Death Marches

Direct Quote: Of approximately 825,000 Jews living in Hungary in 1941, roughly 255,000 survived the Holocaust. Lajos Ornstein was one of them.

Approximately 20% of the populations survived. Support of the harsh conditions of the camps and marches. From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote: In German-occupied countries, the need to prove loyalty to new German masters, particularly if one had previously cooperated with Soviet occupiers

Because of their propaganda, they believed in their original belief which was the Nazi's belief. They did everything to be accepted as one of the Nazis due to them thinking that the Nazis are right. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: "Fear" is a popular explanation for people's behavior during the Holocaust.

Fear is what's controlling the jews and some of the officials during the holocaust. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Summary: The Auschmitz death march was considered the most notorious of the death marches that took place on January 1945. At that time, the Soviet army advanced and occupied Poland.

From: DEATH MARCHES

Paraphrase: After all the deaths and how tired they are, many prisoners accepted their death and begged for a peaceful death.

From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Paraphrase: Because of all the marches, the remaining camps are overcrowded. Many death occurred because people were fighting over space and food.

From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Paraphrase: Many prisoners after the liberation decided to commit suicide but many have decided to make the most out of it by going to school. Pál went to medical school.

From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Paraphrase: During the death marches, prisoners were starved and they were given food approximately every three days.

From: The world must know(book)

Paraphrase: Propaganda was used to make the prisoners think that they were the cause of the economic and social problems of Germany and the World.

From: The world must know(book)

Paraphrase: The old and sick were sent to the gas chamber or used other way of mass killing.

From: The world must know(book)

Paraphrase: The prisoners were allowed to rest every three days, but due to the poor weather, if they fall asleep they may never wake up again.

From: The world must know(book)

Paraphrase: When new prisoners were transported to the camps, they were dehumanized to prevent revolts.

From: The world must know(book)

Paraphrase: Gas chambers were used to kill Soviet POWs and Jews. It is a sealed chamber which a poisonous gas is introduced. It is believed that the SS officers were getting tired of shooting the sick and old so they decided to use gas.

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Paraphrase: Himmler who was one of the SS leaders believed that he could use the prisoners as hostage to bargain for peace and the survival of the Nazi population.

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Paraphrase: In the summer and early autumn months of the year 1944, most of the evacuations were carried out by train. Due to allies reaching the German border, the SS authority increased the rate of evacuation of the concentration camp by traveling on foot.

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Paraphrase: The star of David was sewed onto the clothes of the prisoners to separate them form society.(a mean of dehumanization)

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Paraphrase: When the German position was cut off in the Baltic States, they were evacuated by ship instead of by foot or train.

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Summary: The Death March was called the Death March because of all the deaths that occurred during this event. Starvation was used to kill a large number of prisoners before the march. People that wasn't able to keep up with the group will be shot.

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Summary: The SS authority didn't want the prisoners to fall into enemy hand alive to tell their stories to the liberators.(One of the purpose of the evacuation)

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Summary: The SS authority thinks that they need the prisoners to maintain the productions of military weapons and other equipment whenever possible.

From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Paraphrase: The prisoners' conditions were so desperate that they were forced to eat snow to stay hydrated.

From: night and DEATH MARCHES

Direct Quote: The small percentage of inmates who survived resembled skeletons because of the demands of forced labor and the lack of food, compounded by months and years of maltreatment. Many were so weak that they could hardly move.

Hardly any prisoners survived and the ones that did due to the harsh conditions of the camps will make their survival harder. From: DEATH MARCHES

Direct Quote:The snow we ate-imagining that it was ice cream, the bread that was thrown into the cars as the train passed under bridges in Czechoslovakia and the grownups who stole it from us, the cold, "Oh that cold!" the frostbite, and the amputation of my toes that followed in the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen.

Harsh conditions, people were presented as caged animals. People thrown in bread to see reaction.(During march) From: Remembering the Auschwitz Death March

Direct Quote: Spiegelman gets his facts from his father, the witness and the survivor. The work's frame shows Art interviewing Vladek, insisting that his father tell the story of his trip to the underworld in an orderly, chronological way. Art travels to Auschwitz and Buchenwald in order to depict those scenes more clearly, and he provides maps, charts, a microscopic view of a louse to convince us and, perhaps himself, that the facts are straight. But none of the facts is even in question: Art never disputes his father's suffering or the reality of the Holocaust.

How Maus is organized makes the reader connect to it. None of the facts were ever questioned if they are wrong. From: Surviving the Survivor: Art Spiegelman's Maus

paraphrase: Survivors testified that guards shot Jews who merely stooped down to defecate or who were begging for food from locals.

How inhumane the SS authority was. From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote:The cold Polish winter, the terrible cold, the exhausting three days march to Gliwice where we were stuffed into open railroad cars, the roadside shootings of those who could not walk anymore.

