Category: Nazi Concentration Camps

Since those two camps differed in their approaches, those had been targeted for dissimilar paths. Hitler came up with a scheme for exterminating Jews so that he could accomplish his superior race myth. While Stalin set up the labour camp for economic improvement, and for prisoners’ reincarnation. First, we can mention the biggest absence – Humanity, throughout the Night story. There was either mercy or rights to resistance under the German concentration camp. Nazi concentration camp, as distinct from Soviet gulag, was a ‘real hell’ prison. Wiesel (2006) expressed: “NEVER SHALL I FORGET that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed.” (Night, pg.34). Entering the camp for the first time, Eliezer could not believe what was happened in front of his eyes. It also wiped out his innocent and his beliefs. Concentration camp used as the main annihilation method hunger combined with physical exhaustion. The death of prisoners was also accelerated by other conditions of existence in the camp; moreover, some were killed immediately upon their arrivals in the gas chambers, some were killed in the crematorium. Some passed the selection, survived for shorter or longer periods. Wiesel (2006) described the inhumanity scenes – when a son killed his father for a crust of bread and was killed by another before he could eat the bread – a painful example of person has lost his sense of humanity while sacrifice his father to satisfy his needs. And at the time Eliezer tried to protect his human sense, he was given some ‘good’ advice was giving up his father, saving some food for himself as he would need it more. (Night, pg.110-111). In this camp, Wiesel proved that there was no way to take care of others, your life could be in danger, if you tried to cover for somebody else, human’s life could be as fast as lighting, he could be here for today but not tomorrow, so save your life first was the thing you could think of.

Differ from the annihilation of a German camp, the Soviet labour camp has killed many people due to gross inefficiency and overlook of the government system. As long as prisoners fulfilled the work quotas, they can be provided with enough portion of food to survive. Even though it was an unworkable plan under those awful conditions, Shukhov somehow managed to survive in the camp with some trade. One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich (1963) described the labour camp was totally messed up when bribery was a common way to survive, squad leaders bribed camp leaders, prisoners bribed squad leaders, and prisoners bribed each other. And that was how Shukhov managed to survive each day. A bribe would let the prisoners had easier life compare to others such as bribe could let Tsezar avoid hard labour, eat in the barracks, or even wear a fur hat when others could not allow wearing. Additionally, there were some conditions that might be better than the German concentration camp. One of them was freedom, prisoners after long hours work could spend their little free time for themselves, they were not tortured in the mental sense. Secondly, they allowed receiving packages or letters from relatives to make their life in camp less starved. As Solzhenitsyn (1963) mentioned Shokhov was an intelligent man that knew his sewing skill could able to make a trade with others. He lent his penknife to Tsezar might be a friendly gesture, but it’s mean at the same time Tsezar owned his debt. It was also clear that in the miserable place, brotherhood existed between fellow prisoners in the same squad. Throughout the story, Shukhov behaved friendly to other prisoners, he might help a prisoner if that prisoner was in trouble, but it was only limited to whom he knew well. This behaviour supported the squad’s cohesion and raised the possibility rate of survival in the camp. Again, following orders and fulfilling the work quota, no matter the way of lying, prisoners would maintain his life.

The life of being a victim in Soviet gulag, or Nazi death camp was not simple, in different words, they were the harsh, brutal, merciless, and inhuman place. No one would likely to experience those. Overall, the life in Soviet labour camp might be better than Nazi concentration camp because the difference from the purposes of the camps, the concentration camp was to annihilate, gulags were to work and punish. And based on that, the system decided its behaviour to inmates. However, both systems successfully ended up killing millions of innocent people, including many children, elders, and women. And the world at that moment hardly did much progress in preventing those events from happening. As Wiesel said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” The world remained silent in order to protect itself, and as the consequences, fourteen million people were murdered under Soviet and Nazi regime. (Snyder, T., 2010). Hence, to prevent that disaster from reoccurring, we should raise our voices, express our opinions about the unfair action. Countries should collaborate with other countries to strengthen unity power in the same area while avoiding the negligible conflict.

