World War II
September 1, 1939, was the day that World War II began. It was the day that the Germans attacked Poland. One of the German’s first actions was to gather all of the Jews living in ghettos. The Nazis were working on building concentration camps so that they could launch, “Generalplan Ost.” this was an ethnic cleansing of Jews, Poles, and Romani people. Homosexuals and people with disabilities were also on this list.
The Camps
In 1933, the first concentration camps were built. This was where political prisoners were placed. Between 1937 and 1939, they were building up the camps. By the end of 1945, there were a total of 730 concentration camps. The prisoners in the camps were used as an industrial workforce. This helped the Germans, and it helped them work toward their goal. They wanted to make Jews extinct in Europe.
Auschwitz
Auschwitz was made up of three parts. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was a pure death camp. During World War II, 1.3 million innocent people were sent to Auschwitz. Of these people. 1.1 million were murdered. They were all Jews.
The White Buses
When people went to Sweden on the White Buses, they were in poor health. Many of the women weighed under 70 pounds after being starved. It was the Swedish court who organized the buses. They wanted to save Scandinavian war prisoners. The buses were painted with red crosses so that they could avoid being attacked. Thanks to these buses, between 15,000 and 30,000 people managed to escape. Most of these people were Scandinavian, but in the final weeks of the war, the administration broke down. This made it possible for people from all over to use these buses. Over 4,000 of them were Jews.
The Glass Factory
A boy named Moses was born in 1932. From the time that he was 5-years-old, he worked in a glass factory under the order of the SS Schutzstaffel. The headquarters were located in Piotrkow, Poland, the city that Moses was born. They liked to use children in the factory because they were good workers. Their tiny hands made it possible to polish the glass in places where adults with large hands could not. Moses worked there for three years before he and his mother, Miriam, were sent to a concentration camp in Ravensbruk.
Separating the Family
Moses’ mother was murdered, and his father was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Moses was separated from his family and sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. While there, he was taken care of by a woman who saved many orphans. This gave her the nickname, “The Angel of Bergen-Belsen. At the end of the war, Moses was sent to Sweden.
Finding Moses
After the war, Moses’ father, Saoul searched for over a year before finding out that some of the children were brought to Sweden. He went there in search of his son. Fortunately, he found him. While searching for his son, Saoul met a woman named Rosa in Sweden. Both of their parents were killed, and six out of Rosa’s seven siblings were murdered. Saoul’s first wife and all six of his siblings were also killed.
Surviving the Holocaust
Today, there are very few people who survived the Holocaust. These people want to talk about what they had gone through to prevent something like this from happening again. Talking about the horrible things in history is necessary to keep it from happening again.
Fighting For Hate
Many of the wars fought in history was to protect the freedom of others. Sadly, World War II was fought for hate. Hatred, ignorance, and racism are the reasons so many innocent people were murdered. It is essential that we remember this to keep World War II from happening again.
Bringing In the Drone
In 2018, a drone flew over Auschwitz. The images that the drone caught were terrible. A drone flies over Auschwitz death camp, and what it captured gave me the chills. The director was given special access before the area was opened to the public. When you see how huge the camps were, you can understand how horrible it was back then. It adds a new prescriptive about what things were like.
Seeing the gas chambers, the work areas, and the living quarters from above gives you an idea of how many people were there. It is truly horrible. What these poor people went through back then just because of racism and hate is a tragedy. Families were separated, parents were murdered, and children were tortured. As horrible as the past was, we must never forget. It is the only way that something like this can be avoided again. The more we speak about history, the less chance there is of repeating it.
