Matthew Davis

Mr. Hawkins
Modern World History P, Period 2
April 8 2016
Liberation
Liberation was a very important act during the second World War and especially the
holocaust. Liberation is setting someone free from imprisonment or slavery and in this case
people were saved from some of Hitlers concentration camps. Hitler was ruthless to anyone he
considered a threat and the Jews most of all. He put them through hard times and if they were not
set free and Liberated a good amount of them would have passed away. Liberation allowed
prisoners to exit, although they were still on the run and weak because of the lack of food and
water they received at Hitlers camps, anywhere was better than those camps to them.
There are many great stories of liberation and that is a great thing because peoples lives
were saved. There were many people that did but soviet soldiers were the first to liberate
concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war (Website1). This was very
important that they saved this people and started a movement of many more acts of liberation.
These soviet soldiers did a great thing not only by saving many people from the concentration
camps they were trapped at but by impacting more soldiers to help these people. While these
soldiers and people that did save the lives of many they were not able to save everyone. They
tried to free and save all people in these concentration camps but many of them were too
weak to digest food and could not be saved (Website1). They were tortured and starved so
heavily at these camps that they were too weak and broken to be able to do simple things. Hitler
made these camps do such terrible things to these innocent people to the point that they were not

even savable because they were too damaged. It was horrible what Hitler was doing so it was a
great thing that people were saved although survivors had mixed reactions to their new
found freedom (Website1) because so many of their relatives and friends had been killed.
They were free but most left without the family they loved and it made some feel guilty about it
because even though they were trapped in the camps they still had their lives unlike most of their
loved ones.
There were many tragedies that occurred during the second world war and there were
millions of deaths, most coming from the soldiers fighting for their countries but a great deal of
deaths were because of Hitlers concentration camps where thousands of civilians were killed
and hundreds daily. Auschwitz was one of the biggest camps there was, there were several
American soldiers that made an act of liberation and approximately 65 thousand prisoners
were evacuated (Website2) just at Auschwitz alone. These prisoners were traumatized from
the horrors they were put through during their time at Auschwitz. These prisoners were shocked
that they actually were released, free, and most surprised that they were alive. They only took the
prisoners healthy enough to get through the escape, the sick and exhausted prisoners also
volunteered for evacuation, since they felt, not without reason, that those left behind would
be liquidated (Website2). People that were too weak were sadly considered unsalvageable and
were left behind. It was necessary to walk a long way and to go through some stuff which
required strength and effort which some people were way too weak to be able to do. The
American troops did not leave them behind because they wanted to but because they had to.
Auschwitz was probably the biggest concentration camp and it is estimated that a total of not
fewer than 9,000 and probably as many 15,000 Auschwitz prisoners died in the course of
the evacuation (Website2). Thousands of people dies at other camps too but Auschwitz was

one of the camps with the most casualties. Many more died other than just in the evacuation also
though.
There were not many survivors during the acts of liberation during the holocaust but all
that did survive had very dramatic experiences. All soldiers who liberated prisoners of Hitlers
concentration camps that have survived tell stories about how there were tens of thousands on
the verge of death, as well as piles upon piles of corpses (Website3). They saw several
thousands of people either dead or nearly dead. They made very heroic acts by saving the
thousands they did but said they felt horrible leaving people behind who were beyond saving at
the point they got there. The survivors who were actually prisoners in the camps that were
liberated had more horrifying stories. A man name Martin Aaron said he was separated from
his parents and four siblings, who were murdered there (Website3). He escaped the prison
where he was tortured and put to slavery and came home to no family. His life was completely
ruined because of a man named Adolf Hitler and his concentration camps. Another surviver
named Gerda Klein had gone though some major hardships through her life of surviving the
holocaust. She had a family but then her mother, and father were separated, and Gerda was
sent to the Sosnowitz transit camp in Poland and she never saw her family again
(Website3). Her life was ruined just like thousands upon thousands of lives. She was put through
major hardships but was able to escape this by the great acts of liberation.
Throughout all the bad that went on liberation was one of the only positive things that
was happening to the people of Germany during World War 2. There was greatness coming from
liberation but also tragedies. Many people died in the process of escaping the camps and many
people had to be left behind because they just simply were in too bad of a condition to be saved.
Another negative was the people that can call them survivors did not forget what happened and

could not act the same as before. Liberation was very important in saving lives although those
lives could never be lived the same after the events that occurred right before their eyes.