Auschwitz Essay

     “Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same time of his house, his habits, his clothes, in short, of everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint, for he who loses all often easily loses himself.” This short quote is taken from Primo Levi’s “Survival in Auschwitz”. It depicts a true story of Primo Levi during the Holocaust, who was relocated to an extermination camp after beginning a great life after college. Primo was captured with a resistant group from Italy. He used his college education and degree in chemistry to stay alive.

Auschwitz was one of the largest and first concentration camp during WW2 and next to Auschwitz were two other death camps that were named Auschwitz ll and lll. At Auschwitz, there was a total of 8 gas chambers and 4 of them can hold up to 2,000 prisoners (Mostly Jews) at a time. There were 11 million people murdered in the Holocaust and it estimated that 6 million Jews were killed and one in six was killed at Auschwitz.

In 1940 Auschwitz was established in the suburbs of Oswiecim. Oswiecim is a Polish city that was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. Auschwitz was established because there were too many Polish people in the local prisons. In 1942 Auschwitz became a death camp and it was the largest known. (http://auschwitz.org/, n.d.) The camp was expanded throughout its existence, this resulted in Auschwitz consisting of three camps. The three camps were Main Camp, Birkenau, and Monowitz. Main Camp was known as Auschwitz I, Birkenau was known as Auschwitz II, and Monowitz was known as Auschwitz III. (Preisler, n.d.) Auschwitz was liberated in 1945. “Historians and analysts estimate the number of people murdered at Auschwitz somewhere between 2.1 million

Auschwitz was one of the most well-known concentration camps, a camp which held many prisoners who were often judged by their looks, race, and religion and not by their actions. In concentration camps people were forced to work and not given basic human rights. Auschwitz was by far the largest concentration camp during World War Two. It quickly gained a reputation for torture and harsh treatment of the prisoners. Auschwitz has a history that can give a person the chills from the horror of the mistreatment of prisoners.

They were told they were going to take a shower, but they took them to gas chambers. Little did they know is that they would never come out of there alive. There were labor camps where the prisoners worked day and night to keep themselves alive. If they didnt work, they wouldve been shot by the German officers. There was horrible medical treatment, if any for some of the prisoners. THe way they were treated was horrible and inhumain. This should be resisted in any way in the future.

Every concentration camp was different in the way they decided to deal with Jews. During the course of the Holocaust, many Jews from all over were forced into labor and worked until they no longer could. They moved frequently and had to decide whether they should fight to survive or give in to death. (Webb) Auschwitz was known as the Final Solution for prisoners. They were sent there to be killed. Auschwitz was separated into many sections that were always worse than the last. Prisoners were given the very minimum amount of food and were forced to suffer at the SS guards hands. They were worked at least 12 hours of the day, given horrible living conditions and were treated as animals, not humans. (“Auschwitz: The Camp of Death”). Mauthausen was the only category three camp which meant that prisoners were sent there to be tortured and exterminated. They would either be worked to death or be killed for the guard's enjoyment. (“Mauthausen Concentration Camp”). After registration, prisoners stripped down and were forced into the bathhouses. Their heads

I. Survival in Auschwitz is the unique autobiographical account of how a young man endured the atrocities of a Nazi death camp and lived to tell the tale.

An estimated 1.1- 1.5 million people died at Auschwitz. The reason for the range in numbers is because the people who were marked as unfit were never registered, instead taken straight to the gas chambers. Gas chambers were the most frequently used killing device. Zyklon-B gas was used in them to slowly kill the prisoners. Corpse cellars and crematory ovens are other devices used to kill them. Dr. Josef Mengele, nicknamed "Angel of Death," performed medical experiments on some prisoners beginning in 1943. Some of these experiments include shooting serum into twins hearts to see if they would die of the same systems and at the same rate. The killing of prisoners was not something other prisoners cried about, instead it was just apart of life in the concentration

You would have to be checked by doctors to see if you were fit for work. Young Children, elderly, pregnant women, and those classified as unfit for work were sent to the showers. The showers were really gas chambers, this is the reason for many people dying. Doctors would also do experiments on the prisoners many would die from this. They would test twins to see if everything about them were actually the same. One of the experiment was to see if the twins could switch eyes and still be able to see. Another way people would die was from being burned in ovens. There was no “going easy” in Auschwitz.