References

1. Applebaum, A. (2004). Gulag: A history. New York: Anchor Books.
2. Snyder, T. (2010). Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books.
3. Solzhenitsyn, A. (1963). One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich. New York: Bantam
4. Wiesel, E. (2006). Night. New York: Hill and Wang.

Adolf Hitler, who authorised a political party called The Nazi Party in Germany, was one of the main reasons for the holocaust to exist in the 20th century. During these horrific events, many were killed in the gruesome system that was crafted by the Nazi regime to hold Jews and non-Jews. In this essay, there will be a discussion of what happened in the Concentration Camps, deaths, the different types of camps, the most infamous Nazi camps, what the people in Concentration Camps had faced during & after World War II.

The definition of a concentration camp is a place where a numerous amount of people, who usually have committed an offence, are confined into a small area to provide labour or to wait for their execution. Adolf Hitler entitled SS leader Heinrich Himmler to lead the Concentration Camps, with the help of SS Lieutenant General Theodor Eicke to organise Jews into a system.

Back in the 20th century, Hitler made much Concentration around Germany to hold Jews and non-Jews like Roma, disabled people, Jehovahs Witnesses, homosexuals, gipsies, etc. The main reason for these camps was to keep everyone secured in one area and not to be in the presence of Germans. Everyone got a different symbol (usually a triangle), colours and digits so Nazis could easily recognise the group they were stereotyped in. Hitler wanted to control/dominance over Germany and to get rid of Jews forever. He stated from his autobiography ‘Mein Kampf’ “…the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.”

Hundreds of subcamps for each of the concentration camps were created from 1942 to 1944, World War II. Each sub-camp was positioned in or near factories or sites to collect raw materials. An example of this is Wiener Neudorf, made in 1943, near an aeroplane factory located on the east side of Vienna, Austria. The Central SS authorities advised camp commandants to the limelight on keeping the prisoners alive. The concentration camps population, both Jewish and non-Jewish, endured fatal losses to starvation, exposure, diseases, and mistreatment during the last year of the war. The SS evacuated the concentration camps with the prisoners when the front approached due to not wanting them to be liberated. The prisoners had unfair treatment, walking on foot without any food, shelter, or clothing during the winter weather. Finally, from 1944 to 1945, the prisoners of the concentration camps were liberated. Unfortunately, deaths still occurred due to prisoners being too weak to survive.

Even though the Holocaust was over and they had got liberated, survivors still feared to return to their former homes and to rebuild their lives because of the antisemitism, the hatred of Jews. A large amount of Jews went to the town of Kielce in 1946 after the Polish riots, also known as pogroms (violent anti-Jewish riots), killed more than 42 Jews and beat many more. Madeline Deutsch, a survivor of Auschwitz, said “I was 18, but I was, in fact, only 13 because those years were nothing. Those were erased from my life” A lot of the homeless survivors migrated westward to other European territories by the Western Allies. Hundreds of them were housed in refugee centres and DP (displaced persons) camps, for example, Bergen-Belsen in Germany. May other Jews emigrate to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe, Mexico, South America, and South Africa.

The most infamous and largest Nazi camp was Auschwitz, also referred to as Auschwitz-Birkenau, a concentration camp. It was located near the town of Oświęcim in the south of Poland. SS-Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss was the first commandant for this concentration camp. This camp was different to most; it was a prison camp, an extermination camp, and a salve-labour camp. From May 1940 to January 1845 around 1.1 to 1.5 million people died at this concentration camp, 90% of them were Jews.

