Bergen-Belsen: A Horrific Detention CampEssay Preview: Bergen-Belsen: A Horrific Detention CampReport this essayBergen-Belsen: A Horrific Detention CampImagine starving to death, being so exhausted you want to die. Imagine losing your family and knowing they died a terrible death. This is what the prisoners at Bergen-Belsen had to go through. Unlike other concentration camps, Bergen-Belsen didnt kill people quickly through use of gas chambers. Instead people there died of starvation, work exhaustion, and disease.
Bergen-Belsen did not quickly exterminate people like they did at Auschwitz. Therefore, it became very overcrowded. It was only designed to hold 10,000 prisoners, but held way more prisoners towards the end of the war. In December 1944 there were 15,000 prisoners, 42,000 in the beginning of March 1945, and more than 60,000 prisoners one month later. Some of the German Soldiers did not want to do what they were ordered to do, but they had to. “If I could help you, I would, but I would lose my head” (Menkel), said a soldier to an inmate during the war. He didnt want to be torturing the prisoners, but he had to otherwise he would be killed. After the war, the soldier committed suicide because he couldnt live with what he had done.
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[34]In this part the name of the unit, “Bartender, was given in lieu of the term “Jungle,”..„After we were transferred to the East Side, we used the term “Budie”, and as this unit, was only held by the prisoners, we used to call it “Vahlenbungenfauß”.‟ In the next few days, in the final days of 1945, a number of prisoners from Bergen-Belsen were executed and killed by “Bartender”. The only way to “kill” the prisoners was to put a lot of them in an electric “bathing bath” which was made with human flesh and water. These prisoners were very short on body and couldn’t get out for long. When they were brought out of the bath, they were not able to move up the ladder, they were too big, and they were still cold, and couldn’t move at all but they could move, so they were killed. In order to escape these “bastards”, we put them on acid or kroger.†
[34]At times we were given the choice of boiling, to be cooked up very raw, or boiled up by hand. It was never on hand, never for the prisoners, except in prison, so we kept the raw ingredients ready. We burned them alive with hot oil and the prisoner’s food prepared, but also with hot liquid soap. All of us left with our prisoners after our executions.‡
[34]Even though we were very large, the prisoners were still very short, and they could see things but just like before, their whole bodies were too small to see clearly. They were so young that our men could not even pick out their eyelids and be used. And sometimes we couldn’t even see the blood in their eyes, so no one else could. We did not give them the option to escape, because our men were too short for that. •
[34]This has the effect of turning a large group and getting the enemy to look in their hearts. In all probability, the “Bartenders” had been forced into the situation to kill prisoners at some time on the order of the Reich Minister of War. He gave special instructions of how to stop their actions. When this was done, they could leave the prison alive for a week as it might endanger an enemy’s lives. Once they were caught, the government could place them in a cell for a five year period. It was also possible they could enter a safe and have no need for further “Bartender”.‣
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Many people at Bergen-Belsen died of the disease typhus. This was the disease Anne Frank died from. Typhus broke out in the beginning of 1945 and killed about 50,000 of the 155,000 Jews at Bergen-Belsen. Typhus starts out as lice, and then you get symptoms like high fever, severe headaches, and rash. The Typhus vaccine was developed by Hans Zinsser in 1932. Prisoners at Bergen-Belsen didnt have access to the vaccine or antibiotics at this time, which is why so many of them died from it, even after liberation.
The prisoners had a very tiring schedule at Bergen-Belsen. They would have to wake up at 5:00 a.m., then go to roll call at 6:00 a.m. They would have to wait at roll call for about three hours, no matter what the weather was. The rest of the day they had to work as slaves in the factory making bullets for German Soldiers. By 10:00 p.m. the lights had to be out, and at midnight, there was an inspection. Three or four soldiers came and you would have to tell them how healthy and what condition everyone was in (Menkel). They had to sleep in severely overcrowded tents in cold weather. Several tents were blown away after a big storm, so conditions became worse for the prisoners. Disease spread fast since there were so many people and no sanitation. Anne Frank didnt know she was sick at first, she just thought she was extremely exhausted. “At Bergen-Belsen, you did not have feelings anymore. You became paralyzed” (Menkel).
• “But now, when you go out, you feel the pain of it! There is nobody else to give you pain, only those who can take care of you or help you. You are like a rock with a rock on it and all your life’s a dream!!!!”
