Understanding the Human Cost of the Holocaust Concentration Camps
The World War II Holocaust remains one of the worst war tragedies in the history of the world. The toll on human life cannot be overstated.
The Human Impact of the Holocaust
Over 6 million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust. However, the death toll of people of non-Jewish descent was also in the millions. Millions more perished battling the German Army. In addition, there were tens of millions of survivors of Hitler’s Nazi regime whose lives were forever changed by his diabolical human rights violations.
The deaths at the concentration camps were far undercounted and not properly recorded, as noted by members of Hitler’s army during the Nuremberg Trials. But survival at many of the camps was often less than fifty percent.
Roughly 300,000 Jewish people survived the concentration camps and death marches until liberation, many more lives were lost after liberation due to the extreme situations they had endured. The impact of the Holocaust did not stop there though, every life had been changed forever.
Life After Liberation
People who were able to make it out of the camps alive are known as Holocaust survivors. You may also hear other names, such as Auschwitz survivor, Mauthausen survivor, or Dachau survivor, that are based on the concentration camps people were assigned to and survived from, such as Auschwitz and Dachau.
As everyone’s experience in concentration camps was different so was their life after, many survivors spent months and even years recovering physically from what their bodies were put through. Their emotional and mental recovery would take far longer than that, and the memories still sadden societies in modern days.
Many Holocaust survivors went on to share their stories and document what they went through as a reminder to the world of why we cannot allow this kind of intolerance to happen again.
You can learn more about the people who are considered Holocaust survivors like the ones who were an Auschwitz survivor, Mauthausen survivor, or Dachau survivor at ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation or visit www.zachorfoundation.org.
