Some were forced labor, medical experiments, then later death/extermination camps. Transition camps were set up as holding places for death camps. When the camps were finally opened , families who stayed together , got separated. The train ride there was horrible. Jews were starved of food & water for days.
Night by Elie Wiesel is a story based on his personal experiences during the holocaust controlled by the Nazi army in the concentration camps. Towards the end of 1941 all the Jewish people were taken away from their homes by the Nazi army. When they arrived in Auschwitz they Nazi army separated families by their strength, weakness, and gender. All the men and the women were separated. Then the weak and old ones were separated from the young and strong.
In January 1933, there were approximately 522,000 Jews living in Germany. Over half of these Jews , approximately 304,000 emigrated during the first six years of the Nazi reigh , leaving only approximately 214,000 Jews in Germany before the start of World War II. During the Nazi reign, German Jews weren’t allowed to go to theatres, swimming pools, and resorts. They had to carry identification cards wherever they went, and they always had to wear a Star of David badge on their shirts. There was a time called Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, when the Nazis burned down synagogues, and destroyed Jewish businesses and homes.
The Decree Excluding Jews from German Economic Life prevented Jews from running businesses. Also, decrees excluding Jews from public places were made, with all Jewish pupils becoming ecpelled (15th Nov 1938). Also, a collective fine of 1 billion marks was levied on the Jewish community for the Paris murder, meaning 30000 Jewish men were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. The Consequences of 'Anschluss' The levels of violence in Austria against the Jews were far worse than in Germany. Vienna's 180000 Jews were the targets of regular attacks.
The war made it impossible for Hitler to get rid of the Jews so the Jews were trapped under the Nazi rule. The largest Ghetto was in Warsaw. Walls were built to separate the Ghetto district from the rest of the city. There were about seven people living in every room. They were given only 300 calories of food a day.
Hitler deliberately expressed his hate toward Jews and gave ample warnings, as it was all written down in his autobiography “Mein Kampf”. In 1935, the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws stripped German Jews of their citizenship and civil rights. Jewish rights were steadily restricted, as in many cases Jewish political and intellectual leaders were the first to be sent to concentration camps. The Night of Broken Glass, on November 9, 1938 lead to the death of approximately 100 Jews, while other 30,000 were sent to concentration camps. Jewish businesses along with almost every synagogue in Germany were damaged or completely destroyed.
Some Jews tried to fight for their rights. The most famous revolt was the Warsaw Revolt in Warsaw, Poland which lasted 28 days. After the Jews were sent to the camps some of them were taken to gas chambers and were killed with deadly gas. After the war the camps were turned into memorials and museums. The conditions at these camps were beyond comprehension.
Yet during World War I Germany used concentration camps for prisoners of war to manufacturing war equipment, although in the beginning of World War II they were used for anyone who threatened the peace in Germans Reich. And eventually were used to use exterminate Jews for the “Final Solution” (Byers 20 ). Hitler would concentrate the Jews into camps where he would eventually kill them, the first Camp was in the outskirts of Dachau (Byers 22). Hitler decided to start moving the Jews to concentration camps when a sixteen-year-old Jewish boy assassinated a minor official in Paris. This caused the Germans to go on a murderous spree, they burned down one-hundred-ninety-one synagogues and one-hundred-ninety-one house and apartments.
The glass left over from all the destruction is why it was called the Night of The Broken Glass. Cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were also destroyed as police and fire brigades stood aside. In November 15, All Jewish pupils expelled from German schools and finally on December 12, a one billion fine was placed against German Jews for the destruction of property during Kristallnacht. The pogroms marked an intensification of Nazi anti-Jewish policy that would culminate in the Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored murder of
Murder plans began there on December 8, 1941, and continued intermittently until January 1945. The Jews of the Lodz ghetto and the vicinity were the primary victims deported to Chelmno, where they were murdered by means of gas vans. When the jews reached the camp, they were ordered to undress, stripped of their belongings, and tricked into boarding a van whose exhaust pipe was actually connected to the inside.. After the doors were closed, the van began to drive toward a designated burial place in a nearby forest. No one survived. By using three gas vans, nearly 300,000 Jews were murdered in Chelmno.