Written by: Sara D., Grant J., and Arica G.
The Holocaust was a major event in the midst of World War II. Marc Dennis, an Elmira College Art Professor, taught us a great amount about the Holocaust. While traveling to Israel he visited the Yad Vashem, a museum, in which he noticed a small but intricate drawing of the life in the concentration camp, called Auschwitz. Marc Dennis realized that this drawing was created by a victim of this camp, and soon after decided to study the Holocaust. In our interview with him, he taught us about the years before, during and after the Holocaust. Propaganda led to many misfortunes for the Jewish people during World War II. Children were forced to read books that led them to believe in Hitler, the dictator of Germany, and in many cases led them to be Nazis. Hitler pounded into the heads of people in Germany and other countries that the Jews were the ones to blame for all the economic hardships caused by the Versailles Treaty. On November 9, 1938, the day known as "Kristallnacht", or "Night of Broken Glass", the Germans took action. Many Jewish stores, and synagogues bearing the Star of David were destroyed by the Brownshirts, as the destroyers were called. Up until then, none of the German Jews really thought anything was going to happen to them; threats like this had been placed upon them before. They had considered themselves Germans, sometimes even more than Jewish, because their families had lived in Germany for many years.
During the Holocaust there were many concentration camps that Jews were forced to live in. In these horrible camps, all located in Poland, the Jews were treated very poorly and many did not survive. Living conditions in these camps were also very poor; the Jews and others were rarely given food or drink, and were beaten, tortured, and burned alive. A popular way for the Nazis to kill them was though a gas chamber. The people would line up, thinking that they were taking a shower but instead of water, gas would come out and kill them in large amounts. Victims were forced to dig big holes in the ground in which their bodies were later thrown in, to form a mass grave. Medical experiments were also taken place in Auschwitz, on the people, during the Holocaust. One man, Dr. Mengele, was very famous for his cruel experiments he tried on people. The Einsatzgruppen, which means "mobile killing squad", were Nazis who went into Russia to murder as many Jews as possible. They killed them in hangings, and mass murder pits, where the victims would line up and be shot into a large pit.
After what was more than a lifetime for the Jews and everybody else that suffered in concentration camps, they were all liberated in 1945. The Jews were now free, but they had no family or friends left to go to. Germans still discriminated the Jewish people, but they were free by law. Jews were sent to DP camps, which stands for displaced persons camp, to live until they found a new home. These camps were not in very good condition, but for the Jews anything was better than the concentration camps. They were offered food and given shelter for four years after the Holocaust was over. Even being in DP camps, Jews felt free and were finally getting the treatment that they deserved. After they finally did find a home, they started new lives there. Life got better for the Jews everyday. During the time from 1945 to now (present time), Jews have gained the respect and treatment which they should have.
During the interview, we learned about the harsh and disturbing facts about the Holocaust. Marc Dennis helped us have a better understanding of what life was like before, during, and after the Holocaust for the Jews. It is now important for us to learn about the Holocaust and World War II in general, so that in the future no human being has to suffer the same way the people of that time had to.