Not long ago, unimaginable savagery was carried out on people standing at the peripherals of German society, their basic human rights snatched, their lives, dignity left in tatters. In 1933, concentration camps were first set up as an effort to house and punish individuals accused of being enemies of the Nazi regime. When Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's right-hand man took charge of the police and the concentration camps, the use of the camps expanded and now the undesirables of society such as Jews, polish and criminals were sent there.
Taken from pixabay.com
The Jews were typically kept in ghettos, to allow for segregation between Jews and non-Jews, the ghettos were densely packed, starvation and disease were rife, some Jews were transported to concentration camps. The ghettos were a way of dehumanizing the Jewish population, by separating them from the German population, the Nazis desired to make the Jews seem as the 'other' or lesser people.The ghettos had little to no medical care and were managed by Jewish councils, handpicked by The Nazis, there were also police forces who carried out the orders of the Jewish council, such as the deportation of Jewish citizens to death camps.
In September 1939, with the onset of the second world war, the camps became places of brutality and systemic oppression, murder soon became commonplace, people were enslaved, subjected to forced labour, where they were practically worked to death, they were compelled to work in conditions that would inevitably lead to injury, illness, and death. Inmates who came to the camps pregnant were forced to hand their newborn babies to the Nazis who let them starve to death or be eaten alive by rats. The camp inmates were used to complete various commission projects, production of armaments and weapons to help contribute to the war effort. Despite this, the workers were treated with little to no regard, underfed and abused leading to high death rates.
Forced Labour was the only chance of survival for Jews and other 'undesirables' of society, for those deemed unfit for work were promptly shot or sent to extermination or death camps. The second world war was undoubtedly full of depraved torture and sadism, however, there was light at the end of the tunnel in the form of Oscar Schindler. Schindler the owner of enamelware and ammunitions factories as well as a member of the Nazi party, set about protecting as many Jews as he could. Initially he was only concerned with profiting from the cheap Labour that Jew workers provided him, since they cost less but with time his focus became to protect his Jewish workers from the clutches of the Nazis, with a combination of wit, charm, and diplomacy he was able to prevent his Jewish workers faced with deportation to death camps.
Schindler's workers typically hailed from the ghettos and in 1941, the Nazis started transporting Jews deemed unable to work, to death camps. Schindler aware of this fact due to his influential contacts kept his employees in the factory overnight to prevent them coming to any harm.
The second world war typically conjures up images of horror, despair and shows the depth of evil a person can sink to and rightly so. But the second world war also shows the compassion of Schindler, he risked his life, his career to protect the Jews, even housing them from his own pocket showing bravery combined with pure genius. The Jew survivors show remarkable resilience, fighting for their lives no matter the odds. There are lessons to be learned from history and it is no different here, we should ponder and vow to never allow individuals to suffer through persecution and remain silent, their suffering is our suffering.
Now, History reveals, Human history is full of war and violence. :(
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