The day Oswiecim concentration camp was liberated – level 2

27-01-1945

Discrimination against Jews began after Hitler came to power in 1933. The Nazis thought that Germany lost World War I because of Jews. Hitler also wanted the money which Jewish families in Germany had. The Nazis started to take money and houses from the Jews.

When the Jews lost their houses, they were taken to concentration camps. Many of them went to the gas chambers. They looked like showers. So people who went into them had no idea what was going to happen until the last moment.

At the beginning of 1945, it was clear that the war was coming to the end. The Red Army was going through Poland and liberated town after town.

On January 27, 1945, the Red Army arrived at the town of Oswiecim in Southern Poland. The Nazis were already gone. What they found was horrible. They found the largest Nazi death factory. Over 1 million people died there, mostly Jews. When the Red Army arrived, only 7,000 extremely hungry people were alive.

Difficult words: discrimination (the situation when people hurt other people because they are different from them), Jew (somebody whose religion is Judaism), Nazi (a member of the National Socialist Party in Germany in World War II), concentration (a large collection of people or things), chamber (a room used for a special purpose), liberate (to free), mostly (in most situations).

What happened to the other 1 million people who died at the death factory?

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