Four Perfect Pebbles

There were three main types of camps built and run by the Nazis during the Holocaust, and while each had its own purpose” the camps also fulfilled an overarching plan of genocide against Jews, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, Roma people, and communists. Concentration camps like Bergen-Belsen were used to confine, degrade, control, and facilitate the slow death of millions of prisoners. Prisoners in these camps were separated by sex and were forced to work long hours, given very little food or water, and lived in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. People constantly died in these camps of starvation, disease (particularly Typhus), infection, and other causes.

Transit camps were slightly milder than concentration camps and existed as temporary, half-way lodgings for people who were being transported elsewhere. Westerbork, Holland, was converted into a transit camp while the Blumenthals lived there, and thousands upon thousands of people were transported through that camp to Auschwitz where they were systematically killed. The Blumenthals found the transit camp more tolerable than the concentration camp, but they lived in constant fear of being told to board the train.

Extermination camps were the most severe form of camp, and were used to systematically murder large groups of people in short periods of time. The most well-known extermination camp was Auschwitz in Poland. At Auschwitz, gas chambers were installed and people were forced into them in massive groups. They were gassed with deadly fumes and died within minutes, and were then cremated or piled on the grounds. While the exact numbers will never be known, the Nazis are estimated to have killed at least six million Jews and six million people from other groups (including Soviet prisoners of war).

Death Train was the name given to trains used by the Nazis during the Holocaust to transport Jews and other groups between camps. Thousands of people died on these trains of starvation or disease. The Blumenthals boarded one of these Death Trains in the final weeks of the war, and were on board for two weeks. During that time, at least 600 of the passengers died around them and were unloaded by those left alive. The train that the Blumenthals were on appeared to have no true destination, and was just proceeding along the tracks for as long as it took for its passengers to die. Along its route on the eastern side of Germany, it was liberated by Russian troops, and the Blumenthals along with the other survivors were freed from the persecution of the Nazis.