The experimentation on prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps influenced how the world views crimes against humanity. The Nazis did numerous experiments on the prisoners in the concentration camps. Most of them they were forms of torture rather than “experiments”. They tried keeping them secret so the allied troops would not know about them but the allied troops were advancing rather quickly. The Nazis would burn everything to the ground when the allies got to close for comfort. When the allies got to close to Auschwitz the Nazis left and when the allies got pushed back the Nazis came back and lit the buildings on fire and shot up all the housing to try and kill as many prisoners as possible. When the Nazis left for good they set up

There were multiple camps, but the most popular one was Auschwitz. As they arrived at the gates of Auschwitz, it read “ work sets you free”, so of course, the Jews had know idea what was going to happen as they entered those gates of death. When they were rushed off the cattle carts children and their mothers were screaming and crying in fear, they were being seperated by German soldiers. “She imitated the gesture of this and I was eager to know what happened next; arrival in the next camp, the dogs, the smell, the noise, the hunger”. They had been ordered into lines, where doctors came around to determine if you were strong enough to work, however, if you did not look healthy to do labor they forced you to death. Sick Jews and young children were automatically shot, burned, or in gas chambers due to the lack of work they would have done. However, the healthy Jews were stripped from their clothes and even their names. They were each giving tattoos of numbers that represented who they were -“Her blue tattoo had blurred with time, so you couldn’t see the ‘AU’ for the camp, the P for Poland or the numbers, but she

Jews are constantly being punished in these concentration camps, whether not being present during roll-call to the harsh labor and the lack of nutrition provided. The soldiers take roll call very seriously, Abel emphasizes that judgement will be passed onto the folks lined up for those who disrupt roll call or can’t stand still for a duration of the time. Folks in these concentration camps are forced to work for long periods of time in a day. “whoever has a pair of wooden soles tied to his feet with a leather strap is rich” (13). Many Jews are without shoes and this can cause serious infections. Starvation is a major problem for the people in the camp since the German soldiers limit the amount of sustenance. Digestion is a major problem for

There were many concentration camps all over Germany. Prisoners could be sent to another camp to survive or for other various reasons. The concentration camps were unstable and unsanitary. The main epidemics or diseases that was within the camps was dysentery (diarrhea) and typhoid. The Prisoners had little to no food and had little clothing. At certain times a SS officer could call for selection meaning he or she will pick the prisoners of best fit that can continue to work. If you ended up on the right, you were safe and if you ended up on the left, you were in danger of being killed, later or on the spot. When enemies or invaders were coming near the camps, the camp officials would call for evacuation or “Death March.” Not many prisoners would survive because they were already starving and would have to run in the cold nonstop. Officials and the guards ran with the prisoners but they eventually got a break by switching with another official or guard. If you stopped while running, you were shot and killed on the spot.

Auschwitz was a death and labor concentration camp during World war II. It was founded in April, 1940 by Hitler and the SS, and located in Poland. The camp was extremely violent, murderous, and an evil place. It was the home to the murder of 1.5 million Jews. Sadly it had the most deaths of any concentration camp ever.

They lived in barracks that could house around 700 people, and slept on brick or wooden bunk beds. Often times, prisoners would sleep on possessions they snuck in to prevent them from being stolen or confiscated. They also slept in dirty clothes that were not changed for months. Sometimes, the prisoners woke up to find a few of their bedmates dead due to the previous day’s hard labor and small food portions. As uncomfortable as it was, inmates endured these horrible living conditions to survive in Auschwitz (Jewish Virtual Library