Music inspired by the holocaust

Please follow this link for a piece of music one of us composed about the holocaust.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmrCDWFVo2o

The melancholy cello tune at the beginning represents the hardships that the Jews had to endure. Then the flute plays a melody in a major key that sounds sweet. This gives the idea that hope is still there. However then the cello tune comes back and you are reminded again that the Jews didn't have much hope. There is a section of trills which crescendo and this symbolises how life is getting worse and worse. Suddenly there is a loud chord and a crash on the symbols and this represents when they decided to start killing the Jews. In the next section there are lots of loud fast notes and this represents life in the concentration camps. The flute comes back with a sad melody and this is acknowledging the deaths. The sad tune is a memorial to all those who died. After this, the cello melody from the start returns and this rounds of the piece and concludes that the holocaust was a terrible event for the Jews.

A Drawing Inspired by the Holocaust

This drawing represents the situation of the Jews during the holocaust.
The Guns show the Nazis because they murdered the Jews, and their sign is on the side of the gun, so it is clear that they are the Nazis. The star sign is representing the Jews, they are being killed by the Nazis, no one stopping them and the barbed wire describes that they were imprisoned, and have no freedom in their actions; they just have to wait to die. The way I did the star is puzzlingly intertwining telling you two things, that their life was extremely complicated, but they stuck together, as much as they could. It was done in black and white to show the darkness of the holocaust, and that would be what it would look like if it was done at that time. This picture for some, creates emotions and brings the holocaust back to life.

Websites we have used

Below is a list of websites that we used to help get information for our blog. If you want to find out more, try following some of these links.

•    http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/what-was-the-holocaust/#.V2fxalp4WrX

•    http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/the-camps/what-are-camps/how-were-camps-structured/#.V3Iy3WeV_IU

•    http://www.historvius.com/the-holocaust/pe162

•     http://www.answers.com

•     http://www.bbc.co.uk

•     http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk

•     http://www.annefrank.org

•     http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/term/288,auschwitz/?gclid=CIzw0eS1ys0CFUyeGwodwOQCtw

•     https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007704

•     http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/20th_century/holocaust/revision/1/

•     http://www.historvius.com/the-holocaust/pe162

•     http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/auschwitz_map/index_embed.shtml

•     https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005175

•     http://spartacus-educational.com/GERhoss.htm

•     http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust/pictures/holocaust-concentration-camps/buildings-and-chimneys-at-auschwitz-birkenau-2

•     http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/hoess.html

Why did we choose to do a blog?

We chose to do a blog for our holocaust project because it is a unique and creative idea and we are able to educate other people who aren't just in our school. Also it gave us a challenge to make something that we may not have done before. It was a new experience for us to work together as a team. It improved our communication skills as we had to talk and decide what to post and who would do what. We all took responsibility for different topics and we had one team leader who edited and uploaded the posts.

We really enjoyed this project because it was an interesting topic for us. It was very emotional and touched certain members of our group but overall we were glad we did so much research because we have learnt lots from this experience. We now know lots more about the holocaust and hope that our readers do too. Please feel free to leave a comment about what you think, some constructive criticism or any suggestions to improve the blog.

The Geographical Side of the Holocaust

There are many geographical features of the holocaust and to help explain things, we have created two maps.

The first map shows which parts of Europe were owned by the Germans, and which parts weren't. From this map we can infer that the Germans invaded and occupied many countries in Europe, particularly those near to Germany. The Germans invaded France but didn't get to Spain and we think that if the war went on for much longer, Britain could have been invaded too. Countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were known as Baltic states.

This map shows where in Europe the concentration and extermination camps were. From this map we can infer that a lot of the concentration camps are found in the North East of Germany, for example Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald. However most of the extermination camps are found in Poland. This may have been because Poland was home to the largest Jewish population of any European country which made it an ideal location. Also it is quite a remote location and this makes it easier to hide what is going on from the rest of the world.

What have we learnt from the holocaust?

The holocaust shocked the world however we have not completely learned our lesson. There have been several other mass killings which made us wonder, can we ever live in a world where everyone accepts each other?

