Remember at the Wannsee Conference the Final Solution was formally implemented. Notice how they never came out and said MURDER! They used code words such as "Resettlement to the East," "Final Solution" and "Operation Action Reinhard" (He was the leader of the conference) to positively propagandize their intentions. The concentration camps of Belzac, Sobidor, and Treblinka were created solely to murder the Jews.
Initially, there were three gas chambers in use. This was later increased to six to cope with the increased number of "victims." Unlike Auschwitz, Belzac was reasonably small. A railroad led directly to the camp where one part was used to store the clothes and valuables stolen from the Jews, and another part held the gas chambers and burial pits. The two sections were connected by "The Tube"...a narrow passageway topped with barbed wire. Branches were interwoven into the barbed wire to screen it off from the camp's other section. The Nazis couldn't chance the Jews getting out of order and rebelling!
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CLICK ON EACH PICTURE TO READ. IT TELLS THE DETAILS MUCH BETTER THAN I COULD EVER CONVEY.
Completely desolate. This is all that remains of the concentration camp after the Nazis destroyed their evidence of torture and hatred.
However, life still persists and prospers. Look at the growth of plants despite the destruction. Very symbolic.
Having been told that they needed to shower before starting labor duties, the Jews were forced through "The Tube" and then to the gas chambers. The process of mass murder took about 30 minutes. Belzac used carbon monoxide gas piped in from a diesel engine. It took about three hours to kill and then clean up one trainload of Jews. However, when the number of gas chambers doubled, the process was greatly reduced in time.
All who came to Belzac died. It was simply a death camp. No names were recorded, so to honor the victims, a memorial of the most popular Jewish names are displayed. My son Ethan (Ephraim in Hebrew) and mother Rifka are among these names.
Because names were not recorded, a list of TOWNS and CITIES were used to represent the Jews....Hundreds of towns....can you imagine how many people?
The Nazis were efficient creatures. As time passed, they perfected their methods of destroying the corpses. On top of the railroad tracks, they would alternate bodies and wooden planks.. This quickened the rate at which the bodies were disposed.
Look at how they rationalized their heinous behavior.....
Only two known survivors from this camp!
I fell apart reading this sign....No words.......
Remnants of life....
Make sure you click on the picture to read the above. Staggering.....
Knowing that these people were to die, the Nazis didn't bother tattooing them for identification. In order to maintain control and deceive the Jews into cooperating, the Nazis issued these concrete "tickets" for their personal valuables.
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ReplyDeleteWow this is really touching ! I fell apart when I saw the wall of names. It's almost as if the soul of each and every one of those Jews named on that wall are still there repenting their pain and suffering, lingering to find peace. Thanks for sharing Ms.Stone :)!! Sincerely. Rodrigo Scarda 4th block!
ReplyDeleteAmazing. It is scary that I can actually believe what the Nazis did to the Jews at Auschwitz and Belzac. Lying to them and reassuring that they will be fine just to lead them to their deaths and take their belongings astounds me. The part that made me realize how many prisoners were actually in these camps was the pictures that showed all of the people with the last name Kouperstein. If there were that many prisoners at Auschwitz with just that last name, how many people were there altogether? Hearing a number is different from hearing about specific individuals being killed. Although, when i read about how there are only two known survivors from Belzac I flipped out. Only two survivors?! I mean I know it was a death camp, but from the large number of people who were transported there that is an absurdly small number.
ReplyDeleteWhat did make me happy to see was the wall of names dedicated to the fallen Jewish people. Even though specific names of the prisoners were not known, the writing of common Jewish names helped symbolize a lot of the Jewish population and their struggle. I am glad that the Jewish people were remembered in yet another way for their innocent deaths.
The amount of gas chambers that is constantly mentioned about each concentration camp astounds me. I truly can’t wrap my head around how people could be that cruel and evil. I’m angry that the Nazis immediately killed them. I’m really shocked to know that one person survived that camp. The quote of the child saying mommy broke me down. I can’t imagine what that mother must have been feeling.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to believe that Belzac was considered a small camp. If there were six gas chambers there, how many were at the other ones? Six chambers could kill a lot of people at once, so I can’t imagine how many people were killed every day at the bigger camps. It was sickening to think of the Nazis using bodies to build railroads. Not only did they torture and kill the Jews, but once they died, they used them as tools to build something that would carry other Jews to the same fate. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would look like to see human bodies, dead or alive, lying unmoving on a railroad track as a train is heading straight for them. I had mixed feelings about the wall of names. I was glad to see that the Jews who died were being honored and recognized. However, it was upsetting to see how many names there were and to know that there must have been many people with each of those names who died and many more who didn’t have any of those names. Seeing just a fraction of the names that are on the wall and imagining how many there really are really creates an image of the large amount of people who died during the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteThis is breath-taking, and not in a good way. Six gas chambers? How many did Auschwitz have? It seemed like the Nazis really wanted the Jews to die… and fast. You also notice that the Nazis would put the camps by railroad tracks most of the time. The picture where there’s only rocks angers me. If the Nazis truly believed they did nothing wrong, why would they destroy everything? That proves they were guilty and morally wrong. I felt better when I saw the plants; it’s hard to believe life is here in a place where this horrible account occurred. I also brightened up when I saw the names of the Jews. At least they were honored even though they weren't their exact names. I was confused about the “alternate railroad tracks”. Did they use dead Jews as railroad tracks? That is beyond wrong if that’s what that means. The Nazis excuse isn't no where reasonable, nor does it justify what happened. At least a few tried to escape. I wonder if the second Jew that escaped survived. The quote about a child saying “Mommy haven’t I been good?” sent chills down my spine. I can actually hear my sister saying that. That’s scary and gloomy. How can you steal from the dead? I don’t have the guts at all. Especially if they smelled like urine and feces. It’s unbearable what the Jews had to go through. All because they were Jewish.
ReplyDeleteThis is extremely gruesome. The quote “Mommy, haven’ t I been good. It’s dark! It’s dark”, truly stuck with me. It makes everything even more realistic. You see how monstrous the Nazi’s were. They didn't care about anyone but themselves. I feel like the Nazi’s tried getting the Jews to retry other Jews. For example, they made the Jews take each others teeth out, as seen in the picture. They made them carry their family and friends to their death. I am astonished and spellbound. I am so shocked that I can’e even be shocked anymore. I look at the pictures and things they've done and think, they're at it again. How can they be so slick? They got rid of all the bodies and ran. No Nazi that was apart of that can say they're sorry. They're sorry because they got caught, that’s all. They knew what they were doing was wrong. If they felt like killing Jews was so right, why would they be so quick to destroy it and run away like cowards. They couldn't even face their consequences and come out. It is said that 11 million people died int he Holocaust. I believe it could've been millions more because the Nazi’s “cleaned up” and fled.
ReplyDeleteIt’s so sad to know that the name of those people who died will never be truly know. The had to use the most popular names because nobody knew who those people where. A pure death camp. Such a tragic story that is told over and over. I just wish it was a fairy tale and this had a happy ending. But no, this doesn't end well. Million are killed and their killers are free. America is a shame. They shouldn't even dare to think of being the best place on earth. America, 11 million die and we could've stopped it. America, we wont help Jews. America, land of the free, home of the ones who will ignore you. That is one of the reasons we have so many problems with some of the middle eastern people. They got into a war, and we wouldn't help. The only difference, they Jews didn't come to kill us and hate us. America could do so much and they could've came sooner, we could know these people’s names, and we could’ve saved millions.
I can't believe that the Nazis didn't even bother to get the names of the innocent people they were murdering. The Jews truly meant nothing to them, and that is sickening. This might be a little morbid, but one thing that slapped me in the face was the fact that your son's name was on the memorial. I can't help but think about how he could have been a victim if your family lived in Europe in the 30s and 40s. The thought of it makes me unbelievably sad. However, I think the part that tore my heart out the most was the quote from the child in the gas chambers. It must have been awful for the Jewish workers to have to listen to that every day, and it must have been even worse for the kids! I can't imagine dying so young and so scared. It truly breaks my heart. The Nazis had to have been monsters to do something so cruel to so many people.
ReplyDeleteHearing the quote, “Mommy, haven’t I been good? It’s dark,” from an innocent Jewish boy breaks my heart. The boy will die thinking that he did something bad; he will never know the truth of why he died. He will always think his actions caused his death; when it’s the complete opposite. Focusing on one boy makes the event more believable and personal. Learning that the prisoner’s death took three hours in pure pain and suffrage makes me disappointed. Why couldn’t the Nazis create a less painful, quick death? Why did they make the death so long? Was the long time frame intentional?
ReplyDeleteHearing about the lack of names for the Jewish people shocks me. This act shows how inconsiderate the Nazis were; they truly didn’t care about the Jewish community. To treat Jewish people like parts on a railroad track is sickening and inhumane. As I read on in your blog, I realize how disgusting and cruel the Nazis really were.
This made me sad. People who came in had no idea where they were going, or why. They all had the same fate though, everyone has the same fate, which is death. The holocaust victims died gruesome deaths that nobody should every have to experience ever. The six gas chambers were the whole camp, and they ran nonstop. I had no idea that they jam packed the chambers so full that the dead people couldn’t even fall over. I also had no idea that the gas would shade the people blue, it either did that or the suffocation and lack of oxygen did it to them. Either way, it’s disgusting. It’s disgusting that kids had to experience the holocaust too, the quote “Mommy, haven’t I been good? It’s dark. It’s dark.” Reflects how the children were so innocent and naive that they couldn’t comprehend what was going on, so they thought that it was a punishment for being bad. I don’t even know what the adults thought about the awful things they were forced to endure. I know some thought that god was absent because no good god would put his people through the horrors of the Holocaust, and some completely abandoned their faiths too. I have no idea how I would feel if I were one of the victims of the holocaust, and I can’t even try to comprehend how the real victims felt for their duration of time in the camps.
ReplyDeleteQuite a melancholy experience one must face while walking through "the tube." To know that you are walking to your death yet can do nothing to prevent it brings upon the outlook on world as merciless and cruel; to walk away equals death and to continue forward results in the same outcome. I was surprised to see the remnants of Belzec as complete rubble with no clues as to what it previously was. Finally, I thought that the "tickets," used for identification, were quite ironic because as most know, a ticket is generally used to gain something, yet here, the tickets only signify loss, which all victims of the Holocaust -- alive or dead -- experienced painfully and solemnly.
ReplyDeleteThe quote from the child really stuck with me... it's hard to imagine how awful the whole process must have been for anyone, especially a small child. The Nazis must have been completely heartless to be able to do something like this to an innocent kid. I also can't believe only two people survived the camp. There were thousands and thousands of Jews that went to Belzac, each one with family, friends, dreams and a life; it's really hard to think that only two of these people managed to get out. When I read the quote "Later we stopped having feelings", I was truly heartbroken. The Jews who cremated and moved the dead bodies (Sonderkommandos) experienced death in a much more close-up way, and every day they struggled immensely to deal with everything.
ReplyDeleteThis is horrible. Innocent people though that they were going into a safer place, but instead they went to their death. I’m still confused on how it took a decade to all of this. I don’t believe it. I think it was planned centuries ago, and the Nazis just came in to execute what was planned. How did they do all of this? First, they brainwashed almost the entire nation. Then, they built the death camps. After that, they started mass killing of innocent people. This seem like a plan that would take years and years to come up with, but somehow the Nazis came up with it in a decade. They killed about a million of Jews each year. The saddest part of Belzac is that there are only two known survivors!! That means about %99.5 of people in that camp are dead. That’s just horrible and it’s absolutely terrible.
ReplyDeleteThis is very upsetting. I will still never understand how anyone could do something like this. It broke my heart when I saw the quote about what the child was saying. It shows that some of these children didn’t even know what was going on. They didn’t know that they were going to die. How can you hear little children crying for help and not even care? They hated the Jews so much that they had to make six gas chambers because three apparently wasn’t doing the job fast enough. That is absolutely ridiculous. I don’t care what the Nazis claim the Jews did to them. There is no excuse for killing that many people. If the Nazis thought they weren’t doing anything wrong, why did they need to destroy everything? They obviously must have known they were doing something wrong. I can’t believe they would do all these gruesome things just to get some gold or anything valuable. It’s bad enough that they stripped them of their identities, take all their things, and then they make them suffer a slow death. This shows how inhuman the Nazis were. Even after they killed them it wasn’t enough, and they had to search their bodies. I now see how truly heartless the Nazis were.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me physically ill when I hear euphemisms like “Final Solution”. How could the Nazis make killing an entire “race” sound like such a casual thing? “The Tube” sounds like a TV show, but in reality, it’s the hall that led so many people to die. It does make me happy knowing that such a horrible place was not only destroyed, but now there are plants and other forms of life growing all around. It’s almost symbolic for the hopes of the Jewish people much like the sunflower was for Simon. Reading on, I cannot even begin to believe that these officers stood outside of the gas chambers and listened to the screams of innocent, dying people for three hours! The worst part for me is that the Nazis knew that these people were all innocent and they still believed in their cause. Hitler was so persuasive that he made millions believe that if they didn’t dispose of the Jews, they would fight back. I can’t manage to put together how the children would react to this. Most probably had no idea what was going on. I could never listen to the screams of dying men and women, let alone children.
ReplyDeleteThe rust stains from the letters are so ominous. It looks like blood dripping, what a creepy coincidence! The quote from the child broke my heart. I love children, and I see them as the purest form of innocence. Imagining the fear of the child and the Nazis' disregard for their lives makes me so upset. Reading the sign about what they did with the bodies of the deceased and how they examined them actually made me gag. I cannot imagine doing that to another human being or even seeing that happen. Examining such private places and destroying them after death is so inhuman and outright disrespectful. Honestly, hearing about how they treated the deceased is the worst part of this. I can't even fathom being the lifeless, horrid person that agrees to perform such duties. Reading about how the Nazis rationalized killing their victims just made me angry. How on God's green Earth could anyone put words together to form a sentence that gives a real reason for wiping out an entire people?! These images, first-hand accounts from both sides of the spectrum, and identification tags serve as the most valid evidence for the reality of the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteHow can there only be two. Just two people are the only known survivors. Out of the thousands that went into Belzac. I cannot even begin to fathom what the number of people that died could've been. All I can think about is that plaque with the Sonderkommandos quote. I could nevrr understand how they had the emotional stability to be able to preform such tasks, but now it's apparent that they lacked emption because of the job. The visual of the upright dead bodies still clinging to their loved ones is burned into my brain. What resonates with me even more is quote from the little boy to his mother. Whats worse is the way he blames himself for what the NAzi's have done to him.
