Nazi German concentration and death camps

Konzentrationslager (KL) was a German term and abbreviation added to different locations were special facilities were being created in order to imprison dozen of thousands of prisoners who were used as forced labour or exterminated in gas chambers or any other way during WWII by Germans serving the 3rd Reich authorities.

The system of camps comprised more than 1,200 camps which enslaved and anihilated milions of citizens of European states in between 1933-1945.

It should be underlined that Poles whose territory was divided in 1939 by Germans and Soviets in half, were one of the most persecuted groups as far as German oppresive system of concentration camps is concerned. The very first transport to Auschwitz was composed of Poles from Tarnów, a town in east-southern occupied Poland. 

During WWII Polish nation lost 17% of their citizens i.e. 6 mln people 

(3 mln Polish Roman-Catholics and 3 mln Jews with Polish citizenship). 

Poles were victims never the oppressors in this terrifying system of the German mass extermination policy.

It might be added that certain concentration camps had their specificity as for the imprisoned. For Poles, KL Mautchausen remained a concentration camp for the elites („Vernichtungslager fur die polnische Intelligenz” – a deatch camp for the Polish elites; the term used by SS members who were supervising the construction of Mautchausen-Gusen), KL Ravensbruck – a camp where Polish women were being transported in great numbers (40,000 imprisoned; 32,000 died), KL Dachau – a camp where Polish priests and members of the clergy were taken and exterminated.

The process of extermination of subpeoples in the Hitler’s eyes such as Poles, Jews, Gypsies, Slaves conducted since the beginning of WWII by Germans seemed nevertheless to be too slow as not as many people were eliminated as German authorities had wished to.

That is why in 1942, Germans decided to accelerate the pace of mass elimination of undesired members of their planned Realm of Europe. Till 1942 only concentration camps operated, since 1942 death camps were the solution to quickly end up with the Jewish population. The idea to create death camps was developped by Heinrich Himmler and confirmed at the Wansee Conference and therefore  is to be understood as the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.

Most of sites where the Nazi German Concentration and Death camps were located during WWII may be accessed for a comprehensive study and research about the horror of Hitler’s Germany citizens and followers.

Please find below a short list of some of the concentration and death camps with Internet links to the Museums sites respectively.

German camps

Name of the camp	Type of the camp	Built and operated by	Number of exterminated people	Further reading
Auschwitz	Concentration camp and death camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	1,3 mln (total number with Birkenau victims)	Auschwitz
Birkenau (Auschwitz II)	Concentration camp and death camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	1,3 mln (total number with Birkenau victims)	Auschwitz
Sobibór	Death camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	180,000	Sobibór
Treblinka	Death camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	800,000	Treblinka
Bełżec	Death camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	500,000	Bełżec
Chełmno	Death camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	200,000	Chełmno
Mauthausen/Gusen	Concentration camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	122,000	Mathausen
Bergen-Belsen	Concentration camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	70,000	Bergen-Belsen
Stutthof	Concentration camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	65,000	Stutthof
Dachau	Concentration camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	148,000	Dachau
Sachsenhausen	Concentration camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	200,000	Sachsenhausen
Buchenwald	Concentration camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	56,000	Buchenwald
Majdanek	Concentration camp	Germans, 3rd Reich	78,000	Majdanek

The map below shows the location of the camps.



What was a concentration camp?

A special designated area with buildings created or already adapted to serve as housing barracks for the imprisoned. Prisoners were detained in unbearable conditions forced to work 12 hours a day without proper nutrition not to mention proper clothing. The majority could not stand such inhuman treatment and died shortly after the arrival and exposure to such „niceties”. Many survived and looked like live skeletons upon the liberation of the camps by the Allied forces.

What was a death camp (also known as extermination camp)?

A special chosen, mostly secluded place where facilities were being build or adapted to serve as a place for detention and then anihilation of large groups of people. Gas chambers and crematoriums were KEY INSTALATIONS which served as final stop for the captured. Cyclon B gas was used as a means to intoxicate the prisoners brought to a place that looked like a shower area. After the intoxication, bodies were being gathered by a special Kommando to crematoriums where bodies were being burnt. 

Death camps were planned to exterminate most of the Jews of Europe. It should be remembered that 6 mln Jews lost their lives because of the Hitler's devil racial policy in concentration and death camps, mass executions and many more "unrefined" ways.

Image source: Internet

Source: Youtube.com 

Read more:

• Snyder, Timothy (2010). Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. New York: Basic Books.
• Chris Webb: The Sobibor death camp. History, Biographies, Remembrance. Stuttgart: ibidem-Verlag, 2017.
• http://auschwitz.org/en/bookstore/