The Holocaust began on September 1, 1939 which was also the time when World World War II began and life for the Jews became harsh when the Germans invaded and tried to hunt down and exterminate all the Jews. The “Final solution” was led by the notorious leader Adolf Hitler and was a Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jews. The “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was a code name for the murder of all Jews within reach, which was not restricted to the European continent.
Most Jews went into hiding to avoid being captured by the Germans. Most were captured and sent to concentration camps to do forced labor or to die. Only a handful of Jews were able to hide and live through this dark period of time. This essay will explain how life was for the Jews during World War II.
When the Germans started searching for the Jews, it was only the beginning of the Holocaust. Many Jewish people went into hiding. They would often hide in attics or the cellars of the house. Some Jews concealed their Jewish identity and continued to live out in the open with false identification paper. Jewish children were hidden in the Netherlands from 1942-1945 to save them from Nazi deportation.
127 our experts are availableright now
Many families attempted to hide together but most of the time, people were willing to take the children rather than the adults. Jews that had turned to hiding had to rely on their helpers or hosts for food and shelter. They would sometimes pay their helpers to buy food for them or to reward them for making such a dangerous commitment. If they were caught, they would be severely punished for hiding and for helping fugitives because such activities was considered as a offense to the capital. Many people who were hiding Jews were killed, sent to concentration camps, or had their homes and belongings burned.
Conditions in the concentration camps were poor. The SS considered the prisoners as enemies. The SS had created a strict daily schedule to keep the prisoners working on time. After they had role call, they would march to work. Since the prisoners were never allowed enough rest, they would be exhausted on the next day. Prisoners slept in broken barracks and leaking roofs. They were crammed into tiny bunks to sleep in or they would find other places that they could sleep in like damp tunnels or flimsy tents. Rations were cut which caused many prisoners to suffer from malnourishment.
Many prisoners were often sick with diseases and were sent to the infirmary at the camps. Those who were seriously ill had little hope of surviving, mainly because the camps hospitals barely provided any medical treatment for the sick.
Instead of nursing them back to health, they were routinely executed or deported to die in another camp because it was proof that the sick could not work anymore. Other times prisoners would be used in cruel human experiments to meet the needs of the army. Nazi doctors experimented on prisoners for the good of the German pharmaceutical companies or medical institutes. Others did so to advance their academic careers or were in pursuit of their personal interests.
Two well known Jewish people were Anne Frank, the writer of “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Elie Wiesel was a Holocaust survivor who was sent to a concentration camp with his family. They had both experienced the horrors during the Holocaust. Elie however had a closer look at the Nazis because he was sent to a concentration camp and he knew what they did and how they went about things like selection and role call. Anne lived in the Annex with her family and have always feared the Nazis because of the things she has heard from other people like how they treated the Jews and what they did to them. The stories that that they wrote were both narrated by themselves and they both reflect emotions of grief and struggle during the Holocaust.
Today, the Holocaust is viewed as a symbolic example of absolute evil. It’s revelation of the depths of human nature and the power of malevolent social and government structures has made it an important topic of a humane discourse in fields as diverse as law, medicine, religion, military, and government. Many Holocaust survivors noted that they heard a final plea from those who have fallen during the Holocaust:” Remember! Do not let the world forget.” Holocaust have also added a plea of their own:” Never again.” They hope that the remembrance of the Holocaust can prevent its recurrence. More than half a century later, institutes, memorials, and museums were built to document and teach the history of the Holocaust to future generations.