ReplyDeleteWow. To guide a person to hope and take that away is torture beyond no other. The pain these Jews suffered is unimaginable and beyond comprehension. Only a true monster can keep his head held high while passing by deceased bodies everyday. Just to think that 60% of Jews were killed in only 11 moths is truly nauseating. I used to say that people are humane no matter what their outer appearance is but the things that the Nazis have done makes me second judge that statement. What do you accomplish from making a child decease in the solitude of darkness? What do you accomplish from trying to wipe out all these people? It's ironic, how they seek to clear out all the inhumane people, because if they really wanted that, then their graves would have been dug a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteThis one was probably the one that most affected me. Just, how could they do this. Those people were being treated less than human, less then animal for Pete's sake. I cannot begin to fathom what in the hell they were thinking.Like it truly angers me. How could they do such things. Knowing they would die anyways and not even giving them a figment of an identity. Eleven months. only eleven months it took them to kill 60% of the DOCUMENTED Jews. They'd set plagues on them? This part of your blog just left me speechless, Blezac, I mean. The part that really got to me was when he described how the people were when they emptied the gas chambers. Drenched in blood, feces, and urine. It is completely astonishing and just i dont know.
ReplyDeleteI was absolutely aghast by what the child said. It must’ve taken extreme bravery for the parents of the children not to break down immediately in order to give their children some sense of security. I think that the Sonderkommandos had it worse than the actual Jews being killed. They had to carry all of the DEAD bodies of their friends and family. They also waited until the Jews were killed so they heard all of the screams and cries of help, not able to do anything to save their friends and family… I found it weird but understandable why you referred to the Nazis as “creatures”. That sounds like your saying that the Nazis, despite their unspeakable acts, weren’t humans. Therefore, you were dehumanizing them, which is what they did to the Jews. I’m confident you never meant it like this, but I was just confused so if you could please explain this that would be great.
ReplyDeleteGarrett Hensley
At this point, I couldn't think of them as humans anymore because their actions weren't human.
ReplyDeleteIt's heartbreaking to read what the child said, and to know that same fate of "darkness" happened to so many innocent people all because of some sadistic imbeciles like Himmler and Amon Geothe. Even though the Nazis destroyed Belzac they weren't successful in destroying Majdanek which left the world evidence of what "civilized" men can do to one another. Observing where the camp used to stand, now you couldn't imagine how something so horrendous could have happened in a peaceful field of rubble. Dying by the use carbon monoxide is a feeling of slow asphyxiation, which meant although death was quick, you intensely suffered before finally dying. I feel that going through the tube was even more horrible than death because you knew what was coming.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I always find disturbing is not only how the camps were able to be created but how they expanded. It’s a shame to read this camp was small and efficient with only a section for the Jews’ possessions and a section for the gas chambers/burial pits. Again, I am frustrated that the Jews sent to be immediately murdered weren’t even recorded or accounted for. I guess there was no time for that when they were all mass murdered at such a rapid rate of 30 minutes. I can’t believe these are the justifications the Nazis believed. They must have quickly reached a point where they hardly needed any justification. Both the fact that only two people survived this camp, and the child’s quote breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteIt’s awful to know that everything that the Jewish “victims” were told was a lie. They were told they would be resettled, be able to take a shower, get their belongings back, etc. It was all a lie. The quote on the wall said “while barbaric, is fully deserved by them.” This makes me soo mad. The Jewish people were as innocent as can be! They didn’t do ANYTHING wrong and, yet they are saying the Jews fully deserved it. Unbelievable! I’m actually surprised that they admitted that their actions were barbaric. They also said, “If we did not fight the Jews, they would destroy us.” Seriously? That’s just an excuse to make it seem like what they were doing what was for the better of everyone else. I kind of lost it when I read, “Mommy, haven’t I been good? It’s dark. It’s dark” It’s like I could hear him/her saying it. I can’t really put into words how I feel; it’s just so depressing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Allie. When the death camps were created they thought three gas chambers were enough, but they soon realized that they needed more to be "more efficient". Another horrible,messed up thing about this camp was when they first got there they basically went straight to the gas chambers. It's scary to think that they didn't even know what was going to happen and they weren't even documented! That's so scary! ALSO ONLY TWO KNOWN "SURVIVORS".I still think every new story and camp I read about gets worse and worse! How could humans watch this and participate in such actions! I couldn't image how the children felt as they got off the train and saw the tunnel. Breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteI can not believe how this small of a place could kill so many innocent people. The fact that only 2 people survived through all the thousands of people that were sent here is sickening!! The picture of the quote where the child is saying to the mom how it is dark, and asking if he/she had been good makes my heart sink. Knowing that all of these innocent people were just shoved into a dark room and killed for no reason... Its crazy how the whole process of these mass murders only took such a short amount of time and killed so many people. The picture with the dead bodies still attached to there loved ones breaks my heart. How could these awful "humans" do such horrible actions. It shocks me more and more each day when I learn more about what happened.
ReplyDeleteIt took three hour to kill a train load of Jews. I hate thinking of that because three hours is a long time so they must have been suffering in the gas chamber for a long time before dying. This makes me feel sick to my stomach. I hate the fact that this was solely a death camp. It is even worse that the Nazis used euphemisms to make the Jews think they were actually taking showers. The fact the percentages were reversed is chilling. By mid-February 1943 only 20-25 percent of the Jewish population was left. Unbelievable! Only 11 months earlier 75-80 percent of Jews were alive. Scary to think that in just 11 months it went down so drastically. This truly shows the horror of what people can do when they hate. That one picture of the words that say, “earth do not cover my blood let there be no resting place for my outcry’’ haunts me. The way the stains are dripping off the letters make it more impactful when I read it because in my mind it represents the Jew’s blood.
ReplyDeleteWow. Just Wow. These post get more and more awful. Its just sad to think that such a small place was so efficient at killing Jews. The fact they found every possible way to destroy a human body is terrifying. Also when I read that quote of the Child saying, “Mommy, haven’t I been good? It’s dark,” it really made it super realistic and super personal. Just that camp is full of fear, death, and just plain torture. In addition I saw the plants growing out of the ground a sort of rebirth of the camp and almost a forgiveness. This post has truly been eye opening.
ReplyDeleteThis was a terrible death camp. To have read that Jews, who had to transport dead bodies of the other Jews, lost their feeling for what happened sums up this death camp. No wonder the Nazis destroyed this camp. Learning how Jews were found holding hands after being gassed shows how they were going to fight against the Nazis and were going down together. This shows the courage and faith Jews possessed despite what they were going through. The multiple ways Nazis searched the Jews after killing them is horrendous. How could a person kill all these innocent people and their families then go back through to take their valuables off their bodies? This is so far beyond inhumane that it's almost alien like. What the Nazis did to Jews in unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of German efficiency into a tool for death is a truly terrifying thought. A country that prides itself on being as advanced and efficient as possible has the opportunity to become an economic superpower, but instead, it became a factory for evil. By the end of the war, the Germans had killing Jews down to a precise science, and they had used time and energy on things like death camps rather than improving their economy. Also, I cannot imagine the fear experienced by the Jews being led down the "Tube." While these victims were told they were being showered, I do not believe the Jews would be so trusting to the people who had committed such atrocities. I can barely imagine having to walk down a path followed by so many others, the whole time wondering, "Am I going to die today?"
ReplyDeleteThis blog was very sad to read. The fact that everyone who went in died is just unthinkable, and to think that the Nazis were able to kill innocent Jews this efficiently for years is unbearable to think about. I think the worst part is that there were no records of the people who died. All those innocent people who brutally died there can't even be properly remembered because no one knows who actually died there. I also think it is very interesting how these hellish places have been transformed so that you would never know what happened there. As you pointed out, there is even life growing in the ruins of these camps where lives were taken not so long ago. Another interesting thing is the tube. Just looking at the pictures, I get a bad feeling because it looks like a prison where you are trapped, and there is no possible way to escape.
ReplyDeleteI think the most terrifying part of this entry was the fact that they had to add more gas chambers. This is honestly a terrible camp and I could not believe how poorly they treated the Jews. It is sad to think that they did't even have the records of the people who were killed in this camp. Also, if the Nazi's were so scared that the Jews would rebel, why did they have a long walkway to get to the chamber. The pictures really disturbed me too. First, the photo of the railroad with people and wooden planks. That is just cruel and unusual. Who has the idea of doing this? Because I know it would have never crossed my mind.
ReplyDeleteCc
ReplyDeleteThe picture that had the caption, “Mommy, haven't I been good? It's dark, it’s dark. Emphasizes how monstrous the Nazis were, I don’t know how they can take thousands of lives every day, without it taking an emotional toll on them, these men were cold blooded! I was shocked when i read “Families could still be seen holding hands, even in death. It was a tough job to separate them as the chambers were emptied to make way for the next batch” I can’t imagine a mother being separated from her child, a father being separated from his wife, or a brother being taken separated from his sister. These innocent men, women, and children were not at peace when they died. Even in death they were mistreated. It’s sick that the Nazis made Jewish men rummage through the bodies for money, diamonds, and gold. It’s just abhorrent how this camp didn’t only kill, but it tortured innocent men, women, and children; they separated and tortured families.
ReplyDelete-Chris.M
This camp shows a lot about the way the Nazis really dehumanized the Jews. They didn't even bother to record names of the people, they basically killed them as they entered; so inhumane. They kill Jews like its nothing, like the Jews are completely lifeless figures on earth. Also, the fact that it was so small but caused so much damage shows how efficiently the Nazis were working to murder Jews. They really were trying to wipe out an entire religion.
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ReplyDeleteNow it is all starting to sink in. These camps had the sole purpose of death. I couldn’t imagine getting off a train and walking straight to my death in the span of 30 minutes, and for the most part, being oblivious to the entire action because of the continued use of Euphemism that never refrains from showing up. I also want to point out the picture of the rocks…if the Nazis were humane enough to know that they needed to clear up the evidence of this cruel act, how could they say that it was “just orders, “we didn’t know how to act,” or “the Jews were going to destroy us if we didn’t take action.” Obviously these people still had enough sense to know that what they were doing was wrong, so how could that same person obliterate an entire population voluntarily. The question still consumes my thoughts every time I read about this.
I really like the picture of the growing plants amidst the rocks. It symbolizes that despite the Nazi’s efforts, the Jewish people (at least a few of them) were able to resist and keep this story alive.
Lastly, the picture that tugs at my heart the most is the one with the words, “Mommy haven’t I been good. It’s dark, It’s dark.” When I read this out to myself, my reaction was similar to yours. Like I had mentioned in my last reaction, the thought of the poor children having their life taken away so young is what really upsets me. In addition to that, the gruesome description of the dead bodies after they were gassed…Yet again, thoughts still jumbled and at a loss for words. How could you manage to clean up pile upon piles of dead bodies day after day…
This is easily one of the worst camps I have read about just because of the sheer amount of death and destruction that happened in this camp. When I read about the bodies being “spoiled” because of the victims bodily fluids it really made it more real to me. I guess I’m just kind of desensitized to stuff like this. I’m just not shocked by what I have read because I know and accept what humans are capable of and I’m still not shocked about the bodies being “spoiled” but it does make it more real for me in a way ,but I don’t know why it does.
ReplyDeleteWiliam Jolly
Even the remains of the camp are sad to look at. How could the Nazis look at the faces of the millions of innocent people and not feel as if they’re actions were wrong? It’s sad that the Nazis were so easy manipulative. It’s truly unbelievable that it took only a matter of 30 minutes to get rid of large amounts of people. I’m not shocked that the Nazis became more and more efficient in executing the Final Solution. I cannot imagine the horror the victims felt standing in the gas chambers taking their last breaths as it got darker and darker. It’s disgusting the Nazis still mistreated and violated the Jews once they were dead. How were the still possibly so greedy to check for any valuables they might have missed once the Jews arrived in the camps? These posts continue to show me the true realities of the Holocaust and the tragic events that occurred.
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ReplyDeleteThe worst part about this camp to me is that its sole purpose was to murder people, and that they had absolutely no chance of survival. The fact that this camp was implemented in the murder of 500,000 people and there were only two survivors is astonishing to me. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a perfectly good life ahead of you and to have it cut so short and abruptly by such cruel means. They didn't even have time to contemplate deaths before they died. This just goes to show how the Nazis gave no thought of the Jews as human. They probably treated their pigs better before slaughter than they did the Jews. I can't imagine how an entire people can become detached with the humanity of an entire religion to where they could treat them as pieces of shit that needed disposing of. I will never understand this.
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ReplyDeleteWow. Seeing these pictures makes me feel strange inside. To just kill these innocent people, without even a chance to try and survive by working out of it is just horrific. I can just imagine the sickening scene of people being helplessly moved in to the camp and never leaving. This is just disgusting. They can't even tell how many were killed due to the systematic hiding of the corpses. It also astounds me how only 2 people survived the camp. This camp looks horrible and it strikes me as the Nazis being completely inhuman as they gave the Jews no chance to survive this death pit. It must feel terrible knowing that you have absolutely no chance and are going to be immediately killed as you step off the train.
ReplyDeleteJust to hear two and a half millions of people dead is just an estimate is shocking. You would expect that that is a large number, but to find out that there could be hundreds, thousands, ten thousand, or millions of people who were not included in that number. The Nazis are defiantly deranged unhuman beings. Calling them animals would be an insult to animals! They were sadistic beasts who deserve no type of sympathy! Whatever they did cannot be justified no matter how you looked at it. The Jews were manipulated into thinking that they were safe, and that they would just be relocated to another place, but in reality they were being relocated to their deaths. The Jews were being treated like lab rats that had no emotions or feelings. Even though it is quite obvious that the Nazis are unbelievably cruel, it just sounds to demotic to read that they would test poisons on people, and they delivered the poisons by fake international Red Cross vehicles. I think people underestimate the actual Holocaust, me included. When you find about these types of things, you can’t really find something to say because you are so shocked. People were being taken as prisoners, starved to death, treated like soulless beings, and murdered. Hopefully, society will learn even more about the holocaust, and make sure a tragedy like that doesn’t ever happen again.
ReplyDeleteThis entry, although it was one of the shortest as far as word count is concerned, probably impacted me the most. It’s insane to think that over a period of just 11 months the ratios of “life” and death were exactly reversed through the implementation of the Final Solution. The thought that SS officers complied with these orders without a second's hesitation is shocking and completely irresponsible. Additionally, it broke my heart when I read that none of the names of the people who were killed in Belzac were recorded. At least, at the larger camps, the people were registered and tattooed, but those who were mercilessly slaughtered at this death camp have no remnants of who they were or how they ended up in such a place. This is an utmost level of dehumanization that I’ve never seen before. Not only did the Nazis strip the Jews of their identities in life, but they’ve prevented them from receiving any form of direct recognition after their deaths, and that’s truly appalling. However, I like how the people who created the memorial handled the situation. Putting likely names of the majority of the victims on a board and placing the names of the cities they came from on commemorative plaques allows those who lost their lives to be celebrated in the best way possible.
