Jewish Concentration Camps

By 1942, the Germans had built 6 death camps. Some of theses death camps were Auschwitz, T.II,  Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Treblinka, and Theresienstadt. The worst death camp out of them all was Auschwitz.

Auschwitz

Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp. Auschwitz was located in Poland. It was made up of 3 concentration camps in one. It was a camp that had forced work and killed people. The people were sent from a forced labor camp to a death camp when they became old or when they were weak to be killed. Some were also tested for experiments that tested medical things, such as diseases and cures. About 1 ¼ million people were killed at Auschwitz during World War II.

Buchenwald

Buchenwald was one of the first and the biggest concentration camps. It was built in 1937 in Weimar, Germany. It held 20,000 prisoners and most of them worked as slaves in near by factories. Many died from disease, little food, exhaustion, beatings, and executions. Prisoners were used to test the viruses and their vaccines.

Bergen-Belsen

Bergen-Belsen was near the villages of Bergen and Belsen in Germany. It was built in 1943 as a prison camp and a Jewish slave work camp. It was meant for 10,000 people but ended up holding 41,000. Here 37,000 prisoners died. They died from diseases or just being over worked. Anne Frank, one of the most famous concentration camp victims today, died there.

Sachsenhausen

This camp was located near the village of Sachsenhausen, in north Germany. It was built in 1936 as a part of 3 camps including Buchenwald and Dachau. The early prisoners of the camp were 10,000 Jewish people from Berlin and Hamburg. 200,000 people were in the camp and 100,000 of them ended up dying from disease, exhaustion, and over working in the local factories. A lot of the rest were brought to many other death camps.

Dachau

Dachau was the first Nazi concentration camp built. The camp was built in 1933. It was located in Dachau, Germany. The camp was meant to perfrom medical experiments on prisoners. These experiments left the people dead or disabled. The experiments and the harsh living conditions made it one of the most harsh camps. It was not designed as a killing camp though.

Theresienstadt

This camp was in north Bohemia (in modern Czech Republic). The camp later became a walled-in ghettoin 1941. After the people that were not Jews were evacuated, they started sending more Jews to the camp from Germany, Austria, Denmark, and other countries. Out of 14 1,000 Jewish people sent to Theresienstadt, 33,500 people died from the crowding in the ghettto, 88,000 Jews were sent to killing camps.

Treblinka and T.II

This camp was near the village of Treblinka, Poland. In 1941 it opened meaning to be a slavery camp. Close by, another camp called T.II opened in 1942. This camp was meant to be a killing camp. In the Treblinka camp there were bath houses which were used to kill people by a poisonous gas called carbon monoxide.Jewish prison workers had to kill the Jewish people. The Ukrainian guards did this also. The total number of people killed there is about 700,000 to 900,000. In 1943 a group of Jewish prisoners tried to escape but some were killed or recaptured. The T.II camp was closed in October of 1943. Treblinka was closed in July of 1944.

Stalingrad

The The Battle of Stalingrad was a major turning point in World War Two, and is considered the bloodiest battle in human history and arguably one of the greatest come-backs in military history. The battle was marked by the brutality and disregard for civilian casualties on both sides. The battle is taken to include the German siege of the southern Russian city of Stalingrad, the battle inside the city, and the Soviet counter-offensive which eventually trapped and destroyed the Germans. Total casualties are estimated at between 1 and 3 million. The Axis powers lost about a quarter of their total manpower on the Eastern Front, and never recovered from the defeat. For the Soviets, who lost well over one million soldiers and civilians during the battle, the victory at Stalingrad marked the start of the "Liberation" of the Soviet Union, leading to eventual victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

Patton's views on Jewish people.

Most of the Jews leaving Germany immediately after the war came from Poland and Russia, and Patton found their personal ways not civilized.

 

He was shocked by their behavior in the camps that the Americans built for them and even more disgusted by the way they behaved when they were housed in German hospitals and private homes. He saw that "these people do not understand toilets and refuse to use them except as repositories for tin cans, garbage, and refuse . . . They decline, where practicable, to use latrines, preferring to relieve themselves on the floor."

Patton's initial views of the Jews were not improved when he attended a Jewish religious service at Eisenhower's insistence. He wrote in his diary:

 

"This happened to be the feast of Yom Kippur, so they were all collected in a large, wooden building, which they called a synagogue. It behooved General Eisenhower to make a speech to them. We entered the synagogue, which was packed with the greatest stinking bunch of humanity I have ever seen. When we got about halfway up, the head rabbi, who was dressed in a fur hat similar to that worn by Henry VIII of England and in a surplice heavily embroidered and very filthy, came down and met the General . . . The smell was so terrible that I almost fainted and actually about three hours later lost my lunch as the result of remembering it."

