Food Supply
Breakfast:
cup of roasted barley drink
Lunch:
nothing
Dinner:
cup of watery soup
sometimes, a rotten baked potato
**They were also given one fourth of a loaf of bread. This was meant to last for three days (HEART).
Forced Labor
The SS used the inmates for cheap labor. At first they worked around the camp and the sub camps, building roads, working in gravel pits, or draining marshes (HEART).
The prisoners also worked at handcraft industries. For example, the picture on the right is of prisoners working at the on-sight munitions factory (HEART). They were also sent to other concentration camps to work quarries under extremely harsh conditions. As the camp expanded the people in subcamps worked in special firms which they work until they were too weak and they would be sent back to the main camp, usually to die.
Treatment by Soldiers
Guards made prisoners stand or march in rain, snow or ice for hours at attention for no reason at all. Many died of illness, or from injuries from beatings. Beatings happened at things like the flogging table pictured on the left (HEART).
Sleeping Conditions
Each barrack had 52 wooden bunks and these barracks housed 180 prisoners. As the camp became larger, overcrowding was common in barracks. Bunks filled all available space in the barracks. There were often four to a bed. They slept on straw which often became louse infested (Haas).
Clothing and Bathroom
They had coarse, heavy denim clothes that would freeze when they got wet. Prisoners weren't allowed hats, gloves or underwear, even during the winter.
There were only a few toilets with hundreds of prisoners trying to use. They were given minute for the prisoners to wash themselves in a trough and one minute to go to the bathroom.
There were only a few toilets with hundreds of prisoners trying to use. They were given minute for the prisoners to wash themselves in a trough and one minute to go to the bathroom.
Personal Stories
David (Dudi) Bergman (prisoner)
Born: 1931, Velikiye-Bychkov, Czechoslovakia
Bergman describes rescue by inmates before he could be taken to the Dachau crematorium:
“When we arrived, I had already passed out, virtually, I was...three out of the 150 there survived. They were all...the rest of them just lay dead. And what they did is, they picked me up from the...with the hands and somebody else with the legs and then they threw me in a stretcher...carr...getting ready to take me to the crematorium. That's where they took...that's where their objective was. And somehow, they...somebody who was carrying me noticed a hand moving, that I was still alive. So at a risk to his life, he took me into a barrack. It was actually like a shower room. And I was dazed at that time, virtually, I had no idea. I thought... And when I came to in the bathroom there, it was...I woke up, and I...I thought I was dead. It was like I was in another world. "What are these people doing here? Where am I?" And I thought, I...I...I was totally dazed. I couldn't figure out even where I am. And then somebody came over and told me what happened, explained to me that "You were just a few seconds away from being thrust into the crematorium, and they saw that you were still alive." They said, "You're the first youth that age who actually made it alive." And then they took me and they hid me, you know, secretly in their barracks. So I was not even supposed to have been there. And I became like, to them, like a hero. That here are these fathers who said, well, if I made it then maybe their children would have made it through. And they...since I didn't get any rations, because I was...The ration was there like a piece of bread--enough to keep them alive til they were actually being...were going to be taken to the crematorium. And each one would take a piece of bread they would got, break off a piece and make up a slice for me, so that I could survive. And they said, "David, you must survive and let the world know what happened." (USHMM)”
Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun (prisoner)
Born: 1930, Cristuru-Secuiesc, Romania
Braun describes playing the violin for SS guards in Dachau. The two prisoners before him had been killed:
"When I got out of the barrack, I figured when my turn comes to play, I'm gonna play which I feel comfortable. I'm gonna play either a sonatina by Dvorak, which I performed, in fact, later I performed in Radio Munich, but which...or I'm gonna play, uh, a Kreisler composition. But when, when I saw what I saw, and the violin in my hand, my mind went completely blank. Nothing came to me. And I said to myself, "God, how is it that sonatina starts? How is, how is, how is the, the Kreisler piece starts? My God, how, how does anything starts?" I couldn't think of anything. And now I noticed, from the corner of my eyes, that the murderer Kapo picked up his iron pipe again and was walking toward me. And I knew I'm gonna be killed. I knew it. So my right hand and my left hand all of a sudden started moving in perfect harmony. And the Strauss Blue Danube was heard coming out of my violin. Now, how? I never thought of the Blue Danube. Never. I heard it, in fact, I, I am even, hate to admit to you, I never even played it really. I heard it many times from the Gypsies, and my brother, who was a fantastic accordionist in his high school group. But playing, I was not even allowed to play anything else but classical. And the Kapo looked at, eagerly, to, to the SS, "When shall I whack him? When shall I hit him?" Instead, the SS guard was humming the melody, and was beating the rhythm with his fingers--like 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And he, he just smiled and, "Let him live" (USHMM)."
