The Holocaust History Essay Example

The Holocaust took a toll on the victims in more ways more than one. They were physiologically, physically, and emotionally tormented and stripped of their human rights. Everything that made them a person was taken away, and they were no longer even looked at as  human. They were put into what's essentially a slaughterhouse. They were taken out of their homes, and made to believe that they had a chance to live. They were treated like untamed wild animals in the process. They were shouted at, and called all types of names, all while having to march to roll call like they were cattle. Before they are shipped off like domestic goods, they are told that they can have a bag of belongings for each person, and then the German Soldiers tell them they will be shot on the spot if they are found with any real valuables. And soon they have everything taken from them. They must be seperated from family and be sent to live or die decided by the Nazis, have their clothes be taken, while they run naked in front of everyone, and put in Barracks. Before the actual camps started, and during, there was propaganda being made where they were being called ‘vermin’, which essentially compared to pests and rodents. Anti-Semitic acts took place all over. In the streets, on public transportation, etc. The fascists took over Jewish stores, synagogues,  homes, and made the jews live in fear and terror. They are messed with and mentally twisted through dehumanization and embarrassment. And Even after they were freed, mental damage stayed with them throughout the rest of their life. 

The jews endured a lot of physical abuse and pain during their time in the camps. In more ways than one. They were deprived of rest, and were forced to run or march until they were told to stop. If you stopped, you were shot. Most had chronic fatigue, and joint pains because of it, and they weren’t being given food that could sustain them, so they were getting their energy from nowhere. If you were healthy enough to not be sent to death, then you were overworked until you were “unhealthy enough” to be killed. The weak didn’t survive for long in the camps. The conditions that they worked in were unsafe and unworkable. And Because no one cared about the health of anyone, there were several diseases going around and no one was safe. One of the physicians there, Josef Mendele, would perform inhumane experiments. He was particularly fascinated with twins, and would go to any extent to experiment on a set. He would take babies from their mother and inject chloroform to the heart and kill them. He was called the angel of death. There was also a lot of sexual violence, hummilation, and abuse towards women and children in the camps. They had to deal with pregnancy in those conditions, and invasive examinations. The men that did it, believed it was a consequence, and that it was deserved. They were hurt physically in many ways, ways that would create generational trauma.

The jews were called many derogatory names, and were constantly compared to animals, or anything but human. The guards would scream and degrade the Jews, when the guards wanted them to do something. According to the book Night, they would be called dogs, lazy good-for-nothings, filthy animals, anything but the name they were born with. At one point, they had numbers tattooed on them, and after were only referred to as that number. In the labor units, they were yelled at and called names if their work wasn’t adequate enough to the soldiers. During the marches, they were yelled at and called names if their marching wasn’t adequate enough to the soldiers. No matter what they did, they were verbally abused, and degraded. 

Everything was snatched from the Jews, every right, and every piece of dignity. They were hurt and abused in many ways beyond understanding. Beyond what the human heart can handle. During their time, they had no choices, not even to live or die. It left a generational sting, and they couldn't ever again be proudly jewish because while the hardships may go away, racism and ignorance never dies.