Living and sanitary conditions as well as camp clothing at camp

Transcript of the podcast

The horrible living conditions created by the SS authorities in the blocks and barracks in all parts of the Auschwitz complex as well as the apalling sanitary conditions contributed to the exhaustion and death of many prisoners. The clothing which was completely unadecvate of the weather conditions also had an negative effect on the condition and health of the prisoners. Dr Jacek Lachendro of the Auschwitz Memorial Research Center talks about the living and sanitary conditions and types of camp clothing.

The living conditions of Auschwitz prisoners varied in different periods and parts of the camp’s operation. What were the living conditions like for the first prisoners of Auschwitz?

The Auschwitz concentration camp was established on the site of the Polish Army barracks on the outskirts of the town of Oświęcim. In the beginning – that is, from June-July 1940 to early spring 1941 – the prisoners were placed in rooms with virtually no furnishings except mattresses. They slept on straw mattresses spread on the floor, which they had to swiftly collect in the morning after waking up and stack up in the corner of the room. Initially, there were 20 brick buildings inside the camp perimeter fence, 6 of which were two-storey buildings and the rest were one-storey. In 1940, the camp authorities began investment work to raise the existing single-storey buildings by a further storey, and later build another 8 blocks. Consequently, between 1940-43, a complex of one-storey brick blocks was built. About 600-700 prisoners were housed in these blocks; however, there were periods when the number of prisoners in the block increased to over 1,000 due to the arrival of several transports. One can imagine what the overcrowding in a given block was like, compared to the situation before the war when 1,000-1,500 soldiers resided in the barracks complex and had over 20 blocks at their disposal. Prisoners spent practically the entire day outside the blocks. They were forced to do various jobs. They only came to their assigned room in the evening for the night. Sanitation was a major problem in this early period. Due to the overcrowding, prisoners could not attend to their physiological needs or wash in the bathrooms or toilets located in the blocks. We must remember that these were barracks with toilets in the blocks before the war, but they were designed for a significantly smaller number of people. At that time, during the first period, only functionary prisoners were allowed to use these toilets. However, a huge sheltered pit was dug for the prisoners between blocks 2 and 3, with some wooden construction, with a pole fence along the pit to satisfy their physiological needs, mainly in the morning and evening. At the same time, they could wash themselves using water pumped from two wells. The pumped water was poured into bowls, which they could then use. The situation began to change somewhere around March 1941, when – in relation to the “housing” conditions – triple bunks were installed in the rooms. More toilet bowls were gradually installed on the ground floor in the expanded blocks and those added onto the ground floor. The possibilities for prisoners to wash were increased by installing gutters and taps. We must remember again that, if there were several hundred prisoners in a given two-storey block, they only had a bathroom or toilet on the ground floor. And when we consider that prisoners began work at 6 o’clock from spring to early autumn, and as reported had a wake-up call at 4:30, they had only 1.5 hours to get up, clean the room, tend to their physiological needs, wash up, eat the so-called “breakfast,” go to roll-call, line up for roll-call, and then go out to work, it meant that taking care of physiological needs or washing themselves was done in the utmost haste. The functionary prisoners, who were responsible for the proper course of these activities and later lining the prisoners up for roll call, would rush, beat, and yell at them to do all these activities as quickly as possible. When we talk about washing or taking care of physiological needs in the context of Auschwitz, we absolutely cannot liken these to images that we have of so-called normal life.

What were the living conditions like in the Birkenau camp? Quite often, accounts appear in contrast to Auschwitz, saying that prisoners stressed that the conditions were far worse in the Birkenau camp.

