Do you think that many if not most of the people in Auschwitz were not jewish?

Question

I have to tell you something, I visited Auschwitz and saw the pictures of the people and the majority of them looked just like your average polish people. I think I have a pretty good eye for recognizing jewish faces and I really did not see that many. Most looked just like your everyday polish people in those pictures.

Answer 1

Jews look just like everyday people. You are looking for stereotypes.

Answer 2

Not all Jews look the same. Homosexuals, Gypsies, the disabled, etc were also persecuted by the Nazis. The majority were Jewish. Some could have been Poles who practiced Judaism.

I'm not sure what gives you the idea that you have "a pretty good eye for recognizing Jewish faces," but the fact that you're looking for the stereotypical image of a Jew illuminates the fact that you're really not all that informed about Auschwitz or the Holocaust to begin with. Perhaps you should do some research before making assumptions.

Answer 3

There were thousands of Polish Jews exterminated in Auschwitz who were average people before they were rounded up by the Nazi's . Italian Jews ; Russian Jews - and so on . Gypsies and the handicapped were also slaughtered . Death to Jews was Hitler's goal . A perfect Aryan race was also his agenda . Many died at Auschwitz . Many were not Jews ; but most were . If you doubt the extermination of Jews - what do you think could have possibly become of all the Jews who were rounded up and forced to live in a ghetto with no way out ; and then placed in cattle cars on top of each other on train tracks that only went to concentration camps and crematoriums ?

Answer 4

There is no typical "Jewish face" and your comment is plain insulting. I have red hair and I am Jewish. My sister has blond hair and she is Jewish. Our relatives, who were murdered in Auschwitz, had red hair, blond hair, brown hair, black hair, etc. Just as there is no certain type of "American" or "Christian" looking person, there is no reason to assume that just because you saw pictures of people without big noses or kinky brown hair they were not Jewish. Ugh.

Having said that, yes there were many other types of prisoners murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau as well as the other camps. Do some more research on what Jewish people look like (I have African Jewish friends) and you will be floored and should be ashamed at your earlier proclamation that you "have a pretty good eye for recognizing Jewish faces"

Answer 5

Alot of the people there were Jewish (German, Polish, Austrian...) but there were also Romany Gypsies and alot of Polish people.
Just because they look Jewish, doesn't mean they weren't.
It is like stereotyping them because of what these misfortunate people looked like.
These concentration camps were run by the SS, according to the History channel, as they became the back bone of the Nazi's.
What a horrible time that was. What corrupt/cruel and brutal people these humans were. They were not animals as no animal would do the type of things to their own race..
Alot of the normal German people did not know of what was happening in these camps. Alot thought they were prisonner of war camps also. Apparently Not!

Answer 6

hi,

first, it`s good you went. I would like to go too.
I think the answer lies in the fact that they didn`t photograph the people that were murdered straight away when they came. Before Birkenau opened in March 1943, Auschwitz was a slave labour camp for a long time....
If you want to read something, I recommend Laurence Rees: Auschwitz: A New History. He explains all about when everything happened and who was there when.

Answer 7

i went last november.the pictures you saw were polish political pictures that were kept at auschwitz 1.they were photographed and registered.at auschwitz birkenau this process was unnessesary as 70% of the arriving prisoners were immidiatley gassed and the remainder would be killed shortley after they were unfit for work.the majority of the arrivalls were hungarian jews and also jews from poland,france,holland slovakia and other occupied countries.surly if you had visited you would of realised this.there is more than enough information on this at the museum

Answer 8

Sheesh, lets forget about FACTS, lets go by your uncanny ability to detect Jews by looking at old photographs. Why, if that were the case, the Nazis could have made much use of that.

The truth of the matter is that although there were many non Jews who perished in Aushwitz, the vast majority were Jewish. The Nazis kept records, historians have studied them endlessly.

Answer 9

I'm half Jewish and really pale not at all Semitic looking.

They were mostly European Jews (and Gypsys) some who had lived in Northern Europe for 1- 2000 years. Plenty of time acclimatise.

Answer 10

Do you really think that all Jewish people have such distinctive features? Would you be able to recognise these features given the differences in time and fashion?
If you thought that your people were being persecuted because of their faith and ethnic group would you try to look like a member of that group or would you try to blend in as much as possible?
Why would the allied forces lie about what they found in 1945?

Answer 11

Many Jews were saved precisely because they looked like a stereotypical 'aryan' person. One Jew even managed to save his life by becoming a member of the SS, to the superficial eye meeting their stringent racial requirements! And clearly, if 'Jewish' characteristics were so self-evident, the Nazis wouldn't have forced people to wear the yellow stars. I understand what you mean about a stereotyical Jewish look, but that look itself was in large part imprinted on the public consciousness by Nazi propaganda and caricatures, not by a reflection of objective reality.