Decidedly Grim

Today’s Restricted Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

The “standing bunker” was a cruel specialty at Auschwitz concentration camp. The Political Department ran the main camp’s block 11. No inmates lived in the block, which was always locked. Its basement served as a prison. In addition to 28 cells, the basement held the standing bunker, the collective name for four cells, each smaller than a square meter. A prisoner ordered to the standing bunker had to crawl through a small opening near the floor. The cell was dark with only one air hole. The condemned was locked into the standing bunker, where he could not lie down, for a number of nights, while having to march to work during the day. When several inmates were imprisoned in one of the standing bunkers, the already restricted space became even tighter. A prisoner could be sentenced to several nights in the standing bunker if he had relieved himself behind a building or had picked fruit from a tree near his workplace.

Culled from: Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp

I’m not even particularly claustrophobic and this one made me start to have a panic attack!

Facts