Auschwitz Mental Health

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.

The conditions of the camp were unbearable. The prisoners were barely fed, mainly bread and water, and were cramped in small sleeping arrangements. "Hundreds slept in triple-tiered rows of bunks (Adler 51)." In the quarters that they stayed, there were no adequate cleaning facilities or restrooms for the prisoners. They rarely were able to change clothes which meant the "clothes were always infested with lice (Swiebocka 18)." Those were sick went to the infirmary where also there were eventually killed in the gas chambers or a lethal injection. The Germans did not want to have anyone not capable of hard work to live. Prisoners were also harshly punished for small things such as taking food or "relieving themselves during work hours (Swiebocka 19)." The biggest punishment was execution. The most common punishment was to receive lashings with a whip.

Though the gas chamber method of killing people was most destructive and very efficient, many other tactics were used to slaughter unfortunate prisoners. One Auschwitz survivor said, "One night we were awakened by terrifying cries... on the preceding day, the gas

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.

Gas chambers were among the many horrific killing and torture methods used in Auschwitz that had been refined over time by the Nazis to exterminate as many people as they possibly could. The people taken to Auschwitz were often killed in gas chambers on the spot after being told they would get a shower. Most of the people who survived had to participate in hard labor and undergo selections often to see if they would get to live a bit longer. However, many of these people, became very emaciated and ill. These people were deprived of their needs until they were so disfigured that the Nazis sent them to the gas chambers and after that the crematoriums. Dr. Mengele also performed inhumane experiments on people of all ages and genders (Auschwitz, 1). On top of that, few managed to survive in Auschwitz,. As stated in Yad Vashem’s article, “ In Auschwitz-Birkenau, more than 1,100,000 Jews, 70,000 Poles, 25,000 Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) and some

If you are wondering what is a gas chamber? Well its exactly what is says in the name , a sealed chamber where a poisonous gas or Asphyxiant gas was put into the chamber where the people were basically burned to death from the strong gas. The four largest chambers in Auschwitz , the largest camp located in Poland , held up to 2,000 people! They would collected a group of men , women and even poor children strip them of their clothes and send them into the chamber where all you heard was cries of the poor souls about to die because they already knew what was about to happen to them. There was 7 buildings that were used for gas chambers.

     Another camp called Treblinka was a pure killing center. This death camp opened in 1942, making it one of the last death camps to open. The whole purpose of this place was to kill Jews. They did this with 13 carbon-monoxide chambers. The people were sent to the camp by trains, unloaded, and sent into changing rooms. They were forced to give up their clothes and put new ones on. They were sent to either so called "showers", or a mass grave where they were shot. The carbon-monoxide chambers were disguised as the "showers." As soon as the Jews were in, they locked the doors and started pouring gas into them. This was the way they killed the prisoners. The Nazis killed about 50,000 people per month, making it the most efficient concentration camps ever made. This made Treblinka a pure killing center.

Camps now a days are fun for children when they are bored during the summer they can stay there for weeks make friends and learn all sorts of new stuff while their parents don’t have to deal with them for a while and are sure they are safe and having fun. The camps that are going to be learned about in this reading are the exact opposite, these camps only terrorize, safety is never an option, death is the only answer, and parents would never want their kids to go to through all of this torture and fear. Auschwitz known as the term for the largest camps during the Holocaust was a complex of camps from concentration, forced-labor to death camps. There were three main areas from the many camps including: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II (Birkenau),

“Special camps were equipped with gas chambers that were used to poison and kill a large number of people at once” ("Holocaust."). The Holocaust was one of the worst things to happen to Jews due to the fact that many of them lost their lives, got separated from each other and they were tortured.

In the article, it states, “Inmates were always hungry.  Food consisted of watery soup made with rotten vegetables and meat, a few ounces of bread, a bit of margarine, tea, or a bitter drink resembling coffee.  Diarrhea was common.  People weakened by dehydration and hunger fell easy victim to the contagious diseases that spread throughout the camp”(17-18).  The Nazis built suffering into Auschwitz by giving their prisoners very little food, and starving them.  By starving, they purposely tortured the prisoners by making them starve and turn on each other, taking away their trust, and making them become very sick, and wish to be dead.  Lastly, the work given to the prisoners in Auschwitz Birkenau caused them to die from exhaustion and they would be worked until they died.  Many prisoners were worked to death and died of natural causes.  If any of them were too weak or ill to be working, then they would be murdered in the gas chambers.  In the article, it states, “Some inmates worked as forced laborers inside the camp, in the kitchen, or as barbers, for example.  Women often sorted the piles of shoes, clothes, and other prisoner belongings…  Those who were too ill or too weak to work were condemned to death in the gas

Auschwitz- the most populated and popular concentration camp within the Holocaust. Soviet troops freed the people incarcerated within the camp. That day, over 7,000 prisoner were released, mostly ill and dying because of the long term effects of the camps. Between 1940 and 1945, over 1.3 million people were deported to Auschwitz and over 1.1 million were murdered.

The camp Auschwitz killed around 1,100,000 Jewish(history.com, Gypsy, and bi-sexual prisoners. Prisoners of camps usually suffered the same fate of dying in the gas chambers. It was very harsh because people were barely fed. The Nazis were very violent with prisoners. Most men went to work camps. Hitler and the nazis were ruthless to prisoners.

Auschwitz- Auschwitz was one of the many death camps that Hitler used to murder over a million people in just this camp, that did not meet Hiltler’s standard of the perfect person.

The life of the prisoners were terrible, almost to bad to even think about. Most prisoners worked day and night, 24/7. If it was raining, they worked. If it was snowing, they worked. If it was blazing hot, they worked. It didn’t matter if the prisoner felt weak, they still worked. If a prisoner moved too slow they were beaten, even to death. They rarely ate. When they did eat, the food consisted of watery soup made with rotten vegetables and meat, a few ounces of bread, a bit of margarine, tea, or a bitter drink (most likely coffee). Diarrhea was very common due to

Imagine living in a wood hut, each 100 feet by 30 feet for 5 years (Sheehan 17), with people all around getting sick and dying. Auschwitz is the most known concentration camp from the holocaust. “It was originally made for a prison work camp for a variety of inmates, especially jews and political prisoners” (Sheehan 16). From 1940’s to 1945 Auschwitz expanded, they made 2 other camps called Auschwitz- Birkenau and Auschwitz- Monowitz. Over 960,000 people have died in these camps.