Some examples of genocides after the holocaust took place in Rwanda, Cambodia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 1944, 800,000 Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus were murdered in Rwanda. From 1975 to 1979, the communist party in Cambodia committed genocide against around 1.7 million Cambodians.  In 1992, Bosnian Muslims were targeted in Bosnia-Herzegovina and at least 7500 men were killed. Hearing about these events made us feel shocked as we thought that people in our world would have learnt their lesson from the holocaust.

Today, people are still murdering and acting extremely cruelly to other people, just because of a different race or religion. This begs the question: have we really learnt our lesson? The holocaust shocked the world but these cruel acts are still happening so we haven’t really learnt our lesson from the holocaust. We have not fully learnt to not kill people, but we have learnt that a mass killing of a group of people could lead to devastation throughout the world. We have learnt that some people have very different views on a perfect world. People are still judging people on their beliefs and influences. We think that although discrimination still happens in our world, it is important to try and stop this. In an ideal world, everyone would be happy and peaceful and we would all accept each other. However this may not ever happen. We need to keep spreading our opinions about stopping discrimination and try to persuade people that it doesn’t matter what your religion, race or skin colour is. On this blog we are trying to educate people about the holocaust in the hope that it will never happen again

The world is getting better at showing respect for those who have been murdered. For example, after the attacks in Paris many people posted 'Pray for Paris' or other messages of respect on social media and huge support was shown for the families of lost ones. We may not be living in a world free from discrimination but our world is getting better at accepting people for who they are.

Anne Frank

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1929. She moved to Amsterdam in 1930, where her father worked, because anti-Jew laws were put into place in Germany. In Holland Jews were treated as equals. These rules were put in because Hitler had an image of a perfect German in his head (Aryans), and Jews, gypsies, and other races were treated differently because the Aryans were considered the best. Jews had to wear a special star if they were over the age of 6 to show what they were.

On May 10th 1940 Holland was invaded by Germany. Shortly after the invasion Anne and her family tried to emigrate to Britain and the U.S.A but failed. It eventually became too dangerous for them in Holland, so they went into hiding. The secret hiding place was in an attic above Otto Frank’s (Anne's dad) work. It wasn't only for the Franks but for the Van Daan family (Hermann, Petronella and their son Peter) and Albert Dussel. Hermann Van Daan worked for Otto Franks business.

Otto Frank told a few people he worked with that they were going into hiding and many agreed to help them. One of them, called Miep Gies, worked as an office assistant and became really good friends with the Frank family. When they went into hiding she agreed to them food and offered friendship, even though she knew she could be killed if they were caught. When the Franks were caught she went straight to the annex where they were hiding and found and kept Anne’s diary.

On the 4th August 1944 the secret annex was raided by the Germans and they were sent off to concentration camps. Anne went to Westerbork transit camp and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau with her sister Margot, her mother Edith, Peter Van Daan, Hermann Van Daan and Petronella Van Daan. Albert Dussel also went with Anne but was then deported to Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg and died. Otto went to  Auschwitz-Birkenau and managed to avoid selection for the gas chambers and survived until the camp was liberated in January 1945. Anne and her sister Margot died of Typhus a few weeks before the camp was liberated by British troops.

Otto was the only survivor of the camps and when he came back, Miep gave him Anne’s diaries. He the decided to get them published, not thinking that a diary of a young girl would ever be this big. Anne’s diaries are sold in 67 different languages and 10 years after publication in 1947 over 30 million had been sold.

Death Camps

Death camps are very different from concentration camps first found in Germany. Apart from the ones that were part factory, they were basically places of mass murder. There were over six million murders in these camps, although the Nazi’s did destroy evidence of the amount they knew they had murdered. Some prisoners escaped and told the polish resistance movement what is going on who then gave the information to London to the Polish Government in exile who accordingly informed the Allies.

The most infamous death camps were Auschwitz-Birkenau (over two million), Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec, Majdanek, Stutthof.

A day in the life on a death camp would go something like this:

4 a.m.: Awakening
You are woken up by the kapo shouting at you.  You must get up, find your shoes (but somebody maybe took them which often means you are killed because you can’t work) and start quickly. From the straw mattress you'll have to make your bed as neatly as you can, with blankets made up exactly over the straw mattress. Of course, this is impossible to do and the kapo knows it. The "bettenbau" is just a good opportunity for him to beat the prisoners.
The bed is made now, and so now you wash. You run out of the barrack and struggle to  the sanitary facility. There are only a couple of sanitary facilities for hundreds of prisoners. You have just minutes for washing. It is nearly time for the morning roll call, and the kapos will beat the slow ones, occasionally until they die.

