Abuse in Concentration Camps during World War II, Essay Example

World War II was a global war that started happening in the year 1939 and ended in the year 1945. Various alliances were formed, but there were only two alliances known to many people. The first alliance was called the Allies and the second alliance was called Axis (Tryuk, 103). World War II was the most renowned war ever recorded in the world history. Hundreds of millions of people from over thirty countries got involved in the war. The war affected many countries since they decided to put their economic, industrial, political, and scientific capabilities to facilitate the war. During the war, various camps were created by the fighters and made the camps their home. The camps, with time, became overcrowded with people. Because of this, those who felt superior started to abuse the weaker (Goeschel and Nikolaus, 523). Some of the abuses that occurred in the concentration camps included hard labor, gassing, and bad health status.

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Hard labor is one of the abuses that took place in the concentration camps during World War 2. One of the examples was seen in Germany where a concentrated camp was made specifically for people who were less privileged. During that period, Germany was a threat to other nations since it had trained fighters with full resources. Since the camps were concentrated, the life in those camps was too harsh than prisons. The camps in Germany were used to imprison people just because they were born from certain families that made them Austrian, Jewish and many others. Such people were exposed to hard labor against their wish, and whenever they refused to work, they would face the ultimate penalty of death.

Gassing was another abuse that was experienced in concentration camps during World War 2. Many of the concentration camps had gas chambers, which were used to kill people who failed to follow the set-out rules. Such people were put in the room, and then the rooms were filled with the poisonous gas before sealing them off (Tryuk, 103). After sealing the rooms full of the poisonous gas, the guilty were left to inhale the gas and die. Auschwitz camp in Germany was mainly built to punish the guilty by gassing them.

Finally, the bad health status of the inmates caused by food rationing, unhealthy sanitary conditions, and poor medical attention can also be listed among the hardships faced by the people in the concentration camps. Rape among other sexual abuses also contributed to the poor health conditions of the people in such camps. For example, Ravensbruck camp, which was under SS authorities, was a concentrated camp containing both men and women. In many occasions, the men in authority raped the women and girls in such simply because they were more powerful and stronger than their victims were (Goeschel and Nikolaus, 523). This led to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among other injuries. To make the matter worse, there were also reported cases of rape between male inmates and by the people in authority. Food rationing in the camp and the quantity and quality of the food decreased leading to malnutrition cases.

In summary, World War 2 led to the most painful occurrences that have ever been recorded in the world history, more so because the occurrences were widespread. As stated above, some of the abuses that took place in the concentration camps include gassing, hard labor, and bad health status. Many people suffered at the hands of the others. Lots of property were lost as most of the families were disbanded the members either ran for their safety or were killed. Life in the camps turned out to be harsher than prisons within such camps.

Works Cited

Tryuk, Malgorzata. "Interpreting in Nazi concentration camps during World War II." Interpreting 12.2 (2010): 125-145.

Goeschel, Christian, and Nikolaus Wachsmann. "Before Auschwitz: the formation of the Nazi concentration camps, 1933-9." Journal of Contemporary History 45.3 (2010): 515-534.