What was the actual formula for survival in the Nazi concentration camps


 It is impossible to think that someone managed to live in those Nazi camps. They were constructed to kill therefore survival mostly consisted of a great deal of chance, a small degree of skill and to a great extent, luck.The first big factor was the fact that I was Jewish. Chance of survival was very low in the eyes of the Jews; the majority were sent to be killed immediately. The non-Jewish prisoners such as the political prisoners stood a slightly upper hand since the Nazis did not always kill them at once, but usually placed them in labor.


In case you managed to survive the killing of the first round, your occupation, or better to put it to be your “Kommando, became very significant. An appropriate skill was a buffer skill. The Nazis needed doctors, mechanics and clerks. They might receive better conditions or shelter, and so prevented the difficult labor, like in the very cold rock quarries.


No man survived to himself. That never happened. Soon survivors organized themselves in little gangs to assist one another. They took the little food they had, advised bad guards, and kept the spirits of one another. Connection with humans was needed, since desperation was a disease that could perhaps kill you just like starvation did.

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