...happened during World War II. One of the main concentration camps was Auschwitz this is the largest of the Nazi death camps, the camps address is Więźniów Oświęcimia 20, 32-603 Gmina Oświęcim, Poland. Auschwitz was located approximately 37 miles west of Krakow, near the prewar German-Polish border in Upper Silesia, it’s an area that Nazi Germany took control of, in 1939 after invading and conquering Poland. Of the camps of Auschwitz there were three camps. The first was just the main Auschwitz, the second was Auschwitz-Birkenau and the third was Auschwitz-Monowitz .In these camps they killed 1.1 million people and most of them were Jews. These camps symbolize death in the eyes of millions of people. It was on the five death camps the most streamlined mass killings ever. Auschwitz I or the main camp housed the prisoners, the cite of medical experimentations, the cite of Block 11, which was a place of severe torture, and the Black Wall the place of execution. These people were sent here from other camps around Europe just to be executed, just because of who they were born to be. In September, the SS first tested Zyklon B as an instrument of mass murder. They were tortured and treated like slaves because of being Jewish or Polish or Roma. Anybody who was not of the Aryan race was not acceptable to be German because of the conception of one man telling them they were a disgrace. Auschwitz-Birkenau camp had the largest total prisoner population. It was divided...
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...Survival in Auschwitz In the book Survival in Auschwitz, the author Primo Levi illustrates the hardships himself and others endured during the capture of Jews in 1943. Originally titled If This Is a Man, Levi expresses captivating images and vivid emotions of his experience of inhumane treatment. The memories indicate the intense and extreme situations all Jews suffered in the totalitarian state of Nazi control. Levi learns an immense amount of survival tactics in order to breathe every waking day of his new life. The weak were tested physically and emotionally as the path of death was effortless, while the road to survival seemed impossible and unachievable. Throughout the narrative, Primo transforms from an apathetic victim to a progressive survivor in the German concentration camp at Auschwitz. The concept of black marketing, knowledge in chemistry and his spirituality all contributed toward the survival of Primo Levi and others in Auschwitz. According to Primo Levi, illegality, deceit, infidelity and sin were all relevant in the concentration camp. These characteristics made up Auschwitz and were used as necessities in order to survive such horrid conditions. Those who were captured and sent to German camps quickly noticed that this was a place where happiness was extinct. Little pieces of bread, shoes or soup bowls were perceived as rather large when consumed and used by other prisoners. The smallest amount of food attracted any inmates, creating trust issues...
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...Draft Torture in Auschwitz The concentration camp, Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Open in 1940, the camp was initially a punishment for political crimes, but then it was seen as a prison for Jewish people and other enemies opposing the Nazi state. The captains of the camps would tattoo the prisoners or sew symbols or numbers into their clothes in order to identify them. Very few survivors of the Holocaust are alive today, because of the tremendous amount of torture the prisoners were put through and the passage of time. There were only so many ways to die in Auschwitz. For example, there was the dark cell, where you were would be put into a dark...
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...What Was Auschwitz? Built by the Nazis as both a concentration and death camp, Auschwitz was the largest of the Nazi's camps and the most streamlined mass killing center ever created. It was at Auschwitz that 1.1 million people were murdered, mostly Jews. Auschwitz has become a symbol of death, the Holocaust, and the destruction of European Jewry. Dates: May 1940 -- January 27, 1945 Camp Commandants: Rudolf Höss, Arthur Liebehenschel, Richard Baer Auschwitz Established On April 27, 1940, Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction of a new camp near Oswiecim, Poland (about 37 miles or 60 km west of Krakow). The Auschwitz Concentration Camp ("Auschwitz" is the German spelling of "Oswiecim") quickly became the largest Nazi concentration and death camp. By the time of its liberation, Auschwitz had grown to include three large camps and 45 sub-camps. Auschwitz I (or "the Main Camp") was the original camp. This camp housed prisoners, was the location of medical experiments, and the site of Block 11 (a place of severe torture) and the Black Wall (a place of execution). At the entrance of Auschwitz I stood the infamous sign that stated "Arbeit Macht Frei" ("work makes one free"). Auschwitz I also housed the Nazi staff that ran the entire camp complex. Auschwitz II (or "Birkenau") was completed in early 1942. Birkenau was built approximately 1.9 miles (3 km) away from Auschwitz I and was the real killing center of the Auschwitz death camp. It was in Birkenau where the dreaded selections...
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...dreadful times in the Holocaust, including “Night”. In the book, Elie was only 15 when he and his family were taken and separated in Auschwitz because they were Jews. Throughout Auschwitz Elie experiences many horrid events that forever changed and shaped him into who he is today. and In the novel “Night” by Elie Wiesel, the main character, Elie, was effected by the events in the book because he lost his faith, gave up on humanity, and was physiological changed. Throughout Elie’s experiences during his time spent at Auschwitz, he started to lose his faith in God. Elie started to rebel and question God. Elie Wiesel stated in the text “Why, but why would I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled” (Page 67). Elie clearly had lost his faith. The thought of rebelling occurred after so many people died having no power. “He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves?...Kept six crematoria working day and night… had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death?” Elie also implies on page 67. Elie had heart-provoking thoughts occuring on how people could never worship the Lord and believe...
