The Tragedy of the Holocaust by Stephanie Johnson

The Holocaust was one of the many tragic things that happened in our history. Here are three specific things that really surprised me that I learned.

1."Arbeit Macht Frei" means "Work Makes Free". This slogan would be above every gate connected to a concentration camp. The Nazis would tell the Jews that the more they worked, the quicker they would be free because of their dedication. It was all a lie just to get the Jews killed.
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2. There were people called "Dentists" who weren't really dentists at all. What would happen is after a huge majority of the Jews were in the gas chambers, the poor people who had to clean up the dead bodies would take them to one of these "dentists". The "dentist" would then rip out any of the golden teeth that could be sold for money. I personally, would not like to have that done to me whether I was dead or alive.
I got this source from Mr. Pope's German class.

3. No one really had their own identity. You were only a number in the eyes of the Nazis. It was really interesting to me to find out that the Nazis never wasted a single thing. Hair was shaved off and made into pillows, mattresses, blankets, etc. Every piece of clothing was used in some way. No matter what it was you had, it would somehow be used to benefit the evil and wicked Nazi's death camps.
I got this source from Mr. Pope's German class.

I related all of these things to The Book Thief in the sense that I get this feeling that Liesel or one of her family members or friends will end up in a concentration camp and will get treated in these ways. It makes me sad to think that people were really treated like this and were killed if they did a single thing wrong.