VanProoyen

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Date: 5/4/2022

John Michael VanProoyen

Course number: LAN0800

Researching the Holocaust is a very interesting topic. The topics covered in this paper are:

what the prisoners did while in prison, what it was like in the labor camps, and which people

went to prison. The thesis statement is it was a very difficult time to live mentally, physically

and emotionally.

Living in the labor camps was very hard. "They provided us with just enough nutrition to

make sure we were able to go to work the next day." (Macias, Tina Marie. The Daily World; Opelousas,

La. [Opelousas, La]. 29 Jan 2012.) It was a hard time to live as each day you would be hungrier, more

tired and would have less energy because of the limited food and nutrition. You never knew if

you would survive or not. "There was no guarantee of survival in concentration camps, no matter

what you did." (Gopal, Janani. Star - Phoenix; Saskatoon, Sask. [Saskatoon, Sask]. 01 May 2006: A3.) You

just needed to hope that you would survive and be free soon. When families went to prison very

few made it out alive. "I only knew that I didn't have an extended family because they died

during Holocaust.” (Gray, Amanda. TCA Regional News; Chicago [Chicago]. 10 Nov 2016. ) Not many people

made it out of the prisons alive.

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The prisoners taken were a majority of Jews, since the Germans were trying to kill all of

them. “As the Jews were the main targets of the Nazi genocide, the victims of the killing centers

were overwhelmingly Jewish” (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/prisoners-of-the-camps)

There were many Jews that died during the Holocaust. “The Holocaust was Nazi Germany’s

deliberate, organized, state-sponsored persecution and machinelike murder of approximately six

million European Jews.” (https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust) There were also

many prisoners of war that were killed during the Holocaust... “at least five million prisoners of

war.” (https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust) A lot of these soldiers included

Americans, British and other allied countries. The last group of people were a mix of people.

These included, “Romany, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and other victims.”

(https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust)

Prison life during the Holocaust was very hard. “It was a dehumanizing existence that

involved a struggle against a system designed to annihilate them.”

(https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/daily-life-in-the-concentration-camps) It was very

hard to survive because of the lack of food.  “The goal of these rations was not to healthily

sustain the inmates, but to exploit them for labor with the minimal provisions possible.”

(https://chelseasambells.com/2017/10/19/remembering-food-in-the-concentration-camps-interviews-

with-holocaust-survivors/) Many people died because of the lack of food and harsh work

conditions. A lot of the work was designed to kill or injure the prisoners. “For example, at the

Mauthausen concentration camp emaciated prisoners were forced to run up 186 steps out of a

stone quarry while carrying heavy boulders.”

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(https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/forced-labor-an-overview) A lot of people died

because they were underfed and were forced to work to death.

Having researched this, there are many things to be learned about the holocaust especially the

things they did there and how they tried to survive. Some of the additional things you can learn

are the different types of people who went to prison and that a majority of the people who died

were Jewish.
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Works sited page

1. Macias, Tina Marie.
The Daily World; Opelousas, La. [Opelousas, La]. 29 Jan 2012.

2. Gopal, Janani.
Star - Phoenix; Saskatoon, Sask. [Saskatoon, Sask]. 01 May 2006: A3.

3. Gray, Amanda.
TCA Regional News; Chicago [Chicago]. 10 Nov 2016.

4. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/prisoners-of-the-camps

5. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/holocaust

6. https://www.ushmm.org/collections/bibliography/daily-life-in-the-concentration-camps

7. https://chelseasambells.com/2017/10/19/remembering-food-in-the-concentration-camps-
interviews-with-holocaust-survivors/