The Horrors of Auschwitz

A Day to Remember

January 27, 2015

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

70 years later

Remembering those who died

As well as those who survived

Mostly Jewish

Executed

Gas chamber

Starvation

Forced labor

Infectious diseases

Individual executions

Medical experiments

Discrimination Against Jews

Jews stripped of their professions

Forbidden to practice

Forcing them to leave voluntarily

Jewish businesses denied access to markets

Even forbidden advertising in newspapers

Not even help from the government

Laws like Nuremberg

To forbid marriages between

Jews and Germans

Nazi Ideology

Antisemitism

Racial hygiene

Eugenics

Germany's goal

Territorial expansion

And more lebenstraum (living space)

For Germanic people

Killed all inferior to Aryan Master race

Like Jews

Prostitutes

Romani

Mentally ill

Life In the Camps

Early morning role call

Lasting for four hours

Even on cold days

Punishments such as squatting for

Hours holding hands over heads

For such infractions

Like a missing button

Or dirty plate

The dead forced to participate in role call

Often supported by living inmates

A Prisoner's Work

Often walked to work

Usually five

Wearing striped camp fatigues

No underwear, ill-fitting

With wooden shoes and no socks

A prisoner's orchestra

Played cheerfu music

As prisoners left for work

Working in construction sites

Gravel pits

Lumber yards

Kapos watching over prisoners

Long 12 hour work day

During summer

Shorter in winter

No rest periods given

A prisoner assigned to watch

Measure workers using latrines

Needing to empty bladders

Although Sunday being a non-work day

Prisoners still worked

Cleaning their living areas

Taking weekly showers

Prisoners allowed to write

In German

Letters to family

Members of SS

Censoring outgoing mail

Nightly Roll Call

A second role call during the evening

Even if a prisoner missing

Others remained til a prisoner recovered

Sometimes standing for hours

No matter the weather

After roll call

Punishments given

Before prisoners could retire to barracks

And receive bread rations

Curfews two to three hours laters

Prisoners sleeping in long rows of bunks

Sleeping in and over clothes and shoes

Just to keep from being stolen

Living Conditions

Nearly a thousand

Crammed into small quarters

Unable to stretch out

Lying on others

Feet, head, neck, or chest

Stripped of all human dignity

Pushing and shoving

Just to get a few inches of space

To sleep comfortably

Within a few short hours

Discrimination

Triangular pieces of colored cloth

Sewn on prisoners' clothes

Red for political prisoners

Purple �" Jehovah's Witness

Green �" criminals

Yellow �" Jews

With a second overlay

If Jews also fit into another category

Prisoners tattooed with number

On chest for Soviet prisoners of war

And left arm for civilians

Meal Rations

Hot drink in morning

But no breakfast

Thin meatless vegetable soup at noon

And small ration moldy bread at evening

Some saving bread for breakfast

The next morning

Prisoners' daily intake did not exceed 700 calories

Except those on medical experiments

Fed and clothed better than other prisoners

Sanitation poor

And lack of fresh water

Camps infested with disease-carrying lice

Some suffering and dying from

Epidemics like typhus and other diseases

Bacterial infections like Noma

Due to malnourishment

Common cause of death among children

Mass Killing

The German answer

To the Jewish question

Hundreds told to slip

Into buildings looking like showers

Even given soap and a towel

The doors locked

Then gassed by a chemical

Into the vents

Several minutes later

Victims lay dead

Armed with gas masks

Reference

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp

Reviews

[Ruth]

May humanity have compassion and empathy to heal the divide caused...xo

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Thank you PoppySilver

[Chris]

A very informative and detailed piece.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

thank you Chris for reading