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First Concentration Camp
In 1933, the first concentration camp opens. Once the regime establishing the first camp, they placed in their political opponents including: homosexuals, Jehovah Witness, and others classified as being "dangerous". -
Morning routine
In the morning, the prisoners were named. Not by their real names, but petty numbers. Once awake, they would wake up and the numbers would be called on the roll call. -
Night reference to roll call
In Night, they have the same roll call procedure. The people are called in every condition rain or snow. His number is A7713. -
Night Reference to Hanging Procedures
Night Reference: In the book Night, Elie and the Jews were also forced to witness the hangings. In the book, the people are to look sqaurely in the face of the victim. They were forced to do this, becuase it would instill fear in the people.
Evidence: "Then the entire camp , block after block, filed past the hanged boy...The Kapos forced everyone to look at him squarely in the face." (p. 63) -
Dehumanisation Process
Upon arrival, the men and women were forced to give up their clothes, they were given a striped unifrom. This was to remove ther identity, to remove last ounces of dignity. The people were also forced to shave their hair, one girl describes the emotional impact " 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.”. -
The "Special Work Unit"
Also known as the Sonderkommando, the SWU consisted of Jewish prisoners who were selected to work in the crematoriums of the camps. They were selected for stregnth and fitness. -
Shared bathing facilities
After the roll call, about 2,000 prisoners would use the toliet facilites at one time! The toilets were often wooden or concrete boards with often 100 holes for seats. There wasn't any real sanitation or privacy. -
Prisoner Treatment
In the concentration camps, most prisoners were worked to death, literally. Many men in the concentration camps were sent to forced-labor camps, where many of them died. Night reference: In the book Night, Elie Wiesel and his father are sent to a variety of different camps, where they are forced to work. Some of the jobs are fairly easy, but many are very backbreaking work. -
Behind the barbed wire
As a way of of punishment, many people in the camps were hung. The prisoners were forced to view the hangings. -
Gypsies treatment
1944- About twenty three-thousand Gypsies were deported to Aushwitz-Birkenau and placed in seperate sections in the camps. In the camps the conditions were deplorable.In many cases, Gypsies were gassed, worked to their death, or victims of disease.
The remaining Gypsy men, women and children were placed in gas chambers and killed that way. -
Meals and Food
As well as the conditions of the camps themselves, the food was stale and scarce. The prsioners had severe hunger. An average meal, would be watery soup and black bread. In the morning: coffee, lunch: watery soup, and for supper: small piece of black bread, a peice of sausage and a tiny peice of cheese or marmalade. The food they were given was not to help them build up stregnth, just to supply them enough energy to do the hard work.
