Death camps are very different from concentration camps first found in Germany. Apart from the ones that were part factory, they were basically places of mass murder. There were over six million murders in these camps, although the Nazi’s did destroy evidence of the amount they knew they had murdered. Some prisoners escaped and told the polish resistance movement what is going on who then gave the information to London to the Polish Government in exile who accordingly informed the Allies.
The most infamous death camps were Auschwitz-Birkenau (over two million), Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec, Majdanek, Stutthof.
A day in the life on a death camp would go something like this:
4 a.m.: Awakening
You are woken up by the kapo shouting at you. You must get up, find your shoes (but somebody maybe took them which often means you are killed because you can’t work) and start quickly. From the straw mattress you'll have to make your bed as neatly as you can, with blankets made up exactly over the straw mattress. Of course, this is impossible to do and the kapo knows it. The "bettenbau" is just a good opportunity for him to beat the prisoners.
The bed is made now, and so now you wash. You run out of the barrack and struggle to the sanitary facility. There are only a couple of sanitary facilities for hundreds of prisoners. You have just minutes for washing. It is nearly time for the morning roll call, and the kapos will beat the slow ones, occasionally until they die.
The "Breakfast":
On you, you must have your mess-tin. If you don’t have your mess-tin, you don’t get any food. You get about 10 ounces of bread and some "coffee" Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you'll get some margarine or a tiny slice of sausage with your bread. The "coffee" is tasteless. No sugar or milk, obviously. The bread you just got will be the only proper food you'll receive until the next day. You’ll try and savour it through the day, if you have the strength to. The sharing out of the food is another good time for the kapos to have some "fun". They chuck the bread in the mud, or they shove you while you get the coffee, wasting it on the ground. But one rule is that if you waste food you will be punished, even if it is not your food
Morning Roll Call:
All the prisoners line up. All prisoners must be at roll call, including the ones who died during the night. Their bodies are lined up in front of you or in front of your barrack. Under control of the SS guards and officers, the people counting the thousands of prisoners are the kapos. A mistake doing the counting and it all must start again, making the kapos nervous, dangerous and on the edge. During the roll call, you must stand to attention, even if it is raining or snowing. It is forbidden to move or to talk during the roll call. Your poor striped uniform, made from an incredibly rough cloth, does not shield you against the cold weather. Every day, some prisoners catch a cold whilst doing the roll call and die in the next following days. Even some others die during the roll call itself. During the time some people are even to weak for that. Their dead bodies, as well as the deaths of the night, will be sent to the crematories after the roll call.
Going to the yard:
You then run to join your work team. You'll leave the camp under the hard guard of SS and kapos, always screaming at you. You'll reach the yard by walking. Maybe the SS will command your work team to sing during marching. Just at the gate of the camp, there is a row of SS waiting for your work team.
The Work:
If you are lucky, you will get given a good tool, a shovel or a pickaxe. Otherwise, you'll have to work with your hands... and this may lead death because you can’t work as fast as the guards want you to. The day will be very long: 12-14 hours of work. The work is painful, and usually useless: to transport heavy sand bags from one place to another, to extract and carry massive stones, to dig trenches or to make a tunnel. Perhaps instead, you are working in a factory but this does not improve anything. This is extermination by work. Everything has to be done as fast as it can, and always the kapos and the SS barking insults and giving beatings. If a guard thinks you are not working fast enough, you'll be beaten up, maybe until you die. Don't even think about pausing for a bit or going slow. It will be thought of as sabotage and this instantly means death.
The Lunch Break:
Then you have lunch bre
ak, not consisting of a lot, just soup, and not even proper soup.
A whistle signals the "lunch break" is over. The work begins again, always at high speed. The afternoon seems harder and worse because you are starving and you feel you are loosing strength. Maybe a prisoner faints and the guards beat him up. If this weak man can't rise, he'll be killed and you will have to carry his dead-weight back to the camp for the evening roll call.
Return to the Camp:
A last signaling whistle: your work team marches back to the camp, and the people alive are carrying bodies of the prisoners who died today. Maybe the guards will order the team to sing again. Once at in the camp, the SS are controlling your team. It's a new opportunity for them to hurt, to kill.
Evening Roll Call:
All the prisoners line up by rows of ten. The kapos are counting the prisoners and the dead. If a prisoner tried to escape, all the prisoners will stand and stay at attention at their roll-call place until he is retrieved. The evening roll call can take hours, sometimes even 10 hours, before it is over. The evening roll call is also the time when lots get hung. Sometimes, after a hanging, all the prisoners have to go in front of the hanging device to look at the prisoner, as a warning.
The Dinner:
The evening roll call is finally over. You run so you can to receive your dinner, which is meant to be a kind of soup just like the one you received at noon. If you spared some bread, you could eat it now, with the soup.
The Evening:
You return to your resting place. In no way you are allowed to leave the barrack during the night. The "blockfuerher" is there for you and your group. The blockfuerhers wear green triangles, which means “real criminals”. They have the job to decide who will die and who will live until they die the next days or are chosen to die in the next days . Maybe he will let you be, until tomorrow morning. But, perhaps he will choose to have some enjoyment, and will make you go through exercises like crawling, jumping, running until you faint, fall over. Eventually, you have permission to rest on your uncomfortable mattress. There are five of you in a bunk bed, with only one blanket. The barrack is not heated.