There were many different types of concentration camps, for example, extermination camps, transit camps, labour camps, etc. For everyone that was imprisoned, the living conditions were outrageous. An extermination camp, also called a death camp or killing centre, first used gas vans then gas chambers to kill a massive amount of Jews. The 6 death camps were: Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Transit camps were when Jews were imprisoned before they were deported to either a concentration camp, labour camp or one of the six Nazi extermination camps in Poland. Some examples of where transit camps were are Drancy in France, Mechelen in Belgium, and Vught and Westerbork in the Netherlands. The last camp is a labour camp, also known as a work camp, is where Jews were forced to do manual labour until they either died of exhaustion, starvation or hydration.

Under Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship, many concentration camps were established across invaded European regions as a way to impose control, further war effort, and execute Nazi evil plan of genocide. Different types of camps were set up for different purposes. The concentration camp was where people were forced to do labor and work to death, which came to be known as the German policy of annihilation through work. Extermination camp, also known as a death camp, was designed “specifically for the systematic killing of ‘undesirables’ including Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally retarded and others”.

Located two miles away from Lublin in Poland and serving as both a concentration and death camp, Majdanek was the first to be liberated by the Soviet troops in July 1944. Alexander Werth was one of the war correspondents accompanying the army. He gave his insight into what it was like to experience the period of liberation. His first impression of seeing the camp from the outside was nothing like what he previously had in mind of it being horrendous and diabolical. Surrounded by barbed-wire fences, the camp appeared quite harmless and nothing out of the ordinary. There were large barracks and guard towers inside the camp. After being taken off the train, men and women were led directly to the building with the sign “Bad und Desinfektion II”. Here, they were asked to undress and take off their valuables to be ready for disinfection. This was done as an effort to create an illusion that gave the victims a false sense of hope before taking them into the gas chambers. Werth asked himself whether anyone suspected or had any idea that they were going to be led to a mass execution when the evidence was right in front of them. Then they entered a dark concrete box with stoned floors and holes in the ceiling. It was dark so none of them could see the gas coming to off. Zyklon B, a pesticide containing hydrogen cyanide that emits toxic fumes when exposed to the air was poured from above and sealed. There were several of these concrete boxes and each box held up 200 or 250 people. All of them were gassed and asphyxiated to death. SS-man used the spyhole in the middle of the heavy steel doors to the gas chambers to observe the killing process.

The invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 called for the beginning of World War II. Holocaust later became known as one of the most brutal and destructive events in human history. During this time period, Polish Intelligence and several other people who had escaped from their home country tried to reach out to the Allied powers and report to them about the existence of concentration camps and the mass killings committed by Nazi Germany. For this reason, not long after the war started, the Allies already had some idea about the happening of the Holocaust, but they did not believe in the horror and the insane stories told by the Polish people and other escapees from concentration camps. They did not really know the scope of the heinous atrocities being committed. As the Allied forces progressed deeper into European countries, they began confirming the reports and the full extent of something of that magnitude and scale could only begin to be pieced together after the war. The vast majority of camps were liberated by the Red Army, and there were a few eyewitness reports. One of them was from Alexander Werth and he had given us a very interesting insight into what the period of liberation was like to let everyone know the massive losses and the depth of suffering millions of people had to go through.

Majdanek was only one out of the thousands of camps controlled by the Nazis. Even with all the sheer amount of films, photographs, documents, and evidence available, it is very hard to be able to comprehend the enormousness and terror of the Holocaust. The thought of how one could take the mentality of “us versus them” to such as extreme as to justify the act of killing millions of people on the basis of nothing more but their race and ethnicity, is extremely evil and unfathomable.

World War II was the largest genocide the world has ever faced. 17 million people were killed during this gruesome war. The Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler was anti-semitic and believed that no Jewish person deserved to live in his Nazi Germany. Due to this belief, he slowly but quickly gathered up all the Jewish people into a small section of their town and placed them into Ghettos. A ghetto was total isolation from everyday life in Germany. It was a small part of the city the Jews were enclosed in. Hitler began to come up with his final solution, which was to move all Jewish people into death or labor camps and to eliminate the Jewish race from the world’s population. These camps were called concentration camps. Concentration camp life was not like any other kind of life. Many people experienced the hardships thrown at them from out of nowhere. These camps caused the trauma of a lifetime. Everyday life became more traumatizing for the prisoners because they experienced hardships like hard labor, starvation, and dehumanization. They were experiencing life or death situations every day.

