As I am spending a lot of time researching Auschwitz, it keeps being mentioned Jews were brought for labor, while they would kill those not suitable for work. What kind of work would a prisoner be forced to do while in the concentration camps?
Were Jews the only people brought to Auschwitz to work?
Primo Levi's book Survival in Auschwitz provides an excellent account of life in the camps, including some explanation of the forms of labor that the prisoners were obligated to perform.
Prisoners were employed in a range of capacities, often industrial in nature, but also related to the day to day functioning of the camps themselves. Some prisoners, the sonderkommando were forced to dispose of the prisoners executed via gas chamber, while others were employed in the expansion and construction of the camps themselves. Outside of the camp, the prisoners were often pressed into service with industrial concerns or munitions manufacturers that were located in close proximity to the camps. In the case of Auschwitz, the I.G. Farben corporation had a synthetic rubber plant near the camp that utilized a significant portion of the available slave labor pool.
It is interesting to note that the varying sorts of employment among prisoners conferred different opportunities or benefits such as improved access to food, clothing, or bartering materials.