Auschwitz:
Hatred, Agony, and Death
by Bria Emerson,
Erin Vohryzek-Bolden, Catherine Nimmo, Jennifer Jacobson
December 2003
Auschwitz was the largest death camp during the
Holocaust, which is located in Poland.
The Nazis, lead by Adolf Hitler, used their extreme
hatred to punish Jews, gypsies, political prisoners and many other victims in
hopes to cleanse European society of a population they found threatening.
Torture, labor and death were amongst the many ways Nazis performed their power
over this weaker group. Auschwitz was a major factor in
accomplishing the Final Solution.
Men of Hatred. About the Author: Erin
Vohryzek-Bolden
As much as one can say that we are all equal, we cannot help but remember
the terror in which one man inflicted on another during the Holocaust. SS
guards, with the orders of Commandant Rudolf Hoss,
committed murders of pure hatred towards another human being. These SS guards
had a deep hatred toward Jews, and expressed it frequently with guns and whips,
never to be frightened by a Jew. This authority in Auschwitz
helped to create the reputation of pure horror in Auschwitz.
Living Conditions.
About the Author: Bria
Emerson
The Jews and all other innocent Holocaust victims were forced to separate
from their families, leave familiar lifestyles behind and lose all self
identity. They were also given horrible, unsanitary conditions to live in until
the day of their death. From lack of food, death in the gas chamber and the
torment distributed from all Nazi authority, these prisoners were poisoned mentally
and physically.
Forced Labor.
About the Author: Jennifer Jacobson
The forced labor in the
extermination camps, especially in Auschwitz, is an
extremely important area to cover during the Holocaust. Some of the shocking
tasks and the way the prisoners were treated was cruel
and emotionally painful. Because of the effect of the Holocaust this is an
extremely important subject that is quite often overlooked, and not studied
enough.
Showers
of Death About
the Author: Catherine Nimmo
September 3, 1941, the
first orchestrated gassings of prisoners were perpetrated at Auschwitz.
Over the next three and half years, an estimated 1.2 million people were
viciously murdered in these gas chambers. Beginning with only a single
crematorium, the Nazis had limited means to eradicate their prisoners which led
them to initiate the final plan and resurrect four more crematoriums making Auschwitz
the largest death camp of the Holocaust.
About
the Authors
Erin
Vohryzek-Bolden.
Author of: Men of Hatred.
My name is Erin Vohryzek- Bolden and I am a
sophomore at UCSB. I am technically undeclared in my studies, but I am planning
to declare history as my major with an emphasis on 20th century Europe.
I chose Interdisciplinary Perceptions to the Holocaust mainly because of the
fact that I am a second generation Czech. My grandfather was born and raised in
Hrdlovka, Czechoslovakia in the Sudetenland. He was
lucky enough to escape Europe to South
America, yet his father, my great grandfather was eventually sent
to Auschwitz where he would be killed. Many of my grand
uncles were killed along with my great grandfather because only the oldest boy
of the family was able to leave the Sudetenland for
search of a better world. My family history has really inspired me to learn as
much as I can about the topic of the Holocaust as well as Auschwitz
in general. Learning about the different aspects of the Holocaust was and is my
main goal for this class and this project. I hope someday that I will be able
to share the knowledge that I have learned about the Holocaust to kids when I
hopefully become a teacher.
Bria
Emerson. Author of: Living
Conditions
I, Bria Emerson, am an undeclared sophomore at the
University of California
Santa Barbara. While leaning towards an Anthropology major, I am experimenting with various
courses. Santa Barbara is a
beautiful place to live; I am thoroughly enjoying my studies at this
university. My intentions of joining Professor Marcuse?s Interdisciplinary Perceptions to the Holocaust
class were to further my knowledge of the Holocaust. I have always been aware
of the horrors of the Holocaust, but have wanted to learn more about the
details and reasons guiding to these mass exterminations. This subject has
always drawn me in and when given this opportunity to study the topic in depth,
I immediately joined. The physical and mental trauma and harsh, deadly
conditions I have learned more about are all so surreal. Is it truly
unbelievable to read, hear about the extreme hatred one large group had for another.
Jennifer Jacobson. Author of Forced
Labor.
My
name is Jennifer Jacobson, and I am a Sophomore Pre-Psychology major at UCSB.
I came to Santa
Barbara mainly because
of the location. I thought it was a beautiful school, with many different
opportunities to offer. I have always been intrigued by history, but
have never really had the opportunity to take a history class. Searching through
the F03 schedule of classes, I spotted this class and thought this would be
a perfect opportunity to take a class of this sort. I thought this would be a very interesting class,
and something that I would definitely love to learn more about. I didn't
expect this class to teach me so much, and be so attention-grabbing at the
same time.
My topic for this project was the Jewish labor system inside the concentration
camps, focusing on Auschwitz. I chose this mainly for the reason, that I feel this
topic is highly disregarded, and not learned about enough. The Holocaust was such a key point in history
with an unthinkable number of atrocities, that we naturally overlook some
of what we consider to be the smaller components in this period of time. Thus,
my goal was to educate myself more on the labor systems, and hopefully do
the same for others as well. Helping
them to notice the forced labor system was just a different, but still a horrendous
way of ridding the Jews. I found researching on this to be tremendously educational,
and fascinating, and I hope others feel the same way also!
Catherine Nimmo. Author of: Showers
of Death.
As a second-year psychology major at the University of California Santa
Barbara, this is my first in depth look at the Holocaust. I have briefly
studied the history of the Holocaust in high school but I have never gotten
past the few facts and dates that were covered amidst the numerous other topics
that were to be learned. As a psychology major, I have always been interested
in the psychological aspects of the Holocaust and how one man, Hitler in
particular, could turn a country up-side-down and murder a total of eleven
million individuals.
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