Children's Lives At

AuschwitzBy Zuzanna Wieczorek

Auschwitz Concentration Camp

ARBEIT MACHT FREI - WORK WILL SET YOU FREE

WHERE

IS

THE

CAMP

?Oświęcim

BrzezinkaMonowice

Children... 70 years ago Nowadays

Possessions

Statistic1.5 million

children under the age of sixteen were killed at Auschwitz.

1.5 millionis also the population of Gabon, a

country in Africa.

Gabon

"Like the adults, the kids were only a mere bag of bones, without muscles or

fat, and the thin skin like parchment scrubbed through and through beyond the hard bones of the skeleton ignited itself to ulcerated wounds. Abscesses

covered the underfed body from the top to the bottom and thus deprived it from the last rest of energy. The mouth was deeply gnawed by noma-abscesses,

hollowed out the jaw and perforated the cheeks like cancer. Many decaying

bodies were full of water because of the burning hunger, they swelled to

shapeless bulks which could not move anymore. Diarrhoea, lasting for weeks, dissolved their irresistant bodies until

nothing remained . "

Lucie Adelsberger

Separation150+

Hard work

150-

Gas chamber

150+150-

TreatmentJosef Mengele and other ‘camp doctors’ tortured and made Jewish, Gypsy and many other children suffer incredibly.

Josef MengeleBorn on 15th March 1911, Josef was a German doctor. He became knows as ‘the Angel of Death’ because of the cruel experiments he carried out on children.

Experiments

• Drew sketches of each twin• Injected with substances• Dripped chemicals to change eye colour• Injected chloroform into their hearts• Killed them at the end of the experiments• Dissected them

Only a few of the children survived Auschwitz. They later recalled how they were visited by a smiling Uncle Mengele who brought them candy and clothes. Then he had them delivered to his medical laboratory either in trucks painted with the Red Cross emblem or in his own personal car.

ProcessThe children were taken to have

showers.They were allowed to keep their

hair and their clothes.They were measured.

They were tattooed with a number from a special sequence.

They had to fill out some forms about their brief history and other

information. If they were too young, an officer would do it for

them.They were taken to Mengele, who inspected them and looked for any

unusual traits.

LifeRoll call at 6am, followed by small breakfast

and inspection.Given brief instruction in makeshift ‘classes’.

Sometimes allowed to play football.No hard work, only the job of a messenger.

No punishments.Blood drawn every day from fingers and arms,

sometimes both arms at the same time.Small children had their blood drawn from their

necks.Trucks arrived to take them to the experiments.

Facts• Mengele often brought the children candy and

chocolates. He patted them on the head, talked to them and sometimes even played with them. Many of the children, especially the younger ones, called him ‘Uncle Mengele’.

• Mengele and the other camp doctors were found to be psychologically normal. They were men of fine standing. Husbands who morning and night kissed their wives. Fathers who tucked their children into bed…

The Rest of the ChildrenThey were first separated from their

families.The rest of the children had to work hard.

They were very skinny.They weren’t treated like humans at all.They were beaten, sworn at and called

offensive names.

ConditionsThey slept with thousands of other

people.They only received 350g of ‘bread’, half a litre of coffee and one litre of

turnip and potato soup daily.They received 20g of meat a week.They barely had any time to wash.

Fate1. Most were killed upon arrival.2. Some were selected for work as slave

labourers and worked to death.3. Some were used for ‘medical’

experiments.4. Some died when the camps were

evacuated on foot (death marches) in January 1945.

5. Very few survived.

‘RESTING WHERE NO SHADOWS FALL,

IN PEACEFUL SLEEP, THEY AWAIT US ALL;

GOD WILL LINK THE BROKEN CHAIN,

WHEN ONE BY ONE WE MEET AGAIN.’