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Nazi Concentration Camps
Nazi concentration camps were prevalent during WW2 from 1933 to 1945. The last camp was disbanded in 1945. Questions and answers about Nazi Concentration Camps can be found here.
1,725 Questions
Opinions on concentration camps?
Appalled, horrified, amazed at the cruelty of man. The liberation of the camps in Germany in 1945 was, as above, horrifying. the startling fact was that the Russians had already 'liberated' camps in Poland in 1944. Astoundingly they said nothing about them. The idea of extermination on this scale was undrempt of: it is sad to say the first example of a concentration camp is in the Boer war in South Africa, by the British, at the turn of the 20th century.
How were people killed in the Auschwitz death camp?
Auschwitz-Birkenau became the killing centre where the largest numbers of European Jews were killed during the Holocaust. After an experimental gassing there in September 1941 of 850 malnourished and ill prisoners, mass murder became a daily routine. By mid 1942, mass gassing of Jews using Zyklon-B began at Auschwitz, where extermination was conducted on an industrial scale with some estimates running as high as three million persons eventually killed through gassing, starvation, disease, shooting, and burning ...
9 out of 10 were Jews. In addition, Gypsies, Soviet POWs, and prisoners of all nationalities died in the gas chambers. Between May 14 and July 8,1944, 437,402 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz in 148 trains. This was probably the largest single mass deportation during the Holocaust.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany's largest concentration and extermination camp facility, was located nearby the provincial Polish town of Oshwiecim in Galacia, and was established by order of Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler on 27 April 1940. Private diaries of Goebbels and Himmler unearthed from the secret Soviet archives show that Adolf Hitler personally ordered the mass extermination of the Jews during a meeting of Nazi German regional governors in the chancellery. As Goebbels wrote "With regards to the Jewish question, the Fuhrer decided to make a clean sweep ..."
Which part of Auschwitz did Otto Frank get separated from his family?
What methods of extermination were used in the camps?
Gassed, shot or they just starved to death. Others were used as slaves.
How much land was there at the Auschwitz concentration camp?
With All 3 main camps alone, the total land areas was 40 sq Kilometers=15.4441 Sq Miles = 430,556,416.67 Sq Feet.
If you include all the Sub-camps and the Factories where they worked then total land area of about 60 sq Kilometers = 23.166 Sq Miles.
How many survivors were there in Dachau concentration camp?
Approximately 200,000 people survived auschwitz concentration camps , most of them was Jews, Soviet POWs and couple of gypsies and 1 or 2 homosexuals.
What happened in the Nazi concentration camps?
Actually, the term concentration camp can be quite misleading and most people think that that's where the mass murdering was carried out. In fact it was forced labor, be it the testing of boots (by marching on the spot for hours) or quarrying or working in the armaments industry. The labor was long and hard. Some camps had been active from before the war.
It's the extermination camps like Auschwitz II (Birkenau) and Treblinka which are notorious for mass murder, but Auschwitz also had a labor side to it.
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There were different kinds of camps ... There were 'ordinary' concentration camps and these varied somewhat in harshness. However, they were all intended as punishment and forced labour camps.
At some camps, especially in the early days (up to the outbreak of World War 2), there were humiliating initiation ceremonies, followed by whippings.
Hard labour on inadequate food was standard. Punishments for breaches of the camp rules carried severe penalties.
One of the most degrading and tedious features of camp life was roll-call (at least twice a day). It often took 90 minutes to 2 hours or longer. The prisoners had to stand to attention throughout ... If a prisoner collapsed from the heat in summer or the cold in winter, nobody was allowed to give any help.
At the extermination camps the majority of new arrivals were gassed as soon as possible after arrival. Some prisoners were 'selected' for hard labour and worked to death.
Try reading Night by Elie Wiesel and/or Eugen Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell. Both authors survived concentration camps. (Kogon, who had sharply criticized the Nazi regime, survived six years in Buchenwald. The book first appeared in German in 1947. Parts of the original manuscript were presented as evidence by the prosecution at Nuremberg).
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In the early days there were 'initiation ceremonies'. New arrivals had to kneel for 3-4 hours with their hands on their heads; guards urinated on some of them; then the new arrivals were taken away and whipped (15 or 25 lashes) ...
The prisoners had to do heavy manual labour. Punishments were savage.
In many camps, those who disobeyed were tortured or whipped. At some camps the guards tied the wrists of 'awkward' prisoners behind the back and hoisted them off the ground.
From about 1941 onwards, the Nazis adopted a policy of working prisoners to death - at least in the harsher camps. (There were three 'grades' of camps, varying in harshness, plus extermination camps).
Concentration camps in Belgium?
Breendonck is the only one; no sub-camps are known of. Breendonck was a "waiting" camp (Auffangslager) designed to receive Jews and political prisoners before their transfer to Germany. ___ The author, Jean Améry, was held and tortured at Breendonck before being sent to Auschwitz. In addition to being a transit camp it was also an "intensive interrogation centre". In practice, some prisoners were held indefinitely at Breendonk and were not transferred. It was liberated early in September, 1944, which made it one of the first camps liberated by the Allies.
What were the cabins in concentration camps called?
In Holocaust and related literature the long huts are (misleadingly) called barracks. This is a mistranslation of the German word Barracke, which means (prefabricated) hut.
