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The prisoners at the concentration camps were fed food that was meant to keep them alive and not to nourish them. Consequently, many Jews starved or died of malnourished and exhaustion, as the food was not suited for the heavy work that the prisoners were forced to do.

The Menu

Breakfast: "Imitation" Coffee or "tea."
Lunch: Watery soup, may come with a scrap of vegetable if prisoner are lucky.
Dinner: A Tiny Slice of Bread

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7. Knowing and Not Knowing By: Grace Kim

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7. Knowing and Not Knowing By: Grace Kim

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Jews sent to the gas chambers had no time to react. A train full of prisoners were only sent to gas chambers available otherwise the owners of the concentration camps would have to deal with panicking Jews. The Nazi usually tricked the Jews to thinking they were being "resettled" or taking a shower.

Source:
The Nazi Death Camps
By: World Almanac Library of The Holocaust

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The Nazi Death Camps By: World Almanac Library of the Holocaust
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On 27 January 1945 Soviet soldiers entered the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in south-west Poland. The site had been evacuated by the Nazis just days earlier. Thus ended the largest mass murder in a single location in human history.

Precise numbers are still debated, but according to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, the German SS systematically killed at least 960,000 of the 1.1-1.3 million Jews deported to the camp. Other victims included approximately 74,000 Poles, 21,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and at least 10,000 from other nationalities. More people died at Auschwitz than at any other Nazi concentration camp and probably than at any death camp in history.

The Soviet troops found grisly evidence of the horror. About 7,000 starving prisoners were found alive in the camp. Millions of items of clothing that once belonged to men, women and children were discovered along with 6,350kg of human hair. The Auschwitz museum holds more than 100,000 pairs of shoes, 12,000 kitchen utensils, 3,800 suitcases and 350 striped camp garments.

Pile of boots at Auschwitz concentration camp. Photograph: Geraint Lewis/Rex

The first Nazi base in Auschwitz, named after the nearby Silesian town of Oświęcim, was set up in May 1940, 37 miles west of Krakow. Now known as Auschwitz I, the site covered 40 square kilometres.

In January 1942, the Nazi party decided to roll out the "Final Solution". Camps dedicated solely to the extermination of Jews had been created before, but this was formalised by SS Lieutenant General Reinhard Heydrich in a speech at the Wannsee conference. The extermination camp Auschwitz II (or Auschwitz-Birkenau) was opened in the same year.

With its sections separated by barbed-wire fences, Auschwitz II had the largest prisoner population of any of the three main camps. In January 1942, the first chamber using lethal Zyklon B gas was built on the camp. This building was judged inadequate for killing on the scale the Nazis wanted, and four further chambers were built. These were used for systematic genocide right up until November 1944, two months before the camp was liberated.

Aerial view of Auschwitz-Birkenau

This is not the limit of the horrors of Auschwitz I. It was also the site of disturbing medical experimentation on Jewish and Roma prisoners, including castration, sterilisation and testing how they were affected by contagious diseases. The infamous "Angel of Death", SS captain Dr Josef Mengele, was one of the physicians practising here. His particular interest was experimenting on twins.

According to the numbers provided by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Auschwitz was the site of the most deaths (1.1 million) of any of the six dedicated extermination camps. By these estimates, Auschwitz was the site of at least one out of every six deaths during the Holocaust. The only camp with comparable figures was Treblinka in north-east Poland, where about 850,000 are thought to have died.

Children wearing concentration camp uniforms shortly after the liberation of Auschwitz by the Soviet army on 27 January 1945. Photograph: SUB/AP

The third camp, Auschwitz III, also called Monowitz, was opened in October 1942. It was predominantly used as a base for imprisoned labourers working for the German chemical company IG Farben. According to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial museum, an estimated 10,000 labourers are thought to have died there. Once they were judged incapable of work, most were killed with a phenol injection to the heart.

