Callahan 4 Resistance In The Camps example essay topic

Callahan 1 HOLOCAUST: Worst Manmade Disaster The Holocaust was a terrible historical event. It took the lives of many innocent people. As Nazi Germany gained control of one country after another in World War II, many civilians were killed. These crimes weren't as bad as the massive and deliberate and well-planned killing of more than fifteen million people. Although the Holocaust was the worst manmade disaster in recent history, it taught the world the value of human life. The main goal of the Nazi Holocaust was to kill all of the Jews in Europe.

Hitler wanted what he called a perfect race. Anyone who wasn't in his race or what he thought was a perfect race was tormented and killed. Jews were forced to wear yellow stars so everyone would know who they were. Adolf Hitler's persecution of the Jews began as soon as the Nazis came to power in 1933 (Fischel 30). Hitler led the Germans to believe that the Jews were behind a conspiracy, so the Germans boycotted Jewish businesses. Jews were driven from their jobs in government and in universities.

They became "nonpersons" in their very own country, with no claim to rights of any kind. Many nations fled to other European nations or to the United States. The Jews were fearing for their lives, unfortunately not everyone could go, Callahan 2 some would have to stay and endure something they couldn't imagine. (web) Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, in Brawn aw, which is at the border between Austria and Bavaria. Hitler had a strained relationship with his father.

He joined the National Socialist Workers Party in 1919 and became the chairman in July 1921 (Fischel 136). As World War II turned against Germany, Hitler retreated to an underground bunk in Berlin in January 1945. When Hitler made his last will and testament, he blamed the Jews for Germany's defeat and encouraged the nation to keep the blood pure. He then married his mistress Eva Braun, and committed suicide with her on April 30, 1945 (Fischel 138). Hitler had Germany practically ina trance. The Jews were so scared.

No one really knew why Hitler had the Jews like he did or what his reason he had behind the whole ordeal. The Nazis deceived their victims in cruel ways. Even though they treated the Jews like animals, they also confused them into thinking everything was going to be ok. They gave false hope to the people they deported, right up to the doors of the gas chambers, which were disguised as shower rooms. The Jews needed hope, they didn't know what to believe. (Anflick 9).

They had been taken away from everything they had known, little did they know that things were going to get very Callahan 3 bad. Even though this all was taking place, some people still fought and resisted. Their resistance took three forms: armed, unarmed and spiritual. In November 1938, the Germans rounded up thousands of the Jews and imprisoned them in concentration camps. Other countries such as Italy, Romania and Hungry were starting to follow Germany's lead in their Jewish Minorities. Resistance happened whenever Nazis imposed their rule.

In cities, ghettos and camps people risked their lives to resist. In the forests and cities resistance fighters were killed. Their names are celebrated throughout the world. (Anflick 10). Jewsdidn't give up. Many had the strength of God and that's the only reason they survived In September 1942, the first wave of deportations from the warsaw ghetto stopped.

Hundreds of thousands of ghettos residents had been deported, starved or killed. Only about 60,000 remained and most of them weren't armed. There were under grand resistance groups such as the Jewish Fighting Organization that the end was near (Anflick 29) Resistance wasn't an easy thing to do that's why not many chose to resist. Callahan 4 Resistance in the camps was even more unlikely and dangerous than in the ghetto. Almost no one was prepared for what was waiting from them in those camps, so no one could organize resistance in advance. The camps were more isolated then in the ghettos, so there was basically no way to smuggle in weapons or information (Anflick 30).

Along with physical resistance was spiritual resistance. Spiritual resistance was the unwillingness to accept Nazi definitions of time and human worth. In this way, Jews resisted the idea that they were worthless ans sustained their lived and culture. At other times spiritual resistance was defined as just remembering and holding firmly to the belief that no matter how powerful the Nazis were, God was still in control and would hear his people (Anflick 48) Spiritual resistance was more important than physical resistance. Its easier to have physical resistance when you have spiritual to start out with, because if you don't have spiritual resistance there " so reason to fight for your life.

One of the worst concentration camps was Auschwitz. Jews began going underground to seek safety. Auschwitz was initially designed to serve as a forced labor camp in order to attract companies to the area. The camp was to serve two Callahan 5 purposes: a source of slave labor and a place to punish enemies of the Reich. It could hold approx.