ReplyDeleteWhile I sit here on my laptop, I am eating chocolate, wearing nice clothes, and am thoroughly bathed. I will never truly understand what the Jewish people went through during the Holocaust. I don't know what it feels like and can't even grasp on to the idea of death or torture. These people were all just like me. They had family and love; it frightens me to think what their thoughts might have been as they walked unknowingly to their death. Were they frightened? calm? secure? The lies and euphemisms left them with no time to reflect on their lives, so what were they thinking? As if it weren't bad enough that the Nazis were slaughtering thousands, they decided to lie to their victims. Many might reflect and say that this was best because at least the Jews were peaceful in their last seconds. I would disagree. Telling someone that they are going to take a shower and instead kiling them leaves the person with no reflection or time for words of love to one another. This is disheartening and sickening. I feel that it would almost be better to go to a concentration camp because then you could see that you were going to die and be able to prepare. This leads me to my final thought and question. Why did the Nazis even bother with concentration camps? Why not just make them all death camps and make the process quicker? Did they just want to watch the Jews suffer?
ReplyDeleteThe thing that most astounded me about Belzac was that you could count the survivors on one hand. A quick google search reveals that 50,000 victims died in this camp; I was upset that so many could die with so few to remember them. Additionally, the Germans are known for their meticulous record keeping; the lack of documentation shows how worthless they thought the Jews were. They were, in fact, so worthless that the Nazis couldn’t be bothered to trifle with them; they forced Jews to be sonderkommandos rather than SS officers filling the position. The picture of plants growing in the rubble was much more inspiring to you than to me; after 80 years, all the life that has returned is a few inch-tall weeds in the field of debris. The ostensible rationale behind killing as many Jews as possible reminded me of the Soldier’s Dilemma. The idea of the Fuhrer prophesying (apparently that’s how it’s spelt) the future shows that Nazism was a religion to which its followers were whole-heartedly devoted.
ReplyDelete"Haven't I been good? It's dark. It's dark." The visuals this quote produces is just awful. It's just hard for me to think about the struggles imposed on such innocent people. Children! How could children be punished? The Nazis had no remorse for their insidious actions. The camp may have been small but it for sure had a high number of death throughout the camp. It's disgusting. I just can't imagine ever going through something so dreadful like the Holocaust. How some people could survive the horrors of death camps and concentration camps amazes me. These "leaders" were just ill minded fanatics who blamed all their failures on groups like the Jews. "...fully deserved by them." What!? What did they do to DESERVE these disgusting atrocities forced upon them? Wow. This angers me. It's horrible to know that these "people" blindly followed a man who they viewed as a God so strongly. Hitler viewed as a God? Wow!!!! Horrible.
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ReplyDeleteWhat impacted me the most was the fact that millions of people went through the death camp and they did not even bother to record their names. This is just befuddling. It is already low enough that the Nazis stripped the Jews of their self identity while they were alive, but they also prevented them from ever receiving any form of direct recognition after their deaths. It's just shocking that two and a half million people dead is just an estimate. I was also profoundly impacted by the fact that the ratios of life and death were reversed through just a short period of 11 months just because Hitler implemented the Final Solution. Another thing that shocked me was that you could count the survivors on one hand. There are only two recorded survivors of Belzac. That’s crazy. The quote, “Mommy, haven’t I been good. It’s dark! It’s dark” will truly stick with me. I hope this quote makes people realize that it's not just numbers. That these are real people dying and we need to have remembrance for them.
ReplyDeleteReading this and looking at the pictures is extremely heartbreaking. Initially, I believed that ii would forgive a Nazi, but I am now beginning to change my mind. The fact that they had the audacity to violate, not only someone who is alive, but someone who is dead, is extremely unforgivable. The Nazis were greedy monsters. The Jews were not the ones that were corrupt by money, the Nazis were. They did unimaginable things to gain wealth and power. When looking at the pictures of "the tube," I cant even imagine what it felt like to walk through that. I would be scared out of my mind. This blog has made me see the Nazis in a new lights, which is worse than I already had.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that caught my eye and was disturbing to read was the fact that the Nazis used the names such as "the final solution"and "resettlement to the east" to hide the terrible things they were doing. That in no way was a positive thing, and using propaganda in such a way is a sin. Looking at the picture of "The Tube" made me very distraught to know that the Jews had to walk through that as prisoners when they didn't even do anything wrong. The picture of the railroad tracks where they burned the bodies also caused me to be disturbed. It was sickening to look at how somebody died knowing that they didn't even get a proper burial. The Nazis didn't treat the Jews as people and that's what made me the most upset while reading this blog post… Taking their valuables and the things they loved away from them just to kill them is inhumane.
ReplyDeleteAll the things the Nazis did to the Jews is truly haunting. They went through so much trouble in ord to just hide what they were doing. The fact that they hid the camp from the Jews, so they wouldn't fight back is also scary. To not have any idea where you are going, get off a train, give away your personal items, walk through "the tube", and then go to the gas chambers and die is also extremely horrifying. I just don't understand why they would do all this. Also, the way they got rid of them bodies is scary. They just put the bodies on the train tracks. It's just haunting all that they did.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of things that the Nazis went through to cover up their schemes is sickening. They lied to the public through positive propaganda and never told the Jewish people about their impending fate. I think the excuse behind the Final solution is that of an immature child. They claim that Hitler had told them that the Jews were the cause of the World War, and when in reality, if Hitler had not tried to invade Poland and other countries, the World War probably would have never happened. I find this extremely ironic. Another thing I'd like to bring up is the amount of euphemisms that the Nazis used. "Final Solution," "Relocating," "The Tube," all of them make me sick to my stomach. I don't think one can really realize the immensity of the event that actually occurred until they see either in pictures or in person the remnants of the terrible, horrifying death camp.
ReplyDeleteAgain, as I said in the Majdanek passage, I find no sense in using a euphemism to describe the word “murder”. That fact that the Nazis didn’t want to use the actual, right word to represent the Holocaust, makes me think. A while ago, I read on your blog that the Nazis didn’t think that what they were doing (killing millions of Jews) was wrong, so if they thought it was right why would they have used other words rather than the real one, which was “murder”? Moving on, it was really shocking to read that only two people survived from this camp. I cannot imagine how you felt when you saw your son’s name on the memorial; I would have been shocked. The thing that really left me in tears about this whole passage is the sign in where I could feel the little kid’s fear. This is the situation where I really ask myself how could the Nazis have made all of these actions without a bit of remorse.
ReplyDeleteJust a quick little mood changer- I thought it was kinda funny seing Mrs. Stone's refelction in the glas mirror when she took that one photo. Okay, now back to my more serious note. This blog reminded me of the Sunflower that we are reading in class. The thing that made me thing about the Sunflow was when Mrs. Stone mentioned the thing about the "Tube". The "Tube" reminded me of the Pipe from the Sunflower. How many of the Jews would have to wait for days on end just to have their life come to a horrifying and abrupt end. One thing that confused me a little was also when you talked about the train tracks and the bodies. Did the Nazis use the bodies instead of woode when they made traintracks? If that is the case then that is disgusting. Cliff Ricciardi
ReplyDeleteThis is insane. Millions of people literally tossed into a box, then killed. How were these people human? Throwing people into concrete boxes!!!! WHERE THEY WILL BE KILLED STANDING IN THEIR OWN FECAL MATTER. This is the epitome of inhumane. And the children. "Mommy, I thought I was being good." These children never saw it coming, and the worst part was that they thought it was their fault! The kids thought that they brought themselves to their death when in reality their death was brought on my racial and prejudiced views. Also, the fact that they didn't even bother to write down the names of the people who were savagely killed is mind blowing. This shows that the Jews died without dignity and without respect, which is absolutely heart breaking.
ReplyDeleteSo many things about this camp horrified me! First of all, the fact that this camp was designed JUST to kill people is horrible! It was hard to learn how that 75% of the prisoners in the camps were alive and that it reversed in only 11 months!! What, by far, bothered me the most was how the victims put in the gas chambers would die standing up because there was literally no room to fall down! I can’t imagine the horrors the Sonderkommados went through by pulling apart parts of dead bodies and searching for valuable items. It was so depressing reading about the little girl who asked what she had done wrong…she had done absolutely nothing wrong and didn’t deserve that at all! I am still shocked at the apathy of the Nazis!
ReplyDelete- Madison Bain
This was one of the blogs that was hard to imagine because of the incredible amount of evil. I think the worse of this camp was that the families thought they were just taking showers. They didn't even know to say goodbye. It was warming but devastating that the families were still holding hands after death. I could never imagine being put in the situation of being so confused on what was going on then being murdered. It was cruel that the Nazis took all of the Jews' valuables. They even took their teeth and searched their private parts. They could have at least given them some respect! The most upsetting caption to read of the pictures was when the boy said, "Mommy, haven't I been good? It's dark, it's dark." How could people even harm a child that has so much innocence?
ReplyDeleteWhat shocked me the most was the percentage of people went from 80 to about 20 within a year. All because of the Final Solution. Also, the fact the dead bodies were violated the way they were is atrocious. The way in which the Germans tried to validate their behavior towards Jews is absurd. It's all lies, and it's difficult to think that all these deaths stemmed from all that b.s. I can't imagine either being in a gas chamber or having to carry the bodies out. The mental strain one would have to go through for either is heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteI look at the "lucrative business" statement and somberness sits in my stomach. That could be you. That could be your family. That could be me.
ReplyDelete"We stopped having feelings." The mortification we feel right now could be flipped if people remain complacent and don't further instigate further reform/measures to advance the human race we could regress to this form. We see some forms of this today! Keep in mind Trump and racism; if it weren't for the efforts of good, compassionate people, these sort of atrocities could be considered good by the majority! The Nazis did horrible things, but at least they were good at what they did. All human qualities and abilities are two edged swords.
The concentration camps were already evil creations. Creating a place with the sole purpose of killing other humans is more than evil. The way the Nazis tried to hide their intentions by using euphemisms is awful, though I don't know how they could have said it differently without specifically saying people were going to die. I hate how the Nazis treated the Jews as "problems" that they had to "cope" with. They are clearly less than human to have the nerve to treat other humans the way they did. I feel sadness and anger whenever I learn about the way the Nazis treated and killed the Jews. The Nazis were truly sick creatures.
ReplyDelete-Nicholas Glenn
The main thing i hate is that they destroyed it. To me it shows that they knew something was wrong, and thus were unwilling to admit to the approaching armies their crimes. Usually I would think they would be all, "HEY! Look what we've done! It was for the good of the Aryan race!" Instead, they hide their shame. They hadn't the decency to even wonder where these people were coming from, they only wondered how fast they could kill them. No names, no identification, no knowing of who they were. Despite the most popular names being posted, there is no doubt in my mind that there were others who will never be remembered.
ReplyDeleteTheir acknowledgment of the fact that their whole agenda was corrupt is a bit sickening, for one thing... They are quite literally telling the Nazi subordinates to throw away their humanity in order to tend to the wishes of the Fuhrer. That begs the question of what exactly these men were staking it out for. Did they want to follow the path of ruin because it was the only path out of the hellhole that was post-Treaty Germany in the first place? Did they simply give up and relinquish their faith to the only man who still looked capable demanding it? Whatever it is, the fragility of morality and society is a scary thing. We can only pray that we aren't bound to repeat these wrongs.
ReplyDeleteI'm full of questions to which I have no answers for. It is unbelievable that humans could be filled with this much hatred. We all have times where we feel aggressive to certain people. But none of us wake up in the morning and think about a whole day in which we get to massacre innocent human beings. What happened to love? What happened to compassion? Empathy? Pulling gold teeth out of dead innocent beings is not only despicable, but it is also heart breaking. Why would anyone be so diabolical? Using children and old men and women as railroad tracks is what really got me. I really can't understand what motivated the Nazis. Even death does not motivate you to do what they did. This begs the question: how far are the limits of humanity, before we become inhumane?
ReplyDeleteThis entry made me cry. The amount of heinous crimes that the innocent Jews were victims of is just appalling. One thing that stuck out to me during our study of the Holocaust were the euphemisms like the ones mentioned at the beginning of this entry. The photo of what the Nazis did to the bodies after the gas chambers also sickened me. I cannot believe that they would take the gold teeth and other things out of the Jews bodies to make money. I thought they thought the Jews were useless. Once again, I leave this entry feeling pissed at the Nazis that contributed to the Holocaust. INSANITY!!
ReplyDeleteThe quote really got to me. It shows how they didn't care if you were even a child. They're killing you no matter what. I wonder what the Nazi's working at the camp must have felt. Maybe they even enjoyed putting children into a chamber to die. How awful. Hearing the survivors stories helps show the suffering that every person went through at this death camp. Surprisingly, I wasn't saddened but more angered at this entry.
ReplyDeleteAs said by others, the words used to cover up their heinous intentions make me sick. "Resettlement" When they are actually moving these poor Jews to where they are going to maliciously murder them is upsetting. The first picture of the cement sign where it had the number and the writing for the death camp stood out to me as well. The running brown showed the weathering, and also states how much it went through, kind of like how the Jews were weathered down at the camp. I could not believe the Nazis blamed the Jews for how they treated them. Saying if they hadn't taken over, they would've been out of control and over ruled the Nazis. Every time I read these blogs I think I have heard every horrible thing that the Nazis have said or done, but again I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteWow. I already knew that they had special camps just to execute the Jews but why? There may not be a why. Why tell them one thing and then do another? The first picture looks like blood is dripping from the letters. I think it’s just weathering, but it adds something more when you read the wall. It makes you feel their pain and it’s a very relevant visual. What was the point of them destroying the evidence? They had to know people would find out. I think that the plants growing on the site of the camp goes back to The Sunflower. In the book, the actual sunflowers sitting on the graves represented the connection between life and death. So maybe this is something similar.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe that there were only two escapees of Betzec!!! That's insane. I wonder what their stories were...it seems like something that would be very interesting to learn more about. Judging by what the escapee said about his job as a sonderkommando, it must have been the most painful feeling the first time they heard the frightened children asking their mothers if everything was going to be alright. Another thing that I couldn't decide how I felt about was the concrete number tags for their clothes so they could "remember where their clothes were" after their "showers". I just thought it was devastating, but I also wondered how exactly someone could be so heartless to want to trick someone into thinking that they were going to take a shower, when really they were sending them off to their deaths. What, were they all psychopaths or something??? Not that those thoughts haven't gone through my mind a couple million times by now, I just thought I would point it out.
ReplyDeleteWhen you called the soldiers "creatures" i felt the same way. They are not humans in my eyes but monsters. I enlarged the photos before going back to read the caption. I reached the picture of the child calling out for its mother saying it was dark. I instantly thought of my sister who is terrified of the dark and has to have some sort of night light. I got this awful feeling in my stomach and a lump in my throat who terrified the child must have felt. When they named this a "solution" they made it seem so innocent and gentle. They did that in order not to frighten any of the Jews or to call attention to their plan. They are disgusting people and they make me sick.
ReplyDeleteOnly two people successfully escaped from this camp?!! Wow! That just goes to show how evil and strict these monsters were. I literally had tears run down my face when I read "Mommy, I've been good." I can't even imagine how these parents explained to their kids what was going on. I can't even begin to think how I would explain to my kids what was happening.
