Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Germany took control in 1933. Hitler was very controlling toward the Jews. He was so controlling that he made Jews live in neighborhoods called ghettos, which had walled enclosure (Rose 12). Jews were locked in at night, on Christian holidays, and were required to wear a badge when outside of the ghetto (Rose 1). Jews were not allowed clothes coupons, tobacco, eggs, wheat products, meat, or milk for children. What little food they were allowed to buy, had to be bought between the hours of 4-5 p.m. Jews had to give up all furs and non-essential warm clothing and had to hand over all electrical and optical appliances, bicycles, typewriters, and phonograph records. It was illegal for the Jews to work in a public park or garden, and to eat or drink in a restaurant, café, or bar. Jews were not allowed books, newspapers, or any kind of pets. The worst thing they had to do was mark the outside of their homes with a yellow star (Bedford 94). That was just the beginning of terrible pain and suffering many Jews went through before and after WWII. Concentration camps during WWII were a horrible death sentence to some prisoners, yet many people fought for survival. .
"The first German concentration camp was established.in 1933 to detain Communists and other persons considered to political undesirables" (Hill 1-2). There were many camps formed after the first one, most of them were horrible places where very few people came out alive. One of the worst concentration camps was called Auschwitz. Auschwitz was located on a barren plain in Southern Poland. "It was called the largest human slaughterhouse" (Grzech 1). Auschwitz was also the main extermination center for the Jews. Although Auschwitz could only hold between 16,000 - 18,000 people at a time, over two million Jews died there (Grzech 2). In the summer of 1941, 438,00 Hungarian Jews were sent to Auschwitz (Nagorski 57).
