What happened to the elderly during the Holocaust?

You can guess the answer. Many of them east of France died. The occupation of western Europe countries was harsh, but nowhere near as bad as in the east. read more

The elderly were usually the first to succumb to death during the Ghettorization phase of the Holocaust. Once the ghettos were being evacuated to extermination camps the elderly (at least those that survived the tortuous journey to specially built extermination camps like Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor) were the first to be eliminated. read more

However, the Nazis did not stop at forcible sterilization; instead, they trained willing nurses to starve and kill patients; the murders were euphemistically called a"euthanasia" program. This approach set the stage for what happened to the ill and elderly at the camps. read more

In the end, German officials deported disabled and highly decorated Jewish war veterans as well as elderly or prominent Jews from so-called Greater German Reich and the German-occupied Netherlands to the Theresienstadt (Terezin) ghetto near Prague. read more