Auschwitz Partner: Kari

During the Holocaust, Adolf Hitler devised a policy known as the “Final Solution”, which meant he was going to purify Germany through the slaughter of those he deemed unfit, which comprised of Jews, artists, educators, Romanis, communists, homesexuals, disabled, and more. This gave birth to Auschwitz a death camp, which included three camps during its operation, Auschwitz I in April 1940, Auschwitz II in October 1941; and Auschwitz III in October 1942, “between 1.1 million to 1.5 million people, the vast majority of them Jews, died at Auschwitz during its years of operation. An estimated 70,000 to 80,000 Poles perished at the camp, along with 19,000 to 20,000 Gypsies and smaller numbers of Soviet prisoners of war and other individuals”, (“AUSCHWITZ”). To know that such large amounts of people perished because of their identity is saddening. These victims were unable to reverse who they were, and because of that they had to die or endure an inhumane predicament. The oppressors who committed such cruel actions would separate the incoming people by those who would immediately die or those who’d slowly die by determining their fitness for labor, those who didn’t died an unjustified death, “The bathhouses to which they marched were disguised gas chambers. Once inside, the prisoners were exposed to Zyklon-B poison gas”, (“AUSCHWITZ”). Those who were outcasts to Hitler’s Aryan race, which included Germans who possessed blonde hair and blue eyes were forced to these barbaric murders, and with that in mind it would forever leave a stain onto the world. Many Jews today have the knowledge that their ancestors were a part of one of the world’s most horrific genocide. To make matters worse, many people who were a part of Auschwitz, still have discriminators perpetuating hatred onto them . It will be a long time, before the entire world can accept each other regardless of their identity.

Zofia Stępień-Bator, a witness to the holocaust showed compassion to a fellow Jew, in times where most had the strength to only care for themselves. “Nobody helped me. Prisoners barely able to stay on their feet were passing us”, (“Witnesses accounts“) Stępień-Bator assisted a young girl with minimal strength during their journey, at the time people were unable to do such a thing, because the holocaust had drained everyone’s strength. The brutal labor that the oppressors had forced upon them, subsequently murdered people’s compassion. However, Stępień-Bator went against one of the oppressors goals: annihilation of kindness through helping someone experiencing a similar journey as Stępień-Bator, but not everything lasts forever. “ A moment later, there was a shot. It was my poor little ward, whom I had promised not to abandon. She had stopped suffering... the echo of that shot still rings in my memory... ", (“Witnesses accounts“). Stępień-Bator was unable to help the little girl anymore because of the how the holocaust had continually drained her of life in all aspects, physically, psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally. This was what it meant to be in the holocaust, to be ruthlessly stripped of what makes you human, and Stępień-Bator was no exception. The cost meant that she was unable to help that little girl, subsequently the little girl died.