Living Conditions In Auschwitz Essay

Superior Essays
In Poland, only a few miles away from the city Oswiecim, was the location of the largest death camp during WWII. The camp is known as Auschwitz. It is estimated that around three million to four million people were slaughtered there (Auschwitz-Birkenau: History & Overview). Auschwitz is recognized as the most horrendous concentration camp created by Nazi Germany. The people in the Auschwitz concentration camp were given cruel and unusual punishment in the living conditions they suffered through, how they were experimented on, and the ways they were executed. In September 1939, Rudolf Hoss wanted to create a concentration camp specifically for experimentation and extermination. “Auschwitz was located at the center crossroads of many Polish cities, and therefore, was an ideal location for shipping the incoming prisoners from Germany that occupied Europe" (Auschwitz: The Camp of Death 1). The Nuremberg Laws made it easy for the Germans to take prisoners. The laws prevented the Jews to marry anybody that was not a Jew. Also, the law stated any person with Jewish grandparents to be classified as a Jew (Caestecker, Frank). The Nuremberg laws, if broken, placed Jews and non-Jewish people in the concentration camp where they were experimented on and treated vilely. Auschwitz was separated into three sections where the prisoners would live and work. Auschwitz I was the smallest section of the camp and also contained the central office. The central office was the control center where the officers were stationed and where the prisoners were processed. Prisoners of all ethnic backgrounds arrived daily in fright carts. When they arrived, they were "given false hope by reading the words “Arbeit Macht Frei,” which translates into work will give you freedom" (Auschwitz: The Camp of Death). Therefore, they believe if they worked hard they would be set free and see their loved ones. Most of them would never see their friends and family again. Auschwitz I was surrounded by nine watch towers and double barbed wire electric fences. This section also held the court room where prisoners were brought to be tried unfairly and receive a death sentence. Although the people were tried in Auschwitz I they lived in Auschwitz II (Auschwitz: The Camp of Death). Most of the prisoners that were in the concentration camp were accommodated to be in Auschwitz II. …show more content…
The living quarters, which were designed to be stables for horses, were known as barracks. The barracks were meant to fit 52 horses, but the Nazis managed to fit 800 to 1,000 people in one barrack (Auschwitz: The Camp of Death). The barracks lacked heating and were damp from leaking roofs. The sanitary conditions were unimaginable. “The prisoners lay 10 per bed and each person had to lie sideways to fit. Insects and vermin [would] also share the beds” (Auschwitz: The Camp of Death 17). The straw they slept on contained human waste because they were not provided with a suitable place to relieve themselves. Also the shortage of water left them unable to wash themselves. The Auschwitz III resembled the living conditions of Auschwitz II. On top of the unbearable conditions the individuals lived through, they were also deprived of food for the long hours of labor they performed each day (Auschwitz-Birkenau: Living Conditions, Labor & Executions). The average work day for a prisoner at the concentration camp was at least 11 hours a day, with only three meals a day. In fact, it was a law for all the concentration camps to work the prisoner’s a minimum of 11 hours a day. …show more content…
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). Also it was normal for the soldiers to take valuables such as necklaces and wedding rings. In result, several of the people would swallow their most precious valuables so it would not be taken. The women would go to the specially built wall known as the Death Wall. Then the men would follow soon after. They would line up facing the wall then the executioner would shoot them from behind. (Lachendro,

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The living conditions in Auschwitz were very unsanitary for prisoners. Furthermore, prisoners usually slept in brick barracks that were located inside Auschwitz. In each old, brick barrack were several hundred three-tier wooden bunk beds that prisoners lived in (“Living Conditions, Labor & Executions”). Each bunk bed contained 5 or 6 inmates. The barracks also had thin walls with no windows.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The toilets were shared among thousands of people, although most of the time the plumbing did not even work. The barracks were extremely overcrowded. The food was meager and each prisoner was only allowed small rations every day. They had to work for 9-12 hours every day. The weaker ones got the easier jobs.…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Auschwitz is the main camp that caused the Holocaust and Birkenau was one of the side camps that was a part of the Holocaust. In both camps, prisoners were treated very poorly and had to work for their survival. They had to work for their survival. Whatever choices they made was for their survival. They tried their best to survive as long as they can.…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Auschwitz Dbq Essay

