Document A: Arrival at a Concentration Camp



Document A: Arrival at a Concentration Camp

Background info: In 1944, Nazis took Elie Wiesel and his family from their home and sent them, along with many other Jewish families, to a concentration camp. This is what happened when they arrived.

“The beloved objects that we had carried with us were now left behind in the wagon. An SS came toward us wielding a club. He commanded:

‘Men to the left! Women to the right!’

Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Yet that was the moment when I left my mother. There was no time to think, and I already felt my father’s hand press against mine: we were alone. In a fraction of a second I could see my mother, my sisters, move to the right. Tzipora was holding Mother’s hand. I saw them walking farther and farther away; Mother was stroking my sister’s blond hair, as if to protect her. And I walked on with my father, with the men. I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever. I kept walking, my father holding my hand.”

Document B: Picture of Elie Wiesel at Buchenwald

Background info: In 1944, Nazis took Elie Wiesel and his family from their home and sent them, along with many other Jewish families, to a concentration camp. This is a picture of Elie in the concentration camp.

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Document C: Images of the Holocaust

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Document D: Nazi Propaganda Postcard

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Document E: Anti-Semitic Propaganda, Children’s Book Cover 1936

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The cover reads: “Trust No fox in the Green Meadow and No Jew on his Oath”

Document F: Gerda Weissmann’s family photos of her brother, father, and mother.

Background Info: Gerda Weissmann lived during and survived the Holocaust. She spent three years in captivity, and kept these pictures of her family in her boots. She was the only one in her family who survived.

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Document G: Account of Holocaust Mass Shooting, 1942

Background Info: This is an eyewitness account by Hermann Friedrich Graebe, which describes the well organized process that Nazi SS Soldiers developed for shooting a mass number of Jews.

I saw great mounds of earth about 30 meters long and 2 meters high. Several trucks were parked nearby. The people in the trucks wore the regulation yellow pieces of cloth that identified them as Jews on the front and back of their clothing.

I heard a series of rifle shots close by. The people from the trucks--men, women and children-were forced to undress under the supervision of an SS soldier with a whip in his hand. They were forced to put their effects in certain spots: shoes, clothing, and underwear separately. Without weeping or crying out, these people undressed and stood together in family groups, embracing each other and saying goodbye while waiting for a sign from the SS soldier, who stood on the edge of the ditch, a whip in his hand, too.

During the fifteen minutes I stayed there, I did not hear a single complaint, or plea for mercy. I watched a family of about eight: a man and woman about fifty years old, surrounded by their children of about one, eight, and ten, and two big girls about twenty and twenty-four. An old lady, her hair completely white, held the baby in her arms, rocking it, and singing it a song. The parents watched the groups with tears in their eyes. The father held the ten year-old boy by the hand, speaking softly to him: the child struggled to hold back his tears. Then the father pointed a finger to the sky, and, stroking the child's head, seemed to be explaining something. At this moment, the SS near the ditch called something to his comrade. The SS soldier counted off some twenty people and ordered them behind the mound. The family of which I have just spoken was in the group. I walked around the mound and faced a frightful common grave. Tightly packed corpses were piled so close together that only the heads showed. Most were wounded in the head and the blood flowed over their shoulders. Some still moved. Others raised their hands and turned their heads to show that they were still alive. The ditch was two-thirds full. I estimate that it held a thousand bodies.

I turned my eyes toward the man who had carried out the execution. He was an SS man; he was seated, legs swinging, on the narrow edge of the ditch; an automatic rifle rested on his knees and he was smoking a cigarette. The people, completely naked, climbed down a few steps cut in the clay wall and stopped at the spot indicated by the SS man. Facing the dead and wounded, they spoke softly to them. Then I heard a series of rifle shots. I looked in the ditch and saw their bodies contorting, their heads, already motionless, sinking on the corpses beneath. The blood flowed from the nape of their necks. I was astonished not to be ordered away, but I noticed two or three uniformed postmen nearby. A new batch of victims approached the place. They climbed down into the ditch, lined up in front of the previous victims, and were shot.

Document H: Excerpt from Elie Wiesel’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Price

Background info: In 1944, Nazis took Elie Wiesel and his family from their home and sent them, along with many other Jewish families, to a concentration camp. He survived the Holocaust and in 1986, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. This is an excerpt from his acceptance speech.

“…And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders, and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe…”

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