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...EN130 English Composition Auschwitz Auschwitz began as a barracks camp in the town of Oswiecim for the polish army in the early 1930's. Germany then captured Poland and needed another location for Polish political prisoners. In 1940, the German SS (Schutz Staffel) sent a commission to Oswiecim to see if the barracks there could be used. The first inspection reported that it could not be used; however, a later inspection stated that after a few minor changes it would be useable. On May 4, 1940 Rudolf Hoss officially established it as a German concentration camp. Auschwitz was originally intended for Polish political prisoners and other Poles. In June of 1940, the first load of prisoners arrived. Included were 728 Poles and a handful of Jews. Soon, though, it became a melting pot of prisoners. Czechs, Soviets, Yugoslavs, Jews, and Gypsies; but only men were housed there. Not until 1942 did women arrive. In January of 1942 it was decided that Auschwitz would become the main Jewish extermination camp. Thereafter cattle cars brought in ship loads of Jews monthly. They were brought from all over in these filthy cars, going for days without food, water, or washing facilities. During the first few months of operation, Auschwitz simply housed the Jews because an effective method for mass extermination had not yet been found. They performed many experiments on the prisoners to find a gas that was cheap and quickly effective. Also, they had not yet begun cremating the bodies so they...
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...Alexia Gonzalez Political Science 4823: The Holocaust/ the Shoah Final Paper December 12, 2013 The Comparative Analysis of the Holocaust Ethnic cleansing and genocide are considered to coexist in a spectrum of assaults on nations or religio-ethnic groups. These threats were more prominent during the 20th century which caused massive violations of human rights and jeopardized the overall security of humans. Determinants of ethnic cleansing and genocide root from socio-political factors influenced by deeply embedded ideologies which are manifested by political leaders of specific regime types. During World War II, German authorities targeted Jews and other minority groups like the gypsies and Pols due to their perceived racial inferiority. The German ideology in attempt to eradicate these auxiliary groups led to the conflict known as the Shoah. The Shoah is the biblical word meaning destruction and it is the standard Hebrew term for the murder of European Jewry. The Shoah was the systematic, bureaucratic and state sponsored persecution of six million Jews. Comparable to other ethnic based genocides, Germans believed they were racially superior and that Jews were inferior; and deemed a threat to the “German racial community” resulting in their mass murder. Various interpretations of the Shoah has given rise to similar attitudes and opinions regarding its historical events. The Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database, is one of the largest resources of its kind which includes...
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...many European Jews, including multitudes of teenager Eliezer Wiesel's friends and family members. In the memoir Night, Wiesel’s adolescent years are stained by the devilish mark of Hitler’s death camps, where prisoners endure torture and demise on a routine basis. As he witnesses son against father and friend against friend, he must control himself to not turn against his ailing dad. So how does Wiesel escape turning against his only remaining family member? Despite seeing the treacheries around him, Wiesel somehow manages to keep moral ground, even up to his father's sickly death. With the power of faith, family, and community, Wiesel keeps himself from betraying his father. Elie Wiesel’s naturally faithful self is a key part in his struggle to keep morality. Before being sent off to the concentration camps,...
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...8-week Pre-sessional Research Essay 15th August 2012 To What Extent is Negative Heritage a Benefit to Society？ UCL Language Centre Student: QIFAN WANG Tutor: MARK BAILEY Date: 16/08/2012 Word count: 1854 words Introduction Cultural heritage, including monuments, groups of buildings and sites, which are of outstanding universal value from the point of view of history, art or science(1972, UNESCO Convention World Heritage), is inherited from past generations, maintained in the contemporary era and bestowed for the benefit of future generations. While seemingly uncontroversial and due to its significant position and profoundly influential value, human beings are exploring ancient civilization and preserving cultural heritage. However, we should recognize that not all heritage represents a positive memory , the uncritical interpretation of heritage is indeed omit negative factors of the past. In order to distinguish heritage more thoroughly, we use the term “negative heritage” which is defined as sites that may be interpreted by a group as commemorating conflict, trauma and disaster (Rico 2010), more specifically, Meskell deems that negative heritage is a conflicting site that becomes the repository of negative memory in the collective imaginary (Meskell 2002, 558). Unlike other heritage which can win widespread appreciation and permanent admiration, negative heritage refers to death, wars, religious conflicts and culture clashes. Controversies of...
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...Julius Paltiel, another Norwegian Jew as well as Steinmann survived the stay in Auschwitz, together with three others they would walk the death march together from Auschwitz. Although he survived, like so many other survivors, his family did not. When Paltiel finally came home to Trondheim in June of 1945, he returned home all alone. Julius was arrested and sent to Falstad Camp in Nord-Trøndelag,-this camp was created by the German Security Police, the SS to hold political prisoners. Among the Germans it would be called Strafgefangenlager Falstad. It was ready for operation in 1941, and in 1942 they would send about 50 Jews here; in 1942, at the age of eighteen. From here, Julius Paltiel would be sent to Auschwitz. Falstad was one of the most...
