Part 2: CampsInformation coming primarily from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Early on within the Nazi regime, they built a series of "incarceration sites" to imprison and, ultimately, eliminate anyone who was perceived to be an "enemy of the state." It's important to note that the earliest prisoners were political prisoners: German Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats—as well as Roma (Gypsies), Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and persons accused of "asocial" or socially deviant behavior.
|
The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy.
|
|
Types of Camps
- Concentration camps: For the detention of civilians seen as real or perceived “enemies of the Reich.”
- Forced-labor camps: In forced-labor camps, the Nazi regime brutally exploited the labor of prisoners for economic gain and to meet labor shortages. Prisoners lacked proper equipment, clothing, nourishment, or rest.
- Transit camps: Transit camps functioned as temporary holding facilities for Jews awaiting deportation. These camps were usually the last stop before deportations to a killing center.
- Prisoner-of-war camps: For Allied prisoners of war, including Poles and Soviet soldiers.
- Killing centers: Established primarily or exclusively for the assembly-line style murder of large numbers of people immediately upon arrival to the site. There were 5 killing centers for the murder primarily of Jews. The term is also used to describe “euthanasia” sites for the murder of disabled patients.
Concentration CampNazi concentration camps served three main purposes:
Transit CampsJews in Nazi-occupied lands often were first deported to transit camps en route to the killing centers in German-occupied Poland. The transit camps were usually the last stop before deportation to a killing center. |
Forced Labor CampsGermany was trying to produce a mass amount of goods in a short amount of time with the war. To accomplish this, Nazi Germany opened up forced-labor camps that required Jews (among a few other populations) to work in order to stay alive. However, Many forced laborers died as the result of ill-treatment, disease, and starvation. Killing CentersTo help carry out the "Final Solution" (the genocide or mass destruction of Jews), the Nazis established killing centers in German-occupied Poland, the country with the largest Jewish population. Killing centers were designed for efficient mass murder. |