What is the Legacy of the Holocaust?

Question 1

When was Majdanek concentration camp liberated and by who?

Answer 1

• 23rd July 1944

- USSR

Question 2

When was Auschwitz concentration camp liberated and by who?

Answer 2

• 27th Jan 1945

- USSR

Question 3

When was Buchenwald concentration camp liberated and by who?

Answer 3

• 11th April 1945

- USA

Question 4

When was Bergen-Belsen concentration camp liberated and by who?

Answer 4

• 15th April 1945

- UK

Question 5

When was Dachau concentration camp liberated and by who?

Answer 5

• 29th April 1945

- USA

Question 6

When was Ravensbrück concentration camp liberated and by who?

Answer 6

• 30th April 1945

- USSR

Question 7

When was Mauthausen concentration camp liberated and by who?

Answer 7

• 4th May 1945

- USA

Question 8

What were the death marches? When did they take place? Why did they take place? And what was the approximate number of people at the start of the death march and at the end?

Answer 8

• Summer 1944 - April 1945
• as camps were liberated the Nazis move able bodied prisoners further into Germany
• would start with around 30,000 people and end with around 2,000

Question 9

What were the people liberate at concentration camps like?

Answer 9

• some camps were deserted others held huge numbers of people
• the people left at the camp were so ill they couldn’t move

Question 10

What was the number of people liberated from Auschwitz concentration camp?

Answer 10

Auschwitz - c.7,000

Question 11

What was the number of people liberated from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp?

Answer 11

Bergen-Belsen - c.60,000

Question 12

What was the number of people liberated from Dachau concentration camp?

Answer 12

Dachau - c.28,000

Question 13

What was the number of people liberated from Ravensbrück concentration camp?

Answer 13

Ravensbrück - c.2,000

Question 14

What was the number of people liberated from Mauthausen concentration camp?

Answer 14

Mauthausen - c.66,500

Question 15

What was the Impact of Liberation on the Liberators in Concentration Camps?

Answer 15

• Leslie Hardman Bergen-Belsen concentration camp - had to deal with shocking sights, repulsive smells, and people in dire conditions
• Sergeant Norman Tulgel Bergen-Belsen concentration camp - paralysed, couldn’t walk, lost feeling in legs for 24hrs due to shock on his nerves from the horrific sights he’d seen
• Bruce Nikols Ohrdruf concentration camp - save evidence of exhuming and burning of large numbers of bodies, numb and very upset upon arrival
• Glen Edward Belcher Dachau concentration camp - too shocked to do anything other than immobilised, prisoners committing suicide, wanted to get it out of sight and mind as quickly as possible, guards there never discussed it

Question 16

What was the Impact of Liberation on the Liberated in Concentration Camps

Answer 16

• Judy Rosenzweig Bergen-Belsen concentration camp - mixed feelings and lots of questions about themselves and what would happen to them
• Zvi Katz Landsberg concentration camp - wild jubilation, extremely happy to be free’d
• Kitty Hart-Moxon Salzwedel concentration camp - all poured out of camp looking for food, were angry and wanted to destroy
• Eva Lux Braun Salzwedel concentration camp - wanted to see parents, mixed feelings of joy and fear, wanted to be cared for and be relieved of burden of caring for girls (sister and younger friend), freedom relative to a ver great extent

Question 17

Name some of the Perpetrators of the Holocaust:

Answer 17

• Adolf Eichman
• Herman Göring
• Heinrich Unverhau
• Maurice Papon

Question 18

Perpetrators of the Holocaust: What did Adolf Eichman do?

Answer 18

• senior SS officer
• before war in charge of trying to get Austrian Jews to leave the country
• led to him becoming increasingly involved in anti-Jewish policy, including decision making process which led to the Holocaust
• from 1942 onwards, EIchman responsible for organising round-up of Jews from across Europe and their deportation to extermination camps

Question 19

Perpetrators of the Holocaust: What did Herman Göring do?

Answer 19

• one of the most powerful leaders on the Nazi party
• created Gestapo (the Nazi secret police) in 1933 and controlled Germany’s Jews in the 1930s, especially the Jewish property and businesses
• during war, he had a leading role in the decision-making process which lead to the ‘Final Solution’

Question 20

What was covered in the Nuremberg Trials?

Answer 20

covering war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes on starting a war

Question 21

What were Nuremberg Trials considered?

Answer 21

Nuremberg Trials were considered a victory

Question 22

What was new in the Nuremberg Trials?

Answer 22

• use of film as evidence - 12 films
• films documented crimes of Nazis and concentration camps
• trials were filmed
• people were worried films might take over the proceedings so only filmed two hours a day
• filmed to document trials and as propaganda to show trials were fair - the accused given proper defence - validating the fairness of trial to the rest of the world
• court physiologists saw reactions of accused to films of Nazi crime

Question 23

What were the Punishments of lots of Perpetrators of the hHolocaust?

Answer 23

many walked away without being brought to any justice - some punishments were too mild

Question 24

Punishments to Perpetrators of the Holocaust: How was Hermann Göring punished for his crimes in the Holocaust?

Answer 24

• sentenced to death

- committed suicide before he was executed

Question 25

Punishments to Perpetrators of the Holocaust: How was Heinrich Unverhau punished for his crimes in the Holocaust?

Answer 25

claimed he was forced to follow orders or would be killed - not true but courts believed him

Question 26

Punishments to Perpetrators of the Holocaust: How was Maurice Papon punished for his crimes in the Holocaust?

Answer 26

• sentenced to 10yrs in prison
• escaped to Switzerland during appeal in 1999 but was soon caught and taken back to France
• left prison early under new law releasing elderly prisoners
• died in 2007