Auschwitz Concentration Camp Complex

According to “I’m Telling the Story” by Magdalena Klein, the prisoners were not given proper clothing. She writes “In rags, soiled, infested with lice” (Klein, stanza 2) and “Unclad frail feet were trudging in the snow” (Klein, stanza 4). The Nazi’s not only neglect to give the prisoners proper clothing, they also force them to walk barefoot through the snow! This problem is still present in the world today, not with the Nazis, but tyrannical governments still do this. In short, Nazi prisoners were not treated with the respect that is due to every human being, and suffered greatly because of it.

Throughout the entire novel the theme of dehumanization is particularly evident in both the prisoner workers and the transport prisoners. The Nazi guards are said to have “beefy” (pg. 41) faces, while an S.S. officer is described as having a “rat-like smile” as she “sniffed around” (pg. 41) the ramp. Prisoners are referred to as “standing around like sheep” (pg. 48). Starving Greek prisoners are compared to “huge human insects” (pg. 35). Even the transport trucks are called “mad dogs” (pg. 41). Everyone is treated and processed like livestock. “Trucks drive around, loading up lumber, cement, people” (pg. 34), is yet another example of how a human life was lowered to that of a mere object. A corpse is simply a “mound of meat” (pg. 45), and dead babies are carried out of the transport “like chickens, several in each hand” (pg. 39). The poisonous compound Cyclone B used to kill the prisoners was “an effective killer of lice in clothing and of men in gas chambers” (pg. 29).

Auschwitz was one of the most infamous and largest concentration camp known during World War II. It was located in the southwestern part of Poland commanded by Rudolf Höss. Auschwitz was first opened on June 14, 1940, much later than most of the other camps. It was in Auschwitz that the lives of so many were taken by methods of the gas chamber, crematoriums, and even from starvation and disease. These methods took "several hundreds and sometimes more than a thousand" lives a day. The majority of the lives killed were those of Jews although Gypsies, Yugoslavs, Poles, and many others of different ethnic backgrounds as well. The things most known about Auschwitz are the process people went through when entering the camp and

One survivor, Bill Lowenberg, noted that bodies were not burned, but the prisoners had to bury them. The prisoners were feeble and could barely walk. If prisoners did not walk fast enough from one place to another, they were beaten without as much as a second thought. Lowenberg said he was told by Germans soldiers that they “would never get out alive”. The guards were under a tremendous amount of pressure to get as much work as possible out of the able-bodied prisoners (Lowenberg).

Auschwitz concentration camp, also known as Auschwitz- Birkenau, was Nazi Germany’s largest concentration camp (Berenbaum, Auschwitz). The camp was created because Hitler became “convinced that his “Jewish problem” would be solved only with the elimination of every Jew in his domain, along with artists, educators, Gypsies, communists, homosexuals, the mentally and physically handicapped and others deemed unfit for survival in Nazi Germany” (Auschwitz, History.com). Auschwitz was located in southern Poland near the industrial town of Oswiecim (Berenbaum, Auschwitz). Hitler’s team was known as the Secret Service (SS), which included soldiers who patrolled the streets and the men who ran the camps (Uwe Boll, Auschwitz). Auschwitz consisted of

The Holocaust was the murder and persecution of approximately 6 million Jews and many others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The Nazis came to power in Germany in January of 1933. The Nazis thought that the “inferior” Jews were a threat to the “racially superior” German racial community. The death camps were operated from 1941 to 1945, and many people lost their lives or were forced to work in concentration camps during these years. The story leading up to the Holocaust, how the terrible event affected people’s lives, and how it came to and end are all topics that make this historic event worth learning about.

During the Holocaust, Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau were two of the biggest death camps in all of Poland. Jews from all over Europe were sent to these two camps. In this article are sections about before Auschwitz became the camp, treatment, gas chambers, and the aftermath of the Holocaust.

