Auschwitz
A Symbol Of Terror
The Fate of the Children
"Like the adults, the kids were only a mere bag of bones, without muscles or fat, and the thin skin like pergament scrubbed through and through beyond the hard bones of the skeleton and ignited itself to ulcerated wounds. Abscesses covered the underfed body from the top to the bottom and thus deprived it from the last rest of energy. The mouth was deeply gnawed by noma-abscesses, hollowed out the jaw and perforated the cheeks like cancer.
-Lucie Adelsberger (slideshare.net) ( ( (www.googa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAYQjB0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slideshare.net%2Flukkimusikstah%2Fchildrens-lives-at-auschwitz-11546193&ei=ZR23VMiVGojugwSpxYG4Aw&bvm=bv.83829542,d.eXY&psig=AFQjCNE_cISD_JRbX3Xi9ETIKlI__cM24Q&ust=1421373152518049
Josef Mengele
Josef Mengele was one of the most infamous people associated with the Holocaust. He gained infamy for his work with twins, especially at Auschwitz. He was known as the "Angel of Death" because he was know to simply flick his wrist left or light when deciding the direction people would go to either live or die. As well as this, Mengele drew a line on the wall in the children's block above 5ft 2 in, and the children who didn't reach it were sent to the gas chamber. Mengele had a fascination with twins and seeing if he could "change" their identical genes. He performed experiments on around three thousand sets of twins, ranging from surgery without anesthetics to injecting lethal germs into their bodies. (historylearningsite.co.uk)
There were around 232,000 children up to the ages of 18 registered at Auschwitz. Many were sent to gas chambers or cremation ovens, but children began being selected for work positions around the age of 13. If placed into the Birkenau sector, young children were able to attend Kindergarten. There, they were medically experimented on as well. At the end of 1943, seperate barracks were constructed for kids younger than two. The kids who were older than two recieved the same rations as adults. (auschwitz.dk)
Picture Sources: George Santayana
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By A.