One of the most terrifying and brutal torture methods used throughout History was their
oubliette.
Many of these can be found inside of medieval castles, and these are dungeons and cells
in which a prisoners was left inside of and was left to rot and die.
It was an execution, and was a death sentence as when someone was placed in the oubliette,
there was noway they would get out.
Often inside the oubliette, further cruelty could be added with spikes in the bottom of
the dungeon which would cause further pain, and the remains of the person who perished
in the oubliette before would still be there.
But the Nazis during the Second World War sw the oubliette and dungeons and they decided
to bring in this form of torture and punishment into the concentration camps, to inflict immense
suffering onto the inmates.
Join us today as we look at the torture of the oubliettes of the concentration camps,
and remember to support our channel please make sure to subscribe.
Oubliettes in their most primitive senses were dungeons which were small and tight spaces.
For example at Warwick Castle, the oubliette there is a hole in the basement of the prison,
in which a prisoner could lie down and could not stand up.
Inside here rats would literally eat someone alive as they were starved and left for dead.
This dungeon in particular was so feared that during the 100 years war, the French captured
prisoners heard of its reputation.
There was also an oubliette in the Tower of London where prisoners such as Guy Fawkes
were held, and this was a tiny room built into the side of a wall where prisoners were
forced to crouch all day and night, and could not stand up.
There was a terrifying psychological element of the oubliette, but the Nazis during the
Second World War would implement this style or torture into the concentration camps.
The standing cell of Stehlbunker was used by the NAzis and also the soviets who referred
to them as a Kisha.
There were many different standing cells and oubliettes found inside of concentration camps
inside Hitler’s Germany.
At Oranienburg Concentration Camp in 1933 before the war had broken out, the SA camp
commandant Werner Shafer had two standing cells built into the basement of the punishment
block, and these specific cells were so small that a prisoner could only stand.
They were forced to stand for long periods of time, and this was used on an inmate known
as Neumann who was held inside the standing cell for 192 hours and he was driven insane
by his impriosnment there.
The prisoners of Oranienburg were also held inside of coffin sized closets where they
could stand only, and this form of punishment was used at Oranienburg.
But after the war had come to an end, there were many accounts given by former prisoners
held in tiny cells such as oubliettes or the Stehbunker, and a number gave evidence as
to how their ordeals were inside of these dungeons.
There were standing cells also found at Auschwitz, and the guards of the largest concentration
camp would administer the punishment for prisoners who and it was the decisions of the Camp commandant,
Rudolf Hoss how long someone would stay inside of the standing cells.
If a prisoner had committed a serious offence, then a prisoner could have been held there
for a number of weeks, and even up to 6 weeks inside of the cells.
Some inmates were kept inside the cells for asking for more food as they were starving.
But some inmates who picked fruit from trees that grew around the camp were also placed
in the standing cells.
Some times for first offences people were held for 3 days, but then it could be weeks
depending on how serious it was.
At Auschwitz, the guards would use a one yard square cell and these were found inside of
the torture block.
The prisoners were forced inside these, and some were held for up to 20 nights and they
were then only released during the day to complete work.
They got no break at all, and the cells only had a 2 inch hole for air to come into, meaning
that prisoners could hardly breathe.
Sometimes more than one inmate was held inside of the cell making conditions even worse,
and it was purposely made so that an inmate could not sit down or get any respite.
One survivor of Auschwitz, Josef Karl stated that he was held inside the standing prisons
for 6 weeks, and during this time he was only given 3 meals and when he was released he
was starving to death.
He claimed that he even saw one of his fellow prisoners eat their shoes as they were so
desperate.
Rudolf Hoss the Commandant of Auschwitz would later claim that the punishment inside the
standing cells was only limited to 3 nights at a time, however through the testimony of
witnesses we know that his was wrong.
It was administered inside of Block 11 at the camp, the torture centre, and it was closeby
where prisoners were executed up against the death wall, the firing range where thousands
lost their lives.
Dachau Concentration camp was a site which was closely associated with torture and the
mass suffering of inmates.
Guards here inflicted severe punishments on the inmates, and the camp opened on the 22nd
March 1933 and it was originally planned to house political prisoners.
But thousands of people were sent to Dachau and its 100 sub camps, but the guards in all
of the sites were incredibly violent and brutal.
In public, floggings and whippings took place and it was said of one incident that, ‘‘Two
prisoners who had stolen cigarettes were sentenced to 25 lashes each with the whip.
Two prisoners were led forward by their block leader.
