Created by Luke Oldershaw, Max Kulewicz, Austin Slugg, Sammy Farjani
Introduction
Our artifact,“Light At The End Of The Tunnel” and documentary about concentration camps explore how poorly the undesirables were treated inside the Camps, and the feeling that they felt while inside the camp. Our artifact primarily focuses on two main ideas being darkness and chaos with light sprinkled in the darkness to show how some captives were able to feel “The Light At The End Of The Tunnel”. Our documentary focuses on the history of the camps, where they were located and the horrible conditions inside of the camps.
A Story of the Undesirables
The Nazis, who ruled Germany from 1931-1945, had a horrendous plan to wipe out the European Jews and restore Germany to “glory”. They wanted to kill the Jews to create an Aryan, or “perfect” race of blonde hair, blue eyed white people. Over the course of WWII, the Nazis used concentration camps to hold and kill Jewish people and other undesirables.
The groups of people that were labeled as “undesirables’ ‘ were disabled people or intellectual disabilities like Autism or Down syndrome, gay people, black people, and Jehovah’s witnesses. The Nazis went out of their way to find and send these “undesirables” and especially Jews to the different types of camps to sculpt this Aryan race.
There were 5 different types of camps: Concentration camps, Death Camps, Forced Labour Camps, Transit Camps, and Prisoner of War Camps. Although there were different types of camps, they were all structured very similarly with many if not all of the camps containing gas chambers made of reinforced concrete as well as many subcamps. Many camps were the size of towns in Massachusetts that we live in today. All of these camps also included a medical center, and a sort of admissions or administration center.
The Concentration camps had three main purposes which were to imprison anyone who posed a threat to the Nazi’s, kill the undesirables and get forced labor out of both groups. Many of the concentration camps were also used to perform medical experiments such as drug testing, testing ways to allow soldiers to survive longer, and also testing if different races reacted differently to disease to in order to prove that jews were “The inferior race”.
The first ever Nazi concentration camp was Dachau, and was opened in March 1933 outside of Munich, right after Hitler declared himself Führer of Germany. Dachau and other early Nazi concentration camps incarcerated 100 to 200,000 Nazi political opponents. After its creation, Dachau also became the reference for all the 44,000 concentration camps that followed.
The first death camp called Chelmo, was opened in December of 1941. In these death camps, an average of 6,000 Jews were gassed every day which achieved the Nazi’s goal of efficient mass murder. They would organize Jews based on if they were able to work or not. The ones who couldn’t work would go to these camps.
Between the reign of Hitler from 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies created more than 44,000 camps. There was a high death rate among the prisoners inside the camp due to the mistreatment during hard manual labor hours, the malnourishment they experienced while in the camps and the illness and disease that spread throughout the camps frequently.
Auschwitz, one of the most famous labor camps in the world was known for its gas chambers, which incinerated almost 1.1 Million people by the end of the war. Someone who endured and survived this brutal and deadly camp was Harry Getterman, who described the camp as “absolutely crazy. Very very crazy time. 500 people immediately were sent to the gas chambers. There was blood on the walls, the floor, and it was never cleaned. Blood of hundreds.”
The SS and Nazi’s were able to get forced labor from millions of imprisoned individuals to aid in the war effort and for economic gain. Even before the war started, Jewish men were forced to do labor in Nazi Germany in 1937 to make money and make up for the labor scarcity. By 1939 when Germany conquered Poland they had started forcing all Polish males and Jews to do forced labor by sending them to ghettos to create weaponry and other goods for the war.
From 1944-1945, Allied troops began to move across Europe and liberate the camps. First, American forces liberated many concentration camps across Germany, such as Buchenwald, Dachau, Flossenbürg. After that, British soldiers liberated camps across the northern part of Europe, most notably, Bergen-Belsen and Neuengamme. Finally, in January 1945, the Soviet Union liberated Auschwitz.
In 1945 which was the final year of the war, more than half the recorded deaths of the people who the nazi’s considered undesireble in camps occurred which was around 1.3 million people. If the Nazi’s were able to continue growing their death camps at this rate they would’ve been able to exterminate nearly if not all of the individuals they considered “undesirable” completing their “final solution”.
