Prisoners In Concentration Camps During The Holocaust

The Holocaust was one of the worst examples of genocide that has occurred in the world and throughout history. Millions of people died during the Holocaust, including Jews and gypsies as well as homosexuals and those with mental illnesses. When people think of or remember the Holocaust, they typically relate it to concentration camps. The camps were used to house and execute prisoners and also perform hard manual labor. Every aspect of daily life in the camps was horrific as the conditions were brutal, both mentally and physically. As a result of the conditions and the Final Solution, many millions of “undesirables” were killed during the Holocaust. The three types of camps were referred to as labor camps, death camps, and concentration camps.

According to Teresa Świebockas findings, “In 1933 alone, about fifty concentration camps were established in Germany.”(Świebocka). Concentration camps were not much different than labor camps other than that they were mostly used as a type of prison. Prisoners in concentration camps were usually just there to await their death. In some of these camps, prisoners were forced to do work. The conditions of concentration camps made them stand out more than the others. Each barrack, which is where the prisoners slept, was supposed to hold about 40 prisoners, but ended up usually housing over 700. In most barracks, there were about 3 people per bed (Wiesel). They were made completely out of wood and prisoners didn’t have any mattresses, mostly a thin blanket or towel and sometimes they didn't have anything. There were big gaps in between the ground and the walls and there were only 2 stoves in each barrack, but the fuel was not provided. Because of this, it would get incredibly cold and many people died because of the harsh weather. The bathrooms were just holes in the ground with no way of a draining system which was not sanitary at all. Disease spread very quickly because of the horrible conditions and so many people died from

One of the most famous death camps was Auschwitz. According to the studied from the Nizkor Project, “The number of those so executed - also declared irrefutable - was 4.1 million.” Most were killed in the gas chambers because it was an easy and cheap way to kill the most amount of people at once. Around 2,000 people could be killed in a gas chamber at once. The bodies were then sent to the crematoriums for disposal. Many of the people that were killed were women and children. They were not seen as useful as men in the labor camps so they were sent straight to death and didn’t have a good chance of survival. The first death camp was Chelmno. It opened in 1941 and closed in 1945. Most of the victims in the beginning were killed in gas vans. They were lured into the van which had the exhaust pipe connected to the interior. Only 3 had survived this