The Holocaust took many lives during World War II. Most of the people were Jews, or had a mental or physical disorder. On September 1, 1939, Hitler signed an order that called for a start of Operation T4. T4 ordered doctors to single out the incurably sick so they could be killed. These people were called "life unworthy of life".
These early Operation T4 "mercy" killings or euthanasia were administered to the following groups of people: the senile; mentally retarded adults and children; any Jews in mental hospitals; individuals who had been treated in any hospital, asylum, or nursing home for longer than five years; deformed newborn babies; epileptics; invalids who were unable to walk; and victims of any disease that made them unable to work. Operation T4 was the first time that gas chambers were used by Hitler's people. Anyone who was too sick, collapsed, or just didn't stand straight enough was killed.
All Jews soon became victims of the Third Reich. If anything was wrong with them, they were killed immediately. Some Jews were kept alive to help with the killing of other Jews. Most were sent to concentration camps where they were worked to death. At the entrance to the main camp, Auschwitz, people would pass a gate with an inscription that read, "Abeit Macht Frei" which means, Work Means Freedom. At another camp, Buchenwald, it read, "Jedem Das Sein". This means Each Gets What He Deserves.
Once they arrived at the camps, everything was taken from them. All bags and bundles were taken from every deportee. Clothes, dresses, suits, and jackets went to one place. Shoes were placed in another. Rings, watches, jewelry, and money were sorted into piles of their own. The only food they got to eat was a watered down, saltless soup always made from rotten meat and rotten vegetables, a little bite of bread, and some weak tea. They ate this food because they had to, they were starving. camp life was hard on everyone that lived there. There was torture and if anyone didn't pay attention they would be beaten or killed. Sometimes the prisoners were beaten simply as sport for cruel guards. Life was so cruel in the camps that some guards couldn't live with it. One third of all the guards in concentration camps took their own lives.
In 1941, Chelmo Concentration Camp used carbon monoxide gas to kill Jews. Zyklon B was used at Auschwitz. Zyklon B is a poison that was originally used to kill insects or rats. All of the camps used some kind of gas to kill their prisoners.
All of the camps were in operation by 1942. Beltzer, Sobibor, and Treblinka were built in 1942. These last three were built for the purpose of carrying out Operation Reinhard - the killing of every Jew in Poland.
On May 7, 1945, the war in Europe ended and the prisoners of these camps were freed. When the gates opened the streets were full of people who had survived this horror.
- Danielle Hamilton, Amber Eaton
CampChelmo |
Fatalities360,000 |
Survivors3 |