The Holocaust was obviously a very horrid event, although it does contain an inspirational story. Rudolph Vrba was a Jew who was sent to one of the many concentration camps. While he was there he repeatedly saw the mass murdering of many Jews. Knowing that he could be tortured and killed if found trying to escape, he came up with a very strategic plan to escape from the camp with his friend and tell the world about all of the injustice he had seen. He was able to escape safely and informed the members of the Jewish council in Slovakia about how the Germans are actually killing off the Jews at the camps. Initially his reports didn't make much of an impact because the Hungarian government refused to tell the Jews in Hungary what was happening. However, once the British were informed, it became common knowledge that the Germans were killing off Jews. Rudolph directly saved 120,000 lives because due to his report a train full of Jewish Hungarian was stopped before it could reach the camp.( this information is from documentary on Auschwitz )
Also, it is important to note that the Jews were not immediately sent to concentration camps to die, initially they were stripped of their rights and people started to talk down to them, and eventually after being put in to ghettos they started to be sent to camps. In the article called eight stages of genocide it explains the exact steps of how genocide works as I started to explain in the previous line. Finally, I would like to remind you why I believe one of the many reasons we study History; it is to be made aware of our mistakes as well as other people's mistakes in order to learn from them and never forget them. The SHOAH foundation does exactly that, they collect audio-visuals of survivors from the holocaust in order to help educate the youth so we will never forget.
Good work! That is an awesome and inspiring story about Rudolf Vrba. It is amazing that he was able to save so many people! In the eighth grade I did a report on the SHOAH Foundation and have watched many of these videos by the survivors. It is amazing what the foundation is doing because when the stories are being told by people that were actually there, they are so much more powerful because they are so real and it is easier to put the stories into perspective. I like how you mentioned that the Jews were not immediately put into concentration camps. In the "Eight Stages of Genocide" source I learned that they were first dehumanized and polarized like you mention. I also agree that it is important that the events that occurred in World War II need to continue being taught to the youth and general public so nothing like this will happen ever again.
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