THE LIVING CONDITIONS

The living conditions in Auschwitz were atrocious from the beginning, and remained so throughout the history of the main camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau and its satellite camps. Of the 400,000 people who entered in any of them as registered prisoners, half of them died from hunger, cold, disease, beatings or collective punishment, if not killed by phenol injections or cyanide gas.

Iñaki Mur. Auschwitz barrack (CC0)

The selection processes that were regularly carried out in the concentration camp determined that prisoners were no longer productive and should therefore be killed. Among these were all those whom their own companions called Muselmänner, which is usually translated as "Muslim status". They were extremely emaciated, sick and resigned people who had seen their identity, totally destroyed by the many processes directed to destroy the individuality that the concentration camp set in motion : separated from their loved ones, stripped naked, assigned a number and tattooed with it..., and made to feel the effects of hunger, cold, illness and physical violence.

Iñaki Mur. Auschwitz wire fence (CC0)