Day of a prisoner at Auschwitz

Transcript of the podcast

Dr. Jacek Lachendro from the Research Center of the Museum talks about the daily work routine of the prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

In the “On Auschwitz” podcast series, we have often stated that work was a mandatory element of existence for Auschwitz prisoners—being unfit for work essentially meant a quick death. We have already discussed the subject of forced labour in one of our previous episodes, but can we say what a typical workday schedule for Auschwitz prisoners looked like? How long did it last? What started the day, and what ended it?

In the Archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, we have preserved orders from the camp commandant office, SS garrison orders, and from these documents we can gather information about how long the prisoners’ working hours were—at least such information survives for certain periods. This time varied depending on the season and the specific months. So, in the spring-summer period, roughly from April to October in a given year, the workday began at 6:00 a.m. and, depending on the year, would last until about 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. That doesn’t mean, though, that prisoners, whose workday started at 6:00 am and ended at 7:00 pm, literally worked for 13 hours. During that workday, there were scheduled breaks—let’s call them lunch breaks—ranging from around one to two hours, depending on the period.

As for the autumn-winter period (roughly October to April), at the beginning of the camp’s operation, prisoners started work at 7:00 a.m. In 1941–1942, it might even have been around 8:00 a.m.; we do not have definitive data on that. But in subsequent years, it was 6:00 a.m. in this autumn-winter season. However, in this period, the workday ended earlier, and prisoners finished their workday around 5:30 p.m., 5:00 p.m., or even, in 1944, at 4:00 p.m. It seems likely that earlier nightfall was the decisive factor here. During this autumn-winter period, prisoners also had a break—but a shorter one, lasting anywhere from about half an hour (depending on the period) to an hour and a half.

In particular, in the earlier part of the camp’s existence, these breaks tended to be longer during the spring-summer season. Prisoner work details (so-called Kommandos) would return to the main camp to eat their meals. Only at a later stage was the midday meal eaten at the worksite. During these breaks, prisoners had to line up in a queue, one behind the other, which made it easier for camp functionaries to count them and check their numbers. Then, a meal would be handed out, and afterward they had a moment of rest. In the final months of the camp, this break was shortened to the time to eat the meal. They no longer had those extra minutes to rest. So, as we can see, the time prisoners spent at their workplaces varied, depending on the period, from roughly 9–10 hours up to as many as 13. But we must remember that prisoners had a series of tasks to complete before leaving for work. First of all, their day started with a wake-up call signaled by a gong. Its sound echoed around the camp, and then prisoners, including women in the women’s camp, had to quickly leave their bunks, get dressed, and very precisely make their beds of straw mattresses and carefully straighten their blankets. Then they had to go to the latrine and later to washrooms to wash, or at least wash their faces. We have to remember that the number of places in the latrines and washrooms was limited, so everyone had to do these tasks very quickly, rushed by functionary prisoners.

After using the latrines and washing up, they went back to their barracks, where they got the first meal of the day. This was either coffee—actually a substitute made from roasted grains—or what they called “tea,” basically a bitter herbal infusion. The benefit for the prisoners was that these drinks were warm. The lines to get them were very long, and there was a lot of rush and commotion. The room orderlies, that is functionary prisoners responsible for each room, lined the prisoners up. One by one they would approach large kettles containing this coffee or so-called tea. The room orderlies assistants would hand out cups or bowls, and then would ladle out the drink. Of course, if prisoners crowded around too much or broke the line, they would be beaten to restore order.

When the second gong sounded in the camp, prisoners knew they had to leave their barracks again, and quickly move to the roll-call square for the SS men to count the prisoners in each block and verify the total for the entire camp. The time between the wake-up gong and the roll call - until the command “Arbeitskommando formieren,” or “form up into work groups,” was given—provided the numbers tallied—was about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half. Then prisoners assigned to various komandos left the camp for their designated workplaces. In the early period of the camp’s operation, prisoners worked on adapting the former Polish Army barracks for use as a concentration camp—building extra floors, constructing new blocks, demolishing abandoned buildings left behind by the displaced Polish and Jewish population in the area. Over the following years, they began to be assigned to work in workshops, warehouses, and numerous plants.

