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Jewish Concentration Camp

Ariel Shih

Mikeflip Filipowitsch

G10 Social Study

April 21, 2022

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"The strong must rule the weak, and only the naturally weak find it cruel.”

(Hitler,1935) During World War II, Adolf Hitler once said. Throughout history, World War II

officially ended in 1945, when Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death

camp and freed surviving Jewish prisoners. Since that day, the biggest concern among the

world has also become peace. Jewish concentration camps, called the most dangerous and

unwilling to be mentioned place, always attract people to explore. Furthermore, Jewish

concentration camps were a part of the Nazi party's final solution and were a tool used to

eliminate Jewish people, maintain an environment of fear and gain free labor to build

Germany's economy. Revealing the backside of humanity is the decline of morality.

Jewish concentration camps, also known as the killing center or the death factories,

the Nazi government used as a tool to eliminate Jews. The German SS and police murdered

nearly 2,700,000 Jews in the killing centers either by asphyxiation with poison gas or caused

by shooting (ushmm, 2021). In carrying out these tragedies, Hitler never felt mercy. His

opinion on race theory is cruel and unusual. On one hand, Hitler called Germans Aryans and

thought they were qualified to be complete masters of the whole world. Jews are the weak

who do not deserve to exist. On the other hand, the idea of lebensraum and religion affected

Hitler a lot. He believes that a country should expand its territory as big as possible and

increase nationalism in Germany. Besides, over 50 percent of the nations in Europe believe in

Christianity, and Christian teachings believe that Judaism is an alien. As a result, he targets

Jews. In Primo Levi's novel "If This Is a Man", which documents his life in the concentration

camps, we can also infer from this book that the concentration camps existed to control the

Jews and the importance of survival to them. “ We are slaves, deprived of every right,

exposed to every insult, condemned to certain death, but we still possess one power, and we

must defend it with all our strength … to remain alive, not to begin to die. " (Levi, 36).
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In 1977, German Chancellor Schmidt began his speech at Auschwitz with these

words. “Originally, people can only be silent here. But I am sure that the German Chancellor

cannot be silent here” (Schmidt,1977). At that time concentration camps served as a model

for maintaining an environment of fear. Until now, the mention of the Holocaust has always

been a sensitive and terrifying thing. The totalitarian state and government-controlled under

Hitler tried to take full power over Germany with a series of measures such as propaganda,

social policies, economic policies, education, and so on. To gain rights and people who can

follow him, he tried to use a more strict way to manage concentration camps. “Work sets you

free” is the classic slogan and is posted everywhere in the camp. An American soldier

described the scene when he first saw the concentration camp. “The scene near the entrance

to the confinement area numbed my senses. Dante's Inferno seemed pale compared to the real

hell of Dachau.... all the many bodies were in various stages of decomposition, the stench of

death was overpowering.” (Panebianco,1989) Emphasizing the extremely alarming

environment in concentration camps even from a non-Jew perspective.

Hitler's presence came in difficult times, and the German economy was in turmoil

before he was elected president. Because of Hitler's governance, concentration camps became

a place that can provide free labor and promote the development of the nation's economy. In

the beginning, unemployment peaked at 6 million during the final days of the Weimar

Republic – nearly 33% of the nation’s working population (hls, 2015). However, after Hitler

came to power, much of the system was improved. He asked the unemployed to go to

concentration camps to work for the state. At the same time, he heavily promoted the Nazi

army in Germany. By 1939, the national army had reached 1.4 million (hls, 2015). During

this period, he used huge efforts on propaganda. He promoted the Nazi government and

vilified Jews through education, art, culture, and news. At the same time, the propaganda was

very extensive, trying to convince everyone to believe in the Nazi government and fully
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support them. The growing statist vibe gets him more free labor and economic increase

significantly.

In conclusion, as Night writer Elie Wiesel said “Without it, no action would be

possible. And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of

all….Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us

desperately." (Wiesel,120) This tragedy was never caused by Hitler alone, the indifference of

the people and the negligence of other countries all influenced these atrocities. Jewish

concentration camp – a branch of World War II, built to eliminate Jewish people, maintain an

environment of fear, and pain-free labor. The harm caused by the Jewish concentration camps

to humankind and the world is irreversible, and their survival is also meaningful to all of us.

Readers will remember the day when the Holocaust happened.

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Works Cited

Albert R. Panebianco, “Dachau and its liberation” Albert R. Panebianco's World War II

Website,

Albert R. Panebianco's World War II Website, 2005

http://www.45thinfantrydivision.com/index14.htm Accessed on 21 April 2022.

C N Trueman, "The Nazis And The German Economy" Historylearningsite,

The History Learning Site, 9 Mar 2015.

https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/nazi-germany/the-nazis-and-the-german-econo

my/ Accessed on 21 April 2022.

Ishaan Tharoor, “Arbeit Macht Frei: The notorious Nazi sign thieves stole from a

concentration camp.” The Washington Post,

The Washington Post, 2014

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/11/03/arbeit-macht-frei-

the-notorious-nazi-sign-thieves-stole-from-a-concentration-camp/ Accessed on 21

April 2022.

IWM, “Concentration Camp Survivors Share Their Stories” Imperial War Museums,

Imperial War Museums, 2021

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/concentration-camp-survivors-share-their-stories

Accessed on 21 April 2022.

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Michael Ray. “Germany: Government and society.” Britannica,

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2012

https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/additional-info#history

Accessed on 21 April 2022.

Thomas Graham. “Holocaust Survivor Stories: Seeing Evil, Pain and Humanity.” BBC News,

BBC News, 2022

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190305-primo-levi-a-clear-eyed-view-of-evil-p

ain-and-humanity Accessed on 21 April 2022.

The Holocaust explained. “Economic Policies.” The Wiener Holocaust Library,

London Jewish cultural centre, 2019

https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/economic-policy

/ Accessed on 21 April 2022.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Killing Centers : In Depth.” Holocaust

Encyclopedia,

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2021

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/killing-centers-in-depth

Accessed on 21 April 2022.

Wiesel, Elie, et al. Night. Thorndike Press, a Part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2020.

Murray-Smith, Joanna. Truce. Penguin Books Australia, 1994.

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