Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Risk-Taking Researcher - Maus

Week #3 - Maus

Maus 
Rotation #3
Pages 129-159
Risk-Taking Researcher

Since MAUS talks a lot about the Jews and how they were captured and brought to different cities, I decided to learn more about the city Auschwitz, were Anja and Vladek's family members were being taken to; directly to the gas.

Auschwitz; before and now.

Auschwitz is located in the South of Poland, a city used for concentration camps and gas chambers during World War II. Auschwitz Concentration Camp was a network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps built an operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas during World War II. Auschwitz I was the original concentration camp, while Auschwitz II-Bikenau was a combination of a concentration/extermination camp. Auschwitz III-Monowitz was a labor camp.

Auschwitz I was constructed to hold Polish political prisoners, with these prisoners arriving during May of 1940. The first extermination was in September 1941 in Auschwitz II-Birknau. From early 1942 until late 1944, trains delivered Jews to the camps Gas Chambers (picture below) from all over German (Nazi) - occupied Europe. About 1.1 million prisoners died in Auschwitz, around 90%
of them were Jewish. Most of the people who weren't killed from the gas were killed by starvation, forced labor, infectious diseases, individual executions and medical experiments.


Auschwitz's gas chambers.


Sources:

"Auschwitz Concentration Camp." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 2 Sept. 2014.





3 comments:

  1. Sophia,
    Great post! I really like how you did the before and after picture of Auschwitz. It really shows how times have changed. It is horrible that they actually killed people by gas. I wonder if anyone actually felt bad for doing that, whether it was at the moment they were doing it, or after the war ended. No normal human can put someone into a gas chamber knowing they will die, and not care. You would think that they would have had a little bit of empathy. I also wonder if people were doing these things and working with the Nazis just to keep their families or themselves safe. That way, they wouldn't have to worry about anything happening to them or their family. Overall, good job on your post.

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  2. Sophia,
    Your post is so amazing! It has so much helpful information, it really adds onto my knowledge about the book. I think that the image you chose was so meaningful. In a way, it explains everything you wrote after. What shocked me the most about your post was the fact that 1.1 million prisoners died. They were completely innocent. I have no idea how somebody would even think of making a prison that has gas "showers." It's just so crazy!!
    Great Job!!
    Martu

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  3. Sophia,
    I thought your post was well explained and well organized. I think it was interesting how you researched about where it all happened. Your information that you researched helped me to understand the book better, and history. Your post listed many facts which I never knew for example, that 1.1 million people unfortunately died. Overall great post!

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