11,000 prisoners. It was at Auschwitz were the majority of the deported Jews were killed (Fischel 97) Jews who arrived at Auschwitz were subjected to a selection. The ones who appeared strong and healthy were waved to one side and given hard work. The others were sent to chambers. The process of selecting who would live and who would die was in the hands of the SS doctors. The victims who were chosen for hard work were sent to an area of the camp called the quarantine where there clothes were taken from them and in return they were given " prison-striped garb".

Men and women would have their heads shaved. The hair was sent to Germany, where it was processed as mattress filling (Fischel 47). The most dreaded part of the day was probably the roll call, which was in both the morning and in the late afternoon. Prisoners were made to stand at attention motionless for many hours in cold, in rain and snow. Whoever stumbled or fell was sent to the gas chamber (Fischel 110).

The number of Jews killed at Auschwitz was 1.3 million. The first concentration camp the Germans opened was Datcha, where political of the Reich were held and brutalized (Fischel 14). Dauchawasn't as strict as many of the other camps but it was strict enough. Another camp Callahan 6 called Majdonek, constructed in the winter of 1940-1941, served as a labor camp for Jews, Poles, and Soviet prisoners of war during its first years.

By the end of 1943 more than 125,000 had been killed (Fischel 84) Bergen-Belsen was established in April 1943 as a detention camp and it became a concentration camp in March 1944. Those who arrived at Bergen-Belsen received no medical attention (Fischel 86). In the last weeks of the war, tens of thousands of prisoners were evacuated from both extermination and concentration camps and were forced to March to Bergen-Belsen. That also includes 20,000 women prisoners who were from Auschwitz.

The camp was unprepared to handle the ones who did survive the death marches. They all lacked water and food. (Fischel 89). The result from that was a serious outbreak of typhus which in March 1945 claimed the lives of 18,168 prisoners, including Anne Frank. Although many died from the Holocaust, there were some survivors. ClaudeCassier fled from Berlin to Prague, to Casablanca.

Finally he took a boat to New York (Wiesel, 142) Cassier explains how Hitler marched into Czechoslovakia with list of names. Cassier's family was on that list. A couple days before Hitler came, Callahan 7 Cassier's father received a telephone call from a stranger revealing the information of what was going to happen. So they left all there belongings and went to Paris. France would allow people to visit but unfortunately they did not allow them to work. (Wiesel 144).

Then Hitler invade Poland, England, and France declared war on Germany. The Cassier's were all sent to detention camps. Fortunately, Cassier's father had some friends high up in the French army and they released them (Wiesel 146). And then in 1940 Hitler began his "blitzkrieg" and they were all interned again.

They were in a camp with about sixty German Jews and half a dozen guards. The Cassier's begged the French guards to let them go and to understand that they were friends of France, not Hitler. When they were released from the camp, they figured Hitler would come from the North, so they traveled hundred miles south from there. They hid until the war was over (Wiesel 148). Cassier was a very strongman.

He didnt give into Hitler. You can see that in his survivor story. Jack Goldman was born in Mannheim, Germany, was jailed with his father as a polish Jew. He was in Auschwitz during the uprising of September 1944 (Weise l 155). Goldman says that everywhere people went there were signs "JudenVeboten" which meant Jews forbidden.

The Germans kept all the polish citizens Callahan 8 confined until the war with Poland was over. The Poles who weren't even Jewish were then sent home. The Jews were kept in jail until they were sent home. The Jews were kept in jail until they were sent to camps. Goldman was kept in a Jewish barrack and wasn't allowed to mingle with other prisoners. After a few months they gave the prisoners shovels and took them out to work (Wiesel 157).

They were forced to carry sand from one place to another and then back again for no purpose. Then they picked a few to learn brick laying. This was just torture because they would be told to build a wall just to take it down. The only good thing was getting an extra slice if bread at the end of the day (Wiesel 157). Jews were tortured very badly. Goldman was in the main camp in a barrack no bigger than a doll's house.

Ten to fifteen men slept in it. The Americans were coming closer and closer and the bombs were falling all around them. The war was coming to an end but not soon enough for the prisoners in the prison camps (Wiesel 164). Goldman was very lucky tp survive what he went through. God saved his life. Rachella Volt Meek coms was twelve years old when the Germans came intothe Netherlands.

