Concentration Camps of World War II
The term "concentration camp" mostly refers to a camp in which people are imprisoned in, usually under very harsh and inhumane conditions. In these camps, there is no regard to usual legal rules of arrest that are tolerable in a constitutional democracy. In Nazi Germany, between the years of 1933 and 1945, concentration camps were a fundamental feature of the government.
Arrival of political prisoners at the Oranienburg concentration camp in
Oranienburg, Germany on 1933.
Arrival of political prisoners at the Oranienburg concentration camp in
Oranienburg, Germany on 1933.
Soon after Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany in January of 1933, the first concentration camps were being established throughout the cities of Germany. In the weeks after the Nazis had come into power, the SA (Sturmabteilungen in Germany; better known as Storm Troopers), the SS (Schutzstaffel; Protection Squadrons-the guards of the Nazi party), the police, and local civilian supremacy worked together to organize innumerable detention camps to imprison real and recognized political opponents of the Nazi policy.
After December of 1934, the SS had quickly become the only agency that was authorized to inaugurate and manage facilities that were officially called "concentration camps," however local civilian authorities had continued to initiate forced-labor camps and detention camps throughout Germany. In 1937, only about four concentration camps were left standing and running: Dachau, which was near Munich, Sachsenhausen, near Berlin; Buchenwald, near Weiman; and Lichtenburg, which was near Merseburg in Saxony, created for female prisoners.
Expansion of Concentration Camps
As Nazi Germany expanded, due to bloodless conquest between the years of 1938 and 1928, the numbers of those whom were labeled as "political opponents and social deviants" had increased greatly. This required the installation of many new concentration camps. By the time the German army invaded Poland in September 1939, causing the official start of World War II, there were about six concentration camps in the Greater German Reich. They included Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Flossenbürg in northeaster Bavaria near the 1937 Czech border, Mauthausen near Linz, Austria, and Ravensbrück, a women's camp which was created in Brandenburg Province after the termination of Lichtenburg.
People who were mostly targeted in the concentration camps were those in the Jewish faith. Hitler argued that they were to be blamed of the downfall of the German pride and success. The concentration camps quickly became sites where the SS authorities had the permission to kill targeted groups of real or perceived enemies of Nazi Germany. The conditions were harsh, with no food and little rest. Many were killed due to their inability to work, including young children, women, and the elderly. In the end, only a few survived the hardships of what came to be known as the Holocaust, the death toll reaching about six million, giving it the title of the deadliest genocide ever.