German Concentrationcamps: a girl talks

Essay by thesunintheskyHigh School, 11th gradeA+, May 2004

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It all began after WWI, when Germany fell into a depression, and the desperation among the people grew because their new democratic system did not seem to work. During this time, Hitler was gaining more power, giving the people the illusion of a better and more prosperous life. My parents said that he could be very dangerous, but at that time, I did not fully understand what they meant. On January 30th 1933, Hitler finally became Chancellor and for us a new era started (1). In the following years we lost more and more rights and freedoms. Jewish doctors were not allowed to practice, so my mom was out of work. My dad lost his small convenient store, because people stayed away from Jewish, and therefore stopped buying in his shop. My and my two brothers were segregated with other Jewish kids in school and not allowed to have contact to any "Aryan" students (1).

I didn't understand that and thought it couldn't get any worse, but it did.

On the 9th of November 1938 the aggressions of the Nazis escalated, when they threw stones in our homes and burnt our houses and synagogues. We were hiding in the basement, when SS troops broke into our home and ravaged our belongings. I was scared to death and told my mom to hold me tight. Nobody in the room seemed to breathe and we prayed to G-d that they wouldn't find us. Our family only survived, because we were hiding, but many of our friends and relatives died or were arrested. This night became known as Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass (2).

After this event things worsened even faster. One week afterwards we were expelled from school and my mom started to teach us herself. My parents...