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LIVING AND SANITARY CONDITIONS IN THE MAIN CAMP

KL AUSCHWITZ – CONCENTRATION AND EXTERMINATION CAMP

KL AUSCHWITZ – CONCENTRATION AND EXTERMINATION CAMP

LIVING AND SANITARY CONDITIONS IN THE MAIN CAMP

Auschwitz from the very start functioned as an extermination camp in which the terrible living conditions created by the SS authorities contributed to the physical exhaustion and death of prisoners.


The camp adapted 20 brick built blocks (6 two-storey and 14 single-storey) from a former Polish Army compound. After adding extra storeys to the single-storey blocks and building eight new blocks from scratch, a camp complex of 28 brick built blocks was formed. Most of these were used to house prisoners, while the remainder were used as the camp hospital, warehouses, offices and a jail.


There were usually two large rooms on the first floor and several smaller chambers on the ground floor. The two-storey blocks were officially intended for approximately 700 prisoners. However, there were situations when the number rose to even 1,200.

Auschwitz I

Single-storey blocks

Two-storey blocks

Newly built blocks

The site of former Auschiwtz I as it is today.

Source: A-BSM


The site of former Auschiwtz I as it is today.

Source: A-BSM


The site of former Auschiwtz I as it is today.

Source: A-BSM


The site of former Auschiwtz I as it is today.

Source: A-BSM


Comparison of two photographs: an archived and a present day images of blocks 15 and 16.

Archival photo: Prisoners in front of Auschwitz I blocks 15 and 16. In front of Block 15 you can also see a Christmas tree which was put up every year in the camp for the Christmas holiday. Photograph taken by the SS when the concentration camp was in operation.

Source: A-BSMA


Contemporary photo: Blok nr 15.

Source: A-BSM


Comparison of two photographs: an archived and a present day images of a camp alley.

Archival photo: Auschwitz I concentration camp. A street in the camp lined with planted poplars. Photograph taken by the SS when the concentration camp was in operation.

Source: A-BSMA


Contemporary photo: Auschwitz I street.

Source: A-BSM


Archival photo: A former Auschwitz I street, in the foreground blocks 5 (on the left) and 16. Photograph taken in 1946.

Source: A-BSMA


Archival photo: Three-tier bunks in an Auschwitz I block. Photograph taken after the war.

Source: A-BSMA


Archival photo: Washroom in one of the Auschwitz I blocks. On the wall the sign in German says: ‘Dirt causes disease’. For the prisoners who had to live in appalling conditions, this was a mockery. Photograph taken by the SS during the camp’s existence.

Source: A-BSMA


Archival photo: Toilets in one of the Auschwitz I blocks. Photograph taken by the SS during the camp’s existence.

Source: A-BSMA


All the block functionaries roared vile curses and hit the prisoners with anything they had at hand to flush them immediately out of the building. Can one imagine hundreds of people horribly beaten and harried from the entire block trying to get out through a single, normal sized, doorway? Everyone panicked, barefooted or wearing wooden clogs, their clothes in their hands, squeezed in turmoil, jostling to avoid being beaten and maimed. Woe betided those who are too large, wear glasses, are crippled, old and sick! Judgement day has begun again and the devil’s harvest… For the block functionaries hit no less hard than those during work … At the time [first half of 1941] in the entire camp compound there were only two, ordinary hand pumps. The one nearer the kitchen was usually out of order, so the other one next to Block 3 was to provide water for thousands of prisoners, and that was only for an hour.

Source: Adam Piotrowski, A-BSMA, Recollections Fond, vol. 118, pp. 10–11.

SEE THE AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY

ADAM PIOTROWSKI

Born on 21 November 1913 in Boruszyn, a teacher by profession. Arrested as a hostage in Kalisz on 6 March 1941 and sent to Auschwitz on 2 May 1941. Registered in the camp as Polish political prisoner number 15302. Employment as a prisoner included demolishing the houses of evicted Poles, the loading and transporting of slag to the camp, agricultural labour and the levelling of land in Birkenau. Released from the camp on 6 April 1943.

In the first year or so of the camp’s existence most of the prisoners’ rooms had no beds or any other furniture. The inmates slept on paillasses laid out on the floor, which at reveille they had to stack up in the corner, and lay them out again in the evening. The overcrowding meant that inmates could only sleep on one side, arranged in three rows. Three-tier bunks started being gradually introduced in February 1941. Theoretically the three-tier bunks were for three prisoners but more often than not two shared every bed. Wooden cupboards, tables and stools also started being introduced. The rooms were heated with coal stoves. When the camp was expanded, toilets and washrooms were installed on the ground floors of every block. However, the very small number of sanitary facilities (22 toilets and 42 taps with gutters) in proportion to the vast number of prisoners living on the two floors meant that the possibilities of using them were extremely limited. This problem was further compounded by the block functionaries, who issued various orders and prohibitions, for instance allowing prisoners only a short space of time to attend to their physiological needs.

A prisoners' quarters in which prisoners covered with blankets lie sideways, cramped on the floor. Two of them are trying to cross over, presumably to the latrine.

Source: Collections Department A-BSM

Night time rest conditions in an Auschwitz I block. Drawing entitled ‘At night’ by former prisoner Jerzy Potrzebowski (1950).


A prisoners' quarters with prisoners lying on the floor, four of them attempting to walk over the others lying down.

Source: Collections Department A-BSM

Night time rest conditions in an Auschwitz I block. Drawing entitled ‘Night’ by former prisoner Mieczysław Kościelniak (1947).


A prisoners' quarters in which prisoners lie tightly stacked next to each other. One of them steps among them and tries to keep his balance.

Source: Collections Department A-BSM

Night time rest conditions in an Auschwitz I block. Drawing entitled ‘Night’ by former prisoner Mieczysław Kościelniak (1950).


A crowd of prisoners gathered around a water pump, trying to wash themselves. One of the prisoners is pumping water, next to him stands a kapo who is rushing the prisoners with a stick.

Source: Collections Department A-BSM

In the first months of the camp’s existence prisoners could only wash at pump near block 3. Drawing entitled ‘Washing at the pump’ by former prisoner Jerzy Potrzebowski (1950).


A row of prisoners bent over washbasins, trying to wash themselves. A kapo of significant stature is standing next to them with a stick.

Source: Collections Department A-BSM

Washroom in an Auschwitz I block. After reveille, harried by block functionaries, the prisoners tried to wash as fast as possible. Drawing entitled ‘Washing in the washroom’ by former prisoner Jerzy Potrzebowski (1950).


The interior of the toilet of one of the blocks. Prisoners are sitting on the toilet seats and trying to deal with their physiological needs in an apparent hurry. Just above their heads stands a kapo, who is probably shouting and rushing the prisoners.

Source: Collections Department A-BSM

Toilets in an Auschwitz I block. Harried by a block functionary, the prisoners tried to attend to their physiological needs as fast as possible. Drawing entitled ‘Water closet at Auschwitz I’ by former prisoner Jerzy Potrzebowski (1950).