ND+Q1

What is a concentration camp?



(Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum)

A concentration camp is a camp where people (usually prisoners of war, refugees, or political prisoners) are detained. Nazi concentration camps changed drastically in layout and function over time, as well as in the type and number of prisoners they contained. The original concentration camps (1933 to 1934) contained mostly political opponents, and there was less killing of inmates than in the later camps. In 1938 the number of prisoners per camp rose from 3,000 to 24,000. A year before, about 2,000 criminals were arrested and sent to various camps. Many of the people that were sent to the camps at this time were considered social outsiders. The Germans used concentration camps as a method of seperating people they considered inferior. In 1938, 2,000 Jews were imprisoned at Buchenwald and another 1,000 joined them shortly after. By the end of the year, 30% of the prisoners at Buchenwald were Jews. Starting in 1942, the two main goals of the camps became mass extermination and forced production of ammunition - mass extermination would eventually prevail. There were four extermination camps - Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Though they were closed by the conclusion of 1943, 1.5 million Jews were killed in those camps. After 1942, Auschwitz and Majdanek became concentration and extermination camps (Nikolaus Wachsmann 18-31).

For more information, click here. Danielle Sponseller