Today, many people have some knowledge of the terrible and cruel acts that took place in the Nazi concentration camps in Germany and Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Similarly, those who became victims of Nazi violence in those times had some idea of the grim fate that awaited them. You might expect that their initial reaction upon entering these camps would be fear, but their reactions were divided into three distinct phases.

The first phase started as soon as the prisoners arrived at the camp or while they were being transported there. They were so shocked by what they saw that they desperately tried to convince themselves that everything would be okay. Despite hearing horrifying stories about the camps, when they found themselves there, they convinced themselves that things would be different for them. For instance, when people arrived at the death camp Auschwitz, they were separated into two groups as they got off the train: one for hard labor and one for immediate execution. However, none of them knew what these groups meant. The shock of being in the camp made them believe that the line they were in might somehow save them from certain doom.

During this first phase, prisoners who hadn’t yet become accustomed to the camp’s horrors were very frightened by everything that was happening. New arrivals couldn’t handle the intense emotions of witnessing other prisoners being punished in brutal ways for minor offenses. Confronted with grotesque brutality, they lost hope and began to see death as a kind of relief. In fact, many considered suicide as a way to escape their suffering, even by trying to grab the electrical fence around the camp.