This source is page 1 of a 4-page typed letter from Kurt Anspacher describing his experiences as a German Jew during World War II. In it, he explains that life in Germany is difficult because Nazi sympathizers are causing problems even though the war ended several months prior. He goes on to say that his family's house and possessions were confiscated by the Nazis and describes the legal challenges of being compensated. Anspacher tells of his family's arrest by the Nazis and their relocation to a Jewish ghetto. He laments that most of his family members were killed there. Anspacher goes on to describe ten different concentration camps he was sent to, the work he did at each, the treatment he received, and what sicknesses he had.

During World War II, Nazi propaganda encouraged persecution and annihilation of the Jewish people, a genocide that would become known as the Holocaust. At the beginning of the war, Adolf Hilter, leader of Germany, ordered that the Jews be forcibly relocated to ghettos. The conditions in these ghettos were usually deplorable with sickness and starvation rampant. Periodically, the ghettos would be 'liquidated.' Some of the residents would be relocated to prisoner camps, but many, however, were murdered in mass quantities. Those who were taken to labor camps were forced to work in mines and factories to gather and build the resources the German military would need for the war. Eventually, most of the German prisoner camps were overrun with occupants, and the Nazis increased their efforts of mass murder to make more room for the incoming prisoners. Kurt Anspacher and his family tried to leave Europe in 1941, but they were arrested before they could secure passage to the United States. After the war, in 1948, Anspacher immigrated to the U.S.

This source meets the 5.21 and U.S.47 Tennessee social studies standards.

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