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Inhuman Internment
Prisoners received inadequate and often disgusting food to eat. Conditions varied in each concentration camp, but prisoners typically had watery coffee and a bit of bread after roll call, watery cabbage or turnip soup for lunch, and more coffee and bread in the evening. Regular prisoners received meat, fats, or other nutrients, and many resorted to stealing or bribery to survive.
Because of overcrowding, exposure, horrific sanitary conditions, and lack of medical care, many prisoners died from diseases including typhus, dysentery, and tuberculosis.
Inmates slept in poorly ventilated and overcrowded barracks in tiered bunks made of hard boards. Several inmates shared a single bunk, and no one could move without disturbing the others. These bunks are a reproduction of the bunks at Auschwitz.
Non-armed resistance in the camps helped concentration camp prisoners maintain their dignity and the will to live. At great risk, they smuggled or stole food, clothes, and medicine to preserve their health as much as possible. If caught, prisoners faced severe punishments of whipping, solitary confinement, or execution. Prisoners frequently practiced forms of spiritual resistance, or the continuation of religious and cultural practices in defiance of Nazi efforts to destroy them.
Listen to Samuel Schryver talk about surviving in Westerbork Transit Camp:
Listen to Mickey Quittner describe conditions in labor camps in Hungary:
Listen to Yetti Sterensis recall visiting her father:
Listen to Yetti Sterensis talk about going to Germany to work:
