DAILY LIFE IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP The journey towards concentration camps of the Holocaust began with the arrival of the Jews at the concentration camps in trains, having travelled for several days without food and water. They were ordered to then get off the train, and get ready to work. The Jews were always criticized by officers, telling them that they ought to put their lives to some constructive use. Men were made to perform laborious tasks, while women were either to work with the men or maintain the house. Children were to go to school.
This story always kept me on edge, as I wanted to find out more about the story. Hitler’s daughter is a very interesting and captivating book. I would love to read the rest of Jackie French’s collection of war based books. She is an amazing author who takes you on a journey with her story. I strongly recommend this book for high schools students and
As the Jewish children rode the trains to their death they saw a plethora of grapes and were blinded by the sun. The speaker again mentions the children in the poem most likely because he was a child as the war occurred. The speaker can imagine what the starving children were seeing as they passed vineyards. The speaker says “The tireless Lorelei / can never comb from their hair / the crimson beards of the murdered rabbis” (lines 9-11). The Lorelei in the poem are the Nazis that murdered millions of rabbis and they will never be able to wash the blood off their hands.
To prevent enemy soldiers from returning to their troops, the Japanese held prisoners of war in horrible camps throughout Japan, forced them to work in horrendous conditions, and treated them inhumanely. The living conditions the prisoners had to endure on the way to the camps was truly awful. When transported, the men were crammed into rusty old freighters and spent several nights in these “hell ships” (“The POW Camps”). The men on the ships had no room to move, were ill with dysentery and had very little food. Sometimes they were transported from one “hell ship” to another on their journeys to work camps.
One night the mom had to put all their clothes on themselves just to stay warm. For the people living in the camp, life was the worst it had ever been. The camp they were staying at wasn’t even ready for people to live there. The food was always spoiled which made it hard to eat. Also, the chefs were mostly people who had never cooked in their life.
For his punishment, Buynovsky was sentenced to ten days in solitary confinement. “The hole,” as it was called, was a common punishment for minor infractions to the rules. This treatment is a clear indication of how life was under Stalinist rule. Mistreatment continued when it came time for meals. When it came time to eat, the inmates were only given one portion of what they considered oatmeal.
Nazi Death Marches During WWII, Hitler ordered for all Jews to be taken to work camps, where they were forced to work in with little to no food. Most of the time the Jews would be making stuff for the German army such as, tools or clothing. The Jews had to have a strong spirit, or they would perish. But, towards the end of the war American troops invaded Germany, finding the work camps. Afraid of the American troops finding the work camps; Hitler ordered all work camps to be evacuated to death camps deep in Germany.
Both of these acts of inhumanity were committed not only at Auschwitz but at every death camp established during the Holocaust. Edward Bond a playwright that lived through WW2 says that, “Humanity's become a product and when humanity is a product, you get Auschwitz” (BrainyQuote 1). This means that when humanity becomes a privilege to some and not a natural right to all then things like Auschwitz and in turn the Holocaust happen. The Holocaust death camps were considered both mentally and physically inhumane; the total effect of them shows the true level of inhumanity they installed. The death camps were mentally inhumane on the prisoners; especially during the first few days because most inmates had some to all of their family taken away and killed.
Lots of Jews were moved to ghettos in a “single stroke” on February 8, 1940. Once all of the Jews were moved to the concentration camps, the gates were closed to the ghettos in November of 1940 (Byers 72). The conditions of the ghettos were horrible. Most of the ghettos had high, sturdy walls, armed guards, and barbed wire (Allen 4). Germans made the Jews wear armbands, or identification badges, like the Jewish Star of David (Ghettos).
Gangs in prison There are gangs in every prison and the guards have to keep a look out for them; recruiting new inmates “fresh meat” as the inmates call them. They victimise an inmate to join their gang. Gangs are viewed as a means of survival in a prison starved of any morals, and murder and violence is just normal routine. Many prisons are let off with being the worst prisons in the world due to the upkeep of the prison not through the violence decreasing. Venezuela’s prison La Sabeneta is one of the worst prisons due to that they have one guard to every 150 inmates.