Everyday Lives of Prisoners in Auschwitz
In 1940, Auschwitz Main Camp was opened for the imprisonment of Jews. This is the most famous death camp to come from the Holocaust with very gruesome details. The Jewish prisoners encountered many hardships during their time of living at Auschwitz. The Jewish people as a whole were able to persevere, but they had to endure many troublesome obstacles as well. There were several punishments and forms of genocide that were used to hurt and intimidate the prisoners. The prisoners also had to compete with themselves because the will to live was powerful enough to turn prisoners against each other. This unexpected horror for prisoners also helped them to turn to their faith and fight through the pain. The Jewish prisoners had to adapt to their environment and find a way to survive.
The Jews were treated very badly in the camp. The Nazi Soldiers would try to dehumanize the prisoners by calling them rats or bugs, and then saying they were using the poisonous gas to exterminate them. This was the main practice of genocide that the Nazi’s performed on the Jews. Other forms of punishment included flogging, using the post, and even letting the guard dogs attack them for entertainment. Flogging was a form of punishment that attempted to remove all hope from the victim. The prisoner would have to rest on a wooden bench and would be whipped with lashed and sticks. They would then have to count the number of hits out loud in German. It was a demeaning form of punishment to their culture. The next punishment was being sent to the post. They would be tied upside down by their feet and would be beaten until they were sometimes unconscious. This would sometimes result in fatalities. These punishments were incorporated on a daily basis which shows how much pain the prisoners actually had to endure.
The prisoners had a tough time living in the camp. They were stripped of their citizenship and had to change the way they lived their lives. They were placed into crowded rooms and had to sleep on wooden beds. The Jews were treated like animals if you look at the amount of food or water they received. They were also in a cold environment which made warm clothing a necessity for the prisoners. This created a few problems that were related to the prisoners. There was a story where a woman wanted to buy a warm sweater for her son. She saved her bread rations for a week so she would have enough for the trade. When she went to sleep, she made sure the bread was wrapped in her hands. As she woke up, she noticed the bread was gone and she would not be able to trade for the sweater. The prisoners knew that they had to fight for their lives. This resulted in many prisoners only looking out for themselves and stealing from others to make their situation better.
Faith was a strong factor in Jewish lives. Judaism was a large part of many Jewish citizen’s everyday lives and carried over in Auschwitz. The trying times that the prisoners encountered made it easy for them to rely on their faith to realize that everything will be okay. Although their current situation was horrid, it was refreshing to the Jews to think about their religion and understand that they will be fine no matter the outcome. While this could pose well for prisoners, there were also prisoners that turned against their religion. The bad things they were going through led them to contemplate if there even is a God. This resulted in many people moving away from religion while it helped others clinch onto their faith.
Although it has been over seventy years, what happened at Auschwitz is still one of the worst genocidal events that we have ever witnessed as humans. It forced Jewish prisoners to live in bad conditions that affected their overall health. The everyday life of the prisoners presented hardships on different levels. The Jews had to endure the punishments from the Nazi soldiers while also competing with other prisoners. It resulted in prisoners lives becoming chaos and a race for survival. Auschwitz will go down as one of the most famous death camps during the Holocaust.
Auschwitz Front Gate Then and Now:
