David Downing
Prisoners of the concentration camps were treated very badly. Many things were done to torture them and punish them. Some things done to the prisoners was starvation, letting the prisoners freeze to death. Several million were gassed to death because that was the fastest and easiest way to kill them. Also more than 1 million were shot and buried.( pgs. 4-5). Many prisoners were forced to work in the factories for no pay or reward. The people in the camps did not get much sleep either so much of them died generally because they were just physically and mentally exhausted.( pgs. 10-11). Another tragic thing that killed the prisoners was the death march. Many froze to death, and many lost limbs, toes, and fingers from not having proper clothing for walking in the snow.( pg. 40).
Prisoners even died before they got to the death camps, from the wagon they rode in. The wagon was very crowded and many died form suffocation. They did not have any bathrooms in the wagon, and the people couldn't even lie down. There was also no food or water provided for the long journey to the camps.( pg. 15). Women in the camps had their heads shaved, and there hair was used to make socks and other clothing. They also had to give up all their possessions, and sacred belongings. To get to the gas chambers the prisoners had to walk through a tunnel of barb-wire. Many got sores and cuts all over their bodies.(pgs. 19-20). Those who were not sent to the gas chambers were sent to work, and forced to get a very painful tattoo on their arm, indicating what number of person they were. ( pgs. 24-25).
http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/Victim.Jpeg
Many prisoners also died from diseases that were spread from laying in the barracks next to each other for a very long time.( pgs. 26-27). The food fed to the prisoners mostly consisted of watery turnip soup, and bread mostly made of sawdust.( pgs. The work hours of the prisoners were from 6 A.M. to 5 P.M, with a half hour break for lunch. Another punishment done was medical experiments done to test medicines. Many people died because the medicines were deadly.( pgs. 30-31).
David Downing. pg. 10, 11, 15, 19,20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 30,31.