Those Jews strong enough were considered as slaves for the German "masters".

by Rabbi Eliahu Ellis & Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

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Forced Labor

Slave Labor In Concentration Camps
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

Those who did not go to their immediate death, went to "slow death" – the slave labor camps. Usually it was a quarry. But sometimes it was working for the German war effort.

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Women Inmates

Shaved Women Selected For Forced Labor
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

Always it was under the most inhumane conditions.

 

 

 

 

Read personal accounts.

The Jews "lived" on starvation rations. A daily ration was: a piece of black bread, about as thick as your thumb; some margarine about the size of three sticks of chewing gum; and a small cup of something that was supposed to be soup. Every once in a while

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At The Quarry

Prisoners At Work In Mauthausen Concentration Camp
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

there was something floating around in it. That was it for twenty four hours.

Read a personal account.

The Nazis liked to have "fun with the Jews." One quarry had a straight, sheer wall, they called a "paratrooper's wall." Every once in a while, a guard would push someone off.

Read an eyewitness account of caught escapees.

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Nazi Sadism

Nazi Having Sadistic "Fun" With Prisoners
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

The "smaller" labor camps did not receive the notoriety of the death camps, but could be just as deadly. Out of 16,000 slave laborers in the Kamionka labor camp, only 36 survived the war.

Read a full personal account of life in the Kamionka labor camp.

Read an account of a witness to the liquidation of the Kamionka work camp.

Published: Wednesday, December 31, 1969

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