T [ Find in a library near you ]. Examines the existence and nature of morality among concentration camp inmates, resistance fighters, and inhabitants of Nazi-occupied territories. Includes an index. Wachsmann, Nikolaus. W Draws from primary sources including SS, police records, and materials created by prisoners to explore the history of Nazi concentration camps from their inception in through liberation in Antelme, Robert. The Human Race. G3 A [ Find in a library near you ].
Describes life as a kommando in the Gandersheim labor camp as well as the death march from the camp to Dachau. Describes the way prisoners wielded power over each other, and how some prisoners held on to their humanity in the face of degradation and dehumanization. Westport: Praeger, A2 K [ Find in a library near you ].
Thematically-arranged eyewitness testimonies of concentration camps assembled from sources. Themes include life in the camps, labor, sanitary conditions, medical experiments, and methods of execution, among others.
The source of each statement in the book is easily identified by a numerical index of witnesses. Includes an appendix of camps, command posts, and prisons as well as an index. Boder, David P. I Did Not Interview the Dead.
B [ Find in a library near you ]. Earliest published collection of survivor testimonies describing life in the Nazi camps. Consists of eight interviews with displaced persons conducted in camps throughout Europe in Browning, Christopher R.. New York: W. P7 B76 Heimler, Eugene. Night of the Mist. Jerusalem: Gefen Pub. House, A96 H45 [ Find in a library near you ]. Asserts that memory of prewar life was a powerful tool in surviving the dehumanizing aspects of the camps, by allowing prisoners to maintain some sense of personal identity that the Nazis could not steal.
Includes descriptions of the Gypsy camp in Auschwitz and an analysis of the social order of the camps. Originally published in Herz, Gabriele. New York: Berghahn Books, M67 H47 [ Find in a library near you ]. Memoir written by a Jewish woman imprisoned in Moringen for her anti-Nazi beliefs. Includes brief biographical notes for individuals mentioned in the text as well as a brief biography and index. Herzberg, Abel J. London: I. Tauris Publishers, DS N6 H47 [ Find in a library near you ].
Diary of a Dutch Jew interned in Bergen-Belsen from until liberation in One of the few diaries actually kept in a camp rather than a ghetto or in hiding. Translated from Dutch. Lengyel, Olga. Five Chimneys. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, Levi, Primo.
New York: Collier Books, PQ E8 S [ Find in a library near you ]. Originally published in under the title If This is a Man in Presents a series of 17 chapters, each illuminating a particular event or aspect of life in the camps that show the daily Nazi assault on humanity through large and small acts of cruelty.
Malak, Henry M. G3 M Draws from diaries kept by the author during his internment to describe life in the camps, including medical experiments, disease, and hard labor. Includes chapter notes, bibliographical references, and index. Chicago: I.
Dee, A96 M [ Find in a library near you ]. Eyewitness account of Auschwitz as told by the author, who worked in the Sonderkommando , a unit of Jewish prisoners assigned to work in the gas chambers and crematoria. Includes an appendix of plans of the camp and a glossary. We Were in Auschwitz.
New York: Welcome Rain Publishers, A96 N45 [ Find in a library near you ]. English translation of one of the earliest accounts of life in Auschwitz, originally published in Polish in Presents a short description of the camp, a glossary of terms used by prisoners in Auschwitz, and 14 stories illuminating various aspects of life in the camps.
Includes insights into the evolving nature of camp life, as the three authors each experienced the camp at different times during the war. Neurath, Paul Martin. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, Describes daily life in camps, types of prisoners, and camp administration, and details the complex social relations between prisoners and guards and among groups of prisoners in the two camps.
Niewyk, Donald, editor. F74 [ Find in a library near you ]. Collection of survivor testimonies recorded by David Boder in that provide first-hand accounts of life in various camps. Includes a glossary of terms and camps, an index, and a bibliography.
Prisoner-supervisors kapos were considered an elite that could wield power. The prisoners had different opinions about them: most Jewish supervisors tried to treat their brethren well; some were harsh towards the other inmates. They were forced to stand completely still, often for hours at a time, exposed to the elements in the cold, rain, or snow and to the terror of sudden violence by SS men, guards or kapos.
The camp routine was composed of a long list of orders and instructions, usually given to all but sometimes aimed at individual prisoners, the majority of which were familiar yet some came unexpected.
Despite their terrible conditions, cultural and religious activity continued in the ghettos, labor camps, and even concentration camps.
Writing a diary on scraps of paper, producing drawings and illustrations of camp life, making jewelry out of copper wire, writing a Passover Haggadah, and conducting prayer services on the eve of Rosh Hashanah are all manifestations of the tremendous psychological strength maintained by these frail, starving people. Even at the end of the grueling days they had to endure, they refused to abandon their creative endeavors. Prisoners in concentration and labor camps exhibited heroism and resourcefulness in their daily lives, struggling to sustain not only the ember of physical life but also, and primarily, their humanity and basic moral values, friendship and concern for others — values that facilitated their survival.
Skip to main content. Drive to Yad Vashem:. For more Visiting Information click here. Jewish prisoners in the camps during the Holocaust suffered forced labor, starvation rations and the horrific daily lineups.
Despite this, prisoners were still resourceful and heroic, and strove to maintain their humanity and Jewish identity. Read More Photos Testimonies Artifacts Documents Art. Thrace, Greece- Inmates cooking soup in a transit camp, before the period of deportations from Thrace to Auschwitz and Treblinka, which took place from March , Yad Vashem Photo Archives, Dachau, Germany- Prof.
Those that fell behind were subject to severe punishment and torture. At noon, prisoners were sometimes forced to march back for a noon roll call, and to collect their lunch.
