The women’s camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, B1A

Photo: Alan Jacobs

Women in the cold, in the women’s camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau, B1A, probably just before the Appel, or Roll Call. The only well-fed woman in the scene is at lower left with the armband CAPO. Capos were prisoners themselves and work supervisors or foreman. They held the power of life and death over their charges. Many of them were very brutal, even beating inmates to death. Some others helped the prisoners where they could, though this was difficult and perilous.

Painting: Janina Tollik
Reproduction courtesy of Auschwitz Museum Archive, 1980