The "Breakfast":
On you, you must have your mess-tin. If you don’t have your mess-tin, you don’t get any food. You get about 10 ounces of bread and some "coffee" Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you'll get some margarine or a tiny slice of sausage with your bread. The "coffee" is tasteless. No sugar or milk, obviously. The bread you just got will be the only proper food you'll receive until the next day. You’ll try and savour it through the day, if you have the strength to. The sharing out of the food is another good time for the kapos to have some "fun". They chuck the bread in the mud, or they shove you while you get the coffee, wasting it on the ground. But one rule is that if you waste food you will be punished, even if it is not your food

Morning Roll Call:
All the prisoners line up. All prisoners must be at roll call, including the ones who died during the night. Their bodies are lined up in front of you or in front of your barrack. Under control of the SS guards and officers, the people counting the thousands of prisoners are the kapos. A mistake doing the counting and it all must start again, making the kapos nervous, dangerous and on the edge. During the roll call, you must stand to attention, even if it is raining or snowing. It is forbidden to move or to talk during the roll call. Your poor striped uniform, made from an incredibly rough cloth, does not shield you against the cold weather. Every day, some prisoners catch a cold whilst doing the roll call and die in the next following days.  Even some others die during the roll call itself. During the time some people are even to weak for that. Their dead bodies, as well as the deaths of the night, will be sent to the crematories after the roll call.

Going to the yard:
You then run to join your work team. You'll leave the camp under the hard guard of SS and kapos, always screaming at you. You'll reach the yard by walking. Maybe the SS will command your work team to sing during marching. Just at the gate of the camp, there is a row of SS waiting for your work team. 

The Work:
If you are lucky, you will get given a good tool, a shovel or a pickaxe. Otherwise, you'll have to work with your hands... and this may lead death because you can’t work as fast as the guards want you to. The day will be very long: 12-14 hours of work. The work is painful, and usually useless: to transport heavy sand bags from one place to another, to extract and carry massive stones, to dig trenches or to make a tunnel. Perhaps instead, you are working in a factory but this does not improve anything. This is extermination by work. Everything has to be done as fast as it can, and always the kapos and the SS barking insults and giving beatings. If a guard thinks you are not working fast enough, you'll be beaten up, maybe until you die. Don't even think about pausing for a bit or going slow. It will be thought of as sabotage and this instantly means death.

The Lunch Break:
Then you have lunch break, not consisting of a lot, just soup, and not even proper soup.
A whistle signals the "lunch break" is over. The work begins again, always at high speed. The afternoon seems harder and worse because you are starving and you feel you are loosing strength.  Maybe a prisoner faints and the guards beat him up. If this weak man can't rise, he'll be killed and you will have to carry his dead-weight  back to the camp for the evening roll call.

Return to the Camp:
A last signaling whistle: your work team marches back to the camp, and the people alive are carrying bodies of the prisoners who died today. Maybe the guards will order the team to sing again. Once at in the camp, the SS are controlling your team. It's a new opportunity for them to hurt, to kill.

Evening Roll Call:
All the prisoners line up by rows of ten. The kapos are counting the prisoners and the dead. If a prisoner tried to escape, all the prisoners will stand and stay at attention at their roll-call place until he is retrieved. The evening roll call can take hours, sometimes even 10 hours, before it is over. The evening roll call is also the time when lots get hung. Sometimes, after a hanging, all the prisoners have to go in front of the hanging device to look at the prisoner, as a warning.

The Dinner:
The evening roll call is finally over. You run so you can to receive your dinner, which is meant to be a kind of soup just like the one you received at noon. If you spared some bread, you could eat it now, with the soup. 

