Nazi Death Marches Research Paper

During the last month of World War II, as Allied and Russian forces where closing in on Germany and taking control of German occupied territories, the Nazi 's implemented a still debated final phase to their genocide of the Jews as it also encompassed other ethnic groups, political prisoners, and enemy prisoners of war. They conducted forced marches from outlaying areas, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungry from the last remaining concentration, forced labor, and prisoner of war camps moving them into the heart of Germany. With both Allied and Russian forces moving quickly this forced marches became “death marches” for several reasons, conducted in winter, lack of infrastructure,and in many cases German Commanders and soldiers not wanting to be captured. Unlike the highly structured and planned out implementation of the concentration camps, extermination camps, forced labor camps , this was not the cases in the closing days of World War II. The Nazi 's not wanting prisoners held in this camps to tell their story of the atrocities and genocide committed by the Nazi 's and with the believe that if they could consolidate all forces back to Germany they would be able to hold off the Allies and Russian and would still need the Jews as forced labor to continue …show more content…
It can be seen that even through they where treated harsher and even just kill in mass numbers it can not be seen as the “final phase” as there where still tens of thousands that survived the death marches. This death marches where not only perpetrated on the Jews but on all those seen as enemies and under the control of the Nazi regime. The death marches where more of a last ditch effort to consolidate and possibly prolong the war and if need be to use the Jews and other prisoners of war as a sort of a bargaining chip when the Nazi 's