The most infamous death camps were Auschwitz-Birkenau (over two million), Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec, Majdanek, Stutthof.
A day in the life on a death camp would go something like this:
4 a.m.: Awakening
You are woken up by the kapo shouting at you. You must get up, find your shoes (but somebody maybe took them which often means you are killed because you can’t work) and start quickly. From the straw mattress you'll have to make your bed as neatly as you can, with blankets made up exactly over the straw mattress. Of course, this is impossible to do and the kapo knows it. The "bettenbau" is just a good opportunity for him to beat the prisoners.
The bed is made now, and so now you wash. You run out of the barrack and struggle to the sanitary facility. There are only a couple of sanitary facilities for hundreds of prisoners. You have just minutes for washing. It is nearly time for the morning roll call, and the kapos will beat the slow ones, occasionally until they die.
The "Breakfast":
On you, you must have your mess-tin. If you don’t have your mess-tin, you don’t get any food. You get about 10 ounces of bread and some "coffee" Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you'll get some margarine or a tiny slice of sausage with your bread. The "coffee" is tasteless. No sugar or milk, obviously. The bread you just got will be the only proper food you'll receive until the next day. You’ll try and savour it through the day, if you have the strength to. The sharing out of the food is another good time for the kapos to have some "fun". They chuck the bread in the mud, or they shove you while you get the coffee, wasting it on the ground. But one rule is that if you waste food you will be punished, even if it is not your food
Morning Roll Call:
All the prisoners line up. All prisoners must be at roll call, including the ones who died during the night. Their bodies are lined up in front of you or in front of your barrack. Under control of the SS guards and officers, the people counting the thousands of prisoners are the kapos. A mistake doing the counting and it all must start again, making the kapos nervous, dangerous and on the edge. During the roll call, you must stand to attention, even if it is raining or snowing. It is forbidden to move or to talk during the roll call. Your poor striped uniform, made from an incredibly rough cloth, does not shield you against the cold weather. Every day, some prisoners catch a cold whilst doing the roll call and die in the next following days. Even some others die during the roll call itself. During the time some people are even to weak for that. Their dead bodies, as well as the deaths of the night, will be sent to the crematories after the roll call.
Going to the yard:
You then run to join your work team. You'll leave the camp under the hard guard of SS and kapos, always screaming at you. You'll reach the yard by walking. Maybe the SS will command your work team to sing during marching. Just at the gate of the camp, there is a row of SS waiting for your work team.
The Work:
If you are lucky, you will get given a good tool, a shovel or a pickaxe. Otherwise, you'll have to work with your hands... and this may lead death because you can’t work as fast as the guards want you to. The day will be very long: 12-14 hours of work. The work is painful, and usually useless: to transport heavy sand bags from one place to another, to extract and carry massive stones, to dig trenches or to make a tunnel. Perhaps instead, you are working in a factory but this does not improve anything. This is extermination by work. Everything has to be done as fast as it can, and always the kapos and the SS barking insults and giving beatings. If a guard thinks you are not working fast enough, you'll be beaten up, maybe until you die. Don't even think about pausing for a bit or going slow. It will be thought of as sabotage and this instantly means death.
The Lunch Break:
Then you have lunch bre
ak, not consisting of a lot, just soup, and not even proper soup. A whistle signals the "lunch break" is over. The work begins again, always at high speed. The afternoon seems harder and worse because you are starving and you feel you are loosing strength. Maybe a prisoner faints and the guards beat him up. If this weak man can't rise, he'll be killed and you will have to carry his dead-weight back to the camp for the evening roll call.
Return to the Camp:
A last signaling whistle: your work team marches back to the camp, and the people alive are carrying bodies of the prisoners who died today. Maybe the guards will order the team to sing again. Once at in the camp, the SS are controlling your team. It's a new opportunity for them to hurt, to kill.
Evening Roll Call:
All the prisoners line up by rows of ten. The kapos are counting the prisoners and the dead. If a prisoner tried to escape, all the prisoners will stand and stay at attention at their roll-call place until he is retrieved. The evening roll call can take hours, sometimes even 10 hours, before it is over. The evening roll call is also the time when lots get hung. Sometimes, after a hanging, all the prisoners have to go in front of the hanging device to look at the prisoner, as a warning.
The Dinner:
The evening roll call is finally over. You run so you can to receive your dinner, which is meant to be a kind of soup just like the one you received at noon. If you spared some bread, you could eat it now, with the soup.
The Evening:
You return to your resting place. In no way you are allowed to leave the barrack during the night. The "blockfuerher" is there for you and your group. The blockfuerhers wear green triangles, which means “real criminals”. They have the job to decide who will die and who will live until they die the next days or are chosen to die in the next days . Maybe he will let you be, until tomorrow morning. But, perhaps he will choose to have some enjoyment, and will make you go through exercises like crawling, jumping, running until you faint, fall over. Eventually, you have permission to rest on your uncomfortable mattress. There are five of you in a bunk bed, with only one blanket. The barrack is not heated.
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