The Effects Of The Holocaust During World War II

As if another world war was not devastating enough, the Holocaust also occurred during World War II. The Holocaust began with the discriminatory Nuremberg Laws in 1935, which stripped Jews of their natural rights. In 1938, Kristallnacht occurred, commencing government-approved violence against all Jews for simply being Jewish. Afterwards, Jews were moved into ghettos and transported to camps. The Nazi policy of murdering Jews only intensified in 1942, with the decision to implement the Final Solution in the Wannsee Conference. By the end of the war in Europe, which lasted until 1945, approximately 6 million Jews were dead, including 1.5 million children. As a child, it was worse to be in the camps than to be hidden during World War II because …show more content…
If not sent to the gas chambers, then children were sent to perform forced labor or be test subjects for painfully agonizing medical experiments. Minor infractions led to brutal physical punishments, such as when Elie Wiesel endured multiple lashings in front of the other inmates. These punishments were physically harmful and weakening, especially when compounded with the immense amount of work that was expected of prisoners to perform. Prisoners performed long hours of hard physical labor each day, functioning on meager rations, and rations were so meager that many died of starvation. Also, most of the barracks were unclean and crowded, so contagious diseases spread. For example, Helga Weiss, a 12 year old, witnessed widespread tuberculosis at Terezín, and Anne Frank died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen at 16 years old. Clearly, the camp system did not intend for there to be any survivors, shown by the physical strains that were meant to kill prisoners. From the 15,000 children transferred to Auschwitz from Terezín, only 100 survived,which is less than 1% of children. Grueling labor, compounded with brutal punishments, insufficient nourishment, and disease, further decreased children’s chances of survival because they inhibit basic body functioning. Medical experiments were physically detrimental, as well, because they …show more content…
There is a chance to escape immediate death and a better chance of surviving the Holocaust due to relatively less physical and mental strain. Keeping the horrors of the Holocaust fresh in mind will ensure that children, both in hiding and in the camps, did not suffer in vain.The responsibility to never forget the ordeals of the Holocaust’s young victims lies upon today’s generation, in order to ensure that no child ever endures the Holocaust