Your Familys Journey Surviving the Holocaust You your

Your Family’s Journey Surviving the Holocaust

You, your family and all your loved ones are about to begin a long journey. The length of your journey and the final destination are unknown. You must take only what you can carry. You must leave everything else behind. Fill in your family tree information. You must list the names, birthdates, and ages for each person.

On the bottom left hand side of your paper, list the ten items you will pack in your suitcase. You may only pack one suitcase. Since you don’t know where you are going or how long you will be there, you must choose the items you pack carefully.

Your new home

Your family is moved to one of several ghettos. Living conditions are horrible. Entire families live in one room without beds, heat, or blankets. There is no hot water to bathe in and several members of your family get lice. There isn’t enough food for all of your family to eat each day so the younger kids get most of the food. You go to bed hungry each night and keep waiting to go home.

After being in the ghetto for two months, your family is told to pack up again. You hope that you are going home. The day of the move you and your family walk with other families towards the train station. The guards surround everyone as you walk.

At the train station, you and your family are told to board the cars on the tracks. All you see are cattle cars and you are sure there is some mistake.

At gunpoint, guards force you to drop your suitcase and get on the car. People are crying and trying to stay with their family. One hundred people are crammed into the car with you. You cannot sit or move. There is no water or food in the car. It is very hot with no fresh air. Over the next six days, you pray for rain but only smell death.

Your new home is the Auschwitz Work Camp.

When you get to your new home, you are eager to get out of the car. You are grateful all of your family is still alive. Guards begin separating all males and females in to two lines at the entrance to the camp. On your paper circle all relatives that are the opposite gender to you. These are relatives that you will lose contact with and their outcome will be unknown.

People are crying everywhere around you. The guards have hit some people near you with their guns but you can’t stop to help them up. While you are in line, you notice that everyone is being put into groups according to their age. When the guards ask your age you lie and tell the guards you are fifteen.

Everyone younger than 8 years old is too young to work. On your paper circle all relatives that are younger than eight years old. These are relatives that you will lose contact with and their outcome will be unknown.

Everyone older than 50 years old is too old to work. On your paper circle all relatives that are older than fifty years old. These are relatives that will likely be killed immediately.

Life in the camp is hard without much food and water. The living conditions are horrible and many people get sick. On your paper cross off all relatives that are sick (in real life). These relatives did not survive.

As the weather gets colder, more and more people get sick and die. On your paper cross off all relatives that have a birthday between January and March. We will imagine these relatives became very ill. These relatives did not survive. Over time, many people die without enough food. On your paper cross off all relatives that have a birthday between May and July. We will imagine these relatives did not get enough to eat. These relatives did not survive.

After months in the camp with very little food, you are malnourished. Your body is near starvation. If given too much food too quickly, your body will go into shock

One day you notice there are no guards in the camp. Trucks with the Liberating Army roll into the camp to free you and everyone else. They see how thin you are and offer you candy bars, potato chips, and crackers. On your paper write down whether you will eat what the guards give you or wait.

If you decided to eat, cross out YOUR name. Due to the lack of nutrition, your body could not process the food given to you and your organs shut down. You died within hours of eating.

Did your family survive? On the right hand side of your paper at the bottom, write down how many people started this journey with you. How many people did you lose contact with? (circled) How many people died? (x’ed) How many people survived the journey that you know of? (no circle or x) How does this make you feel?