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"OUR FIRST ACT AS FREE MEN was to throw ourselves onto the
provisions. That's all we thought about. No thought of revenge,
or of parents. Only of bread.
And even when we were no longer hungry, not one of us
thought of revenge. The next day, a few of the young men ran
into Weimar to bring back some potatoes and clothes—and to
sleep with girls. But still no trace of revenge."
The feeling of freedom was nonexistent to the free men because they had no family and went back home to public humiliation. They didn't even have revenge in their minds because they were so weak they could not even fight back. Their main goal was to get supplies for their needs and clothes for their bodies. The healing process from the experience would haunt them forever. The stories and events that took place to these victims will forever hold a place in their minds.The end of their "journey" was only the start to new life and new world to live in.

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"my father was getting weaker. His eyes were watery, his face the color of dead leaves. On the third day after we arrived in Buchenwald, everybody had to go to the showers. Even the sick, who were instructed to go last."
The feeling of seeing loved ones hurt or fighting for their lives is one of the most heart pulling moments. The fact that a young boy had to take care of his father due to the inhumane treatment they were put into is mournful. As a child I would be devastated to see my father in this poor state after fighting for so long. When Elie stated " Even the sick, who were instructed to go last" that is a great example of how these prisoner were treated. The SS guards forced the sick to shower last. The conditions were unbearable and only got worse as the days moved forward.

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"And now hundreds of cries rose at once. The death rattle of an
entire convoy with the end approaching. All boundaries had been crossed. Nobody had any strength left. And the night seemed
endless."
As the chapters were ending the "end" felt like forever and death flet closer. The prisoners began to develop a mindset of death as it filled the air in inside the cattles.  The starvation, thirst, and weakness all started hitting as they tried to stay alive on the road to "freedom". I would feel so emotionally drained as I knew my end was coming and I fought so hard to survive. Elie noticed people fighting to survive with no strength in their bodies.

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"The heat, the thirst, the stench, the lack of air, were suffocating us. Yet all that was nothing compared to her screams, which tore us apart. A few more days and all of us would have started to scream."
This chapter begins to show that inhumane treatment these innocent Jews have already encountered. The transportation to the camp was only the beginning of how their lives would forever be affected. I know the fear of starting a new school or having to make new friends, but starting a whole new life in a place that is unknown is intimidating. These jews must have felt alone, betrayed, and unaware of what was going to happen. Elie mentions " after a few more days of this and all of us would start screaming" he is referring to the mental state these people were going through as they were use to a normal life style and now they are cramped into a small cattle car on the road to a camp they don't know.

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"NEVER SHALL I FORGET that night, the first night in camp, that
turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky."
The arrival at the camp was appalling to these victims. They arrived at this unknown place to see people getting killed, the smell of flesh rotting the air, and worst of all children being burned into flames. As a normal person you could only think to yourself " how could someone do this?" The thoughts you begin to develop could be awful as if someone could burn a child with no remorse. Elie remembers the first night that he thought was a nightmare, but turned into his reality. The life him and many others were about to be apart of.

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DIT Labs - Fairfax County Public Schools

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Surviving the Holocaust: Segment 5 — Arrival at Auschwitz

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"And so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death writhing before our eyes. And we were forced to look at him at close range. He was still alive when I passed him. His tongue was still red, his eyes not yet extinguished."
At this time the people apart of the camps were so use to seeing people die that watching them be hung didn't hurt them as bad. They had been living this way of life so quite some time that they were numb, numb to pain, life, and  hunger. The statement from the text shows how indifferent these SS soldiers were to the so called prisoners.I couldn't even imagine looking at a poor child being hung and being forced to watch. The young victim was not even killed but left to hang half dead and half alive as people just walked by with no sympathy.

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Nazi Germany committed mass murder on an unprecedented scale. Before and especially during World War II, the Nazi German regime perpetrated the Holocaust and other mass atrocities. In the aftermath of these crimes, calculating the number of victims became important for legal, historical, ethical, and educational reasons.

The statistics below were calculated using a number of different sources. These sources include surviving Nazi German reports and records; prewar and postwar demographic studies; records created by Jews during and after the war; documentation created by resistance groups and underground activists; as well as other available, extant archival sources.

These death statistics lay bare the enormity of the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes. They are a starting point for confronting the scale of human loss unleashed by Nazi Germany.

How many Jewish people died in the Holocaust?

In total, six million Jewish men, women, and children were murdered by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators. This genocide is now known as the Holocaust. Antisemitism was at the foundation of the Holocaust. Antisemitism, the hatred of or prejudice against Jews, was a basic tenet of Nazi ideology. This prejudice was also widespread throughout Europe.

During the Holocaust, the Nazis and their allies and collaborators murdered Jews in many places using several methods. The two main methods of murder were poison gas and mass shootings. They also murdered Jews in other acts of violence and by deliberately denying them access to adequate food, shelter, medical care, and other necessities.

The below statistics list the number of Jewish people killed in killing centers (sometimes called death camps or extermination camps); in mass shooting operations and associated massacres; as prisoners in camps and ghettos; and outside of sites of detention in other acts of violence.
Table 1. Breakdown and explanation of how six million Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust

Number of Jews murdered (by site and method)

Explanation

Approximately 2.7 million Jews were murdered at killing centers.

The Nazi German regime created five killing centers specifically to murder Jewish people using poison gas. These killing centers were called Chełmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau.

See table 2 for a breakdown of this number by killing center.

