# data[].attributes.headline
Survivor Testimony: Plaszow Labor Camp/ Wieliczka Salt Mine

# data[].attributes.subject
Survivor Testimony: Plaszow Labor Camp/ Wieliczka Salt Mine

# data[].attributes.body
In this video, you will hear from Mr. Singer, a survivor of the Holocaust. You will hear connections to Yanek's life, specifically in chapters 9-13, during which Yanek finds himself in Plaszow and the Wieliczka Salt Mine. ***We will complete this on Nearpod!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eva Fleischner Oral History Project: Oscar Singer

# data[].attributes.body
A concept that can be confusing are the types of camps. Since Yanek experiences a multitude of camps, we should be familiar with the different types. On this website, you can click on the different types of camps (Labor Camps, Killing Centers, Concentration Camps, Transit Camps) in order to see the distinction between the camps.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The first concentration camp was established at Dachau (near Munich) on 23 March 1933. As the Nazis captured more territory through wartime invasions, the camp system was greatly expanded.

Between 1933-45 the Nazis created more than 40,000 camps - including forced labour, transit, and death camps throughout German-occupied territories.

Camp inmates were often subject to forced labour, overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, starvation and cruel treatment, with a high death rate resulting from the poor conditions.

After initial attempts to commit mass murder through shootings and mobile killing units proved 'inefficient', the Nazis extended the camp system to include six death camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Chełmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Their purpose was to carry out genocide - using gas chambers.
You can learn more about the different types of camps using the links below: Image: Auschwitz-Birkenau © Adam Jones

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust | The Camps

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Between 1933-45 the Nazis created more than 40,000 camps; including forced labour, transit, and extermination camps throughout German-occupied territories. Camp inmates were often subject to forced labour, overcrowding, poor sanitary conditions, starvation and cruel treatment, with a high death rate resulting from the poor conditions.

# data[].attributes.body
Yanek explains what it is like to be in the camps, and after a period of time the experience becomes monotonous and much the same, regardless of his placement. Here you will find an inmate's daily routine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

The experiments had various purposes: experiments attempting to prove the supposed superiority of the ' Aryan ' race, experiments to try and find solutions to military or common war related injuries, and or experiments to further individual doctors' research interests.
Experiments attempting to prove the superiority of the 'Aryan' race
Just six months after Hitler was appointed Chancellor, on 14 July 1933 the Nazis passed their first sterilisation law, which forced people with certain hereditary conditions to be sterilised by law.

Following the mass imprisonments after the start of the Second World War, the Nazis escalated this sterilisation policy and also targeted other racial enemies such as Jews. The Nazis conducted a number of experiments on concentration camp prisoners in an effort to discover a method for mass sterilisation. These experiments primarily took place on women prisoners at Auschwitz and Ravensbrück.
Experiments to find solutions to military or common war related injuries
The start of the Second World War also led to a number of medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners in attempts to discover new, cheaper and quicker treatments for common military injuries. Some examples of these experiments include hypothermia experiments at Dachau, which attempted to discover ways to quickly reverse the effects of hypothermia . This set of experiments forced inmates to be submerged in cold water. Out of the 300 inmates involved, between 80-90 died - typically of heart failure. Other experiments at Dachau involved attempts to make seawater drinkable, in case troops were marooned with no running water, attempts to find a similar drug to penicillin , which involved infecting prisoners with sepsis , and attempts to find a cure for malaria . Almost all of these experiments resulted in a significant number of deaths or physical and mental deformities among the prisoners tested on. Prisoners were typically given little to no pain relief during experiments, and the Nazis saw their deaths as inconsequential due to their inferior status.

Dachau was not the only site of war-related medical experiments on prisoners. Experiments to find a cure for typhus also took place at Natzweiler and Buchenwald (where 154 inmates out of the 729 used died, in addition to 120 carrier patients who died whilst being used to keep the infection alive so it could be further tested). Hepatitis experiments took place at Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler, and bone, muscle and nerve regeneration experiments took place at Ravensbrück.
Experiments to further individual doctors' research interests
Concentration camp inmates were also used as live test subjects in individual doctors research experiments. Perhaps the most infamous example of this was the experiments performed by Dr. Joseph Mengele on inmates of Auschwitz. Mengele was particularly interested in twins, people with different colored eyes, and people with physical impairments. Mengele did not spare any thought for the wellbeing or health of the inmates subject to his experiments, and many of them died or were purposefully killed so that their corpses could be examined.

Another example of medical experiments on inmates driven by personal interest was the Tuberculosis experiments carried out by Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer in June 1944 in Nuengamme. Heissmeyer hoped that his experiments would find a cure for tuberculosis . All of Heissmeyer's experiments failed. Despite the lack of positive results, Heissmeyer continued his experiments, and started new rounds on children in 1945. All of the inmates involved in the experiments either died as a result of them, or were murdered on Heissmeyer's orders directly afterwards.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.body
While at Bergen-Belsen, the camp Yanek is in during chapter 24 of the novel, real life Holocaust survivor Klara Samuels, then Klara Solomon, wrote diary entries and sewed them together on toilet paper.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Description The Klara Salamon papers comprised documents created primarily by Salamon while she was held in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from 1943-1945. These papers include a diary made of toilet paper sewn together by Salamon, as well as notes and a birthday card passed between her and a friend, Nina, while both were interned in the camp. In her diary, Klara muses, in four different languages, about her friends and a particular boy named Alek in an adjacent camp whom she was attracted to. During her internment, Klara wrote love notes to Alek, which she passed to him through a friend. Ultimately, the messenger girl and Alek married after the war. Also included in this collection is one post-war document from U.S. Army Captain Dr. John Hollander asking Lieutenant Smith to please take care of Klara and her family, as Klara briefly worked in the Allied hospital set up near Magdeburg. On the ba... Show more

# data[].attributes.body
Here you will see Yanek's locations throughout the duration of the story. As we read, we will keep track of the camps, the distance of the camps in relation to landmarks with which we are familiar, and the type of camp that Yanek finds himself in.

# data[].attributes.body
Experience the Salt Mine that Yanek is forced to work in during chapter 13.

# data[].attributes.body
Yanek’s home, and then the site of the Jewish ghetto. Take a look at the city of Krakow today.

# data[].attributes.body
Auschwitz Concentration Camp, as well as the sub camps and Auschwitz II, Birkenau, are all locations that Yanek experiences during Prisoner B-3087.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Auschwitz Concentration Camp Memorial, Poland