During their time in the concentration camps, these prisoners were put to do hard work labor for the Nazis. Usually, the prisoners were forced to make clothing or supplies to go towards the war effort. People who could not work such as the elderly, pregnant women, children, and people with disabilities were sent to gas chambers and put to death. According to the World of Camps, “Jews were made to work on farms, repair roads, clear forests and, especially, toil in industrial and armaments plants.” Jews worked from the time they woke up till they were told they could stop. They did not receive breaks and if they did, the breaks were short. These working locations were unsafe and unhealthy. Due to little health care in the camps, if a prisoner got an illness or got injured, there was little they could do about it. The World of Camps also states, “…more than half a million Jews died in the labor camps.” Jewish people were worked to death. If the prisoners were not working hard, the Nazi soldiers beat them, sent them away to be killed or killed on sight. How the prisoner worked depended on their life. Working hard could cause better treatment in the camps but it was not promised.

The prisoners in the camps were limited on what they were allowed to eat, they did not receive big meals at any time of the day. When the rations were cut in Germany, it caused mass starvation, and food was only allowed for the Germans. Jewish people were cut off from most food and could only eat the food they were given at a specific time. “After morning roll call the prisoners would be given their morning ‘meal’ imitation coffee or herbal ‘tea’. For lunch, prisoners may have been given watery soup.

If they were lucky, they might find a piece of turnip or potato peel. In the evening prisoners may have been given a small piece of black bread; they may also have received a tiny piece of sausage, or some margarine, marmalade or cheese” (Daily Life). Most of the food that the prisoners were given, they saved. If they were not hungry they kept the food and saved it for the next day when they knew they would be hungry. Some of the food was also given to the prisoners to last them until the next morning, such as the bread they were given at dinner. With all the starving people it turned the camps into a place filled with disease-filled starving skeletons. The Nazis did not provide the prisoners with the proper amount of food to carry out their hard work. When becoming too weak due to starvation they could not continue to work and then were sent to gas chambers to be killed. With so many people wanting to survive in the camps, there was always a fight for food; “Kity Hart-Moxon, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, remembers the high value placed on food, and so much wanting to survive the camp. She would sometimes take the piece of bread from the body of someone who had died during the night” (Daily Life). Prisoners would take food from a person who has died just to get more for themselves. This genocide was depended on the survival of the fittest and who would make it out alive.

Jewish people in the camps also experienced many factors of dehumanization. Before they even entered the camps they experienced it daily. The camps were made to serve as a detention center for people who Nazi leaders deemed to be supervised danger to the German race.

World War II is an important part of history. It is considered the bloodiest conflict that happened in Europe and across the Pacific and eastern Asia. Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s loss during World War I. This lead to The Holocaust which started when Hitler rises to power. During this time, many tragedies and horrible events happened to the Jews. Jews in the concentration camps went through many dehumanizing treatments.

When Jews are captured, they were sent to different concentration camps. Jews’s treatment in concentration camps varied according to their status. The working assignments to the Jews depend on their social background. If they were from higher classes, they had more desirable work assignments. However, lower rank Jews had more physically demanding work and extremely harsh treatment. In the article, it is stated that “Living conditions were harsh and extreme but varied greatly from camp to camp and also changed over time.” Jews faced a terrible life in the concentration camp (“Daily Life in Concentration Camp”). For example, higher social status people could work indoors like administrative work and camp elders while lower status had to do more laborious work like mining, construction that caused a higher mortality rate because of exhaustion.

