Jake Granger

UWRT 1102
Mrs. Wertz-Orbaugh
1 February 2015

Inquiring on Auschwitz
Each semester, whether in high school or middle school, I always learned
something new about World War Two. Anything from the weapons they used to the
different leaders of the Axis and Allied powers, I had learned it. Somewhere in between
the invasion of Normandy and the fall of Nazi Germany I also learned about the
concentration camps that were put in place by Hitler. This was something that really
caught my attention and teased my thirst for knowledge. We covered the basics, the main
camps, the torture methods, and what life was like, but one camp lingered in my mind all
those years. That camp was Auschwitz. With so many people there, the amount of
information given in testimonies like Revas and others allows us to explore and dissect
the details of these camps.
To be completely honest, the only information on Auschwitz that I can dig up is
very baseline and general. I knew I wanted to research and learn about a camp, but I did
not have a specific one in mind until I saw the name Auschwitz. Like picking a familiar
face out in the class on the first day of school, I recognized Auschwitz and chose that one.
My standards for my topic were simple, just choose a concentration camp and Auschwitz
was the one I recognized. Aside from the fact that I have little to no knowledge on this

concentration camp specifically, I do know a lot about the concentration camps in

general.
A concentration camp was any Jews worst nightmare, and rightly so. They were
not concentration camps, they were hell on earth, they were death camps. The only ones
who made it out alive were the ones who were left when the concentration camps were
liberated towards the end of the war. One of the specific areas that interests me is a
Why? not a What? Why wasnt anyone or any group successful at escaping these
death camps? Included in my inquiry of this question is did anyone try? If so, were they
successful? To discover more about those questions I must first get to know these camps,
and especially Auschwitz. The questions I ask must be tailored to my personal style of
research. Two similar questions can lead me down very different paths of information.
Being a male, we find interest in some of the more gruesome and terrifying topics.
Not that that is why I am interested in Auschwitz, but it definitely adds an edge to my
curiosity. Like I said earlier, I have little to no knowledge on this specific topic. That
makes for a great starting place because I can explore all the different articles and
websites and find a starting place that is fresh in my mind. Just like how much I learned
about concentration camps in junior high and high school, I only have broken the surface.
Another big topic I want to know about is how did these concentration camps, that
housed an enormous amount of people, slip under the radar? Something this large, and in
such a high quantity, surely could not have been missed by aerial observation.
My inquiry process has led me to a few questions. Why were there no successful
escapes? Why did these massive camps go undetected by anyone? These questions will
pull me through a long list of topics and stories that I can use to piece together my

findings. I will start off my research portion of the inquiry process by thinking about my
topic, trying to imagine it if it were in a movie, and go with the first thought that pops
into my mind. My findings will be a very shallow area to study because I have yet to
dissect any information on the subject, it is still all general to me even though there
may be an endless supply of information. This will be my baseline question to my inquiry
topic.
Another path I will take to understand my topic more is to actually see pictures
and videos of the camps. The inquiry process does not only have to include articles and
books, or any written text for that matter. By getting visuals, I will be able to better
understand why some people were not able to escape, or why they were, and why the
camps went undetected. Looking at the topic and remembering the information I have
gathered will puzzle piece the information into one complete and extremely vivid
thought. So I will leave you with this: Why were these large concentration camps so
undetectable, and inescapable?