Introduction

Welcome Class to the Online Concentration Camp Tour! As you all know, in class we have been talking about World War II and studying Nazi Germany. I have created this site to help you better understand the experiences and sorrows of the Holocaust. Please start at "Stop 1" and proceed in numerical order on the tour. You will write a paper based on your reaction and the new information you will discover on this blog. Here are some important points to consider in your paper:

• Understanding of what the concentration camps are and whom they affected.
• Explain the conditions in the camps.
• Explain the psychological impact of the concentration camps.
• Understanding of where they can find more information.
• Relate the blog to in class discussions on World War II.

Helpful Websites

On the right margin you will see a list of helpful websites you can click on:

Concentration Camps Basics- This website is very basic and explains the main concepts of the Holocaust. It includes very helpful links to better explain concentration camps.

Death Camps- This is a great website about the six death camps existed: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. It is detailed, organized, and specific!

Extermination Camps- This website is a more advanced learning level. It is very detailed on the reality of genocide and each individual death camp. It is a great link for students interested in more details about the Holocaust.

Florida Holocaust Museum- This website is full of information, facts, stories, art, and more. It is very well-organized and has information of every aspect of the Holocaust.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum- A very reliable website that gives explanations and pictures about all aspects of the Holocaust. It contains images, videos, and text from the museum.

Stop 7: Museums

Welcome to the seventh stop! Here you will learn about Museums about the Holocaust and Concentration Camps. Some learning goals for this page are to name two museums where you can learn about Concentration Camps and what you can learn about in them.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - "The Museum’s Permanent Exhibition The Holocaust spans three floors of the Museum building. It presents a narrative history using more than 900 artifacts, 70 video monitors, and four theaters that include historic film footage and eyewitness testimonies. The exhibition is divided into three parts: “Nazi Assault,” “Final Solution,” and “Last Chapter.” The narrative begins with images of death and destruction as witnessed by American soldiers during the liberation of Nazi concentration camps in 1945. Most first-time visitors spend an average of two to three hours in this self-guided exhibition. Recommended for visitors 11 years of age and older."

Florida Holocaust Museum- "Central to the mission of the Florida Holocaust Museum is the program to collect, preserve, and make available to the public the historical record and artistic and interpretation of the Holocaust and other genocides. The Museum collects and maintains the material that supports its efforts in the areas of research, exhibition, education, and commemoration. The focus of the Museum's collecting efforts (and collection) is on the policies, events, and experiences associated with the Holocaust. The Museum’s collecting activity extends backward to the end of the World War I and forward to the close of the Jewish displaced persons camps in the mid-1950s. It is also a major focus of the Museum to acquire art that relates to the Holocaust, genocide and appropriate areas of the human condition."

(Below are pictures of the museums and the Holocaust Exhibits.)

Now that you know where to find more information on Concentration Camps within museums, let's learn about information online. Please continue to Helpful Websites by clicking on link on the right margin!

Stop 6: Famous People

Welcome to the sixth stop about some of the most well-known people of the Holocaust and Concentration Camps. On this page I would like you to be able to explain who Anne Frank, Elie Wiesel, and Adolf Hitler are and why they are important.

Anne Frank was a thirteen year old girl who was hidden by Mies Giep in the Netherlands from Nazis. She lived in a hiddent set of rooms above her father’s company. Her family survived months before they were betrayed and were sent to a concentration came where they were killed. However, her diary of the holocaust is very well-known.

Elie Wiesel is a Jewish Romanian-American writer, professor and the author of the bestselling book "Night" as well as many other books dealing with Judaism, the Holocaust, and the moral responsibility of the people to fight hatred, racism and genocide. A Holocaust survivor, Wiesel lost his parents in his early childhood and escaped to France. Wiesel to wrote of his experiences of the "Holocaust" in his memoir "Night". In his later life, Wiesel emerged as a political activist and humanitarian and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for voicing his concern about the "global crisis of humanity".

Adolf Hitler was a German polician born in Austria. He was the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, best known as the Nazi Party. He was the authoritarian leader of Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Now that you are familiar with some of the famous people of the the Holocaust, let's find out where you can get more information, at the museums! Please continue to Stop 7 by clicking on link on the right margin!

Stop 5: Psychological Effects

Welcome to the fifth stop! Here you will learn about the psychological effects of the Concentration Camps. Here I want you to be able to explain what some of the psychological effects of Concentration Camps are, and who they effect.

(Above is a picture of a book about the Holocaust Trauma and the psychological effects and treatment.)

After World War II, the medical profession in many countries started to be confronted with survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. It took several years before a unified scientifically based view of their problems could develop. In 1961, William G. Nielderland, foremost psychoanalyst in the field of treating survivors, coined the term Survivor Syndrome. He came to realize that the symptoms affected not only survivors, but their families as well. The predominant symptoms included an inability to work, and even at times to talk. Anxieties and fears of renewed persecution, such as fearing uniformed police officers, were apparent. There were also many feelings of guilt -- for having survived when others had not. "Why am I alive?" Why not my sister and brother...my whole family?" The survivors presented symptoms involving thoughts of death, nightmares, panic attacks, and various other psychosomatic symptoms. Marital problems would combine with disinterest in life, people, and sometimes even in reality.

