Drawing the Holocaust: A Teenager's Memory of Terezín, Birkenau, and Mauthausen

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at the Auschwitz I camp, but this was soon expanded. By 1943, four new crematoria, with gas chambers attached, had been built in Auschwitz II. Approximately 1.1 million people were murdered in the Auschwitz gas chambers.

Widespread theft and plunder. The confiscation of Jews’ property, personal belongings, and valuables was a key part of the Holocaust. Many Jews died as a result of these policies. But before 1941, the systematic mass murder of all Jews was not Nazi policy. Beginning in 1941, however, Nazi leaders decided to implement the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. They referred to this plan as the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question.” What was the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”? Many ordinary Germans became involved when they acquired Jewish businesses, homes, or belongings sold at bargain prices or benefited from reduced business competition as Jews were driven from the economy. With such gains, these “bystanders” developed a stake in the ongoing persecution of the dispossessed. Genocide of European Roma (Gypsies) Roma were among the groups that the Nazi regime (1933–1945) and its partner regimes singled out for persecution and murder before and during World War II. Roma are pejoratively referred to as Zigeuner in German and as “Gypsies” in English . The invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 further escalated lethal actions towards Jews. In the lead up to the invasion,The aim of the Nazi concentration camps was to contain prisoners in one place. The administration of the camps had a distinct disregard for inmates’ lives and health, and as a result, tens of thousands of people perished within the camps. The Holocaust was a Nazi German initiative that took place throughout German- and Axis-controlled Europe. It affected nearly all of Europe’s Jewish population, which in 1933 numbered 9 million people.

This was often made possible with the collaboration of local police and government organisations. Following their defeat to the German army, France was controlled by the German government. However, at times, French authorities went beyond what they were asked to do by their German occupiers. Marshal Philippe Pétain, a French general who had fought in World War One, became head of state. His government brought in many antisemitic laws and policies. Pétain also opened several concentration camps in France, and his government participated in the murder of Roma people.

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The number of “rescuers” who either actively worked to save Jews, often as part of resistance networks, or who responded to requests to shelter them, was relatively small. This form of help, if discovered, especially in Nazi Germany and occupied eastern Europe was punished by arrest and often execution. In addition to taking over existing government departments, the Nazis also created new departments of their own. These frequently carried out similar functions to pre-existing departments, often resulting in overlap on policy. An example of this is the Office of the Four Year Plan (created in 1936) and the already existing Economics Ministry, which both had power over economic policy. Mr Geve remained with his mother until their deportation to Auschwitz, where he was taken off to the men's camp as one of 18,000 prisoners there and given a tattoo with the number 127003. The Nazis targeted Jews because the Nazis were radically antisemitic. This means that they were prejudiced against and hated Jews. In fact, antisemitism was a basic tenet of their ideology and at the foundation of their worldview.