Life+in+the+Death+Camp




 * Life in the death camps was dark and depressing. Jack Mandelbaum was sent to a concentration camp when he was fifteen. He and his best friend Moniek stuck together and did whatever they could to outlast the Nazis. Food and water were the main priority for survival, but those were the main things that the Nazis were not giving them. One piece of bread and a cup of water was the most they would get in one day. So taking matters into their own hands Jack and Moniek volunteered to be the cooks for the meals of the Nazi soldiers. Starving, they had to steal food to survive, but they had to be careful. If they made it too obvious that food was missing they would be killed. So they had to steal small amounts of food, just enough to survive and gain strength. **


 * When Jack and Moniek had almost returned to full strength from stealing food, the guards of their camp were given orders to send everyone in the camp on a death march. There were no horses, so Moniek and Jack were assigned to pull the wagon of supplies. They began to grow more and more weak as the miles went on. No many survived death marches. They often died from starvation or exhaustion, or were shot in the back by guards. Jack and Moniek began to think their luck was going to end, but suddenly the Nazi guard’s orders changed. They were told to bring the prisoners to the death camp called Doernhau. The prisoners slowly changed their course and dragged themselves step by step till they set foot into a giant crowd of people. Moniek and Jack did not hear anyone speaking their language. The camp was filled with Austro-Hungararian Jews, mostly starving and sick. Typhus was spreading like wildfire. Dazed and confused the two were separated. For the first time in a long time Jack had to fight to survive alone. **


 * For three weeks Jack had to sleep on a cold concrete floor crammed into a small barracks. The sound of bombs and machine guns echoed through the night, signs that the allies were coming. He lived off a single cup of soup each day and was slowly becoming weaker and weaker. Afraid to catch typhus from the Jewish prisoners, the Nazi guards were afraid to enter the camp. So they watched from the towers, leaving Jack alone to worry about the gang of Hungarian Jews who beat down and stole other Jewish prisoner’s food. By the end of the third week Jack was a walking skeleton. He had no energy to even walk. He laid on the concrete floor of his barracks waiting for his time to die. The last night of the third week the Nazi guards forced the Jews into the barracks and locked them in over night. The next morning as the prisoners began to awake they heard no sound. Jack helped a Hungarian pick the lock of their door and stepped outside to make sure the coast was clear of guards. The camp was deserted. The towers were empty. Jack helped pick the locks of the other barracks and finally found his best friend Moniek. The prisoners poured into the center of the camp and began working together with the little strength that they had to open the entrance to the camp. The gate slowly swung open and the prisoners just stared at the open world ahead of them. Jack and Moniek slowly stepped out, being the first ones to leave the camp. Leaving the camp Jack was 5ft 7inches tall and weighed eighty pounds. **