During the Holocaust, Jews were robbed of their identities and their humanity in countless ways. The Holocaust was conducted like an experiment about how many ways a person could be dehumanized, then killed. It is hard to understand how people could do such horrific and inhumane things to other humans. It doesn't seem humanly possible to put innocent human beings through such terrible physical and emotional pain. The Nazis deprived concentration camp inmates of their natural human rights, and of any other humanity they had left in them.
Even the process of arriving at the concentration camp was dehumanizing and inhumane. First, the Jews were forced out of their homes, which is a huge part of a person's identity. Next, they were loaded onto trains where they were with way too many people for one train car. The train rides lasted up to 10 days. People were so close to one another that they couldn't lay down. Also, there were no bathrooms, so the train cars smelled terrible. The passengers bodily fluids and defecations infected
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The living conditions were inhumane. There were wooden bunks three rows high and the width of a large bed. Three or more people slept in one “bed”. They could only sleep with one blanket, and because of this, many froze to death. In winter, it could get far below freezing at night. The Jews were also given a striped uniform which they had to wear indefinitely without washing it. They were fed small portions of watery soup and small pieces of bread. Within a week or so, the concentration camp inmates were nothing more than skin, bones, and a number tattooed into their forearm. Also, there was always the imminent fear of death. An SS officer could shoot any inmate without reason. Death was the norm in the concentration camp. Many people starved, died of illnesses, or were murdered by the Nazis. They didn't know if they would live to see the next