Seventy years have passed since the last shots of the Second World War subsided. Humanity remembers a lot. But he forgets a lot. And already in some countries fascist groups are raising their heads. They want to revive Nazism, and hence fascism - all that grief that humanity has survived: war, death, concentration camps.
April 11 - Day of the release of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. This date was established by the UN decision as a memorial. On this day, 04/11/1945, there was an international uprising of prisoners in the Buchenwald camp.
History of the creation of concentration camps
In Europe, concentration camps appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century, during the Boer War. Then the camp was a place where both prisoners of war and local residents were temporarily held, which could fight as partisans. The camps were tent buildings, where prisoners were provided with some amenities. There is evidence that more than 25 thousand people died in these English camps.
During the Third Reich, the concentration camp turned into a place of mass extermination of people. In Germany, the first of the concentration camps was the Dachau camp, in which at least 70 thousand prisoners died from 1933 to 1945. At the very end of the war, Germany had 26 large concentration camps and dozens smaller.
April 11 - Day of the release of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. Prisoners of Dachau will never forget this day.
The bloodiest symbol of fascism was the Auschwitz camp, which was located on the territory of Poland.
Almost 1.5 million people were killed here. April 11 - Day of the release of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. Photos of prisoners on the walls of the camp corridor serve as silent evidence of Nazi crimes. The chemical method of killing prisoners in the form of cyclone-B gas was first tested at Auschwitz. The 7 thousand liberated prisoners of Auschwitz is a living symbol reminding that there is a day for the liberation of prisoners of fascist concentration camps.
Camps in Germany
More than 14 thousand camps were built over the years of the fascist Reich. They contained about 18 million prisoners from nearly thirty countries of the world. In all these camps, prisons and ghettos, more than ten million people died. Half of the dead are citizens of the Soviet Union. Our people remember and honor the Day of the Liberation of the Prisoners of Fascist Concentration Camps.
The largest camps were:
- Auschwitz: 4 million prisoners.
- Majdanek: 1.5 million prisoners.
- Sachsenhausen: about 100 thousand prisoners.
- Mauthausen: about 100 thousand prisoners.
- Ravensbrück: about 90 thousand prisoners.
- Treblinka: about 75 thousand prisoners.
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald is the largest Nazi concentration camp, which began its criminal activity in June 1937 in the German city of Weimar. The first batch of prisoners arrived in June 1938. In eight years, it has grown to sixty-six branches of the main camp, scattering its tentacles in the occupied countries of Europe.
Here, the labor of prisoners carried out the installation of FAA missile aircraft-shells.
For the period from 1937 to 1945, about two hundred forty thousand prisoners passed through the Buchenwald concentration camp. But first, they were political prisoners from Germany, as well as those who were objectionable to the regime: pacifist priests, drug addicts, prostitutes, homosexuals, criminals. And later, when the war started, the prisoners of the camp were gypsies, Jews, Poles, Russians, and French. Here, the prisoners were not only physically exploited, but also subjected (especially children) to cruel medical experiments. In Buchenwald, over 55 thousand people, representatives of 18 nationalities, including 20 thousand Soviet prisoners, were tortured, burned, poisoned and executed over the years of the war.
Now only the foundation, laid out of stone, recalls that there were barracks for prisoners.
The liberation of Buchenwald
In April 1945, the war rumbled already in Germany. Information about the onset of the allied forces reached the Buchenwald camp, whose prisoners carried out an uprising on April 11, disarming the guards, taking control of the camp in their hands. A day later, the camp was liberated by the advanced units of the Allied forces. The prisoners were rescued.
April 11 - Day of the release of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. The surviving prisoners of Buchenwald remember this day.
Camp Doro
The branches of the Buchenwald concentration camp were also located outside of Germany. For example, the island of Usedom, located in the Baltic Sea, was the location of the Nazi secret factory producing FAU-2 missiles. In the years 1944-1945, these shells were fired at the cities of Antwerp and London.
After the German base was defeated in 1943, a new missile plant was launched in the Harz Mountains, near the city of Nordhausen. A large number of prisoners ensured the quick launch of the FAU-2 underground shell manufacturing plant. The production rocket complex was located at a depth of seventy meters. Forty tunnels connected two two-kilometer tunnels dug by prisoners.
April 11 - Day of the release of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. The SS scenario was simple: all the prisoners who worked at the underground plant should not have come to the surface alive. They became hostages of circumstances as carriers of state secrets. In the Doro camp, tens of thousands of prisoners died. One FAU-2 rocket was equal to thirty human lives. When parts of the Red Army approached Nordhausen, the SS men shot and killed more than thirty thousand prisoners.
April 11 - Day of the release of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. The tragedy of World War II should not be repeated.
Extracurricular Event Scenario
The purpose of such an event is to tell schoolchildren about the atrocities of the Germans during the war years, arouse compassion for their compatriots in them, and notify the destructive consequences of wars for people. The recommended date is April 11, the day of the release of prisoners of Nazi concentration camps. The scenario of the memorial matinee is given below.
Action Plan:
- The host talks about the crimes of the Nazis, as well as about the largest concentration camps of Germans.
- Invited war veterans talk about the past, the days of war.
- Presentation showing photos, with comments by the host.
- The story of the leader about the life of prisoners in concentration camps.
- One of the students reads a poem by Drobovsky "I will not forget these stoves."
- Demonstration of documentary shots depicting the lives of people in concentration camps and the atrocities of German soldiers.
- Pupils ask questions to the facilitator.
Memorable Dates
In 1946, the Nuremberg Tribunal recognized the crimes of fascism as crimes against humanity.
1991 is the year of the creation of the Russian Union of Former Juvenile Prisoner Camps. For the members of this union, the Day of Liberation of the Prisoners of Fascist Concentration Camps will always remain a bright date. The scenario in which the Nazis killed children should never be repeated.