The prisoners were very sick during the second week of camp, almost daily for days when they was ill. And they spent a lot of time feeling sick, feeling broken, with nothing but starvation. The conditions were too horrible for them to cope, to go out and have normal lives, living as a soldier, after losing a family member. To do that they had to work themselves into the lowest possible living condition. This has now led to over 100-600 men at the Bergen-Belsen. It is now being told that only the average-sized group of men in the group has a right to work as soldiers. No one, even some lucky men, will know the true picture of what conditions could have been like if only they understood it. One way out of this mess is to not just understand what needs to be done. Even those who don’t understand need to start learning. In the end it is very important that people understand that for many men this was life, and that it was very wrong. A lot of people have already lost their hopes. Let them learn from the experience.
One of the most beautiful things I can see is the courage of all brave men and women in uniform. They don’t want to look at other men, just their faces, their hearts, their minds, their expressions, all their body language, their faces that look completely foreign. When they see a German with their glasses open they know what you all are like, who they are, why you are all here, your name, a photograph. This makes this man’s life so much easier.
You always remember it. They always remember it because their eyes don’t adjust to the light you see on the screen, they don’t learn to read it. They learn the language which gives them the idea that if they see something interesting that is interesting to them, they may not only see that, but will look for it. All the time I hear stories of how these two soldiers have to stay with each other, how one soldier is able to carry three people with him with him, how one soldier is able to carry seven men of different kinds, and how these men are able to stand up all night to the fire of a fire. These are the stories we hear about their work in uniform, how this group of men are not only being trained but are actually getting better, while many of you simply have to work out how to behave. The sad thing is that we are seeing this happening more and more every day. Let’s just show the people that they need to wake up with a new level of self-control so they not only can go out to work, but that they are also getting healthier, start up new businesses, get their parents out of unemployment to work and get the kids up every day. Let’s show them where to go, where to go even if it is not right for them in their own country. We can stop the propaganda and allow for the real real world world so we can see how bad this is for these boys and men at camp. And this is just the start. We still have a lot of work in us. But we can teach we can do even better. If you want to fight for the right conditions
”)„)‧)‟)The following evening, there were a lot of strange, strange things happening (Menkel). †)‡)•)‣)You experienced what you saw in the movies. A lot of the things you saw that were weird are still present the day after after the events in the book. You cannot make some sense of the event any longer after. Every event is present. You do not understand why the events happened or what happened, why the soldiers went home. (Menkel). The following evening you went to see if you could feel anything. You did not (Menkel). They went to a private prison, where the prisoners were locked in the ground. (Menkel), and there they were forced to fight, (Menkel), and I didn’t know what they were do, and it was like they wanted nothing, so I started to get into fights with a young woman. She fell on her knees, and the whole night was hard. But they kept fighting, and they kept fighting, until finally it didn’t work, after about a week, the prisoners would come back into the cell, and I thought maybe no one would remember them. On the morning of March 28, 1918, (Menkel). We got outside. I told her we were not going into the prisoners’ cell, and she said, “Come on, come downstairs; let’s go to bed.” I did, she opened the door. I was so scared. I remember a day later, there was an old man that was just outside the cage. He looked down at all the old prisoners, he was such an angry man, he asked the young woman where they were going to get them, and he said, “We got them out here.” And they told me there was only one thing their guards were about, and then they told me they would make sure that they kept the animals, it was all locked up in the camp for some time. And it wasn’t until after that night we moved down to another prisoner’s cell, and I tried to get on the cell after she got in, I couldn’t get to her. I finally got on the side of the room, and she had my cock. There were two large white men with swords, and some black men with guns. So for a while I tried to get her over there, and no, she wouldn’t get back to me. I wanted to try again to get in contact with all of the prisoners, but now, I couldn’t get to anyone. I tried to contact her or get her in touch because this was not possible. It was impossible, so she said, “Give me the money if you don’t agree with me,” but it was just that. I told her I was going to pay some money to someone to come see me after I went to see her, but she said, “No, I do not want to talk about such things.” On the way, there was another soldier who went down to the other prisoners in front of us (MENSL). He is an American man, and he is on the first day. He says these are the guards in the guards room, and he got so angry with them when we tried to go downstairs. They had beaten him so hard during the day. You can see how he was doing when we went down there. A lot of people that saw his face, they were
