The Holocaust by Alison Carter

Sites used: http://www.ushmm.org
http://library.thinkquest.org
Three things that I learned about the Holocaust:

1. Hitler relied mostly on terror to achieve his goals. The fear of the SA (auxilary policemen) forced silence over Germans who did not support the Nazis. German police would parade around the streets, killing people who were against the Nazis, or threatening them. It must have been very hard to live in those German neighborhoods around that time.

2. The Germans and their collaborators created Ghettos to concentrate and monitor the Jewish population. What I did not know is that in Ghettos, diseases spread rapidly, people were always hungry, heating fuel was scarce, tens of thousands died in ghettos, and children became orphaned every day. Life in the Ghettos was harsh; I couldn't imagine living in such a place.

3. Prisoners in concentration camps were required to wear color-coded triangles on their jackets so that the guards and officers of the camps could easily identify each person's background and pit the different groups together. I believe that it is a bad thing to be labeled, and that no human should ever have to be.

Extra: SS guards moved inmates by train or on forced marches, often called "death marches," in an attempt to prevent the Allied liveration of large numbers of prisoners.

The Book Thief and the Holocaust are similar because: It takes place during the Holocaust. German police officials targeted thousands of political opponents (including communists, socialists, and trade unionists). Leisel's parents are belived to have been killed at a concentration camp, because they were communists. In the Book Thief, there are lots of Nazi supporters, who will even celebrate Hitler's birthday. I love the Book Thief, and it has certainly taught me some more about what life was like during the Holocaust in a different perspective.