ReplyDeleteWhy would the Nazis do such a cruel thing towards the Jewish people. They mad them walk a long hallway to way unknown death. They were so Cruel even making children think they did wrong. But why would they destroy there own work thinking it would save them.
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ReplyDeleteThe comments about the statistics being reversed is surreal. That puts things into perspective on how in a span of a couple years almost an entire community of people were alienated. The little kid's quote is haunting. Even right before death, it seems as if he was oblivious. He thought he was being punished, but he did nothing wrong. I was shaken by that. He was just a kid. I can't believe that those "creatures" went to the full extent by giving everyone cement chips to identify their stuff. I think the euphemisms for the murdering are all different kinds of fucked up. I think that if they had the audacity to murder with the magnitude that they did, they should at least call it as it is rather than sugar coat it. Their "justification" isn't justification at all. The Jews didn't bring war; Hitler did, and the fact that people were to blind to see that is astonishing. Finally, I can't believe only two people survived. I look at other survival rates from other camps, and they are pretty damn low but TWO PEOPLE! If my math is correct, given the information I have, the survival rate is .000003333333333 percent.
ReplyDeleteI can not comprehend why it makes it all right to the Nazis when they just re-named murder a more "positive" name. It does not make it alright or any better! Those two pictures of the plants growing from the rubble made me a little happier. It's almost like a symbol of the Jews that died in the Holocaust saying, "HA, look who is thriving now! You didn't stop us from growing!" Also wasn't there a "Tube" in The Sunflower too where I think Josek died? If there was why didn't the kill in "The Tube" like where Simon was imprisoned? It shocked me how instead of keeping track of the people they listed towns. That is a bunch of people who died because of one camp. I hated reading how the Nazis tried to justify their horrible acts. Like, the jews weren't doing anything to hurt anyone before this! So, how exactly are they going to destroy you? I'm pretty sure my heart broke in two when I read what the little child said while in the gas chamber. Again, I don't understand how an SS soldier could hear that and still put in the gas without a thought.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that caught my eye was the tube. It reminded me of a scary maze. I couldn't imagine having to walk through and not know what was to come. I also don't know why some camps were labor and others were strictly death camps. Why did they have both if they wanted to kill the Jews? Also, were there more death camps in Poland? It was also shocking to see how the workers went and searched the corpses for valuables. I can't see how a human could search dead corpses for valuables, since this is such a disgustingly inhumane act. I also think it's crazy how only two people survived out of the unknown thousands and thousands who died here.
ReplyDeleteThe saddest part about this blog was the picture of the sign that reads, "Mommy, haven’t I been good. It’s dark. It’s dark." I can't even imagine how many kids could have asked this, nor could I imagine how parents would've responded to this. Not only that but kids would've died thinking they did something wrong rather than seeing the Nazis as in the wrong. It's very heartbreaking. It's also hard to imagine that this camp was considered a small one when so many people died in there.
ReplyDelete-Alexis Reid
I love how the first sign pictured in this blog actually recognized what happened to the Jews as murder. The euphemisms for the murder of the Jews that you listed are laughable. How could a person search through hundreds of freshly dead corpses for valuable? There is no amount of desensitization that could cause a person to do that. They would have to be sociopath. It is heart breaking that they did not even have records of the people in the camp. I definitely respect that a list of common Jewish names was later made to honor the Jews who had lost their lives in Belzac.
ReplyDeleteThe list of names really shows how little information there is out there on these victims, how they were just sent to die. It's almost as if they didn't exist. What I don't understand is, if they didn't bother to keep a record if them, how are there known "survivors"? If they did truly survive, they didn't live long enough to tell anything, so how is information about them known? At least they got to die without being marked with a tattoo.
ReplyDeleteIt was saddening to see the quote from that child. It's so heartbreaking that these children were robbed of their innocence and killed just because of their religious affiliation. The worst part of the death camp system is that the victims did not know what they were walking into. They were just forced through the "tube" and into darkness with false hope. I cannot imagine how awful it must have been to walk through that tube. You would feel so trapped. This is so heartbreaking because the victims were not even given the chance to try and survive; they were just immediately killed. Why were some people chosen to die right away while others were put into concentration camps?
ReplyDeleteIt is absolutely astonishing how they turn death into such a well oiled machine. The way the murder they just threw Jews into a concert box and let them sit in there own crap till they were gassed! That's inhumane. The number of gas chambers show how the Nazis where able to decimate a whole religion to almost nothing. You wondered how anyone could allow this. Seeing small children lined up next to there relatives would have killed me. Knowing in a couple more steps they would go threw one of the most painful deaths a man could inflict to another man.-William Smith
ReplyDeleteFrom your classes, I was already used to the fact that the Nazis did really horrible things to the Jews. I still cannot believe that these men are humans. I mean they were definitely ordinary people before the Holocaust. Were the Nazis really okay with just deceiving the innocent women and children to their deaths? Although it is a relief that they did not tattoo the children, but it is very disheartening that the children believed that they were really going to be taken care of. They even put the bodies on the train tracks. If I had never learned about the Holocaust and read this blog first out of all the blogs, I would have honestly believed that the Nazis were monsters that looked human. It just scares me to think that these people were ordinary at one point of their lives. These people were the most intelligent, yet they could do such cruel things with no thought in mind.
ReplyDeleteI don’t understand why it was more efficient to waste money on building these elaborate killing machines instead of putting their money towards making Germany a superpower. Most of the Jews were loyal to Germany as well, they might have won the war if they allowed the Jewish people to fight in the war. We saw how close the battle was even though they had half their focus on killing Jews. The outcome of the war could’ve been totally different. Instead they decided to waste away one of their most valuable assets, the loyalty of the Jewish community. After saying this, I feel that in a way we must be somewhat thankful for the holocaust because it taught life lessons, and there is a possibility that we could’ve been under Nazi dictatorship today.
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ReplyDeleteI do not understand how the Nazis were able to fool some of the bystanders by saying the death of all the European Jews was in a prophecy. I also do not understand how and why people believed that a RELIGION not a race was responsible for the outcome of World War One. I can not come close to being able to comprehend what the thought process of the Nazis were and those who supported them. The fact that the Nazis made camps specifically to kill people shows how inhumane their actions were. I find their attempts to destroy as many camps as they did as a sign of cowardliness. If they all supported the idea of the "Final Solution" why did they try to hide the fact they had built concentration and death camps? I feel bad for those who thought that the murder of millions of innocent people was for the good of everyone else, they obviously did not and may still not understand how incredibly wrong their actions were, brainwashed or not. I find it beyond sad to think about the number of unknown victims of the Holocaust, someone had to go through so much pain and torture and now we will not know because the Nazis stripped the people their prisoners once were straight out of their bodies. The concept of the Holocaust and all of the camps is absolutely disturbing. - Liz Montgomery
ReplyDeleteIt is so vicious and evil that the Germans created camps specifically for murdering the Jews. It is sad thinking of the innocent people who were on the trains thinking that they were only being "relocated". Little did they know that they were being betrayed. One question I have is what did they do with the clothes from the Jews? Did they burn them or give them to other people? I can't believe that they remaining parts of the camp are in pieces. Those Nazis went through all that trouble to try and destroy evidence, but they have failed because the victims from this camp will never be forgotten. I like how there are plants growing in between the rocks because it symbolizes how life still prospers after hardships. It is sad that they used the names of towns to represent the nameless Jews who died because it means that many, many people were killed. It is insane to me that the percentage of survival and death changed at an extremely fast rate. It goes to show how evil and inhuman those Nazis were. It is so sad to hear the story about the cries from children from inside the gas chambers. They didn't deserve being killed and tortured the way they were. It is so gross to hear that these people would go to the extreme and check every single person's mouth for gold crowns and then extract it for themselves. Greedy people. None of these Jews deserved any of the torture and pain that they went through.
ReplyDeleteIt is awful and breaks my heart reading how there was a camp made specifically for killing Jews. I just can’t put it through my mind how people could just kill others for no reason whatsoever. One of the worst parts is that people didn’t even realize that they were going to be killed. No one told them anything until they were in the gas chambers, which took 3 hours to even work! Jews suffered the whole time, they never got a break. When the Nazis burnt down the camp, it is almost like they knew they were doing something wrong, so they had to cover it up. I love the flowers going there, is symbolizes how life and beauty will still go on, even after everything Jews went through. It is extremely sad how they didn't even know the names of everyone who died in the camp. They deserved to be remembered, but even without knowing their names they will be remembered. They are being remembered by their cities and popular Jewish names, which is most definitely better than nothing. I will always feel heart broken for all who died in the Holocaust. Jews did nothing wrong, so the fact that they were being killed is horrific and will never be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s revolting that Nazis instituted death camps like Belzac which is considered “small”, but has SIX gas chambers. There were around 500,000 victims and the fact that there are only one or two survivors breaks my heart because the people that died never had a chance to escape or realize what was going on. The fact that they didn’t even bother recording the names of the victims or tattooing a number on their arm shows the Nazis disregard for life. I can’t comprehend how someone could willingly and knowingly send another human who is completely innocent to their death. It was hard for me to continue reading after you described the Nazis as “efficient,” just thinking about it gives me chills that an entire community would desire to be “efficient” in killing people. Reading a Nazi’s justification made me feel sick. How could someone even begin to rationalize the crimes that they were committing? How could they ignore the screams, the cires, and all of the dead bodies? How could they sleep at night knowing that they were responsible for the murder of innocent people? This goes beyond brainwashing and comes down to humanity. I don’t care how long they’d been brainwashed they knew that those Jewish people were going to die the moment they got off that train, allowing them to proceed to their death, and pressing that button to allow the gas to enter the chamber is inhumane and disgusting at the very least. It made me sad when I saw that to remember the people that died they had to use city names because the people that arrived in death camps were never given the “courtesy” of having their names be written down. Reading things like this makes bystanders seem worse and worse because how were they able to ignore large areas of land that it took for the burial grounds let alone the camp itself? The fact that Nazis burned down the camp proved that they knew what they were doing was wrong. They were scared and evil creatures who allowed this to happen.
ReplyDeleteI barely even know where to start. It is shocking to know that these 500,000 people were murdered within only 30 minutes of their arrival. The Nazis did not allow any wiggle room for the Jews to know what was going on or to escape. "The Tube" was probably a walk of uneasiness as the Jews had no idea what was going to happen. The Nazis had made them into thinking that they would be safe by using different methods than the other camps, with a main method of giving the captives tattoos with numbers, only giving them a cement "ticket" with a number on it. I know that the numbers of escapees are low for the Holocaust, but knowing that only two out of 500,000 escaped from Belzac just breaks my heart. The quote of the child also got to me as well. Knowing that the parents barely can comprehend what is going on and why; it just makes it worse when a child is even more confused. The verse from Job was perfectly placed because the people need to know that the Holocaust will and should never be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the death camps are smaller in seize compared to the concentration or work camps, they still hold so much. That being the many lives that had been taken there. All the relationships that each person had made. The smiles, laughs, cry's, jumps for joy, sorrows, dedication, compassion in which each person held and contained in them. All of who they are is still in the death camps. That being so much for one to be around and still kill more. Out of the 500,000 "victims" at Belzac, for two, only two, to have successfully lived and escaped is astonishing. They had to escape the trains before they even reached the camps to attempt living, and risk being killed on he spot by the SS. These innocent people were identified by a freaking ticket with numbers on it, just goes to show how heartless they were during this time. I can't believe they didn't care to know there name for once in there life. I don't think three hours is very humane at all since they were killing hundred of innocents, and their sole purpose was to exterminate. Like how could one do that. The Nazis are scary creatures who give me chills when I hear about them. Such a horrid and sorrowful time it was.
ReplyDeleteXan Brien
ReplyDeleteThis place was terrible. I made me sad to hear about the fate of the Jews in this camp. It shocking me that only two Jews survived Belzac out of the hundreds of thousands of people forced there. The pictures of the Tubes really got to me. It just looks so menacing and evil. I can't believe what i was like to walk down the Tube with the barbed wire and the 10 foot high walls around you, marching to your death. The quote from the child really got to me. The mother of the child must have felt do helpless. What do you tell your child in that situation? The part about the dentist pulling out gold teeth was sicking to me. Also I hate how the Nazis just tear down the whole place to "hide the evidence" like they think people aren't going to notice.
It’s interesting that they never called it murder; their vagueness hammers in the idea that they were so deranged and held so little respect or compassion regarding the Jews that they wouldn’t even pay the tiniest respect: acknowledging that what they were doing as a crime. They put so much effort into hurting (I’m not sure which word to use, as, though kill them they did, the word ‘killing’ does not encompass the pain and the suffering that was endured, but ‘hurting’ doesn't come close to representing the magnitude of the Jew’s pain and their ultimate loss of their lives) these people, and yet never stopped long enough to reflect on their actions or to see how flawed their thinking was. I see this with the increasing from three gas chambers to six. They were hurtling these people like cattle; like they weren’t people at all. The image of branches intertwined with barbed wire feels like symbolism. The branches, something natural and beautiful, life gone out on a limb, twisted up and dug into something so violent and so cruel as barbs put in place to shatter hope and dreams, to scar hearts and faith till the very last moments.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers seem almost ridiculous. They always have, to me. It’s like, how much more can you possibly ruin? How much is left for you to stain with hate and violence?
The idea of families gripping each other desperately in death makes me think of the ghosts or spirits of those families. I picture a young woman, maybe still a teenager, stood swearing and kicking and fighting with tears running down her face, as she watches from another realm as someone rips her now cold and clammy hand away from her father's arm. I picture her Father, pulling her back, telling her, “There’s nothing to be helped now, we can’t do anything anymore, it’s been done. It’s over,” with his voice breaking on the last word. I picture a small boy, being held by his Mother, staring confusedly at his own face, because he can’t understand why he looks so pale, and so tired. I picture his mother, holding her son’s shoulders as tight as she can, trying with all the strength she has left not to fall to her knees and sob. She never really believed it. She always thought they would get out. She hadn’t understood; sometimes there are no happy endings. I see her thinking, how did this happen to us? Her daughter is leaning into her husbands chest, sobbing softly now, having been unable to bear the image of her little brothers body being torn from her Mother’s arms. They had lost. They all had one chance, and they had lost. The Father and daughter come to stand with the Mother and son. The Father had remained stoney faced this whole time, but now there were tears in his eyes as he reached for his wife’s hand. Together, the four of them stood, all of them aching, all of them broken, as they fade into another plane.
Oh dear. I got very emotional writing that. I might have gotten a bit carried away there, but those are the images I see when I look at these pictures, when I read the stories. All I can see is the hurt and the pain and the suffering, and I can’t understand it. I cannot fathom how people, real people did this.
