The Holocaust is one of the darkest times in the history of the Western world. It has claimed over six million lives over the course of six years – that would average about a million lives a year – and has left many injured physically or scarred emotionally and mentally. It was brought about by the Nazi belief that they are the superior race, and that they had to eliminate those who were making use of “their” resources to get ahead of them because these people – and their victims were comprised mostly of, but not limited to, Jews – should not be the ones making progress because they are the inferior race.
Hitler sent many innocent people he considered to be a threat to his regime to concentration camps, and there they were tortured, their heads skinned, their children taken away and the men and women segregated. They were made to work without compensation, without decent food or drink, and those who would pause to rest for a moment would be shot on the spot. Those who survived were sent to gas chambers under the pretense that they had to be cleansed, were gassed and burned in unmarked mass graves. Many Jews hid in cellars and attics of abandoned houses during this time in fear of being caught and sent off to these concentration camps, and they either survived or died of different sicknesses from being deprived of their basic needs.
I take the moment to remember these fallen innocents – men, women, and children alike – and to salute those who have survived and still live to this day.