Auschwitz: the Overview of a Concentration Camp Essay

Soon everything the prisoners did became a privilege, including using the bathroom. Lights were shut off at ten o’clock at night and after that point, the prisoners would be forced to use the buckets left in their cell as toilet; this further tarnished the environment of the prison.

October of 1941 was when Auschwitz II was built, located just outside of Brzezinka, which later developed into a concentration and extermination camp. The camp included 300 prison barracks, 4 large “bathhouses” where prisons were gassed to death, corpse cellars where their bodies were held, and cremating ovens (Berenbaum, Auschwitz). Auschwitz III was created in May of 1942, near the village of Dwory, a slave-labor camp supplying workers for nearby factories (Berenbaum, Auschwitz). Those deemed fit to work were employed as slave labor in the production of munitions, synthetic rubber and other products considered essential to Germany’s efforts in World War II (Auschwitz, History.com). Auschwitz also became the nexus of 45 smaller slave labor sub-camps in the region (Berenbaum, Auschwitz). Rudolf Franz Höss was the commandant of the central Auschwitz camps (Berenbaum,

,and the huts were absolutely terrible.Usually the camp was at a food shortage and the soldiers

The island had over one hundred buildings on it. Everything within the prison walls was called the Bull Pen. In the center were two rolls of six buildings with one building on the end. Twelve of these were the barracks. They were two stories high with the first floor divided into multiple rooms and two kitchens. Later the kitchens and mess rooms were removed to another building. Men would be assigned two to a bunk and bunks would be three tiered. These buildings were not sealed but weather-boarded. It did not give much protection against cold or snow. Due to poor ventilation, the men would cut small holes in the walls, normally by their heads, to get some air.One stove was provided to heat the room but was inadequate. Very little wood was given to the prisoners a day. Many times the stove would not be burned during the night due to not enough wood. Every available chair or box and even parts of the bunks were burn. Prisoners would even form a circle around the stove and

Anti-semitism in Germany led by Adolf Hitler would back up a plan called the final solution, to exterminate all of the Jews in Europe. Out of the 100 million Jews aimed for extermination, 6 million of them were killed. On his path to German greatness, Jews became victim to inconceivable actions. First the Nuremberg Laws were passed which stripped Jews of their german citizenship, eliminating their opportunity to flee to other countries. After Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Hitler forcefully deported Jewish people into fenced confinements called ghettos. More Jews died here than in any extermination camp due to the harsh conditions and labor. Most people living in ghettos had no access to running water or a sewage system and overcrowding

In 1933 the first concentration camp was established after Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. Concentration Camps at first were camps to detain the Nazi political enemies over time. As time went on different types of people such as the Jewish, Gypsies, poles and criminals was placed in these camps as well. At first Auschwitz-Birkenau it was a labor camp that was located near the polish city, Oswiecim. This camp was the largest of all Nazi camps in Europe. At any one time this camp could hold up to 150,000 inmates at a time. (Jewish Virtual Library) During the years of 1941-1945 for the first time in history of mankind some of the concentration camps were established into extermination

Once the bed has been made, it was time for washing. Each person would run and try to reach the sanitary facility before the other. There were only a few facilities for hundreds and thousands of prisoners, and they only had a couple of minutes for washing up.

They were compact and closed off from everything. They were given a piece of sausage and a piece of black bread with marmalade, margarine, or cheese. The camps were split into three different areas. One area was the reception area where people waited to be murdered. There was also an area where people were taken away to be buried or burned. Train rides were very unpleasant most died before even reaching the camp people died of starvation, dehydration, and lack of air.Which in most cases would be lucky.

On October 13, 1941 SS Leader Odilo Globocnik received a communication from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to begin immediate construction on a new type of camp Generalgouvernement region of Poland. The project would eventually be named in honor of Reinhard Heydrich, who had been assassinated in June of 1942. Belzec was to be built for a single purpose: the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people living in that region. Within a year, two more camps were planned and constructed. Sobibor and Treblinka used similar techniques to aid in the killings. As the facts of these camps are explored it is important to ask a few questions: Who built and maintained the camps and how were conditions for the prisoners? What tactics did the Nazis use to scare, manipulate, and slaughter an estimated 1.75 million Jews? Did anyone try to stop the massacres? Truly, the events that took place surrounding these particular camps are especially horrific as they were intended to produce only death.

One year after the camp had begun it soon built a reputation for torture and death (Auschwitz-Birkenau- “The). Auschwitz was made for three main reasons: confine both real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime, provide people for labor in construction-related enterprises, and serve a place to kill people whose life was determined by the Schutzstaffel, also known as the SS (Holocaust). A man named Adolf Hitler was determined to kill everyone who he believed were not fit for survival in Nazi Germany. In order to meet his beliefs, he turned the concentration camps into places solely for killing Jews as a “final solution”; he called the camps death camps

How was Auschwitz different from other concentration camps? Auschwitz was the largest of all the Nazi concentration camps across Europe. Auschwitz could hold up to 150,000 people at any time. There were 3 main camps in April 1940 Auschwitz 1 opened, Auschwitz 2 opened October 1941,

Their living conditions were even worse than the jobs that they had. They would live in barracks quite close to the factories that they worked in. In these barracks, there would be a cold and dark halls that led into residences that would house more than 30 people at a time. The spaces between the rooms were just separated with a long piece of sheets or weak wooden pieces which gave these people little to no privacy at all.

Some barrack held as many as 500 people. The prisoner usually slept in their work clothes and there were no bathroom in the barack just a bucket. This unsanitary behavior caused disease to spread through the barracks(Bachrach).

Auschwitz, located thirty-seven miles west of Krakow, was the first concentration camp where Jewish people worked to death, or were automatically killed. This camp, compared to all the other camps, tortured the most people. At the camp there was a place called the "Black Wall," this was where the people were executed. In March of 1941, there was another camp that started its building. This second camp was called Auschwitz II, or Birkenau. It was located 1.9 miles away from Auschwitz I. In the town Monowitz, another camp was being built. This camp was called Auschwitz III, or Buna-Monowitz. Other camps that were located close to Monowitz were moved to Buna-Monowitz.

Life in these labor camps is pure misery and the people in there are many times treated worse than animals.They are fed very small portions of cornmeal and cabbage three times a day everyday causing about forty percent of prisoners to die from starvation.() All they are given in the prison camp is one set of clothes, without any socks, underwear or personal hygiene products. Day in, day out all prisoners wake up before sunrise and go to work all day until the guards say it’s time for them to go to sleep.Prisoners that had their family with them were allowed to live with their families as a reward for hard work in a small single roomed house without running water. Those who did not have their family with them and are in there