THE HOLOCAUST

What would you do if you were persecuted and killed along with everyone else who was kind to you or helped you just because of your religion? Well, that is exactly what happened to the Jews in Europe. Because of an evil plan originated by Aldolf Hitler and carried out by his followers, the Nazis.

Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889. He wanted to enter in to a prestigious art school, but was later turned down. He had ideas of anti-Semitism, or hatred against Jews, that were late the main belief of his Nazi group. He served in W.W.I for the German army. In 1919, he joined a group of right-wing extremists. While in jail, he wrote a book of his beliefs. Some topics discussed in the book are his ideas that Jews are a separate race and Germans should unite and all other races should bow down to Aryan needs.

In Hitler s plan to exterminate the Jews, they were put into concentration camps. These concentration camps were a horrible workplace, graveyard, and hell to many Jews and others who helped the Jews, by hiding them in their homes. Concentration camps had poor conditions, the toilets were small holes cut in wood, beds were boards (if you were lucky enough to get one), and the call blocks were dark with no electricity. To carry out Hitler s plan, the concentration camps were equipped with gas chambers and crematoriums.

The people who were in the concentration camps had many very difficult struggles. The prisoners had to were the same clothes for many months and sometimes years. The prisoners also had one bowl which they ate, drank, and urinated in without it being cleaned. To live they relied on the dead and took their bread and clothes. The Nazis gave the prisoners poisoned tea that only some could drink. Another hardship the prisoners had to get through is that if they were sick, they could go to the hospital for Jews, but the hospital was not supplied with medicines.

After W.W. I there were many hard times. Hitler came to power and his great plan to exterminate all Jews severely affected the European population. The Jews were put into death camps and had many obstacles to overcome just to survive. Eventually the American soldiers broke into the camps and saved the starving Jews, but unfortunately for some, like Ann Frank, it was too late.