How inhumanely people were treated during the march From:Remembering the Auschwitz Death March

Direct Quote: In all societies, youth in the process of developing identities experience different kinds of pressures and temptations than their elders.

I would believe that it is because of hitler's youth he turned out the way he did. The pressure he faced when he was a kid molded him into someone that would do something like that. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: In Budapest, Pál informed Lajos that his wife, daughter, and three younger sons had not returned from Auschwitz-Birkenau. Lajos and Pál were the only survivors of the immediate family.

It is devastating to find out that all your family members are dead. One is alive, that good because they can fill up the void in their hearts with others. From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote: Being a leader in one's group, school, or community and an engaged citizen sometimes requires exercising courage in situations where it would be simpler and easier not to speak out or "swim against" the tide.

It is hard because no one wants to swim against the tide and speak out. It is better if they are in a safe environment or when no one else knows who said it. From USHMM, Individual choices

Direct Quote: In Kershaw's view, what happened to "the Jews" was simply not a high priority for most people. This was true of ordinary people who may have had little or only superficial relations with individual Jews and of the traditional elites with more influence—Church, university, military, and business leaders.

It is true that even during a genocide like the holocaust if you don't have direct relations to someone in it, you will not care as much. To you it might just be an event that happened. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Paraphrase: At around April 1945, the liberation of the death marches of the death camps started.

It took approximately four months from the start of the evacuation to the start of the liberation. From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote: Browning underscores the need the men felt to conform to the group—not "to step out" of the killing ranks when the commander gave them the opportunity to do so (and a small minority did), and not to appear "a coward" in the eyes of their fellow policemen.

Its like many other problems. People tends to go with the flow of the majority. They don't want to be seen as abnormal or a coward. They tend to do what everyone else does. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: From the beginning of Nazi rule and the fateful years leading up to them, these leaders failed to speak out against hateful speech, violence, and after 1933, legal measures that progressively stripped German Jews of their rights.

Military, church, business leaders during that time have failed to do anything to prevent something like this to ever happen again. They noticed something like this happening but they didn't take any action. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: In eastern Europe, many Jews entrusted household belongings to neighbors or friends prior to their forced move into Nazi-established ghettos. Goods could then be sold off little by little in exchange for food. This strategy became a matter of life-and-death for Jews, but the temptations for their helpers were great.

Neighbors of the Jews taken are blinded by the possible wealth that they could gain and forgot about the trust that the Jews have put in them. They used their trust to make money. This is one of the cause of the genocides, Greed. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote:Lajos was one of a group of 6,000-8,000 Hungarian Jewish men and women who crossed through Präbichl Pass near Eisenerz on April 7, 1945. Near the peak, Volkssturm men attached to the SA escort fired at random into the marching prisoners, killing more than 200.

Outside forces also affected the march by murdering many prisoners. From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote: In these situations, then and now, it is usually in one's "self-interest" not "to step out" or "rock the boat." One's career or job might be on the line, to say nothing of one's standing in the group for non-conformist behavior.

People are afraid to step out of line because they are afraid of losing their job. Their superior gave them a line of commands that they have to follow. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Paraphrase: The Germans also expressly used the lure of gain to win the cooperation of locals in the persecution and murder of Jews.

People are selfish, that selfishness in everyone is also one of the reasons why Genocides such as the holocaust happens. If they weren't selfish, they won't have helped the Germans for reward. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote:It is not only that I am now sixty years old or that I was ten years old on that sunny, cold January in 1945 when we lined up to start on our march out of Birkenau and some claimed that they could hear the far-away sounds of artillery signalling the approaching Russian front for what we hoped would be our liberation, because I remember it intellectually but no longer emotionally and not in detail, and that is good.

People in the camp and march can survive that far is because of one thing. hope of being liberated by the red army From: Remembering the Auschwitz Death March

Direct Quote: Several months before Lajos's liberation at Gunskirchen, Pál emerged from hiding in Budapest. Unaware of any surviving family members, he went to Bucharest, Romania, in the hope of eventually going to Palestine.

People that were liberated had nothing to live for. They have no idea if any of their family members are alive. From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote: That protests in these two cases aimed at specific actions or policies and not the regime itself was significant.

Some people did try to help the jews but they didn't focus on the right thing. The world was silent because the most important issue was not issued but everything else was. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: In rural Butrimonys, Lithuania, for example, a man cut out of the family land inheritance years earlier, sought revenge by reporting one of the heirs, his brother, to authorities for sheltering Jews after German-organized mass shootings began there; officials later killed the brother, along with the Jews he helped hide.