The Evening:
You return to your resting place. In no way you are allowed to leave the barrack during the night. The "blockfuerher" is there for you and your group. The blockfuerhers wear green triangles, which means “real criminals”. They have the job to decide who will die and who will live until they die the next days or are chosen to die in the next days . Maybe he will let you be, until tomorrow morning. But, perhaps he will choose to have some enjoyment, and will make you go through exercises like crawling, jumping, running until you faint, fall over. Eventually, you have permission to rest on your uncomfortable mattress. There are five of you in a bunk bed, with only one blanket. The barrack is not heated. 

Anne Frank- The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank was a young girl who had to go into hiding due to the holocaust. She wrote a diary and her diary can be bought as a book in many different languages all over the world. The story has moved millions of people, us included so we thought we would write about Anne Frank's diary. We cannot help being inspired by Anne Frank and admiring her courage and bravery. She did something that we don't think we would ever be able to do. To walk away from her life and be hidden away from her friends, her school, her home and even daylight must have been absolutely awful for her and she coped with it so well. We can't even imagine having to go through something like that as a young girl. We think that it takes something emotional like a diary for everyone to truly understand what Anne and thousands of other Jews were going through. Throughout the diary you have access to her thoughts and everything that goes on in her life so it really helps you to imagine her situation. Her diary allows you as a reader to fully understand her emotions and truly empathise in her new life that she has to live. Although some great things have been written, we believe that however many sources that have been written about the holocaust and the brutal way that the Jews were treated, no-one can ever fully appreciate what it was like for girls like Anne and for all the others who suffered. We can never fully appreciate how terrible the situation was. We were all extremely moved by Anne's diary and it made us fully understand why she is so famous all over the world and why her house is such a big destination in the Netherlands.

To finish, here are some quotes from Anne's diary:

'Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.'

'Despite everything I think that people are really good at heart'

'Sympathy, love, fortune... We all have these qualities but still tend not to use them!'

'People can tell you to keep your mouth shut but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion.' 

'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.'

'What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.'

' I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.'

'Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!'

What were concentration camps like?

There were different types of camps built during the holocaust. There were concentration camps, transit camps, work camps and extermination camps. This post will go into detail about how the concentration camps were run.

The concentration camps were usually established and managed by the SS. There would be a main entrance where the administration took place and there were many buildings inside including support buildings and a prison block. The camps were surrounded by electrified barbed wire, ditches, walls and guard towers so it was really hard to escape.

In the support buildings, there would be kitchens, laundry rooms, showers and workshops but the prisoners would have to work hard. Often they would have to stand for hours in a square while they were being counted. The prisoners would stay in wooden or brick barracks but they were packed into these places. Sometimes up to 1200 prisoners would be stuck in what was only supposed to house 400 people.

The prisoners were separated according to their gender and also according to whether they were Jewish, Roma, a political prisoner or other similar groups.

The prisoners were kept in awful conditions. They would only be given little food and water. Breakfast was some herbal tea or fake coffee. Lunch was watery soup and if they were lucky they might find some vegetable peel in it. Dinner was a small piece of black bread, occasionally with a small portion of marmalade or cheese. Some prisoners had to endure terrible things such as torture.

When they arrived at the concentration camps, the people had their clothes taken away, their hair shaved off and they were given a uniform. We sometimes refer to this as striped pyjamas. Clothes were changed every six weeks. Can you imagine this? Having to eat, sleep and work in the same clothes for 6 whole weeks?

Sometimes, prisoners were distinguished by an inverted triangle. Green was for criminals, red for political opponents, pink for homosexuals, purple for Jehovah’s witnesses, black for Roma and a yellow star for Jews.

Prisoners were forced to work. Some worked inside the camp but many had to travel several kilometres to factories or farms.

Overall, the conditions were awful for those in the concentration camps and huge respect must be given to those who went through this awful situation.

Antisemitism

This post is going to be about anti-Semitism which was common in Germany before and during the holocaust. Anti-Semitism is what Hitler based his ideas off. Before anti-Semitism can be understood, the word prejudice needs to be defined. The word prejudice means to make up your mind about someone without knowing things about them. It is making an instant judgement on someone before you know them properly. All humans make judgements about other people, consciously or not. For example, you may decide not to approach a man because he has tattoos and piercings. Examples of prejudice are treating someone differently due to their age, religion, race or job. There are many more examples but in the holocaust, the prejudice was about Jews. People felt more comfortable among people similar to them so they were very judgemental about the Jews. This is similar to making friends. Usually you are attracted towards people with similar interests and personality traits to you and you may be wary of someone very different to you.