Many people suffered from this horrible treatment. Anne Frank is one of the victims of The Holocaust during World War II. She had experienced inhumane treatment in the concentration camp. Fortunately, Anne could stay in the working camp instead of being sent to the gas chamber. However, they were exposed to harsh treatment, starved, and beaten by the Nazi soldiers. Anne and her sister were forced to move to another concentration camp. In the concentration camp where Anne and Margot were moved, people experienced starvation, Nazis violence, an illness that can be spread by fleas or lice. Many had typhus in concentration camps. The illness infected others including her sister who died from it. These unfortunate experiences were unforgettable for Anne Frank (“Anne Frank”).

As can be seen in the video, a survivor of The Holocaust shared ‘her’ experiences in the camp. Spending time in the concentration camp made Lydia experience things she never imagined. People in the concentration camp were screened whether they go to the left side where they will be kept alive and on the right side where they will be sent to the gas chamber and die. Lydia was one of those who were kept alive. She was asked to undress by the soldiers and her hair was shaved. She had to steal food to feed her hunger and could get beaten if the soldiers found out about it. Nazis were murdering Jews who they thought were useless by putting them in the gas chamber. Jews were hungry and dying of starvation because the Nazis didn’t provide enough food for them. Fortunately, Lydia survived and remained alive after the Holocaust but her experiences will always remain in her mind (“Holocaust survivor interview, 2017”).

Nazis were treating Jews like they were not humans. Most of the Jews were having a hard time and had to endure inhumane cruelty done to them. Though some higher-class Jews did not suffer much compared to the lower rank ones, the total number of Jews who died was still horrifying. As shared by Lydia and Anne Frank, they were treated like animals. Lots of Jews were killed in the gas chamber, and many others died because of hunger, physical abuse, exhaustion, and illness. So, people in the world should never forget about this horrible event in our history. Though some Jews survived The Holocaust, the worst experiences they had endured in the concentration camps will forever stay in their memories. We should learn from this event, and we must treat everyone equally without discrimination.

Medical experiments conducted on human beings during World War 2 are relevant to this day. From an ethical point of view are evidence of the ignorance and moral blindness of society towards jews and other minorities who were put into concentration camps. However on the other hand, they can be considered as a source of medical research and analysis. Whether or not this data is useful to us is strongly debatable. From scientific, as well as ethical perspectives it has been proven that most of these gruesome experiments are of no factual use to us now, nor at the time of their happening, as most conclusions have had already been made by previous doctors, which meant this was an unnecessarily brutal test of what was already once proven.

It is inevitable to admit these procedures were brutal and inhumane, but it is also unclear what the exact intentions of these drastic experiments were. The enormous amount of people brought into these concentration camps gave SS doctors a practical opportunity and easy access to countless living human bodies that were considered worthless and were planned to be killed anyway. Even at the time, using human beings as literal lab rats would have been illegal, however thanks to the Nazis reign and ability to keep things secret to the public, all of this was possible. The extent to which some doctors and scientists went to were remarkable and are still being questioned today

There were various types of experiments being run, however they were put into three main categories. One was psychological trauma research with intentions of military use, another medicinal and surgical research and the last was long-term impact research aimed at validating pseudoscientific Nazi race theories. Their results were expectedly mixed so conclusions were hard to make.

Ever since the initial ideas were being made for the processes of these experiments, trauma research with military applications was realistically the most promising, as it could be easily tested during war and in combat. These were undertaken by commision from the German military, who tried to get straight forward answers about likely damages humans were going to suffer in combat. Simple and elementary questions were asked, for researchers to get consistent and uncomplicated results and data. This was achieved, so to this day some of this data is used.

Nazis were known for their narrow beliefs of what people should look like. They planned to reach their absurd ideals through a number of tactics, one being sterilization. This was often tested on women who were injected unknown chemicals that caused them many health problems short and long term. Operations such as castration were conducted. What is concerning however, is the fact that castration was known to work for centuries, so SS doctors were unnecessarily repeating what was already discovered.

