1. Not all of the Holocaust was carried out in Concentration Camps
Not all of the Holocaust was carried out in Concentration Camps. Over a million Eastern European Jews were executed in person by the “Einsatzgruppen”, which was Hitler’s professional killing force. Most of the early part of the Holocaust was carried out in this manner.

2. “The last Jew in Vinnitsa”
During most of the Holocaust if a German soldier did not have the stomach to carry out these killings they could request a transfer to the German Army with little consequence.

3. German executioners often made their Jewish victims dig their own graves before shooting them. Often men would be shot first, then women, and finally children.

4. Why Concentration Camps?
Most Concentration and Extermination Camps were built and used later in the war when the Germans realized that executing people in person was too inefficient and took too much of a psychological toll on most of the soldiers. Therefore these camps were developed to expedite the process and “industrialize murder”

5. Opening Gate to Auschwitz Concentration Camp
“Work Makes You Free”
Opening Gate to Auschwitz Concentration Camp

6. When you were brought into concentration camps like Dachau or Auschwitz a number was tattooed to your arm which became your identity. German guards would only refer to this person as “98288”

10. “You enter here, through the main gate – You exit through the chimney
“You enter here, through the main gate – You exit through the chimney.” -Statement a German Guard told Holocaust survivor Joseph Bau

11. Auschwitz was mostly a Concentration Camp where people could survive as long as they could keep working (average lifespan of three months)
Camps like Treblinka were Extermination Camps and were built for the sole purpose of killing anyone who entered the camp. The average lifespan of anyone who entered Treblinka was 45 minutes. Of the 1.6 million who entered the camp there were only 100 survivors.

12. Most of the Holocaust was carried out in Eastern Europe
In Eastern Ukraine and the Soviet Union most killings were carried out by Einsatzgruppen Executions
In, Western Europe, Poland and Western Ukraine most deaths were carried out in Concentration and Extermination Camps

13. Impact of the Holocaust
Of Europe’s original Jewish population of 9 million before World War II, 6 million were killed either in Concentration Camps or by Hitler’s Einsatzgruppen. When the war was finished over 2/3rds of the Jews who used to live in Europe had been wiped out