Reflection:

During the Holocaust human rights were completely disregarded. With the ghettos, concentration and death camps, people were killed or put into dreadful living conditions. I don’t think that it is right that the Nazi’s weren’t all killed for taking so many innocent lives. I learned a lot of things that I previously hadn’t known especially when I was reading Night by Elie Wiesel and watching the film the Nuremburg Trials. All in all, I think that the Holocaust was a terrible event that should have never occurred.

First of all, the people were stripped of their rights when they were brought into the ghettos. The Nazi’s restarted the use of the ghettos in Europe before the start of World War II. The ghettos consisted of very small areas were thousands of the “minorities” were packed together. The largest ghetto in Europe was the Warsaw Ghetto. There were about 450,000 people forced to live here. This ghetto was known for starving its inhabitants as well as carrying many diseases. By the time this ghetto was shut down its population is said to have decreased to about 70,000. These ghettos should not have even been in place. How could the Nazi’s start such a terrible thing?

Later on, The Jews and other minorities were sent to concentration camps were they were forced into even worse situations than in the ghettos. In these camps millions of people died. I think that it’s such a terrible thing that not only were they forced out of their homes to live in the ghettos but they were then taken from there into the concentration camps. It’s not right to do such terrible thing for anyone.

I learned a lot from reading the book Night. Like when they described the little children being thrown into the fires that is a scene that will forever be engraved into my mind. For someone to brutally kill such little kids and babies in that manor is truly sickening. Also in the beginning of the novel when Moshe the Beadle described how the Jews were taken away and slaughtered to be buried in the graves they had dug for themselves. And how he described how babies were thrown into the air to be shot like targets for machine gunners. It was so horrible to read but written in such away that I couldn’t stop. I think that this book taught me a lot about the brutality that took place during the Holocaust. In class when we watched the movie Nuremburg Trials I couldn’t believe some of the things that the Nazi prisoners said in their defense. They all seemed to think what they did was right because they were only following orders. These orders that they followed killed eleven million people so how could that have not realized what they were doing was wrong?

Learning about the Holocaust, if anything, was a real eye opening experience. While I always heard that it was a terrible thing I never really processed just how many people were affected by it. I also learned that it wasn’t just the Jewish population that was sent into such horrible conditions but it was other people as well like the Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, gypsies and so many more. These people never did anything wrong but were blamed for the loss in a war and so much more.

- Kelsey Morse pd. 3

I always knew that the Holocaust was a dark time for all people but I had no clue of the extreme torture the Jews and other prisoners went through. Imagine being forced to leave your own home because of the way you look of the religious belief you have. I tried to understand the feeling of a life or death situation because this is what all Jews had to go through during this time. It was an awful thing to even consider and I wasn’t living it like those innocent people were. I learned that they beat and starved little children along with the elderly which was bad enough. I couldn’t understand how people could be so cold and why someone would create the Holocaust. Then I learned more about Adolf Hitler and the mad man he was. My thoughts became much clearer and my sympathy grew even more for those affected by the Holocaust.

While learning about the Holocaust I read the book Night where I found out about even more disturbing events. Sometimes prisoners were buried while they were alive. Nazi’s would take thousands of prisoners and put them in a hole, cover it back up with dirt, and waited for them to suffocate to death. Another event was when they hung those who were too weak to continue in the concentration camps. While reading this book I was nearly sick to my stomach and I found the same questions popped into my head again and again. Who would do something like this and why? I asked this question in my head millions of times when I figured out there was no “why” to this event, which caused me to feel even sadder.

I was shocked when I saw the movie about the Nuremberg Trials. In the movie they showed what occurred at the Nuremberg Trials and some of the Nazi’s on trial. I still can’t understand how some Nazi’s were so brainwashed into Hitler’s tactics that could reflect on what they’ve done and be proud of it. It just showed how sick Hitler was but mainly his followers. Something I also couldn’t understand was how some prisoners were proven “not guilty”. I would have put them all imprisoned for life after the acts they did to the Jewish race. Their acts were unjust and I felt as if too many were showed mercy they didn’t deserve.

When I read in the text book about the Holocaust I found interesting information on topics I didn’t know was apart of the Holocaust. For example, I read about the harshness of the Ghettos and the poor conditions Jews had to live in while being in the Ghettos. Innocent Hews were taken from their homed and placed in Ghettos. Ghettos were not safe for anyone at anytime. People learned not to go out unless it was a necessity which was just the beginning of their problems. Next, they were placed out of the Ghettos and put into concentration camps where they were separated by the strong and the weak. The weak ones were killed and the others continued until it was their time to go.

It bothered me when Nazi’s didn’t even think twice about what they were doing. Most Nazi’s said that they were just following orders while others claimed they did nothing wrong. This didn’t sit well with me and still doesn’t. I felt as if the Nazi’s were cowards because to hide what they were doing in their own country they continued to move concentration camps therefore they would not get in trouble with the law. Nazi’s defended their leader who was supposedly an amazing leader with great ideas. However, he killed himself before he went to trial. This not only makes him a coward but shows that Nazi’s knew what they were doing and how wrong it was. The Holocaust taught me a lot about racism and derogatory terms which are still around in our society.
- Fallon Welch Period 3

Human Rights

One human right the Nazi’s brutally disobeyed was no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Prisoners were forced to death marches to other concentration sites. Death marches were when the prisoners were ordered to run as fast as they could, if they slowed down or fell, they were immediately shot by the Nazi guards running along side. Another example of this is the gas chambers. The gas chambers used a chemical called Zyklon-B. There was a small hole in the chamber were the chemical was thrown in. In the gas chambers people were thrown into and suffocated. Gas chambers were popular to use because it only took 5-15 minutes for the prisoners to die. The ghettos were just as bad as the gas chambers; they were holding places where the police could keep a better watch over them were almost four hundred fifty thousand Jews were crammed where only about one hundred forty five thousand people lived before. Disease spread like wildfire in these places but illness was the least of their worries, hunger was the main issue. The only way to get food was from the Nazi’s who only gave them things such as bread and potatoes.