The conditions in the Birkenau camp were indeed terrible, particularly in the first period of the camp’s operation, and much worse than in the main camp. The first prisoners were sent to Birkenau in March 1942 and placed in brick barracks that had just been completed. The barracks were poorly insulated, built in a hurry, and the interiors of the barracks were divided into partitions. The walls were made of bricks with joists in between, and then planks were placed on top of these joists and straw spread on top. In total, there were about 60 partitions in each of these brick barracks. They were intended for about 700 prisoners. There were no floors inside, just mud soil. Only later were efforts made to harden them with bricks or some concrete flooring. As I mentioned earlier, the first prisoners arrived in March. In that month, it was sometimes warmer, sometimes colder. They either walked on frozen ground or just literally waded in the mud, especially in early 1942, which was the most difficult period because the prisoners had no access to water. Water was only brought to the kitchen, and the prisoners could not use it. They used puddle water to wash their faces or hands or to wash their clothes. In addition to these brick barracks, they began installing wooden barracks at the earliest section, sector BI, in the spring of 1942. These were constructions intended as stables for horses, quick to assemble and disassemble, relatively easy to transport, and were also erected quite quickly in sector BI, later in sector BII and partly in sector BIII. They had a larger cubic capacity. They were not adequately insulated, so they were also cold. It was difficult to heat them on cold days like the brick barracks, which had two cast iron stoves but did not provide enough heat for the entire room. Going back to the wooden barracks, they were designed for about 400 prisoners, but of course, there were periods when there were many more. The prisoners slept either in three-tiered beds or in three-tiered bunks placed in partitions; there were 14 such partitions in the space for prisoners and two partitions at the entrance to the barracks used as rooms for the functionaries. At the rear of the barracks, on the other hand, were two partitions with buckets for faecal matter since the prisoners could not leave the barracks at night and had to use them for their physiological needs. The sanitary conditions were horrible. There was a shortage of water, and prisoners satisfied their physiological needs in the pits, which were only later covered with brick walls on which concrete slabs with holes were laid so that prisoners could relieve themselves. Overall, sector BI was divided into two subsectors, BIa and BIb, with ten sanitary barracks. One sector comprised two barracks with only bathhouses, two barracks with only toilets, and one barrack with bathhouses and toilets. But again, if we consider that during the period the women were transferred to this location, that is, between August and September 1942, there were approximately 16,500 women there in September 1942, and they had two barracks with a little over 100 toilet openings at their disposal. Therefore, attending to physiological needs or washing in the morning was another ordeal for these people because everything had to be done hastily, and there was limited time for these activities.

During the camp’s operation, did the camp authorities try in any way to improve these horrible living conditions for the prisoners?

I have already mentioned the first example of change, which seemingly improved the situation – the introduction of bunks into rooms in the blocks of the main camp. The first impression we get is that prisoners slept in so-called “beds” on straw mattresses; this was far better than sleeping on those dirty, dusty straw mattresses directly on the floor in a great crush. However, everything indicates that these beds were introduced so that the camp authorities could accommodate many more prisoners in one room. They previously slept on one level of the floor, but now they could sleep on three-tier bunks. These bunks were placed very close to each other; two bunks next to each other, then a very narrow passageway, and another bunk. As a result, the prisoners slept much more comfortably, theoretically at least, because, during overcrowding, two prisoners often had to sleep on one level as there may be many more prisoners in a given room than previously. Consequently, they had less air at their disposal, and therefore these conditions did not improve much. The activities of the camp authorities that led to an improvement in the living conditions of the prisoners were particularly evident from 1942 onwards. However, these activities were primarily intended to directly benefit the SS camp authorities and the prisoners indirectly because a typhus epidemic broke out in the camp in 1942. The mortality rate was exceptionally high in the second half of that year. In the spring, typhus had already begun to affect SS members and their families, and this was what prompted the camp authorities to take such relatively swift measures. Above all, efforts were made to improve the sanitary and hygienic conditions of the prisoners; for example, a bathhouse and laundry were built in the main camp so that the prisoners could wash more frequently. Delousing procedures were also carried out, and thanks to the laundry, prisoners could wash many more clothing items and receive clean clothes more often. Similar procedures were implemented in 1942 in the Birkenau camp, where the typhus epidemic claimed many victims. An example of this is the enormous mortality rate in the women’s camp, which accommodated a little over 16,500 female prisoners at the beginning of September. In contrast, at the beginning of November, two months later, it housed about 6,500 female inmates. We must also remember that new transports kept arriving during this period. At Birkenau, the camp authorities put into use two large buildings called “saunas”, which had rooms and showers equipped with disinfection systems, and just as in the main camp, the prisoners could use them more frequently. The hygienic condition improved somewhat compared to the earlier period. The culmination of work to improve sanitary conditions was the completion of the large building called central sauna in December 1943, where prisoners could get deloused, wash, and have their clothes disinfected with the installed equipment. Another such example of improved living conditions for prisoners was the ban on beating prisoners, introduced by the new camp commandant Arthur Liebehenschel in November 1943. The SS-men were obliged to, or rather were forbidden to, beat prisoners – this was, of course, later extended to include functionary prisoners. The idea was to keep the prisoners in a relatively good physical condition, free of injury, and work better.

From the few archival photographs and later film adaptations based on the recollections of former prisoners, we know that the prisoners were dressed in prisoner uniforms, similar to those in other camps. What elements did these uniforms consist of, and what were they made of? Were they the same throughout the year, or were they changed depending on the seasons?

