Upon entering a camp, the Jews were separated. They were separated into women, children, working age, men, and the old. Furthermore, the children were separated into three age groups: "(1) infants and toddlers up to age 6; (2) young children ages 7 to 12; and (3) adolescents from 13 to 18 years old" (www.mtssu.edu/.baustin/children.html). Women, children who fall in the first age group, and the elderly were usually immediately sent to the gas chambers upon arrival to the camps. Children in the second age group were assessed. If they were able to do work, they were sent into the camp and if they were unable to work they were sent in line for the gas chamber. Those children who fell in the third age group were often kept alive to do work in the camps. Those who refused or were unable to work were also sent to the gas chambers or just shot in the head right on the spot. .
Life for children in the camps was extremely difficult. Often children were separated from their families and were forced to live in cells, tents, and fenced in cages with 50 other Jews witch they may not know. Once again, living conditions in the camps were those of the ghettos with an added stench of dead bodies and the disease that came from them. Children were usually sent to get the daily food for their cell. They had to walk down the narrow dirt paths and look at the ground. If they looked at a guard, they could be beaten or denied of their food. .
Perhaps one of the greatest hardships children had to pay was the emotional and physiological toll it took on them. Even before their arrival at the camps, they were forced to witness their parents being arrested beaten and taken from their homes. Many of the children did not understand what was happening or why it was happening. Then once they did arrive at the camps, they were separated and place with people they did not know. Many of them became orphans within hours of their arrival.
