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Forced-Labor Camps Of The Holocaust

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The Jews of the Holocaust struggled to hold onto the will to live, the hope of liberty, and any thought that they would once again be happy. Prior to WWII Jews were living in every country of Europe, “Jews had comfortable, peaceful lives among their communities, that thrived with with cultural richness of Jewish life.” said Jack Mandelbaum. A total of roughly nine million Jews lived in the countries that would be soon occupied by Germany in WWII.
In 1933 President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany. A couple months later came law boycotting all Jewish-owned shops and businesses in Germany. On the day of the boycott Storm Troopers stood menacingly in front of Jewish shops and businesses. The Star of David was painted …show more content…
They were designed to be temporary, some lasted only a few days or weeks, others for several years.The majority of ghetto inhabitants died from disease or starvation, were shot, or were deported to killing centers, and concentration camps. Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi’s established about 20,000 camps to imprison its many millions of victims. These camps were used for a wide range of purposes including forced-labor camps, transit camps which served as temporary way stations, and killing centers built for mass murder. Forced-Labor camps were camps that forced thousands of Jews to work strenuous hours. Thousands of prisoners died from exhaustion, starvation, and exposure. Countless prisoners were so weak, diseased, and malnourished that they could barely walk or carry out their basic life functions. The majority of prisoners struggled to obtain the will to keep going, to keep working. Many gave up on life because they no longer thought there would be an end to the living nightmare they were …show more content…
The Germans had dismantled these camps in 1943, after most of the Jews of Poland had already been killed. The Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest killing center and concentration camp, in January of 1945. Upon liberating Nazi concentration camps they also discovered the dead by the thousands everywhere, in mass graves, stacked as firewood, scattered about the grounds, and even sharing bunks with the living. While touring the camps, the Allies exposed the gas chambers, the rooms for medical experiments, and the crematories used by the Nazis to enforce Hitler’s decision to exterminate the Jewish race.
After liberation, many survivors of the holocaust struggled to return home, to resume their lives. After years of routine consisting of work, eat, sleep, and survive. They didn’t know what to do with themselves. The majority of the survivors’ family members lives had been claimed by the holocaust, so most of the survivors had long lost family members or none at all. Making it hard for them to settle down and live the rest of their lives alone and without

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