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Cassie Bedard Vann ELA 11/14/13

Auschwitz ruined and killed many people. The people that were encamped in Auschwitz were starved, and their living conditions were terrible. Many people were killed in gas chambers. The working conditions were horrible. There were no fewer than 1.3 million people that had to go through the horror of Auschwitz. In The Boy and the Striped Pajamas Shmu el was a Jew living in Auschwitz. He was a 9 year old boy. He was killed in Auschwitz. Some Jews and other prisoners in Auschwitz were starved to death. The prisoners got watery soup made with rotten vegetables and meat, a few ounces of bread, bit of margarine, tea, or a bitter drink resembling coffee. This is all they got in one day. They were starved and dehydrated. When Bruno came to the fence and brought Shmuel food in The Boy and the Striped Pajamas, he took it immediately and scarfed it right up. He was always hungry, and over time, this started to make him extremely skinny. The living conditions were terrible too. There werent any bathrooms. The people could only use a bucket and had no privacy at all. The barracks werent insulated from the heat or cold. The beds were wooden planks that 5 or 6 inmates had to squeeze onto. There were about 500 people in a single barrack. Shmuel had to live in these horrible conditions. Prisoners were put in gas chambers to be killed. There were many gas chambers, but the four largest ones could hold 2,000 people at a time! The guards tricked the people into thinking it was a shower. They crammed as many people as possible into the gas chamber and then shut

all the doors and released chemicals into the air. All the people in the gas chamber died. In Auschwitz 320,000 people were killed in the gas chambers. In The Boy and the striped Pajamas, Bruno and Shmuel both were taken to the gas chamber. A group of about 100 people were told to march in a group to the building that they thought was a shower. Once Bruno and Shmuel got in the building they held hands. Everyone was screaming. They both died together. There were terrible working conditions at Auschwitz. Almost everyone who was deported to Auschwitz had to work. If they didnt think a prisoner was healthy enough to work, the guards immediately sent them to a gas chamber. Some of the jobs in the camp were working in the kitchen, barbers, and sorting of prisoners possessions to be sent back to Germany. Prisoners also worked on constructing things inside and outside the camp. When prisoners first got to Auschwitz, they had to work on constructing the camp. They had to work at minimum 11 hours a day. Most worked more than that. If a guard saw that someone was taking a break or not doing their job right the guard would beat them or shoot them. In the book, when Bruno went inside Auschwitz he saw people digging and being whipped by the guards. Also when Shmuel was caught eating food at Brunos house he didnt come back to the fence for a week. When he did come back his face was black and blue, and it looked like he had been beaten. Auschwitz was a very powerful camp. The prisoners at Auschwitz were tortured and killed. A total of 1.1 million were killed in Auschwitz! This affected many peoples lives across the world. Many people were killed and had to live through these conditions. The power of Hitler controlled all the people prisoned in the camps, guarding the camps, and the people living in the countries Hitler controlled. The other countries not under control by Hitler, but had

to come rescue the prisoners, and even the people in todays society were affected by the power of the Holocaust too. It not only affected the people who actually experienced the torture, but it affects todays society. We have learned to never let such a powerful thing happen ever again. A lot of groups and individuals were affected in negative ways by the Holocaust.

"Auschwitz." Auschwitz. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. <>. "Auschwitz." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., 10 June 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. <>. "Auschwitz-Birkenau: Living Conditions, Labor & Executions." Jewish Vritual Library. N.p., 2013. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. <>.