The SS began to evacuate the camp in mid-January 1945. About 60,000 prisoners were forced to march 30 miles westwards where they could board trains to other concentration camps. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates 15,000 died during the journey, with the Nazis killing anyone who fell behind.

More than 7,000 Nazi personnel are thought to have served at Auschwitz but just a few hundred have been prosecuted for the crimes committed there. The pursuit of justice has not ceased, with German justice officials saying on 2013 that there were 30 surviving Auschwitz officials who should face prosecution.

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Auschwitz: a short history of the largest mass murder site in human history

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On 27 January 1945 Soviet soldiers entered the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in south-west Poland. The site had been evacuated by the Nazis just days earlier. Thus ended the largest mass murder in a single location in human history.

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Concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland

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When Soviet troops drew closer to Auschwitz, the SS started mandatory evacuations that were called Death Marches.  Some of the people who were a part of these marches were too feeble to travel anywhere and were either abandoned or shot.  The people who survived grew weaker from no food, poor treatment, and the weather.  Lilly Appelbaum Malnik describes the march by saying, "It ended up being called the death march because the ravines and the gutters were all red from blood."

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As Soviet troops approach, SS units begin the final evacuation of prisoners from the Auschwitz camp complex, marching them on foot toward the interior of the German Reich. These forced evacuations come to be called " death marches."

In mid-January 1945, as Soviet forces approached the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, the SS began evacuating Auschwitz and its subcamps. SS units forced nearly 60,000 prisoners to march west from the Auschwitz camp system. Thousands had been killed in the camps in the days before these death marches began. Tens of thousands of prisoners, mostly Jews, were forced to march either northwest for 55 kilometers (approximately 30 miles) to Gliwice (Gleiwitz), joined by prisoners from subcamps in East Upper Silesia, such as Bismarckhuette, Althammer, and Hindenburg, or due west for 63 kilometers (approximately 35 miles) to Wodzislaw (Loslau) in the western part of Upper Silesia, joined by inmates from the subcamps to the south of Auschwitz, such as Jawischowitz, Tschechowitz, and Golleschau. SS guards shot anyone who fell behind or could not continue. Prisoners also suffered from the cold weather, starvation, and exposure on these marches. At least 3,000 prisoners died on route to Gliwice alone; possibly as many as 15,000 prisoners died during the evacuation marches from Auschwitz and the subcamps.

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January 17, 1945. On this date, SS units evacuated prisoners from the Auschwitz camp complex as Soviet forces approached.

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In the concentration camps, according to "The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students," it reads, "Those who had been selected to die were led to gas chambers...were driven naked into the 'showers'." Said in the text, the Nazis lock the Jews in the chamber; spreading gas known as "monoxide" in the area. In the end, the Nazi collected the Jews left products and gold from the their teeth.

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After deportation trains arrived at the killing centers, guards ordered the deportees to get out and form a line. The victims then went through a selection process. Men were separated from women and children. A Nazi, usually an SS physician, looked quickly at each person to decide if he or she was healthy and strong enough for forced labor. This SS officer then pointed to the left or the right; victims did not know that individuals were being selected to live or die. Babies and young children, pregnant women, the elderly, the handicapped, and the sick had little chance of surviving this first selection.
At the Killing Centers
Those who had been selected to die were led to gas chambers. In order to prevent panic, camp guards told the victims that they were going to take showers to rid themselves of lice. The guards instructed them to turn over all their valuables and to undress. Then they were driven naked into the "showers." A guard closed and locked the steel door. In some killing centers, carbon monoxide was piped into the chamber. In others, camp guards threw "Zyklon B" pellets down an air shaft. Zyklon B was a highly poisonous insecticide also used to kill rats and insects.

Usually within minutes after entering the gas chambers, everyone inside was dead from lack of oxygen. Under guard, prisoners were forced to haul the corpses to a nearby room, where they removed hair, gold teeth, and fillings. The bodies were burned in ovens in the crematoria or buried in mass graves.

Many people profited from the pillage of corpses. Camp guards stole some of the gold. The rest was melted down and deposited in an SS bank account. Private business firms bought and used the hair to make many products, including ship rope and mattresses.

