FREE ESSAY ON HOLOCAUST

HOLOCAUST

Quincy Nnanna
Period 3
Holocaust Killings
Picture yourself and millions of others. Freezing in the cold with only a pair of pants
and a shirt on, without any shoes. Mud is up to your knees with bugs crawling through it.
Scary SS guards put you and your family in different sections. You do not know that is
the last time you will be seeing your family, alive that is. While they are sent to so
call "showers" you are relieved. You later find out that those so called "showers" are
really gas chambers and your family was killed and you will never see them again. This
was the harsh reality for many Jewish, homosexual, gypsy and numerous other
nationalities. The people were killed in a very inhumane way by gas chambers to hanging,
which no innocent person should go through.
There numerous ways of the Nazis thought of to exterminate the people. The Nazis went in
stages to find out what was most efficient in kill people in mass numbers. First they
used shooting. People had to strip naked and line up to be shot. The Nazis took their
belongings to sell. Nazis didn't like this method they felt not enough people were being
killed. The cost was very high so that was also a turnoff. After the first phase of
shooting they used gas chambers. This method killed people in mass numbers, which of
course the Nazis loved it. This also was very cost effective. While gas chamber use was
in effect the Nazis also used hangings as a way to kill the victims. This cost nearly no
money, but did not kill as many people and not favored because of this. There were other
numerous others ways the people were killed. Those were the main three.
Two important substances were used in the gas chambers, as before these were used in
stages. The first stage was the use of carbon monoxide. It was used during testing
stages. The people in charge recorded time to see how it would take to kill a room full
of people. They thought the time it took to kill the people was too long so they later
discarded this method. The cost was also too high to keep going on killing for a period
of time. Zyklon B was used in the later stages as brought to attention by chemists. The
chemical was low in cost and was used to the end. The chemical was a rat poison and when
used in mass numbers can kill human beings. It was poured in a chute of the ceilings
where used and evaporated in contact with oxygen and spread throughout wherever it was
contained. It was a faster killer than carbon monoxide.
The choosing of who dies were sorted into groups. Some of the groups were the young,
middle-aged, old and sick. The young were sent to labor. When the guards thought they
might be not strong enough they were they were killed. The middle-aged were usually used
for their special skills in whatever previous job or background they had. Some were even
used as kapos to keep track of fellow people. There were not as many jobs for the old.
They sometimes if they were lucky kept up with the cleaning. Others worked in the
crematoriums, but most were killed. The was most of the time killed unless they were used
for testing.
Due to the up bringing of this anti-Semitic and racial views millions of people had to
suffer. Gypsies, homosexuals, mentally ill, Germans who protected Jews and the most in
number Jews were all persecuted and killed just because of their beliefs and who they
were. What happened to all these innocent people was cruel, brutal and inhumane. I hope
the human race never repeats itself in this fashion.