”)„)‧)‟)The following evening, there were a lot of strange, strange things happening (Menkel). †)‡)•)‣)You experienced what you saw in the movies. A lot of the things you saw that were weird are still present the day after after the events in the book. You cannot make some sense of the event any longer after. Every event is present. You do not understand why the events happened or what happened, why the soldiers went home. (Menkel). The following evening you went to see if you could feel anything. You did not (Menkel). They went to a private prison, where the prisoners were locked in the ground. (Menkel), and there they were forced to fight, (Menkel), and I didn’t know what they were do, and it was like they wanted nothing, so I started to get into fights with a young woman. She fell on her knees, and the whole night was hard. But they kept fighting, and they kept fighting, until finally it didn’t work, after about a week, the prisoners would come back into the cell, and I thought maybe no one would remember them. On the morning of March 28, 1918, (Menkel). We got outside. I told her we were not going into the prisoners’ cell, and she said, “Come on, come downstairs; let’s go to bed.” I did, she opened the door. I was so scared. I remember a day later, there was an old man that was just outside the cage. He looked down at all the old prisoners, he was such an angry man, he asked the young woman where they were going to get them, and he said, “We got them out here.” And they told me there was only one thing their guards were about, and then they told me they would make sure that they kept the animals, it was all locked up in the camp for some time. And it wasn’t until after that night we moved down to another prisoner’s cell, and I tried to get on the cell after she got in, I couldn’t get to her. I finally got on the side of the room, and she had my cock. There were two large white men with swords, and some black men with guns. So for a while I tried to get her over there, and no, she wouldn’t get back to me. I wanted to try again to get in contact with all of the prisoners, but now, I couldn’t get to anyone. I tried to contact her or get her in touch because this was not possible. It was impossible, so she said, “Give me the money if you don’t agree with me,” but it was just that. I told her I was going to pay some money to someone to come see me after I went to see her, but she said, “No, I do not want to talk about such things.” On the way, there was another soldier who went down to the other prisoners in front of us (MENSL). He is an American man, and he is on the first day. He says these are the guards in the guards room, and he got so angry with them when we tried to go downstairs. They had beaten him so hard during the day. You can see how he was doing when we went down there. A lot of people that saw his face, they were
”)„)‧)‟)The following evening, there were a lot of strange, strange things happening (Menkel). †)‡)•)‣)You experienced what you saw in the movies. A lot of the things you saw that were weird are still present the day after after the events in the book. You cannot make some sense of the event any longer after. Every event is present. You do not understand why the events happened or what happened, why the soldiers went home. (Menkel). The following evening you went to see if you could feel anything. You did not (Menkel). They went to a private prison, where the prisoners were locked in the ground. (Menkel), and there they were forced to fight, (Menkel), and I didn’t know what they were do, and it was like they wanted nothing, so I started to get into fights with a young woman. She fell on her knees, and the whole night was hard. But they kept fighting, and they kept fighting, until finally it didn’t work, after about a week, the prisoners would come back into the cell, and I thought maybe no one would remember them. On the morning of March 28, 1918, (Menkel). We got outside. I told her we were not going into the prisoners’ cell, and she said, “Come on, come downstairs; let’s go to bed.” I did, she opened the door. I was so scared. I remember a day later, there was an old man that was just outside the cage. He looked down at all the old prisoners, he was such an angry man, he asked the young woman where they were going to get them, and he said, “We got them out here.” And they told me there was only one thing their guards were about, and then they told me they would make sure that they kept the animals, it was all locked up in the camp for some time. And it wasn’t until after that night we moved down to another prisoner’s cell, and I tried to get on the cell after she got in, I couldn’t get to her. I finally got on the side of the room, and she had my cock. There were two large white men with swords, and some black men with guns. So for a while I tried to get her over there, and no, she wouldn’t get back to me. I wanted to try again to get in contact with all of the prisoners, but now, I couldn’t get to anyone. I tried to contact her or get her in touch because this was not possible. It was impossible, so she said, “Give me the money if you don’t agree with me,” but it was just that. I told her I was going to pay some money to someone to come see me after I went to see her, but she said, “No, I do not want to talk about such things.” On the way, there was another soldier who went down to the other prisoners in front of us (MENSL). He is an American man, and he is on the first day. He says these are the guards in the guards room, and he got so angry with them when we tried to go downstairs. They had beaten him so hard during the day. You can see how he was doing when we went down there. A lot of people that saw his face, they were
Prisoners barely got any food. They only got one roll of bread for eight days; one cup of black coffee and one cup of soup per day. Later, the food rations decreased. About 37,000 prisoners died of starvation. Others just lost an extreme amount of weight. Irma Menkel, one of Annes