In later years, in many of the camps, lunch was brought to the prisoners work places, in order to reduce the amount of time walking and increase the amount of time working.
Work typically finished at approximately 5pm or 6pm each day, or sundown in winter although this varied greatly — some prisoners could be forced to work through the night. Once work had finished, prisoners were marched back to the camp to participate in evening roll call.
Those that had died during the day were also brought out to the roll call to be counted. This, again, could take hours due to inaccuracies and beatings.
Roll call was also sometimes extended for long periods of time as a form of punishment. Some prisoners used this period to barter between each other for additional food or repair their clothing.
Others, exhausted, simply retired to their beds. This is a clothing storage room card, where camp officials recorded what clothing had been issued to prisoners. Here, Raymond Dassonville was issued with a hat, a gown, a pair of cloth trousers, a shirt, underwear, and clogs.
The prisoner number is Charles was first deported to Theresienstadt in and from there to Auschwitz. He later went through Gleiwitz, Nordhausen and Bergen-Belsen, where he was eventually liberated by the British in In most camps, prisoners were stripped of their own civilian clothing and forced to wear a uniform. Men were given a cap, trousers and jacket to wear. Women wore a dress or skirt with a jacket and kerchief for their head. Some uniforms, especially those of higher-ranking prisoners such as Kapos had pockets, which were extremely useful for concealing extra rations or having useful luxuries such as spoons or cutlery.
Some prisoners also secretly sewed pockets into their uniforms. On their feet, prisoners wore wooden or leather clogs. Socks were not supplied, and as a result many prisoners suffered with sores from rubbing. This could be very dangerous in the poor and unhygienic conditions of most of the camps. Prisoners clothing was usually inadequate for the conditions in which they were expected to work and live.
A testimony given by Mr. Reinhold of his experience in several camps. Prior to the war, prisoners would typically be given an early breakfast of bread or porridge, accompanied by tea or ersatz coffee served in tin bowls and mugs.
Lunch would be vegetable soup, occasionally served with bread, and dinner would be more soup, or in some of the earlier camps, bread and cheese. In January , following the outbreak of war, prisoners food intake was further rationed. Food portions became smaller and less nutritious. Typically, this reduced the prisoners to soup for lunch and dinner, with just one piece of bread. These rations were further limited by the SS guards, who often stole or limited the amount of food that the prisoners actually received.
Calories per person per day typically averaged at calories. The modern day recommendation is calories per day for men and calories per day for women. In October , Himmler ordered that prisoners be able to receive packages from outside. This was a tactical move, aiming to reduce the number of prisoner deaths so that they could be exploited to work for longer.
In some camps, food could then be sent in by family members or organisations such as the Red Cross. For many, this move was a lifeline.
However, a majority of prisoners remained unaffected by the change, as the packages from institutions such as the Red Cross were not equal to the number of prisoners, and many prisoners families were also imprisoned and therefore could not send parcels.
In , with the German war economy failing , the rations for camp inmates were cut again. Some inmates now received as little as calories per day, forcing them quickly into starvation.
Some prisoners managed to survive by trading goods on the thriving black market in the camps. Anything and everything was traded, from food to buttons or clothing.
Prisoners who worked in places such as Kanada or the camp kitchens were at an advantage, with access to goods such as extra clothes or food to steal.
Others were not so lucky, and had to steal from other prisoners. In Buchenwald, prisoners were issued with labour assignment cards, which details where they were to be forced to work. Altenburg was a sub-camp of Buchenwald, which provided forced labour for the German metalworks company Hugo Schneider Aktiengesellschaft Metallwarenfabrik. Prisoners were forced to work in some form in most Nazi camps throughout their existence.
Whilst in the earlier camps forced labour was less common, when the SS took over control of the camps system in , labour became more central. Initially, in the prewar years between and , forced labour focused on building new camps or maintaining or extending current camps. As the Nazis began preparations for war, the SS economy expanded and prisoner labour became even more important.
The movement of labour to the forefront of prisoner life had a negative impact on their life expectancy and general wellbeing in the camps. As the Second World War began, the need for building materials increased. This again increased the need for forced labour. The types of labour that prisoners carried out depended greatly on which camp they were placed in. Heavy physical labour, such as construction, was common throughout almost all camps.
This labour could be based on the camp itself, or for external companies, such as building the infamous IG Farben complex which was part of Auschwitz. Inmates were also forced to complete other types of work. This work was hugely varied, from counterfeiting money and testing the soles of shoes in Sachsenhausen, to secretarial work, to sorting new arrivals possessions in the Kanada warehouses in Auschwitz. At most camps, prisoners had their belongings confiscated on arrival.
At Auschwitz specifically, a group of primarily Jewish prisoners were assigned to collect and sift through these confiscated possessions. Valuables were separated and sorted in large warehouses and then transported back to Germany. These warehouses were ironically nicknamed Kanada, the German spelling of Canada. Prisoners who worked as part of the Kanada commando were in a privileged position. They were able to obtain extra rations and clothing from the possessions — items which could saves lives in the harsh conditions of the camp.
However, prisoners also faced extreme punishments if caught. Schaus was imprisoned in Dachau by the Nazis and discusses the malaria experiments he was subjected to there.
This report details the initial findings of the high altitude experiments which took place at Dachau. These experiments aimed to discover the limits at which the human body could survive with small amounts of oxygen.
Concentration camp prisoners were used as live test subjects against their will. Out of the inmates used, 80 died directly from the experiments. In addition to forced labour, the Nazis used prisoners incarcerated in camps as live test subjects for medical experiments. These experiments were usually extremely painful, debilitating , and in many cases, lethal.
Just six months after Hitler was appointed Chancellor, on 14 July the Nazis passed their first sterilisation law, which forced people with certain hereditary conditions to be sterilised by law.
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