The Nazis established approximately 70 types of concentration, transit, forced labor, and death camps. Despite deliberately dehumanizing conditions, starvation, and the overwhelming presence of death, prisoners struggled to sustain themselves through spiritual or cultural life. 

Daily camp life was cruel and dangerous. Food rations were inadequate. Many of the incarcerated were forced to labor in backbreaking construction projects or armaments production. To preserve their humanity, despite the danger, prisoners attempted forms of spiritual resistance, including clandestine religious rituals. Others maintained underground Jewish cultural and educational activities. On rare occasions, prisoners managed to send letters home. Of necessity, these were in code, as their content was subject to censorship.