What was everyday life like in auschwitz

A US military unit sourced "at least bottles of champagne" for the celebration. Ms Rosenberg recalled: "Everybody in the village was drunk. Everybody was singing. It was a wonderful wedding. The couple later moved to Glasgow where they were were surprised by the scale of post-war rationing. She said: "We did not get nearly enough food as we did in Germany.

Despite her experiences, Ms Rosenberg does not feel any animosity. She said: "You can't blame everybody forever. When the Nazis came to power in they began to strip Jewish people of all property, freedoms and rights under the law. After the German invasion and occupation of Poland in , the Nazis started deporting Jewish people from the Third Reich to parts of Poland, where they created ghettos to separate them from the rest of the population.

Nazis spoke about their invasion as a race war between Germany and Jewish people, as well as the Slavic population and the Roma. Groups of German soldiers called Einsatzgruppen set out across newly-conquered lands in Eastern Europe to massacre civilians. By the end of , they had killed , people, and by they had murdered about two million - 1. Kapos had more authority than regular prisoners and were typically given preferential treatment, such as extra rations, not having to complete hard physical labour or more hygienic and larger sleeping spaces.

Whilst there were incentives to becoming a Kapo, there were also disadvantages. Kapos were under the direct authority of the SS, and had to report to them daily. Any failures meant they could quickly be removed from their post. In addition to this, their authority, especially in regards to punishing or informing on other fellow prisoners meant that they were often unpopular and disliked.

Hannele Kuhn was a young Jewish girl who emigrated to Britain shortly before the outbreak of war in on the Kindertransport. Her parents remained in Berlin. This is a transport list showing people transported from Drancy in France to Auschwitz in Poland on 20 May The list shows each prisoners name, their date of birth, and their work profession and prisoner number.

Prisoners were transported to the camps in a number of ways: usually by train, but people also arrived on foot if the camps were close by from their original destination, or occasionally by truck.

By the early s, most prisoners had heard rumours of camps in the east, and the conditions inside. This, in addition to the experiences they had already lived through, would have resulted in crippling fear and anxiety. The journey to the camps usually took several days, although some transports could take weeks.

Prisoners were extremely tightly packed onto their transport, so much so that it was usually impossible to sit or kneel down. A typical transport contained approximately people, though this varied greatly across the Third Reich and depended on both the original location and the final destination. The transports usually held little to no food or water, and had no toilet facilities except one bucket in the corner which quickly became overfilled.

The smell of vomit, urine, and excrement was overpowering, and most transports had no windows or ventilation. When a new prisoner arrived at a camp, they were registered and usually issued with a registration card. Some prisoners were also photographed. After arrival at the camp, all prisoners had their personal belongings confiscated.

These belongings were typically recorded on a personal effects card, such as this one belonging to Alexander Fedortschenko who was imprisoned in the Neuengamme concentration camp.

Once the prisoners had arrived at the camp, they were unloaded from their transportation vehicles. If they arrived at a camp with both male and female inmates, they were then usually separated into two groups: men and then women and children separately.

Prisoners would often then be registered, and given a prisoner number. From this point onwards, they would typically only be referred to by this number rather than their name. At Auschwitz, this number would be tattooed onto their arms. At most other camps, it was stitched onto their clothing. Prisoners were also usually assigned to a barrack and work detail at this stage. After registration the prisoners were told to undress.

They were then forced to have their head shaved, and forced to shower, usually in front of hundreds of other people and the SS guards. Typically, their regular clothing was taken away and replaced by a striped uniform, although, again, this depended on both the camp and the prisoner. This humiliating process was designed to remove any remnants of human dignity or personal identity.

Part of a punishment report from 28 March at Natzweiler concentration camp. This image shows the different stages of punishment, from moderate stage one to severe stage three and the corresponding imprisonment time and conditions. This document is a translation used in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. The day usually began between 4am and 4.

The prisoners then had between minutes to use the toilet, get dressed, make their beds, clean the barracks and have breakfast. Toilet and washing facilities where there was usually only dirty water and no soap or toilet paper were shared by up to prisoners. Anyone who completed these tasks too slowly faced punishment. Prisoners then lined up for the morning roll call, a registration of all prisoners in the camp including those who had died in the night or those that were ill , on the Appellplatz.

The prisoners would be counted twice, and any discrepancies meant that they were recounted. This meant that the morning roll call could take hours.

Throughout this time, prisoners would have to stand outside — often in extreme weather. Any prisoners that collapsed or were found to be missing faced beatings, torture or execution. Once roll call was finished and the sun rose, prisoners set off for work. The type of work carried out varied between each camp.

Prisoners were usually forced to march to each place of work on foot. The length of these journeys ranged from a few hundred metres away to a few kilometres away. The prisoners were often forced to sing belittling songs about themselves or others in the camps along the way, for the amusement of the SS officers. Despite the sheer exhaustion that many felt after malnourishment and fatiguing routines, keeping up with the speed of the march was essential.

Those that fell behind were subject to severe punishment and torture. At noon, prisoners were sometimes forced to march back for a noon roll call, and to collect their lunch.

In later years, in many of the camps, lunch was brought to the prisoners work places, in order to reduce the amount of time walking and increase the amount of time working. Work typically finished at approximately 5pm or 6pm each day, or sundown in winter although this varied greatly — some prisoners could be forced to work through the night. Once work had finished, prisoners were marched back to the camp to participate in evening roll call.

Those that had died during the day were also brought out to the roll call to be counted. During the first year or so, water in sector BI was available only in the kitchen barracks, and prisoners had no access to it.

Unable to wash, they went around dirty. They had to perform their bodily functions in unscreened outside privies. The barracks were frequently damp, and lice and rats were an enormous problem for the prisoners.

It is therefore hardly strange that epidemics of contagious diseases erupted frequently. Sanitary conditions improved to a certain degree in , when each part of the camp was outfitted with a bathhouse and equipment for disinfecting clothing and linen. Nevertheless, the capacity of these facilities in proportion to the number of prisoners limited the possibilities for making use of them.

In sector BI, for instance, there were 4 barracks with sinks for washing 90 spigots per barracks , 4 toilet barracks a sewer with a concrete lid that had 58 toilet openings in it , and 2 barracks containing toilets and sinks—for a sector containing 62 barracks housing prisoners. The prisoners also had limited opportunities for bathing. Additionally, they had to undress in their own barracks before doing so and, regardless of the weather, walk naked to the bathhouse.

For many prisoners, this led to sickness and death. Images from www. Their use must not tarnish the good reputation of the victims of KL Auschwitz. Depending on the time of year, it might be extended to 2 hours or shortened to half an hour. In the early days, a roll call followed the noon meal, but this was abandoned over time. Prisoners returned to the camp under SS escort before nightfall.

They frequently carried the corpses of those who had died or been killed while laboring. After roll call, the prisoners received their evening bread with its accompaniment. They had free time after the evening meal. Until the first gong, the signal for everyone to return to their quarters, prisoners waited their turn for the washrooms and toilets.