...And the World Remained Silent

 The Final Solution
    By: Shymanta and Raisa

When I came to power, I did not want the concentration camps to become old age pensioner homes, but instruments of terror. -Adolf Hitler



 

Jews being burned at the crematoriums

Hitler is the infamous, sadistic dicator of World War II,known for exterminating Jewish people in what were known as "death factories" or extermination camps. The Nazis conspired to bring the demise of the entire Jewish population. After much thought, Hitler decided he would send Jews to ghettos, making them wear the star of David, then later sending them on their way to extermination camps- The Final Solution to The Jewish Question.

"When their bodies had finsihed scouring for gaps in the door, their souls rose up...we climbed out of those shower facilities, onto the roof and up, into eternity's certain breadth. They just kept feeding me. Minute after minute. Shower after shower." (Zusak, pg 349)

Hitler initially put the Jews in ghettos in Poland. There, Jews suffered horrendous conditions without food or medication. They were forced into brutal physical labour. This was a slow process of killing the Jews painfully.

Arbeit Macht Frei- Written on the doorway of Auschwitz.
 Ironically, it means "Work will set you free."

     Hitler`s    final solution was to put the Jewish people in concentration camps all over Poland. The biggest one known for Jewish extermination is Auschwitz, located on the outskirts of Krakow, Poland. There were large gas chambers with adjacent cemeteries for the disposal of corpses.  Hitler only put young children and the elderly in them, keeping anyone who deemed fit to work in work camps. Nazis were ordered to gather and bring Jews over to the concentration camps by trains from the ghettos. 

"Did they deserve any better, these people? How many had actively persecuted others, high on the scent of Hitler's gaze, repeating his sentences, his paragraphs, his opus? Was Rosa Hubermann responsible? The hider of a Jew? Or Hans? Did they all deserve to die? The children?" (Zusak, pg 375)

A typical gas chamber during the WW2 Holocaust. The gas used
was Zyclon B, originally an insecticide.

      These bodies were later burned in  crematoriums. The SS members kept Jewish belongings like shoes and clothes in makeshift vaults, as collateral to pay for railroads, crates and anything else that contributed to make the Holocaust possible. 

Survivor of Holocaust, Elie Wiesel, talks to Oprah, as he goes back to Auschwitz and recalls his first night at the largest concentration camp.

Facts on The Holocaust

When the Jews were in the concentration camps, a few non-Jews were ready to risk their lives for these unfortunate souls. Oskar Schindler was a German who saved over 1,000 Jews by moving them from Plaszow labor camp to his hometown of Brunnlitz.

As trainloads of Jews arrived at the concentration camps, they were stripped of all that they possessed. These possessions were sorted out at a section of Auschwitz called ‘Canada’. Back then, Canada was known to be a land of great riches, and the possessions of Jews were like riches to the Nazis.

     


It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, where one million within them were children.

References  

Zusak, Markus. Book Thief. New York: Random House, 2005. 350, 375. Print.

"The Final Solution ." The History Place - Defeat of Hitler. The History Place, n.d. Web. 30 Apr 2012.

Trueman , Chris. "Auschwitz-Birkenau." . History Learning, 2012. Web. 2 May 2012. .

Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Holocaust Facts What You Need to Know About the Holocaust." 20th Century History. About, 2012. Web. 2 May 2012.

"The Final Solution ." The History Place - Defeat of Hitler. The History Place, n.d. Web. 30 Apr 2012.

Links
  

Article - The Final Solution 

  

The Final Solution Blog