Theodore Haas (prisoner):
"If you had treated an animal in Germany the way we were treated, you would have been jailed. For example, a guard or a group of them would single out a prisoner and beat him with canes or a club. Sometimes to further terrorize a prisoner, the guards would form a circle around a prisoner and beat him unconscious. There were cases of a prisoner being told to report to the Revier ("Hospital") and being forced to drink a quart of castor oil. Believe me, this is a lousy, painful, wretched way to die. You develop extreme diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and severe dehydration. If the Nazis wanted you to live and suffer more, they would take measures to rehydrate to victim (Haas)."
William (Bill) Lowenberg (prisoner)
Born: 1926, Westphalia, Germany
Lowenberg describes forced labor at Kaufering (a German subcamp) towards the end of the war:
"At the end of '44, beginning of '45, I know it was in the winter, it was very cold, I remember. And I remember it was, uh, they didn't burn the bodies, we had to bury those bodies in, uh, in mass graves. And we had those carts--you've seen them in so many pictures--those carts and were stacked with bodies. And I remember we had to go, about over a mile, a mile, maybe a little longer, and it was mountainous terrain rather than flat. And the prisoners, I mean our people, they were so, uh, in such terrible shape, very thin, and, uh, could hardly walk. And they were, we had to do this work, and I was one of them. And, uh, they started beating because we didn't go fast enough. This was not unusual, it was a daily event. And, uh, I said something to the guy when he was beating up some of the boys who were just too weak, and then he hit on me. You know, we were at that, at that point very desperate. We knew it, it was only a matter of...that we would never get out alive, they told us that even. They said, "We leave you alive you're gonna kill us, so we may as well kill you all." They used to say things like that, which was obvious. And, uh, we were very desperate in the early part of '45, very little food. The Germans, uh, were gonna kill as many as they could. And, uh, they were also anxious because their war machine was running out, so they made us work harder to do those, uh, those factories, they still wanted to complete it. And I'm sure they were under, in retrospect, I can think they were under enormous pressure from the contractors whom they, whom we worked for, that they wanted to get as much labor out of us as possible. And, uh, it was tough; a lot of people got killed (USHMM)."
