the almost complete destruction of the Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany. During the 19th century,

European Jewry was being emancipated, and, in most European countries, Jews achieved some

equality of status with non-Jews. Nonetheless, at times Jews were vilified and harassed by

anti-Semitic groups. Indeed, some anti-Semites believed that Jewry was an alien "race" not

assimilable into a European culture, but they did not formulate any coherent anti-Semitic

campaign. In 1940, Germany began sending Jews to Concentration Camps, a place where selected

groups of people (Jews) are confined, usually for political reasons and under inhumane conditions.

One of the largest concentration camps was located thirty-seven miles west of Krakow,

Poland. Auschwitz was the camp where Jewish people were worked and killed. This

camp, out of all the rest tortured the most people.

Auschwitz began as a barracks camp in the town of Oswiecim, for the polish army

in the early 1930's. Germany then captured Poland and needed another location for Polish

political prisoners. In 1940, the German SS sent a commission to Oswiecim to see if t

The conditions at Auschwitz were unthinkable. Prisoners slept six people to a

poisonous chemicals and compounds into the prisoners, just to see if some of them might

bunk, which was made for two. These bunks rose 6 feet high, sometimes with so much

was a torture chamber. There were 'standing' cells, four feet square that prisoners were

rooms were equipped with fake shower heads and benches, but none of the shower heads

do the menial slave labor. Punishment at Auschwitz was sever and biased. If an SS officer

walls and drink their own urine to stay alive just a little bit longer, some even resorted to

medication. The only advantage to the hospital was that one could spend his last few days

be counted. Then they were sent off to work. Work was long hours of hard labor building

The professional criminals (burglars, murderers, rapists) at Auschwitz were entrusted with

them. Today very few of the files from Auschwitz remain. Those prisoners left in the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jews Gypsies, Cell Block, Punishment Auschwitz, Jews Auschwitz, European Jewry, Winter Auschwitz, Poland Auschwitz, Jewish Approximately, Concentration Camps, Outside Block, cell block, roll call, block 11, 15 minutes, cell block 11, slave labor, polish political prisoners, bodies died, 'life' line, 15 ft, block 10, day cell block, cell block 10, day cell,
Approximate Word count = 1752
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)