The Effect of Auscwitz on the Prisoner

Camp gate of Auschwitz I

Entrance to Auschwitz II-Birkenau

          The concentration camps were a test of morality, not just for the Nazis, but also for the Jews. The camps were designed to slowly chip away at a person’s humanity until they could no longer make a simple choice. John K. Roth mentions these “choiceless choices” that the Jews had while they tried to survive in the camps (Course Pack I, p. 138). Roth elaborates on this term by saying that the Nazis “often put Jews and other victims in circumstances where they had to make decisions among hideous options that could not even be described as involving the so-called lesser of evils” (Course Pack I, p. 139). This is the mindset I did not carry when we toured the camps. I did not understand how limited Jewish people were in these camps not only in the sense of physical capacity, but also in the sense of mental capacity. In Auschwitz II-Birkenau, our tour guide took us into the barracks to see where the prisoners were forced to sleep. These ‘bunks’ were just pieces of wood. There was no way a human being could have gotten a good night’s sleep in one of those bunks. But, the bunks were not the thing that struck me the most. It was that, when we walked in, there was a separate room. This room was for the ‘functionary prisoner’ who was also a prisoner of the camp. They were given some the Nazis dirty work in exchange for extra food and privileges.

Bunks in Auschwitz II-Birkenau

Room give to the Functionary-Prisoner in a bunker in Auschwitz II-Birkenau

            Primo Levi, a survivor of the Shoah, described, in detail, the function of these functionary prisoners in his book, The Drowned and the Saved. He argued that when a someone arrived at the camp, “...a new and strange enemy, the functionary-prisoner, who instead of taking you by the hand, reassuring you, teaching you the way, throws himself at you, screaming in a language you do not understand, and strikes you in the face. He wants to tame you, extinguish any spark of dignity that he has lost and you perhaps still preserve” (Levi 41). This aspect of the concentration camps was one of the most ingenious, but evil ploys of the Nazis because the Nazis were not the only ones stripping away the humanity of the Jews. The Jews also did that to each other. Reflecting on our time in Poland makes this fact a little more impactful. We walked where each prisoner walked. But when they walked the grounds, the enemy was all around them. Obviously, the Nazis were the greatest threat, but any prisoner could have been what stood between one and their next meal. With each advantage one person received, inversely, there was a disadvantage that another person received. For example, our tour guard detailed what would happen when one prisoner escaped: others were sent to death, like Maximillian Kolbe. In addition, if a Polish prisoner escaped, their family was sent to Auschwitz and made to stand under a sign until the prisoner was found. They were not released until that prisoner was found.
           On top of alienation in the camps, each prisoner also dealt with a force greater than anything the Nazis could thrust upon them: hunger. This hunger affected their entire existence. Hunger snuck its way into every choice a prisoner made. It was always in the back of their mind. Hunger combined with fatigue, lack of water, ineffective shelter, and thin clothing created prisoners that resembled animals more than human beings. Their mind was constantly on survival rather than normal conscience thought. Making any judgement on these Jews for their actions during this time is impossible because, as outsiders, we will never truly understand what it is like to live as they did and have everything stripped from their lives. One of the quotes on the wall of a museum in Auschwitz I read, “Remember only that I was innocent and, just like you, mortal on that day, I, too, had had a face marked by rage, by pity and joy, quite simply, a human face!” Benjamin Fondane, the author of that quote, was murdered at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in 1944. But, his words and their meaning will last forever.

Quote by Benjamin Fondane written on the wall of the Shoah Museum in Auschwitz I

          Benjamin Fondane’s quote represents the divide that exists between survivors and everyone else. They understand how humans can be turned to something less than human because they went through it. As an outsider, I know that is something I will never understand. But I think that the important point here is that, even though they became prisoners, even though they were less than human in the camps, they were once whole-beings with whole lives. They had lives filled with love and joy and family and friends. They rode bicycles and swam in oceans. They were just like us and that is something that I never realized before going to Poland. Watching a video on Jewish life before the Holocaust, after we saw the camps and where they died, put everything into perspective. The Jewish Europeans were regular, imperfect people that the Nazis turned into sub-humans. Instead of judging their actions, it is more important to prevent this from happening again. Therefore, as people who went to the concentration camps, studied the Holocaust in depth and understand the complexity of this event, we need to be witnesses for those that did not make it through. We need to stand up for injustices not only in our country, but in the world to make sure something like this does not happen again.

Family picture of a Jewish family before the Holocaust

Jewish life before the Holocaust

Works Cited

1. Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. Print.

Pictures

1. Taken at Auschwitz I, Mar. 13. 2017.
2. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
3. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
4. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
5. Taken at Auschwitz I, Mar. 13. 2017.
6. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.
7. Taken at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, Mar. 14. 2017.