What were the names of the concentration camps during the Holocaust?

Answer 1

Concentration Camps, Extermination Camps and other kinds of Nazi camps

There were three 'grades' of concentration camps - I, II and III, with III being the harshest.

• Grade I concentration camps, such as Dachau.
• Grade II concentration camps, such as Buchenwald.
• Grade III concentration camps, for example, Auschwitz I.
• Extermination camps - such as Auschwitz II (Birkenau), Treblinka II, Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and a key section of Majdanek. These were off the scale and top secret.
• Transit camps, where prisoners were held before being sent to other kinds of camps.
• Incredible as it may sound, there were also concentration camps for 'unruly' young people. At first the minimum age was 12, but it was later lowered to 8 and then 2! The mind boggles ...
• There were also some specialized camps. For example, at one time Bergen-Belsen was used as a dumping ground for sick prisoners.

In addition, there were camps for foreign forced labourers. By mid 1944 there were 5.7 million foreign forced labourers in Germany, mainly from Poland and the Soviet Union, but also from France and other countries. They were housed near their places of work, usually in small camps. These people were in effect kidnapped from countries like Poland and Ukraine and forced to work for the Germans. Some were sent to work in various concentration camps.

Obviously, prisoner of war (POW) camps formed a different category. On the whole, British and American POWs were treated more or less in accordance with international law; Soviet and Polish POWs were treated appallingly badly.

Please see the related question below.

Answer 2

There were different kinds of camps, and the function of the older camps changed over time. # The first camps were set up in 1933. They were all punishment camps mainly for opponents of the Nazi regime. They soon became notorious for horrific brutality. In addition to genuine opponents, some other people were sent there - for example, people who had offended local party bosses and so on. Since the purpose of these camps was to terrorize would be opponents of the regime, information about what went on there was allowed to get out. Most of the camps established in the early months were temporary and were closed down within a few months. However, Dachau remained. Most of these camps were notsecret, though the precise details of what went on were 'hush-hush'. In fact, Himmler launched Dachau at a press conference. # In the late 1930s a section of the SS set itself up as a kind of business entreprise. It was at this stage that the systematic use of prisoners as slave labour on loan to business began. # Following the 'Night of the Broken Glass' (9-10 November 1938) about 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps. By Christmas 1938, two thousand of them were dead. The main purpose was to bully them into leaving Germany. # The Nazi invasion of Poland meant that the Nazis made what they called their 'Jewish problem' much bigger. They also had to deal with the Polish resistance. Initially, Jews were herded into ghettos, which were sealed off from the surrounding areas. # In 1940 the first big concentration camp in Poland - Auschwitz - was established, initially as an exceptionally harsh forced labour camp for uncooperative Poles and members of the Polish resistance. # From late 1941 onwards extermination camps were set up in Poland. These were intended mainly for the extermination of the Jews.

Answer 3

See the attached link.