answersLogoWhite

0


Best Answer

The sole purpose of extermination camps was to kill as quickly and efficiently as possible. The were 'industrial' killing centres.

___

Often the terms concentration camps and extermination camps (or death camps) are used interchangeably. The sole purpose of extermination (death) camps was to kill. They were not labour camps.

For example, at Belzec (extermination camp), 434,508 Jews and an unknown number of Roma ("Gypsies") were murdered, and only two(!) are known to have survived, while over 80% of those who entered Dachau (concentration camp) emerged alive (though it doesn't follow that they all survived World War 2, as some were moved to other camps, where they perished). At Chelmno, too, there were only two known survivors.

Concentration camps were used as:

  1. Punishment and deterrent camps (for example, for Communists, socialists, liberals and other opponents of the Nazi regime, also for 'habitual criminals' and for homosexuals).
  2. Forced labour camps, where Jews and others were ruthlessly exploited as slave labour and often worked to death on grossly inadequate food.
  3. Resistance fighters from occupied countries.

Two camps - the Auschwitz group and Majdanek were both extermination camps (death camps) and concentration camps. At Auschwitz, in particular, some people among each trainload of new arrivals were selected (chosen) as 'fit for work'. The others - who were mainly children under 15, visibly pregnant women, or sick or elderly people were killed as soon as practical because they were a "waste of a space".

Extermination camps

  1. Key part of Auschwitz II (Birkenau)
  2. Belzec
  3. Chelmno
  4. Majdanek (part only - used as a 'back up' killing centre when other camps couldn't cope with the numbers. The rest was one of the most vicious concentration camps, where guards went on frequent killing sprees, clubbing prisoners to death)
  5. Sobibor
  6. Treblinka II

In addition, Maly Trostinets (near Mink, Belarus) and Janowska (near Lviv or Lemberg, in Ukraine) are often regarded as an extermination camps.

To avoid misunderstanding, it should be stressed that the death toll at all the main concentration camps was high. Most of the prisoners had to do hard manual labour on insufficient food, and killer diseases, such as typhus, were common. For example, the death toll at Stutthof (near Danzig/Gdansk) is estimated at 65,000; and an estimated 50,000 died at Bergen-Belsen, about 75% of these as the result of a typhus epidemic in 1945.

Extermination (death) camps were used only for the purpose of killing, usually by gassing. In many death camps, when they functioned efficiently, the new arrivals were taken straight from the trains to huts where they had to hand over their possessions and undress. They were then taken to the gas chambers and their corpses were cremated or buried in mass graves. These camps were 'death factories'. Very few people indeed survived these camps. (Most survivors from Auschwitz are from the various labour camps in the Auschwitz complex).

Some prisoners were moved from Auschwitz (in particular) and Majdanek to other camps.

User Avatar

Wiki User

12y ago
This answer is:
User Avatar
More answers
User Avatar

Wiki User

12y ago

They only held the Japanese in the concentration camps, the dint kill them off. They could have a life in the one square mile of a home. They killed off the Jews in the Nazi concentration camps.

This answer is:
User Avatar

User Avatar

Wiki User

8y ago

Concentration camps were used for forced prison labor, while extermination camps were built to kill all prisoners.

This answer is:
User Avatar

Add your answer:

Earn +20 pts
Q: What were the differences between Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps?
Write your answer...
Submit
Still have questions?
magnify glass
imp
Related questions

What was the deference between the concentration camps and the extermination camps?

concentration camps are prisons in a sense where as extermination camps are like death row u will certainly die in a extermination camp.


Which of the following describes a difference between concentration camps and extermination camps in nazi Germany's?

Concentration camps were used for forced prison labor, while extermination camps were built to kill all prisoners.


What are the two types of concentration camps that exist in nazi Europe?

The key distinction was between extermination camps and labour camps ("ordinary" concentration camps).


What two types of concentration camps in the holocaust?

The key disinction is between 'ordinary' concentration camps (such as Dachau or Buchenwald) and extermination camps such as Treblinka and Sobibor. The sole purpose of extermination camps was to kill. Note that Auschwitz and Majdanek combined both kinds of camps.


What was different between the extermination camps and the concentration camps?

Technically all camps were within the concentration camp system, there were labour camps, transit camps and extermination camps. Concentration camps were generally intended for civillians, initially just for criminals, but gradually more types were included. Extermination camps were established about seven and a half years after the first concentration camps. They were much smaller than the average concentration camps (Auschwitz is an exception as it was both), as they only held enough inmates that were needed to opperate the gas chambers/vans and the cramatoria.


The Nazi's established what?

Ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps.


What was the difference between the concentration camp and extermination camp?

Technically all camps were within the concentration camp system, there were labour camps, transit camps and extermination camps. Concentration camps were generally intended for civillians, initially just for criminals, but gradually more types were included. Extermination camps were established about seven and a half years after the first concentration camps. They were much smaller than the average concentration camps (Auschwitz is an exception as it was both), as they only held enough inmates that were needed to opperate the gas chambers/vans and the cramatoria.


Why did they called it concentration camps instead of death camps?

All camps were technically concentration camps, generally the extermination camps were called 'death camps'.


How were concentration camps kept secret?

Ordinary concentration camps were not secret. Only the small number of extermination camps were secret.


What were the names were the concentration camps?

Dachau and Ravensbruch <><><><> There were more than 40 Concentration camps, including 11 that were extermination camps.


What two concentration camps had revolts that closed the camps?

Two extermination camps (not ordinary concentration camps) were closed after revolts: Treblinka and Sobibor.


What is the difference between a Concentration camp and an Extermation camp?

A Concentration camp was used to torture or force their prisoners to work. An extermination camp was where they were all systematically murdered in mass quantities, and in horrific ways. (An extermination camp was also known as a death camp.) I hope this helps you.