Holocaust death marches By: Victoria Eyer, Lynette Simon, Paige Starliper, and diana bongiovanni

What were the Holocaust Death Marches? Nearing the end of WWII, when all of Germany's military was collapsing, The Allied forces were coming fast. The Soviets came from the east and the British, French, and Americas came from the west. The Germans were feeling very threatened, so they moved all of the inhabitants in the front camps and were used as forced laborers inside of camps in Germany.

Main Points As WW11 started coming to an end and Germany began to lose, Nazi soldiers scrambled to cover their horrific crime of genocide. The Nazis attempted to cover their tracks by burning documents, buildings, corpses, and brutally moved their remaining prisoners by making them march hundreds of miles in the bitter cold with little or no food. These soon became known as forced marches, but to the prisoners they became death marches. Food and water was scarce along these long marches and many prisoners would eat snow to sustain themselves.  Largest death marches took place in the winter of 1944 and 1945. Although many prisoners would die throughout the march, Nazis would kill large groups of prisoners before, during, and after the marches.

Famous Nazis that were Involved this the Marches Horst Wagner – Operated Gas chambers, conducted medical experiments, and he made sure the bureaucracy that kept track of the deaths of 350,000 Jewish people ran like clockwork. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler- He was a German Nazi military commander and a close associate of Adolf Hitler. He is responsible for ordering over 50,000 Jews deaths. Reinhard Heydrich – He was a high-ranking Nazi official. Under his command, 7,000 people disappeared in one night when he passed the "Night and Fog" decree. Reinhard Heninrich Horst

Death Toll Although the death toll cannot be certain due to unmarked graves and forgotten bodies, the estimated death toll is 200,000-250,000 people. Out of that number 25% to 1/3 of them were Jewish.

Quotes from Survivors "One of my friends started to feel bad, and we took her and I was from one side, and another of my friend, and we were dragging her, practically dragging her, she couldn't, her legs were frozen. So the guard noticed it. He, he, he told the column to stop, he took her to a turnip field, and we heard a shot. He shot her right there"(Lily Mazur Margules). "It ended up being called the death march because the ravines and the gutters, they were all red from blood"(Lilly Appelbaum Malnik). "No food had touched my lips all the day before. Others “snatched” whatever they could—grass, snails, potatoes left in the fields—but my throat was blocked, although my stomach was growling with hunger. I had nothing else, so I ate snow. My whole body shook with cold. . . ."(A Survivor).  "I had had parents, two brothers, three sisters, two nephews, two nieces, an aunt, an uncle, and all of them died"(Joseph Mandroqitz).

Joseph's Story           In 1944, Joseph Mandrowitz was forced to march from Birkenau to Oranienburg and from there to Buchenwald. After that he was sent to a quarry where he and others were ordered to drill into the side of a mountain to create a secret city. Once he was done there he was sent back to Buchenwald where he was loaded onto a train to travel to Theresienstadt. For 17 days he didn't receive food or water. On May 9, he was liberated but had to go to the hospital where he stayed for several weeks. After he left the hospital he decided to go back to his home village where he found eight to ten survivors out of 1,000 prisoners. His entire family was dead or still held prisoner. Even the cemetery where his grandfather had been buried had been razed. Joseph was soon put in contact with the Jewish Federation and was brought to America where he says that he found his heaven. 

How Many Prisoners Where Involved in the Death Marches? 60,000 prisoners were involved with the Auschwitz evacuation and marched through Wodzislaw and upper Silesia.  50,000 prisoners were involved with the Stutthof evacuation and marched through Lauenburg.  30,000 prisoners were involved with the Buchenwald evacuation.  7,000 prisoners were involved with the Dachau evacuation and marched to Tegernsee.  Many other concentration camps and subcamps had death marches 

How Far Did Prisoners from the Concentration Camps/subcamps  Have to March? Each Death March differs in miles The biggest and longest Death March is from Auschwitz The Death march from Auschwitz to Gliwice was about 30 miles or Auschwitz to Wodzislaw which was about 35 Prisoners in smaller Death Marches marched about 10-20 miles 

How long did the death marches last for? Most death marches lasted between 1944-1945 in Germany. death marches could be about couple of days or up to 10 days or more some death marches were on foot or sometimes prisoners had to ride in open cattle trucks or freight cars

When did the Death Marches Occur and what Camps were Involved? Nearly 60,000 people were evacuated from Auschwitz in mid January of 1945. In the days leading up to the death marches, thousands of prisoners were killed. Late January of 1945, approximately 50,000 prisoners were evacuated from Stutthof concentration camp. 5,000 prisoners were marched to the Baltic Sea coast. Once they arrived, they were forced into the water and were shot to death. Others were to march to Lauenberg, Germany. More than 25,000 prisoners died. In early April of 1945, approx. 30,000 prisoners were to march away from American forces—Buchenwald concentration camp. Nearly 10,000 prisoners died. Late April of 1945, 7,000 prisoners forced on a death march from Dachau to Tegernsee—3 days before American forces liberate remaining survivors.

Purpose of the Holocaust Death marches SS authorities were afraid of prisoners sharing their side of their story with their enemies (also known as the good guys). SS authorities needed prisoners to maintain their weapons—armaments.  To use prisoners as hostages and to bargain for land—this would supposedly guarantee survival of the Nazi regime.

How Many People Survived the Death Marches? Less than 100,000 survived the death marches.

Work Cited https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007734 http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/othercamps/auschdeathmarch.html https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-9/death-marches http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/survival-and-legacy/liberation-the-surviors/freddie-remembers-the-death-march/#.WcEhds1rwdU http://www.jewishvirtuallibary.org/death-marches http://www.history.cim/topics/world-war-ii/dachau https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?Moduled=10005162 https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/heinrich-himmler-4818.php