About 2 million Jews were murdered in mass shooting operations and related massacres.

The Germans and their allies and collaborators carried out mass shooting operations and related massacres of Jews in more than 1,500 cities, towns, and villages across occupied eastern Europe.

Between 800,000 and 1,000,000 Jews were murdered in ghettos, labor camps, and concentration camps.

In ghettos, concentration camps, and labor camps created by the Germans and their allies and collaborators, Jews were murdered through deliberate privation, disease, brutal treatment, and arbitrary acts of violence.

At least 250,000 Jews were murdered in other acts of violence outside of camps and ghettos.

The Germans and their allies and collaborators killed Jewish people in acts of violence and deprivation that took place outside of sites of detention (camps and ghettos). This includes Jews murdered in antisemitic riots; in individual executions; as partisans; and en route to and between sites of detention (on forced marches, trains, and ships).

There is no single Nazi German document that accounts for every death in the Holocaust. Rather, there are hundreds of thousands of pages of Nazi German documents that recorded this information. One of the best documented aspects of the Holocaust by the perpetrators are transports to and gassing operations at killing centers. Thus, we know with some specificity and precision the death toll for each of the five killing centers of the Holocaust.

Table 2 shows the breakdown of the 2.7 million Jewish victims murdered at the five killing centers.

Table 2. Number of Jewish victims murdered by the Nazis at killing centers

Killing center

Number of Jewish victims
Subtotal
approximately 2.7 million Jewish people were murdered at killing centers

In total, six million Jews died in the Holocaust. This number is calculated based on Nazi German documents and prewar and postwar demographic data.

How many non-Jewish people did the Nazis and their allies murder between 1933 and 1945?

The Nazis and their allies and collaborators murdered six million Jewish people in a genocide now known as the Holocaust. They also murdered millions of non-Jewish people between 1933 and 1945.

Table 3 lists the estimated number of non-Jewish people murdered by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators for biological, racial, political, and/or ideological reasons.
Table 3. Number of non-Jewish people murdered by Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators (by group)

Non-Jewish groups persecuted by the Nazi German regime and its allies and collaborators

Number of non-Jewish victims

Serb civilians murdered by Ustaša authorities of the Independent State of Croatia

more than 310,000

Germans imprisoned in concentration camps as "professional criminals" and "asocials"

about 35,000

During World War II, the Germans and their allies brought devastation to the continent, and themselves. In addition to those listed above, millions of others lost their lives as a result of World War II in Europe. The Germans and their allies killed innocent civilians in massacres that the perpetrators termed reprisal actions and anti-partisan pacification measures.

Furthermore, millions more Europeans, as well as Americans and others, were wounded or killed in the fight against Nazi tyranny. They lost their lives as soldiers in the Allied armies, and as members of partisan groups and resistance organizations. The war also cost the lives of millions of German and Axis soldiers and civilians.

Documenting Nazi Crimes

As it became clear that they were losing the war, the Nazis attempted to destroy evidence of their atrocities. They exhumed mass graves and burned corpses. They also attempted to burn and otherwise destroy the hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper on which they had documented their crimes.

But, Nazi mass murder was so extensive and destructive that it was impossible to completely cover up the crimes and destroy the evidence. It was obvious that millions of people were dead and that entire communities were missing. Despite the Nazis' efforts, both documents and witnesses survived. Combined, they provided irrefutable proof of the Holocaust and other mass atrocities. Witness accounts and testimonies and Nazi German documents served as evidence in postwar trials. They also became the foundation of the historical record.

Nazi Germany's extensive paper trail formed the basis of the case against Nazi leaders and organizations at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg . In other postwar trials, Nazi German documents helped prove that individuals had perpetrated specific crimes. Witness testimonies in postwar trials also helped convict perpetrators.

Survivors documented their experiences in memoirs, diaries, and written and oral testimonies. In some cases, written testimonies survived but their authors did not. Survivors spearheaded the creation of archives, memorials, and museums, among them the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Memorializing the Victims

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum documents the stories and fates of the six million Jewish individuals murdered in the Holocaust, as well as the experiences of millions of other people murdered by Nazi Germany and its allies and collaborators.

For those victims whose names and stories remain unknown, accurately calculating the number of victims of the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes is an integral part of memorializing their personhood.

Last Edited: Sep 26, 2023

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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Behind the number of victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution are people whose hopes and dreams were destroyed. Learn about the toll of Nazi policies.

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"As we were not permitted to
bend down, we took out our spoons and ate the snow off our neighbors' backs. A mouthful of bread and a spoonful of snow. The SS men who were watching were greatly amused by the spectacle."
I could only imagine the hunger they were feeling to shovel snow off their neighbor's back for a water source. The torture began to get worse in this chapter and the food became more scarce. The Jews and the other people started to get the mindset of giving up due to the harsh conditions. Their eyes began to become heavy as they made it to the train in hopes to get to freedom. The prisoners worked very hard to get through the snow and other obstacles to make it alive in hopes to be freed.

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"Before you go into the next
room, try to move your limbs, give yourself some color. Don't
walk slowly, run! Run as if you had the devil at your heels! Don't
look at the SS. Run, straight in front of you!" This is an example of selection, which was determined if you lived or got cremated. The prisoners were weak due to the lack of food and they had to prove they were still strong enough to work for someone who gave them no sorrow.  This would make me feel as though I had to prove their strength just to have death as my fate. These victims had to keep pushing themselves to make sure they can survive.  The requirements made them run as fast as they could when they were at their weakest.