Roll call area

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Appellplatz (sometimes spelled appelplatz) is a compound German word meaning "roll call" (Appell) and "area" or "place" (Platz). In English, the word is generally used to describe the location for the daily roll calls in Nazi concentration camps.
Twice, and as many as three times daily in the early days, inmates were rounded up here and counted. The morning roll calls usually took an hour, the evening roll calls invariably lasted much longer.

Formally the roll calls were to demonstrate bureaucracy and control. The SS kept a daily record of the number of inmates – dead or alive. They were counted by block following a special procedure and the barrack elder then reported the numbers to the SS Blockführer (command staff) who would make sure these were correct before notifying the SS Rapportführer (senior command staff).

Yet over and above this organisational aspect the roll calls were to stage power and subordination. The inmates stood to attention in perfectly straight rows both sides of the square. And they were made to stand there come sunshine or rain.

The roll calls did not follow any particular rules but were held at the discretion of the SS who also decided on their duration. Anyone who disregarded this almost ridiculously exaggerated display of military discipline was physically abused. The SS forced inmates to obey absurd rituals of “salute” such as the “hats off, hats on” which was compulsory for inmates whenever they met an SS man, and which during roll calls they were made to repeat as many as twenty times and more.

More than anything else these roll calls meant daily harassment and torture for the inmates, especially when they lasted indefinitely – which happened quite sporadically.

Stefan Krukowski, a Polish detainee, recalls:

There was yet another kind of pastime. Roll calls that lasted for several hours. Sometimes there was a reason for them, when someone had tried to escape. We would be kept standing there until we were complete (again). (Once Gusen was on the roll-call area for three full days). At other times, though, they were more like military drills. Rainy days were a favourite time for those. We stood there for hours until we were soaked to the skin and could hardly lift our feet off the ground. Meanwhile, several candidates for the crematorium had been collected behind the block. A sudden order and we were marched back to our blocks, shaking. By this time the block and room elders had unhinged one of the window wings – for fresh air of course.
Executions were also performed on the roll-call area as a special kind of power demonstration. Mostly, inmates were executed who had successfully escaped but were later caught again.