By the end of the war in 1945 over 2.7 Million Jews had been killed in Nazi camps by gas, shooting and disease in the name of “The final solution” to eradicate all Jews and other undesirables to create what the Nazi’s thought would be a perfect race of humans. The Holocaust helped us learn about the many types of concentration camps, as well as of the destruction and deep sadness caused by the Nazis.
We want to create this documentary to memorialize the Jews, disabled people, black people, mentally disabled individuals, gays and Jehovas who were all just labeled “undesirable” and to make sure that an evil event like this would never happen again, and with little survivors left, it is important to never forget the individuals affected and the events that happened.
Bibliography & Resources
“42nd Infantry Division Liberated Infamous Dachau Concentration Camp in 1945.” DVIDS, www.dvidshub.net/news/368498/42nd-infantry-division-liberated-infamous-dachau-concentration-camp-1945.
BBC News. “Auschwitz: How the Death Camp Became the Center of Nazi Holocaust.” BBC News, 23 Jan. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50743973.
Book Burning. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/book-burning.
Chelmno Extermination Camp (Poland). www.jewishgen.org/forgottencamps/camps/chelmnoeng.html.
Forced Labor: An Overview. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/forced-labor-an-overview.
“Forced Labor in Nazi Germany During World War II.” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/video/180231/Discussion-use-labourers-territories-Nazi-weapons-armaments.
Gas Chamber in the Main Camp of Auschwitz. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/former-gas-chamber-in-the-auschwitz-main-camp.
“The Ghosts of Auschwitz: Inside Hitler’s Killing Machine.” The Wire, thewire.in/history/ghosts-of-auschwitz-holocaust-nazism-extermination-camps.
“Holocaust | Definition, Concentration Camps, History, and Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Feb. 2024, www.britannica.com/event/Holocaust/Jewish-resistance-to-the-Nazis.
Holocaust Timeline: The Camps. fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/camps.HTM.
Killing Centers: In Depth. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/killing-centers-in-depth.
Map – the Concentration Camps. khc.qcc.cuny.edu/camps/map.
Orth-Veillon, Jennifer. “For Some Holocaust Survivors, Even Liberation Was Dehumanizing.” The New York Times, 11 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/magazine/for-some-holocaust-survivors-even-liberation-was-dehumanizing.html.
Sullivan, Missy. “Auschwitz Is Liberated.” HISTORY, 26 Jan. 2021, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/soviets-liberate-auschwitz.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Concentration Camp | Facts, History, Maps, and Definition.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Jan. 2024, www.britannica.com/topic/concentration-camp.Wikipedia contributors. “Master Race.” Wikipedia, 30 Jan. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_race.
Artifact Statement
Our artifact is named, “Light At The End Of The Tunnel.” It explores not the real, cold brick walls of the Nazi concentration camps, but it explains and develops the emotions and factors behind the concentration camps into a symbolic piece of art. The three triangles that form the walls and floor of our artifact represent the three main elements/emotions felt in the camps; darkness, fire, and chaos. The fire is shown through the red and gold flames displayed on one of the walls. Darkness is shown through the dark night sky in which they arrived. The lights represent small glimmers of hope through the dark times experienced for every Jew in the concentration camps. The chaos is represented through a mix of darkness and fire, as upon the arrival of the camps, Elie Wiesel noted that the darkness that they arrived on and the fire made for an “organized chaos” which we felt was important to add. Along with the arrival of the camps, the two paths converging represent the Jewish men and women going all to the same place: Hell. The Star of David represents that not all of the Jewish people survived, but their suffering was unjust.
Explore our Gallery of Images
Personal Reflections
Flexibility
~Sammy Farjani, Class of 2025
Doesn’t it just feel so good being done?
“I will be there. We will be there”
~Pep Guardiola
I’m Sammy and I was working with Austin, Max and Luke on the camps project. To start off the project we began brainstorming ideas for what we wanted our artifact to look like an actual concentration camp but we were sent back to the drawing board to make something more “symbolic”. After this setback we were flexible and were able to adjust and change which I feel would be the way we came to our project everyday and we were always ready to be flexible and adjust for each other.
