Each Help can Fix the Damage!

                                                                                                    June 9, 1945

Hugo Bachmeier

            I walked into a white tent the size of a football field; within the tent were thousands and thousands of Jews who survived the Holocaust. Their were sick Jews, physically hurt Jews, and even mentally hurt Jews. I was one of many people who offered to help the Jewish survivors. It was so depressing doctors every were running all over the place trying to cure as much Jewish people as possible. There was barley enough space for two people to walk next to each other. I decided to donate some of my money and time to help them. I arrived at the tent at about nine in the morning and left at about six at night. I brought ten bags of food to distribute out among the Jews as their first real meal, I made sure they had the four main meals of the day, breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. For the first time in years they didn’t just have a ration of bread and some black coffee as the only food of their day. I also went out and bought the necessities like soap, pillows, blankets, and more just so the Jewish people have a taste of what life outside of the holocaust really is like. I went around asking each of the Jews what they wanted, with that information I went out and bought as many of the things they wished for, others weren’t possible but I attempted to get something similar. I had a great time their with the Jews I even have a plan of starting to slowly teach both adults and children’s the basics if they haven’t already learned it. The Jewish people were very kind and patient, I felt bad for some of them because some had lost the feeling of their legs, and arms they had to be put on wheel chairs. Their body’s were worn out, they could barley do any physical activity because so many of them were inches away from death so many times. I wish more people could dedicate their time to help these innocent but hurt people, I will be going back tomorrow to help, I will spend as much time necessary to help The Jewish survivors even if it takes years, if it took years to injure the Jews it will take years to heal them and I will be their to help.

                                    
                                       After the Holocaust was over here was were the victims stayed.
                                                      
                                               

                                
                                              

Just Another Nuremberg Trial

                                                                                                        May 28, 1945
Abel Blau

                   Today was one of the Nuremberg Trials, I was working as one of the many guards for the trial, my job was to escort the criminal to the courtroom and to the sell. I had to wear a uniform that was very uncomfortable, it was a navy green jacket with a white belt holding it tightly in the middle of my stomach close to my belly button. There were also matching navy green loose pants, a white helmet that tightly fitted my head, it was as hard as rock. My jacket was covered in badges that I had earned a long time ago. I didn’t like the uniform so much it was very uncomfortable  for something I would usually wear. At the beginning I had to wait out side for the criminal to arrive, it took a lifetime, I thought to myself when are criminals fashionably late? All they have to ware are clothes suited for court and comfortable enough to spend a long period of time locked up in a sell. Finally the criminal arrived, I was the one forced to put handcuffs on the criminals surprisingly clean hands. When I touched the mans hands I imagined once that mans hands killed innocent human beings, once his clean hands were dirty. I walked in front of him while we walked down the long, dark hallway leading to the courtroom. We escorted him to his seat and went to our assigned places; I was assigned the second door behind the judge’s seats and diagonal to the criminals seat. There were four doors in total and I got the perfect place with the perfect view of the criminal’s mixed emotional face. The trial began a little late I started to become in-patient standing stiff in the same position. I stared out into the stands with a blank look on my face bored out of my mind, the voices of the judges seemed monotone. It only got interesting when the criminal became nervous, I saw the sweet crawl down the side of his head and his forehead he looked sick to his stomach probably thinking about his execution. At one point the courtroom got completely quiet, we could almost hear the wood crack while the people moved agents it. My legs began to cramp but I forced my self to stand still, I couldn’t wait until the judges decided on what to do with the man so I could go home and lay on my comfortable bed and sleep, that was all I thought about the whole day my bed. Finally the judges decided not to execute the man but he had to spend the rest of his life in prison, better then being killed with no way to defend yourself. I walked toward the man and handcuffed his hands again. Many guards surrounded him including me, we escorted him to a filthy jail sell, all there was in the sell were a bed, and a toilet, and it smelt horrible. While he has to spend the rest of his like in that horrible jail sell I get to spend my life in as many houses as I want, I don’t feel bad for him because what he did was unforgivable, he got was he deserved because of the actions he took in the past.

                                
                                  Guards during the Criminal of War trial.

                                                                                                                                   

A Promise Kept!

