What was it like for the Jews during the Holocaust?

Answer 1

The camp, named for the nearby town, now part of Poland, was not a pleasant place. However conditions varied widely from one part to another. The 'camp' was really a huge complex of workshops, factories, railyards, barracks, crematoriums, and kitchens. It was selected for various reasons including relative remoteness (for security) and close proximity to rail lines.

It is of course, most famous as a death camp where about 1.1-1.4 million persons died of various causes. Most of these were gassed. Huge numbers died of diseases (always rampant in any confined area that is not under strict hygiene control) such as typhus. Food was short due to the Nazis offering low rations and also, especially late in the war, due to a collapse of Germany's transportation system.

Some prisoners worked in workshops making various items, mostly for the war effort. Some had to work in mines, quarries and munitions factories. Others kept records, raised food, organized warehouses, etc. Some prisoners survived several years here. Others, many who arrived in poor condition, died shortly after getting to the camp.

A large number of new arrivals were murdered as soon as practical.

All sorts of prisoners were kept here although it is most famous as a camp for Jews. Others kept here included homosexuals, gypsies, Russian POWs, various criminal types and others. A majority were men but a large number of women also went to these camps.

Answer 2

It was a scary time for the Jews: they were starved, ill treated and shot or sent to the gas chambers. A total of 6 million Jews were killed.

Short and not so sweet.

By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale.

Answer 3

The prisoners' day began at 4:30 am with "reveille" or roll call, with 30 minutes allowed for morning ablutions. After roll call, the Kommando, or work details, would walk to their place of work, five abreast, wearing striped camp fatigues, no underwear, and wooden shoes without socks, most of the time ill-fitting, which caused great pain. A prisoner's orchestra (such as the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz) was forced to play grotesquely cheerful music as the workers marched through the gates in step. Kapos-prisoners who had been promoted to foremen-were responsible for the prisoners' behavior while they worked, as was an SS escort. The working day lasted 12 hours during the summer, and a little less in the winter. No rest periods were allowed. One prisoner would be assigned to the latrines to measure the time the workers took to empty their bladders and bowels.

After work, there was a mandatory evening roll call. If a prisoner was missing, the others had to remain standing in place until he was either found or the reason for his absence discovered, even if it took hours, regardless of the weather conditions. After roll call, there were individual and collective punishments, depending on what had happened during the day, and after these, the prisoners were allowed to retire to their blocks for the night to receive their bread rations and water. Curfew was two or three hours later, the prisoners sleeping in long rows of wooden bunks, lying in and on their clothes and shoes to prevent them from being stolen.

Answer 4

By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale with some estimates running as high as 3,000,000 eventually killed through gassing, starvation, disease, shooting, and burning . 9 out of 10 were Jews. Consider these facts and answer your own question

Answer 5

The prisoners' day began at 4:30 am with "reveille" or roll call, with 30 minutes allowed for morning ablutions. After roll call, the Kommando, or work details, would walk to their place of work, five abreast, wearing striped camp fatigues, no underwear, and wooden shoes without socks, most of the time ill-fitting, which caused great pain. A prisoner's orchestra (such as the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz) was forced to play grotesquely cheerful music as the workers marched through the gates in step. Kapos-prisoners who had been promoted to foremen-were responsible for the prisoners' behavior while they worked, as was an SS escort. The working day lasted 12 hours during the summer, and a little less in the winter. No rest periods were allowed. One prisoner would be assigned to the latrines to measure the time the workers took to empty their bladders and bowels.

After work, there was a mandatory evening roll call. If a prisoner was missing, the others had to remain standing in place until he was either found or the reason for his absence discovered, even if it took hours, regardless of the weather conditions. After roll call, there were individual and collective punishments, depending on what had happened during the day, and after these, the prisoners were allowed to retire to their blocks for the night to receive their bread rations and water. Curfew was two or three hours later, the prisoners sleeping in long rows of wooden bunks, lying in and on their clothes and shoes to prevent them from being stolen.

Answer 6

The prisoners' day began at 4:30 am with "reveille" or roll call, with 30 minutes allowed for morning ablutions. After roll call, the Kommando, or work details, would walk to their place of work, five abreast, wearing striped camp fatigues, no underwear, and wooden shoes without socks, most of the time ill-fitting, which caused great pain. A prisoner's orchestra (such as the Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz) was forced to play grotesquely cheerful music as the workers marched through the gates in step. Kapos-prisoners who had been promoted to foremen-were responsible for the prisoners' behavior while they worked, as was an SS escort. The working day lasted 12 hours during the summer, and a little less in the winter. No rest periods were allowed. One prisoner would be assigned to the latrines to measure the time the workers took to empty their bladders and bowels.

After work, there was a mandatory evening roll call. If a prisoner was missing, the others had to remain standing in place until he was either found or the reason for his absence discovered, even if it took hours, regardless of the weather conditions. After roll call, there were individual and collective punishments, depending on what had happened during the day, and after these, the prisoners were allowed to retire to their blocks for the night to receive their bread rations and water. Curfew was two or three hours later, the prisoners sleeping in long rows of wooden bunks, lying in and on their clothes and shoes to prevent them from being stolen.