Anti-Semitism is the term used when people are prejudiced against Jews. It is a fairly modern racial term but anti-Jewish feelings go back very far into our history. There can be religious reasons behind this opinion. For example, Christians believe that Jesus was crucified by the Jews which forms the basis of why some Christians don’t like Jews. They believe that killing Christ is the worst of crimes so anyone who did it must be hated forever. However not all Christians believe this.

The Nazis tried to encourage anti-Semitism in Germany as part of their campaign for a 'pure' country. They did this in Germany first and then tried to spread this belief in the rest of Europe. Adolf Hitler didn’t believe that Jews could be German citizens and he didn’t let them have any say over the country. He was also very worried about communism and thought it was a serious threat. Communism is a system of government where properties and businesses are equally owned by everyone. This was another reason why he hated the Jews because communism was a Jewish invention.

So, in conclusion there are religious reasons why the holocaust happened but does this make it acceptable? We believe that no matter what your opinions are, you should never kill another person so we don't think that the holocaust was acceptable whatsoever.

Places to go to find out about the Holocaust

There are many places you can visit to find out more about the holocaust including museums, memorials and remains. Here is some information about some good places to visit.

Anne Frank’s house

Anne Frank’s house is located in Prinsengracht Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is now a writer’s house and a biographical museum all about Jewish wartime and what life was like for Anne Frank.

Auschwitz concentration camp

Located near the town of Oświęcim in the south Poland (in a part of the country that was taken over by Germany. The camp during world war two was actually three camps: a prison camp, an extermination camp, and a slave-labour camp. It shows a lot of the conditions that you would have to live through and many parts of the holocaust history took place here.

Burgkloster

Burgkloster is in Lubeck, Germany and is castle monastery that is one the most important medieval monasteries. After that it was a poorhouse until the nineteenth century. Then it was used as a Nazi prison holding Jews and those who formed the resistance. Now, Burgloster is a museum of Lubeck’s history and displays of Lubeck’s Jewish history.

Green house

The Green house is situated in Vilnius, Lithuania. It is a holocaust exhibition called the Green House. The rooms of this house show the story of a Jewish community. It included exhibits like documents, audio and visual things such as testimonies.

Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz

In Berlin, Germany, there is a memorial to the holocaust and history of the uprising of the Nazi’s and the journey of anti-Semitism. The site of the haus der wannsee-konferenz was were the wannsee conference took place which was where Nazi’s organized the murder of the jewish population in east Europe.

Jewish museum

The Jewish museum in Berlin travels around the history of Jews in world war two. It does this lots of different ways like displays, objects, photographs, audio, films and documents.

Krakow ghetto wall

The ghetto wall is in Krakow, Poland and is one of the last remaining walls that went around the edge of the ghetto. The ghetto was part of a plan to kill the Jews and this is where some of them were put. After the Jews had stayed in there they were sent off to concentration camps.

The holocaust memorial

The Holocaust Memorial

The holocaust memorial was in memory of the murdered Jews, over six million of them. The memorial has an information centre where it has details of the dead. It is based in berlin, Germany.

Tolerance center

The tolerance center is found in Vilnius, Lithuania. It covers topics like cultural education of society, social publication of culture, unique cultural heritage and major human rights.

Umschlagplatz

In Warsaw, Poland, there is a square where Jewish people were sent to death camps from, during world war two. Nowadays, it stands a moving assembly from where thousand were taken away from their lives.

Yad Vashem

Yad Vashem is located in Jerusalem, Israel in the Middle East. It’s a museum and memorial of the holocaust where over six million Jews and five million others were killed in mass genocide by the Nazi’s, under the control of Adolf Hitler. The museum tells us of the events of the holocaust and things like victim’s accounts.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

Auschwitz was created in 1940, with Rudolf Hoess as the first commandant. The second was Liebehenschel in 1943 and ended with Richard Baer in 1944. Auschwitz had many sub camps but Auschwitz itself was known as the largest death camp. Of the 7,000 Nazi camp workers only 1,000 were put on trial after the war.

