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Pros And Cons Of The Concentration Camps

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Germany, 1940: Jewish prisoners arrive at their new homes, a concentration camp. Upon arrival, individuals “went through selection. Those who were not selected for immediate execution were forced to work” (“Prisoner Bunk Bed”). Those chosen to die would spend their last hours standing naked in a locker room waiting to “shower.” Those who were selected got sent to work where they would be tortured, humiliated, and dehumanized for breathing. This became the daily life of prisoners at the concentration camps never knowing when they may take their last breath or speak their last words. The horrors of the concentration camps haunted many prisoners, but often the most difficult part, enduring daily life. The living conditions–shelter, clothing, …show more content…

Their punishment: standing with their noses to a wall and standing there for hours on end knowing that this would be the last that they do. Finally, at the end of the day, there would be a public shooting and these prisoners would be the victims (Borstein). However, that punishment had a better outcome than being sent to block eleven. Block eleven is described as a torture cell that the Nazis used to confine the prisoners and torture them even more. Inside block eleven the forms of torture that happened included confinement cells, these cells consisted of one square meter each and they had to stay there for a few nights to several weeks. The prisoners confined to these cells still got sent to their work details in the morning. Depending on their sentence to block eleven they could be sent back or they might go back to the regular bunks. Block eleven was completely underground with no windows except a five-by-five vent that allowed minimal air in and a small door to get into the block (“Block 11”). Lastly, some of the other punishments that the prisoners received included flogging, “the post,” (hanging torture), and assignment to the penial company (“Punishment and Executions”). The torture that the prisoners ended up being violently horrific towards the prisoners, without purpose but to dehumanize the …show more content…

Perennial, Harper. Jewish Virtual Library, “Feeding the Prisoners.” American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2018, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/living-conditions-labor-and-execution s-at-auschwitz-birkenau.
“Punishment and Executions.” Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, 2022, www.aus chwitz.org/en/history/punishments-and-executions/
“Prisoner Bunk Bed from Auschwitz Concentration Camp.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn94891.
“Prisoner Uniforms.” Musealia, 2023, auschwitz.net/coleccion/prisoner-uniforms/
“SS Concentration Camp System.” The Wiener Holocaust Library, www.theholocaustexplained .org /the-camps/ss-concentration-camp-system/daily-routines/.
Van Der Geest, Jack. Was God on Vacation? Van der Geest Publishing, 1995
Venezia, Shlomo. Inside the Gas Chamber. Politely Press, 2009.
Zdzislaw, Ryn. “Between Life and Death: Experiences of Concentration Camp Musselmen during the Holocaust.” Genetic, Social & General Psychology Monographs, vol. 116, no. 1 Feb. 1990, p. 7. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&A

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