Table of Contents
Holocaust Investigation
Concentration camp and a death camp
The first concentration camp was established in March of 1933. The Dachau camp was established by the Nazi government. Hitler described the concentration camp as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners”. Dachau camp was built on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory, this was near the north-eastern part of the town Dachau. Therefore, it was called the Dachau concentration camp. In the first year the camp had about 4,800 prisoners. At first the camp primarily held social democrats, German communists, political opponents of the Nazi regime and trade unionists. Over the years, the Nazis started to put more groups of people into Dachau such as, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, and repeat criminal offenders.
Over the first few years that Dachau camp was established; few Jews were placed in Dachau. after Kristallnacht or also known as “the night of broken glass” on the 10th and 11th of November in 1938, 10,000 Jewish men were incarcerated in to Dachau. This caused the number of Jewish prisoners in Dachau to rise which is also due to the increased number of persecution of Jews.
A concentration camp is often used to house a large amount of people in a small area with low quality building and toilets. The people were forced into concentration camps to either there waiting to be killed or were made to do forced labour. When the words ‘concentration camp’ are mentioned you think of Hitler and the Nazis, the most well know concentration camps were Auschwitz, Belsen and Dachau.
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The death camps were a part of Hitler’s and the Nazis final plan it was called the ‘final solution’. It was meant to the easiest and quickest way of killing all the Jews. By sending the Jews to camps that were only built for murder, was the easiest way of killing them all. The Nazi could not just tell them exactly where they were going, so the Jewish people were told they were being relocated out of the ghettos and to a concentration camp.
Role of concentration camp at Theresienstadt
In 1780 Theresienstadt, Czech Terezín, a town in northern Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic) was founded, and from 1941 to 1945 it was used by Nazi Germany as a ghetto, or concentration camp. It was also used as a transit camp for western Jews en route to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.
The Theresienstadt camp was established on November the 24th in 1941. The camp was set up to be a ghetto or concentration camp. Theresienstadt housed the elderly, the privileged and the famous Jewish people from Germany, Austria, the Czech lands, and Western Europe. Theresienstadt housed many famous artists, writers, scientists, jurists, diplomats, musicians, and scholars from Czech, Austrian, and Germany.
500 Danish Jews who hadn’t yet escaped to Sweden were sent to Theresienstadt in 1943.The Danes demanded that the Germans account for these Danish citizens and allow the Red Cross to visit the ghetto.
To eliminate the rumours about the extermination and concentration camps, the Nazis allowed the Red Cross to visit, but the Nazis were smart and arranged a hoax at Theresienstadt.
They deported many camp residents to Auschwitz to minimize the appearance of overcrowding and arranged fake stores and cafés to give the appearance of a life of comfort and ease. The Red Cross came to Theresienstadt and visited the Danish Jews. There was no more than two or three in a room, and they were in freshly painted quarters. The Nazis formed a children’s opera, and the children were forced to perform for the guests.
The hoax succeeded so well with the Red Cross, that the Nazis made a propaganda film. It was filmed at Theresienstadt showing how well the Jews were living under the benevolent protection of the Third Reich. When the filming was finished, the Nazis deported most of the people that were in the film, which included nearly all the children, and they were sent to Auschwitz.
Approximately 144,000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt. 33,000 were estimated to of died at Theresienstadt, that’s almost one in four. About 88,000 were deported to Auschwitz and other death camps. By the war’s end, only 19,000 were alive.
Such situation in 21th century society
In my opinion I believe that what happened to the Jewish people in the concentration and death camps during the Holocaust in 1941 to 1945 could happen again in the 21th century. I believe this because, this is not the first time a race or group of individuals has thought to exterminated or treated horribly. During the slave trade of America and Africa, the people of African tribes were taken from their homes and sent to a new country to do manual labour and other forced work. The African people were used as objects for trade like sugar, coffee and guns.
The African people were treated horribly, they weren’t looked as people to the rest of society they were looked at as slaves or the help and weren’t payed for the work they did. When the slaves broke the rules or didn’t do as they were told they were killed or punished severely. So, in my opinion I believe that in the events that unfolded during the Holocaust in the concentration and death camps can happen again. This may not happen in the same way as the Holocaust but in a different way that could be hidden a lot better.
Reference
- https://www.britannica.com/place/Theresienstadt
- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/deportations-to-killing-centers?series=48576
- https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/dachau
