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Questions about the Holocaust
During the Holocaust the Nazis took lots and lots of Jews into the death camps. I read about the Jews lining up to be burned to death or gassed to death. From the stories, it sounds like they didn't really fight the lines and just followed what the Nazis instructed. I'm just curious about the reasoning, really. I mean, I figure there were lots more Jews at these camps than there were Nazis. Why didn't the Jews fight back and do the things that we typically think to do in situations involving life/death?
No, I'm not attacking Jews, I'm just curious about the Holocaust, that's all! :) No offense!!!
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A while back I read an article about teachers strip searching teens for Aspirin at school.
Now, teachers obviously don't have anything like the legal authority to search anyone. It wasn't right, it wasn't within their powers to order, but the girls involved allowed it. Teachers are authority figures, and we're trained from birth to respect and obey authority when its applied against us.
Now, imagine if the teachers had guns, and killed anyone who resisted immediately, right in front of you.
In a very, very small nutshell, that was the Holocaust.
Peeps handled the extensive description, but in basic form the Germans started controlling the Jewish population before war even broke out. Taking homes, businesses, forcing them to live where the Nazi's wanted and do whatever they were told. And its not like they announced their intentions ahead of time. It was slow, they put the pressure on little by little until the Jews were already in camps, as peeps said, doing work as the Germans told them to. Then they'd get on a train, and go to another camp. Then maybe another, and that would be the end of the line. But by the time they figured it out, they were behind fences, guard dogs, and men with lots of guns. Sure, there were more Jews than Germans, but in practical reality if all of Auschwitz rose up they'd have lost more than half their number to hopefully take over and get free. And at that point, they're minimally armed and in the middle of enemy territory. It was a no-win situation.
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I also want to add that the Jews were very much already imprisoned in camps long before death chambers were created.
Jews were housed in special "communities" called ghettos at the time. They had been there for years, only moving from various ghettos when they were instructed to. They shopped, ate, and interacted all within this facility. I suppose it would be equal to a large fenced-in area of trailers that people are housed in. They were told that this area would keep them safe since they were outcasted as it was.
So, when the Nazis came to take the Jews to the death camps, they told them that they were making them move to a nicer ghetto where more would be made available to them. Who wouldn't want to move to a nice place? So, they loaded up on trains and headed for a mythical ghetto where they would be "happier".
The Jews had no idea what was happening. The Nazis kept it very secretive when they entered the ghettos to retrieve the Jews. It only became apparent when the train stopped and bad things happened.
Sometimes the train would stop and they would sit there for days. No food. No water. No toilet. No light. Crammed all together into this boxcar. When fear set in and their wills began to break, the Nazis moved to the next step.
Sometimes the train would stop and they would rush everyone out into a small hut, where they would be faced with guns and told to strip naked. As I am saying, sometimes this was immediate and sometimes this was after days of prisoners sitting in the train.
Nazis also didn't kill the Jews right away usually. They kept them around enough to play sick games with them. They would hold food from then until they almost starved to death and then would give them just enough to survive on for a little longer. They had them do physical labor that was almost impossible when you are dehydrated and starving. Most of the Jews became thin bones with skin pulled over them. Running around the camp for an hour for the Nazi's amusement would prove to be fatal to many. At this point, they absolutely had no muscle to fight back even if they wanted to.
So, by the time they lined up for gas chambers and burn facilities, they were exhausted. They didn't know what was going to happen next, and, if they did, I'm sure some of them were glad to be out of the misery that was the death camp. Some of them were even told that they had been chosen to leave the camp and that the line was so they could be released. They believed this because during many of the sick games the Nazis played with them they were told things like, "If you do good then you may be released."
Many were shackled to each other in a large circle formation and shot in the backs. They couldn't fight to leave the situation because they were practically handcuffed to one another. The Nazis were vicious people though--only shooting every other Jew and letting the others fall into the pit in front of them from the weight of the lifeless bodies, only to die within that situation. There was no running or fighting back. There was only praying out to die immediately.
So, many were tortured for a very long time. They went around nude, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted. A lot of times the foods they ate were bread or other Jews--of course, Nazis didn't come out and say it was the flesh of another Jew but it did happen. In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, the Jews were given coffee at one point right after one had been hanged. The main character notes the taste being strange and then figures out that it as because it was partially human remains.
