Atrocities
The Nazi’s committed many atrocities against many different groups of people throughout World War II. The most widely known and widest in population affected is that of the Holocaust of the Jewish peoples of Europe. Millions of Europe’s Jews were rounded up and systematically killed in death camps located mostly in Eastern Europe occupied by the Nazis.
The name most widely associated with the German genocide of the Jews is Auschwitz. Auschwitz was just one of many similar camps whose sole purpose was the internment and murder of millions of civilian Jews. Auschwitz was not the only camp, though it may have been the one that saw the most people pass through its gates. The true numbers will never be known because the Germans cremated the corpses and threw the ashes into the rivers.
The name Auschwitz is the Germanized version of the Polish town name O?wi?cim. Auschwitz was a large complex of several different camps including Birkenau. These camps were given the names Auschwitz, Auschwitz II, and also Auschwitz III. It is estimated that some 3 million or more Jews were murdered at the Auschwitz complex alone. Its location in Poland was strategic placement by the Germans. Poland had a large number of Jewish citizens and it was also close enough to Germany to easily transport a large portion of Germany’s Jews as well.
The Auschwitz camp was under the control of Rudolf Hoess, as its first Commandant. Most of the Jews killed at Auschwitz were gassed in large chambers, then cremated in huge furnaces. The Germans destroyed most of the structures at the end of the war in the hopes of hiding their crimes from the Allies. Not all of the Jews were killed by gas. Many were starved to death, worked to death, or mistreated until they simply died from exposure. There was little or no health care or sanitation.
It was not just Jews that were killed at Auschwitz and other camps. Many Polish peoples, Russian soldiers, communist sympathizers, Gypsies, Jehovah’s witnesses, and others were killed in these camps. The camps not only specialized in killing of these peoples. They also were forced labor camps to aide the German war effort. They also were the centers of horrific German medical experiments.
Auschwitz, of course was not the only camp. It has simply taken on the symbol of the German oppression of the Jews. There were many other camps throughout Europe. It is estimated that there were thousands of camps set up and destroyed quickly to take care of local populations. Of the known camps some names stand out more than others. There is Dachau in Germany that served as a forced labor camp. Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic that served as a Ghetto and transit location to the east. It also served as a mock stage for Germany to show of to the Western world how nice their treatment of the Jews was, however the true identity of the camps purpose is now known. Treblinka was a major death camp in Poland. Warsaw also had a camp set up for the purpose of exterminating the Jews.
The Holocaust and the camps were not the only crimes committed by the Germans. They systematically rounded up Polish POWs during the invasion of Poland early in the war and executed them. They also bombed many civilian facilities including hospitals.
The German’s were just as cruel and murderous when they held POWs from the west. They executed many captured British, American, Canadian, and French soldiers.
The atrocities of the Germans are uncountable and unforgivable. The total destruction of populations throughout Europe was at the time unimaginable. Many people did not believe the stories they heard of what was happening in places like Auschwitz. Many of the people sent to the camps could not have believed until they were locked in the chamber and the gas began seeping in. Not once in previous human history had such mass scale atrocities been committed. The memory of these evil acts lives on today in the minds of many descendants of survivors and must be passed on to future generations as a reminder of how deep into the depths of evil the human race is capable of achieving.