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...Some of the most crippling images of Auschwitz are the horrible scenes of the arrival of a transport of Jews to that concentration camp. To one side lay torture but a slight chance of survival. To the other side, lay instant death in the gas chambers. The frightening figure making this decision was, frequently, Josef Mengele, one of the doctors assigned to Auschwitz. It is now apparent that he must have started young and tortured animals when he was much younger in age. During WWII, the holocaust heavily impacted millions of lives, especially the people who were brutally experimented on by Dr. Joseph Mengele, who was not a simple human being. Many died and those who survived lived their painful lives with severe medical problems. The Angel of Death was created when he went to the University of Frankfurt to study medicine and then went to the army. Both of which were an extremely important part in his sadistic experiments hence the medical background and the love for “Nazism. After the war, Mengele was so scared of all the bad things he had done as well as his experiments that he fled Germany after they lost?? What Joseph Mengele did at Auschwitz, left his victims scarred both physically and mentally. Dr. Joseph Mengele was brought to this earth by Karl and Walburga Mengele in the Bavarian village of Gunzburg. He was the oldest of three children and was followed by his two younger brothers. From all accounts Karl Mengele was a harsh and distant man, one whose main concern...
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...War II, concentration camps were the final solution in executing millions in the Jewish population. In the camps, Nazis inflicted horrendous crimes upon innocent men, women, and children. The survival rate once residing in the camps were slim, mainly centered around the threats to survive in the camps, through dehumanization, physical suffering, and mental abuse. Out of thousands of internment camps the most famous is Auschwitz, located in what is now Poland. It was there in Auschwitz, where an Italian Jewish chemist, Primo Levi, against all odds, survived a year at the camp, before it was liberated in 1945. As soon as Levi entered the camp any form of identity was immediately taken away from him. His was stripped of his belongings, and given a new form of identification. Levi recounted the painful experience by stating, “I have learnt that I am Haftling. My number is 174517; we have been baptized, we will carry the tattoo on our left arm until we die” (Levi, 27). Levi soon learned, if you did not respond to your said number, then beatings or cuffs would be served as punishment. “Undesirables” who entered the camp,...
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...Nobel Peace prize winner and famous Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, is a tear-jerking, thrilling memoir. The memoir is on Elie’s abhorrent experiences in Auschwitz and his transformation. Along with many others in the Jewish community, Elie is forced to leave his home and endure the torture and trauma of Auschwitz becoming a whole new person. Elie’s relationship with both his father and God transmuted from his experiences in the concentration camps. Elie’s experience in Auschwitz altered his view of God greatly. As a twelve-year-old boy, Elie was devoted to worshipping God. He wanted to become a rabbi when he was old enough. Although his father would not allow it, Elie found a mentor to help him in becoming a rabbi. After spending one day in Auschwitz, Elie began to lose faith in his God. Elie was put into a line with others who came on the train hearing his father recite the Kaddish thinking this was the end, he then thought, “Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank him for” (Wiesel 33). Elie is wondering why they should all praise and thank God when, in the worst of times, God isn’t making some kind of miracle happen or...
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...when the Nazi’s moves him from his small town. Night begins in 1941, when Elie, is twelve years old. Having grown up in a little town called Sighet in Transylvania, Elie is a studious, deeply religious boy with a loving family consisting of his parents and three sisters. One day, Moshe the Beadle, a Jew from Sighet, deported in 1942, with whom Elie had once studied the cabbala, comes back and warns the town of the impending dangers of the German army. No one listens and years pass by. But by 1944, Germans are already in the town of Sighet and they set up ghettos for the Jews. After a while, the Germans begin the deportation of the Jews to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. After a brief stay at Auschwitz, they are moved to a new camp, Buna. At Buna, Elie goes through the dehumanizing process of the concentration camps. Both he and his father experience severe beatings at the hand of the kapos. All the prisoners are overworked and undernourished. Many lose faith in God, including Elie. He witnesses several hangings, one of a boy with an angelic face, and sees him struggle for over thirty minutes fighting for his life. To a stranger's cry of “Where is God now?â€, Elie answers: “He is hanging here on this gallows....†(p. 62). As Elie witnesses the hanging of the young pipel, he feels that it is his God who is hanging on the gallows. Elie identifies with the death of the young pipel because he undergoes a similar slow, painful spiritual death. The death of the pipel is...
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...People who are religious are close with God and deny questioning His Being. Wiesel was one of the Jews who survived the Holocaust during World War ll. Wiesel’s identity of God changed during his experience in Auschwitz due to the harsh conditions faced. In the novel Night, by Elie Wiesel the major theme throughout the whole story is that people struggle to maintain any sort of faith in god when faced with extreme struggles. The greatest change to Elie Wiesel’s identity was his loss of faith in God. Before leaving with his family to the camps, Elie was very religious person he would cry after praying at night. When the German police came to take the Jews to the ghettos, they pulled Elie from his prayer. Elie thanks God when he was told he is...
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