The system of punishments was another means of exterminating prisoners. In Auschwitz punishments were executed according to regulations on the basis of orders issued by the commandant or Lagerführer as well as reports submitted by SS guards or inmate functionaries. The most commonly punished offences included: any attempt to acquire additional food, evading work or failure to perform work properly, failure to perform any activity within regulation time or in the right place, wearing clothing items contrary to regulations or attempting to commit suicide [!]. The most frequent forms of punishment included: floggings, incarceration in Auschwitz I Block 11 cells, being suspended on a post or put into the penal unit.

The punishment of flogging was generally performed in public, usually during evening roll call and most often on a specially devised table. The prisoner’s legs were held immobilised in a wooden box, his trunk rested on the table and his hands were stretched out before him. The flogging was performed by SS personnel or inmate functionaries with thick sticks or whips. The punished prisoner himself had to count the number of strokes in German. If he made a mistake in counting, the punishment was repeated. Officially, the maximum number of strokes was 25, but in practice it all depended on the SS or inmate functionary performing the punishment. As a result the prisoners often had phlegmonous abscesses on their buttocks, injured kidneys as well as torn muscles and skin.

ELIAHU LUBOSCHITZ

Born in Słonim on 9 December 1924. Deported to Auschwitz in a special train from Oranchytse (the collection point for the Jewish ghettos in Vawkavysk and Pruzhany). Registered as prisoner number 90017. In January 1945 evacuated to Mauthausen, and held successively in its sub-camps Amstetten and Gunskirchen. Liberated by American troops in May 1945. After liberation, stayed in Italy and in 1946 moved to Palestine.

Prisoners were also punished in Block 11, in ordinary cells, in so-called dark cells, or in standing cells. Prisoners were put in these cells because they were suspected of sabotage, contacts with civilians, planning to escape or because they had been caught during an attempted escape. Ordinary cells usually had windows partly bricked up from the outside and those inside could sleep on wooden bunks. In the dark cells, instead of windows there were vents, metal shutters on the outside with punched ventilation holes. In these cells prisoners slept on the bare floor. Incarceration in these cells ranged from several days to several weeks. These cells were also used to hold those sentenced to death through starvation for attempting to escape or those taken as hostages for the successful escape of another prisoner. The standing cell was introduced at the start of 1942. There were four such cells, each with a surface area of 1 sq. m. The only source of air was from a 5x5 cm opening covered with metal sheet that had holes punched in it. The entrance was an opening near the floor which was closed with a metal grate and a wooden door. At night each such cell could hold four prisoners who the next day had to go to work. This punishment lasted from a few days to up to twenty days in a row. Some prisoners did not survive these conditions and suffocated from the lack of air.

The so-called ‘post’ was an exceptionally painful punishment most usually executed in the attic of Block 11 or in its courtyard. The sentenced prisoner was suspended by his hands tied behind his back from a hook on the post at such a height that his feet did not touch the ground. This punishment lasted from one to a few hours, though longer punishments were usually divided into hourly stints. The intense, piercing pain caused the prisoners to lose consciousness. Other effects included ruptured shoulder tendons. Thus some prisoners were unable to move their arms, deemed unfit to work and therefore sent to the gas chamber.

MIECZYSŁAW ALBIN

Born in Krakow on 7 June 1920. Arrested on 26 December 1939 in Prešov (Slovakia) while trying to get through to the Polish Army in France. On 14 June 1940 sent from Tarnów to Auschwitz in the very first transport of Polish political prisoners. Registered as prisoner number 116. Initially employed in various Kommandos within the camp, next in an SS warehouse and the prisoners’ kitchen. On 12 March 1943 transferred from Auschwitz to Buchenwald, but three months later sent back to Auschwitz and again employed in the prisoners’ kitchen. In November 1944 transferred to Sachsenhausen, and next to Barth (a branch of the Ravensbrück camp). On 20 April 1945 escaped form the evacuation transport somewhere near Rostock. Remained in hiding in the local forests until the arrival of Soviet forces on 3 May.

The penal unit existed in the camp from August 1940 to January 1945. Sentences to the penal unit lasted from one month to an entire year. Initially, it was intended for Catholic priests and the Jews, who in those early days accounted for a small minority in the camp. With time, however, any inmate could be sent there. The majority were Poles, Jews as well as Germans and Soviet prisoners of war. Reasons for being sent to the penal unit included escape attempts, contacting the civilian population, illegal possession of food, money or additional clothing or working, in the SS guard’s opinion, too slow. Penal unit prisoners were quite isolated from other prisoners. They performed the hardest physical labour, usually at the double, whilst being constantly exposed to the beatings of SS guards and inmate functionaries. A similar penal unit for female prisoners existed in the camp from June 1942 to July 1944.