The main camp’s buildings were adapted by the Germans. There were old polish military barracks and these could contain 15,000 to 20,000 prisoners. German criminals who were caught, were sent to Auschwitz to be camp guards. On June 14th 1940 the first group of Polish were transported from Tarnow to Auschwitz. These mainly were the intelligentsia and members of the resistance.

When people arrived at Auschwitz they had their belongings taken way, and were sent to the baths. They were then photographed. However, some prisoners were unrecognisable due to their extreme exhaustion. After the photos, they were given a number, which was tattooed on their forearm. Also, they were given striped prison uniforms which had a symbol to show which category they were in. This included political prisoners, priests, anti-socials and many others. They were also given symbols if they were Jewish, French or polish as well as if they had tried to escape. It is estimated that 232 thousand children and young people age of 18 were taken to Auschwitz out of around 1.3 million or more.

The food was rationed and was usually 1,300 to 1,700 calories however due to the hard work and bad conditions this led to exhaustion very quickly. Many of the prisoners had a very unlikely chance of surviving a few months.

Inside the camp, many prisoners made self-help groups mainly according to nationality. At least 802 prisoners tried to escape, with half of them being Polish. Only 144 escapees were known as successful and survived the war. This is how lots of our information about Auschwitz is known.

The buildings they lived in were designed to hold 700 prisoners but actually held up to 1,200 prisoners. Usually prisoners has no bed or any furniture in their rooms and so had to sleep on straw-stuffed mattresses laid on the floor. There were so many people in each room that they had to sleep on their side. Can you imagine that? Luckily in February 1941, three-tiered bunks were introduced as well as wooden wardrobes, tables, score stools and coa-fired tile stoves.

Prisoners got water from two wells and went to the loo in an outdoor toilet provided. After the rebuilding of the camp, each building had lavatories, usually on the ground floor, containing 22 toilets and washbasins with drains and 42 spigots installed above them. The fact that prisoners from the upstairs and downstairs had to use a single toilet meant that access was strictly limited. 

In late 1941 and early 1942 Auschwitz began working as a death camp for Jews. The second part of the camp was built over 140 hectares and had about three hundred barracks and other buildings were made. These buildings were made for the purpose of extermination. This was a process beginning with a ramp and ending with gas chambers and crematorium. Prisoners planned for extermination were not written on the camp list. The prisoners were separated by sex and those who could count and work. The rest were put into the gas chambers. The gas chambers would release Zyklon B and it would only take twenty minutes to work. The crematorium could burn 4,500 corpses in twenty four hours .The victims glasses were taken away, their long hair was cut, and gold and silver teeth were removed.

In 1944 Germany began to destroy records of their crimes before the red army arrived. This involved destroying documents, dismantling some sites and others being burnt or blown up for example the gas chambers. In January 1945, the orders were issued to fully evacuate the camp. This led to many  prisoners being led on foot from Auschwitz and their sub camps in the direction of Reich. This march was known as the death march as many people died during the course of the evacuation. The several thousand who were left behind were freed by the red army in January 27, 1945.

Historians do not know exactly how many people were victims at Auschwitz. Seventy to seventy five percent were sent directly to the gas chambers without being put in the records. They also estimate 1 to 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz with 1.1 million of them Jews, over 140,000 Polish, 20,000 Roma, 15,00 prisoners of war and 10,00 to 20,000 prisoners of other nationality. Among those people included in the records, 50% had died of starvation, exhaustion, executions and disease.

The Resistance

The resistance was a group of ordinary people, who fought against the occupying Nazi forces. This could be helping Jews and hiding them in their homes, to blowing up bridges.

Marinus Kopmels was born on 2^nd August 1910 in Vlissingen, a town in Zeeland, which is a province in the Netherlands. He grew up in Vlissingen and married Anna-Maajte de Bruijne at age 23. He worked as a civil servant working in Customs at the local port. Marinus and Anna-Maatje had 3 children; Jodocus, Annamarie and Ruud. I got my name form Anna-Maatje.

My great grandad, Marinus Kopmels, was part of the Resistance in Holland. Marinus lived an ordinary life up until the Second World War, but that all changed when the German army invaded the Netherlands in 1940 and became an army of occupation. Marinus did not like living under German rule and so he joined the Dutch Resistance.

