Life In Concentration Camps

Improved Essays
Imagine a world where one was forced to wake up to degradation, inhumanity, and conditions that no human being should experience. This was a reality for millions of Jews that experienced life in concentration camps. During World War II, life in concentration camps was grim and left little hope for the Jews’ survival. They were forced to live in horrific conditions, forced to perform hard labor which oftentimes meant working in a state of starvation until death overtook them, and constantly faced execution.
Living conditions in concentration camps can be described as horrific. Captive Jews mostly lived in cramped barracks that were not made for comfort. These barracks were usually made of wood or brick. Wooden barracks often had gaping holes
…show more content…
The type of jobs usually varied throughout camps, but most were heavy manual labor and exhausting. Some Jews got lucky and were given jobs inside the camp, which was seen as a way to escape the harsh weather in the fields. During this time, concentration camps were seen as a station of free labor for big companies. Some, such as the one in Auschwitz III, built factories that built things like rubber, metal screws, and any other resource popular at the time. Though the factories were built for Jews to work in, they were often subjected to humiliating work that had no purpose. This was a part of a system the Germans used to dehumanize and brainwash the Jews in the camps. Many were forced to run naked in freezing weather for the amusement of the German SS officers. Some were also forced to work in crematoriums where, at times, they had to kill their own family members. Jews often died due to exhaustion in these camps. They were not provided enough nutrients to stay healthy. As a result, a large number of Jews became too ill to work, which often led to death. In most Nazi concentration camps, there was a shortage in SS officers to control all of the prisoners. As a solution to this, Germans created the Kapos system. According to an article titled” Forced Labor: An Overview”, this system gave certain trustworthy Jews power in labor operation. The type of Jews chosen for this position were the ones who were relatively stronger or held …show more content…
The camps forced Jews into horrific living conditions, where they were cramped into small barracks, which left them vulnerable to infectious diseases and any other elements that made it difficult for them to survive during their time in the camps. Jews also constantly faced execution, which came in many different forms such as, gas chambers and vans, mass burnings and execution by gun. The Jews were also forced to perform hard labor, which often meant working in a state of starvation, due to non-nutritious meals, until death inevitably overtook them. Those conditions that the Jews were forced to live in should remind all that are aware of the Holocaust, to be grateful for their lives if they are presently living in peace. Elie Wiesel once said, “Mankind must remember that peace is not God 's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    “One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live.(109)” Throughout Night by Elie Wiesel, Nazis show time and time again how relentless they will be with their physical and emotional abuse towards prisoners in concentration camps. Through understanding the ways Nazis dehumanize Jews and other minorities, we can see three very important steps to bringing them back into normal life: Non physically abusive treatment, giving them goals, friends, a reason to live, and a non-fluctuant lifestyle, and providing former prisoners with more diverse lifestyle choices. One of Nazi Germany’s most well known ways of dehumanizing people is by physically abusing them.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Concentration Camp Essay