If the Jews were fed in the concentration camps then why were they starving?
Because they were fed very little - and nowhere near enough. If you had to live on a concentration camp diet you, too, would be starving ...
What ways did Germans use to get Jews into concentration camps?
The point was that the Germans did not do that kind of thing. They set up Jewish councils in the ghettos so that the Jews had to bear the responsibility of sending their own to their deaths.
They had a few ways of dealing with the issue; at the start they were told that they were being re-located.
When younger fitter groups were called for, it was clear that they were part of a work detail.
They were also told (for example in Lodz) that if they gave up their children, then the adults could live. Or on other occasions the elderly would go to save the younger people.
How did liberation of concentration camps impact ww2?
The liberation of the concentration camps did not impact WW2 at all. POW camps and slave labour camps were also liberated, servicemen were able to return to their units, but that was the limit of the impact.
What did Japanese die of in the Concentration camps in World War 2?
Some Japanese Americans died in the camps due to inadequate medical care and the emotional stresses they encountered. Several were killed by military guards posted for allegedly resisting orders.
What was the purpose of building Auschwitz?
Gas chambers
Pits/Graves to dispose the gassed/Burned bodies
Area where people worked from agriculturing to moving heavy pieces of metal
Barracks with concret blockes where the prisoners to sleep on
So basically Auschwitz was a killing/Slave working camp
Chelmno was destroyed by the Nazis when the Soviet Army approached, and there was nobody left to liberate there. Treblinka and Belzec were also destroyed by the Nazis. (In the case of Treblinka and Belzec the Nazis even tried to turn the site into agricultural land). Sobibor was destroyed after a rebellion by the inmates.
The Nazis also blew up key installations at Auschwitz-Birkenau as the Soviet Army approached.
How many football pitches could fit in the perimeter of Auschwitz?
"36 football fields could fit in side auscgwitz"
Um no? A football field is 57600 sqaure feet including the end zones. Auschwitz is approximately 11.7 square miles.100,000,000 square feet is approximately 3.7 square miles. 57600 square feet is0.0020661157 square miles.0.0020661157x=11.7
x=5662.8 fields
What happened if you try to escape from the concentration camps?
The main principal behind the use of concentration camp inmates was what was called at the Wansee Conference "Annihilation by work". They worked the inmates until they literally dropped dead, and frequently at pointless or futile tasks. Not all inmates were so used, however. Some were sent to sorting rooms to sort shoes, jewelry, clothing and anything else taken from new arrivals. All of these people were ones who had passed the initial "selection" upon arrival at the camp. The very young, the very old and the obviously sick or infirm were gassed immediately.
Did children in the death camps know what was going on?
To answer your question it is important to understand that there were 'only' six 'death' camps (extermination camps). The rest were concentration camps which had a ifferent function, although a large number of people died in them. The six camps were: most of the Birkenau section of Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek (part) , Treblinka and Sobibor . These were all built in Poland and designed to liquidate the Jewish and gypsy population of Europe.
These were set up in 1941-42 as part of the 'Final Solution'. It is accepted that no-one, adults and children alike, had any idea what was to happen to them until the last possible moment. On arrival by rail at the camp the unfortunates were greeted by smiling, friendly guards who explained that they were to be re-settled in this new town that was being built for them. They were then escorted to the proccessing sheds where they were invited to leave their belongings while they had a shower and were de-loused. They were then taken to changing rooms where they left their clothes folded neatly in cubicles and filed into the 'shower' rooms. Only when the gas-tight doors were shut and the Zyklon-B gas canisters dropped did the occupants guess something was amiss. These camps existed for no reason other than extermination. This was carried out, normally, within a few hours of their arrival and all signs of their fate were removed prior to the arrival of the next train-load. The Nazis employed Poles, Ukrainians and Serbs, as well as some Jewish slave labour. All were instructed to keep their mouths tightly shut when dealing with the new arrivals and to smile at all times in order to keep up the pretence.
At Auschwitz some prisoners were worked to death. Auschwitz was a complex of about 48 camps, and of these part of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) was a camp of the kind described above. Usually, prisoners were sorted quickly on arrival: able-bodied adults (usually 15+) were chosen for slave labour, and the rest (the old, sick, very young and visibly pregnant women) were gassed as soon as possible.
Did the concentration camp become death camps for the Jews?
The majority of the concentration camps established by the Nazis were designed and constructed to operate as efficient factories for the mass production of death. Those taken there, predominantly Jews, were enslaved, degraded, humiliated, starved, mutilated, tortured, violated, and killed. Millions arrived. Few departed.
How many concentration camps still exist as museums?
Key sections of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau are now museums.
What do Auschwitz and Dachau and Buchenwald have in common?
They were all Nazi concentration camps. In addition, part of Auschwitz was an extermination camp.
In World War 2 were there Canadian survivors of German concentration camps?
Yes, If you wonder why i know because...My grandpa was in it and he helped his friends escape and they were shot while escaping... he escaped and didnt go back... they classified him dead but i didnt he was with me. i asked him " how many people survived" he said about 300 people in the 3 years!! hope that helped
How many Jews where killed by Mass Shootings by the SS Death Squads?
29,000,000 people ___ That is way, way above any normally accepted figures. The highest figure I've seen is 2 million.