A rather interesting case was doctor Josef Mengele (also known as The Angel of Death) specialised in experiments in Auschwitz. He dealt with eye-color modification and twin tests that were studied into detailed with the ultimate aim of finding out why and how they are replicated. Twin research is initially an effective study source, as identical twins have the exact same genes so they can determine disease causes. Mengele ended up experimenting on twins by infusing blue color into their eyes with intentions of expanding the Aryan race. . Overall around 3000 twins ended up in Auschwitz but very few survived.

One of them being Eva and Miriam Mozes from Romania. They were transported to Auschwitz in March of 1944 and ended up going through countless severe surgeries scarring them forever. In an interview Eva said: ‘I was given five injections. That evening I developed extremely high fever. I was trembling. My arms and my legs were swollen, huge size. Mengele and Dr. Konig and three other doctors came in the next morning. They looked at my fever chart, and Dr. Mengele said, laughingly, ‘Too bad, she is so young. She has only two weeks to live ..’

Doctor Mengele later also attempted to stitch twins together to create conjoined twins, which Eva had witnessed when a set of gypsy twins were sown back to back and were brought back to the lager. “Mengele had attempted to create a Siamese twin by connecting blood vessels and organs. The twins screamed day and night until gangrene set in, and after three days, they died.”

Another type of experiment that is often looked back at, is hypothermia testing, which was extremely mortal and unrealistic to survive. Data was collected on the cooling rates of each inmate, after being thrown into freezing cold water of the North Sea in Dachau. SS doctor, Sigmund Rascher tested survival gear on these inmates for the Luftwaffe and this way analysed whether it is safe and practical enough for legitimate use. It took him a number of methods of reheating hypothermic inmates to establish a rate of cooling of humans in cold water and find information on how rewarming can be successful. Doctor Raschers charts provided fairly thorough data of end stage hypothermia in humans. Although most patients died during this experiment and therefore is often considered morally incorrect to use for exact results, it did somehow benefit factual knowledge on this specific scientific topic. Some of his conclusions were even mentioned in real scientific papers from the 1950s to the 1980s. Later on in 1980, American researcher Robert Pozos suggested that using this Nazi hypothermia data was beneficial in advancing approaches of rescuing people in cold water in accidents, such as boat catastrophes. His proposal was however declined by the New England Journal of Medicine, that didn’t agree it was right to publish publicly.

As a result of the increasing heights in which planes flew, Luftwaffe created another project to study and compare the effects of high-altitude, low-pressure exposure on human bodies. The goal was to figure out what works for the German pilots who were to fly in those planes. To study this, Rascher carried away a harsh process, of hanging the inmates in parachute harnesses and sealing them in the pressure chambers. He even had some of his patients be unconscious to present a passed out pilote. During this experiment, air was pumping in and out of the chamber, causing people to chew their lips and tongues and claw their faces. Later on doctor Rascher investigated their brains that were, due to this process, swollen. 200 victims took part in this experiment of which 80 died in the air and the rest were later on executed. This experiment helped minimally, as pilots where later on dying of too high altitude anyway, which couldn’t be controlled much in the first place.

Radiation was experimented on people by inviting them inside a room where they were told to fill in questionnaires while they were sitting where radiation was happening. Victims got severe burns and mostly ended up having cancer.

Opportunities to test new drugs and medicine have risen and were tested for efficiency. During 1930 and 1940 sulfa drugs were used as new antibiotics with troublesome side effects. SS doctors in Ravensburg cut wounds in victims legs and put infected material on them that made matters even worse to ensure the wounds wouldnt heal. This way they tried to see what effects the medicine had on the wounds in following autopsies. What is concerning is that these drugs were already thoroughly certified by scientists and doctors in England and USA, which meant these tests came out less accurate and reliable anyway, so they ended up being practically of no use anyway.

