Daily Survival in theSoviet Labor Camps

Have you ever heard of the nasty, disgusting, and horrible conditions that jews had to suffer with in concentration camps during the Holocaust? Lice and fleas are a big part of conditions in concentration camps, another horrible condition in the camps are diseases and sanitation, lastly another awful condition in concentration camps is mass murder and starvation. Many people died in concentration camps during the Holocaust because of the environment the jews had to live in and deal with, and many families were split and torn apart because loved ones of theirs had died because of the horrible conditions in the camps.

Vladek exposes his strategy as he exclaims to Anja, “...To die, it’s easy...But you have to struggle for life! Until the last moment we must struggle together!” (Spiegelman 124). Family and the knowledge of existing loved ones encourages the prisoners to keep fighting for their lives and the believe that one day they will be liberated and free at last. Without the motivation from family members, many people would no longer have a purpose to continue living. Nevertheless, hunger was a crucial factor that weakens the strength of the victims, which is apparent as Vladek comforts Anja explaining, “No, it’s only wood. But chewing it feels a little like eating food” (Spiegelman 125). They did not have to eat much, they just had to eat enough to outlive the other weaker people, which relates to Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest. Although this may seem upsetting, it is the harsh reality of life in the camps. Prisoners in the concentration camps stimulate themselves to work harder with optimism that they might receive a reward of food from and officer. Elie actually ends up receiving food for teaching the Kapo English which reveals his ability to adapt to certain situations (Spiegelman 192). Overall, in this Socratic Seminar, the topics remained discrete and the discussion contained a wide range of details that may have gone

During the Holocaust, the living conditions for the Jewish population were horrifying and unthought of. The lack of sanitary facilities meant they had to remove dirt and pests from clothing by waiting in a line that took up most of the day. The barracks that the prisoners slept in was in terrible conditions and the rooms were damp with leaky roofs (“Auschwitz…”). The health and how the jewish lived was no concern of the Nazi soldiers.

Over six million people died in the Holocaust. Family, friends, and other people with the same ethnicity that they didn't even know were killed left and right. From the crematory to getting hung. Was it best for them to help each other or was it to protect themselves and not care about anyone else? (Prompt 5)

Everyone who has taken a history course that goes through the 20th century knows about the atrocities performed in Nazi Germany; 11 million people exterminated and countless others put into concentration camps with unimaginable conditions. But most people do not try to explain how the German soldiers could do these things to other human beings. Primo Levi in his book Survival in Auschwitz attempts to answer this question. He begins by explaining the physical and psychological transformation of the prisoners and how that enabled the Germans to see the prisoners as inhuman and therefore oppress-able. Levi believes that the Germans treated the Jewish prisoners horrendously because of the prisoner’s

The merciless starvation was a constant factor at the concentration camps. The inmates received a daily ration of soup and bread, but that was it. They were also forced to work daily on these empty stomachs, as if the starvation wasn’t bad enough on it’s own. “The bell announced that we were dismissed. We went to fetch the evening meal: bread and margarine. I was terribly hungry and swallowed my ration on the spot. My father told me, “You mustn’t eat all at once. Tomorrow is another day…” This quote is a perfect example of relentless work and merciless starvation.

“…Imagine now a man who is deprived of everyone he loves, and at the same

“‘Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions’” (Quotes About Holocaust, 1). The Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz was the brutal murder site of millions of innocent Jews and other perceived enemies of Germany. Here, death and suffering was the norm and there was no escape from the wicked acts of the Nazis until the prisoners’ long awaited liberation. However, Auschwitz changed the victims’ lives forever.

One of the most brutal mistakes made by Stalin was the creation of a GULAG. It is difficult to give a precise characterization of its purpose. The aim of this work is to answer the question, “Can we generalize why certain people were able to survive the Gulag more than others?” To survive the Gulag, many prisoners had to fight with others for food, shelter, and simple medical care. Certain prisoners went into religious and intellectual meditations to preserve at least the appearance of intelligence. The survival required willpower, strength of mind, skills, mercilessness, and a lot of luck.