The English RAF would drop weapons and ammunition that he would collect with other resistance members and store secretly in their houses.  The German army would regularly do raids on a whole street at the time to look for weapons and radios. The weapons were hidden in a footstool, which was thrown over the fence and to neighbours in the next street. They had to be very careful because if the weapons were found they would be killed.

He also raided post offices with his bother Frans, who was a policeman.  They stole food rations and coupons which were used to buy food to feed English air crew, Jewish and Dutch people who were in hiding. 

Towards the end of the war the Germans were on to him and so he spent six months hiding in an underground cellar being looked after by other Resistance members.

After the war he carried on working for the Dutch Customs service and lived a happy unremarkable life again.  He didn’t like to talk about his war time experiences.

He died on 27^th October 1984 aged 74.

Rudolf Hoess- a commander of Auchwitz

This post is going to be about Rudolf Hoess, a commander of Auchwitz. Read on to find out his story.

Who?   Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess was born in Baden-Baden in the Black Forest in 1900 to Catholic parents. His father was very domineering and demanded unquestioning obedience.
In the 1st world war he was the youngest non-commissioned officer and was awarded the Iron Cross, then in 1922 joined the Nazi party. He was imprisoned in 1923 for his right wing beliefs and for killing someone.

In 1934 he arrived to serve at Dachau Concentration Camp in Bavaris as a guard after Himmler invited him to join the SS.

He believed in re-educating prisoners and showing no sympathy for them so he became a role model and was promoted to Assistant to the Commander.  In 1938 he was made Lieutenant and transferred to Sachsenhausen  Concentration Camp. He was here when war broke out.

What did he do in the war?  In 1940 he was made Commandant of Auschwitz, which was a new camp. He supervised it when it was expanded to provide slave labour for oil and rubber factories. The camp was also expanded for Russian prisoners although some were killed in early experiments with gas and insecticide. He watched, these deaths along with many others of those unfit for work.

He felt it was better for his men not to have to shoot prisoners.

By 1943  he had built a new camp 2 miles away at Aushwitz-Birkenau with specially built gas chambers attached to crematoria to make it more efficient. He experimented with sulphuric acid and carbon monoxide until he found Zyklon B (cyanide) was most efficient.

These gas chambers, as well as starvation and illness,  were responsible for the death of 2.5 million people, mostly Jews, including women and children. He planned and organised the camp to make this very efficient and believed that it was the right thing to do.

Under his command none of his guards refused to kill but the biggest punishments for them were for stealing from the camp.

1943: He became Inspector of Camps and tried to make them all as efficient as Aushwitz.

After the war:  When the Soviet Army got nearer he ran away and hid under the name Franz Lang. He was hunted down and arrested in 1946 and put on trial.

He showed no remorse for all that he had done. He said that it had been difficult pushing  screaming children into the gas chambers but he saw that as a sign of weakness in himself.

He was hanged on 16 April 1947 outside one of the gas chambers and buried in an unmarked grave.

He was described as calm and organised and very ordinary – like a grocery clerk keeping records of the deaths. At home he was a loving father and he, his wife and 4 children lived as an ordinary middle class German family in a house near to one of the gas chambers and crematoria.

When he was sentenced to death he asked to be allowed to write to his family.

How did the Nazis change life for the Jews in Germany?

The Nazis made life very hard for the Jews in Germany. This blog post is going to explain exactly what happened to the Jews and how their lifestyles were affected.

Adolf Hitler wanted to get rid of the people he didn't like. Originally, Hitler's political opponents were the main targets and they could be imprisoned or put in a concentration camps without trial. However soon after, the lives of many Jews were affected. In 1934, Hindenburg died which resulted in Hitler receiving power of Germany and the armed forces. Many people including civil servants swore an oath of loyalty to Hitler.

A chart outlining who was considered a

Jew according to the Nuremburg Laws

In 1935 the Nuremburg Laws began to be instituted. These were a series of laws that limited Jewish citizenship and involvement in public life. Jews were denied the right to German citizenship and marriage was not allowed between Jews and non-Jews. Unlike most historical cases of anti-semitism, these laws showed 'Jewishness' as a race and not as a religion. (We are not referring it to Judaism as that refers to the religion. To be classed a Jew, it was about whether your parents or even grandparents were Jewish.)