I think it is messed up how they used euphemisms to describe the murder of millions of people. I think it’s childish and extremely inhumane to call the murder of millions of innocent people a resettlement. Labor camps are awful but I think that death camps are a completely new level of awful. I don’t understand how anyone could ever think that sending people somewhere to immediately be killed was okay. The fact that the Nazis destroyed the concentration camps just proves that they knew that what they were doing was awful and that they would be punished for their actions. The fact that plants are still growing on the land where the concentration camp was is truly amazing because it proves that even after such an awful thing occurs life can still thrive. it’s absolutely insane how quickly millions of people could be murdered every day. It’s baffling to me that one truckload of Jews could be completely murdered and cleaned up in about 30 minutes. I still just don’t understand how anyone of any country could ever think that this would ever be okay. It is so incredibly sad how many people were sent to this camp to die. It makes me so sad that no names were recorded and no one will ever be able to truly remember specifically who died at this camp because there is no factual evidence of who even went to this camp. if there were hundreds of towns recorded I can’t even begin to imagine how many people were probably killed here and that is just insane. It’s sickening to think about the Nazis becoming more efficient with their murder of the Jews because they had been doing it for so long and just got so used to how to do it quickly. it’s just sickening to think about what the Nazis did and their thought process on what they were doing. I just can’t even begin to imagine why anyone would ever want to do this to another person it’s so unbelievably sad I have no words for how sad this is.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that hits me the most is that since so many people were unaccounted for, they used cities. Hundreds of cities to memorialize the Jews that died in the Holocaust. That just shows how massive this was but also how devastating. Unlike other memorials and suck that have each person's name where loved ones can go to. This is just a city, relatives of those who died in the Holocaust don't get to find their ancestor's name on a wall.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say I didn't believe that Nazis would steal from the Jews that were going to die, but that sounds right up their alley. Stealing their clothes, valuables, and possibly family heirlooms or something very sentimental. That completely disrespects the memory of those who were killed there. And just like the other camp, they were deceived into thinking they weren't going to die at first. That just angers me so much because you'd think they could at least tell them what was going to happen so they could be prepared. I can't imagine how it must feel, thinking you're going to live and life will get better, just to be killed the next day. It's truly cruel in every sense of the word.
It shocks me to think about all of the people that died there without ever getting identified. Those people inside the gas chambers were murdered so cruelly. I cannot imagine hearing the screams and shouts of people struggling to stay alive and wanting to escape so badly. 500,000 people... The amount of people that are affected by only one of those people is at least 30 for every person. But 500,000 people affect millions of people that were friends, family, boyfriends and girlfriends to others. Gone, but never forgotten. Every single day hundreds of people were led through the tube to be slaughtered like cattle. And all while this is happening, the Nazis are stealing and selling their personal items that they have worked so hard to get. The Nazis continued to disrespect Jewish people even after death by moving their laid to rest corpse' to be burned to ash.
ReplyDelete-Brady
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ReplyDeleteI thought it was really cool that you could share your experience there with us. Even though, I personally didn’t know about some of the information that you wrote and I can’t believe that your students would just skip through it all in one hour. If I went on the trip I would want to know more about the Holocaust because the way that you teach us in class. You enlighten us with all these facts and how someone could possibly do what they do to another human being. You don’t just give us facts about it and give us work to do; you go into detail and make us think more about the information us. You challenge us to think about the how someone in their right mind could do this. It was very interesting when you went into detail about how Hitler rose to power and the events that led up to it. It makes you think that what if this or that didn’t happen then Hitler might not have rose to power and those two thirds of jews that died might have lived and started their own families. Also, the Nazi party wouldn’t have grown bigger. After finishing reading this I really think Hitler just wanted to get rid of some people to downsize the population of Germany and also how evil he is. I also think he wanted revenge on the United States and United Kingdom for what they did to Germany during World War I. Also, I think Hitler a crazy and cruel person. I really want to go on this trip with you. It seems really cool to go on. -Thomas Simmons
ReplyDeleteWhen i read your blog i was touched by the child who asks if its his fault, an innocent jewish child wonders what he has done to deserve this type of treatment, and there are no words. This boy dies thinking that he was a perpetrator, that he did something to deserve the treatment he was getting. No one in the camps knew what they were going to or why, the Nazis were truly cruel. The fact that the bodies of the victims would turn a shade of blue is truly disturbing, they did not deserve this treatment, no one does. Not only did they murder families but they treated them as a number, nothing better than a number. They did not know any of the peoples names that they were killing, and the lives of people that were once there peers meant nothing to the Nazis. It’s so sad to think what these Jewish citizens were going through, i can’t even imagine what i’ve been reading about lately, and this was life for some men, women and children.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of a death camp is disgusting. There is no chance for survival, no chance for a miracle, not one ounce of hope. The Jews were simply sent there to die. Reading the Nazis messages which “justified their actions” made me sick. Nothing justifies the murder of innocent people!! The Nazis looked at these Jews as objects. Simply things that needed to be eliminated as soon and efficiently as possible. Thinking about how it must have been to be a child, and to be pushed into a gas chamber and mercilessly murdered is absolutely heartbreaking. A young innocent person with their whole life ahead of them. The young people in the camps probably just wondered what was wrong with them, when in fact nothing was wrong with them at ALL. They never even got the chance to figure that out for themselves. The Nazis were the ones who deserved to die.
ReplyDelete-Sophia R
Reading about the death camp, Belzac, is horrifying. Jews were tricked into thinking they would stay there. It’s terrible and ironic how they told the Jews they were giving them showers when they were really being gassed to death. I can just see all of the dead Jews right now pressed so tightly against eachother. Also, seeing how the Nazis took all of the valuables off their dead bodies is horrifying. It’s truly saddening that we do not know the names of everyone that was lost in places like this, however, they will never be forgotten. The Nazis overall deceit at a death camp like this is despicable. From the showers to the baggage tags, the Jews thought it was just another concentration camp. Honestly though, I don’t know if I would rather know I was going to die. I can’t believe 500,000 people died here while only 2 survived. How did the 2 survive because the camp was meant for instant death.
ReplyDeleteI had a small question on why you said “The concentration camps of Belzac, Sobidor, and Treblinka were created solely to murder the Jews.” when they were death camps and not concentration camps. The main difference in concentration camps and death camps were the people and that concentration camps were primarily meant to hold people while death camps were meant to exterminate. What upset me about the first image was not only the words but the way it was stained looked like blood in the opening or ending of a horror movie. Another thing that horrified me was that it only took 30 minutes for the murder of an enormous amount of Jews! I can’t imagine having to clean up that many Jews piled up on each other, each of them skin and bones. It saddens me to hear that no one survived from that death camp. People survived from Auschwitz, but no one survived the small camp known as Belzac. No one was able to tell about what happened in there.
ReplyDeleteI am speechless after reading this blog post. It was shocking to me how they built more gas chambers just so they could kill more jews faster than they already were. When I was looking at the rubble of the camp it looks so much bigger than what you said it to be, but that is probably due to all the rubblee the Nazis created when they burned it down to destroy the evidence they had. It kind of didn’t come to a surprise to me when I found out that they burned the camp down. They were crazy and they didn’t want to get caught, however, later in life some of them eventually did. I don’t think it was fair that they were being forced to go to the gas chambers to die. I think it’s kind of unfair how we don’t know the names of those who were killed in Belzac. We have no way of remembering them. It was also horrific when the Nazis didn’t tattoo them just because they were going to die so they saw no point in doing it; instead they just gave them concrete “tickets”.-Riley Dilsworth
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to believe that Belzac was considered a small camp when there were six gas chambers there. I wonder how many were at the other concentration camps? It’s horrific to think that the Nazis used bodies to build railroads. Not only did they torture and kill the Jews, but once they died, they used them as tools to build something that would carry other Jews to the same fate. I can’t even imagine why they would do such a thing, and what it would look like to see human bodies, dead or alive, lying unmoving on a railroad track as a train is heading straight for them. I was glad that some of the Jews who died were honored. But to think that there were so many more Jews that died that weren’t on there. Seeing all those names made the think of their loved ones and people that they left behind.
ReplyDelete-Ashley LeBlanc
As I read the details of how the Jews were killed all I can think about is how painful that must have been. At first reading that it took 30 minutes I was like okay its bad but not as bad as it could be. Then I read that it took three hours! How on earth could these Nazis live with themselves after hearing people suffocating and screaming death for three hours? I am just completely amazed that people could still go home to there families after being surrounded by death like that all day. These people had to have something mentally wrong to go on with their lives like that.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I completely understand seeing all this unfold from a whole new point of view the code word “final solution” seems like it should be concerning a little bit. Increase it to six gas chambers… as if three weren’t enough already! Over 500,000 died within 11 months. I can’t see an way shape or form as to how you could even get me to kill or even hurt one, especially when they died nothing to you. The plant life between the rocks is very touching. With even the worst being thrown at you the light will shine and life will continue. The Jews who may not have made it left behind a riveting force. Even at places like the Vietnam memorial you had names. This is simply disheartening to me as well as others. Not even the characteristic that makes you, you could even be remembered. Hatred can do a lot of things sadly.
ReplyDeleteI’m very disturbed at how the Nazis can call this terrible act the “last solution.” It took them almost three hours to kill a trainload of Jews. THREE HOURS! How can you hear the screams of death for 30 minutes, let alone three hours. The Nazis completely destroyed the camps to hide the evidence of evil and hate. Everyone that entered Belzac didn’t come out. This camp is no doubt one of the worst camps ever. Towns and cities were to represent the Jews. Hundreds of towns, that means thousands if not millions of Jewish lives. That sign of the kids writing was very heartbreaking. These people did not do anything to deserve such treatment.
ReplyDelete-Wilson Hawes
It saddens me at the fact that the Jews from Belzac were unable to be remembered by name. It's crazy how 500,000 people died in this one camp. The fact that it isn't even the highest death toll of all the camps is even crazier. I don't think I will ever understand how thousands of people could be filled with so much hate that they murder millions of their innocent peers. It's incredibly awful how the Jews died for three hours. Imagine spending an eighth of your day in pure suffering. And the fact that the Nazis remained unaffected by the screams and agony they heard come from the victims show how heartless they were. Its terrible how dedicated the Nazis were in murdering the innocent Jews. They tried their best to not let anything get in the way of their goal which is just sickening. How could anybody be devoted and committed to murdering someone else. Especially when they knew that it was wrong which is proven by the fact that they destroyed the camp to hide the evidence.
ReplyDeleteReading about how the Jews were killed is extremely painful. They were killed in such harsh ways that makes it hard for me to read. The Nazis made the Jews suffer for three hours before they were killed and that is terrible to me. The other Jews had to hear the ones that were suffering scream for three hours. I could not imagine having to live like this. I also can’t believe that this camp was considered small when there were six gas chambers there. That is a lot of chambers and I can’t imagine if that was a little amount, how many the big camps had. This whole blog was crazy to me, and I can’t believe what the Jews had to go through. This must have been a huge struggle for them, and it’s crazy that any of them survived. For the reasons that they were killed, I don’t know how they all didn’t die. The Holocaust continues to disgust me in every action that took part in it.
ReplyDeleteWhat the child said really struck me “Mommy? Haven't I been good? It’s dark. It’s dark.” It is awful to be reminded that there were children in these camps and they were treated like they were subhuman too. It is horrible to even think about this quote, and that is why it must be remembered. Humanity as a whole must prevent such atrocious things and NEVER let this happen again. I mean there should never exist a camp that is intended just to kill people. The fact that the Nazis didn't even bother to write down the victims names made me disappointed. I would think with the Germans being so organized and formal that they would keep records of the victims' names. It just shows, even more, that the Jews were treated like animals and not human. I wish that the camp was still standing today so the whole world could see what the Nazis did.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe whole idea of propaganda being used was a bunch of BS to me! I believe that if the Nazis believed in wiping out the Jewish population, then at least come out and have the courage to say so. The fact that they used words like "Resettlement to the East,", "Final Solution", and "Operation Action Reinhard" showed that these Nazis were cowards when it came to standing behind what they supposedly believed in. I believe the Nazis failed to realize that even with propaganda being used, these actions that were being displayed were impossible to water down or cover up. Breaks me down to read the response of the kid who said it was dark and had no idea of the death that was nearing. Although it was more than likely relieving for the Jews to see the camps being destroyed, using the camps remains as a learning tool in today's history in my eyes is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteMoose M. III
I find it very hard to read when going through this blog post. It was very sad and unnerving knowing the fates of these people when even they did not know it. I also found it very stupid that the Nazis believed that their final plan was righteous and just, but were not able to come out and say exactly what they were doing. They had to use code names like “Resettlement to the East,” and “Final Solution” to hide what they were actually doing. If they truly believed they were right in this matter, they would have come out to the world and told all that they were going to exterminate the Jewish people. They even went on to destroy and hide evidence of the Holocaust and the Concentration Camps when the Allies started to push into the heart of the Nazi Motherland. It showed that the Nazis were in fact cowards.
ReplyDeleteIt is extremely sad to me that only 2 people survived this death camp. I felt that no hope was in this camp, and that in order to survive, you had to do the impossible. The euphemism of “the resettlement to the east” which truly means murder makes me feel sick of all the awful humans who didn’t hesitate to murder millions upon millions of people. The majority of this reading made me cringe of how poorly the Nazis treated the Jews. The Nazis may have been effective of hiding the evidence of the murder, but the history and stories behind survivors will always remain. It is also extremely sad that the fate of the Jews were predetermined. I couldn’t believe they didn’t even tattoo them because they knew all of them will eventually die. I am happy that the museum found a way to allow the “forgotten jews” to be remembered. This gives family members of those who have been lost a feeling of comfort because they have not been forgotten.
ReplyDeleteTo think of the atrocities that were committed in Belzac is unbearable and I didnt even step foot in the remnants of the death camp. It does give me hope that life can grow among the rubble of such a terrible site. But it goes to show that the Nazis knew what they were doing and did not want the outside world to know about the evils they were committing. The names on the wall are almost a way of giving everyone who lost their life there a sense of peace letting their soul free. The tube is such a brutal and demeaning thing to do to the prisoners making them know they have no chance of escape while the demented Nazis look down on them like cattle this is one of the lowest points humanity can reach.to have only 2 survivors is sickening and those peoples souls didn't survive only their physical bodies did because you can never be the same after going through that hell.
ReplyDeleteThis was truly disheartening. Things like this tend to force me to question whether or not the Nazis were actually people or if they truly were the demons the world makes them out to be. Like seriously, I just don’t understand how anybody could possibly find it within themselves to make a camp for the sole purpose of killing innocent people. What is even worse about their killing of thousands of innocent Jews is that they were so bloodthirsty that killing the Jews wasn’t enough for these hearltless fiends. Instead of just leaving it all at killing the Jews, which is already wrong to do to begin with, the Nazis just had to take it all a step further and find a way to kill the Jews even faster. That right there convinces me more and more that Nazis are just demons in disguise. Also, I don’t think I could have been in your shoes Mrs. Stone when you saw that writing that said “Mommy, haven’t I been good? It’s dark, it’s dark,” I know for a fact that I would have overreacted and would have quickly left after seeing that.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the Nazis felt the need to use euphemisms to justify what they were doing just proves how even they knew how barbaric it was, but they didn't want anyone else to give them a second glance. People either didn't notice or turned a blind eye, and this camp was designed with the sole purpose to kill innocent individuals and annihilate an entire “race” of people. Even after the Holocaust had ended, The Nazis still went out of their way to erase any evidence of their disgusting crimes against humanity, but the new life that thrives among the remains just show that they couldn't squash out all life no matter how hard that they tried. And the child….he or she was given a “punishment,” and they were conditioned into wondering if they did actually deserve it. That killed me.
