Camp Life

In many of the camps the treatment was so harsh that thousands died from cruelty, hunger, disease and random executions. The inmates were roused early in the morning for ‘roll call’, where they would stand in rows in all weather, sometimes for hours on end, while they were repeatedly counted to make sure everyone was there.

Although loss of life was expected in these camps, and crematoria were built to deal with the dead, gas chambers were only constructed in six camps in Poland to systematically murder the Jews. They did not start operating until after December 1941 and within three years over four million people, mainly Jews, had been murdered in these places.