These reasons and a great many others firmly convinced Patton that the Jews were very unusual creatures, and questioned why the American government was helping them.

These are some views that George Patton had on the Jewish race.

Pearl Harbore

On the morning of December 7th, of 1941 the sleeping giant would get an awakening. At the naval base in Pearl Harbor, the Japanese planned to blow up all of the ships and the airfields. The Japanese airplanes were only targeting the bigger battleships such as the USS Arizona, USS West Virginia, or USS Tennessee. Eighteen ships were either sunk or badly damaged, including eight battleships. Around 200 U.S aircraft were destroyed and approximately 150 damaged. 2,400 Americans were killed mainly soldiers and about 1,200 were wounded. Japan only lost about 29 planes. Japan did this because they wanted America to pay back for putting an embargo on them for oil and iron ore. This is because Japan was taking over land that they shouldn't have taken. President declared war on Japan immediately after the attack. Later Germany and Italy declared war on US. After the bombing emperor of Japan Isoroku Yamamoto knew he had made a big mistake. He knew that he did something really of the scale, and he knew that he would pay back after all of this. His famous quote is "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve"

Nuremburg Laws/1936 Olympics

In 1935 Adolf Hitler made laws for the Jewish people. The purpose of the laws were to purify the German race and keep it existent and singled out Jewish people. The laws consisted rules such as Jews could not interact with Germans. For example thy can not marry or go to the same school, such as segregation. Jews could not show or display any form of Germany. They could not raise a Nazi Germany flag etc. Jewish people were now considered illegal aliens since the laws took away their citizenship. All Jews had to wear the Star of David so people could know they were Jewish. If any of the laws were broken they would be forced with hard labor, fine, or sent to prison. But in 1936 Germany was hosting the summer Olympics. So Hitler decided to remove these laws. He did it so other countries could see how much of a great nation they were, where everybody was friendly. During the Olympics Hitler thought Germany was going to dominate everything and everyone. They did win the most medals, but was surprised when an African-American, Jesse Owens, beat his German sprinters. He was so surprised he had his scientist try to figure out why Owens was so fast. After the Olympics, Hitler reactivated the laws and everything was back to normal. All Jews were isolated from Germans.

Steps to WWII

In 1935 the inhabitants voted for the Saar land to be a part of Hitler's Nazi Germany. Later this lead to the wanting of the Rhine land. So in 1935 Adolf Hitler started building up his army and calling up men. On March 7th 1936 Germany marched into the Rhine land with only 22,000 men and invaded. In 1938 Hitler claimed that Austrian Nazis wanted unity with Germany. Hitler invaded Austria on March 11th 1938. Next, Hitler also wanted to unite all of the Germans in the Sudetenland which was part of Czechoslovakia. In 1938 Hitler took over. The Munich Pact stated that Great Britain and France will give Hitler the Sudetenland. On March 15th 1939, Hitler's troops marched into Czechoslovakia and invaded. Hitler now wanted Poland. Britain claimed to protect Poland form Germany and they knew the only way to stop Germany was through war. On August 1939 Hitler signed an agreement with Russia to help Germany if Great Britain intervened with the invasion of Poland. On September 1st 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, two days later Great Britain declared war on Germany. Before Germany invaded Poland and Great Britain declared war on Germany, Germany had broken the Treaty of Versailles and from this Great Britain or France did nothing about it. They just watched them do whatever they wanted. Only because they didn't want war with Germany. Even though they did end up going to war.

Ukranian Genocide

While the Bolsheviks were in power in USSR a communist named Josef Stalin came to power. As Stalin was in power he made his country a socialist country. So this means he put and made everybody in the county work for their economy to boost up. Their was this group of people which were named the Ukrainians. They did not want to work for USSR and wanted their own Independence from USSR. Stalin then decided to starve the Ukrainians and make them work in camps called "Gulags". As they worked some of them will die during their labor. Some Ukrainians that were not in labor camps were still starved to death. This caused deaths. Some say it was from 7 million to 10 million Ukrainians. Even though Stalin didn't kill Ukrainians like Hitler killed Jewish people. He just made them starve to death, I think that Josef Stalin did commit a genocide. He killed more Ukrainians that Hitler killed Jews.