How+were+the+prisoners+split+up+upon+arriving+to+the+camps?

When prisoners arrived on the trains, they were immediately shepherded into two distinct groups – one for male, one for female. Families were torn apart as husbands were forced apart from their wives, sons from mothers, brothers from sisters; this was the first part of the Nazi’s brutal selection system. Most times, those who were separated never saw each other again.

At the head of each line, a German SS doctor would interview very briefly the person in front of them, asking very briefly their age and occupation. Those they deemed strong enough were sent directly to the labor camps, where they would toil for long days until they died in a very brutal, painful way. However, those they thought were ‘too young’ or ‘too old,’ or even too weak or scrawny, were sent immediately to the gas chambers. They pulled off this charade by telling them that it was a shower, and hundreds of people would gather in there to die immediately.

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