The Holocaust

 

Story From the Point of View of a Victim of the Holocaust

My body felt weak and hot tears streamed down my face as I lifted another Jew into one of the ovens to be creamated. The air rotted with the smell of burning flesh. When we finally could go back to the bunkers I plopped myself right on the 'bed'. All they gave us was a sheet and the floor.I tried to close my eyes but the roar of my stomach made me craw into the fetal position holding it in order to make it shut up. I was starving. I hadn't eaten in days. My sister was only a year younger than me and I gave her all of my food. She was sick and starving. She needed it more than me. The Nazi's wouldn't even let her rest a few minutes. I wish mother and father were here. Even if they couldn't protect us I would have loved to see their faces just once more. I rolled over to face my sister to check if she was alright. I shook her trying to get her up. She didn't move. I shook her again but with more force trying to get her up. Nothing. I screamed her name but still she didn't move. Tears flowed down my face as I realized my sister, my only family left was gone. People scattered over stealing her clothes. I yelled at them to stop and pushed them away but I was to weak. One pushed me down and I watched as they took everything from her and when the Nazi's stole her away from me. I was unable to move. I was drowned of all my energy. I smiled faintly as I heard my sister and my parents calling me. For once after all of the attacks and the camps I didn't feel any suffering or sadness. I felt happy. I was finally gonna see them again. Mother, Father, Sister, Everyone i'm coming. Wait for me.

That was a short story on the Holocaust by Kaitlyn. The Holocaust, meaning genocide, was a sad time that happened in the 1930s and 40s between the Nazis and the Jewish people. The Nazis came to power in 1933 and that's when things started to get out of hand. The Nazi thought that Jews were not worth as much as Germans and deserved to die. The Nazis started to make them work and put them in camps called "Concentration Camps." The concentration camps were camps where the Nazi imprisoned Jews and Polish people. Men and women were in separate camps. Many Jews lost there jobs and homes and lives because people were to afraid to go up against the Nazis or they as well hated them. Instead of calling them by their names Holocaust victims were tattooed with a number on their arm. Their heads were shaved so that the Nazis would know if the Jews belonged in the camps. They were all forced to strip off their clothing and wear prison clothes. Natzweiler, Dachau, Flosseburg, Westerbork, Bergen-Belsen, Neuengamme, Ravensbruck, Sachsenhausen, Dora-Mittelbu, Buchenwald, Theresienstadt, Mauthausen, Stuthof, Plaszow, Majdanek, Gross-Rosen, Koldichevo, Janowsla, Sered, and Kaiserwald were concentration camps. There were also extermination camps. These camps were also referred to as “death camps.” Auschwitz- Birkenau, Chelmno, Trebinlka, Sobibor, and Belzec were the names of the death camps.

At the camps the prisoners were starved to death. The people that were too weak or sick to work were forced to go take a 'shower'. They were stripped of their clothing and set inside a small room filled to the brim with people. The Nazis would turn on the 'showers' which was actually poison that killed every single person inside. Sometimes they would tease the people and set people inside the rooms and actually turn on the water. All of the people who died would be loaded into ovens by other prisoners. American Soldiers rescued the Jews and Polish in . To the Americans the prisoners looked like living dead. They were so skinny because they were starved. They could smell the burning of flesh which made them want to throw up because it was so sickening. They were at a loss of words. It is estimated some 6 million people died during the Holocaust. (see pictures below)

The entrance to a gas chamber.

Hitler Inspecting a bombing.

Ovens that burned the dead bodies

Pile of dead prisoners.

Prisoners in a concentration camp.