During the Holocaust, life in the concentration camps were unbearable, especially for the Jews. Hitler blamed the Jews for making Germany impure. Considering Aryans as the superior race and Jews as the inferior race, Hitler had a six step plan to get rid of the Jews and all the other undesirable people in Germany. The first part of the plan was scapegoating. Hitler blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s problems and got the Germans to blame them too. Second, he collected a party of hate, which were known as the Nazis. Third, he rose to political power. Hitler became the chancellor of Germany. Having total power, Hitler executed the fourth part of his plan- he placed discriminatory laws on the Jews. These laws, called the Nuremberg laws, placed …show more content…
Many Holocaust survivors recall the terrible experience of being pregnant but knowing they would not be able to keep their baby. “In the initial selection, pregnancy was an automatic pre cursor for death for women.” They would be immediately sent to the gas chambers. Women who fell pregnant during their stay in camp would undergo an abortion as late as five months into the pregnancy. “While the child was successfully aborted, in many cases the mothers themselves did not survive.” Women also suffered with menstruation, something that men did not have to go through. Menstruation caused two major concerns for women- excessive bleeding and humiliation. Excessive bleeding was a problem because women did not have the necessary sanitary products to take care of the problem. Survivors recall the pure humiliation of leaving stains on their clothes and around the camp. “Stains were against the aesthetics of the camps and women who were found to have bloodstains on their tunics were gassed.” However, holocaust testimonies reveal that many women were not able to menstruate after being in the camps for a few weeks. This was both due to a lack of nutrition and the psychological stress and horror of being in the camps. Many women recall that this was both a relieving feeling but also sad because it was a symbol of their