Garringer 1 LeeAnna Garringer Mr. Neuburger Eng.

Com 101-137 10 November 2011 Research Paper Death Camps of the Holocaust The Holocaust was a systematic murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazis. This terrible tragedy of the Holocaust did not just affect the murder victims and their families. It affected the world as a whole. The event of the Holocaust was filled with such trauma and horror that it is known by all. Everyone knows of the Holocaust and the lives it affected, but people do not typically know the entire detailed story. It is mainly known for death; not really the lives the Jews lived before being murdered. Extermination camps, also known as death camps, were a major place Jews were sent during the Holocaust and the way these camps affected them truly meant life or death. According to the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, the thought of Extermination camps started in the early 1940s because of a meeting that Nazi government officials held to present the Final Solution. The officials at the meeting known as the Wannsee Conference, agreed to the destruction of millions of Jews of Europe. When the Final Solution had been made death camps began immediately. Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, and
Multiples of corpses that were murdered by the Nazis that are being buried together at a death camp. http://bit.ly/rEa1ua http://bit.ly/rEa1ua

Garringer 2 Sobibor went into full operation by the beginning of 1942. When Jews arrived at the different extermination camps they were destroyed soon after their arrival (Florida Center for Instructional Technology 1-3). There were a total of six different death camps during the Holocaust. The other two camps, Chelmno and Majdanek were up and running two years later. Out of all six Nazi extermination camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest according to the Home of Jewish Genealogy website. Auschwitz

The barracks at Auschwitz surrounded with barbed wire fence. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_ph

was based in Poland and was in operation for five years. Just like Auschwitz, the other five camps were in Poland. Over five years there was an

estimated two million Jewish victims murdered. It is said that there could be another two million victims unknown. Separate from the Jews, there were another 330,000 people killed. Auschwitz grew at such an incredible speed that it went from eighteen thousand in December, 1942 to thirty thousand in March, 1943. The Auschwitz camp was divided into three main camps: Auschwitz I, II, III. Along with the three main camps, there were as many as fifty-one sub-camps. The first extermination camp was Chelmno. The extermination camp, Sobibor, was the second camp to take operation in the Aktion Reinhard program. The Belzec extermination camp was the smallest compared to the other death camps. The Majdanek camp was a concentration camp that over time began an extermination camp. The Treblinka death camp was established as a forced labor camp for people who were accused of crimes. The evacuation of the Warsaw ghetto, made Treblinka

Garringer 3 up, running, and open for business. Like all the other death camps, Treblinka adhered to a specific routine that supported the ruse of resettlement which minimized the chances of Jewish rebellion. Details were added in each of the death centers to support the lie of Jewish resettlement. The Star of David was on the front wall of Treblinkas gas house and Hebrew inscriptions hung on a curtain at the entrance. All of the death camps were supervised and staffed by SS troops, Ukrainians, and Jewish prisoners. Generally, there was a minimum of thirty to forty SS men that served as the core leadership of each camp. Each camp was also split into multiple parts. Every site was guarded by watchtowers and surrounded by a triple line of barbed wire fencing. (Home of Jewish Genealogy 1-6). The Nazis and their helpers used the most terrible methods of murdering Jews, gypsies, and other undesirable population groups. In the attempt to carry out the Final Solution as effectively as possible, different methods of mass murder were tested. According to the Holocaust History Project Homepage, Nazis began by using trucks and gas chambers that used carbon monoxide and exhaust fumes emanating from internal combustion engines. Jews were forced into gas chambers where they were gassed to death by various fumes once the door of the chamber was closed. In five of the six extermination camps gas chambers were constructed with the single purpose of killing people. The innocent
Prisoners arriving at the Belzec extermination camp in 1942. http://bit.ly/s5ed6d

Garringer 4 victims of camps that used Zyklon B were Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek. The innocent victims of camps that used carbon monoxide were Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Gas during the Nazi rule was first introduced in January 1940 on lives not worthy to live, meaning handicapped, mental patients, and the terminally ill. Over time this eventually changed into a larger group of people, generally anybody and everybody. The gassing vans actually existed before the gassing chambers did. The beginning of gassing came around December 1941 with the stationary gas vans. In 1942, gas chambers took play in the extermination camps (Holocaust History Project Homepage 1). Once the Jews or any other unwanted human was murdered the Nazi troops had to do something with the bodies in the death camps. The information from Jewish Virtual Library shows that many times the lifeless Jewish men, women, and children were placed into a crematorium to be burned. The crematorium had several furnaces for burning corpses. There were five crematorium buildings total that contained a poisonous gas chamber and multiple furnaces in the extermination camps. Depending on the crematorium, some could burn around four hundred corpses after the installation of three furnaces after twenty-four hours passed. Whereas, other crematoriums, such as Crematorium III could burn almost
United States troops viewing corpses stacked behind a crematorium. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/gallery_ph

fifteen hundred corpses over a period of

Garringer 5 twenty-four hours. Not only were the murdered bodies burned to ash but they were also buried in huge pits that looked like trenches. The corpses would be taken to be buried along with hundreds of other corpses. The dead body was not placed into a coffin or even a wooden box. It was put into a huge hole as if it were a skin and bone dog. Even dogs get their own plot. But not the Jews. They were just a pile of bones stacked on top of one another as if they were never human (Jewish Virtual Library 1, 4-7). It is hard to believe that something as terribly tragic as the Holocaust actually took place in history. What is even more sad is that the Holocaust was not very long ago. When I hear the word camp I think of a fun, enjoyable activity that I am privileged to be a part of, that I look forward to every summer, whether it is band camp, FFA camp, or good old fashioned camping. The victims of the
Corpses that were murdered in a death camp disposed of in a huge pit. http://bit.ly/vNG0fm

death camps were the complete opposite. It was not a privilege to be attending a death camp; it was

forced upon them. There was nothing fun or enjoyable about the activities that took place, either. As for the summer weather, one did not attend the camp long enough for the weather to be a concern. Obviously, the seasons did change since extermination camps lasted for years, but the people that attended the camps did not last for years. Once a person went to a camp that was it. No going back. A death camp was a one way ticket. Some people believe camping is meant to be a good experience, to others it is a bad experience. Although, the next time a camping trip comes along just remember that no matter what

Garringer 6 occurs, NOTHING can be as bad as a death camp.

Garringer 7 Works Cited "At the Killing Centers." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. "Crematoria and Gas Chambers." Jewish Virtual Library - Homepage. Web. 17 Nov. 2011. "The Extermination Camps." JewishGen - The Home of Jewish Genealogy. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. "Holocaust Timeline: The Camps." Florida Center for Instructional Technology. 2005. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. "Iran Threatens to Put Israel in "ETERNAL COMA LIKE SHARON"" Atlas Shrugs. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. "Methods of Murder." The Holocaust History Project Homepage. Jan. 2004. Web. 18 Nov. 2011. "Nazi Death Camps." Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. "Photograph." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.