Holocaust Concentration Camp Research Paper

March of 1933 something happened that would change the lives of millions forever. In ¨Dachau¨ the first concentration camp was opened (¨United States Holocaust Memorial Museum¨). This would be the first of thousands more to come, all with the intention of either forced labor or mass murder, often both (¨The Holocaust¨). Many events led to this crisis and they all included the persecution of the Jewish people. Persecution included the making of Jewish laws, Kristallnacht, the creation of ghettos, and finally torture in the concentration camps.

The German government was led by Hitler, who rose to power by his eloquent speaking abilities and by blaming the Jews for all of Germany's faults (¨Why Hitler was such a successful orator¨). In planning

Their secret of the mass killing of millions would soon be discovered and it would then be their turn for punishment. The Germans took every possible step to disassemble the camps as quickly as possible. They began gassing the Jews at an even faster rate desperately trying to get rid of as many witnesses to their terrible crimes. The Jews were ordered to quickly tear down the camps, and when they had done all they could, they were forced to walk from the camp to another unknown destination. For days on end the Jews would run from the camp, not being allowed to stop for rest or for water. SS guards shot anyone who fell or got behind. Of the thousands and thousands of prisoners forced to make this journey about 15,000 of them died from exhaustion, starvation, thirst, and harsh weather conditions (Lace 92). When ¨Auschwitz¨ was liberated, about 7,000 hidden Jews remained (¨United States Holocaust Memorial Museum¨). They were the lucky ones; they would soon be freed and be able to slowly attempt to put their lives back together. Many of the soldiers who liberated the camps did not even know what they were doing. Some of them had no knowledge of the final solution, and did not know of the suffering of millions. There is no exact number for how many people were murdered by the Nazis. Hitler did not want any proof of the crimes they were committing so nothing was ever written down. Although the Nazis tried to cover their actions there was nothing they could have done to cover the death of millions of people. These people included Soviets, Polish, Serbs, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, disabled people, criminals, but the biggest group being Jews were amongst the 900,000 people who were killed (¨Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution¨). The murder of these people was done in an astonishingly short period of time. Hitler reigned for only twelve years and managed to