Daniel W. Blackmon IB HL History Coral Gables Sr. High The Holocaust Part V Daniel W. Blackmon IB HL History Coral Gables Sr. High

Gentile rescue operations Individuals who assisted Some Gentiles assisted Jews for mundane or selfish reasons. Bernard Weiss, a local survivor, describes in his book Entombed how a man hid Jews in a special underground room for money.

Gentile rescue operations . When my students asked him what he thought of the man, he said he regarded him as a hero.

Gentile rescue operations )Oscar Schindler’s motives appear to have been quite complex. It is noteworthy that he was supported throughout the rest of his life, quite voluntarily, by those whom he had saved.

Gentile rescue operations A Hungarian survivor told my students, “There is no price for a Gentile who helped a Jew. There is no price. If you helped a Jew, it was not just you who would be sent to the concentration camp, it was your family and everyone you loved.”

Le Chambon sur Ligne This Huguenot village in Vichy France, led by their pastors, actively protected and assisted Jews.

Denmark The Danes boldly smuggled many of their Jews out of the country The Germans were aware of these efforts and brought dogs to search the boats used for smuggling.

Denmark The Danes fooled the dogs by putting rags soaked in rabbit blood and cocaine on the boats. The dogs would go straight for the blood, and the cocaine would numb their sense of smell.

Sweden Sweden also attempted to save Jews. Raoul Wallenberg issued passports to Hungarian Jews until the fall of Budapest to the Red Army. He was taken into custody by the Soviets and never returned.

The Death Marches As the Allies re-conquered Europe, the Nazis began evacuating camps and moving the inmates back to Germany. Since the Red Army was entering Poland in 1944, and since most of the camps were in the East, these death marches were generally in the East.

The Death Marches .The evacuation of Auschwitz began in July 1944

The Death Marches .A survivor of the Auschwitz death march has described the conditions to me in the starkest terms. Dressed in rags, with little food, they were marched out and kept at a forced pace.

The Death Marches Deaths were commonplace. These marches brought the Jews (and other nationalities) into German villages–photographs of them were taken from the windows of houses.

Death March From Dachau

Death March From Dachau

Liberation As Allied soldiers discovered the camps, there was a universal reaction of horror and revulsion.

Corpses: Gusen

Survivors at Dachau

Survivors: Mauthausen

Mass Grave at Nordhausen

Liberated Prisoners: Auschwitz Middle tier, 7 from left, next to post is Elie Wiesel

Liberation As the Third Reich collapsed, conditions became chaotic. In some cases, camp guards simply abandoned the camps without word or warning. In other cases, attempts were made to kill all the prisoners before liberation could occur.

Liberation One survivor told me that she escaped from a train when US P-51 Mustangs strafed the train and halted it. .Another told me that the women SS-guards, before fleeing to save their own skins, poisoned as many prisoners as they could, including her sister.

Captured Female Guards

Liberation A Liberator has told me about discovering a camp, and watching prisoners literally die at his feet from malnutrition, starvation, and dysentery. Even after liberation, the condition of the victims was such that many died.