The Concentration Camps

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "The Concentration Camps"

Nathan Powell
6 years ago
Views:

1 The Holocaust

2 NIGHT by Elie Wiesel One of the most realistic depictions of the Holocaust is the autobiography entitled NIGHT by Elie Wiesel. Please click the link to go to the website.

3 Questions for NIGHT 1. In the Preface to the New Translation, please read the first two pages. 2. What four possible reasons did he give as to why he wrote the book, Night? a. b. c. d. 3. Elie Wiesel believed that as a witness, he had a moral obligation to do what? 4. On page 6, what happened to the foreign Jews? 5. What was the story told about the foreign Jews? 6. What really happened to Moishe and the foreign Jews? (still on the same page) 7. What page 6, what does Moishe try to tell the people? 8. On page 9, who showed up in the town of Sighet? 9. It says that these people were billeted in private homes. Define billeted. 10. On page 11, what were the Jews required to do? 11. What was Elie s father s response to this? 12. What did the new edicts say? (same page) 13. What came next? 14. On page 13, it says that the ghetto was to be liquidated. What does this mean?

4 The Concentration Camps The most lethal and most well known Nazi concentration camps include: Auschwitz Bergen-Belsen Dachau

5 Auschwitz One of the most ruthless, if not the ruthless concentration camp, was at Auschwitz. About 1.1 million people died here. Many artifacts of these people still survive.

6 Questions over Auschwitz 1. Name four artifacts that they list on this site. a. b. c. d. 2. What are clogs? 3. What was the dress made out of? 4. What did the prisoner uniform consist of? a. b. c. d.

7 Experiments at Auschwitz One of the most notorious deeds committed at Auschwitz were the experiments done on living people. Experiments were performed on twins, the elderly, the maim, and many other people. Many of the experiments were overseen by Doctor Josef Mengele.

8 Dr. Josef Mengele

9 A Story from Dr. Josef Mengele s Assistant "In number one's crematorium's gas chamber 3,000 dead bodies were piled up. The Sonderkommando had already begun to untangle the lattice of flesh... The chief of the gas chamber kommando almost tore the hinges off the door to my room as he arrived out of breath, his eyes wide with fear or surprise. "Doctor," he said, "come quickly. We just found a girl alive at the bottom of a pile of corpses." I grabbed my instrument case, which was always ready, and dashed to the gas chamber. Against the wall, near the entrance to the immense room, half covered with other bodies, I saw a girl in the throes of a death rattle, her body seized with convulsions. The gas kommando men around me were in a state of panic. Nothing like this had ever happened in the course of their horrible career. We moved the still-living body from the corpses pressing against it. I gathered the tiny adolescent body into my arms and carried it back to the room adjoining the gas chamber... I laid the body on a bench. A frail young girl, almost a child, she could have been no more than fifteen. I took out my syringe and, taking her arm - she had not yet recovered consciousness and was breathing with difficulty - I administered three intravenous injections. My companions covered her body which was as cold as ice with a heavy overcoat. One ran to the kitchen to fetch some tea and warm broth. Everybody wanted to help as if she were his own child. The reaction was swift. The child was seized by a fit of coughing which brought up a thick globule of phlegm from her lungs. She opened her eyes and looked fixedly at the ceiling. I kept a close watch for every sign of life. Her breathing became deeper and more and more regular. Her lungs, tortured by the gas, inhaled the fresh air avidly. Her pulse became perceptible, the result of the injections. I waited impatiently. I saw that within a few minutes she was going to regain consciousness: her circulation began to bring color back into her cheeks, and her delicate face became human again... I made a sign for my companions to withdraw. I was going to attempt something I knew without saying was doomed to failure... From our numerous contacts, I had been able to ascertain that Mussfeld had a high esteem for the medical expert's professional qualities... And this was the man I had to deal with, the man I had to talk into allowing a single life to be spared. I calmly related the terrible case we found ourselves confronted with. I described for his benefit what pains the child must have suffered in the undressing room, and the horrible scenes that preceded death in the gas chamber. When the room had been plunged into darkness, she had breathed in a few lungfuls of Zyklon gas. Only a few, though, for her fragile body had given way under the pushing and shoving of the mass as they fought against death. By chance she had fallen with her face against the wet concrete floor. That bit of humidity had kept her from being asphyxiated, for Zyklon gas does not react under humid conditions. These were my arguments, and I asked him to do something for the child. He listened to me attentively then asked me exactly what I proposed doing. I saw by his expression that I had put him face to face with a practically impossible problem. "There's no way of getting round it," Mussfeld said, "the child will have to die." Half an hour later the young girl was led, or rather carried, into the furnace room hallway, and there Mussfeld sent another in his place to do the job. A bullet in the back of the neck..."

10 Questions on the Josef Mengele story above Please read the story all the way through before answering the questions. 1. How many dead bodies were piled in the gas chambers? 2. What did they find in the pile? 3. What was she having difficulty doing? 4. What did the others do to try to revive her? 5. What kept her from being asphyxiated? 6. What ultimately happened to the girl?

11 Zyklon B was the chemical agent used in the gas chambers at Auschwitz and others. Originally, it used as a pesticide. Zyklon B

12 Questions on Zyklon B In five to six sentences, summarize the first three paragraphs on the link above. I would really NOT recommend reading further on this site unless you have a really strong stomach.

13 Bergen-Belsen

14 Anne Frank One of the most famous prisoners at Bergen-Belsen was the young author and diarist, Anne Frank. Anne, a teenage girl from the Netherlands, wrote in her diary: In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.

15 Dachau

Website discontinues Anne Frank costume after critics express disgust

Website discontinues Anne Frank costume after critics express disgust By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff on 10.25.17 Word Count 582 Level 980L A photo of the Anne Frank costume. The name of the