(Above is a picture of a book about the psychological and medical effects of Concentration Camps on Holocaust survivors.)

Now that you have a better understanding of the psychological effects of the Concentration Camps, let's continue to learn about some of the most famous people of the Holocaust! Please continue to Stop 6 by clicking on link on the right margin!

Stop 3: Auschwitz

Welcome to the third stop! Here you will learn about one of the most well-known Concentration Camps during the Holocaust. On this page I want you to be able to tell me what Auschwitz was and who happened there.

The three main camps were Auschwitz I, II, and III. Auschwitz I, the original concentration camp, was the administrative center for the whole complex, and was the site of the deaths of about 70,000 people. Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was an extermination camp, and was the site of the deaths of at least 960,000 Jews, 75,000 Poles, and 19,000 Gypsies. Birkenau was the largest of all the Nazi extermination camps. Auschwitz III (Monowitz) served as a labor camp. The cruel work requirements, combined with poor nutrition and hygiene, led to high death rates among the prisoners. Some prisoners were made to spend the nights in "standing-cells". These cells were about 16 sq ft, and four men would be placed in them; they could do nothing but stand, and were forced during the day to work with the other prisoners. In the basement there were "starvation cells"; prisoners incarcerated here were given neither food nor water until they were dead.

Here is a clip from a BBC film about Auschwitz, please be warned the content is gruesome:

Now that you have a better understanding of one of them most well known

Concentration Camps, Auschwitz, let's learn about the liberation of the camps.

Please continue to Stop 5 by clicking on the link on the right margin!

Stop 4: Liberation

Welcome to the forth stop! Here you will learn about how the Camps were finally set free and liberated from the Nazi's. Your learning goals for this page are to explain how the Concentration Camps were liberated and by who.

The liberation of Concentration Camps took many years and much government involvement. As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they began to encounter tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners. Many of these prisoners had survived forced marches into the interior of Germany from camps in occupied Poland. These prisoners were suffering from starvation and disease. Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, reaching Poland, in July 1944. Surprised by the rapid Soviet advance, the Germans attempted to hide the evidence of mass murder by demolishing the camp. Camp staff set fire to the large crematorium used to burn bodies of murdered prisoners, but in the hasty evacuation the gas chambers were left standing.

The Soviets liberated Auschwitz in January 1945. The Nazis had forced the majority of Auschwitz prisoners to march westward (in what would become known as "death marches"), and Soviet soldiers found only several thousand emaciated prisoners alive when they entered the camp. There was abundant evidence of mass murder in Auschwitz. The retreating Germans had destroyed most of the warehouses in the camp, but in the remaining ones the Soviets found personal belongings of the victims. They discovered, for example, hundreds of thousands of men's suits, more than 800,000 women's outfits, and more than 14,000 pounds of human hair.

Below is a picture of a funeral of inmates after the liberation of Auschwitz:

Now that we understand how the liberation of Concentration Camps took place, let's continue on to the psychological effects of Concentration Camps. Please continue to Stop 4 by clicking on link on the right margin!

Stop 2: The Holocaust

Welcome to the second stop! Here you will learn about when the Concentration Camps took place and why. On this page your main goal is to be able to explain the Holocaust, when it occurred, and who it effected.

The Holocaust is generally viewed as the systematic slaughter of not only 6 million Jews, (two-thirds of the total European Jewish population), but also 5 million others, approximately 11 million individuals murdered by Nazi Germany. There were two main phases to the Holocaust, the period between 1933 and 1939, the Nazi rise, and the period between 1939 and 1945, the period of war, World War II. The first concentration camp opened in January 1933, when the Nazis came to power, and continued to run until the end of the war: May 8, 1945. The Holocaust was the extermination of people not for who they were but for what they were. Groups such as handicaps, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, and others were persecuted by the Nazis because of their religious and political beliefs, physical defects, or failure to fall into Hitler’s ideal.

Here is a visual history video about the Holocaust, please be warned the content is graffic:

Now that you understand the time setting of the Concentration Camps, let's learn about the most famous concentration camp, Auschwitz. Please continue to Stop 3 by clicking on link on the right margin!

Stop 1: What are Concentration Camps?

Welcome to the first stop, here you will learn the basics about Concentration Camps! When looking at this page your main goal is to be able to explain what a Concentration Camp is and who was effected by them.

Concentration Camps were camps that Jewish people were forced into by Nazi Germany. In the camps the Jews were tortured, murder, or forced to do labor. Adolf Hitler believed Jews were to be destroyed of and he used Concentration Camps to completely erase their race. In addition, there were extermination camps that were created for the sole purpose of carrying out the extermination of the Jews of Europe.

Below I have a video to help you get a better understanding of concentration camps. Please be warned that content in this video is graffic:

Now that you understand what Concentration Camps are, let's continue to learn about the time of the camps, The Holocaust. Please continue on to Stop 2 by clicking the link on the right margin!