Life In Nazi Germany
The Beginning of a Devastating Era
On March 9, 1933, several weeks after Hitler gained power, organized attacks on Jews broke out across Germany. Two weeks later, the Dachau concentration camp, situated near Munich, opened. Dachau became a place of prison for Communists, Socialists, German Liberals and anyone considered an enemy of the Reich. By 1938, Jews were banned in many public places in Germany, then tensions arose during World War II , where many of the Jewish living in Poland were taken to camps where they starved to death, were killed or forced into slave labor.
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The New Life in Camps |
Furthermore in 1942 , the Wannsee Conference was held where the Nazi party decided on what they called “final solution” to end with the Jews. The solution consisted of murdering all the Jews by taking them to the different death camps. If any disobeyed orders or refused to perform their given task they were to be aggressively beaten and given heavy punishments. Those who got ill or could no longer be of any benefit were taken to gas chambers and murdered. All Jews were targeted for death, but the mortality rate for children was especially high. Only 6 to 11% of Europe’s prewar Jewish population of children survived as compared with 33% of the adults. The young generally were not considered useful for forced labor, and the Nazis often carried out “children’s actions” to reduce the number of “useless eaters” in the ghettos. In the death camps, children, the elderly, and pregnant women routinely were sent to the gas chambers immediately after arrival.
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An Attempt to Rescue Their Lives
Even though the camps were highly guarded some of the prisoners managed to escape, it was usually those who were assigned outdoor jobs near the fences. However in 1943 inmates from 3 different camps (Treblinka, Auschwitz and Sobibor) managed to get weapons and explosives to set up a revolt against the guards. Hundreds of Jews participated in the revolt but only 150 of them were able to escape. Although the hate against Jews was persistent in Germany, many were against it and offered help to Jewish families by hiding them from the Nazi’s, which at the time was considered a felony and those involved were heavily punished for it.
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The Print Nazism Left on Young Lives |
Few Jewish children survived. There was no end to suffering for those Jewish girls and boys who remained alive. Many would face their future without parents, grandparents, or siblings. Among the small number of Jewish children alive at the end of the Holocaust, thousands had only survived because they were hidden. With their identities disguised, and often kept secret from the outside world, these young children faced constant fear.
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Old and sick were murdered on the first day, healthy ones like me were given uniforms, checked by Nazi's and sent to the camp.
- Leo Fettman