The word “Holocaust,” from the Greek words “holos” (whole) and “kaustos” (burned), was used to describe a sacrificial offering burned on an altar. After 1945, Holocaust had a different meaning.
By 1945, about 6 million European Jews, as well as members of other groups, were killed. At Auschwitz alone, more than 2 million people were murdered. A large amount of Jewish and non-Jewish inmates worked in the labor camp there. Only Jews were gassed, but thousands of others died of starvation or disease. A large amount of Hungary’s Jewish population was sent to Auschwitz, and as many as 12,000 Jews were killed every day. Gena Turgel was one of the only survivors of the gas chambers. She survived in the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Poland for two and a half years, where her sister Miriam would sleep with her on her left side before the Germans shot her for smuggling food inside, and she claims she can still feel a chill along her left arm. After Płaszów, she was moved to Auschwitz, where she managed to survive the gas chamber. She was later sent on a death march to Buchenwald concentration camp and then to Belsen.…show more content… He was born in Poland in 1922 and came to Pennsylvania in 1945. Severin's family owned Silesia Screw Co. in Poland, which was seized by the German army at the start of World War II. He was 17 when he, his mother, father and an uncle were imprisoned in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. When they came to the United States, Severin and his father, Henry, started Baldwin Brass. Over six decades, he built the company, makers of Baldwin Brass, into an industry leader. In January 2015, Severin died after being diagnosed with cancer three months earlier. With the many books and movies out there today, it’s easy to get an understanding of how tragic the Holocaust really was, and they should help prevent things like this from happening
