Each portion—soup, bread, Zulage—has precisely enough calories, just enough nutrients, absolutely necessary to maintain life. To maintain it, not to protect it. The latter isn’t important at all. They calculate the häftling’s capacity to work and his lifespan as a matter of months. When he drops dead, the securely locked trains will spew out more well-fattened, fresh goods. Calorie calculations at death camps are the work of diligent and untalented German scientists, the product of methodical German experimentation and absurdly detailed digging and delving.
