Holocaust Video

This video shows the harsh conditions the Jews faced while going through the Holocaust. Major areas to watch are at 3:52 - 4:40 and 6:12 - 9:55, but all is a great representation of the Holocaust. (Viewer discretion is advised.)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?...)

Poem

Hitler caused so much grief for the Jews. He destroyed their morale and many lives. This poem, created by Shawn T, represents the hardships that the Jews went through. It explains the terrible life that the Jews lived during the Holocaust.



Hitler came and took it all.
Hitler came and told them to beat us.
Hitler came and turned them against us.
He said it was the final solution.
They came and took us away, they said it was just orders.
Hitler put us in Auschwitz and
mommy said it would be OK.


Mommy said we were going to the ghetto but I still saw people dying.
Mommy said it was going to be just fine.
Mommy said we will make a fire but I was still freezing cold.
Mommy said the Russians were coming soon.
Now mommy is dead.


I have waited a long time but they are not here
I can hear the guns in the distance but they are not coming.
I want to know when they are coming.
"What is that? They're here."


Now I am back home but I can't stay.
Someone told me about Palestine.
Now I am there with thousands of Jews and
I have a family again.
And I tell myself it'll be OK.

Blocks

Every day, the inmates were required to line up for roll call before they went on to work. They were all numbered and some camps didn't even have the luxury of having the same clothing. No matter where they went, they were always in blocks.

"'Fall in!' We fell into ranks of five" (Wiesel 49).

(http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/camp_inmates.jpg)

Faith

Many of the people condemned to these concentration camps began to question their God.

"Man comes closer to God through the question he asks Him. Therein lies true dialogue. Man asks and God replies. But we don't understand His replies. We cannot understand them. Because they dwell in the depths of our souls and remain there until we die. The real answers you will find only within yourself" (Wiesel 5).

Throughout the Holocaust, many lost their faith. They were questioning why God would allow such things to happen and why he hasn't helped them to get out of this horrible situation.

"Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mas graves? Because He kept six crematoria working day and night, including Sabbath and the Holy Days? Because in His great might, He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death?" (Wiesel 67).

The facts were stacking up against everyone's beliefs. Elizer stopped his devotion to God because he couldn't believe that He could let such things be happening all the time. Others continued to pray, and some were still questioning Him. Elizer had the occasional prayer, despite denouncing God.

Starvation

This is what many of the inmates looked like during the Holocaust. They were all crammed into bunks and weren't given very many clothes to protect them from the elements. Those who survived didn't look anything like they did to begin with.

"I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me" (Wiesel 115).

(http://www.google.com/imgres?...)

Transformation

Throughout the experience in the concentration camps, many were forced to transform from children to adults, no matter what age you were. The conditions were so horrible that it's so difficult to explain how it truly was. Some had transformed without knowing it.

"Then, as if waking from a deep sleep, he slapped my father with such force that he fell down and then crawled back to his place on all fours.
I stood petrified. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, in front of me, and I had not even blinked" (Wiesel 39).

Elizer's experiences changed everything about his life. This transformation was not, by any means, the best way to move from childhood to manhood. Transforming because of a tragic event can cause a major change in someone's personality and lifestyle, such as those who lived through the Nazi Holocaust.

"I shall not describe my life during that period. It no longer mattered. Since my father's death, nothing mattered to me anymore" (Wiesel 113). "Our first act as free men was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That's all we thought about. No thought of revenge, or of parents. Only of bread" (Wiesel 115).

Many of the inmates were starved so bad that nothing but food mattered to them. They forgot about their past and being free was their future. They would never be the same.

Soup

This is typically what the inmates' rations of food looked like. Many weren't even lucky enough to get this size or ration or even one at all. This was their life, their everything.

"At that moment in time, all that mattered to me was my daily bowl of soup, my crust of stale bread. The bread, the soup -- those were my entire life." (Wiesel 52)

(http://www.google.com/imgres...)