ReplyDeleteThis made me sad. People who came in had no idea what their upcoming fate was. They all had the same fate though, everyone has the same fate, which is death. The six gas chambers were the whole camp, and they ran continuously. I had no idea that the chambers were packed to its capacity. This was so unnecessary because the people didn't even have the room to fall.the quote “Mommy, haven’t I been good? It’s dark. It’s dark.” is such a big reflection on how the children were so innocent and naive that they couldn’t comprehend what was going on, so they thought that it was a punishment for being bad. I know some adults thought that god was absent because no good god would put his people through the horrors of the Holocaust, and some completely abandoned their faiths too. it would all just be a horrific nightmare.
ReplyDeleteReading what took place at the Belzec Death Camp leaves me pondering questions of “ACCOUNTABILITY”, in order to better come to terms with the hearts and minds of Nazi Germans and the evilness of their human soul. I have to believe in a true form of justice.
ReplyDeleteIn reading through each one of your concentration camp tour blogs, I have come to more of an in-depth understanding that true justice does not come on this Earth. In regards to the Nazi, there needs to be an afterlife, a special Nazi place for the Nazi’s soul to spend their eternity. There also needs to be an afterlife for the people of Jewish faith whose lives were so deceitfully and wrongfully taken from them, to live out their eternity, not just an eternal form of punishment for the patriotic Nazi that so pridefully took it. I am just one person and merely human; I strive to have the genuine faith to leave my plea for justice and questions of how the hereafter plays out, left in the hands of our higher power.
-Russ
It is incredibly sad to learn that there were camps made specifically for murdering the Jews. It was even more saddening to learn how all of the bodies were disposed of. Obviously, I knew the Nazis were horrible people, but puting the bodies on the railroad tracks is just… I don't even know. Death camps made everything the Nazis did more inhumane. They told the Jews that they needed to shower first, but instead they just killed them. Now, not only were they lying to the rest of the world, but they were also lying to the Jews, who were already being punished for no reason. Also, the fact that the Nazis immediately dismissed the Jews off as dead the second they arrived at the death camps by not even bothering to tattoo numbers on them saddened my greatly. The Jews had already been dehumanized enough, they did not need nor dereve any more dehuminiztion. Lastly, the quote from the child absolutely broke my heart. It’s awful that that child died thinking that he had done something bad. None of these Jews did anything, and it makes learning about all of this 10 times worse.
ReplyDeleteThe author uses personification for the shoes to “speak” on the tragedy of the forgotten Jews. The Nazis saw no value in the Jews which lead to the complete annihilation during the Holocaust. Moshe Shulstein wrote about “the jewish shoes in Majdanek” to show that they remain because they had more value than the Jewish people. The writer says, “The hangman never had the chance to snatch us into his sack of loot.” this use of personification describes the shoes as the only thing left of the forgotten Jews. Later, the writer says “Let everyone hear the steps which flows as tears,” This is the shoe’s plea for justice because they remain as the only witness of all the torment the Jews faced. This is why the author personifies the shoe in saying “ We are the shoes, We are the last witnesses,” to bring justice for the lives lost during the Holocaust.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the Nazis didn’t really acknowledge what they did as murder is murder is very disgusting. They used different codes to trick themselves into thinking that what they are doing right although it’s not. There were 3 gas chambers which doesn’t seem like a lot but it still has a great effect on people. The Nazis aren’t human in any way for doing these horrendous things. They were unaware that what they were doing was bad. They tricked themselves into believing their own lies. The child died in guilt thinking he done something bad when in reality he didn’t. This is truly heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteTest
ReplyDeletethe fact that i didn't understand what really happened to the Jews, and now I do is very shocking. Words couldn't explain how i felt inside looking at the pictures and stories. I felt empathy for the little boy screaming for his mom in the dark. The Nazis saw no value in the Jews which lead to the complete annihilation during the Holocaust. The question Mrs stone asked us last week was if you forgive a repentant Nazi my answer at first was yes now it is no!!!. It is shocking to know that these thousands of people were murdered within only 30 minutes of their arrival. in the gas chambers the people died standing up this was crazy to me because they were very dedicated in what they were doing ( killing Jews). This camp shows a lot about the way the Nazis really dehumanized the Jews. They didn't even bother to record names of the people nor put tattoos on them they basically killed them as they entered.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of the most difficult post to read. Belzac emphasized the Nazi’s duplicity because many of the Jews legitimately did not know what was going to happen to them. The Nazis spent so much time creating new ways to trick the Jews into establishing a false sense of security. It upset me to read that the Jews thought that they were just going to take a shower, but then they were marched straight into the gas chamber. It was crazy to read that only two people survived this death camp. That is outrageous. The sign that said the quote about the little boy asking what he had done wrong broke my heart. These people were so innocent, yet they faced such gruesome deaths. It also disgusted me that they would line the train tracks with dead bodies to dispose of them more quickly. Overall, I was shocked to read all the horrible things that the Jews faced in these death camps.
ReplyDelete-Jane Jeffries
God this is awful. The Jewish people had no idea what was going to happen. It is truly sickening to try and comprehend how the Nazi's though of a plan to kill thousands of people by pumping emissions from a damn truck into a room! When I saw the picture of the sign of the boy saying what he did wrong made me want to punch a wall. These sick creatures went to the measures to kill thousands of innocent children just because they were Jewish. It is nuts to know how only two people survived the camp. One of them jumped off a train to get away. That man knew he was going to die at Belzac so took his chances jumping off a train is truly mind boggling. The other man had to bury thousands of people (probably some his family) just so he could survive. I am almost left speechless by what these animals did.
ReplyDeleteBenjamin
I wonder why the Nazis used euphemisms for murder. Who was is for? Were there people who actually didn’t know that this was happening once the final solution was implemented? What did neighboring towns think when there were railroad tracks built going straight into the camp? How did anybody say they didn’t know what was happening? Did the Nazis really think that destroying the camp would revert all the evidence? Why expend the effort of hiding the evidence if there were inevitably going to be survivors? Also, if Nazis didn’t think they were doing anything wrong then why try to destroy evidence? I would like to see estimates on how many people perished at this camp. It seems horrible that nobody knows how many people even died there.
ReplyDeleteNate Reiney
This camp seemed to be one of the scariest and most brutal camps ever. A camp designed specifically for murder obviously has awful intentions. The fact about Belzak increasing their gas chambers to six despite being small is just crazy. It also amazes how such intelligent and efficient people could design such wicked creations. The method of the tube sounds like a death walk. I was shocked to learn that this camp used carbon monoxide gas piped in from a diesel engine to kill people. This was different from Auschwitz that used Zylon B. The worst part about the carbon monoxide method is that it took three hours to kill them. That is ridiculous and must have been so painful. I was really impacted by the image and information regarding the Nazis using bodies and wooden planks as the top of railroad tracks. That is so disturbing and vicious. I also thought it was crazy that there were only two survivors. Wow. The part about the Sonderkommados, who were replaced periodically, made me think about Night. In Night, Elie mentioned the kommandos, who were in charge of their block or work, several times.
ReplyDeleteElla Page
While reading your Belzac post, the number of people who survived the camp versus the number of people that died in the camp is insane. Especially considering that this camp was considered small. The pure torture of sending your own kind to the grave, well the mass grave actually, must have been unbearable for Rudolf who eventually escaped. My heart broke in two when he spoke of losing his feelings after a while working as a Sonderkommando. Another part of your blog post that really stuck out to me was the sign that hung in front of the entrance to Belzac. Whatever metal the letters are comprised of dripped down over time, which to me symbolizes the amount of pain, suffering, and death that occurred in these horrible places.
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe that the Nazis opened six different gas chambers at this specific camp. You would think that more people would have questioned the mass killing of people if you had to open up more gas chambers. Someone also had to build the gas chamber, so they knew about the camp. I just do not understand how more people did not question these immoral events. The first picture states that over 500,000 people were murdered there. That is a large number of people. I love the picture of the plants growing through the camp remains. Those plants mean a lot. It is disgusting that people actually came up with the idea of how to kill and cleanup a trainload of people in three hours. How did people even think about awful ideas such as these? I cannot believe that only two people survived Belzac. Two out of the 500,000 that were murdered there. That is the lowest a percent can get. The sign when the child talks to his mother is extremely upsetting. This could have been anybody’s child. Including that personalizes these events. Thank you for including all of the information in these blogs. I continue to learn new information everytime that I read one.
ReplyDelete-Elyse Duley
A camp designed for murder and only murder. That is a crushing that gives me chills, and the fact that people let this happen or even participated in an even more chilling thought. I can’t believe what I just read. Especially with the idea that the Nazi’s felt they could act as cowards and destroy the work that the believed was right. It disgusts me. It also disgusts me in the fact that they simply did not care. They did not care that they were murdering hundreds of thousands and not even leaving any identifiable traces of their existence, and they didn’t care about anything when it came to the Jewish population. It is truly sickening. -Madison Lastoria
ReplyDeleteWhat surprised me the most was the the effort the Nazis put into clearing there tracks when they went on and on about what they were doing wasn’t murder and was their duty. Why would they have put the effort into clearing buildings/chambers that appear to be made concrete if they thought what they were doing was right. I think that this shows the Nazis had guilt and were scared because they knew what they were doing was wrong. Not that the persecution of millions of people should have to be questioned as right or wrong at all. When you said the 1% had to take the bodies from the chambers to the grave, it made me question if that was worse than death. Obviously know one wants to die, but it would be terrifying to have to carry your own family and friends to their mass grave. I can’t even imagine the emotions that the man who did that felt knowing that he literally can’t do anything or he would end up just like his family.
ReplyDeleteOut of all the camps I have read about, I believe this one may be the most haunting. I mainly have come to that conclusion because of the pictures of the desolate camp after the Nazis destroyed everything. Also, the amount of death that occured in that relatively “small” camp is incredible in a terrible way. I was also taken back by how the “tube” looks like something out of a horror film. I hate to envision the anxiety these Jews felt as they marched to their unknowing deaths. I was also shocked by the quote that said, “If we didn’t fight the Jews, they would destroy us.” So many things about that anger me to no end.
ReplyDelete-Sophie Slayden
Throughout the entire Holocaust, the Nazis NEVER called it murder or admitted to what they were doing. Here they even blamed the Jews for starting World War 2! They did this sort of thing so often that it makes me wonder if they were trying to rationalize their actions or if they actually believed what they were saying. How could they not have known that they were the ones who started another world war? I also can't imagine how some of the Nazis managed to work at the death camps. How could they manage to murder group after group of Jews with barely enough time to empty the gas chambers? The way they broke apart their bodies looking for valuables must have had a serious effect on their mental health.
ReplyDelete-Brian Ramsey
All of the false information that the Nazis told the Jews is awful. They made them believe that they would keep their luggage after going through the gas chamber! I guess they were trying to make the system as efficient as possible and did not want people to get afraid. I do find it really symbolic that the plants after being to grow through the demolished camp. It has been about 75 years and the foliage of the area is just beginning to grow back. That shows you how much the Holocaust impacted every aspect of the world. I did not know it took a whole 30 minutes for them to die. I would not want to be present for the chaos that ensued when showers were not turned on and people started to feel hurt...Or the boy that asked his mom what he had done wrong. That completely breaks my heart. It’s so awful that the victims were not even recorded. Their lives were just erased with no recognition by this awful place. Families would have no way to track them down or find out what happened after the war.
ReplyDeleteMoriah Campbell
This death camp was awful because it was literally just a place built to kill Jews. The final solution was so despicable because the Nazis did not even see it as murder. THey used euphemisms like “resettlement” and “final solution” so they wouldn’t feel like they were murdering millions of people. In fact, the Nazis did not feel like they were murdering people at all because they did not see the Jews as human beings. The fact that the Nazis kept all of the Jews’ valuables angers me because it shows how little they cared about anyone but themselves. The pictures of the tube also saddened me because that is where thousands of Jews were forced through to inevitably go to their deaths.
ReplyDeleteMac Patterson
I think it is jaw dropping that there are literally only two survivors from this place. Out of 500,000 people there are only two known survivors. I just do not understand how that can happen. The sign about the kid calling for his mom out of fear gets to me. Regardless of what's going on whenever I call my mom she always comes for me; the one thing that I don't want to die away from or rather am scared to die away from is my family and I don't know how to comprehend what it feels like sitting in the pitch black and dying away from your family. It just confuses me how people can do this and even still funcition in society. People standing up dead because they cannot move and the hooks and the teeth but I guess they were just following orders. I don't know how anybody can see that and become numb because that takes a literally animal to hook dead people to see if they have gold teeth. I know that is not something that cannot be taught or somebody can be told to do or even paid to do.
ReplyDeleteRyan Szeker
I don't know why they even used alternative words to identify the killings. At that point, I think they should just use the word murder because that's what they were doing. When I read that the mass murder took 30 minutes I wasn't happy. Hundreds of thousands of people had to die a slow and painful death which is horrible to think about. Then they doubled the number of chambers and could kill even more people. It's disgusting how they put dead bodies on the railroad tracks. That's the most gruesome way I can think of and when you referred to the Nazis as creatures, I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDelete-Carson Bahr
The picture that stated how 500,000 people were killed between February and December of 1942 really shook me. That is an astonishing amount of people being killed in such a short amount of time. I was also very disturbed by the inhumane ways the Nazis would burn the Jews’ bodies. The fact that the Nazis were able to do both of these things exposes their true character. The picture of how the Nazis justified their actions was very revealing. I guess this is how they were able to live with themselves after committing so many horrible actions. The quote from the children going to the gas chambers was so upsetting. This kids never did anything wrong. They weren’t even able to understand why this was happening to them. How the Nazis had the ability to take their lives away before the children had a chance to live theirs’ is horrifying. Lastly, it was very sobering to see the picture of the Jews’ belongings. It is so easy to get caught up in the numbers of the Holocaust, but pictures like this one help remind us that these are not just numbers, they are people too. Thank you, Mrs. Stone, for writing this blog.
ReplyDeleteHalsey Patrick
Again, the numbers. Only two people survived. TWO. I'm so aggravated that the majority of Nazis were not brought to justice because this is pure evil. I don't know what else to call it but insidious. No recorded names. Few belongings left behind. A destroyed camp. The Nazis managed to strip these people of their identities as human beings, which is the most basic entitlement. The few belongings with the star of david on them have to represent thousands upon thousands of people. The camp being destroyed angers me the most. The Nazis would've continued if it weren't for their own self-interest. They didn't destroy them because they realized they were horribly wrong, and they never had to admit it either. It hurts to know that justice was not served properly. The sheer barbarity of the Nazis too is appalling. Searching dead bodies for gold and only seeing the money rather than what once was a life. My heart aches for the unnamed.
