Countless Jews died as a result of the Einsatzgruppen, in 1941 the German army invaded the USSR and wit them they brought the Einsatzgruppen, and their task was to annihilate all the Jews, gypsies, communists, political leaders and intelligentsia. At the beginning the Einsatzgruppen would have mass shootings where hundreds of Jews died in one go. But this was stopped when it was said to have a psychological impact on the executioners so they changed their methods of killing from mass shootings to CO vans; mobile gas chambers.
Transportation from occupied Europe to concentration/death camps was arranged. Carriage trains that where forced to go toilet were they stood. Some Greek Jews actually paid for the journey as they believed that they where going to be resettled. When they finally arrived at their destination they were immediately separated from their families, and had to take part in a selection of those who would live and of those who would die. Men on one-side women and children on the other side. Before they where split men and women who looked like ‘inmates from the local asylum’ told the passengers “your 18 and you’ve got a trade” not many people understood it at the time but still repeated those words to the S.S guards waiting for them. Those chosen to die would then be taken to a wooded area away from the immediate camp and they waited, waited for their deaths. It wasn’t until they went into the ‘shower’ rooms that they realised something was wrong, but by then it was too late. Those lucky enough chosen to live would then go through the ‘welcoming’ process at the camp; their heads were shaven, and they were forced to shower naked with males and females alike, then a number would be assigned to them and tattooed upon their arm, there were no names in the concentration/death camps just numbers.
Death camps has been described as living hell by many who have experienced it, the daily routine consisted of role call where every prisoner dead or alive had to attend, sometimes the Jews where left standing there for hours upon hours. Whilst in the camp their were more selections to go through to decide whether or not you lived or died, except from this time everyone knew what was happening so there were hurried attempts to make themselves look healthy for the doctors. Every prisoner had a job some though where considered better then others: cleaning the toilets for example was one of the more desirable jobs because it meant that they were inside in the warm of the camp, the most hated job was that of the Sonderkommando; the crematorium workers, it was their job to dispose of the bodies and to search them for any valuables i.e. gold teeth. Afterwards they themselves would be shot as it was thought that they knew too much. Jews could also have come power within the camp; Kapo’s were prisoners with power they organised their barracks and were in charge of the Jews within their barracks, but Kapo’s were mainly criminals and not Jews. All this was to undermine the Jewish community and to make them weak spirited, so that eventually they might just give in.
In a concentration camp the main theme was work, after several gruelling hours of work similar to those who survived selection at the death camps, they only had the next day of more hard work to look forward to. There were no breaks, no rests for the weak or old, you had to work continuously or you were worthless to the Nazis and no longer had a purpose for being there, so you would soon be shot. The living conditions within the camp were appalling too, sometimes there where as many as three to a bed, and many Jews had lice amongst over things falling on them as they slept. Most Jews were only allowed a quick toilet break of five minutes per day where many had to share a toilet with at least two others, so people did end up going toilet where they stood which was often in bed or whilst working. The Jews in the camps no longer had a sense of right and wrong since many would steal another’s food due to starvation and some would even urinate on themselves as it was considered to be washing. This was to make the Jews weak psychically and mentally, this occurred so often that they were given a name: mussel men.
The Nazis had many methods of eliminating the Jews they used hit men – the Einsatzgruppen to eliminate as many Jews in a short amount of time, they used concentration camps where if the work didn’t kill you, you were likely to become a mussel man – functionless, there were death camps where a lot Jews died on the day of their arrival, general labour that they were forced to do with little food, after all that the survivors of the death camps where then forced to go on a death march. Which literally was walk until dead, although many did survive. In total six million Jews where killed from these methods of elimination.
