ND+Q2

Daily Life in a Camp



(Federation Nationale des Deportes et Internes Resistants et Patriotes, Paris)

A part of daily life was daily dying. This was caused by harsh conditions, lack of sanitation, and abuse. The sole purpose of the prisoners was to work as slave laborers, and as the Germans expanded into Europe they significantly increased the number of prisoners to provide enough manpower for the war (Jens-Christian Wagner 127).

One of the everyday challenges facing prisoners was conditions related to overcrowding. At the women's camp in Auschwitz, for example, a space that was normally meant to contain 180 people was used for 700 prisoners. At various times, this number became even larger, especially when new transports arrived. People slept on straw mattresses on the floor, and had to lie as closely together as physically possible. If anyone got up in the night, there would be no space left for them to sleep when they returned. Often, people would have to sleep on a bare floor. Also, the straw used in the mattresses decayed rapidly, creating large amounts of dust which made living conditions even worse.

Overcrowding magnified the effects of poor sanitation. There were very few facilities for washing, so people and clothes were extremely dirty and rats ran through the barracks. Air in the barracks was very humid and there were often leaks in the roofs, but the buildings were kept shut, not allowing proper air circulation. The straw mattresses that the prisoners slept on were often stained from starvation diarrhea. There were no showering facilities, and no indoor bathrooms, so prisoners had to use fields to relieve themselves. It wasn't until 1943 that washroom buildings were built.

The worst aspect of being in a concentration camp was the constant expectation of abuse. The prisoners were starved and overworked, often to death, and were abused by SS guards. Those too weak to work were no longer useful, and were often killed. The weakest and sickest were usually detected during roll-call, when all prisoners were ordered to line up. This was an opportunity for abuse. For example, prisoners often had to stand for ten hours, sometimes more. Prisoners were forced to perform many drills, such as removing their caps repeatedly in a synchronized manner. These were performed at line-up hundreds of times until the guard was satisfied. He could kill anyone for not doing it, even people who couldn't possibly do it - a deaf tailor, or a man whose right hand was paralyzed. Another part of roll call was "sport" - this was when the prisoners were ordered to do useless drills. They would do this until the weakest began to fall, who were normally killed immediately. "Somehow the prospect of sport terrified me most of all. Perhaps I could manage to stand up 100 or even 150 times. But there would comethe moment when I no longer had the strength to do so. And then Vacek would finish me off with his truncheon as he had those thirty-five this morning" (Muller 10). Those who were not killed immediately were selected to be gassed. Once enough had been selected, the Germans would gas them, often on a major holiday. Often what the Germans did was demonstrate to those living in the camps how they would die (Muller 1-3). For more information, click here.