Some people take advantage of the Jew's misery and used it for their own revenge. This revenge feeling is also one cause of why genocide happens. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: To almost the last day of the war, German authorities marched prisoners to various locations in the Reich. As late as May 1, 1945, prisoners who had been evacuated from Neuengamme to the North Sea coastline were loaded onto ships; hundreds of them died when the British bombed the ships a few days later, thinking that they carried German military personnel.

The Germans til the last day of this tragic event continued to cause many deaths. From: DEATH MARCHES

Paraphrase: Jews buried valuable items in their back yards when they were forced to leave their homes for concentration camps.

The Jews believed that the Nazi Regime was just going to steal all their items and that is why they did this. From: Night(15)

Direct Quote: Open rooms everywhere. Gaping doors and windows looked out into the void. It all belonged to everyone since it no longer belong to anyone. It was there for the taking

The Jews were taken and all their valuables are there for the taking. From: Night(17)

Paraphrase: All genocides usually start when people of one race or religion want to dispose of people of another race or religion. Two tribes that made most of the Rwandan population are the Hutu and the Tutsi tribes.

The Rwandan Genocide is just like the holocaust. Hutu and Tutsi are replaced with Jews and Natzis. It is because of their individual differences and them not being able to accept it which led to more genocides. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: A terrible thought crossed my mind: what if he had wanted to be rid of his father.

The dehumanization process have turned many the Jews into animals. Also because of this the officers treat them like animals. The dehumanization process reflects the totalitarian mindset which contributed to the holocaust From Night

Direct Quote:Today, 50 years later, the cold that I felt in my bones in 1956 I can no longer feel-it is all so blurred and so far away. It is as if I had read someone's story and, sadly, no amount of remembering can quite recapture what it was like

The experience of the holocaust and the march scared them forever. From: Remembering the Auschwitz Death March

Paraphrase: Vladek still lived in fear after the holocaust ended because he have encounter many SS officers after the holocaust that wanted to kill him.

The people during the holocaust lived in constant fear even after the holocaust. From MausII

Direct Quote: Not all such helpers were saint-like individuals motivated by altruistic or religious feelings. For some poor people simply getting the money the victims provided for their room and board became a form of survival during hard times and was worth the risk taken.

The people that helped the Jews also depended on them to survive. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: "Faster! Faster Move, you lazy good for nothings!"

The propaganda that the Germans believed in consists of them thinking the Jews are worthless. From: Night(18)

Direct Quote: Browning states that there has never been "a single case in which refusal to obey an order to kill unarmed civilians resulted in the allegedly inevitable dire punishment" (execution).

The soldiers were never punished if they didn't obey order. They were used to things like this because of the constant propaganda. Its their totalitarian mindset that led to this From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: In this instance, the consequences were deadly for the courageous students and others (who had miscalculated in thinking the end of the war was near): Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, Christian Probst, and other members of the resistance group were tried and executed as traitors to the Fatherland.

The students that protested were considered to be traitors. The world was silent because the people that sees the reality and wants to do something about it all died. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: Something was being burned there. A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children.

The world was silent because everyone was scared. No one want to be killed so they stayed quiet. From Night

Direct Quote: Focusing too much on fear, however, obscures and oversimplifies the more complicated dynamic behind the choices ordinary people made with regard to the persecution, then killing of Jews.

The world was silent because just as the quote said, people focused on fear and oversimplified the truth of the killing of Jews. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: " was i alive? was i awake? i could not believe it. How could it be possible for them to burn people. "

The world was silent because none of this was believed to be true, it was like a nightmare. From Night

Direct Quote: "All the patients will be finished off on the spot" said the faceless one.

The world was silent because the eye witnesses most likely will be killed when something goes wrong. They can't how the people what happened. From Night

Direct Quote: The Ghetto was not guarded. One could enter and leave as one pleased. Maria, our former maid, came to see us. Sobbing, she begged us to come with her to her village where she prepared a safe shelter.

The world was silent because they were isolated. They can leave but when they do they will soon be murdered. From Night

Direct Quote: Cultural explanations focus on values, beliefs, and prejudices, particularly antisemitism of various forms, including Nazi antisemitism.

Their beliefs are what made them into who they are. This is one of the causes of Genocide and especially the holocaust. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Paraphrase: The majority of the Germans held prejudices so many feel that it is easier to support the measure against the Jews

There are people in the Nazi regime that doesn't like their systems but because they are the minority, they followed the flow From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Paraphrase: Some people believed that helping the Nazis yield special rewards and that is the reason why they helped the Nazis.

These myths that people outside of Germany believed have led to the Power of the Nazi Regime growing and eventually holocaust. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Paraphrase: Kids as young as at an age of nine were found during liberation.