Two block leaders carried out the punishments, one prisoner utter no sound.
The other prisoner behaved differently, crying out at the very first stroke.
When the man began to scream I went hot and cold all over, even the beating of the first
prisoner made me shudder.’
Each day during roll call, the prisoners were forced to wait for hours, and the harsh punishment
continued.
If someone had died in the night, their body was dragged into the roll call yard, and they
were included in the barrack numbers.
But the standing cells were part of the fear of Dachau, and this was used to punish inmates
for a variety of rule breaks.
They were placed inside the Stehbunker for many different reasons, and in the cells at
Dachau there was a small hatch on top of the cell for air, and there was a narrow door
with an iron bar which was bolted across, securing the inmate in.
The cells at Dachau were the type which only housed one prisoner, and this oubliette style
room measured 30 inches by 31 inches across, and this was like being stuck inside a chimney
for days sometimes weeks on end.
One prisoner of war held in the cells at Dachau said, ‘‘It was a terrible state, as I
thought that it was over for me.
Everything was so callous and distant for me, I couldn’t lie down, couldn’t crouch,
the best was to stand, stand six days and six nights long.
You touch the walls on both sides with your elbows, your back touches the wall behind
you, your knee the wall in front of you.
This is no punishment of pre-trial detention, it is torture.
Straight forward, Middle Ages torture.
I had bloodshot eyes, numb from bad air.
I was just waiting for the end.’
The entrance to the standing cells of dachau was very small, and someone was forced to
crawl into the site, and the door was around 2 feet square and it was made from wood.
Behind the door were metal bars, and the prisoner had to get on their hands and knees and crawl
into the cell, and then stand up.
Once they were stood up, there was no room for them to move and they were locked in the
position standing up.
Their back would be pressed against the back wall, and their knees would also be touching
the wall in front, and their elbows were wedged to the side walls.
But they were then kept inside this position at Dachau for 72 hours, and at this time the
prisoner would have to sleep standing up, and they were sometimes fed measly rations
of bread and water, but most of the time they were not fell.
This was similar to an oubliette, as inmates were systematically starved to death, and
sometimes the Nazi guards and the commandant sometimes made the decision to use the cells
as an execute method and people were condemned to die and were never given a chance to come
out after they were starved to death.
Some prisoners were brought out to conduct 10 hours of hard labour before they were thrown
back in.
Sometimes prisoners were also at Dachau not given any water, and when they were let out
to do hard labour they would tell the other inmates of the torture.
One prisoner who was held inside of the standing cells at Dachau was Joannes Neuhasler, who
was held inside them for 3 days.
During this he was given one single scrap of bread, and on the fourth day he was taken
from the stehbunker, and he was then allowed to sleep on a wooden cot style bed.
Following this he was then locked back inside of the bunker to spend another 3 days.
A Czech Prisoner was forced to spend 8 days inside the cell at Dachau, and sometimes inmates
were given a break to allow the guards to hose down the cells as they would urinate
and defecate in the cell.
This could obviously cause disease and further problems inside of the torture block.
Yurij Piskunov was another man held inside of the standing prison.
He was arrested by the gestapo suspected of sabotaging German trains, but then inside
of Dachau he found a German newspaper.
He tried to take this into the camp, as the news from outside the camp was valuable to
the inmates.
But this was then discovered and he was locked in the standing cells, and he recalled, ‘It
was dark wherever I turned I immediately came up against a wall.
I could only sit a little by learning my back against one of the walls and with my knee
against the opposite wall.
I was very frightened and did not know if I would come to live the next morning.
It was damp and cold in the cell.
This is how a day would pass.
Then they began to mock me.
When the food was brought, the SS office forced me to bark or grunt like a dog on all fours
and scolded me ‘a filthy Russian pig.’
He always had his whip reach, if something did not please him he would whip me immediately.
All I could do was turn to the all mighty, so that he would take my soul and save it
from these torments.’
He was held for 10 days inside, and he was brutalised by his ordeal.
The following day after his release he spat blood, and even caught TB but he managed to
survive the war.
So the Nazis inside of the concentration camps utilised medieval style torture methods inside
concentration camps which they applied what torturers used centuries before to inflict
such pain and suffering.
The Oubliettes were a horrific torture method which has to be one of the worst in history
as someone was left to rot and left to die.
It had a huge psychological effect and because of this prisoners were driven mad.
Imagine being locked into a tiny chimney sized space, where you could not move, and had to
stay stood up all day.
It would be hell.
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