 posted at entrances enforcing curfews on the populations’ comings and goings. There were 1,000

 ghettos made to house the Jewish population, the largest was in Warsaw where almost half a

 million Jews were housed (USHMM). Life in the ghettos was horrible. So many people were

 gathered into one apartment, that plumbing broke down and there was no running water and 

 sewage. Human waste was thrown into the streets along with the garbage.  People with little or

 no money were forced to barter, beg and steal for food. When winter months came there was no 

 heating and people did not have adequate clothing.  Tens of thousands of people living in these

 ghettos died from illness, starvation or the cold (USHMM).

           Then a new stage of the holocaust took place. Since there was a war going on and the

 Germans presumed victory, they turned from forced emigration and confinement of the Jews, to

mass murder. They would go out into the towns and kill any Jew that occupied Soviet territory.

 These mobile killing units caught the Jewish population and anybody part of the communist 

party including the Roma (Gypsies) by surprise. The Nazis killed men, women and children by

 lining them up in a cemetery and shooting them (USHMM).

          In the months following these mobile killings, the Nazis continued their killing spree.

 They also deported the people to gas chambers where it was less intense for the killers and more

 efficient to do, without after effects of feelings that the killers were feeling. More than two

 million Jews were killed in these gas chambers. Then comes the concentration camp of 

Auschwitz, which escape was almost impossible. This too, was surrounded by barb wire and

 fences to keep the people in. Cruel medical experiments were done on these people. Dr.

 Mengele, a German scientist carried out painfully, inhumane medical experiments on twins, with

 the intent to find better medical treatments for the German population. Many people died from

 these experiments, and others that died after the experiments were finished, their organs were

 taken for further study (USHMM).

           Finally near the end of the war when Germany’s military force was weakening and

 collapsing, allied forces were homing in on this cruel and devastating treatment of the Jewish

 population in the Nazi concentration camps. Because of allied forces coming, prisoners were

 forced by the Nazi regimen to walk, the “death march”. The Jews walked many miles in the cold, 

with no food or water and rest, to labor camps. The Nazis often killed those who could not keep

 up or just because they felt like it. Soviet soldiers were first to invade the concentration camps,

 and found sick and exhausted prisoners who were like living skeletons, which the Germans left 

behind in their hasty retreat. In spite of the efforts of the Soviet soldiers, many prisoners were too

 sick, and to far along to save and died (USHMM).

           Those of who survived had mixed emotions to their new found freedom. The survivors

 could not believe that they were free (USHMM).  While some were willing to be united with 

their loved ones, some were feeling very guilty that they had survived and lost their relatives.

 Survivors then had to deal with freedom and also a new way to live. One survivor Eva Kor, has

 been keeping alive the memories of what she and millions of other survivors have experienced.

 To relieve herself from a hurting heart she has forgiving the Nazis and even Mengele for what

 they did (Julie Blum). These survivors lived to tell a horrific part of history that should not be 

forgotten and should be told to all of the generations to come.

                                                         Works Cited

Blum, Julie. "Holocaust survivor shares message of forgiveness." Columbus Telegram. N.p., 29

       July 2013. Web. 6 May 2014. <http://columbustelegram.com/news/local/holocaust-survivor-

      shares-message-of-forgiveness/article_c82ba8ab-eb7c-57b8-b17c-3db8527a2480.html>.

"The Holocaust a Learning site for students." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

      United States Holocaust Memorial Council, n.d. Web. 6 May 2014.