She and her sister were hidden by their neighbors but were Callahan 9 caught and first taken to Wester bork and then to Auschwitz (Wiesel 172) Rachella remembers the soldiers coming into her home and taking her family away. They were going to be put in a prison camp. Rachella did not know the torture that was going to come. They separated the men from the women. They made them stand with their faces to a brick wall. A Dutch policeman escortedRachella to her cell where he gave her a message that her father sent.

Rachella was scared she would never see her father again (Wiesel 178). They put her in a cell with her sisters and step-mother and two other women. It was about very small and there was straw on the floor and a pail in the corner. They stayed in that cell for six weeks. After the six weeks they were all sent toWesterbork. Her father was put in the hospital.

Her sister and step- mother and her were put in a barrack but were not part of the labor force (Wiesel 179). After her sixteenth birthday they were sent off on another transport. They brought them into a sauna and made them stand naked for hours and waited for their names to be called. They gave her a new name and a tattooed a number on her arm.

They shaved them and gave them a gray prison dress to wear. There were three levels of bunk beds. The sleeping situation was awful. There were five people in each bunk and when one turned everybody had to turn. The bathroom was very far Callahan 10 away and there was no water to wash (Wiesel 179). Everyday was terrifying for Rachella.

She lost about twenty pounds the first two weeks. Those few weeks seemed like years (Wiesel 180). A man came to Auschwitz and asked for the Philips group which was the group she was in. They put them on a train and gave them some food. They put them to work in a factory. They were still prisoners at the factory.

The Russian -front was moving in and the Germans were scared to death. Rachella's sister was very ill at them time so she decided to get them both out of there. So they escaped and came to a camp with a small barrack. Everyone was so confused but Rachella was convinced she had escaped Auschwitz. They dragged them around on cattle wagons. Rachella spent most of her time taking the lice of each other.

Her sister got sicker and sicker. They wound up in a camp where they went to work in a salt mine. It was in Wiesbaden in West Germany (Wiesel 182). Then after a few weeks they were moved again. By this time nearly everyone in their Dutch group was ill and suffering from malnutrition, but there was a change in attitude among the German guards. They would crack a smile or say hello.

They were hearing rumors that the war was coming to an end. Then in May they got Callahan 11 called to attention in the yard and were going on transport. German soldiers came and took them on a train. The train stopped and they were left out in a big field, were they were going crazy from hunger and thrust and the lice eating them. When they went back on the train there were German soldiers all around them.

These German soldiers didn't want anything but to go home to their families. They came into a Danish station. The German Wehrmacht left train and the Danish Red Cross people jumped on the wagons. "You are in Denmark" they said in German "You are free". Nobody could believe it. They were touching the Red Cross people as if they weren't real (Wiesel 182) They gave them clothes, good meals, a spoonful of cod liver oil and a spoonful of sugar every day (Wiesel 184).

Rachella's sister was sent to the sanitarium because she had tuberculosis. It took time but things we restarting to go back to the way they used to be in Germany. Callahan 12 Although the Holocaust was the worst man made disaster in recent history, it taught the world the value of human life. The Holocaust was an awful tragedy. So many people didn't expect that to happen. There was no way to prepare for something that drastic.

Hitler was so messed up in the head. He had Germany tricked and was deceiving so many people. Even though it was one of the worst things that has happened in history, it also hasan important significance. It taught people all around the world many different lessons. It taught to treat all people as one. That there shouldnt be any racism.

It taught the awful things that Hitler did so people will never forget the pain the Jews went through. Jews were singled out for no reason and they were Gods chosen people. Hitler will have to pay for what he did to the Jews. I think the most important lesson of all is the lesson of endurance. So many Jews endured so much. There was almost nothing they couldn't take on.

They knew they had Jesus on their side and they knew he would always be there for them. It is a awful thing that it happened but so many people have learned and will continue learning from it. Callahan 13

Bibliography

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Anflick, Charles. Resistance. Rosen Publishing Group: New York 1999.
Cybrary of the Holocaust. 2 April 2000 web Fischel, Jack.
The Holocaust. Greenwood Press Westport, 1998.
Herz stein, Robert. The war that Hitler won. Paragon House Publishers: New York, 1987.
Liqueur, Walter. The Terrible Secret. Owl Books Henry Holt and Company: New York, 1980 Lazare, Lucien.
Rescue as Resistance. Columbia University Press: New York, 1996.
Roth child Sylvia. Voices from the Holocaust. New American Library: New York, 1981.