One of the most famous concentration camps, Auschwitz, had some of the poorest living conditions. In Auschwitz, the prisoners lived crammed tightly in small, brick barracks. Since the prisoners simply couldn’t all fit inside these barracks, they were also forced into basements and lofts, along with hundreds of others. The tight living quarters were a main factor in the spreading of diseases and epidemics. In another concentration camp named “Birkenau”, the barracks had two styles which included both brick and wood. The brick barracks were hastily built, and were very dangerous and unsafe. Even though these brick barracks weren’t fit to hold people inside them, more than 700 prisoners were assigned to each barrack. The barracks did not have any way to heat or cool the rooms, and also lacked any sanitary facilities. The second style of barrack at the Birkenau concentration camp was another wooden barrack, except these were made to fit approximately fifty-two horses, not hundreds of prisoners. These barracks had many rodents and vermin, and had no way to prevent the damp roofs from leaking on the prisoners. Also, the foul smell and prisoner’s diarrhea made the already difficult living conditions much

Prisoners that arrived at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp came mostly from Poland or Hungary. When they arrived, they had to take off their clothes. Prisoners were forced to work in the quarry. They had to wear a yellow Star of David outlined in black that said Jew on it. In October 1941 the SS transferred about 3,000 soviet paws for execution

The prisoners heads were shaved and they were given threadbare clothing. During the winter, the clothing was slightly heavier. The guards beat and whipped anyone who disagreed with them, and forced the prisoners to run long distances even though the inmates were weak from malnutrition. Rations included a small portion of bread and sometimes bread. The Nazis had their captives run to work in war factories where they endured harsh treatment. Because the prisoners were overworked, under feed, and were forced into such close quarters,many of them were sickly and were able to receive the treatment

85 years ago, over a 12 year period, nearly six million Jews were killed in a genocide called The Holocaust. The Holocaust was led by the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler was their leader. The mass murders took place at concentration camps throughout Europe. The majority of concentration camps resided in Poland and Germany. Many people believe there were only a few concentration camps. “However, researchers found that the Nazis had actually established 20,000 camps between 1933 and 1945” (“How Many Camps,” n.d.). In this paper I will be discussing the largest concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Inmates resembled skeletons and were so weak they were unable to move. The smell of burning bodies was ever present and piles of corpses were scattered around the camp. However, you could be “saved” from the crematoria to be used as test subjects to cruel experimentation and used as lab rats for any experiment the scientists wanted to conduct. Later in the war, extermination camps were built. These were specialized for the mass murder of Jews using Zyklon B to ensure a painful, long, and torturous death. The bodies would then be thrown into the fire and all clothes, teeth, and shoes would be sent to pursue the German war front. At max efficiency, 20,000 people would be killed in the gas chambers a day. As the red Army approached near to liberate the Jews in concentration and extermination camps, SS officers sent prisoners on a death march across hundreds of miles, where they ran with no food or water, no matter the weather, until they reached the closest camp. SS officers proceeded to blow up the camps to hide the genocide from the

Many people are aware of the fact that The Holocaust misplaced and murdered millions of Jews, Disabled , homosexual ,and Polish people. However, what a saddening amount of people are unaware of is how the Germans (Nazis) subjugated millions of these victims to disturbing experiments, grizzly deaths, and consistent mental and physical torture. Today, I hope to enlighten you with the knowledge of the atrocities that were allowed to occur at Auschwitz (Oswiecim, Poland) and many other Concentration Camps in hopes that we learn from our mistakes, and something of this nature never happens again. But what exactly was Auschwitz for and what exactly did the Schutzstaffel (SS) do to the prisoners? To begin with, the “Prisoners” would be taken from

Eighteen million Europeans went through the Nazi concentration camps. Eleven million of them died, almost half of them at Auschwitz alone.1 Concentration camps are a revolting and embarrassing part of the world’s history. There is no doubt that concentration camps are a dark and depressing topic. Despite this, it is a subject that needs to be brought out into the open. The world needs to be educated on the tragedies of the concentration camps to prevent the reoccurrence of the Holocaust. Hitler’s camps imprisoned, tortured, and killed millions of Jews for over five years. Life in the Nazi concentration camps was full of terror and death for its individual prisoners as well as the entire Jewish

     These camps were set up along railroad lines so that the prisoners would be conveniently close to their destination. Unfortunately, many prisoners didn't even survive the train ride to the camps. Herded like cattle, exhaustion, disease, and starvation ended the long treacherous journey for many of the prisoners. On the trains, Jews were starved of food and water for days. Nearly 8% of the people did not even survive the ride to the camps. (Nyiszli, 37)