A similar morning routine existed in the women’s camp. They also began with wake-up gong, washing, and heading to roll call. However, wake-up often happened even earlier than in the men’s camp because of frequent difficulties in establishing the headcount. So, the women were woken up earlier and had to line up earlier for roll call since counting them took significantly more time. Women prisoners were also sent to work out of the camp, most often on farms or for various kinds of earthworks. After finishing their work, prisoners—both men and women—were lined up in columns to return to the camp. In the morning, they marched out to the sound of march music played by the prisoners’ orchestra. And while in the morning they could manage to march more or less efficiently—let’s call it relatively “fresh”—by the afternoon or evening when they returned exhausted, often injured, hungry, or even carrying the corpses of those who had died or been killed during work, that walking through the gate to lively march music became yet another form of torture. In many accounts, this moment of return is described as additional torment, a further humiliation.

Upon re-entering the camp, men and women would line up on the roll-call square, and the camp’s headcount was taken again. If all matched, if no one was missing, the prisoners could go back to their blocks or barracks, where they would get another meal. This meal typically consisted of bread (often described in testimonies as a piece or slice—around 350 grams—of dark bread) plus some kind of spread, whether margarine, marmalade, quark, or sausage. The sausage was usually black pudding, liverwurst or brawn. They would also receive a drink: either grain-based coffee substitute or this so-called “tea”. After they ate, they had some free time, which varied depending on the season. In the fall and winter, when they came back earlier, they might have 2–3 hours, depending on how quickly the roll call went. In summer or spring, when they returned later, this free time was shorter—perhaps an hour or two. During that time, they could leave their blocks, meet friends from other blocks or work details, and share any information they had heard during the workday. They might also receive mail, and from late 1942 onward, some prisoners received parcels. Prisoners who felt ill or were injured or wounded queued for the prisoner hospital, asking for any sort of help. It was not easy to get admitted to the hospital—one essential requirement was a fever of 39.5°C.

When the first evening gong sounded, prisoners knew they had to return to their barracks, and the second gong signaled the start of the nighttime rest period—lights-out—which typically began at 9:00 p.m. In Birkenau in summer, it was 9:30. That was when prisoners started their nighttime rest.

You mentioned that prisoners got up and went to bed at different times. These depended on the season, but they also depended on whether a given group of prisoners—a given detail—worked inside the camp or outside it, or at a location some distance away. For instance, prisoners who initially worked at the newly forming Monowitz camp had to get up earlier than others and returned later, because they had to walk to their work places and back …

Yes, that’s correct. The information I’ve presented so far can be taken as an average. In many cases—depending on the Kommandos and work locations—wake-up times and working hours could start or end at different points. As for the Buna Kommando prisoners whose tasks involved various kinds of work in the Monowice-Dwory area (where the German corporation IG Farbenindustrie was carrying out a major construction project for a large chemical plant), they actually had to start their day earlier and leave for work earlier. One surviving order from the camp commandant contains quite detailed information: from October 6, 1941, prisoners of the Buna Kommando had to get up at 5:30 a.m. That was the wake-up call; then they took care of their basic needs, washed, and ate their first meal. Between 6:40 and 6:45 a.m., they had to march from the main camp to a railroad siding near the camp. They got on train cars that transported them to their workplace. They returned from Monowice at 5:15 p.m. I should emphasize that this took place in autumn. At the same time, there is surviving information about wake-up times and roll calls for the other prisoners: they were up at 6:00 a.m., half an hour later, with roll call starting at 7:15, and they returned to the camp at 5:30 p.m.
It was different in the summer. Then, the Buna prisoners started their work very early, so they also had to get up earlier. We know that the Buna Kommando prisoners were initially transported to the worksite—about 6 to 8 kilometers from the main camp—by truck. But the demand for labor there kept growing, so more and more prisoners were sent to work in Monowice. After that brief period of transfer by truck, they were forced to march those 6 to 8 kilometers on foot. Consequently, the time they left the camp and their wake-up call shifted. According to some testimonies, they had to get up as early as 3:00 a.m., and they of course returned even later. The marching continued until July 1941, after which they were transported by train as mentioned. The trains picked them up near the main camp’s ramp, a few hundred meters from the “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate, then took them close to the construction site of the chemical plant.

What about the Kommando responsible for preparing the morning coffee or so-called tea?

