Death Marches

So, Why? Why have a large, malnourished  group of people walk a couple hundred miles deep into Germany in the freezing cold of winter? Well, quite frankly, the main reason was to escape the Soviet and American Soldiers. But there are also two other reasons: Firstly, SS guards wanted to continue labor no matter where in the country. And secondly, for some odd reason, if it really came down to it, they believed they may be able to use the prisoners as bargaining chips with the West to some to some sort of agreement. 

Next, let's talk about the affect the cold winter had on the bodies of those marching. The first marches started in early  August of 1944, by winter was fast approaching, and by 1945 the SS Guards had orders to kill anyone on site that was no longer capable of walking on their own. As you can imagine, having little clothing and very worn shoes, led to frostbite. Many victims' testimonies' report that people would go to sleep and not wake up, just drop dead while walking, and that toes and fingers would snap off due to the extreme cold. Once prisoners were no longer useful, mass shootings would be performed by SS Guards. The mass graves dug to hold these bodies have been discovered along routes and uncovered hundreds of bodies at once at times. 

This led to extreme depression among everyone. It was a struggle to get the supplies needed to live this led to prisoners exchanging their bodies for such supplies. Along with this came distrust, people stealing each others things while they slept and friends and family giving up hope along the way, begging for death. Furthermore, due to groups of large numbers, it wasn't hard to lose track of the people you were with, this could result in them never seeing each other again.