“Hello mother, father, this is your Louie talking. This will be the first time in two years that you’ve heard my voice. I am now interned at a Tokyo prisoner of war camp and I’m being treated as well as can be expected under wartime conditions.” As a viewer we can see the look of pure disgust and longing upon Louie’s face. It was evident that he wasn’t eager to read what was prepared for him as it depicted a false perception of what his wartime conditions were truly like. The fact that he had to make it seem like he was well when in fact he was anything but. I am now able to understand that what those in society often herd about their captured soldiers was quite often incorrect. The enemy wanted to portray an image that hid the true conditions and circumstances the American soldiers were subject to. I not only found this film inspiring as it showed the resilience American soldiers had whilst confined in the prisoner of war camps but also found it interesting as it showed the truths of war so vividly in way that could never be achieved through the use of written words. As a result of this film I am able to see how much we owe these men for our freedom, we were never truly able to appreciate the sacrifice made by those men and women until viewing this incredible film. They went through so much to ensure the freedom of many generations to come and if it wasn’t for these men who knows what our lives would be like today.

Throughout the life at Dachau concentration camp, isolation was a huge deal. Once the prisoners arrived at the camp, they were separated boys and girls and their personal belongs were taken from them. The younger kids and their mom, and the older people were sent straight to the gas chamber because they believed that they were not able to do any labor. There were numerous amounts detention buildings in Dachau. Shunt room and bunkers were two that they used often. Bunkers isolated rebellious and defiant prisoners, which there were harsher prison conditions, torture and murder. Now the shunt room was admission for the prisoners, it was brutal and was meant for the prisoners loss of rights, liberty, and human autonomy. For jews they had a different

One of the problems Asian American communities faced during World War 2 is concentrations camps. Since the United States went to war all Japanese, Germans, and Italians were seen as enemies so, they were put in camps because the U.S did not did not trust them. Also it was a way to have control over them having them in camps. Over five thousand Japanese were detained and were intern in camps in Mexico, Montana, South Dakota, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. There were ten more relocations camps located in California, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Arkansas.

Life in the Ghetto was difficult, because they had small homes, lived on the street, lack of food, and children’s were orphans. The Nazis also created over 1,000 ghetto during the Holocaust (Thomson “The Ghetto”).

Many citizens of the United States immediately after the Civil War knew very little of the atrocities of that occurred in the prisoner of war camps. News that their family member was in a prisoner of war camp was usually dreaded by the family of the captured soldiers. While being dead was much worse the families never truly knew what was going on inside the camps. For the Confederacy, many feared Rock Island, but there was a just as deadly camp just north of Rock Island in Chicago. Once the war had ended the atrocities of what occurred inside the prisoner of war camps became apparent. Suddenly multiple fingers were pointed at what was the culprit for such deplorable conditions. The pictures, descriptions, and accounts of what happened inside the prisoner of war camps became a part of not only history but the media as well. Multiple books were written about the prisoner of war camps, several works of fiction reference the prisoner of war camps. Andersonville is almost unanimously regarded as the worst camp for a Union soldier to get sent to. Rock Island seems to be the place that many agree as the worst camp that a Confederate soldier could get sent to. Rock Island is even mentioned in several works of fiction, including Gone With The Wind. In Gone With The Wind the main character Scarlett O’Hara’s sister in law, Melanie Wilkes received a letter telling her that her husband Ashley Wilkes had been captured and taken to a horrible place called Rock Island. However, while Rock

When the prisoners first arrived, they had their belongings taken away, head shaved, sprayed with disinfectants and were tattooed with a number on their left arm. The Jew specifically had yellow uniform to distinguish them from the rest. The living conditions were very harsh and extreme but it depended on what camp they were in. One of the most highly recognisable camp, was the on situated in Auschwitz, this camp especially, was filled with diseases and epidemics due to appalling living conditions. For example, the prisoners lived in several hundred three-tier wooden bunk beds in old barracks, due to an overcrowding within the basements and lofts. Over 700 people were assigned to each barrack and it has no sanitary facilities. The poor living