Helen and Sol Krawitz Holocaust Memorial Education Center

Then for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offense, the demolition of a man… We had reached the bottom. It is not possible to sink lower than this… Nothing belongs to us anymore: they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair… They will even take away our name…

Primo Levi

With the advent of the European-wide Final Solution the Jews were generally ordered to gather within close proximity of railroad stations. They were then deported to the extermination camps on extended trips under horrendous conditions that claimed many victims. The Jews of Europe were systematically murdered in the extermination camps as part of the Final Solution. In some of the camps permanent gas chambers were erected. In Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Chelmno, practically all of the deportees – men, women and children – were sent straight to their deaths.