Stalinist Gulag Camps And Violations To Human Rights

Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Treblinka are just a few of the names that evoke nightmares of the Holocaust. The death and suffering at concentration camps like these were greater than any before endured. Elie Wiesel had been one of the most devout Jewish children prior to the start of the Holocaust. However, the Holocaust created a void in the souls of many of those that survived, one of which was Elie. During his experience in the concentration camps, Elie waited for God to intervene and save his people. When God did not intervene Elie began to doubt God and His mercy. He began to accuse God of cruelty against the Jewish people. After the Holocaust was over, Elie had to reevaluate the role of God in his life. He could be forgiving of God and

Throughout time, torture has been used as a cruel war tactic to exploit human beings and dehumanize the characteristics that give people their identities outside of prison walls. In Rena 's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz, Rena Kornreich tells her own accounts of the torture she experienced by both men and women during World War II. Similarly, Coco Fusco sheds light on the use of torture by women in the United States Abu Ghraib military scandal in A Field Guide for Female Interrogators. While in very different time frames, a female victim and a female liberator seamlessly tie together the antics that have been experienced and performed in war by thousands of men and

At the concentration camp, Elie states in his book on page 40, that there is a sign hanging over one of the gates that says “Work makes you free.” There at the camp you either were killed or you worked until you died, if you did. They had no absolute choice, which violates the second part of the 23 Article “Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.” Since they were given no choice and were forced to do what would be very dangerous in cruel conditions, this especially violates the fourth article, which states “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their

Under the rule of Stalin, people were sent to be housed at the Gulag camps, by then they were using them as a slave labor. These camps housed a wide range of convicts from minor criminals to political prisoners. The Soviet Union’s main offences were robbers, rapists, murders, and thieves, so instead of spending their sentences in prison they got taken to the Gulag.

The individual was to be Indoctrinated into the philosophy and meaning of what the regime wanted to convey. When someone stepped out of line and spoke ill of Stalin or the government, even if it was the truth, they would be removed from society. The government did away with individuals who were troublesome to the regime. These individuals were not who the government wanted, they wanted someone who would be obedient, not free thinking and do over anything, what was needed for Stalin and the Soviet Union. More and more individuals were being sent to the gulags just because they disagreed with the regime. Individuals would get years or decades as a sentence for publishing a poem or paper. There would be false charges, confessions, and sentences just to fill the void of workers in the camps by anyone unlucky enough to be singled out (Ulam 312). Military men would go from being in service on day, to being a prisoner the next. No one was safe and everyone lived in fear that at any time, their lives could be changed and they could be sent away.

The prisons we typically think of in modern American society are distinctly and majorly different from the Stalinist labor camp Ivan Denisovich Shukhov presides in the book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, but all prisons have four major purposes. These purposes are retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. By rating the prison camp that Shukhov resided in for 3,653 days, a greater understanding of the negative impact placed on Shukhov can be granted. Before stating how well the specific prison camp followed each of these purposes, I will first go into further detail into what each of these purposes includes in order to provide a rubric when grading the Stalinist prison camp.

The term concentration camp is a camp where people are detained or confined under harsh conditions. Many cultures were placed there for nothing more than being different. Adolf Hitler, leader and chancellor, built concentration camps for the “enemies of the state.” They simply did nothing wrong but since they were a different culture or religion than Hitler would’ve liked them to be, he arrested and placed them there for being “alleged subversives.” Hitler began hating the Jews after World War I, they believed the Jews were the cause of Germany’s loss during the war. Germany was sent into extreme debt and they only people who should be responsible for paying back the money were suppose to be the jewish because they were very frugal and had learned to save their money well. The Concentration camps began popping up all over Germany, the first camp being in Dachau. Hitler made Jews wear the

In this camp workers were literally worked to death with no breaks and little food. When prisoners were brought to the camp they separated them into two groups, the right and left. Most women and children were put into the left group and were gassed to death. The right side was mostly men and stronger women, this group got their heads shaved and were put to work. About seven million people were killed in concentration camps during the holocaust. With 1.1 million of them being children and about 5 million of them being jews. Prisoners were forced to wear different colored triangles so that guards would know that person’s background. Guards would place people in different groups based on their triangles, most groups were treated differently based on their triangles. Soldiers that had been captured were either executed or worked to death. Men and women were grouped into groups based on how strong they were and if the Nazis could use them for forced labor. To transport people from concentration camp to concentration camp, they would shove about 120 people into small carts. When they were let out of these carts about twenty to thirty were dead because these trips lasted two to three days and they didn’t have any water or

The Soviet Union Gulag was a massive system of forced labor camps to which those who were imprisoned were sent to. People could be incarcerated in a Gulag camp or prison for crimes such as unexcused absences or late from work, petty theft or anti-government jokes. Throughout its history, about 18 million people passed through its camps and prisons. About half of the prisoners were sent to Gulag camps without trials so many times it was innocent people. Many people died of hunger, cold and hard labor, but the exact number of deaths is still unknown, it is speculated for it to be over

These camps were where Jews were forced to live and work. In these camps, there were harsh conditions, forced labor, no rights, and forced murder. The term ‘concentration camp’ is used as a general term for all Nazi camps, but there are many other types of camps. The majority of these camps have been destroyed by the Nazis to try and hide war crimes and crimes against humanity. “The first concentration camps in Germany were set up as detention centers to stop any opposition to the Nazis by so called ‘enemies of the state’. These people included communists, socialists and social democrats, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Roma, and so called ‘asocials’.”

Some people saw Stalin as, “the hope of the world’s poor and greatest leader. Others called him, “the most cruel and evil man who ever lived.” Most people only have the basic idea about this man. Such as, his rule over the Soviet Union for thirty years. Or that he was born in Gori, Georgia. There is so much more too his story. Even Historians still want answers to questions that may never be solved.

There were multiple camps in numerous locations all across Europe. There were nine camps in Poland, nine in Germany, one in Ukraine, one in Austria, one in France, one in Czech Republic, and one in Netherlands (Concentration Camps 1 and 2). Out of all the camps: 12 were forced labor, two holding centers, one holding center/transit, one transit, five annihilation, and two annihilation; forced labor (Concentration Camps 1 and 2). Most of the camps today are monuments or museums; but some of the camps were not maintained and are now graveyards. If you are ever in one of the countries go visit one of the museums and learn more about what happened.

The Gulags of the Soviet Union have been compared to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, but in reality they were worse. The Gulags were isolated prison camps peppered across Siberia. Death, torture, and disease raged within their walls, while endless work went on outside. Gulag personnel were cruel and unfeeling, using terrible punishment methods and playing senseless games that cost prisoners their lives. Political enemies of the Bolshevik party made up a significant portion of the prisoner population, with most sent to the infamous camp system Kolyma. Liberation was painfully slow, but by 1960, all of the Gulags were gone.

The Great Purge in Russia sent 8 million people to labour camps in Siberia. Half of the peasant population was “collected,” meaning they were sent to the massive farms. Many starved or died.

First, a story of a girl who was put through the ringer with no way out. A young woman was taken from her home in a very remote village and was sent to many big cities throughout her life in the slave trade business. She chose not to mention her name in fear of her being found and taken away from everything once again. As she is lying in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around her entire body, she tells a reporter, “ My employer would beat me everyday with a broom and a stool.” She also states, “ Many times she would put a hot pan on my skin and burn my body.” She recalls working up enough courage to ask a simple question. She says, “ After 11 months, I asked the agent I worked for to send me home. Instead, he locked me in an office and raped me once again.” Torture and rape violates “Article 4” and “Article 5” of the Declaration of Human Rights because, as stated in the article description “no one should be tortured or