The Nazi concentration camps not only subjected inmates to extreme physical abuse but also utilized forced sporting activities as a method of torture. Guards forced prisoners into exhausting tasks like push-ups and leapfrogs, often resulting in physical collapse, while humiliation further ensured control. The hierarchy among prisoners affected their treatment, with political prisoners enjoying slightly better conditions than the severely oppressed Jewish inmates, homosexuals, and others. Under such exhausting and traumatic conditions, many lacked the time and energy to engage in sports as a form of resistance or recreation, and their existence was characterized by malnutrition and disease.
The guards ordered prisoners to do push-ups or leapfrogs, or to run until they collapsed from exhaustion. This was repeated day after day.
The daily camp routine would have allowed no time for this. The inmates were generally malnourished and often afflicted by fleas, lice and scabies.
Membership of a particular group also largely determined the conditions of imprisonment and the chances of survival. Political prisoners or professional criminals were better off.
Those who were higher up in the hierarchy were less often harassed by the guards, got better supplies and had a better chance of surviving.
#nazi-concentration-camps #sports-as-torture #hierarchical-oppression #prisoner-treatment #historical-analysis
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