Holocaust Lecture #3
Liberation of the Camps
What Now?
Never Again!
Death Marches
• As the Nazis began to lose on all fronts, their
death camps and concentration camps (built on
the periphery of their empire) began to be
liberated
• The Nazis, fearing both the discovery of their
crimes, and the survival of Jews, ordered the
concentration camp inmates to be marched into
the interior (Germany proper)
• Prisoners who could not keep up on the
marches were killed
A view of the death march from Dachau passing through villages
in the direction of Wolfratshausen. German civilians secretly
photographed several death marches from the Dachau
concentration camp as the prisoners moved slowly through the
Bavarian towns of Gruenwald, Wolfratshausen, and
Herbertshausen. Few civilians gave aid to the prisoners on the
An American soldier looks at the corpses of Polish, Russian, and Hungarian Jews found
in the woods near Neunburg vorm Wald. The victims were prisoners from Flossenbürg
Liberation
• The Soviets reached the first death camp
(Lublin) to be liberated so suddenly that
the Germans had little time to cover up the
evidence
– As a result, the gas chambers had been
blown apart, but the crematoria were still
standing
• In most of the later camps liberated, both
crematoria and gas chambers were
destroyed/dismantled
Soon after
liberation, camp
survivors from
Buchenwald's
"Children's Block
66"--a special
barracks for
children.
Germany, after April
11, 1945.
Liberation (cont.)
• Nevertheless, there was a great deal of
evidence
– They discovered, for example, hundreds of
thousands of men's suits, more than 800,000
women's outfits, and more than 14,000
pounds of human hair.
• More than 10,000 Jews died even after
having been liberated by the allies
– Disease or bodies that had been starved
beyond the point of being able to digest food
• Soon after
liberation, a
Soviet
physician
examines
Auschwitz
camp
survivors.
Poland,
February 18,
1945.
• Liberated
prisoners
demonstrate the
overcrowded
conditions at the
Buchenwald
concentration
camp, Germany,
April 23, 1945.
• A mass
grave
soon after
camp
liberation.
BergenBelsen,
Germany,
May 1945
What next?
• There were still about 3 million surviving
European Jews (out of an original 9
million). Where to go?
– Do you see why the answer can’t simply be,
‘home’?
• Many of the survivors actually lived in the
camps for a months afterwards, because
they had no place to go.
Never Again!
• Zionism
– The movement to regain a Jewish country in the
historical biblical land of the Jews
• Finally supported by the international
community, who feel a bit GUILTY!!! (think- St.
Louis)
• Jews feel like their cultural trait of ‘grinning and
bearing it’ during tough times would no longer
suffice
• Israeli-Palestinian issues…
Hansen
WWII
Name _____________
Period _______
Lecture Guide- The Holocaust Part #3
Liberation- What Now?- and Never Again!
Death Marches
Never Again
•
•
•
•
As the Nazis began to lose on all fronts, their death camps
and concentration camps __________________________
_________________________began to be liberated
The Nazis, fearing both the ______________________, and
____________________________ , ordered the
concentration camp inmates _________________ into the
interior (Germany proper)
Prisoners who could not _________on the marches were
killed
Liberation
•
•
•
•
The Soviets reached the first death camp (Lublin) to be
liberated _________________________________________
________________________________________________
– As a result, the _________________ had been blown
apart, but the _____________ were still standing
In most of the later camps liberated, _________ crematoria
and gas chambers ________________________________
Nevertheless, there was a great deal of evidence
– They discovered, for example, hundreds of thousands
of _________________, more than 800,000
______________________, and more than 14,000
pounds _______________________________More than 10,000 Jews died even after _________________
________________________________________________
– Disease or bodies that had been ________________
___________________________________________
What Next
•
•
There were still about _____________________________
(out of an original _______________). Where to go?
– Do you see why the answer can’t simply be, _______’?
Many of the survivors actually ______________________
__________________________, because they had no place
to go.
•
•
•
_______________________
– The movement to regain a Jewish country in the
_______________________________________
Finally supported by the international community, who feel
____________________!!! (think- St_____________)
Jews feel like their cultural trait of__________________
____________’ during tough times would____________
_____________________
__________________________________…