Yes. Prisoners working in the camp kitchens and the SS kitchens indeed got up much earlier to prepare meals. They would also get back to their barracks later—sometimes after roll-call had already ended. Of course, their headcount was taken at the kitchen itself and then added to the overall total. They genuinely started work far earlier and finished much later than most prisoners. Meanwhile, prisoners working in the camp offices likely had schedules that matched the work hours of the SS administration, so they started a bit later and finished a bit later than the other prisoners—maybe by an hour or so, morning and evening.

Can we say that it was essentially every prisoner’s daily, basic duty to attend roll call, and that the outcome of counting the prisoners determined when they would leave for work or, in the case of the evening roll call, when they could finally rest?

Prisoners were required to attend roll call, lining up in rows of 10 so they could be counted more quickly and efficiently. It didn’t matter what the weather was or how sick they were; even those with fevers, feeling wretched, had to be present. During roll call, the corpses of prisoners who had died under various circumstances—often during work—would be laid out by each block. If the total matched the number expected for the entire camp, the prisoners were dismissed to their barracks, where they could eat their evening meal. Or the command “Arbeitskommando formieren” would be given in the morning, and they would line up in their respective Kommandos to head to work. The situation changed when the numbers did not match; roll calls would then drag on. There were quite a few of these extended roll calls, lasting hours, even half a day—especially in the early period of the camp’s operation. Roll calls also ran long in the women’s camp, where it was often difficult to establish the correct count. A prisoner might be missing for various reasons—perhaps someone had escaped, which was only noticed when prisoners were counted in the evening. Or someone might have fallen asleep at the workplace, exhausted, and if neither their colleagues nor the Kapo noticed, they remained there, prompting a search. It also happened that some prisoners died in the night or were too ill to show up for the roll call, triggering a search. If a bedridden prisoner was found who hadn’t reported for roll call, they were harshly punished, typically beaten by functionary prisoners or the SS.

From all of this, it seems that prisoners lived under constant threat. Sleep didn’t give them any rest, food did not satisfy their hunger, clothing didn’t protect them from the weather, and work did not set them free, contrary to what was written on the sign over the gate at Auschwitz I. What we should emphasize is that we can only speak in average or general terms about the daily schedule, because it varied by season and also across different sections of the camp, right?

Yes. Contrary to appearances, it’s very difficult to precisely describe the prisoners’ workday schedule because, as you said, it varied. The broad framework—the main points in the schedule—was similar, but it differed depending on the period in which the camp operated and on the place of imprisonment. As we mentioned, the Buna Kommando in 1941 and early 1942 had different start times and therefore different end times for returning to the main camp than other prisoners. Men and women prisoners working in camp offices had another set of working hours, and so on. Those held in sub-camps had yet different hours. In certain sub-camps set up at industrial plants in Lesser Poland or Upper Silesia, if there was a three-shift schedule in those factories, the prisoners’ shift schedules were aligned with that of the civilian workforce. So if civilian labor started at 6:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m., prisoners did the same. That meant they had to begin their day at various times, different from what we described for the main camp or the women’s camp in Birkenau.
In theory, they worked eight hours in those industrial plants, but, for instance, at the Brzeszcze coal mine (where prisoners from the Jawischowitz sub-camp were forced to work), their hours depended on daily production quotas assigned to each labor group—coal extraction targets. Prisoners there were assigned to qualified miners, mostly assisting in loading and transporting coal. If they met the quota within eight hours, they left towards the surface with the miners at the end of the shift. But if they failed to meet that quota, they stayed underground until they had extracted and shipped the required amount of coal. Often they’d work 10 or 12 hours—but that didn’t mean they came right up after 12 hours. They had to wait until the next shift came in, so in total they might be underground for 16 hours. Back in the sub-camp, they would eat and try to sleep for a short while. Yet until 1944, many of these industrial sub-camps forced prisoners to do additional tasks—work in workshops, cleaning, or construction projects. Only in 1944 did this regimen ease somewhat, allowing prisoners on the night shift, for example, to sleep 7 or 8 hours when they returned.

So, no single workday applied to the entire camp complex from its start in the spring of 1940 until its last days in January 1945. It varied from period to period and from place to place. Ultimately, from the prisoner’s perspective, what mattered most was surviving until the next morning. You could say it was a relief if they made it to the night’s quiet hours, because it meant they had survived another day. And so day after day, they woke up with the hope of surviving that day, and then at night they felt relief that they had indeed made it through one more day in the camp.