Concentration+Camps+Isaac+and+Aaron

Isaac and Aaron


 * Journal of Jeremy Schmidt:** //**Surviving The Holocaust**//

January 19, 1943,

I have been hiding in my neighbors attic for three days now. I am here with both my parents, and we are all very afraid. If you are reading this I would like you to know we are living right now in the [|Warsaw Ghetto] in Poland. I am so scared because right now there is an uprising against the Nazi's. Yesterday I saw buildings being burned down. I hope they don't find us, or burn this house down. January 20, 1943,

Today I woke up on a train, it appears to be leaving Poland. There are about thirty other people on this section of the train, I don't see my parents anywhere. Judging by the two armed guards, I think I was captured by the German Army. I am so scared, there is blood on the floor and the smell is horrible. I miss my parents so much. The guards don't seem to mind me writing my journal, and there is one more person on the train writing in a journal. He is an old man, who looks wise. I think I have found the source of the smell, and possibly the blood, there is a woman laying on the floor of the train, and I don't think she is asleep.

January 22, 1943,

I didn't write in my journal yesterday due to all the chaos. Yesterday night we arrived at an area, with many buildings. I could see lots of people were already there. The writing on the wall were not in a language I could read. All the passengers on the train were forced off, I asked the old man what the sign said, and he quietly replied, "[|Gross-Rosen], its a concentration camp ." I looked up at him and I found him staring down at me. I thanked him for telling me. We were walked into a very large building by guards, I was standing next to the man on our way in. When everyone was inside we started to get separated and he looked at me and said, "Good luck." He said that in a tone that sent shivers down my back. I was pushed into a small room by three armed men, none of them spoke Hebrew. They were yelling at me, and at this moment I was the most scared I had ever been. January 23,1943,

Yesterday I had to stop writing because a few soldiers started yelling at me. I don't know why they were yelling at me, but I stopped because I had heard gunshots earlier and I just decided to do what they told me. I haven't seen my parents yet, but I hope that they are here somewhere. Yesterday I was put into a packed room with about 25 other people. In my room I found a boy my age from the Warsaw Ghetto. His name is Volodymyr Dominski. He said that his parents were killed as soon as they got to the camp because they refused to cooperate. I feel really bad for him.

January 24, 1943,

Today, I saw that old man again. A soldier was trying to take his journal and the man would not let him, so a few more soldiers came and dragged him down the hall. Normally, I would be so bored, because that have not assigned me a job yet, so all I do is sit in a small room (kind of like a jail cell) and look at the wall. But the fear is keeping my mind occupied so I do not get bored. I can't stop thinking about my parents. I wonder if they are in the same building as me.

January 26, 1943

I did not write in my journal yesterday, for I was assigned a job. There are lots of jobs at the camp. And you have to have a job here, I am making bullets. Every time I work I feel sad knowing that the bullets I make our going to kill innocent people. It is a fairly easy job, but is dangerous. The area that I work has tons of gunpowder. The one good thing that comes out of this is that I am working with Volodomyr. Some of the workers occasionally don't put gunpowder in the bullets, so that they are duds. I won't be writing in my journal for a long time, since I have this job and I work almost all day. I am going to hide my journal under my bed so the soldiers don't find it.

February 14, 1945

It has been about two years since I wrote in my journal. Today, was the happiest day of my life. Today the camp was liberated by American soldiers. Today is a day I will never forget. I feel free once again. This whole time I have not seen my parents. I have told myself many times that they our dead. But I don't know that yet. In two days a list of known casualties will be released, and I will see if my parents names our on there. February 16, 1945

My parents names were not on the list. I checked it about fifty times. I thought they may be alive. But I don't know, and I don't think I will find out. I hope I find them, I hope I do. I am going to pass down this journal to my children and they will pass it down to their children. And if you are reading this, don't forget about me. Me, Jeremy Schmidt.

