Life in Auschwitz
Maddie Ward
American History
2nd hour
April 9, 2017
Auschwitz was a terrible concentration camp because the Nazi’s killed at least 1.1 to 1.3 million people by beating them, overworking them, and killing them in gas chambers with Zyklon B gas. It was constructed in April of 1940 and once they finished building it they immediately brought in prisoners and started putting them to work. They didn’t get proper food, housing, or clothing and sickness spread around the camp very easily. The Nazi’s in Auschwitz did not only treat Jewish people bad they treated the Roma’s, Pole’s, and other nationalities awful too. Concentration camps were advertised as these fun and happy places where you would be treated nicely and …show more content…
They were made to fit a large group of the prisoners. Don Nardo the author “Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp” states that,”Some buildings had no beds others had wooden beds or the floor. The bunks were made to fit one person but they fit two to three people on one bunk.” The beds were wooden bunk beds with no padding or blankets so if you were cold you stayed cold the entire night. Some people would even sleep on the hard floor because there wasn’t enough room for them to have a bed. For clothing they were given two sets of prisoner uniforms and they were probably washed once a week so everyone smelled almost the entire week. They were not given a lot of food everyday. “For breakfast they were given a small piece of bread that was made from flour and sawdust. They were also given a hot, gross coffee. Lunch was a very thin soup that was either made from turnips, potato peels, nettles, cabbage, or pieces of wood. Dinner was often another chunk of bread with margarine and a gross jam or a nasty sausage.” They were so low on food sometimes that they would have to eat what they had had the previous day. They were not given enough food throughout the day that they would start starving to …show more content…
The Nazi’s treated the Roma’s, Pole’s, Jew’s, and other nationalities by not giving them enough food, water, good working conditions, good places to sleep, they killed them with Zyklon B gas, and lastly they had crematoriums where they burned the bodies of the people that had died. Auschwitz was a terrible place for anyone to be sent. It was so awful that people would try to escape because concentration camps were advertised as these fun and happy places where you would be treated nicely and wouldn’t be killed.
Bibliography
Arnett, George. "Auschwitz: a short history of the largest mass murder site in human history." The Guardian. January 27, 2015. Accessed March 29, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/auschwitz-short-history-liberation-concentration-camp-holocaust.
Nardo, Don: Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp. San Diego, CA, The Reference Point Press, Inc,
2014
History.com Staff. "Auschwitz." History.com. 2009. Accessed March 29, 2017. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/auschwitz.
"Concentration Camp System: In Depth." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed March 29, 2017. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007387.
"Auschwitz-Birkenau: Crematoria & Gas Chambers." Crematoria & Gas Chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Accessed March 29, 2017.
Maddie Ward
American History
2nd hour
April 9, 2017
Auschwitz was a terrible concentration camp because the Nazi’s killed at least 1.1 to 1.3 million people by beating them, overworking them, and killing them in gas chambers with Zyklon B gas. It was constructed in April of 1940 and once they finished building it they immediately brought in prisoners and started putting them to work. They didn’t get proper food, housing, or clothing and sickness spread around the camp very easily. The Nazi’s in Auschwitz did not only treat Jewish people bad they treated the Roma’s, Pole’s, and other nationalities awful too. Concentration camps were advertised as these fun and happy places where you would be treated nicely and …show more content…
They were made to fit a large group of the prisoners. Don Nardo the author “Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp” states that,”Some buildings had no beds others had wooden beds or the floor. The bunks were made to fit one person but they fit two to three people on one bunk.” The beds were wooden bunk beds with no padding or blankets so if you were cold you stayed cold the entire night. Some people would even sleep on the hard floor because there wasn’t enough room for them to have a bed. For clothing they were given two sets of prisoner uniforms and they were probably washed once a week so everyone smelled almost the entire week. They were not given a lot of food everyday. “For breakfast they were given a small piece of bread that was made from flour and sawdust. They were also given a hot, gross coffee. Lunch was a very thin soup that was either made from turnips, potato peels, nettles, cabbage, or pieces of wood. Dinner was often another chunk of bread with margarine and a gross jam or a nasty sausage.” They were so low on food sometimes that they would have to eat what they had had the previous day. They were not given enough food throughout the day that they would start starving to …show more content…
The Nazi’s treated the Roma’s, Pole’s, Jew’s, and other nationalities by not giving them enough food, water, good working conditions, good places to sleep, they killed them with Zyklon B gas, and lastly they had crematoriums where they burned the bodies of the people that had died. Auschwitz was a terrible place for anyone to be sent. It was so awful that people would try to escape because concentration camps were advertised as these fun and happy places where you would be treated nicely and wouldn’t be killed.
Bibliography
Arnett, George. "Auschwitz: a short history of the largest mass murder site in human history." The Guardian. January 27, 2015. Accessed March 29, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/27/auschwitz-short-history-liberation-concentration-camp-holocaust.
Nardo, Don: Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp. San Diego, CA, The Reference Point Press, Inc,
2014
History.com Staff. "Auschwitz." History.com. 2009. Accessed March 29, 2017. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/auschwitz.
"Concentration Camp System: In Depth." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed March 29, 2017. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007387.
"Auschwitz-Birkenau: Crematoria & Gas Chambers." Crematoria & Gas Chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Accessed March 29, 2017.