The Holocaust (1941-1945) was a campaign of mass murder in which six million Jewish (and non-Jewish people combined) were killed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. The persecuted individuals included 1.5 million children.
Some
42,500 detention facilities were utilized in the concentration of victims for
the purpose of gross violations of human rights. The persecuted were herded into wartime ghettos. Specialized
paramilitary murdered around two million of the persecuted in extermination
camps.
Here
are the ways the persecuted survived all of the Holocaust horror.
1.
Beet Juice: The persecuted
were starved and worked ragged in death camps. They were not given
proper clothing, which made their bodies very pale and weak (like living
skeletons). At the Auschwitz camp, the prisoners during medical examinations
would use beet juice (and sometimes their own blood) to give their cheeks a blush tone to make them seem healthier.
Should they
fail the medical exam they would be put to death. The blush in their cheeks
gave them leverage over the doctors. It tricked them into believing they were
healthier than they truly were.
2.
Hair Dye: At the
beginning of the Holocaust, the Nazis targeted the mentally handicapped and the
elderly. Age was the one thing that gave the persecuted away. Older men and
women (usually above the age of 40) had hair that was either partially or fully
gray. Hair dye frequently ran out of stock at stores in the major Jewish cities because of the
increasing numbers of people needing to dye their hair.
3.
Fake IDs and Birth Records: Another way
Nazis looked for Jewish people to persecute was through their birth records and
passports. When many The persecuted went into hiding, they used their ID forging
skills to help hundreds of the persecuted avoid suffering. This saved from
the Nazi regime from the death camps. Many who received fake papers fled to
Switzerland and Denmark.
4.
Kindertransport: The
kindertransport was a secret escape route for those under the age of 18 from
Germany in the years 1938–1940. During this time, Jewish children were smuggled
out of Germany, Poland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia into countries willing to
accept them.
The United
Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 children over that period of time. The children were also
given fake IDs to use in the event that they were stopped before they reached
their destination. Once they reached their sanctuary country, they were
assigned a family to stay with.
5.
Living: Once
the persecuted were taken away to death camps, their chances of survival were slim,
and every second alive had to count. The prisoners at the Sobibor death camp
worked their assigned jobs during the day, and had lives of their own during
the nights.
They regularly socialized, ate/drank together (with the
provisions they were allowed), and even had sex lives. When survivors of this camp were interviewed, many of them
said that trying to live normal lives was their form of resisting the Nazis.
6.
Revolt: In the summer
of 1943, the persecuted at the Sobibor death camp overheard leaders speak that
all prisoners were to be exterminated. The death camp was to be destroyed before
Russian liberators could arrive. The persecuted (around 600) planned a revolt
against the camp.
They
individually killed off guards,
broke through the barbed wire fence, and ran through an open
mine field toward the forest all in one day. Only 200 or so of the prisoners
survived.
7.
Hiding: Many of the
persecuted were taken in by families and hidden in different areas,
which included unused basements/attics, hidden crawlspaces within walls or
floors, and secret compartments (such as fake bookshelves or fake windows). Before the war ended, the persecuted were
often discovered in these hiding places, and taken to death camps (where many
died).
8.
Exercise: At many of the death
camps, there were medical exams that the persecuted had to pass to stay alive. Exercise
in the barracks was often used before an exam. They would run, do pushups, and
even quarrel with each
other in the hopes that they would make
themselves look healthier to the doctors.
9.
Service to Nazi Soldiers: Another unusual
way of survival was the different services the persecuted could offer to the Nazi
soldiers. The main services (for men) was infiltrating secret orders, find out
where other persecuted were hiding, and then report this information to Nazi
soldiers in exchange for their lives.
Females served as
sexual comfort (at brothels) for Nazi soldiers. These women were often treated better
than average persecuted females, and usually lived longer.
10.
Bribery: High-society people were able to
bribe their way out of being persecuted to freedom. In the end, many of these
people were alive, but broke
and without necessary survival supplies. Many Nazi soldiers were power-hungry,
and wanted to be wealthy themselves. [i]
“Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and the author of Man's Search for Meaning,
wrote that human beings create meaning in
three ways: through their work, through their relationships, and by how they
choose to meet unavoidable suffering. Every life brings hardship and trial, and
every life also offers deep possibilities for meaningful work and love... I've
learned that courage and compassion are two sides of the same coin.” (Eric Greitens)
[i] Adapted from “10 Survival Tricks Used During The
Holocaust” by Celeste Holloway
and Wikipedia
The
purpose of this post is to illustrate the human desire to live. All life is precious as is
illustrated here.
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