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Kayla Razo Mrs.Pilarte Language 8B Period 4 March 7,2017 Concentration Camps A concentration camp was a horrible place Jews were sent to so they could be killed in numerous ways. Some main concentration camps were Auschwitz-Birkenau and Belzec which were located in Poland. Also Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald which were located in Germany. These camps tortured the Jews slowly and painfully. Jews could only imagine being called up and having to go to these horrible camps where the Nazi would inflict pain on them.…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Many think that the concentration camps were the only obstacles people faced during the Holocaust; however, those were not the only obstacles. This horrific time in world history will never be forgotten because it was a genocide of mass proportions. The Holocaust was the systematic death of approximately 6 million Jewish people through no fault of their own other than their beliefs. There were many obstacles that the Jews faced, including the gas chambers, the cold winters, the traitorous Germans, and the language barriers with some of their saviors.…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When Anne, her family, and other Jews were sent to the camps they had to get their head shaved. They were tattooed with numbers instead of their names, as their identity was taken; some were sent to the gas chambers. Before this process and killed, they were tricked into taking fresh showers but, in reality it was the gas and it killed hundreds of people at a time. Babies and elderly were murdered first, as they could not work to aid the constructions of the concentration camp. Soldiers used babies for target practice.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Concentration Camps Concentration camps were a terrible place. Most people who were put into concentration camps did not survive. Everything was terrible about the camps including the journey to the camps and the living conditions of the camps. First of all the journey to the camps people were packed into cattle cars.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During World War II a horrific event occurred in history known as the Holocaust. Jews all throughout Europe were condemned and persecuted by the Nazis. However, before facing their unjust death they were placed in concentration camps located in Germany. The Jews were exterminated in different ways at the camps. An abundance of Jews imprisoned in the concentration camps died from the diseases that were obtained in the camp due to lack of human necessities.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Auschwitz included three main camps, all of which forced prisoners into labor. One of the camps also worked for an extended period of time as a killing center. (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005189) The first part of Auschwitz was built on the outskirts of Poland and was started in May, 1940 and finished in June, 1940. (http://www.wollheim-memorial.de/en/ig_auschwitz_en) Auschwitz 1…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dehumanization in Night One of the world’s darkest periods, known as the Holocaust, was initiated and lead by Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a malicious man who over the course of his reign ultimately killed about six million Jews. Many of them were deported and distributed to concentration camps where German Nazis used numerous methods to torture innocent people. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night documents the atrocities he experienced during World War II.…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In the memoir, “Night”, Elie Wiesel is faced with the struggles of going into concentration camps such as Auschwitz, Buna, and others in late World War II. During the holocaust, because of the lack of modern technology, no other countries knew about what was happening to the Jewish prisoners in these camps. However, Elie Wiesel was not the only one who was struck with devastation in these times of unknown crisis. Other Holocaust victims lost faith in not just their surroundings, but in themselves as well. Due to the abominable conditions of the concentration camps, Jews were both physically and psychologically damaged.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Though there is not much research regarding how different social statuses were treated within the relocation camps, there are many stories from the people of the concentration camps. Though life was not good in those camps, children had life just a bit better than any of the other prisoners. “The children’s diet did not differ much from that of adult prisoners. They were rationed black coffee or herb extract, black bread with margarine, turnip soup, and unpeeled boiled potatoes. Only the smaller children received thin slices of white bread and tiny pieces of butter.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Nazis did not think of the Jews as human so they were not provided with what a human needs to stay healthy or at least to survive. The victims in the camps were overworked and not given enough rest time, which resulted in exhaustion and even death by exhaustion. Life in the camps was brutal but straightforward, work until death. As the SS officer informed the Jews upon their arrival “ ‘you are in Auschwitz…It is a concentration camp. Here, you must work.’…

    • 1876 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ¨The Nazi concentration camps is a world turned upside down, a world in which nothing makes sense and nothing is as it should be ¨ (Sanderson). The amount of abhorrent things that were done to the Jews at camp were not okay in any type of way. At this time Jews were desperate for survival they would do anything to live or in some cases anything to die. Concentration camps got so horrid at times that Jews would rather be dead than living in one. ¨ Food and survival supersede everything else for prisoners; previously moral.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The jews daily life in the camps were horrific. The reason being is because their living conditions were harsh and deadly .(Safdie 1)The jews were subjected to unimaginable terrors, from the first day they arrived to the last. In the mornings for breakfast , they were only given 10 ounces of bread and “coffee”. Yet that coffee wasn’t really coffee, it was more water than coffee.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When people would first come into the camp, they would be put in lines. Each line meant different things. One line would be for hard labor, experiments, or they would be in the line for executions. " The Nazi soldiers would make the prisoners shave their heads and strip down to nothing" (Lachendro, Jacek 1).…

    • 1948 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In these camps “the death rates were so high, from malnutrition, typhus and exhaustion that the disposal of corpses became a serious problem.” (THE CAMPS) The treatment in transporting and caring for the victims is probably one of the main factors in the dehumanization of people during Holocaust. The victims were treated inferior simply because of their nationality. The Nazi’s made it a point to degrade these people in every way possible by taking away their rights and free will.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays