Sabrina Johnson
Pre-AP English 9
L Bryan
12-2-13
Life in the Concentration Camps
"Life? I no longer care to live. I am alone. But I wanted to come back to warn you. Only no one was listening to meâ¦" (Weisel 7) Concentration camps were cruel and brutal environments where Hitler attempted to exterminate the Jews during the holocaust. Over 9 million people dies at concentration camps, 6 million of them were Jews. Due to the harsh life at the concentration camps, it caused the holocaust to be one of the largest mass murders in history.
The main thing people wanted to do in the camps was to survive, but drastic measures had to be taken to live in the camps. Prisoners that were assigned to work in 'Canada,' which was a type of work place, sneaked items of food or pieces of clothing out to their barracks. (Rogasky 103) Kapos whipped and kicked Jews who could not keep their place.
(Byers 78) Just to survive, prisoners had to steal things and lie. They really couldn't trust anyone.
On a regular basis, the Nazi doctors would perform cruel and unbearable experiments on the prisoners of the camps. Nazi doctors would infect inmates with malaria and other diseases to see the symptoms and how long they had to live. (Byers 83) Living in a concentration camp, you were lucky to not be selected for experimentation. Being selected for experimentation meant you were assigned for death. (Saldinger 34) At the request of the wife of the camp commandant, the skins of dead prisoners were made into lampshades and other decorative household articles. Tattooed skin was desired for this purpose. (Byers 85) Anyone too sick to leave the bunk was an automatic choice for experimentation.
Living in the concentration camps you got little, if...