Key Dates

October 1939
Germans begin killing of the impaired
The systematic killing begins of those Germans whom the Nazis deem "unworthy of life." Groups of "consultants" visit hospitals and nursing homes and decide who is to die. Selected patients are sent to one of six gassing installations established as part of the "Euthanasia" Program: Bernburg, Brandenburg, Grafeneck, Hadamar, Hartheim, and Sonnenstein. These patients are killed in gas chambers using carbon monoxide gas. The experts who participated in the "Euthanasia" Program are later instrumental in establishing and operating the extermination camps.

December 8, 1941
First killing center begins operation
The Chelmno killing center begins operation. The Nazis later establish five other such camps: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Auschwitz-Birkenau (part of the Auschwitz complex), and Majdanek. Victims at Chelmno are killed in gas vans (hermetically sealed trucks with engine exhaust diverted to the interior compartment). The Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka camps use carbon monoxide gas generated by stationary engines attached to gas chambers. Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the killing centers, has four large gas chambers using Zyklon B (crystalline hydrogen cyanide) as the killing agent. The gas chambers at Majdanek use both carbon monoxide and Zyklon B. Millions of Jews are killed in the gas chambers in the killing centers as part of the "Final Solution."

JUNE 22, 1944
First gassing at Ravensbrück concentration camp
The first documented gassing at the women's camp at Ravensbrück occurs. The gas chambers at Ravensbrück and at other camps that were not designed specifically as killing centers-including Stutthof, Mauthausen, and Sachsenhausen-are relatively small. These gas chambers were constructed to kill those prisoners the Nazis deemed "unfit" for work. Most of these camps used Zyklon B in their gas chambers.

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After deportation trains arrived at the killing centers, guards ordered the deportees to get out and form a line. The victims then went through a selection process. Men were separated from women and children. A Nazi, usually an SS physician, looked quickly at each person to decide if he or she was healthy and strong enough for forced labor.

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1. The Auschwitz Gas Chambers by Mya Mrakich

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1. The Auschwitz Gas Chambers by Mya Mrakich

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The gas chambers were giant rooms that could hold hundreds of people at once while the poisonous gas, Zyklon B, was pumped in through ceiling vents. The Jews that were chosen for an immediate death were marched to  chambers, required to undress, and leave all their belongings in special areas. First, they started with portable gas chambers that were made out of a working van. They would then pump exhaust from the van into the back, killing those inside. They then used permanent chambers, that were used as a mortuary before, with a more deadly gas. The chambers could hold more people for efficient killing.

Source:  The Nazi Death Camps
By: World Almanac Library of The Holocaust
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This gas chamber was the largest room in Crematorium I at Auschwitz. The room was originally used as a mortuary but was converted in 1941 into a gas chamber where Soviet POWs and Jews were killed.

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gas-chamber-at-auschwitz - Holocaust Concentration Camps Pictures - The Holocaust - HISTORY.com

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This gas chamber was the largest room in Crematorium I at Auschwitz. The room was originally used as a mortuary but was converted in 1941 into a gas chamber where Soviet POWs and Jews were killed.

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Arrival

After the Jews were transported to the camps,
the officials ripped families apart, and the genders were separated. Everyone was forced into having their hair cut off and given a striped uniform, removing all sense of personal identity and dignity. Literally, the prisoners were "dehumanized."

Daily Routines

Each day, the Jews in the concentration camps would have roll call in the morning, called the Appell.
Instructions for the day were given out, then the amount of (living and dead) prisoners were counted (and then usually recounted to waste time).
After a tiny breakfast, the Jews would then be directed to work.

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For those who survived selection, life in the camps was a daily struggle for survival.

For those who survived selection, life in the camps was a daily struggle for survival.

Deportation and transportation to camps often took days. Individuals, families and whole communities together with their personal belongings were packed into cattle trucks. They were locked in and transported for days. They had no information. They did not know where they were going, the length of the journey or what would happen to them when they eventually arrived at their destination.
The conditions on the journey were appalling.