//I, Volodymyr Schmidt, grandson of Jeremy, am writing in his journal so that when I pass this book down to my children they will have a better understanding of concentration camps, the holocaust, and my grandfathers life. Over the years, I have thought a lot about whether or not I should write in this journal. I finally decided that it would be for the better. I decided today, February 14, 2005, the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Gross-Rosen//, //that it would be the most appropriate time to write this.//

//First, I think that you should know a little bit about the Warsaw Ghetto. My grandfather lived in the Warsaw Ghetto// //from October 16, 1940, when it was established, to the night of January 19, 1943, when my grandfather was taken to Gross-Rosen. The Warsaw Ghetto was established by [|General Hans Frank].  //// Hans Frank was the German Governor at that time.//

//Gross-Rosen is a concentration camp located //<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);"> //<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">in the South West part of Poland .// //It was <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">established August 2, 1940 and was <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">in use for almost five years. Gross-Rosen was a <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">forced labor camp. It was <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">l<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">iberated February 13, 1945. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">120,000 people passed through this camp and at least 40,000 of the died. Once, there was a <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">typhus outbreak at the camp and was quarantined, about 1,000 people died from this epidemic.//

//The Holocaust <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">started in 1933 when Hitler rose to power as Chancellor of Germany. <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">It<span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);"> //<span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">//<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">ended in 1945 <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. Although it was only twelve years, about <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">eleven million lives were lost and the damage that it caused was devastating. Of the eleven million, <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">six million of them were Jewish lives<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">. That's almost <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">two thirds of the Jewish population in Europe. <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">One and half million children were killed during the Holocaust. Adolf Hitler didn't just target Jewish people, he targeted other people as well. Some of the other people that his army killed included <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">homosexual men, the disabled, Jehovah's Witnesses, communists, and many others. Pretty much anyone that didn't fit the standards for Hitler's idea of the perfect person was killed. Hitler's idea of the perfect race were <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Germans with blond hair and blue eyes. Hitler called it his "<span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Aryan Race ". <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Aryan means perfect. Because <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Hitler had dark hair and brown eyes, <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">he didn't want to have a child because they wouldn't fit his "Aryan Race".

During the Holocaust there were many concentration camps <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">some of which forced labor on its prisoners. There were a lot of forced labor camps, here are a few: //
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">//Auschwitz//
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">//Buchenwald//
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">//Dachau, which was one of the first major concentration camps//
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">//Gross-Rosen, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">this is the camp that my Grandfather was held captive //
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">//Janawoska//

//Those are just forced labor camps and <span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">there were many more .// There were also other types of camps such as:
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//Holding Centers//
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//Transit Camps//
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//Death Camps//

//Some Death Camps include:// <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">//These Death Camps combined with other camps <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">killed approximately 5,933,900 //<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">Jews. //At the time that was <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">67% of the Jewish population in Europe. The <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">Holocaust cost Germany millions of dollars, which was devastating blow considering that <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">Germany was taxed for the First World War. // //I am done writing in this journal for now, maybe I will write in this journal another day. Maybe even start my own journal.//
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//<span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Chelmno //
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//<span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Majdanek //
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//<span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Sobibor //
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//<span style="color: rgb(0, 255, 0);">Treblinka //
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//Belzec//
 * <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 255);">//Aushwitz//

<span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">//<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> .//

Notes: Q1) How long did the Holocaust last, and how long were concentration camps in use? A1) Holocaust obviously took place during WWII. The holocaust in general, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">started in 1938 and ended with the end of WWII in 1945. The first concentration camp was<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Dachau and opened in 1933 it was liberated in 1945. You may notice that 1933 was before the beginning of the Holocaust, the reason for this is that concentration camps were around before Hitler was in power, for reasons other than the persecution of Jews.

Q2) What happened at concentration camps? A2) <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Often forced labor took place in camps. As well as mass killing of its prisoners. Q3) Were Jewish people the only people killed in concentration camps? A3) No. Hitler also targeted communists, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, mentally and physically disabled, catholic priests. Hitler basically targeted anyone that was not an "Ideal" human.

Q4) How were people killed in concentration camps? A4) Often <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">people were gassed in camps. They were told they were going to take a shower, but instead of water that was used it was poisonous gas. Sometimes they were shot, in the back of the head, but not often.

Q5) What happened at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising? A5) The Warsaw Ghetto was in Poland. This was a place way Jews lived. When invaded by Nazi soldiers the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Jews in this area often fought back.