The+Holocaust+-+Liberation

The Holocaust - Liberation

Liberation for the Jews first started when the Soviets deiscovered the concentration camp at Majdenek in 1944. Auschwitz and other major death camps were not liberated until 1945. Unfortunatly, liberation came a little too late as most of the prisoners had been removed by the time allied forces could get there. The Germans had forced many of the Jews to march westward in what would be known as "Death Marches". These Death Marches would take place only just days before the Allis reached a camp. They consisted of thousands of prisoners walking for miles through intense cold, with little food or water. About one-fourth of the People involved in death marches died on the way. Only a few thousand of the hundreds of thousands killed were left alive. Also a large number of people freed from the camps died within a year of the rescue because of malnutrition or typhus. Many of the camps had to be burned in order to prevent epidemics from spreading. Some of the major extermination camps had estimate death tolls of :
 * Auschwitz - 1.4 million
 * Treblinka - 870,000
 * Belzec - 600,000
 * Majdenek- 235,000
 * Chelmno- 320,000
 * Sobibor - 250,000

80% of these deaths were figured to be Jews. Almost 90% of the Jewish population of Germany, Austria, Poland, and the Baltic Countries were wiped out.

The number of actual casualties differs depending on the definition of "Holocaust" being used. The usally accepted death toll of the Jews was just under 6 million deaths. This is an astonishing number but if one includes the death tolls of other concentration camp victems and the death of the Soviet Civilians the total can reach as high 21 million Nazi deaths during the Holocaust.