We can learn about these journeys from the many child survivors who wrote of their experiences:

Agnes, an 11 year-old girl from Czechoslovakia, wrote: "Later we were moved and driven into railway wagons - the sort that transport animals - which were part of a long train. Some of the wagons were open-topped, some closed."

Jack, 15 years old, from Greece, talks of his experience at the start of what must have been a very long journey: "Some 20 railway cars were waiting for us... There were 70 to 80 people in a car... After a while, there was a muffled sound of closing latches... the whistle blew and the train started moving slowly. It was April 7, 1943. Penned in and cramped, we departed from our homeland, without being able to see it."

Moshe, aged 17, from Hungary, then explains that: "the doors were shut, leaving us almost in darkness. The grills, too, were closed to prevent escape. Air entered only through the cracks. So we travelled for 24 hours, without food or water. We were hungry and thirsty. But the desire and hope to see our families made us forget everything else."

David, a Polish Jew aged 13, graphically describes how cramped it was on the train: "There is no room to sit. In order to make room we are forced to stand with our hands above our heads.... Suddenly, the door is slammed shut and sealed. A water bucket is tossed into the car for use as a disposal container for human waste."

The packed railway wagons would often be shunted around from one railway siding to another for days on end, and for what must have seemed like an eternity. Many of the very young, the old and the sick would die because of the inhumane conditions during the journey. Those who did survive were severely traumatised by the experience.

Arrival at the camp

Eventually, after days of travelling in the most cramped conditions, the railway carriages arrived at a camp. The doors of the carriages would be pulled open to give the prisoners their first glimpse of daylight, at a place they had never seen before.

In this video Freddie talks about his journey to Auschwitz-Birkenau during October 1943. Freddie talks about how people were squeezed into cattle wagons for a journey of three days and three nights with no food, water or sanitation.

Listen to Freddie's testimony, and then read the rest of this section. Reflect on how the Nazis treated other human beings during the period we now call the Holocaust.
Please note that the lead in may take a few moments to allow the video to begin.

Dehumanisation

Having arrived at a concentration camp and been unloaded from the cattle trucks, men and women were separated, children staying with their mothers. After registration, prisoners had to undress and have their hair shaved before showering. They usually had their own clothing taken away, which would be replaced by a striped uniform.

This process was designed to remove any remnants of human dignity or personal identity.

Anna, aged 11, from Poland, describes the effect of having her hair cut: "I look around and I see young girls with scissors and clippers cutting hair off clean to the scalp... when the cold scissors touch my scalp and my hair slowly falls down, I can't help it, my tears fall down, mixed with my black curls." Mel, aged 15, from Czechoslovakia, goes on: "We all looked alike... Rich, poor, young, old. We shared the same fate as in no way before. I hardly recognised my father. Friends would pass you by. It was a nightmare."

Jacob, aged 17, describes the clothing he was given: "From there we went to the next room. We were handed a striped jacket, striped pants, wooden shoes and a striped cap."

Jack, aged 17, who had travelled from Greece to Auschwitz in Poland, says "They gave us striped pyjamas. Some of us got sizes too big or too small, but we changed among ourselves."

Daily routines

Daily routines were also designed to reduce prisoners to mere numbers.

After an early wake-up, daily concentration camp routines would begin with the Appell, the daily roll call. During the Appell prisoners had to stand in rows, completely still, for hours at a time, and in all weathers. Long lists of orders and instructions would be read out. The number of prisoners would be counted. Often, the kapos would announce that the total number of prisoners in a block was inaccurate, leading to a recount at the whim of the SS. After waking and before roll call, up to 2,000 prisoners at a time would have to share toilet facilities. The toilet would be a concrete or wooden board with often 100 holes for seats. No privacy and no real sanitation was provided. Prisoners would have to wash in dirty water, without soap and with no change of clothes for weeks or months on end.