ReplyDelete-Annie Vedder
Reading about a death camp truly was different from reading about a concentration camp. I think this is because everyone who was sent to Belzak was sent directly to the gas chambers, and reading about the number of people who were killed in the death camp in comparison to the number who survived was heartbreaking. If there were six gas chambers in a small death camp, I cannot even imagine how many there were in larger ones. Something that surprised me while I was reading was that Belzac used carbon monoxide to kill it’s prisoners while Auschwitz used Zyklon B. Why is that? I think maybe since Auschwitz was a much larger camp, it needed to use gases that would kill people faster. The picture that read, “Mamusia! Ja przecież byłem grzeczny! Ciemo! Ciemo!” really drew my attention. I was born in Poland and can speak Polish, and I could imagine the little boy saying these words. However, it was strange because I have never before seen/heard these words spoken in Polish, and I could not imagine these words coming out of my mouth when I was small like the little boy.
ReplyDelete-Sara Trochanowski
Something that really struck my about this blog was the fact that the Nazis had completely decimated it even though they were one really proud of their final solutions. However, light can always be found in dark times. That is what I think the little piece of grass represents. The Nazis tried to destroy the Jewish population, but they in turn only opened the worlds eyes about genocide. It is weird that the word effiecnt would be used to describe a concentration camp, but that is the whole point of the Holocaust. Things happened that didn't usually happen. However, something I noticed about the pictures was that the words looked like they were dripping blood. I thought it was really interesting that Mrs. Stone included a picture of the tube because Simon Wiesenthal talks abuout something really similar called the pipe. I had no idea that these structures were so intimidating. It literally looks like something you would herd animals through. With that said, the quotation about the mommy and child made me fall apart too. Wow...it's really hard to hear these things because you know that the innocent children had no idea they were about to die. Their lives were too short.
ReplyDeleteI think it is hard to contemplate what must happen to a person's mind before they willingly engage in a death camp. Imagine loading people HUMANS into a train and transporting them to a place where they were to be killed. I believe the Nazi deceptions and euphemisms were not just to keep the Jews under control but also to keep the Nazis sane. If you are forced with the blunt reality of your actions it's easier to rationalize them. For example at Auschwitz, if you are in charge of the selection, you can rationalize that you are simply picking out the weak and leave the dirty moral baggage to the guy who handles the corpses. I bring up this idea of euphemisms aiding the Nazis for a reason. At Belzac, there is no deception for the Nazis. It is crystal clear to them what they are doing. A death camp. Akin to herding cattle to the slaughterhouse. Yet there is no food or sustenance from killing the Jews. It is merely senseless murder. I am taken aback when I attempt to contemplate the true barbarity, cruelty, and lack of humanity that must course throw their veins. All Nazis carry the weight of the Holocaust on their shoulders. However, the Nazis at Belzac embody the unimaginable immorality of the Holocaust. Finally, I was struck by the words of that child to her mother. "Mommy, haven't I been good? It's dark. It's dark." I could spend hours and pages analyzing those nine words. The child's plea that they have been good shows some waning belief in a higher power or justice based off of your actions. This sentence shows the gradual realization in the mind of the child that it doesn't matter whether or not the child is kind, cruel, funny, smart, witty, inhumane, or bland. The child is Jewish and thus sentenced to death. Imagine that realization sinking into the mind of an eight year old little girl.
ReplyDelete-Ely A
The fact the SS officers had code names for their unearthly acts only proves they knew their dehumanizing acts were evil. They even destroyed all their gas chambers so no evidence was left behind. In Belzac, their way of keeping the Jews under control was "the tube", which stopped them from seeing the other part of the camp. "The tube" was their passage towards death, but the Jews thought they were going to become "clean" in order for them to work. Like Majdanek and Treblinka, life continued to persevere has plants were seen growing though the remnants of the death camp. Reading a quote from a little Jewish girl made my heart sink, ""Mommy, haven't I been good? It's dark. It's dark." The quote represented the turning point in which the girl knew something was wrong, and she was ,unfortunately, too late.
ReplyDelete--marin Boulware
ReplyDeleteI have heard and read about how terrible the concentration camps had been, but when I read this post, I was in shock. I knew there were death camps, but I didn't know the full extent of what happened. I assumed they just killed more people quicker than the other camps. I now know how these people were shuttled straight off of the train and into the gas chambers. It is heartbreaking to hear that these people’s identities will never be known because the Nazis didn't care enough about them to even keep records. The gruesome details about the gas chamber are hard to read, but the knowledge of the full extent of atrocities committed by the Nazis needs to be known to prevent modern day Neo-Nazi groups from forming. -Macey Smith
ReplyDeleteThis post was particularly shocking to me upon learning that only two people managed to escape the death camp. When I previously thought of the phrase, "death camp," I did not picture what is described here. Every single person who arrived here was murdered. This truly shows how monstrous the Nazis were. I read the description of the Nazis' examinations of the bodies in search of gold teeth and hidden objects, and it was disgusting. How could someone be so inhumane as to destroy someone's body after his/her death? It still shocks me that so many Nazis believed that exterminating all of the Jews would better the world. The plaque from the little girl talking to her mother was heartbreaking. No one deserves to experience what any of these innocent Jews did. -Caroline Mecia
ReplyDeleteThe Nazi cowards didn't even say what they were doing, they only used code words. And the fact that they destroyed all of the hateful evidence is sick. The Jews were tricked to the showers, the Nazis said they needed to clean before their hard labor. The Jews worked as hard as they could because they were told they'd get some sort of reward in return, that was a lie from the Nazis. I almost teared up reading the quote from the child to their mother. All I could do was think of my little siblings in that position, and this made me despise the Nazis even more. JUST THE WORST HUMANS!!!- Jayden Childress
ReplyDeleteWow. Reading some of the pictures has shocked me. Especially the one where it talked about how there wasn't even an inch to lean or move. I mean that is disastrous. I can't begin to fathom the thoughts that crossed their minds when they thought they ere being taken to "shower" only to realize what was actually going to happen. Also, I think that line that said "Families can be seen holding hands. Even in death." was one of the most shocking things I have read in all these blogs. I think this resembles the Jews in most of these camps. the Jews would do anything for their families, and they would never leave their side. To me, it is very powerful how even in death, they could still be seen holding hands. I think this resembles how the bonds in Jewish families during this time was unbreakable, even death could tear them apart.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most shocking things to read about in this blog was how there was no single thing to recognize those who died in this camp. No single scrap of paper, or records that the Nazis loved to keep around. The fact that the only memorial that could be placed had to take a guess at the names of those who died is incredible sad. Another shocking thing to me is how the Jews continued to defy the Germans, even in death, by making it harder for them to clean up the "mess" of the dead bodies by holding hands, and continuing to show their spirit of love towards each other.
ReplyDelete-Filip Weil
The Nazis appeared to be so strong and unstoppable in this time period. If that were true, why did they feel the need to propagate? If they were truly as strong, unstoppable, and as PROUD as they acted, they maybe would have felt less of a need to cover everything up. It's cowardice. It's truly disgusting that the Nazis would deceive the victims brought to this camp by giving them false hope through tickets to reclaim their possessions and telling them that gas chambers were showers. Lastly, the quote from the child displayed on the plaque truly broke my heart. Young, pure, innocent children who could not comprehend the idea of "hate" thought that what was happening to them was their fault. Was punishment for their wrongdoings when in reality, they haven't done anything to deserve this.
ReplyDelete-Giuli Iannitti
What really stood out to me in this post was the simplicity of Belzac. In a list-like series of steps, the Nazis were able to murder thousands of innocent people. It was so much less complicated than the concentration camps but inflicted the most damage. I can just imagine the Nazis sitting in a room thinking of this solution in less than an hour, and it disgusts me that they were able to plan genocide with such ease. The simplicity of the plan is almost ironic; how could the Nazis cause so much pain and suffering in 30 minutes? What’s worse is that they kept using euphemisms and were able to hide it from the world. It’s unfathomable how so many lives could be destroyed in an instant.
ReplyDelete- Ava Clark
This is a very strong post. Seeing the words and stories from the Jewish victims really stood out to me. I can't believe that 500,000 people were murdered in only this single camp. Also that only two ever escaped only to be killed later on. The quotes from different Jews stood out to me as well. It was really impactful to picture a child and his mother in the gas chamber with only confusion leading to terror. After reading the Nazi's "reason" for the Jews bring war astonished me. As if it were the Jew's fault for their own deaths.
ReplyDeleteHow can someone possibly gleefully shout about finding gold in the midst of dead bodies in which they had a part in killing? I cannot believe people like this existed. The worst part about these mass killings, in my opinion, is how indiscriminate they are. The Nazis killed large amounts of people and didn't record a single thing about them. What truly stood out to me was the fact that the Nazis would search for gold among the dead right after their death.
ReplyDelete-Cooper Owens
I find it utterly disucoicable that the Nazis won't even own up to the horror they caused. They destroyed what they did and hauled out all the bodies, showing that they knew they were in the wrong but continued it anyway. Why else would they hide the evidence? It's also a horror that they used carbon monoxide with takes three hours, letting the Jews suffer in the dark for hours, when they could have used the other gases to kill them quickly. Both are terrible, but one made them suffer. Taylor Fleeman
ReplyDeleteI am just at a loss for words with the descriptive pictures that were shown. I read every picture just trying to comprehend how the Nazis could be so cruel. The description of how the families and people in the gas chambers just horrifies me. It was so compacted and crowded the people in the gas chambers died standing, some huddled up with their families, and some families were even still holding hands after they were dead. Also reading the quote from a child who was sent to the gas chamber with their mother just made me tear up because just imagine you are a little kid and you are walking to your death. The Nazis once again used deception to their benefit with the Jewish people by giving the tickets that would “get their personal belongings back,” and they didn’t even care about tattooing their numbers on them because they were all going to die anyways; SOOO HEY WHAT IS THE POINT RIGHT…..
ReplyDeleteThe most surprising thing about this post is the fact that there was no Nazi record of the people who had died at this camp. Not even the buildings the Nazis had erected remained after the war. It is sad that names and cities of people had to be guessed to cover hopefully as many people as possible. It's also extremely disturbing that the Nazis used carbon monoxide with took three hours to kill its intended target. I also found the rail road picture and description disturbing.
ReplyDeleteThe factory like work of this death camp astounds me. For such awful slayings and mass murders to take place without remorse or second though is unbelievable. It is heart wrenching to read of the experiences of the victims of this death cap. They were treated and slain like cattle. They were kept unaware of their fate through deception until the end. I just don't imagine how one could stand by as thousands of people are murdered. Furthermore, it is just disrespectful the rush of the process. An entire train full of people killed in three hours. Their entire lives left to nothing but a 30 minute process. It is disgusting.
ReplyDelete-Ailish Coughlin
What is hard for me to process about this camp is the fact that the Nazi's had the audacity to destroy any evidence, but still continue these hatred acts. It makes me wonder if the Nazi's knew that what they were doing was wrong - but there's no way... To kill 75 some percent of the Jewish population is mind boggling and a struggle for me to wrap my head around. It leads me to a major question - Did these Nazi's have any remorse? Whether they did or not I couldn't care for, it doesn't justify anything but it makes me wonder how such acts could even take place.
ReplyDelete- David Hanley
The concept and actions of this camp show me the lack of regard the Nazis show for Jewish life. The fact that they doubled their number of gas chambers further emphasizes the monsters they were. The Nazis went into the chambers saw these people clutching their family members, covered in their own bodily fluids, standing completely straight up, yet they still searched their dead bodies and pulled out their teeth searching for valuables. Those are the actions of barbaric, hedonistic psychopaths, yet they still justified their actions by saying that the Jews would destroy them first. That disgusts me.
ReplyDelete~ Savannah S
The fact that the Nazi regime used so many eupamisms makes sense because they probably knew deep down that what they were doing was wrong. Also how they destroyed everything in the camp as a way to not get caught. This camp seems to be more complex with its different sections that were used for different jobs. Its overwhelming to hear how many jews could be killed and how easily and quickly it could be done, especially in the gas chambers. Not to mention how they became even more efficient in thier mass murder by doubling the amount of chambers. It’s upsetting how the names of these victims were not recorded so there is no way for them to be remembered. They are only known by the most common Jewish names that died during the Holocaust. The ways in which Nazis would dispose of bodies was very cruel and unimaginable. It’s interesting to hear about how the Nazis would give the Jews these “tickets” as a way to trick them that they were not about to be murdered.
ReplyDeleteEmary Gordon
It is so enraging and must be so insulting for the Jews to know that the Nazis used euphemisms such as “Final Solution” when talking about killing them. It proves that the Nazis didn’t care about the lives of the Jews, and they were hardly affected by them. I also hate that the Nazis created entire concentration camps just to kill Jews. They used hundreds of acres of land in Germany all directed to killing Jews. It is extremely disturbing to me that Nazis didn’t have a care in the world about the lives of the Jews. They used them as if they were toys, and I can’t imagine being treated so horribly. It is horrifying to me that the Nazis used carbon monoxide to kill the Jews. It took three hours to kill, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to be tortured for that long up until death.
ReplyDeleteSam Wofford
I learned that Belzac was known for its euphemisms, much like the Nazis. This camp was small and consisted of two parts. One side for the collection of the Jews belongings and one side for the gas chambers. The two sides were connected by a concrete tunnel surrounded by barbed wire. This meant that there was no way for the Jews to escape. This camp had one purpose, to kill. When the number of Jews increased the Nazis doubled the number of gas chambers in the camp. I was saddened to learn how the Jews were tricked into going to the camp. They were told Nazi euphemisms, I think this was to make the Nazis feel good about themselves. All of the Jews belongings that were brought to the camp were sold as a profit for the Nazis. There was not even enough time for roll call at this camp, the Jews were automatically sent to the gas chambers. There were also no survivors from this camp.
ReplyDeleteAnn Slegelmilch
I wonder how long the Nazis waited after the Wannsee conference before deciding to create more killing camps? My guess is not very long. The euphemisms that the Nazis used to deceive the Jews are insulting. They used nicer sounding words to justify their actions. It is surprising how small Balzac actually was, but they didn’t need much room for prisoner labor or barracks. Some of the other camps we have learned about were built right in the middle of town, but this one seems to be out in wooded areas more. Using barbed wire to cover the path between the two sections of the camp was a way to prevent the prisoners from escaping. It is thoughtful to put the names of towns where victims were from because no record was taken of who was killed. The way that the men described Balzac made me wince. Nazis used iron hooks to open dead people’s mouths. The people killed there didn’t know they were going to die when they were given a luggage tag.
