Prisoners from across Nazi-occupied Europe were forcibly deported to Auschwitz in nightmarish conditions: crammed into freight cars, with no water or food, traveling for days on a journey that sometimes proved deadly.
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In many cases, the people suffering this journey had already been subjected to other cruelties including inhumane imprisonment in ghettos, legal and social marginalization, humiliation and degradation, and grueling years of internment in other concentration or forced labor camps. Then they arrived at the long platform known as The Ramp (Die Rampe).
At the end of The Ramp stood several SS doctors who—in mere seconds—decided the fates of the prisoners who came before them. Sometimes they delivered immediate life-or-death verdicts; other times, they questioned prisoners about age, occupation, and health.
If an SS doctor pointed to one side, the person whose life was in question joined those who were fit for work. If he pointed to the other side, it meant immediate execution. Approximately 75-80% of people who were deported to Auschwitz were sent to the gas chambers in the first selection, as soon as they arrived.
Children and the elderly were often automatically deemed unfit for forced labor and sent to the gas chambers. The same was often true of mothers with small children and people who were considered weak or sickly. Selection also determined which people would be tortured and killed as “test subjects” in pseudo-scientific experiments.
During the selection process, prisoners were forced to surrender to the SS the few belongings they carried. Their baggage was piled on the platform to be subsequently sent to Germany and sold there.
Living beyond the first SS selection did not guarantee survival. More than 50% of the people interned in Auschwitz died—whether they were executed, or died of starvation, exhaustion, torture, disease, pseudo-scientific experiments, or the harsh conditions of daily life and slave labor in the camp. The average life expectancy did not exceed a few weeks after imprisonment. Many people died without knowing the fates of their families or friends.