AUSCHWITZ
The first camp chosen for observation is Auschwitz. This is the largest of all the Nazi concentration camps across Europe and had the capacity to hold over 150,000 inmates at any time. Auschwitz was in use for about five years, from 1940 to 1945, and was estimated that between 2.1 to 4 million people were killed. The majority of these deaths were Jews. The Deaths at Auschwitz were mainly from the different gas chambers throughout the camp. However, there were many deaths by starvation, forced labor, disease, shooting squads and medical experiments. 1
This camp became the place of mass destruction for the European Jews. After only two years of operation the Jews were subject to mass extermination by a poison gas know as Zyklon-B regardless of their age, sex, occupation, citizenship, or political views. The one factor that decided whether a person was to live or die was if they were a Jew or not. New arrivals to the camp would be picked through to see who was fit for labor and who was not. the ones not fit for labor included; the sick, elderly, pregnant women and children. it is estimated that about 70% of the prisoners transported to Auschwitz were put to immediate death. The remaining that were fit for labor were tattooed with a serial number and processed and sent into the camp where they would live out the rest of their lives. It was said that of all the people who were given numbers at Auschwitz only 65,000 survived. 2
BERGEN-BELSEN
This concentration camp was one that served as a holding area for Jewish prisoners. the living conditions for the camp were good for concentration camp standards. Most of the inmates were not subjected to forced labor. This camps was divided into eight different sections; a detention camp, two woman camps, a special camp, a neutrals camp, a star camp, Hungarian camp, and a tent camp. Bergen-Belsen was designed to hold 10,000 prisoners but, by the end of the war the number were up to 60,000. While the number of inmates increased, the living conditions worsened. In 1944 the camp was re-designated into a recovery camp where sick prisoners from other camps could receive medical treatment. They never did. Food and water were unavailable due to the huge increase in populations and an outbreak of typhus occurred killing thousands. Bergen-Belsen had no gas chamber but, more than 35,000 died from starvation, exhaustion, beatings and medical experiments. 3
PLASZOW
The Plaszow concentration camp was described as a hell on earth. It was a smaller facility housing about one sixth (25,000) of the inmates as Auschwitz. Throughout the first three years of Plaszow’s existence, approximately 150,000 people suffered imprisonment. The majority of the inmates were Jews from Krakow and other cities in Poland. The inmates suffered from ruthless treatment, inhumane living conditions, disease, starvation, slave labor, beatings, torture, and killings. It is said that over 80,000 of the inmates at Plaszow died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz before World War II ended. On January 14th, 1945 the last group of inmates were sent to Auschwitz. 4