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| In 1939, Budapest, Hungary was a beautiful and
lively city. Six years later, the city was nothing but broken
buildings and 460,000 Jews had been killed. In order to survive in
the world of the Nazi concentration camp, the prisoner had to learn
quickly to follow the unofficial rules. The unofficial rules
are, 1: always pretend to understand orders and always answer
yes. 2: never ask questions. 3: take care of your
feet. 4: hold bread over your bowl to catch the crumbs. |
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| Starting in March 1942, a wave of mass murder went
across Europe. In the next eleven months, 4,500,000 Jews were
killed . At the end of World War Two the death toll rose to exactly
6,000,000 Jews, plus the 1,500,000 children who died in the hands of
the Nazis. Some people gave interviews about what it was like in the
death camps , how they survived , and what it felt
like. |
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| Jeannie Burk , '' I was a hidden child . I hid
in this woman's house from ages three to five . I am grateful to her
, but I do not know her name . I will never be able to thank
her in a public way''. |
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| Bart Stern, " There is no way to describe
your first coming to Auschwitz ." "I was hiding out in the
heap of dead bodies because in the last week the crematoria didn't
function at all, the bodies were.....were building up higher and
higher. |
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| Kate Bernath , " Never lose hope , if you
lose hope that was the end of it, that is what kept us alive ." |
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| Solomon Radasky ," I was thinking day by
day , I want to live. A person has to hold on to his own will, hold
on to that to the last minute . How did I survive? I don't
know. When a person is in trouble he wants to live, he fights for
his life...some people say, eh-- what will be will be . NO! You have to
fight for yourself day by day. Some people did not care . They said
"I do not want to live". What is the difference. I do not give a
damn." |
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| The gas chambers in Sobibor was one of the Nazis
most secret death camp. The gas chambers alone killed a total of
260,000 Jews and very few lived to give evidence of the camp. For
those who survived life got worse. There was less food, less space
and almost no chance to see your friends and family. For the Jews it was
almost impossible to return to life after the Holocaust. When they
returned home they found that their homes had been taken by others. |
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| After the war , most Jews came out of hiding
and returned home. No one expected the Jews to have a normal future
in Berlin, it was also assumed that all the Jews would quickly
emigrate to America. Well they were wrong, the Jewish growth stayed level
for a while but then declined until 1989. The city got a shot in the
back when the Berlin wall fell , then the Jews of east and west could
rejoin . The Jewish population of Berlin is now estimated at more
than 20,000. There are 350,000 survivors of the Holocaust alive
today. |
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