Today I went to one of the trials of the Nuremberg Trials; I didn’t have the courage to go to the trial yesterday because it was one of the guards responsible for killing my mother and sister at a concentration camp. I made a promises the day I was free from the holocaust that I would attend the trial of at least one of my fathers murderers. He wasn’t my biological father; my mom got remarried after my biological father left her a year after I was born so I don’t remember him at all. I was 9 when she remarried Adah, I was furious with the idea of having a step father, I did everything possible to try to get rid of him but he was determined to make me like him and finally call him dad. I thought it was a temporary marriage that wouldn’t last very long until my sister Bettina was born. In the ghettos I wasn’t worried I thought it was actually better and safer for our community until we got on the trains packed with barley enough air to breath, that’s when I knew we weren’t safe we were in danger. When we arrived at the first concentration camp we were forced to split up in two lines of girls on one side and boys on the other, each line leading to two different crematory buildings. I panicked and screamed at the top of my lungs so he could hear “ I love you, Dad!” He smiled at me from ear to ear, that was the last time I saw him. I am now alone in the world with no one, I am living with a family in Poland who are very nice they have a daughter a little older than I am she is very extraordinary she talks to me and comforts me when I need it but still their not my family I want my mom, dad, and sister back, I want my life back the life I had before any of this started but this time I would see Bettina as my father and life would be even better than it was. My Poland family brought me to the Trial today at three o’clock; we sat all together on the hard, uncomfortable, brown wooden bench. The trial began right on time, when I looked to the side their he was a guard who worked in the crematory building the same crematory building my father died in, that guard was one of the responsible people who killed my father. He walked in with a pale face, looking at the people on the benches with an angered stare but when his eyes met mine he stopped, I stared at him with a death stare I felt like pouncing on him yelling out all the pain he caused me. I tried so hard to be calm and not cry but before I knew it a tear slid down my cheek, I couldn’t help but sob just looking at the mans face made me imagine my father being creamed like a wild animal with no feelings, it sickened me. Each second of the trial seemed like it lasted an hour I got so frustrated when the Nazi guard began defending himself, how could he possibly think that murdering helpless people is normal, that it doesn’t characterize him as evil. I wasn’t able to sit still, my legs kept shaking in frustration I was waiting to hear the sentence “You are going to be executed” but it seemed like it was never coming, until everything got quiet two hours into the trial that is when my hopes came true the judges talked among themselves and final they spoke the words I had been waiting for “You are going to be executed” that is all I heard every other gasp, crying, whisper around me seemed to disappear I just focused on that sentence. My eyes shut in relief because justice had been made, I took a deep breath exhaling all my exhaustion, and I smiled slowly showing only half of my white teeth. I was happy that I kept my promise to my father and that justice was made, but at the same time I was sad that I wasn’t ever going to hear my father’s voice again, I wasn’t going to be able to share my feelings with the family I grew up with. Despite my sadness towards my father’s death I knew deep inside he is still with me everyday. I know for sure he is happy with the way the trial went; I know for sure he is happy with me.

                                                                                                      Love,

                                                                                                          Ariella Rosenthal

                                       

Hermann Goering, Perpetrator in the Nazi but Victim in Nuremberg Trials!

1946,

            I was walking down a long narrow hallway surrounded by many police officers and many guards. I was handcuffed walking at a steady pace not looking at any one or anything beside me. I don’t know why they were treating me as a criminal, I am not a criminal as a madder of fact I am a hero. I was part of the Nazi political party, the political party who saved Germany from all their difficulties and now I am treated as if I had done a crime, all I was doing was getting rid of the cause of Germany’s problems and this is how Germany repays me? The guards opened the two doors, the cold air blew right past me, the smell of dry wood in the air sickened me, all eyes seemed glued to my direction, I glances around and spotted my father, Heirrich Ernst Goering dressed in a suit with an angry look on his face, sitting right next to him was my mother, Franziska Tiefenbrunn all teary eyed. I am sort of glad most of my 5 siblings did not come to the trials; I did not want them to see me like this, in this situation. The guards then escorted me to a table in front of four judges who just glaring at me. I sat their motionless as the judges asked questions and made statements. The judges began stating that I was in the army as a combat pilot in the air force and that I was born in Marienbad Sanatorium near Rosenheim, Bavaria on January 12, 1893, I just nodded confirming. The judges never lost power in their voice that reminded me of sitting down listening to one of Adolf Hitler’s speech the one that persuaded me into joining the Nazi political party before I knew it I was in the inner circle of the Nazi power in 1923. The judges continued stating that I was declared a war hero and that then Hitler appointed me to command the SA brown shirts in December of 1922, that made me remember how being listened too and being a leader felt really good but I know from this point on people instead of loving me is going to hate me just like the Jews did but then again the Jews opinion meant nothing to me and it still doesn’t now. Non of what the judges stated made me regret anything I have done in the past, If I had the same choices that I had back then I would do the exact same things the exact same way. When the Judges stated that I was the one who developed the Gestapo and the first couple concentration camps and gave it to Himmler in 1934, right then in their I was sentenced to execution, I felt my heart drop, I stood up and the guards escorted me into a jail cell.

