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The Holocaust: Camps

Camps

Types of Camps

Many people refer to all of the Nazi incarceration sites during the Holocaust as concentration camps. The term concentration camp is used very loosely to describe places of incarceration and murder under the Nazi regime, however, not all sites established by the Nazis were concentration camps. Nazi-established sites include:

  • Concentration camps: For the detention of civilians seen as real or perceived “enemies of the Reich.”
  • Forced-labor camps: In forced-labor camps, the Nazi regime brutally exploited the labor of prisoners for economic gain and to meet labor shortages. Prisoners lacked proper equipment, clothing, nourishment, or rest.
  • Transit camps: Transit camps functioned as temporary holding facilities for Jews awaiting deportation. These camps were usually the last stop before deportations to a killing center.
  • Prisoner-of-war camps: For Allied prisoners of war, including Poles and Soviet soldiers.
  • Killing centers: Established primarily or exclusively for the assembly-line style murder of large numbers of people immediately upon arrival to the site. There were 5 killing centers for the murder primarily of Jews. The term is also used to describe “euthanasia” sites for the murder of disabled patients.

LIBERATION OF NAZI CAMPS

As Allied troops moved across Europe against Nazi Germany in 1944 and 1945, they encountered concentration camps, mass graves, and other sites of Nazi crimes. The unspeakable conditions the liberators confronted shed light on the full scope of Nazi horrors. 2020 marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of prisoners from Nazi concentration camps and the end of Nazi tyranny in Europe.

KEY FACTS

  • 1 Soviet forces liberated Auschwitz—the largest killing center and concentration camp complex—in January 1945. 

     

  • 2 American forces liberated concentration camps including Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenbürg, Dachau, and Mauthausen.

     

  • 3 British forces liberated concentration camps in northern Germany, including Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen.

Treblinka

TREBLINKA

To carry out the mass murder of Europe's Jews, the SS established killing centers devoted exclusively or primarily to the destruction of human beings in gas chambers. Treblinka was among these killing centers. It was one of three killing centers linked to Operation Reinhard, the SS plan to murder almost two million Jews living in the German-administered territory of occupied Poland, called the General Government. View This Term in the Glossary

KEY FACTS

  • 1 In November 1941, SS and German police authorities in the General Government View This Term in the Glossary established a forced-labor camp for Jews, known as Treblinka (later referred to as Treblinka I).

     

  • 2 The killing center, referred to as Treblinka II, was constructed in the summer of 1942. It was the third killing center, after Belzec and Sobibor, established by Operation Reinhard authorities.

     

  • 3 By the time the Treblinka killing center was dismantled in the fall of 1943, the camp personnel had murdered an estimated 925,000 Jews, as well as an unknown number of Poles, Roma, View This Term in the Glossary and Soviet POWs.

     

Treblinka became one of three killing centers created as part of Operation Reinhard (also known as Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard). It was first established as a forced-labor camp. 

In November 1941, under the auspices of the SS and Police Leader for the Warsaw District in the General Government, View This Term in the Glossary SS and police authorities established a forced-labor camp for Jews, known as Treblinka. This camp was later referred to as Treblinka I. It also served the SS and police authorities as a labor education camp for non-Jewish Poles whom the Germans perceived to have violated labor discipline. Both Polish and Jewish inmates, imprisoned in separate compounds, were deployed as forced labor. The majority of the forced laborers worked in a nearby gravel pit.

In July 1942, the authorities of Operation Reinhard completed the construction of a killing center, referred to as Treblinka II. Treblinka II was intended for the extermination of Warsaw's Jews and located in the Warsaw District of the General Government. View This Term in the Glossary However, because it was part of Operation Reinhard, it was administered by Odilo Globocnik. Globocnik was the SS and Police Leader of the Lublin District. 

When Treblinka II commenced operations, the two other Operation Reinhard killing centers, were already in operation. These killing centers were Belzec and Sobibor.

Dachau

DACHAU

Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its allies established more than 44,000 camps and other incarceration sites (including ghettos). The perpetrators used these locations for a range of purposes. These purposes included forced labor, detention of people deemed to be "enemies of the state," and mass murder. Millions of people suffered and died or were killed. Among these sites was Dachau, the longest operating camp.

KEY FACTS

  • 1 Established in March 1933, Dachau was the first regular concentration camp established by the Nazi government.

     

  • 2 Dachau became a model for all later concentration camps and served as a training center for SS concentration camp guards.

     

  • 3 The number of prisoners incarcerated in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 exceeded 200,000. Scholars believe that at least 40,000 prisoners died there.