They captured kids when they were this young and they didn't worry about how they are supposed to survive. From: Voices From the Death Camp(book)

Direct Quote: When i noticed two children desperately fighting in the water, one trying to strangle the other,I implored the lady: "Please, don't throw any more coins!""Why not?" said she. "I like to give charity..."

They might not be bad people but because of the totalitarian mindset, they all think they are right. They think that all the Jews are just trash From Night

Direct Quote: February 1943, the university students and associates who belonged to the Munich-based "White Rose" resistance group protested not only the murder of Jews in occupied territories but "the [National Socialist] dictatorship of evil," and the "senseless" death of German soldiers, which they blamed, using bitter irony, on the "brilliant strategy of the Führer."

They were on the right track but the consequences can be deadly. They were over the board. The reason why the holocaust were also featured in fictional book is because it is like a nightmare. It doesn't seem real. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: Our principle was to economize, to save for tomorrow. Tomorrow could be worst yet.

They were treated by the Germans like animals. They worry about the food for the next day. From: Night(22)

Direct Quote: Lajos recorded arriving in Graz on April 2, 1945. After a trek of almost four days, he and other Jewish laborers were given their first meal there. Following a few days of rest, they were marched in three columns on both sides of the Mur River toward the town of Bruck an der Mur.

They weren't given a meal for more than 4 days From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote: "Men to the left! Women to the right!"

This i would consider as the first step of the dehumanization process. Women and men are separated. From: Night(29)

Direct Quote: Enough enthusiasts could always be found to stage enormous public shows of support such as the annual Nazi Party rallies. On a day to day basis, the Nazi regime only needed most people to obey the law, try to stay out of trouble, and promote their own interests as best they could under the current circumstances."

This is a cause of the holocaust but it also is very similar to many of the problems that we have today. There are some people that believe in their belief too much. They would do what ever they think is right. This is why Al-qaeda exists. From USHMM, Cause and motivation

Direct Quote: Anna and Pál immigrated to the United States on June 29, 1951. Anna returned briefly to Germany in 1952 to complete her medical degree and then settled permanently in the United States. Her mother joined Anna and Pál in the United States in 1953.

This is a good example of how someone can make the most out of their current situation. From: The Ornstein Family Experience: Death March and Liberation

Direct Quote: "Jews, listen to me," she cried. "I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames"

This is foreshadowing the deaths that will appear later. The Jews ignored her. From: Night(25)

Direct Quote: "Look at the fire! Look at the flames! Flames everywhere..."

This is said by the mad women on the train to the concentration camp. The world was silent because the people that were saw the reality was considered crazy and killed. From Night

Direct Quote: A massive Soviet 1944 summer offensive in eastern Belarus annihilated German Army Group Center and permitted Soviet forces to overrun the first of the major Nazi concentration camps, Lublin/Majdanek.

This is what made the march(evacuation) happen. From: DEATH MARCHES

Direct Quote: Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, reaching Majdanek near Lublin, Poland, in July 1944. Surprised by the rapid Soviet advance, the Germans attempted to hide the evidence of mass murder by demolishing the camp.

This is why they made the prisoners clean the camps before they left. From: DEATH MARCHES

Direct Quote: "I knew it, i knew i would win, kid. Better later than ever. And because you made me wait, it will also cost you a ration of bread"

This quote is said by an officer. He thinks that all the Jews own him something. This Reflects the totalitarian mindset that contribute to the holocaust. They they they are all better than the jews. From Night

Direct Quote: Countless ordinary people played roles in the Holocaust and the years leading up to mass murder and genocide. What responsibilities do citizens have today to help safeguard rights and freedoms in our democracy?

This raised a really good question. Ordinary people doesn't have any responsibility to safeguard rights. These people that help out only does that because a genocide is going on. They can't do anything to prevent it. People that have higher social standards can do it. From USHMM, Individual Choices

Direct Quote: I did not weep, and it pained me that i could not weep. But i was out of tears. And deep inside me , if i could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, i might have found something like: Free at last!

This topic is not only featured in non-fiction resources but also in fiction or narrative form is because even though it happened, it seem not real. It is almost like a fictional book, interesting but seems not real. From Night

Paraphrase: Vladek survived the holocaust and he faked his heart attack to get Francoise to come.

Vladek survived the holocaust and because of that he values his family more than many other people. The world was silent because they are afraid to talk about what happened. They have endured too much pain. From MausII

Paraphrase: As they saw their loved one gettiing striped away one by one, their resistance grew weaker and weaker due to the lack of motivation.

Wiesel have told everyone who read this book what he have endured. Using personal feelings of his, he connected with others that read his book. This connection have made people care and more aware of this event and its cause and effect. (Cause: Antisemitism, etc, Effect: more genocides, death, etc) From: From Night to Twilight: A Philosopher's Reading of Elie Wiesel