picture sent by dad
My Family's Story
My great-great-grandmother, great-uncles, and step-great-great-grandfather were all sent to the concentration camps. My great-great-grandfather and great-uncle died at the Auschwitz concentration camp. My great-great-grandmother and great-uncle survived the concentration camps, but for the rest of their lives, they were very bitter and traumatized. While we were not Jewish, my great-great-grandmother married a Jewish man after the death of my great-great grandfather, so my family has always had a strong love and respect for the Jewish people and the incredible tragedies they have endured.
The Weiner Library
The history behind the concentration camp is horrific and hard to comprehend. Many things changed in concentration camps from time to time, such as the living conditions, the population, and even the landscape. What happened in the camps was murder, abuse, hatred, and violence.
During the Holocaust, over six million Jews were killed by the gas chambers, shooting squads, starvation, and disease. Those who were fortunate enough to survive the Holocaust still had issues with malnutrition, mental health issues, or other diseases.
An article published by Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum reveals that some of the diseases and sicknesses that people got were pneumonia, broken bones, malaria, tuberculosis, typhus, meningitis, and digestive issues due to starvation. I feel so bad for all these people had to go through.
picture by the University of Michigan Digital Library Collection
When someone hears the words “concentration camp,” they instantly connect it to the Nazis; however, the first known concentration camp was in Cuba in 1895. Cuba and Spain had been fighting for many years, and the Governor of Spain was so tired of the constant fighting that he decided to remove Cubans from their homes and either put them in a camp or kill them.
The word reconcentración, which means re-concentration, is another meaning of concentration camps. The first idea of a concentration was taking barbed wire, placing people behind it, and using automatic weapons to keep the inmates in the camp. The prisoners who were brought into these camps were mainly children and women. If the guards did not kill them, they would die from infectious diseases, water that got polluted, and food that was old.
The Governor realized how brutal these camps were and eventually ended them, but the word had already spread to Germany, and that's when chaos broke out. When Hitler became the leader of Germany, he learned about the camps and decided to create his own. The German camps were much worse than what had been in Cuba.
picture by Central Zionist Archives
The aftermath of the Holocaust was heartbreaking and caused much trauma to the survivors and the families of the victims. At the end of the Holocaust, when the camps were liberated, there were millions of bodies and skeletons found.
The Jews were scared when they were freed because they were hated so much and had no place to go. People became homeless and struggled to find shelter, so they migrated. The German government put a restriction on the Jews when they came home from the camps.
Many survivors became refugees and displaced people. According to the website Holocaust Encyclopedia, these displaced people felt they were “unable to return” to their old homes. The people had so much hate returning home because they were Jewish. I cannot imagine what they went through and how they felt after going through what they did and then having no home.
Timeline by Addison Bowles via Canva
picture by google
Conclusion
The Auschwitz concentration camp was a horrible place, and I feel so bad for all the survivors and the families that had to deal with this horrific event and experience. We cannot joke or make any wrong conclusions about what happened in these camps. Reading these different articles about the camps has made me realize that I need to be grateful for what happens in my life and not forget what happened in the past. I could not believe how these people must have felt, and we can never let this happen again.