Nazi concentration camps were constructions developed during the Nazi Germany who are extremely well-known for imprisoning and promoting the extermination of Jews during World War II. In camps for the execution of Jews (extermination camps ), Jews were executed in gas chambers .
Summary
Nazi concentration camps were developed between 1933 and 1945 and were particularly known for housing and executing Jews during the Holocaust in World War II. Concentration camps were well known for taking advantage of the work of Jews and putting them in inhumane situations, being malnourished, victims of mistreatment and all kinds of abuse.
Of the concentration camps, the extermination camps (built in Poland) stand out, which executed Jews in carbon monoxide gas chambers or from Zyklon B . The largest Nazi death camp was the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp , responsible for the deaths of 1.2 million people.
Also see: Learn about the history of concentration camps built in the USA
What are concentration camps?
Concentration camps are military constructions designed to imprison people, whether these are prisoners of war or political prisoners. The concentration camps were used with the objective of segregating certain political groups, social classes or foreigners from the rest of the population.
The main objective of this text is to focus on the history of the concentration camps developed during Nazi Germany in the period between 1933 and 1945. The Nazi concentration camps were characterized by the strong security, the targeted mistreatment of imprisoned Jews, and the development of infrastructure for the mass execution of this ethno-religious community.
History of the concentration camps
Throughout the history of mankind, concentration camps have existed in other countries and at other historical moments. The Nazi concentration camps, however, are the most famous for the full extent of the massacre promoted by them during the Holocaust. Over time, concentration camps were built in places like:
-
Cuba , during the colonial period;
-
Africa from South , during the Boer War;
-
German South West Africa (former German colony and current Namibia), during the massacre promoted by the Germans against the Herero and Namaqua;
-
Soviet Union , during the Stalinist period. There they were called gulags;
-
Bosnia during the Bosnian War. They were built by Serbs to imprison Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims).
Nazi concentration camps
Concentration camps have been present in the history of Nazi Germany since the moment when Adolf Hitler came to power in that country in 1933. In that year, the government approved the construction of concentration camps. concentration to contain the great political opponents of the Nazis:the Social Democrats andcommunists .
The first Nazi concentration camp was Dachau, which received Social Democrats and Communists. Despite the Jewish majority of prisoners, the history of Nazi concentration camps is closely related to other non-Jewish groups . The first Nazi camps were assigned to receive mental patients , handicapped , criminals etc.
Jews didn't start being sent to concentration camps until 1938, when a pogrom was held in Germany against them known as the Crystal Night. At that moment, the Nazi concentration camps took their cruelest face by using the Jews as slave labor and executing them in the gas chambers .
Nevertheless, it is important to state that even before the Nazis executed people in concentration camps during the “euthanasia program ”, known as Aktion T4 and aimed at the execution of the physically and mentally handicapped with the objective of forming a “pure” society. In this “euthanasia program”, around 70,000 people were killed, mostly in carbon monoxide gas chambers.
Nazi concentration camps did not arise unexpectedly , but they were fruits of planning and forethought . This is evidenced by the fact that, throughout his political career, Hitler spoke about the need to build these camps to “shelter” the Jews.
Also see: Discover the history of the massacre of Poles committed by the Soviets
Holocaust
Gateway to Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp. The portal says “work sets you free”.
Holocaust (or Shoah , for Jews) is the name given to the genocide promoted by the Nazis against Jews during World War II. During this war, about six million Jewish people were killed by the Nazis (the number is estimated to be higher due to registration failures). The Holocaust was the conclusion of a process of violence and exclusion promoted by the Nazis against Jews since the 1930s.
The realization of the Holocaust took place in different stages, which included the shooting of Jews through death squads and, finally, their execution through the gas chambers built in the extermination camps. Gas chambers were implanted in these locations when the Nazis realized that shooting was not a “proper” means of execution.
Thus, six extermination camps were developed, the purpose of which was to promote the execution of Jews on a large scale. The camps were:Auschwitz , Belzec , Chelmno , Majdanek , Sobibor and Treblinka , all located in Poland.
Other camps built by the Nazis are classified by historians as concentration camps or labor camps. In these places, Jews were put to work and kept in very poor conditions. They were subjected to abuse and received very poor food. Jews were beaten for futile reasons, and prisoners were summarily executed when they committed a “crime” or even without doing anything wrong.
Holocaust historians estimate that in the six death camps approximately died:
-
Auschwitz-Birkenau :1.2 million people
-
Treblinka :800 thousand people
-
Belzec :600 thousand people
-
Chelmno :300 thousand people
-
Sobibor :250 thousand people
-
Majdanek :80 thousand people
The horrors of the Holocaust and the acts committed in the Nazi concentration camps were known to many already during the Second World War, but it was not until after the conflict that more details about the Holocaust were revealed. spread around the world.
*Image credits :Everett Historical and Shutterstock