Concentration camps escapes

by Thengol

I have just watched Son of Saul and was wondering if there exists any number of how many people that escaped concentration camps? How did they manage to escape? Where there riots like the one in the movie?

energicing

I was in Auschwitz a few months ago. As far as i can remember there were maybe a dozen people who made it out alive, the most famous one being Witold pilecki. Some people in the surrounding villages helped the escaped prisoners by offering them shelter (some even helped the ones still being imprisoned, by smuggling in food etc...). Every time someone escaped all inmates had to stand in formation untill the missing inmates were found or shot (this could go for hours and anybody who moved was shot immedietly).

There weren't a lot of revolts. Many prisoners indirectly resisted by hiding art, poetry, diaries, etc.... Guards were rarely assaulted. There was one major uprising in September 1944. Apart from that there were a few other attemps of uprisings, but they were either discovered early or swiftly crushed. In September 1944 the soviets were about to reach Auschwitz and the Nazis tried to kill as many people as possible in the gas chambers. The ones who they couldn't kill in time were sent in death marches later to bring them somewhere else. The members of the Sonderkommando knew at least partially about this plan and begann smuggling weapons and ammunition into the camp. On 7th September they set 2 crematoriums ablaze (1 was destroyed the other one damaged if i remember correctly). Some hundred inmates escaped, but almost all of them were shot or killed. They killed several SS men and wounded another few (once again im not sure anymore, but i think our tour guide mentioned 6 or 7 dead SS men). In the end everyone who took Part in the uprising was killed.

Now you might ask why there wasn't more resistance: there are multiple reasons.

  1. Many prisoners were too weak to Fight.
  2. There were no weapons to be found. Smuggling them in was extremely dangerous and difficult. The guards also wouldn't hand out tools to prisoners whom they did not trust.
  3. The brutal efficency of the guards: often certain parts of the camp were executed at once (for example: the czech part of the camp). In those cases the entire part would be filled with guards and seperated from the rest. Sometimes the prisoners wouldn't even have to work, because all guards were busy guarding this one portion of the camp. That way the SS could ensure that there was no trouble, while the people were lead to the gas chambers.
  4. Organzing and uprising or trying to escape was a death sentence. Trying to escape or organzing an uprising was extremely dangerous. Being caught meant immediate death. And your best hope was to escape the camp. And then what? The inmates knew that barely anyone who escaped survived longer than 48 hours.
  5. The revenge of the SS: even if you managed to escape and survive. Your friends and family were still imprisoned and they would be executed as an act of revenge. Trying to escape also meant that you kill your friends and family.

https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/the-final-solution/auschwitz-birkenau/resistance/

https://www.ushmm.org/research/the-center-for-advanced-holocaust-studies/miles-lerman-center-for-the-study-of-jewish-resistance/medals-of-resistance-award/auschwitz-revolt

http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/revolt/sonderevolt.html