After eating a meagre ration of watery soup, a piece of bread and some imitation coffee, a prisoner's day would follow with work details.

For prisoners, meal times were the most important event of each day. After morning roll call the prisoners would be given their morning 'meal' - imitation coffee or herbal 'tea'. For lunch prisoners may have been given watery soup. If they were lucky, they might find a piece of turnip or potato peel.

In the evening prisoners may have been given a small piece of black bread; they may also have received a tiny piece of sausage, or some margarine, marmalade or cheese. The bread was supposed to last the prisoners for the morning also, so prisoners would try to hide it on their person whilst they slept.

Kity Hart-Moxon, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, remembers the high value placed on food, and so much wanting to survive the camp. She would sometimes take the piece of bread from the body of someone who had died during the night:

"The dead body had a piece of bread..." "... I'm taking this piece of bread from this dead body... ... and I'm taking this one pair of boots and I can sell it. With this I can buy myself a place to live. I can buy myself a place to sleep. With this bread I bought myself a bit of access [to wash]. Your bowl was your life, without your bowl you didn't eat." (Kitty - Return to Auschwitz, YTV 1979)

Hunger was one of the greatest problems. The meagre rations were merely intended to keep the prisoners alive. The Nazis did not provide prisoners with sufficient nutrition to carry out heavy manual work. Many thousands died from starvation or illnesses brought on by lack of nutrition. Others became too weak to work and were then murdered in the gas chambers.

Depending on the type of camp, prisoners were assigned to a whole range of different duties. Some remained inside were the camp, working on a variety of jobs, from administration tasks to heavy manual labour. Most prisoners worked outside in one of the many factories, construction projects, farms or coal mines, owned by German companies and for whom they now provided free slave labour.

Most prisoners worked outside the camps in one the many factories, construction projects, farms or coal mines. They would quite often have to walk several kilometres to their place of work.

Sonderkommando

The Sonderkommando (Special Work Unit) consisted of Jewish prisoners who were selected to work in the crematoriums in camps. They were selected due to their strength and fitness. The life-expectancy of a Sonderkommando was about four months in the camp.

Processing belongings

While the prisoners were being processed after their arrival, their belongings were taken away. A group of prisoners was assigned to collecting the valuables, while others sifted through the possessions. These were then transported back to Germany. The prisoners working on this task were in a privileged position. They were able to 'organise' (steal) extra food on which to survive, a pair of shoes or extra clothing to protect themselves from the severe winter weather.

There were examples of prisoners smuggling valuables which could be used to bribe guards. However, if caught, they risked death.

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For those who survived selection, life in the camps was a daily struggle for survival. For those who survived selection, life in the camps was a daily struggle for survival. Deportation and transportation to camps often took days. Individuals, families and whole communities together with their personal belongings were packed into cattle trucks.

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4. Holocaust of The Gypsies, By: Kris Love

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4. Holocaust of The Gypsies, By: Kris Love

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During the Holocaust of Gypsies, the Gypsies which included the Roma and Sinti people were a group singled out by the Nazi's for genocide. In 1935 the Nuremberg laws called them "alien strain' in Germany and then later on in 1938 to 1939 most Gypsies were sent to concentration camps to be imprisoned. Those that remained in 1940 were moved to Poland where special ghettos were made for them alongside with the Jews. As time went on The Vinchy Government in France rounded up the Gypsies, this resulted in the death of 0.25 to 0.5 million Gypsies.

Source:
The Nazi Death Camps
By: World Almanac Library of The Holocaust

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2. Transportation to Death Camps by Cheyenne Calloway

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2. Transportation to Death Camps by Cheyenne Calloway

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Jews were sent to firmly guarded ghettos. After a couple weeks they were then transported to the Concentration Camps on a freight train.  The Jews were shoved into cars that were compacted with a lot of them.  There was very little food and water distributed over the 2-3 day journey to the camps.

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Cheyenne Calloway
Andrew Kuai
Mya Mrakich
Grace Kim
Kris Love