Abuse

Physical violence was part of everyday life for prisoners in the concentration camps. Officially, only the SS Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt (WVHA) in Berlin could order the punishment of a concentration camp prisoner. However, prisoners were subjected to the daily brutality of the guards. Stealing and smuggling food and the possession of additional clothing, was punished particularly severely. Even padding out items of clothing with paper to protect against the cold was reprimanded – with food deprivation, beatings or a stay in the standing bunker. The death penalty was applied, too.

There were other tortures to which we were subjected in the appelplatz, formally called punishment; for example, we would have to crouch with our knees in midair, with arms outstretched, holding a brick in each hand. After a while, our knees, back joints and shoulders would tremble violently with pain. But if one dared to straighten out his body a little bit, his head would get crowned with a stick or a rifle, hard.

– Israel I. Cohen about daily abuses

List of sources

In Kaufering I camp, six prisoners were hanged on the roll call square in November 1944. The men had torn off scraps of cloth from blankets to wrap them around their foot so that they didn’t have to walk barefoot in their shoes. A 15-year old was hanged in January 1945 because he accepted gloves from his mother from Kaufering I women’s camp.

In addition to SS members, it was also the OT members and kapo who inflicted harm upon the concentration camp prisoners.

One scene is particularly etched in my memory. A prisoner lies in the cement dust. His face, mouth, nose and eyes are caked in cement powder, he has already suffocated from this and is no longer breathing. An OT man stands over him and continues to furiously beat him with a stick.

– Zwi Katz about death

List of sources