ReplyDelete- Ashley Szymonski
This blog was very interesting because I was unaware that there were camps simply for the killing of Jews. I don’t know which would be better. A concentration camp where u live longer and may have a chance of survival but are tortured greatly, or a death camp where there is no suffering and just death. The blog says that Belzac was reasonably smaller than Auschwitz which is interesting because they still needed six gas chambers. Either Belzac really wasn’t that small, or Auschwitz it just huge! In the first picture, I thought it was ironic that the sign was talking about the victims, their deaths, and even blood, and the letters have rusted and dripped down the wall which looks like blood. One thing that was heartbreaking to me was the picture of the quote saying, “Mommy, haven’t I been good? It’s dark, it’s dark.” This saddened me a lot because the children being killed were so innocent, confused, and harmless.
ReplyDelete^^^EMI JONES
ReplyDeleteStanton Bryson
ReplyDeleteThe euphemisms the Nazis used to represent the extermination of an entire people are disgusting. They attempted to cover up crimes such as mass murder by describing it as "The Final Solution." This camp was small, but it was still very impactful. Belzac was made for killing, nothing else. It is astounding that there were only two known survivors. It is also shocking that so much terror and death occurred in the course of a year. The horrific use of the gas chambers and desecration of corpses is difficult to comprehend. The thought of Jews being forced into such a tight space that there was only room to stand as they were being murdered makes a deplorable act seem even more awful. The Nazis claimed that if they did not eliminate the Jews, "they would destroy us." This statement is completely incorrect, and it is a terrible justification for their horrible acts.
Soren Gautam
ReplyDeleteI cannot believe how the Nazis could use euphemisms for the mass murder of an entire religion. They thought that they could cover their tracks or hide something by using terms such as "The Final Solution." It also amazes that only two people are confirmed to have actually survived the camp which means the other 99% were killed at some point in their 1 year at Belzac. The method of killing was the now typical gas chamber as the Nazis found it the most effective even though it was also one of the most cruel ways to be killed/kill others. I also can't believe that the Nazis would say that the jews would destroy them among other false statements to try to justify what they did to the rest of the world even though the world could see through their horrible lies already.
How could the Nazis make killing an entire “race” sound like such a casual thing? “The Tube” sounds like a TV show, but in reality, it’s the hall that led so many people to die. It does make me happy knowing that such a horrible place was not only destroyed, but now there are plants and other forms of life growing all around. It’s almost symbolic for the hopes of the Jewish people much like the sunflower was for Simon. Reading on, I cannot even begin to believe that these officers stood outside of the gas chambers and listened to the screams of innocent, dying people for three hours! The worst part for me is that the Nazis knew that these people were all innocent and they still believed in their cause. Hitler was so persuasive that he made millions believe that if they didn’t dispose of the Jews, they would fight back. I can’t manage to put together how the children would react to this. Most probably had no idea what was going on. I could never listen to the screams of dying men and women, let alone children.
ReplyDeleteSofia Christofaro
It was saddening to read that there was a facility made just for people to be led to their death. No deceiving, no waiting until their time came, just walking down “the Tube” towards the end of their lives. In a way, it may have been “better” than the torture that people endured at other camps such as Auschwitz prior to their death, but it was completely malevolent and horrific. I can imagine the faces of people as they walked down the corridor, and it is agonizing to think of quickly these people’s lives ended. Reading the cry from the child asking, “haven’t I been good?” was so painful to read because he wondered if the nightmare he was experiencing was due to his own actions. It disgusted me to read the process that occurred after the innocent people got off the train. It only took 30 minutes for the mass murder! 30 minutes to put thousands of people at the end of their lives. I am truly appalled.
ReplyDelete-Gillian Morano
I'm not surprised there were only 2 escapees, but what is that compared to other camps? I wonder how they did it and how their lives continued after. Judging by what the escapee said about his job as a sonderkommando, it must have been a horriblele feeling when they heard the frightened children asking their mothers if everything was going to be alright. They lied so much to the Jews and went out of there way to do so. For example, creationg concrete number tags for their clothes so they could think they were getting their clothes back after the "shower." The victims truly had no idea what was going on. I don't understand how exactly someone could be so heartless by giving them false hope that they were going to take a shower. When in reality, they were sending them off to their deaths.
ReplyDelete- Jordan Browning
One thing that really struck me while learning about the Holocaust and reading this blog was the use of code words for the Holocaust such as “Resettlement to the East.” In a way, Hitler and his regime were almost able to hide their murderous plans by using simple euphemisms. I am disturbed that one could classify such a horrific event with a phrase like “The Final Solution.” I was so inspired while reading this blog when I came upon the picture of the plants growing through the rocks. It amazes me that something good could grow from something so evil. It gives me hope that there is still immense good in this world. It is easy to get caught up in the negative news stories and lose all of the good things in life. I also found the 3 hour long kill time to be a lot longer than I expected. I was thinking it would be more around the time period of one hour. This was surprising to me and allowed me to understand the extent of the killings.
ReplyDelete-Lexi Amedio
The hardest part to read in this blog was Kurt Gerstein’s recollection (a former Nazi soldier) of entering a gas chamber after the innocent men, women, and children had been gassed. It was extremely disturbing to read that nazis would tear open dead victim’s mouth with iron hooks in search of golden teeth. The inhumane disregard for the victims even after they had passed was appalling. It shows that these creatures were demonized to the point where they truly were nub to the humans that they were brutally murdered just because they were wrongfully taught that these innocent people were inferior and a threat to them if they didn’t kill them. As one of the nazis said, “if we did not fight the Jews, they would destroy us.” This quote embodied the nazi brainwashing that had turned these germans into creatures that killed without hesitation, with no fact behind their killings, just propaganda full of lies and deception.
ReplyDeleteLeo O’Neill
I am not surprised to hear that the Nazis once again deceived the Jews by calling the Final Solution things like "resettlement to the east." The fact that all of the Jews who entered this camp had no chance of life is disturbing. Although the camp was horrific and saddening to read about, the plants in the picture were very inspirational and symbolic. It just goes to show that no matter how dark a situation may be, hope and courage are achievable. Reading the cry from the child, "haven't I been good" was so hard for me to read. The thought of an innocent, young child going through the horrors of the Holocaust and dying in a gas chamber is terrible. I can't even begin to imagine how physiologically messed up the Nazis were to be able to do such things.
ReplyDeleteAva Harrell
"Yup. The little amount of Jews are going to kill all of you. You're all gonna die." Did they really believe that? I mean seriously. Why were they so dumb. Why would they go along with a death camp like this. Only a death camp. No deception, no nothing. Just death, death, and more death. They just went along with it like, "Nothing to see here. We're just killing everyone. Move along." I feel more and more angry about the US and other nations who stood by and watched this happen. ARGHHH.
ReplyDeleteEthan Fronapfel
DeleteThe first that really shocked me was the fact that there had been around 500,000 victims and the fact that there are only one or two survivors breaks my heart because the people that died never had a chance to escape or realize what was going on. The fact that they didn’t even bother recording the names of the victims or tattooing a number on their arm shows the Nazi’s disregard for life. I can’t comprehend how someone could willingly and knowingly send another human who is completely innocent to their death. It was hard for me to continue reading after you described the Nazis as “efficient,” just thinking about it gives me chills that an entire community would desire to be “efficient” in killing people. Reading a Nazi’s justification made me feel sick. How could someone even begin to rationalize the crimes that they were committing? How could they ignore the screams, the cries, and all of the dead bodies? How could they sleep at night knowing that they were responsible for the murder of innocent people? This goes beyond brainwashing and comes down to what is morally right and wrong; how did the Nazis feel no guilt?
ReplyDelete-Lila Barenberg
I think it is crazy how the Nazis sold the Jewish people belongings after they took them away to the concentration camps. I also think that it is crazy to hear that Stangl’s main concern was to kill inmates sooner after their arrival to Treblinka. It fascinates me that the Nazis were able to fool jews and draw them to concentration camps by telling them they would be rewarded for working hard. I do think it is smart, in a horrible way though, that the Nazis figured out that making the jews out of breath would cause them to die faster in the gas chambers. It is weird to me that the gas chamber buildings did not survive. It is unfortunate that you did not get to see even one of the ten gas chamber buildings that were at this concentration camp. I feel like it would be really interesting to see even though terrors and horrible deaths occurred in them. The whole plan and system the Nazis had, especially for burning the corpses, is crazy and I could have never imagined someone coming up with such a thought out plan for burning bodies. It is amazing how you were able to find your grandmother's town among all the rocks that were there. I also think that it is really cool that there are thousands of rocks extracted from different towns to represent the towns affected by Nazism. After looking at all the pictures and comparing the past to the present, I think it is crazy to believe that the old pictures are at the same place as the new ones. The old pictures look very dark and bring a pit in my stomach. The new pictures though are really pretty. It is crazy how something so horrible and gruesome can turn into an amazing and beautiful place where you now honor those who did lose their lives at this concentration camp.
ReplyDelete- Emma Groves
^^Posted to wrong blog. ignore.
DeleteA whole camp just for murdering Jews is crazy. How could someone in their right mind have only killing in their brain? For being such a small camp, Belzac seems like it was built more intricately. The first picture has a lot of rust running down from the words. This rust, in my eyes, represents the bloodshed of all of the lives lost at this camp. Over 500,00 in just 11 months, wow! I still can not comprehend why the Nazis destroyed everything that remained at camps like Belzac if they thought what they were doing was right. They had so much confidence that what they were doing that needed to be done, but yet they here someone is coming, they destroy it all. That does not make any sense to me. The few sentences written by a Nazi seem unrealistic. How could such a small population destroy a whole world? It is unreasonable, but I guess Hitle managed to do it to the Jews. Sounds like the passage should be reversed. 2 out of 500,000 people survived this camp. How crazy. Disgusting. Digging through dead bodies and messing with them is so gross. I get the Nazis wanted money and wanted to steal it from the Jews because they were seen as a threat but that is nasty.
ReplyDelete- Emma Groves
It is scary that there were only two survivors through the pain and suffering of this concentration camp. Everyone else died. One thing that stood out to me was the stones and rocks lied over the surface of the grass. As you said, you can see the plants and life growing through the rocks despite the barriers. This shows the Jews’ effort to strive through life. In could never understand the Nazis’ point of view. How could they handle killing millions of innocent people? The quote about the boy in the picture breaks my heart because he is blaming himself on the Nazis’ doings. He believes that it is his fault. I cannot believe how many times I have heard the Nazis lying to the Jews. In almost all of your blogs, the Nazis have lied in some way.
ReplyDelete- Emma Grace Parker
This blog was very hard for my brain to take in. Everything about the camp was completely horrific. I was so surprised when I read that there were only two known survivors! How could that even be possible? It blows my mind to think about that from all those people who were murdered only two survived. It makes me feel sick. How was Belzac considered small!! Six gas chambers are so many!! This makes me start to wrap my mind around how big all of these camps were. The picture included that had the quote about the child and the mother really touched me. It was so sad and so full of innocence.
ReplyDelete- Lillian Smith
As said by others, the words used to cover up their heinous intentions make me sick. "Resettlement" When they are actually moving these poor Jews to where they are going to maliciously murder them is upsetting. The first picture of the cement sign where it had the number and the writing for the death camp stood out to me as well. The running brown showed the weathering, and also states how much it went through, kind of like how the Jews were weathered down at the camp. I could not believe the Nazis blamed the Jews for how they treated them.
ReplyDelete-Evan Pratt
“Mommy, haven't I been good? It’s dark, it’s dark.” this can only be read as the words of a child just before death. “Haven't I been good?” the child thinks that one of their actions must have brought on the dark punishment of the gas chamber. What the child doesn't and can't possibly know is that no action would EVER justify the kind of punishment awaiting them. Reading about chambers filled with Zyklon B allows distance. It allows me, while I read, to take a step back from the death. I only vaguely know what it is from The Devil’s Arithmetic. I know that it is a pellet and it poured from shafts onto people who could not move to fling it away. It’s mysterious. Carbon monoxide, however, is close to home. It’s hard to believe that the same reason for cutting off my music when I pull into my driveway is the one that suffocated millions.
ReplyDelete-sophie thrasher
Makayla Gathers
ReplyDeleteI will never understand how the Nazis were able to make sense of what they were doing. A lot of them use excuses like they were just following orders, but they had a choice. A lot of the citizens were making excuses by saying they didn’t know it was going on, but everything was out in the open. Other Nazis feel no remorse. They don’t believe they did anything wrong. Some still felt like they did the right thing and that they should be rewarded for their actions not punished. I don’t understand because if they truly felt that way, why do they think they had several trees hiding one camp? Why did they start gassing because shooting people was taking an emotional toll on the Nazis? These things show they were humans and knew what they were doing was wrong, yet they felt they needed to take the lives of innocents. It’s also very upsetting when you hear the accounts of Nazis, and their recollection. It’s also sad that someone’s heart can grow numb to cries and screams of children. The Nazis were proud and they all should’ve been punished.
It is terrifying how they made camps only to kill the Jews. It is also shocking that no one knew what the Germans were doing and they tried to hide it by calling it the final solution instead of telling the people what it actually is which is murder. It is devastating that they killed 500,000 Jews in almost a year. It is also bad that they destroyed some of the camps because it destroys most of the evidence and it helps people forget the things that they have done. It also contributes to why some people don't know or believe in the Holocaust.
ReplyDelete- Sebastian Zarta
It took three hour to kill a train heap of Jews. I loathe thinking about that since three hours is quite a while so they probably been languishing in the gas chamber over quite a while before kicking the bucket. This makes me feel wiped out to my stomach. I abhor the way this was exclusively a concentration camp. It is much more dreadful that the Nazis utilized code words to make the Jews think they were really washing up. The reality the rates were turned around is chilling. By mid-February 1943 just 20-25 percent of the Jewish populace was left. Mind blowing! Just 11 months sooner 75-80 percent of Jews were alive. Terrifying to imagine that in only 11 months it went down so radically. This genuinely shows the awfulness of what individuals can do when they abhor. That one image of the words that state, "earth don't cover my blood let there be no resting spot for my clamor'' frequents me. The manner in which the stains are dribbling off the letters make it increasingly significant when I read it in light of the fact that in my mind it speaks to the Jew's blood.
ReplyDelete-Sunil Mehta
It is unbelievable that camps were made just to kill Jews. They went through all that work to build camps and gas chambers just to kill innocent prisoners. They also killed little kids who were confused by what they did wrong. It also took them three hours to kill a train full of Jews. I find this so insane that the soldiers would go through so much effort and time to kill people who did nothing to them. These camps were also so terrible because the soldiers paid even less attention to the prisoners. The soldiers did not bother tattooing them because they knew that they would all be dead soon. Even though such terrible things happened at the death camp, life today till prospers amongst the rubble. It is very inspirational to see the green plants growing through the rocks and stone covering the entire ground. What happened at these death camps is inhumane, and it can never happen again in the future.
ReplyDelete-Jordan Taylor