Find out what happened to Anne and her family
VA USII.7b Locate and describe the major events and turning points of the war in Europe
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| The main gate at Auschwitz-Birkenau. These tracks reached directly in front of the gas chambers. Photo courtesy of C. Puisney public domain |
Goals: Students will explain and describe:
--a concentration camp
New words: synthetic, euphemism
New words: synthetic, euphemism
New history words: concentration camp, labor camp, extermination camp, death camp
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| View of a cattle car on display at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Photo courtesy of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum #n00090 www.ushmn.org |
On September 4, 1944, the Frank family boarded a train to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Deportees taken to the east were crowded into cattle cars (see picture on right) which have no seats, restrooms, windows, or toilets.
First, what is a concentration camp?
A concentration camp is a place where people are taken illegally because they are considered dangerous to the rest of the population. It's not a prison where people are held because they have broken the law and were convicted of a crime by a court. People who are in a concentration camp sometimes do not know why they have been sent there. The term concentration means to bring together to a central point. Therefore, the Nazis concentrated their enemies in camps so they could not endanger other Germans.
(As a student, when I heard the word concentration camp, I thought people were sitting around thinking really hard. Go ahead and laugh.)
Activity #1
What happened to Anne?
Where was Auschwitz-Birkenau and what did it look like?
Activity #2
Watch an animated map about Auschwitz-Birkenau here.
Auschwitz was the largest concentration camp run by the Nazi state. In additon, it was an extermination camp or death camp where arrivals were murdered on a huge scale.
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Newly arrived Hungarians on the
railroad platform at Auschwitz II
photo courtesy: www.yadvashem.org
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There were many other camps throughout Europe, but Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) was different because it was a very large labor camp and a death camp.
Labor camps were places where people were worked doing anything to help the war effort. They worked in factories, railroads, farms, underground ammunition or weapons factories. Conditions were harsh as in other camps; very little food and long working hours.
Auschwitz was designed so that the trains stopped onto a ramp close to the gas chambers (see upper left). Next, the Germans divided everyone into two large lines: one for women and children and the other for men. From these lines, the Germans then chose a small number of people (men and women) to work as slave labor.
Everyone else were told that they would take a shower. The Germans said that everyone would be united with their families later. In reality, the people who were too young, too old, too sick for slave labor were killed shortly after their arrival in gas chambers located at the edge of the camp away from view. Most slave laborers found out much later that their families were killed shortly after their arrival.
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| Photo: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Archives http://en.auschwitz.org |
At Auschwitz, slave laborers had many varied taskes. They worked to build and maintain the camp, but the Germans were interested in the area because of large deposits of coal and other resources for a German company called IG Farben. The company worked to produce synthetic (artificial) rubber and gasoline.
On arrival, Anne, Margot, and Edith Frank were selected for work in Auschwitz-Birkenau. They made friends with another Dutch woman, Lenie de Jong-van Naarden. She survived and her account was later published. (I've added extra information in parenthesis to help you with special vocabulary.)
"The work that we did consisted of dragging stones from one end of the camp to the other. Why it was necessary, heaven knows? But there was another group who brought the stones back...Later,when we worked in a factory in Libau (another subcamp), making tire chains, we always did something to make the machines break down. Nothing was said; it just happened spontaneously...We were dying of thirst. Each day our food was a piece of bread, sourdough bread; sometimes we got a small dab of butter as well, sometimes also a teaspoon of honey in your hand. Annie and I always shared our portions in the mornings and the evenings. At most it was a slice and a half of bread. It was minimal, and later there was even less...I remember that Anne Frank got a rash and ended up in the Kratzeblock (medical barracks). She had scabies (body mites). Margot voluntarily went with her. Those two sisters stayed with each other, and the mother was in total despair.".
Krof, Hedda. Understanding Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl: A Student Casebook to
Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Greenwood Press, 1997. Print. p.81.
By January 1945, Anne and Margot were moved from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen, a labor camp in Germany. Their mother, Edith, was left behind at Auschwitz. (If you're getting confused with all of the dates and places, click here for help.)
At Bergen-Belsen, Anne met a friend of hers from school in Amsterdam, Hannah Gosler. Click to hear Hannah's meeting with Anne below.
Anne Frank Remembered. Dir. John Blair. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Glenn Close, Karl
Kraines and Anne Frank. Sony Pictures Home Entetainment, 2004. DVD.
(courtsey of Anne Frank House YouTube Channel)
(courtsey of Anne Frank House YouTube Channel)
Hannah was a German Jew like Anne. Hannah speaks English but has a thick accent, so I have provided a transcript of her account below. If you're having trouble understanding what Hannah is saying, you're welcome to print it out and follow along. The words in the [ ] are my additions to help you.
Activity #3 Complete the following questions
Thanks for participating! I hope you have learned something beyond your textbook. Please leave me constructive feedback to make each post better. Amy
Works cited
Anne Frank Remembered. Dir. John Blair. Perf. Kenneth Branagh, Glenn Close, Karl
Kraines and Anne Frank. Sony Pictures Home Entetainment, 2004. DVD.
Home Entertainment. 2005. DVD.
"concentrate." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 20 Jul. 2013.
Krof, Hedda. Understanding Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl: A Student Casebook to
Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Print. p. 81.
Nyiszli, Miklos. Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account. New York: Arcade Publishing,
1960. Print.
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