By day 3 of the project we came up with the idea to split our group into 2 parts with Austin and I working on the documentary and Max and Luke working on the artifact. Day 1 was very successful for both groups as we were able to make the general framework for both projects and set ourselves up to be able to finish before the deadline. By the 4th day of working on the documentary Austin and I had finished the script and the final step for us was recording the documentary and then editing it. We recorded our lines on a tuesday afternoon in Fitz’s room and edited it throughout the next day into the afternoon. Over the 4 days Max and Luke had also finished the artifact and nearly replicated our original design and though process with The sides of darkness chaos and the Jewish star.
After hearing Mr. Ottenheimers talk before we presented our project I think everyone in our group were able to grasp the true weight and meaning of our project and I thought of the title of the project “preserving memory” since there is so much disinformation now about the holocaust and our goal was to try and educate as many people as we could on the true scale of the holocaust and how many lives and groups of people it affected around the world specifically in the many types of camps the Nazi’s forced the “undesirebles” into to most likely be killed within the coming days or weeks.
Group Effort
~Austin Slugg, Class of 2025
“I like to score and make beautiful goals, but I’d rather score them as a team”
– Cristiano Ronaldo
I am Austin Slugg, and I worked with Sammy, Max and Luke. We broke this project into two parts for group work. Max and Luke worked on assembling the artifact and me and Sammy made the documentary. The major theme of my experience in this project was greatness. I got to incorporate my love of writing and creativity into the script as well as choosing visuals for our documentary. Sammy and I worked very well together to solve problems and make our documentary as good as possible.
Initially, we did our background research and split it up between us. We then divided our group into two parts: to work on the documentary or the artifact. Me and Sammy then did the script for the documentary and it worked out quite well. We spent a few classes creating and putting together the script on the project, and if need be I would pitch in and help with the artifact. Sammy and I sometimes had different opinions for the order of information and wording for the script, but working together we found the most logical way for it to work. After completing the script, we then started making the movie and choosing images to go with our script. Finally, we recorded our lines and put the finishing touches on the documentary.
This project has not only let me learn about such an important and solemn topic, but it has also helped me grow as a person and as a partner. There were some challenging moments, such as brainstorming the symbolism for our artifact. There were profound moments, such as the final touches and cleanup of the iLab and having to do a little bit of extra research helped me grow as a researcher. The script helped me grow as a writer and creator and there was so much this project offered to me.
Smoothing out the Bumps
Max Kulewicz, Class of 2025
“Sometimes you won’t know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory”
-Dr. Seuss
I am Max Kulewicz. I worked with Luke, Sammy, and Austin. I mainly worked with Luke to create the physical Artifact for our project while Sammy and Austin worked on the documentary and the writing. This was a great learning experience for me where I got to use my artistic skills to create a symbolic piece that people could connect with.
First our whole group had to brainstorm an artifact that would fit our project theme focusing on concentration camps. At first our idea was to create a model of one of the camps but we then realized that it did not incorporate symbolism and that we had to figure something else out. We then sketched out a more symbolic representation which is shown down below.
This project has helped me learn about a very important topic as well as learn about myself. There were some difficult moments in the beginning such as when it came to incorporating symbolism in our piece which caused us to adjust. I believe this helped us as a group to adapt to further situations.
Working in a group has helped me grow and improve upon my teamwork skills when it comes to asking and providing feedback when there is a bump in the road.
A Creator & Manager
~Luke Oldershaw, Class of 2025
“You’ve got to be in it to win it.”
—Tony Robbins
My name is Luke Oldershaw and my role was to work on the artifact. In my group I worked with Max Kulewitz. We worked hard and spent a lot of time on our artifact. We went through challenge but made it through to make an amazing artifact.
First Max and I were brainstorming our outline. Once we had a final product we got right to work. It was a lot of waiting at first for the laser cutter but once it was done it was worth the wait. We got our spray paint and went ham on our laser cut pieces. We spent multiple days spray painting those pieces. It was finally done and we put it all together. Glue was everywhere and lights were falling yet it was done.
This project helped me learn so much more about the holocaust. When everyone was done I was able to walk around and examine other peoples artifacts. I got to listen to some group’s documentaries and this helped me learn even further. I think this helped me grow as a creator and a task manager.
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