The German Holocaust took place during World War II. The Holocaust began when a new empowering leader, Adolf Hitler, believed the Aryan race, blonde hair and blue eyes, was superior. Anyone who did not wear these features were sent off to concentration camps. Jews were the primary victims of the Holocaust and were greatly discouraged amongst society. They couldn 't work, go to school, use any sort of transportation, and they had to wear the Star of David to notify society that they are Jewish. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in Braunau am Inn, Austria. Hitler’s father, Alois Hitler, was a scornful man. He disapproved of Adolf as a son, which affected his self-esteem and made him hate the way he looked. Even though Hitler was born in Austria, he took up a liking for …show more content…
The movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” is an example of how Nazi families live, during the war. When arriving at the concentration camps men and women had their hair cut to prevent lice. Living conditions were horrendous. There was not enough food to survive. At the beginning the camps already had poor on sanitation but it got worse and worse as more people were being taken in. Disease and starvation spread across the camps, and people were dying by the thousands each and every day. The Jews would also die by gas chambers. The first gassing in the concentration camps was at the camps of Belzec, near Lublin on March 17,1942. Prisoners would be told that they were just taking a shower. They were forced into a fake shower and gassed to death. When the Jews were not being gassed up they would work until their heart gave out. Muselmänner is the term of an inmate who was so undernourished that they were seen as the “living dead.” Inmates lived in overcrowded barracks and slept in bunk beds. Prisoner who were punished were called Sonderkommando.