Bone and nerve transplants were attempted (without any type of anesthesia) in Ravensburg too and expectedly were unsuccessful.

More drugs such as vaccines for malaria and typhoid were unreliably tested in Buchenwald, as most of the experiments were rigged to ensure for the inmates to somehow die.

Wounds from splashes of mustard gas were attempted to “be healed” by unknown substances in Sachsenhausen.

Later on in Buchenwald victims were burnt with phosphorus to investigate burn therapies; another procedure that ended up causing nothing but harm.

Gypsies were also a minority being held in concentration camps. In Dachau, doctor Hans Eppinger used 90 gypsies and tested the possibility of drinking sea water on them, by only letting them drink salty water for vast amounts of time. These people were soon struggling to drink anything possible, almost licking water from their mopped floor. This quickly led to doctor Eppinger’s conclusion that dehydration leads to fast kidney failure.

These are just some of the barbarous experiments that were undertaken on the victims of Nazi concentration camps. One would think that by commencing these procedures in such inhumane ways, at least doctors would be endeavoring to somehow positively impact and expand our pharmaceutical knowledge. Unfortunately, most scientists went into these experiments because they had no other choice. Therefore these doctors often didn’t care to carry out the experiments properly/fairly, which is why many conclusions were not made at all, so numerous lives were ended for no reason.

My grandfather, Doctor Mikolasz Korn is an example of a doctor who stood up against this by refusing to give injections of phenol to people the Germans wanted to kill. He was from Slovakia and had arrived with one of the first groups that were sent to Auschwitz. He had been told he was being sent to work thanks to his excellent physical condition. In 1942, much wasn’t yet known about the crematoria in Slovakia.

At first, he worked as a Pfleger, a nurse, which was physically very demanding, and many doctors who were assigned this job had to quit and deal with the consequences. Doctor Korn was fit enough to continue and was assigned a group of sick inmates in the Revier. He then got asked to inject people to death. He was one of the first and last Jewish doctors to refuse to do so.

Due to this he was imprisoned in Block 11 where apparently no one ever came out alive.After several days he was released, most probably because the Lagerfuehrer was replaced and is described as “one of the miracles that took place in the Lager” by my grandmother, Pola Korn Plotnicka, who survived Auschwitz together with my grandfather.

Hypothermia and low-pressure experiments are known to have given us data that could only be attained undergoing tests as ruthless as these. Doctor Rascher managed to procure fairly reliable data, as it wouldn’t be possible to conduct a test damaging someone’s brain, ears and lips.

The rest, which is the majority of these experiments ended up being unsystematic, anarchic and inadequate. Most data is considered biased because it is the nazis racial ambitions mixed with legitimate medical research, which results in a clash of information and analysis.

Even conclusions that seems to be well backed up are not of much use, as most official publication decline the offer to use them due to moral reasons.

Also it is impossible to repeat or prove most of these experiments in any benevolent way, shape or form.

It will forever be a debatable issue, whether data from these experiments is morally, as well as scientifically acceptable to use. As a result of the controversial data use, it is problematic to consider it beneficial to our knowledge. Despite finding out the statistics of hypothermia and high/low pressure survival, medically experiments conducted in concentration camps can be considered as aimless torment of incalculable innocent human beings.

Although the prisoners faced chaos and destruction in the concentration camps, the camps themselves were relatively organized. Organizations in the camps were ranged from commanders to the camp officers, and the prisoners. The concentration camps were the prisoner’s worst nightmare, involving death, hard labor, and many other hardships. However, the Nazis kept the concentration camps in order even by doing so with force. The concentration camps during World War II were well organized throughout the camps, however, the prisoners weren’t the only people that were put into order.