Racist ideas about Jews were taught to children in schools and they were widely known as inferior compared to German citizens. There was lots of propaganda around and many examples of anti-semitism. Laws began to be introduced, limiting what Jews could do. Jews were excluded from public life and education. There were separate schools for Jewish children. The Jews were isolated and segregated because people saw them as dangerous outsiders. There were even laws about what benches Jews could sit on! In some public places there were signs that said 'Yellow Benches for Jews'.

The Kristallnacht

In 1938, there was an event called the Kristallnacht. This was when Jewish businesses and synagogues were destroyed. Slowly, the Nazis were taking away all freedom for the Jews. They even had to hand in their passports to be stamped. Many Jews tried to flee from Germany but they were forced to leave all money and properties behind. Some children were sent out of the country alone because parents were so keen for them to escape. There was something set up called the Kinder transport which helped children to be transported out of the country.

Now you have learnt about how the Nazis changed life for the Jews in Germany and the hardships the Jews endured.

Germany before Hitler came to power

The first world war had a big impact on Germany and this was one of the main reasons why Hitler came to power in the first place. This post is going to describe what happened in Germany before Hitler came to power.

What happened after the war?
Many German men had been killed in the first world war and it was quite humiliating for Germany to lose the war. They were made to keep a peace treaty and this meant that Germany was not allowed any military power. They had to accept responsibility for the war, they lost land and they had to pay other countries for any damage that had been done during the war. The German citizens were quite annoyed about this and felt as if they needed vengeance. Many Germans thought that the treaty was unfair because some didn't have much choice about going into battle and the people in charge hadn't let on how badly Germany was doing in the war. This led to people being quite confused about why Germany had been defeated.

What changes occurred in Germany?
Germany's government changed. Before the war, people didn't get much of a say whereas afterwards, many people could vote. This even included women which was quite unusual in the world at that time. In 1929 there was a worldwide depression. The banking system collapsed which left lots of people poor and unemployed. Money became worthless. Germany had borrowed money from America but everything fell apart and Germany became very economically unstable. So there had been lots of changes. There was an unfamiliar government and one of the reasons Hitler was taken seriously was because people were so worried about the government. The Nazis were successful due to the problems in Germany.

Adolf Hitler

When did Hitler come to power?

In January 1933 Hitler came to power. Just after he came to power, there was a fire in the Reichstag. This was a big important building in Berlin. The communists were blamed and the government was changed so that Hitler could then make the rules himself. Many Germans had confidence in Hitler.

Now you have an overview into what happened in Germany before Hitler came to power. Look out for an upcoming post about how the Nazis changed life for the Jews in Germany.

What was The Holocaust?

The holocaust was an important event that took place at the time of the 2nd World War. This blog will go into detail about why exactly it happened but first, to start off this blog, we are going to give a brief introduction to the holocaust.

The word 'holocaust' means destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war. However when historians refer to 'the holocaust' they are describing a key event in our history that was the mass murdering or genocide of the Jews. The Nazis, led by Adolf Hitler, separated Jews from their communities and murdered them.

It all began with discrimination. The Jews living in Germany were persecuted and this means they were treated especially badly due to their religion. The aim of the Nazis was to murder the Jews and destroy their culture to try and make Germany a 'pure nation'. The Nazis took over many other countries in Europe and many Jews were at risk. In 1941, there were 11 million Jews living in Europe but by 1945, around 6 million Jews had been murdered. 1 1/2 of these were children.

The Jews were the main target but other people were killed too. Some other targets were the Roma (gypsies), disabled people, homosexuals, Hitler's political opponents, soviet prisoners of war and Jehovah's witnesses (people who refused military service on religious grounds). Hitler basically killed anyone he 'didn't like'.

The Nazis were supported and assisted by many others across Europe so they are not completely to blame and also, many people stood by while these murders happened.

So that was a brief introduction to the holocaust and hopefully now you will explore this site further and find out more about why this happened, who was involved and what happened in further detail.

Please watch this video for a summary of the holocaust. For some reason we have had a problem with the video so if you open it into full screen, it goes blurry. For a clearer video, please watch it in the size it already is.