Why did death marches occur?

Answer 1

As the Soviet Army approached the Auschwitz complex of camps, the SS tried to move the prisoners, on foot, westwards to Gross-Rosen. The prisoners were already weak from undernouishment and the forced march took place in the winter. Many died. (There were also death marches from other camps). Death marches is a name given to the forced movement of prisoners that resulted in high casualties along the route. Stalag IIB was evacuated and moved during the last days of the war(similiar to conditions described above). The most famous one was the transfer of the US Army prisoners captured in the Phillippines soon after the US entered the war. After their capture on the pennisular of Bataan, the Japanese marched them north to prison camps without enough food and supplies for them. Many died along the route but many others who could not keep up with the pace were shot or bayonetted. This became known as the Bataan Death March.

Answer 2

Death marches(evacuations) were done for three main purposes:

#1. The S.S. officers did not want the prisoners to remain alive so that they can tell their stories of what they had to go through in these camps to the Allied Armies.

#2. The S.S. thought that prisoners needed to maintain the production of the armed equipments whenever it was needed.

#3. Some S.S. leaders thought that they can use Jewish prisoners as hostages to make an agreement to separate peace in the West that would help them go on with their Nazi regime.

-These prisoners had to be pushed deeper within Germany so that they can all die because the Nazis made it official that none of them can survive.

Answer 3

To keep the Jewish prisoners frightened. It was one of the many scare tactics used in the concentration/death camps.