Room Five: Labor/ Concentration/ Death Camps at the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust
This is the fifth room of the museum.
"The relatively few people not selected for death experienced their own processing. They too were separated from their possessions and stripped naked. The Nazis herded them into real showers, then handed them striped uniforms and wooden shoes. They ultimately found themselves living in labor camps. These work camps varied in size and purpose. Many of them contained their own killing facilities. Depending on the size and needs of the camp, these camps either fed the killing camps, or received prisoners from other camps nearby. Living conditions were subhuman. During their imprisonment, workers were sent to factories, quarries, roads, farms, or any other enterprise that needed workers. Guards supervised every minute of the prisoners’ lives and routinely brutalized or killed the workers for the slightest reason, or none at all. Work proceeded from sun up to sun down and in every season. In addition, regardless of the weather, prisoners regularly reported for roll calls and head counts conducted whenever and in whatever manner the guards’ wished. To the left of the 18 camp interactive monitors sits the model of the Sobibor Death Camp, designed and built by Holocaust Survivor Thomas Toivi Blatt. Mr. Blatt escaped from Sobibor during a prisoner-led revolt in 1943. This revolt is described in his book "From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival". Donated to the Museum in 1978, the detailed model depicts the Sobibor Camp as it looked prior to the 1943 revolt. Above the model are two screens which play a video of Mr. Blatt explaining the model and recalling his experiences at Sobibor. Thomas Blatt is one of only fifty survivors who escaped Sobibor and survived to the end of the war.”
"The relatively few people not selected for death experienced their own processing. They too were separated from their possessions and stripped naked. The Nazis herded them into real showers, then handed them striped uniforms and wooden shoes. They ultimately found themselves living in labor camps. These work camps varied in size and purpose. Many of them contained their own killing facilities. Depending on the size and needs of the camp, these camps either fed the killing camps, or received prisoners from other camps nearby. Living conditions were subhuman. During their imprisonment, workers were sent to factories, quarries, roads, farms, or any other enterprise that needed workers. Guards supervised every minute of the prisoners’ lives and routinely brutalized or killed the workers for the slightest reason, or none at all. Work proceeded from sun up to sun down and in every season. In addition, regardless of the weather, prisoners regularly reported for roll calls and head counts conducted whenever and in whatever manner the guards’ wished. To the left of the 18 camp interactive monitors sits the model of the Sobibor Death Camp, designed and built by Holocaust Survivor Thomas Toivi Blatt. Mr. Blatt escaped from Sobibor during a prisoner-led revolt in 1943. This revolt is described in his book "From the Ashes of Sobibor: A Story of Survival". Donated to the Museum in 1978, the detailed model depicts the Sobibor Camp as it looked prior to the 1943 revolt. Above the model are two screens which play a video of Mr. Blatt explaining the model and recalling his experiences at Sobibor. Thomas Blatt is one of only fifty survivors who escaped Sobibor and survived to the end of the war.”
Works Cited:
"Virtual Tour - LAMH." Virtual Tour - LAMH. Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust , n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2017. <http://www.lamoth.org/exhibitions/virtual-tour/>.