The commanders of the concentration camps were the highest in the ranking of the camps. They kept everything in order as far as keeping the prisoners in check. In the article, “Jewish officer and liberator recount Nazi horrors, the elation of vengeance”, Alvin Weinstein states, “We went inside and stopped them (from killing the two) and put the beaten Nazis on a jeep that took them outside the camp. They were so scared they jumped out of the jeep and tried to run but a guard killed them both.” (Alon). The Commanders were harsh on the Jews because they had power and that power gave them the opportunity to assault, manipulate, and mentally break down the Jews. They felt as if this was a sick game and that they were winning and knew, in reality, the Jews would never have a chance against them. Alvin Weinstein also stated in, “Jewish officer and liberator recount Nazi horrors, the elation of vengeance”, “Suddenly these men’s strength returned to them and they beat those Hitlerites until they nearly died,’ he wrote.” (Alon). The commanders showed how in power they really were and proved that they were the ones that were the high ranking. This also gave the commanders a tremendous amount of confidence.

Ranking in under the commanders were the camp officers. They were under the commander’s orders were also the ones to assault the Jews. In the article, “The life of an Auschwitz Guard”, Oskar Groening states, “. There was a load of rubbish, and next to this rubbish were ill people, unable to walk, perhaps a child that had lost its mother, or perhaps during searching the train somebody had hidden — and these people were simply killed with a shot through the head.” (Rees). They were completely heartless and were well aware of what they were doing as far as eliminating people left and right. As Oskar Groening also states in the article, “The life of an Auschwitz Guard”, “A child was simply pulled on the leg and thrown on a lorry … then when it cried like a sick chicken, they chucked it against the edge of the lorry.” (Rees). The lack of caring was shown as they made actions as the article states.

Furthermore, the Kapos were one of the main groups in the concentration camps that contained all officers. They were by far, one of the most violent groups the camps had. The article, “Role of Kapos in Nazi Concentration Camps”, states, “While there were many SS who staffed the camps, their ranks were supplemented with local auxiliary troops and prisoners. Prisoners that were chosen to be in these higher positions served in the role of Kapos.” (Goss). The position of the Kapos was one that could be earned and sometimes gave higher ranking at points. In the article, “Role of Kapos in Nazi Concentration Camps”, it also states, “While there were Kapos whose original internment was for asocial, political, or racial purposes (such as Jews), the vast majority of Kapos were criminal internees.” (Goss). The Kapos were ones who showed no mercy and didn’t care.

Another group that was very big in the organization of the camps was the Gestapo’s. They were very similar to the groups such as the Kapos and the SS. As it states in the article, “Gestapo”, “The Gestapo, as well as its parent organization, the SS, aided the Einsatzgruppen, or mobile killing units, responsible for the massacre of nearly one million Jews during the Holocaust.” (Lerner). The Gestapo was a group that was lower in ranking but definitely want not forgotten.

Next, the prisoners are the lowest ranking class in the concentration camps. They were the ones looked down upon and beaten and assaulted. In the article, “The System”, states, “This system spared the S.S. the need to interact too closely with prisoners, whom they regarded as bearers of filth and disease, and also helped to divide the inmate population against itself.” (Kirsch). The Jews had nothing left as the officers took almost everything they had as well as split families. The article, “The System”, also states, “At the bottom of the K.L. hierarchy, even below the criminals, were the Jews.” (Kirsch). The Jews were at the bottom of the ranking in the concentration camps normally. They were dealt pain on a daily and suffered through horrendous times, which caused most of them to lose their lives.

In conclusion, the organization in the concentration were well organized even though the lifestyle at the camps were horrific. As the commanders reach the top of the rankings, followed by the camp officers, then to the Kapos and the Gestapo, and ending with prisoners or inmates, also known as Jews. The commanders were boss most of the time ordering most other officers with lower positions, jobs to exterminate the Jews. The Jews who were at the lowest part suffered greatly in the concentration of being exterminated and living in conditions that one human should not be in. Although World War II was a nightmare and a tragedy in history, it will be an event that one will never forget, as well as the millions that lost their lives. They will never be forgotten.