Muzulman

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Inmates of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp after the liberation

Muselmann (pl. Muselmänner, from the German: Moslem) was a term used among inmates of World War II Nazi concentration camps to refer to those suffering from a combination of starvation (known also as "hunger disease") and exhaustion and who were resigned to their impending death. The Muselmann inmates exhibited severe emaciation and physical weakness, an apathetic listlessness regarding their own fate, and unresponsiveness to their surroundings.

The term is similarly found in the Polish language (Muzułmanin). Its possible derivation is attributed to a supposed similarity in the Muselmann's inability to maintain an upright posture, thus spending much of the time recumbent or prostrate, recalling the position of Muslims during their prayers.

The term spread from Auschwitz-Birkenau to other concentration camps. Its equivalent in the Majdanek concentration camp was Gamel (derived from German Gammeln - colloquial for "rotting") and in the Stutthof concentration camp, Krypel (derived from German Krüppel, "cripple").

The psychologist and Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl, in his book Man's Search for Meaning, provides the example of an inmate who decides to use up his last cigarettes (used as currency in the concentration camps) in the evening because he is convinced he won't survive the Appell (roll call assembly) the next morning; his fellow inmates derided him as a Muselmann. Frankl contrasts this with the dehumanized behavior and attitudes of the Kapos as two examples where the desperate conditions in the camps like famine and forced labor can bring out the worst in an individual.