Born: 1931, Velikiye-Bychkov, Czechoslovakia
Bergman describes rescue by inmates before he could be taken to the Dachau crematorium:
“When we arrived, I had already passed out, virtually, I was...three out of the 150 there survived. They were all...the rest of them just lay dead. And what they did is, they picked me up from the...with the hands and somebody else with the legs and then they threw me in a stretcher...carr...getting ready to take me to the crematorium. That's where they took...that's where their objective was. And somehow, they...somebody who was carrying me noticed a hand moving, that I was still alive. So at a risk to his life, he took me into a barrack. It was actually like a shower room. And I was dazed at that time, virtually, I had no idea. I thought... And when I came to in the bathroom there, it was...I woke up, and I...I thought I was dead. It was like I was in another world. "What are these people doing here? Where am I?" And I thought, I...I...I was totally dazed. I couldn't figure out even where I am. And then somebody came over and told me what happened, explained to me that "You were just a few seconds away from being thrust into the crematorium, and they saw that you were still alive." They said, "You're the first youth that age who actually made it alive." And then they took me and they hid me, you know, secretly in their barracks. So I was not even supposed to have been there. And I became like, to them, like a hero. That here are these fathers who said, well, if I made it then maybe their children would have made it through. And they...since I didn't get any rations, because I was...The ration was there like a piece of bread--enough to keep them alive til they were actually being...were going to be taken to the crematorium. And each one would take a piece of bread they would got, break off a piece and make up a slice for me, so that I could survive. And they said, "David, you must survive and let the world know what happened." (USHMM)”
Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun (prisoner)
Born: 1930, Cristuru-Secuiesc, Romania
Braun describes playing the violin for SS guards in Dachau. The two prisoners before him had been killed:
"When I got out of the barrack, I figured when my turn comes to play, I'm gonna play which I feel comfortable. I'm gonna play either a sonatina by Dvorak, which I performed, in fact, later I performed in Radio Munich, but which...or I'm gonna play, uh, a Kreisler composition. But when, when I saw what I saw, and the violin in my hand, my mind went completely blank. Nothing came to me. And I said to myself, "God, how is it that sonatina starts? How is, how is, how is the, the Kreisler piece starts? My God, how, how does anything starts?" I couldn't think of anything. And now I noticed, from the corner of my eyes, that the murderer Kapo picked up his iron pipe again and was walking toward me. And I knew I'm gonna be killed. I knew it. So my right hand and my left hand all of a sudden started moving in perfect harmony. And the Strauss Blue Danube was heard coming out of my violin. Now, how? I never thought of the Blue Danube. Never. I heard it, in fact, I, I am even, hate to admit to you, I never even played it really. I heard it many times from the Gypsies, and my brother, who was a fantastic accordionist in his high school group. But playing, I was not even allowed to play anything else but classical. And the Kapo looked at, eagerly, to, to the SS, "When shall I whack him? When shall I hit him?" Instead, the SS guard was humming the melody, and was beating the rhythm with his fingers--like 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And he, he just smiled and, "Let him live" (USHMM)."
Theodore Haas (prisoner):
"If you had treated an animal in Germany the way we were treated, you would have been jailed. For example, a guard or a group of them would single out a prisoner and beat him with canes or a club. Sometimes to further terrorize a prisoner, the guards would form a circle around a prisoner and beat him unconscious. There were cases of a prisoner being told to report to the Revier ("Hospital") and being forced to drink a quart of castor oil. Believe me, this is a lousy, painful, wretched way to die. You develop extreme diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and severe dehydration. If the Nazis wanted you to live and suffer more, they would take measures to rehydrate to victim (Haas)."
William (Bill) Lowenberg (prisoner)
Born: 1926, Westphalia, Germany
Lowenberg describes forced labor at Kaufering (a German subcamp) towards the end of the war:
"At the end of '44, beginning of '45, I know it was in the winter, it was very cold, I remember. And I remember it was, uh, they didn't burn the bodies, we had to bury those bodies in, uh, in mass graves. And we had those carts--you've seen them in so many pictures--those carts and were stacked with bodies. And I remember we had to go, about over a mile, a mile, maybe a little longer, and it was mountainous terrain rather than flat. And the prisoners, I mean our people, they were so, uh, in such terrible shape, very thin, and, uh, could hardly walk. And they were, we had to do this work, and I was one of them. And, uh, they started beating because we didn't go fast enough. This was not unusual, it was a daily event. And, uh, I said something to the guy when he was beating up some of the boys who were just too weak, and then he hit on me. You know, we were at that, at that point very desperate. We knew it, it was only a matter of...that we would never get out alive, they told us that even. They said, "We leave you alive you're gonna kill us, so we may as well kill you all." They used to say things like that, which was obvious. And, uh, we were very desperate in the early part of '45, very little food. The Germans, uh, were gonna kill as many as they could. And, uh, they were also anxious because their war machine was running out, so they made us work harder to do those, uh, those factories, they still wanted to complete it. And I'm sure they were under, in retrospect, I can think they were under enormous pressure from the contractors whom they, whom we worked for, that they wanted to get as much labor out of us as possible. And, uh, it was tough; a lot of people got killed (USHMM)."