11 million, this is an estimate of how many people died in the Holocaust. “Well over a million people are known to have died in the ghettos” (Wood 63). The book, A Lucky Child, is read by millions, but without Thomas Buergenthal no one would be able to read this book. So him surviving the Holocaust helps others learn more about the Holocaust. “One of the youngest survivors of Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen, Buergenthal spent four of the first ten years of his life in Nazi concentration camps” ( Pasqualucci). Although so many people died in the Holocaust, Thomas Buergenthal’s story shows, no matter what someone has been through, they can always overcome the challenges of life.
First off, For Thomas Buergenthal life before the Holocaust was pretty …show more content…
He spent his Holocaust days in Kielce, a ghetto also known as a death camp, Auschwitz, on of the worst concentration camp, and Sachsenhausen, another really rough concentration camp. “Well over a million people are known to have died in the ghettos” (Wood 63). In Kielce, Thomas Buergenthal still survived where he was later taken to Sachsenhausen and after taken to Auschwitz. “The Auschwitz concentration camp complex was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime. It included three main camps. All three camps used for forced labor. One of them also functioned for an extended period as a killing center” (“Holocaust”). “1,095,000 (Jews) deported to Auschwitz of whom 960,000 died” (“Holocaust”) There was not much food for him anywhere he was. Yet, even with everybody dying around him, Thomas Buergenthal survived all of it. Then, at the hospital in Auschwitz, “The shooting came closer” (“Speaking”). “People in the hospital ward were left behind, and we assumed that they would come in and shoot everybody in our beds” (“Speaking”). Then, as the Soviet Union advanced, it forced the Germans to leave and leave the people in the hospital. Then the Soviet Union came in and told them they can go. “I remember the only thing that I took was a pickle. I found a pickle and I ate it, and maybe that's what saved me, actually, because people died by simply eating too much and not having eaten for long time and