Hitler's Death Plans

   Hitler had several plans to get rid of Jews and undesirables before he got to his Final Solution. First he deported undesirables to other countries before he realized he was just moving them, but they're still alive. His second plan was to sterilize them so they wouldn't have children. Really gruesome, and it probably didn't work fast enough to him. His third idea was to deport them to a small walled up area overcrowded with others with limited food and supplies, hoping they would die or disease and starvation. However, it was too slow and expensive for him. He declared the mobile killing units too expensive and a waste of bullets. In 1942, he unfortunately had his Final Solution all figured out: concentration/death camps. 

   First the Jews were taken to the railroad station and packed into boxcars. As they exited the train, they were prodded by muzzled dogs and an orchestra playing light music. Then it was the sorting process. A man in a white coat pointed you left or right, life or death. Women and children usually went to the death line and men able to work were kept alive as slave labor. Those that lived were tattooed a number on their arm to dehumanize them, and all their hair was cut off. Concentration camps were work camps, however were turned into extermination camps to rid the world of the "inferior" people. The death camps were to murder large numbers of people. After arriving at the extermination camp, the men were taken to the left to be stripped of belongings, head shaved, and tattooed an identification number. Women and children weren't as lucky. they headed to the showers, where they stripped and were forced in the showers. Those showers were packed so tight you could not move. Then Zyklon B gas, cyanide in gas form, started the agonizing death. 

   The concentration camps were focused on getting work done for industry; inmates produced until they died. Auschwitz was the largest camp. The entrance sign overhead said, "Arbeit Macht Frei," translating to "Work will make you free." Death camps were to kill as quickly as possible. 12 million people died, close to 6 million were Jews.