Appellplatz (also spelled as Appelplatz) means "the place for
roll call" in the
German language, used in English in its
Holocaust context.The roll calls were called by the German word Appell. This was one of the dreaded words of a day. Upon the call the inmates had to arrange themselves into neat columns, and this process could take several hours. After that the command "Attention! Caps off!" followed. From this moment on, any slight disorder in the rows could lead to heavy beating or death. "When the
SS-man passed by nobody dared even to breathe," writes Oliver Lustig.
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