Why did Jews start going to concentration camps?

Answer 1

The longer version:

Civilian Jews went to concentration camps. Combatant Jews were generally held with combatant gentiles in prisoner of war camps. Some exceptions in the Eastern front where often the Jews were separated from other soldiers.

But i think you are meaning the civilian Jews:

Due to the Nuremberg Laws Jew's rights were gradually taken away until the Jews themselves were taken away, for the most part they were taken to 'Jewish Quarters' of some cities, most often called 'Ghettos'.

From the Ghettos MOST were killed. Some, generally the strongest, the fittest, those who could do manual labour, were admitted into camps, where most of these were worked to death.

The reasons as to why, are not agreed upon. The leading theories are:

1). It was part of a 'racial' war, to eliminate Jews from society. (The Intentionalist argument).

2). It was an organic result, that faced with millions of Jews from Poland and the East, and the choice of whether to feed these people, or feed the Army fighting against the Soviets, the Germans were forced into this position. (The Functionalist argument)

Answer 2

The Germans were in a tough financial era and Hitler thought that it might help the Jewish people were blamed since they were some of the richest people in Germany at the time. Then, the Germans turned on the Jews. The people thought that Hitler was going to evict the Jews out of their homes and take their money so they could give money to them. So the Jews were forced o live away from everyone else. Then they realized that the Jews had taken some of their own precious items, and they decided to put all the people away from everyone and everything so they could do whatever they wanted to them and no one would ever find out. The other people around the world were not blamed for Germany's financial problems so they were doing okay except for the fact that the Nazis were going to kill them all. If they had the chance to. Which they thought they did until they were starting to attacked by just about everyone in the world except for Japan and I think Korea.

Answer 3

At first they would be branded by sewing the numbers onto their uniforms, but as Auschwitz expanded the tattooing started but the practice of sewing their brand onto their uniform carried on.

Here are some of the codes used:

AU: soviet prisoners of war

Z: Gypsies

EH: Prisoners not adequate to work so they were sent to Labour Training camps.... these brands were part of the A + B series

SU: Soviet Union

A and B series: Regular Jews Each letter symbolising 20 000 jews, the Nazi's wanting to work down the alphabet until each series 'exterminated'.

Answer 4

Hitler and his Nazi state were horribly antisemitic. They believed that Jews were the reason for the failure of Germany, economically and in World War I. Hitler once said that if they had disposed of even just 60,000 Jews, Germany would have won the first war.

Jews were firstly discriminated against, people stopped buying things from their shops, stopped talking to them, some random acts of violence. Then, they were put into gettos, horribly crammed and with never enough food. Then Hitler demand one of his right hand men, Heinrich Himmler, to finally find a solution to the 'Jew problem'. Jews were removed from the gettos using violence and forced to go to these concentration camps. The able bodied people were given jobs in the camps, used as free labour and in harsh conditions. The older, sick, disabled were sent to death.

Answer 5

The short story: The Nazi party's racial policies that were established in the Nuremberg Laws.

The longer version requires a degree in German History.