October 15, 1946

            In two hours is my execution, all I have thought about all day was my past, all the good times I have had, the time when I worked as a pilot for the Fokker company, the time I spent with my many wives. I thought back to what had cause all this tragedy happening to me, being kicked out of the Nazi political party, being put on trial, and now my execution. All this because I mentioned a time when Hitler would become unable to continue on ruling the Nazi Political Party. After Hitler assigned me as the leader of the SA Brown Shirts I got so happy with the thought of being the most powerful person in a category it excited me too much till the point of getting out of control. I wanted Hitler to stop ruling so I could be the person holding all the power, but I guess my actions in the past has come back to haunt me. With that immature idea of mine I not only put my life in danger but my families, Hitler sent orders to his army to kill me, my wife, and my daughter. I have been thinking about what I should do next and I have come to a conclusion instead of letting doctors kill me with no way of defending my self I have decided to just commit suicide. One way or another I will die so let me be my own murderer, let me be the one deciding my future. Good-bye family, good-bye friends, good-bye journal, and good-bye world. 

                      
                      Hermann Goering.

  
                                              
          Goering in the air force.
                                                                                                                         
 Hitler, Goering, and Frick honoring Hitler as
             chancellor during a parade.

                                       
          Goering during his trial.

      Goering in his prison cell.                                                              
                          

The Nuremberg Trials, Were Justice was Made!

          The Nuremberg Trials was made up of four trials held after World War II ended, The trials took place in the city of Nuremberg, Germany from 1945-1949.The trials were created so the people responsible for the eleven million people killed during the holocaust would have justice. Also so the murders would have a destiny well suited for the actions they took during the Holocaust. The four trials were the justice trial, the doctors trial, the Einsatzgruppen trial, and the most famous the Major War Criminals trial. The Justice trial focused on judges, the Doctors trial focused on the doctors who “took care” of the sick prisoners as what other people thought but really they would do sickening experiments on them. The Einsatzgruppen trial focused on the killing units, and the Major War trial focused on the Nazi leaders. Before any trial had the chance to start the three major criminals in the Holocaust committed suicide before they could be put on trial. The three major criminals were Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels. After they killed themselves, the people among the world became very frustrated on how Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels weren’t going to have the punishment they deserved after conducting one of the worst crimes agents humanity.

            In 1944, President Roosevelt decided to go to the War Department for their opinion on how to bring the criminals of the war to justice when it seemed like the Axis power was weakening. Two people had two different ideas on how to bring justice, Henry Morgenthau Treasury Secretary had the idea of shooting the Nazi leaders and send away the others to scattered locations around the world, his plane was to destroy Germany's industrial base and turn it into a weak agricultural country. Henry Stimson, the Secretary of War had a different idea. His idea was to put the responsible Nazi leaders in court. President Roosevelt then chose to support Henry Stimson’s idea, that is how the Nuremberg Trials began.

            A lot of the German government and military were involved in the Holocaust as criminals which meant they had to participate in the Nuremberg Trials when the Holocaust was over. An example of a person in the government involved in the Nuremberg Trials was the Ambassador of Turkey and vice chancellor under Hitler, Franz Von Papen. An example of the German Military involved was the commander in chief of the German Navy, Erich Raeder. There were also four judges that made up the Nuremberg Trials. Each of the judges came from the international Military Tribunal; the four countries were the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Each country provided one Judge and one alternate. The United States judge was, Harry Turman. Great Britain’s Judge was, Geoffrey Lawrence. The French judge was, Henri Donnedieu. Last but not least the Soviet Union judge was, Ion Nikittchenko. The Government of Germany needed help and decided to ask four surrounding countries for back up. 

            The Nuremberg Trials ended in April 13, 1949 but some people continued in the case until January of 1951.The Ministries Trial was the one that brought the Nuremberg Trials to an end, The Nuremberg Trials lasted about four years.