Death Marches
The Holocaust: 1933 to 1945
Death Marches
April, 1945
April, 1945
May, 1945
JUST THE STATISTICS:
On the marches, most were killed before or during. If you could not keep up, you were shot. Those on the march still alive when they made it to shore were driven into the water and shot.
While 6 million Jewish citizens were killed, 5 million non-Jewish people were victims of the holocaust, too.
AN ARTICLE ON DEATH MARCHES IN THE NEWSPAPER:
Purposes For Concentration Camp Evacuations
1. SS authorities were afraid if prisoners survived the concentration camps, they would fall into enemies hands and share the stories of their life as a prisoner to Allied and Soviet LIberators.
2. The SS thought they needed the prisoners to keep up the production of military equipment and weapons whenever it was possible.
3. Some of the SS leaders had believed, without reason, that they could use the Jewish prisoners held at concentration camps as hostages to "bargain for a separate peace in the west that would guarantee the survival of Nazi regime".
A QUOTE FROM ANNE FRANK
This quote, to me, tells a lot about some kids minds and opinions during the holocaust. She is trying to say how she needs to keep up her spirit and hopes; they are in a different situation she is used to for a long period of time. She needs to accept it and try to live her life as she always has. But her main thought in this quote is to remember her past life and how she grew up. The ideals her daily life has taught her cannot change and she has the confidence they will come out alive ("..for perhaps the time will come when i shall be able to carry them out."). Her mind is trying to convince herself that she will have a life of her own when she is older and should continue those ideals although under these conditions. One day, she will be able to carry these things she has learned, not forgotten, to help her in her older life.
INTERESTING FACTS:
*The term "Holocaust" was originally a Bible word for "burnt offerings"
*When some prisoners arrived to the concentration camps, they were asked to undress to take a shower. Rather than them giving them a shower, they were driven into gas chambers and killed.
*The first victims of the holocaust were the disabled