Essay about He Leadeth Me

The feeding of the prisoners was a major issue in the concentration camps during the holocaust. The jewish prisoners were fed three times a day in the concentration camps, those three times were morning, noon, and evening. (living conditions, labor and executions) It wasn’t the amount of food given a day that was an issue the nutritional value that the Nazis had for the concentration camps. (living conditions, labor and executions) When the Nazis would feed the prisoners they gave the less physically demanding workers one thousand three hundred calories per day and gave the ones who engaged in hard labor one thousand seven hundred calories per day. (living conditions, labor and executions) This was an issue because after several weeks on such starvation in the camps, most prisoners began to experience what is called organic deterioration that led to the well known “Muzulman” state. (living conditions, labor and executions) This was when the prisoners ended being so tiny, extreme physical exhaustion, and soon ended up in death. (living conditions, labor and executions) In march 31, 1942 the WVHA established a minimum working day of 11 hour in all concentration camps. Labor in some concentration camps was the way of destroying prisoners, they worked them until they died. (living conditions, labor and executions) The prisoners usually labored in various sectors of

Before the war started Solomon Radasky was living in a small town in Warsaw called Praga. “I had a very nice life there, I had my own shop. I used to make fur coats”(Radasky). The last week in January in 1941 his Mother and his older sister were killed. “One morning I was caught by the jewish police on the street and they forced me to keep the trains running and to keep the snow off the tracks, one day I was returning from work

This dreadful experience also shows that through all the sorrow and unequal labor and harsh living conditions they worked hard and kept working to provide for themselves and others to keep a roof over their

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.

“People were forced to work in harsh, dangerous conditions in order to be able to provide for their families” (Document 8). Although most people were grateful to have a job, the conditions that they were forced to work for in order to provide for their families were unfair to them, and their families. Just because they obtained a job one day, doesn’t mean they would have it the next day, for example, if an employee was sick, or injured and had to miss a day of work the employee wasn’t guaranteed to continually have the job after they finally recovered. “I am at work in a spinning room tending four sides of warp which is one girl’s work” (Document 1) working conditions such as these are very harsh for the employees, not only do they have to keep up with the work of four people. Not only do the employees have to keep up with the sea of work, they also have to attempt not to get injured with the very harsh conditions lots of employees did in fact end up with serious injuries. “5 in the morning till 9 at night…” (Document 7) Those were the harsh working hours according to twenty-three year old Elizabeth Bentley. Long hours such as those were very common for factory workers, which made life hard for employees. Not only was harsh working conditions bad, but also the worst consequence that came about through the Industrial Revolution was child

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.

Work at labor camps was hard and endearing. Labor camps did not change the overall plan of death, but was just temporary setback in the exterminating process. Many children died. Victor was a strong and healthy, fifteen year old. He was chosen to work at a labor camp instead of immediate death like his family. (Victor Rona) During his life he was sent to four different slave labor camps. He was in the system from June 1944 until April 1945. (Victor Rona) Victor survived the horrors and the brutalness of the camps, miraculously. Victor was “liberated April 1945”. (Victor Rona) Then five days later he died of a bayonet wound in his left arm. He received this wound in a “labor camp two weeks earlier and had no medical attention”. (Victor Rona) Victor was sixteen when he died. He was one of the many Jewish children to lose everything because of the Germans. (Victor Rona)

The people barely get to eat. “Eliezer and his fellow captives are forced to live in squalid barracks; they are fed only bread, water, and tasteless broth.” “The train with the deportees had crossed the Hungarian border and, once in Polish territory, had been taken over by the Gestapo.” “As the train passes through towns, people throw bread into the open cars, then watch as the prisoners beat and kill each other for food. (Wiesel).”

These people had very poor food offerd them cuasing there bodues to be “thin and frail” as stated in document 7. Due to them being weak and frail many of them had poor immune systems cuasing them to be more prone to deasises. The laborers lived miserble lives working 12 hours a day and going home to poorly furnshex homes.

They lived a really cruel life. They were sold and bought many times. Work for them was really hard. Oh and punishment was twice of what it should be.

This quote I found from an online article explains what kids went through during this harsh time. It almost sounds like they were slaves by how low they were getting paid. Most of us have never even heard of kids working late at nights doing jobs that today no one can possibly do because they have been replaced with machines from the dangers they carry. Children worked some of the most dangerous factory jobs that existed and they didn’t by choice. They had no choice but to work because either their family was poor or they were orphans.

     The prisoners are further degraded because they simply do not have enough to eat. They become very haggardly and often have difficulty in judging each other?s age. Acquisition of a sufficient amount of food becomes a daily struggle, and for those who do not rise to the occasion ultimately parish. After a certain time period, it is impossible to survive unless you become an ?Organisator, Kombinator, or a Prominent? (Levi, 89). Levi writes, ?We have learnt the value of food; now we also diligently scrape the bottom of the bowl after the ration and we hold it under our chins when we eat bread so as not to lose the crumbs? (Levi, 33). A prisoner could only survive on a normal ration for around 3 months at best. Starving to death was not the main reason to acquire an adequate amount of food. The selections had to be avoided. If a prisoner was too weak to work, he was destined for the gas chambers.

Living conditions during the holocaust tested their physical strength. Poor living arrangements forced Jews to face the harshness of winter’s icy reign and the suffocating heat of a summers day. Heat exhaustion

With the lack of nutrition, sanitation, space, and the constant labor, it is amazing that anyone at all could survive this camp for very long.

In the winter jews would get frostbite, colds, and pneumonia. Many people got sick because the camps were so crowded. Some illnesses that they suffered are, tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria, and meningitis. Some also got skin disease, rashes, and scabies that got infected. Starvation happened to most Jews because they didn’t get fed enough. They had tea or coffee for breakfast, watery soup for lunch, and a piece of black bread with a small piece of meat or cheese for supper. The bread they had for supper was meant to last for breakfast too. If the prisoners got too weak, they were sent to be