Despite the Germans’ attempts to isolate their prisoners from both the outside world and each other, complex networks of communication existed in the Nazi concentration camps and death camps. Although the mix of nationalities and languages made it difficult for the prisoners to organize themselves, prisoners who worked in the kitchen or in camp administration were able to spread news quickly throughout the camps. News about the war or relatives at other camps was passed through prisoners who came into contact with the local population or with prisoners from other camps. In this way, covert information, and sometimes even small objects or weapons, were passed along under the watchful eyes of the German guards.
Within the camps, communication between prisoners was often severely punished by the guards. Nonetheless, in a world where the authorities tried to strip the prisoners of their identity, simple conversation was an act of resistance, as well as a basic survival strategy. Most conversations occurred in the barracks at night. Stories of German losses boosted the morale of the prisoners, but most often they spoke about what life would be like should they survive, or talked about their lives before the war. Families, music, and the comforts of home were typical subjects. Survivors of the Holocaust have remembered conversations in which they recalled every last detail of a peacetime event, imagined the tastes and smells of preparing a meal, or heard, in their minds, an entire symphony.
