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At the start when she was just 8 years old, she had heard of terrors of the Nazis around her. Nothing had happen to her or her family until she had just turned 12 years old and the Nazi army came looking for her and her family. Helga Weiss was a young school girl who has had one of the most terrifying childhoods of all time. Helga grew up in Prague. Helga was sent to 4 different camps along side her mother. Her father was sent to a concentration camp where he passed away. Some women had heard of escaping's and the war coming to an end, Helga thought that her mother wasn't fit enough to try and run and escape. Finnaly after years of pain and horror on May fifth 1945, the camp was taken back over by the allied forces.

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This is the video of Helga during her interview

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The first of four long and terrifying camps Helga and her mother had to endure was Terezin. Terezin was essentially a holding place until they could be moved to another concentration camp. Helga and her mother were only allowed 50kg worth of materials to bring with them. Which is only enough for ever so little essentials needs and a few wants. There her and her mother stayed for 3 years sleeping with little to no warmth and sleeping alongside one other person in a twin size bed(not literally but the bed was only to fit at max one person). Helga says the only thing that gave her to push through was that her mother was at the camp with her. During their stay Helga was separated and was moved to a more age appropriate housing. One of the saddest things she ever saw was when her father was being transferred to another place and she saw his mouth twitching try to keep a smile on for her and his hands shaking due to the fear of what would happen.

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In Auschwitz you join a waiting queue/line. To the left were the ones deemed not able to work, to the right were deemed able to work. Helga remembers hearing people say around her to not say they were ill, or tell them they are able to work, or say they are not to young. Everyone knew their fates if they ended up on the left side, Helga said. What Helga and the ones on the right didn't know was that they were being sent to a exterminations camp, they had never heard of the gas chambers yet. They just knew the left line died and the right ones worked. Helga explains that the "10 days at Auschwitz were worse then the 3 years at Terezin."

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Freiberg, was their third camp, where they worked as slaves for five hard months.

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After Freiberg, they were being transferred by train. Her and her mother were so weak, " Irena was so weak she could hardly stand and both suffered from frostbite, lice and constant, raging thirst." Helga had heard rumors about people fleeing these trains but she knew that her mother was far to weak to run away. Once they arrived to Mauthausen, they almost starved. Luckily on May fifth 1945 the terror and horror was over as allied forces had taken over the camp and the war ended shortly after.

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This is a picture of Helga at her interview on her experience during the Holocaust

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This is a picture of Helga when she was younger

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This is the terrifying Josef Mengele also known as the "Angel of Death"

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Thorpe, V. (2018, February 22). The schoolgirl who survived the Holocaust by fooling the Nazis. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/16/schoolgirl-who-fooled-the-nazis Accessed march 29th 2025

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My digital note card

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Cochrane, K. (2017, September 20). My diary of a Nazi death camp childhood. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/22/helga-weiss-diary-nazi-death-camp Accessed March 29th 2025

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Josef Mengele. (n.d.). https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/josef-mengele

Acessed March 29th 2025

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Introduction to the Holocaust: What was the Holocaust? (n.d.). https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust Accessed March 29th 2025