Presentation of the slideshow The slideshow is composed of many photos, mainly of the camp, and to 6 differents parts The introduction of the presentation, by Laure The historical context, by Gwendolène The description of the camp, by Matthieu Prisoners living conditions, by Laetitia Museum, by Thomas The opinion of Mr.Moulin, by Chloé And the slideshow, by Manuel

Introduction of the presentation When we arrived, we began to visit the European Parliament in Strasbourg. After have spent a night in the youth hostel, we left it at nine o’clock to travel an hour towards Struthof, a concentration camp.

When we were finally arrived, how surprised when we discovered that there was snow! But snow is very often synonym of cold and unfortunately we didn’t have really hot stuff. We began the visit with the guide who remembered us, before visited the camp, what happened during the Second World War. During about two hours, he explained us what happened in this camp reserved for men. Then he showed us the different places and their functions, we learnt prisoner’s living and working conditions… Finally, he described us a typical day in this camp. After the two hours of the visit which was outside we went back to the bus frozen but not without opinion about what we just had seen. Indeed, things which had taken place in this camp and in other concentration camps are really inhuman and … So as the guide said we have to pay attention at our choice, not to let as terrible things take place again.

Historical context On April 21st, 1941, the Nazis opened a concentration camp near Struthof under the order of Himmler : the KL- Natzweiler camp. It is located 6O kilometres from Strasbourg, in France. They sent political deportees, Jews, Resistance fighters, Gypsies and homosexuals over there.

They wanted to have people to exploit the pink granite in the quarries. The first deportees arrived there in convoys from Sachsenhaussen camp on May, the 21 and They built the first huts of this camp. It was declared a forbidden area and it was completed in October Over there, deportees became sub-humans : They were classified and humbled. Generally, the deportees arrived at Rothau, eight kilometres from the camp and they walked up to the camp on the road which was built by the first deportees.

52,000 deportees were sent there : 30 different nationalities from all over Europe. The largest number were Poles then there were Russians and French. 22,000 deportees died there. This camp was one of the most severe concentration camps. The average age of the deportees was 20. The youngest was aged 11 and the oldest was aged 78. They were badly fed and badly dressed. The winter was very cold and the summer hot without shade. The mortality rate was 40 percent. The average internment time in the camp was between one and six months. The area of the camp is 4.5 hectares. It consisted of the quarry, the quarry barracks, the kitchen block, the deportees' huts, the sand quarry, the camp enclosure, the ravine of death, the Ehret Villa, the crematory block, the cell block, the roll-call squares, the gallows and the gas chamber. On November, the , the Allies discovered the site evacuated by the Nazis since September. Today the camp is a commemorative site.

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Description of the camp « Place des appels » It is the place where every day, prisoners were called. If a prisoner could not give his number, he was kicked with a piece of wood by a kapo. Prisoners were called in summer as well as in winter even if the outside temperarure was below 0 degre, the call could last for hours.

The shacks of the prisoners The living conditions in the camp were inhuman and terrible, the deportees slept on a carpet with a very thin coverage. They were a lot of them in each block. Each block had two toilets, a large sink and a dormitory.

The gibbet It was used to kill prisoners who tried to escape from the camp. The executions were done in public to show what could happento the ones who tried to escape.

The cell blocks Prisoners were put in these blocks during days, generally they were 18 in each block so they could not even sit. They were given food only every four days wich a disgusting liquid mixture. The sentenced to death were put in group of three or four in a very small cell.

The kapo, to be cruel, could push a prisoner behind a border line, and a sentinel had orders to shoot every person crossing this line.