Vivian Polite

1/12/15
UWRT 1102
Professor Wertz-Orbaugh

HOLOCAUST EDUCATION
Throughout my years in school Ive learned quite a bit of information about the holocaust
and the events that happened during World War II. In the simplest forms that I can explain, the
Holocaust was led by Adolf Hitler and his army of Nazis in the mass killing of Jews, gypsies,
disabled and any other people that were deemed unworthy to live or below him. The holocaust
involved millions of innocent people dying because of someones prejudice against him
In the eighth grade my English teacher wanted us to learn about the Holocaust heavily.
We did a lot of research on the holocaust and the causes and wrote papers on what we found. We
read the Diary of Anne Frank and watched the movie which gave me insight into a childs life in
that time. On our eighth grade field trip we visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C
and I was just in awe at what I saw. In one room if I remember correctly there was a space filled
with hair that was shaved from the people kept in the concentration camps. Also there was a
station there where you would pick a card and on the card would be an individual, their story,
where theyre from and whether they survived or not. It was just amazing the amount of lives
were taken with no remorse and going to the museum put it all in perspective.

Later, when I moved onto high school and took world history and U.S history we went
more in depth in what happened during the Holocaust and not the PG version they gave us in
middle school. We were shown videos and pictures of people who were emaciated, bald, some of
them clothed and some of them were not. For the mass killing of the prisoners they were sent to
the gas chambers that could kill hundreds of people by exposing them to mustard gas. Mustard
gas is a very strong, powerful, and poisonous gas that was usually used in war to kill the
opponents. The Nazis would send them into the chambers and say it was for a shower but then
the mustard gas would come from the ceiling and kill them. When exposed to mustard gas it gets
in your lungs and essentially you would suffocate from the inside and drown in your blood. After
the prisoners were killed in the gas chambers the Nazis would just throw them into a pile and
burn the remains.
The people that were involved in the Holocaust were evil, theres no other way to
describe what they did. There was no reason for them to essentially assassinate millions of
people. I believe that schools should include more about the Holocaust in their curriculum
because even though its not American history its an important part of our worlds history and to
humanity. We have to learn from our past so we dont make these mistakes in the future.