Topic > Josef Mengele: The Holocaust's "Angel of Death"

Imagine celebrating your sixth birthday with your family. As you are about to blow out your birthday candles, a strange man bursts through the door, shouting at all of you to come out. He shoots you, father, and when he wonders what's going on, then you know to shut up. Pack your family and 20 other families into a cattle car and no one knows what's going on. You arrive at a strange building and are forced to enter. Explain that this is your ghetto and if anyone disobeys the rules or tries to leave, they will be killed. While you are here food is limited and many people have died, however your mother, your older brother and you are lucky enough to survive. You stay here for a few weeks and when you finally get used to the terrible living conditions, you are forced to return to the cattle car. This time you arrive at Auschwitz. You and your mother go left, but your older brother goes right. They tell you that you're about to take a shower and you're more than excited, considering it's your first shower in weeks. You and your mother step into the shower smiling from ear to ear but can never turn back. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The word holocaust is defined as destruction or massacre on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war. The Holocaust was a time during World War II when the German Nazi Party wanted to completely annihilate minority races. Minorities, some groups more than others, have been targeted because of their religious beliefs, physical disabilities, and many other reasons. During this period, mainly the Jewish race was targeted, but also many other races such as Poles, Gypsies and many others. The Holocaust involved the systematic killing of more than 11 million innocent men, women and children. The survival rate of anyone involved in the Holocaust, including Nazi soldiers, was 25.9%. During the Holocaust, the Nazis killed minority groups in many ways. They began by removing them from their homes and placing them in overcrowded ghettos. When minorities traveled, they were transported in overcrowded cattle cars with over 100 people per car, which had a carrying capacity of 50 people. In the ghettos many died of hunger and disease. During this time, diseases spread very easily due to crowded living conditions. Often, when a person got sick, their entire block became I'll too. The largest ghetto during the Holocaust was the Warsaw Ghetto, located in Warsaw, Germany. This ghetto was surrounded by brick walls, covered in barbed wire and guard towers located everywhere, and anyone caught trying to escape was shot upon sighting. In Warsaw, the Nazis confined over 4,000 Jews to less than a mile of land. During the Holocaust there were more than 1,000 ghettos, and there were three main types of ghettos: closed ghettos, open ghettos, or ghettos of destruction. In the open ghettos no one was allowed to enter or leave the ghetto, but there were no walls or fences surrounding the ghetto. Closed ghettos were the most common, having barbed wire fences or brick or concrete walls surrounding the area, for a safer environment. In the destroyed ghettos there was a wall or fence with barbed wire and maximum security. Most of the people who went to a ghetto of destruction were killed by the Nazis. They remained in the ghettos until the Nazis transferred them to concentration camps. There were over 42,000 concentration camps. When they arrived at a concentration camp, depending on the camp, everyone was killed upon arrival. But in some fields,..