People brought to the camp went through the admission and registration procedure. As part of this procedure, the new arrivals referred to as “zugangi” in the camp handed over their luggage and the clothes they arrived in. They had to strip naked, and prisoners’ hairdressers shaved their body hair. Then, they underwent disinfection and were given prisoners’ clothes; all this happened in great haste. They were issued these clothes at random, often the individual items of clothing did not fit them at all, and it was only after some time in the blocks that they exchanged these items of clothing with one another to match their body size. In that first period of the camp’s operation, say until 1943, more or less, prisoners – subsequently also female prisoners – wore uniforms typical of German concentration camps, with white-blue, grey-blue or grey-navy vertical stripes, and as such was called striped uniforms by Polish prisoners. The prisoners received long johns and shirts and wore prisoner trousers and tops over them. They also received caps and shoes – in the early camp period, these were usually clogs, or Dutch clogs made either entirely of wood, or the bottoms were made of wood and the upper part of leather or some other material. Walking in these clogs was another affliction for many prisoners at the beginning of their stay in the camp. It was difficult to maintain balance, especially when the surface on which they walked was wet and slippery. Marching in these clogs posed a significant problem for many of the prisoners. We should remember that when prisoners went out to work, they passed through the gate, and when returning, they had to do it in a marching step. Over time, they got used to walking in these clogs. In later periods, prisoners were given what we might call “normal” shoes, made of leather, and walking was easier. These items of clothing I mentioned were given to the prisoners, and they could walk in them from about spring to early autumn. For the winter period, they were given coats made of slightly thicker material. According to the conservation findings here, they were made of wool, or cotton, sometimes of some other material. The so-called “summer” tops or trousers were mostly linen and sometimes mixed with other materials. Female prisoners received panties – the word “reform” often appeared in accounts – blouses, skirts or dresses tied at the waist with a string, headscarves and clogs. They also received thicker coats and stockings for winter.

During the camp’s operation, there were times when prisoners’ uniforms were in short supply. What did prisoners wear then?

Initially, the prisoners only wore what they were given upon arrival at the camp. However, from 1941 onwards, they could receive such items from home as jumpers, which they could wear –officially, so to speak – and warmer underwear. On the other hand, if we look at the photos taken of prisoners from the first transports in 1940 or 1941, some prisoners were wearing the so-called striped camp uniforms I mentioned earlier, but many of them also had their uniform tops on. It’s difficult for me to state which armies the uniforms belonged to; perhaps they came from the warehouses of armies defeated by the Germans in 1940. Some of the uniforms came from the warehouses of the Austrian army – even before the annexation of Austria. I recall a story from Auschwitz when, in early November, the first transport of prisoners was sent to another concentration camp. According to a prisoner’s account, they wore Austrian uniforms during the transportation in stages to Flossenburg – one of these stages was a prison in Vienna – and as they walked from the train station to the prison, Austrian, Viennese women saw them in the street and reacted with some sympathy at the sight of the prisoners. Presumably, it was because they saw the Austrian army uniforms and thought they might be Austrians. Later on – I believe somewhere in the second half of 1941 and 1942 – Soviet prisoners of war were sent to Auschwitz. They were deprived of their uniforms on entry to the camp but only to disinfect them; later, they were given back to them, and they wore these uniforms the entire time. After some time, given that only about 600-700 of the 10,000 brought and registered in the camp at that time were alive at the beginning of March, a considerable number of uniforms remained. These uniforms were transported to the laundry in Bielitz - that is, Bielsko - washed there, and according to accounts, later allocated to Jewish women and men brought in transports from Slovakia and France in the spring of 1942. However, I also found information in one report that a prisoner brought in 1943 still received a Soviet soldier’s uniform. So, one can assume that they were issued to prisoners from subsequent transports and used in the camp until they wore out. From 1943, the camp authorities permitted prisoners to wear what they called “civilian” clothing, meaning no striped uniforms. These clothes were mainly from the camp warehouses or belonged to Polish prisoners who had died. Before January 1943, these items could be returned to the families, but later, they could not. Most of the civilian clothing came from the plundering of Jews, the vast majority of whom were deported to the camp for extermination. The clothes taken from these Jews were sent to warehouses and later allocated to prisoners. However, to ensure no chance of escape, these civilian clothes – be they jackets or trousers – had to be marked accordingly. Red crosses were painted on the back of jackets with oil paint that was difficult to wash off and red stripes on the trousers. Alternatively, at the back of the jackets, rectangles were cut out, into which scraps of striped uniforms were sewn, not on the back but the edges of these cut-out rectangles. The point was that if a prisoner escaped in such civilian clothes with oil paint marking that was difficult to remove, then it was easy to identify such a person among other civilians. And if they additionally had a piece of striped garment sewn on, then even if they tore it off, one could see the cut-out rectangle on the back, which clearly suggested to the SS men from the pursuit squads that the person might be a prisoner.