So, in essence, the Jews couldn't fight back. I'm sure plenty of them tried and were shot down, gassed immediately, or burned alive. It was a vicious act and nobody really stood a chance of escaping the death camps. The lucky survivors have such horror stories to tell and we should realize that they are human and probably don't remember everything anyway.
I hope you find the rest of your answers about the Holocaust so you can be informed too.
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They did. The camp was called Sobibor. there was a movie made about it back in the seventies. remember this; those SS guards had towers, electrified fences, the MG-42 machine gun(fastest firing conventional light machine gun ever made), and they were a phonecall away from getting an entire Waffen SS brigade for some backup.
Just to give you a synopsis of what happened at sobibor, The prisoners rushed the fences and towers, got mowed down mercilessly, and a handful escaped alive. then lets think of the afterplan. escaping through hundreds of kilometers to a neutral country. even the nearest camps to switzerland were 200km away. Imagine walking, wounded, starving, with the world's most feared psychopaths on your tail. I've seen the camps, and I can tell you, the germans are very efficient with their layout, fields of fire, and location. If I wanted to kill a shit ton of people, thats how I'd do it.
I've dealt with starvation before for a few days, and that was hell, they had to deal with it for months and years at a time, their bodies were frail, their will broken. Going into those gas chambers must have been a relief to some of them. By the time they realized what was going on, they were in the trap. I mean seriously, who could imagine before that somebody being capable of exterminating people on such a scale?
sobibor was a small camp of only 600 prisoners(200 survived the breakout), its only purpose was to kill as many of the cultural enemy as possible. and don't forget all of the Slavs, Gypsies, poles, communists, and homosexuals that those crazy bastards killed. the total number was around 13 million killed, the six million jews just happened to be the majority number.
People wonder why I love killing terrorists. heres why-
"it is better to be killed than persecuted"-Q'uran
Extremists use this quote to justify mass murder.
Talk and pandering don't prevent genocide. I do.
-Gunner
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Just like everyone else said..they had no idea what was happening. Then, when Jews started being killed, people caught on..and it was too late.
Also, back then..so many people were against Jews due to propaganda that was given out by Nazi Germany. Germany described Jew's as being money hungry, thieves, and rats.
Throughout the many centuries Jews were constantly prosecuted because they were a "scape goat" for everyone. Not sure why. Probably because they were different.
Why didn't the Jews fight back? They were simply scared. Yes, their were a lot more Jews than Nazi's, but to fight back against EVERYONE (not only Nazi's were against them then) would've cost a lot more lives than anything. Hitler was VERY powerful and influenced the minds of many people throughout Germany. They did what the Nazi's said to do because they feared of dying.
If you want to learn more about this stuff..I suggest reading "Night", by Elie Wiesel. Great book and explains about his hardships because he was a Jew in Germany. He lost a lot of family, and explains tragic details of many other deaths/problems going on at that time.
Hope I helped :)
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In the begining, most Jews were told they were being 'resettled' in the east. That places were prepared for them, slums likely, but you have to remember, this didn't happen overnight. It began long before they even started to 'relocate' the populations they did not like, with laws about where you could live, what job you could have, and where you could shop and where your children were allowed to play. Liberty was chipped away at over years, and when someone finally knocked on thier door and said ‘Come with me.’ it only seemed like the natural next step to many people.
The Jews, and groups like them, were already beaten down very low before they were told to get onto trains. Some of them were probably even hopeful that being removed from their old communities, and being just with one another, might improve their lives and decrease the amount of bigotry they faced.
When it got the point that people were being immediately gassed off the trains, they were often told it was just a shower, for sanitary purposes. Then the filled the room with gas.
After someone had been at a work camp for a few months, they didn’t have enough strength to fight anyways.
And then of course, there is the simplest reason of all: The soldiers had guns, and they didn’t. The people who disturbed those line ups, died immediately. Those who didn’t, clung to hope a little longer.
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The jews had no idea and a lot of them hide from them Nazies buts there was nothing they could do if they got caught running away they were killed jews didnt have guns or anyother protection. they were weak.
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the jews didnt realize what was going on at first and by the time they did they were to weak to do anything about it. the movie the boy in the stripped pajamas portrays this really well. the jews thought they were moving into less expensive housing they werent aware they were death camps.
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