The picture above shows the conditions of the ghettos. As you can see theres soot on the walls and German guards. You can tell that everyone around is afraid.

Another human right that was greatly disobeyed was everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The Jews were deprived from their freedom simply because they were Jewish. Hitler showed hatred to these people because he believed they were the reason for Germany’s weaknesses and hardships. Other people that he disliked were political minorities, the communists, homosexuals, gypsies, and other groups.

The picture above shows hatred towards the Jews. This is a Jewish grave site for some of the victims of the Holocaust. Notice on one of the graves someone spray-painted the German Nazi symbol a swastika. This shows disrespect towards the Jews.

The Holocaust was a scary, depressing, and unforgettable time in Europe and all around the world, late 1938. Nazi Germany was the cause of the Holocaust and the ones running the show. They set up concentration camps all around Germany where they could torture Jews, homosexuals, criminals, politicians, and others of a different belief or those who opposed of Hitler. Thank goodness not everyone was brainwashed into the idea of trying to destroy a human race. Britain, the United States, The Soviet Union, and France tried to take down Hitler before all of Europe was suffering from the consequences. In the meantime, it was mainly the Jewish race that did the suffering. Germany government agreed to this act because Hitler was the only person making sense since World War One and the Treaty of Versailles, therefore the people followed. Other countries and nations were not aware of the Holocaust and what Hitler was doing inside Germany. As a result, the League of Nations, or the government trying to keep peace could not do anything about it. Unfortunately, for those who did know they could not do anything about it. It was an act of National Sovereignty meaning that Germans could do whatever they wanted as long as it was in their own boarders. The only way the countries could stop this craziness was to invade Germany. While most countries were on their way to invasion many Jews were interrogated and imprisoned like the Germans were later on after the Nuremberg Trails. However, more than half were put into concentration camps where they were starved to death or worked to death. The sick ideas of one man cost us about eleven million lives and if we had not stopped it, it could have been millions more.

- Fallon W, Kim S, Kelsey M, Michelle S

Adolf Hitler is shown above wearing the symbol of the Nazi’s, the swastika, as an armband. The idea of the swastika was taken from the Native Americans to represent Nazi’s symbolism. It was suppose to symbolize a person running which showed Germany’s progress to take over Europe.
- Fallon, Kim, Kelsey, and Michelle
Period 3

Human Rights

One human right the Nazi’s brutally disobeyed was no one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Prisoners were forced to death marches to other concentration sites. Death marches were when the prisoners were ordered to run as fast as they could, if they slowed down or fell, they were immediately shot by the Nazi guards running along side. Another example of this is the gas chambers. The gas chambers used a chemical called Zyklon-B. There was a small hole in the chamber were the chemical was thrown in. In the gas chambers people were thrown into and suffocated. Gas chambers were popular to use because it only took 5-15 minutes for the prisoners to die. The ghettos were just as bad as the gas chambers; they were holding places where the police could keep a better watch over them were almost four hundred fifty thousand Jews were crammed where only about one hundred forty five thousand people lived before. Disease spread like wildfire in these places but illness was the least of their worries, hunger was the main issue. The only way to get food was from the Nazi’s who only gave them things such as bread and potatoes.

The picture above shows the ghettos that the Jews were crammed into. You can see that they weren't in the greatest conditions, there is soot collecting on the side of the road. The picture shows that there were guards everywhere. In this one picture there are three guards. The ghettos were kept everyone very isolated from the world.

Another human right that was greatly disobeyed was everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The Jews were deprived from their freedom simply because they were Jewish. Hitler showed hatred to these people because he believed they were the reason for Germany’s weaknesses and hardships. Other people that he disliked were political minorities, the communists, homosexuals, gypsies, and other groups.

The picture above shows the hatred towards the Jews. This is a Jewish grave site, but if you look towards the back of a grave, someone drew a the Nazi symbol, a swastika. Showing disrespect to the Jewish people.

The Holocaust took place during World War II from about 1938 until 1945. On November 9th and 10th, 1938 many Jewish people died in Germany. This was called Kristallnacht or in English “Night of Broken Glass”. The losses that occurred on these nights were only the start of many more deaths to come. The idea of purging Nazi Germany of all Jews and minorities is referred to it as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”. Although the Holocaust started in 1938 the idea was brought up 1942 and was the way of planning for the Holocaust. During the Holocaust about six million Jews died. But in total there were about nine to eleven million victims. Other groups that were ostracized were Romanians, disabled people, homosexuals, Soviet prisoners of war, gypsies, politicals, Serbs, Poles, Jehovah Witnesses and more.

By: Kelsey, Michelle, Kim and Fallon.

This is a picture of Kristallnacht when the state of Germany organized the Nazi’s to go through Germany and beat, tortured, and killed all of the Jews. This was also known as the “Night of the Broken Glass”. This happened on November 9-10 1938 and it was the beginning of the Holocaust in Germany.

By: Michelle, Kelsey, Kim, and Fallon.