A Few Years of Horror, A Lifetime of Memories

Hi guys. I'm doing my final blog on a topic that is something I know a lot about. I've provided a glossary on the topic, just so you can keep track of what I'm speaking about. It's talked about so much and is on the television in my house so much, that I know as much as my Dad (which is incredible). This topic is about the Holocaust, and the horror and destruction it caused to so many lives. The one in charge of it all, was the brilliant, yet twisted, Adolf Hitler .

After setting off World War II, Hitler had invaded Poland in September 1939 and set off a series of events that forever altered the Jewish community of Lodz, Poland, one of the largest in Europe. On January 30th, 1939, Hitler gave a speech before the Nazi Reichstag (Parliament) on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power. In it, he made notice of that date, publically threatened Jews in his speech. Translated, what he said is here. But before that, Hitler had become the Chancellor of Germany, making laws to burn books, remove Jewish people of their insurance, lives, and essentials, and send homeless, alcoholics, beggars, and unemployed people to Concentration camps.

Concentration Camps (such as Mauthausen on the left) were, in my opinion, one of the worst things that any human can possibly do to another. Strip people of their dignity, rights, freedoms, personal items, and decide when they should die, then kill them like animals in a slaughterhouse. It's just not right.

To be more specific as to what happened, people were either sent to extermination (death) camps or work camps. You had to be in the correct age range, health range, and strength range in order to be in the work camps. If you failed any of the tests they gave you there, you were sent to a death camp such as Auschwitz or Mauthausen and killed. When they came up with the "Final Solution", it helped the Nazis greatly with "impure removal", but it was a horrible nightmare for the millions imprisoned. Isn't it sad when most of them went from this to this to this? It makes me want to cry. Here's a map of the Camps.

I thought that these were rather good links to accounts and personal stories of survivors, and people who weren't arrested until after they wrote them. The first link here goes to a website with personal stories of the crematorias and the gas chambers. This link here takes you to a webpage with abundant information on the "Final Solution". Another website takes you to the informational and easy-to-use page of Anne Frank's tale. Remember to click on Launch the Exhibition to get it to start. Tons more stories were found in the basement of a museum, and that information is here. However, for a simple link to the main stream of video, this is the one you want to click.

Overall, the total damage caused by Hitler, the Nazi party, the concentration camps, and the "Final Solution" was over 6 million lives of Women, Men, and Children. For a full page of the aftermath, simply click on this link.

I hope that this had made some impact on you, because having to do all of the research and listen to the stories has definately on me.