“Sport”
Prisoners were frequently compelled to perform exhausting physical exercises that the SS men and prisoner functionaries called “sport.” Despite the name, the goal was not improved physical fitness, but rather terrorizing the prisoners, forcing them to be submissive, and subjugating them to camp discipline. One of the most frequent “exercises” was squats (kniebeugen) repeated at a high tempo counted out by an SS man or functionary. A variation was remaining in a squat position for a prolonged period, often with the arms outstretched or held over the head, or with the hands clasped behind the head. Other popular forms of “gymnastics” were squat‑thrusts, frog‑marching (hüpfen) often for distances of several score meters, prolonged rolling back and forth along the ground (rollen) even when it was muddy or snow‑covered, and “dancing” (tanzen), which meant spinning around one’s own axis with the hands over the head or outstretched—at times, the “dancers” were also made to move from place to place. Prisoners who could not keep up were beaten unconscious.