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Not only was Auschwitz a death camp it is where a majority of the incoming Jews, families, homosexuals, and numerous other groups of people lived. When they arrive their belongings were taken and later shipped back to Germany and their hair was cut off completely bald (Source D). The living conditions of Auschwitz did not at all accommodate to the number of people stored in each room being that 3 people would have to sleep with each other per bunk in the barracks (Source D).There were no urinals just simply a bucket which very frequently overflowed by the morning which did cause a stench (Source D).There also wasn’t any windows in the Barracks which had its pros and cons as well (Source G).Around August 1944 there were 105,168 prisoners were…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The stalls were meant to inhabit three individuals but instead the block harnessed over 700 captive Jews. I as well as my fellow inmates were jammed into this horrifying, overflowing hell hole. There was 156 bunk beds in each block which was too diminutive to accommodate the over 700 sorry souls. The barracks had a vast amount of open gaps where windows or some other covering should have been placed. Instead, they were left unattended and open which lead to massive heat loss.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There were many camps; death, concentration, extermination, labor, prisoner-of-war, and transit camps. The prisoners would try to escape and even bribe their way out because the conditions they were living in were very bad. Prisoners would be transported to the camps in cattle cars, which were dark, closed off, had barely any space, and didn’t have proper…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Concentration Camp Essay

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Rail tracks ran from the gas chambers to the burial pits”("Concentration Camps, 1933–1939"). Then they also had a small staff controlling the camp “(between 20 and 30) and a police auxiliary guard unit of between 90 and 120 men” ("Concentration Camps, 1933–1939"). Most of the guards for the camp were soviet prisoners of…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After registration, prisoners had to undress and have their hair shaved before showering. They usually had their own clothing taken away, which would be replaced by a striped uniform (“Processing and Routines”). The appel, the daily lineup that took place every morning after wakeup and each evening after returning from labor, was one of the horrific aspects of the prisoners’ lives in the camps. They were forced to stand completely still, often for hours at a time, exposed to the elements in the cold, rain, or snow and to the terror of sudden violence by SS men, guards or kapos…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    During the first several months, the prisoner’s rooms didn’t have beds or any other furniture. Prisoners slept on straw-filled mattresses on the floor. The rooms were so overcrowded that prisoners could only sleep on their sides in three rows. Three-tiered bunks began appearing gradually in the rooms from February 1941. Designed for only three prisoners, they would pack as many people as they could in a bunk.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Holocaust Outline

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The prisoners that wouldn’t get tortured would have to see the other prisoners get beaten. The prisoners would sometimes see them get killed. They were also forced to watch them get executed. This type of torture was very common and happened on the daily. There was a German physician who would inject serum into the eyeballs of people in the camp, the serum would cause them to have a lot of pain.…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Treatment of Prisoners in the Holocaust Regardless of what concentration or extermination camp they were shipped off to, prisoners of the Nazis were treated with extreme cruelty and hatred. Indeed, an estimated 11 to 17 million people died under the shadow of Hitler’s reign (Hurber 345). Many of the people at concentration camps had done nothing wrong; still they were overworked to the point of death.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Often tortured and even had experiments tested on them, millions had started to die off. Auschwitz Concentration camp was truly a horrid place on earth where over one million victims experienced life or death situations such as inhumane living conditions, life sentence, or have been used for different experiments. Jewish, Poles, Roma and other nationalities that Germany had despised were sent to spend the rest of their lives in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. After being put in a cattle wagon with no room, the soon to be prisoners three day journey to the Auschwitz…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Once everybody was in there they closed the doors and turned on the gas so everybody could die. After the gas went away and all the people died they would force the workers, which were jews, to go pick up their bodies and bring it to a fire. They would burn the bodies and take the ashes from the bodies to the fields and bury it. As you can see the death at this camp was very…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Holocaust was a recent event in history that claimed the lives of over 6 million people. The Holocaust was a hate crime on a massive scale, many died in internment camps like Auschwitz, ghettos were a painful step down from internment camps, these events are why the Holocaust should be known. (Introduction To The Holocaust)An internment camp called Auschwitz in Germany was a death camp where people were sent to die. The camp held ten thousand prisoners at a time and was infested with disease. Claims from survivors say that people would grab the electric fence just to end their suffering.…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When the Jews and other prisoners came into the camp they were put in groups of about 50 and told to remove all clothing. These people were lied to and told that they were going to be workers at a work camp, but first needed to be showered and disinfected. In reality their fate was held in the vans, where they all lasted a mere ten minutes ("Chelmno Concentration Camp: History & Overview.") Because the only purpose of this camp was to kill, few prisoners were actually living there. These few people consisted of a group of slave laborers, selected by the Germans.…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays