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Abby Catanzaro
Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History P- Period 3
8 April 2016
The Death Marches
Jews and other people of a religion that Hitler did not like were forced to walk
in large groups to trains. These groups were referred to as Death Marches. The
research that was taken from several different websites had several things to say about
the death marches. There were a number of things that happened during the death
marches such as the weather conditions, the marches often went to different
concentration camps, and a lot of people had died in the marches.
Near the end of the war, when Germanys military was falling apart, the allied
armies closed in on the Nazis concentration camps. Germany. Prisoners were first
taken by train and then by foot on "death marches".(Website #1) The prisoners
were forced to walk in the bitter cold with no shoes and little clothing so they would
suffer. They were not allowed much food or water so they were starving. Those who
could not keep up were shot. The largest death march happened in the winter of
1944-1945.(Website #1) This happened because the Soviet army began its liberation
of Poland. The Germans then marches thousands of prisoners away from the

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concentration camp and towards Wodzislaw where they were put on freight trains to
other camps. On the way there one in four people who died. The Nazis often killed
large groups of prisoners before, during, or after marches.(Website #1). During
one march with 7,000 prisoners, 6,000 of them women, were moved to the Baltic Sea
on a ten day march. On this march 700 of them were murdered, and once the rest of
the prisoners reached the shore they were driven into the water and shot. The death
marches were extremely cruel and although the Nazis believed so, they were not
necessary.
Other research discusses some of the other camps that the prisoners marched to.
The largest of all the camps was Auschwitz. The Auschwitz concentration camp
complex was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime.(Website #2). It
included three main camps. All three camps used the prisoners for forced labor and
also functioned as a killing center for a period of time. The Auschwitz concentration
camp complex was subordinate to the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps.
(Website #2) The camp eventually was transferred to the SS operations main office
after WWII began. In November 1943, the SS decreed that Auschwitz-Birkenau and
Auschwitz-Monowitz would become independent concentration camps. On October
7, 1944, several hundred prisoners assigned to Crematorium.(Website #2). The
prisoners rebelled after learning that they were going to be killed. During this rebellion
the prisoners killed three guards and blew up the crematorium and adjacent gas

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chambers. They did this by using smuggled explosives. Although this camp was
terrible, the worse evidence found was the Final Solution.
The Final Solution was the Nazi policy of exterminating European Jews. The
idea was brought about by Heinrich Himmler and administered by Adolf Hitler. It
resulted in the murder of 6 million Jews in different concentration camps. In response
to this new resettlement policy, the first death camps were designed. (Website
#3) The death camps had gas chambers disguised as showers. Chelmno was the site of
the first gassing of the Jews, which occurred on December 8,1941. Deportation was
the first step in the Final Solution.(Website #3) The Jews were lied to and told
that they were being moved from their current camp the go to a place to work. They
were moved to the death camps by the Death Marches. The deportees were forced
into rail cars.(Website #3) The rail cars were distanced from the normal train depots
so they did not cause attention. These rail cars were in poor condition and most had no
windows, unheated cattle cars, and the people were so tightly packed that most were
forced to stand. The doors were then shut and the prisoners were riding to their death.
In conclusion the Death Marches were horrific things and should have never
happened. The Holocaust altogether should not and would not have happened if Hitler
were not the leader. These terrible things that happened to harmless people just
because of the things they believed in, or the way they carried out their life should not
have been in place.

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