The first concentration camp set up during the Holocaust was Dachau, in Germany, at the site of an abandoned munitions factory. It was opened in 1933 by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most notable names to come out of the Holocaust, head of the SS and police. It was the first of 22 main concentration camps that would be set up, along with 1,200 affiliate sub-camps known as Aussenkommandos. Thousands of even smaller camps also existed.

The Third Reich is a term that can inspire a torrent of emotions, from fear to anger to regret. Essentially, the term is used to refer to Nazi Germany – Germany during the period of time between 1933 to1945, specifically. During this time, Germany was under control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, also called the National Socialist German Workers' Party. This stage of Germany's history is often looked at with shame by Germany itself, and with intense emotion by the rest of the world.

During the Holocaust, an estimated 1.5 million children are thought to have lost their lives. Of these, more than 1.2 million were Jewish children. While much has been written and taught about the horrors of the Holocaust, many history books skim over the fate of children, primarily because it is simply so difficult and painful to think about what these children had to endure and to consider their short lives.

While there is no question that all of the tales of atrocity and horror from concentration camps are hard to hear and horrifying in many ways, it is the fate of the children sent to camps that truly stand out as terrifying. Those children sent to Auschwitz faced horrible odds, and in most cases their lives were sure to end quickly.

Stories of torture and terror in death camps like Auschwitz are all-too common when reading about the Holocaust, but a surprisingly small number of people are familiar with the terrible story of what happened to the children of Bullenhuser Damm.