The Dachau concentration camp was established in March 1933. It was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist (Nazi) government. Heinrich Himmler, as police president of Munich, officially described the camp as "the first concentration camp for political prisoners."

It was located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the northeastern part of the town of Dachau, about 10 miles northwest of Munich in southern Germany. On March 22, 1933, the first prisoner transports arrived at the camp.

During the first year, the camp had a capacity of 5,000 prisoners. Initially the internees were primarily German Communists, Social Democrats, trade unionists, and other political opponents of the Nazi regime. Over time, other groups were also interned at Dachau, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Roma (Gypsies), gay men, as well as "asocials" and repeat criminal offenders. During the early years relatively few Jews were interned in Dachau and then usually because they belonged to one of the above groups or had completed prison sentences after being convicted for violating the Nuremberg Laws of 1935.

Chelmno

CHELMNO

To carry out the mass murder of Europe's Jews, the SS established killing centers devoted exlusively or primarily to the destruction of human beings in gas chambers. Chelmno was among these killing centers. It was the first stationary facility where poison gas was used for the mass murder of Jews. 

The village of Chelmno (Ger.: Kulmhof) is located about 30 miles northwest of Lodz along the Ner River, a tributary of the Warta River in today’s west central Poland. Under German occupation in World War II, Chelmno was located in the Wartheland administrative unit (seat Poznan/Posen). SS and police authorities established the Chelmno killing center in order to annihilate the Jewish population of the Wartheland, including the inhabitants of the Lodz ghetto. It was the first stationary facility where poison gas was used for mass murder of Jews.

Auschwitz

AUSCHWITZ

The largest of its kind, the Auschwitz camp complex was essential to carrying out the Nazi plan for the "Final Solution." Auschwitz left its mark as one of the most infamous camps of the Holocaust.

KEY FACTS

  • 1 Located in German-occupied Poland, Auschwitz consisted of three camps including a killing center. The camps were opened over the course of nearly two years, 1940-1942. Auschwitz closed in January 1945 with its liberation by the Soviet army.

     

  • 2 More than 1.1 million people died at Auschwitz, including nearly one million Jews. Those Jews who were not sent directly to gas chambers were selected for forced labor.

     

  • 3 The Auschwitz complex differed from the other Nazi killing centers because it included a concentration camp and a labor camp as well as large gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau constructed for the mass murder of European Jews.

     

Auschwitz is the German name for the Polish city Oświęcim. Oświęcim is located in Poland, approximately 40 miles (about 64 km) west of Kraków. Germany annexed this area of Poland in 1939.

The Auschwitz concentration camp was located on the outskirts of Oświęcim in German-occupied Poland. It was originally established in 1940 and later referred to as "Auschwitz I" or "Main Camp." 

The Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center, also referred to as "Auschwitz II," was located near the Polish village Brzezinka (German: Birkenau). This is about 2 miles (just over 3 km) from the Main Camp. The Germans started construction on Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1941.

Auschwitz III or Monowitz was located near the Polish village of Monowice (German: Monowitz). This is about 4 miles (approximately 6.5 kilometers) from the Main Camp. The Germans initially established the Buna subcamp there in 1942. In 1943, it became a concentration camp.

The Auschwitz camp complex also included numerous subcamps. The majority of these subcamps were located in the region around Auschwitz.

Belzec

BELZEC

To carry out the mass murder of Europe's Jews, the SS established killing centers devoted exclusively or primarily to the destruction of human beings in gas chambers. Belzec was among these killing centers. It was one of three killing centers linked to Operation Reinhard, the SS plan to murder almost two million Jews living in the German-administered territory of occupied Poland called the General Government. View This Term in the Glossary

KEY FACTS

  • 1 Construction began in November 1941 on Belzec. This was the first killing center to implement Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard).

     

  • 2 Beginning in March 1942, Jews from various parts of the General Government View This Term in the Glossary were deported to Belzec, where they were murdered in gas chambers with carbon monoxide gas generated by large diesel engines.

     

  • 3 Belzec was the first of the Operation Reinhard camps to close, in December 1942. By the time deportations to the killing center halted, German authorities had murdered approximately 434,500 Jews at the site.

     

Operation Reinhard authorities constructed the Belzec killing center on the site of a former labor camp in German occupied-Poland. It was the second German killing center to begin operation. It was also the first of three killing centers established as part of Operation Reinhard (also known as Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard). Operation Reinhard was the plan implemented by the SS and Police Leader in Lublin, SS General Odilo Globocnik, to murder the Jews of the General Government View This Term in the Glossary (Generalgouvernement). 

The labor camp and, later the killing center, were located between the cities of Zamosc and Lvov (today Lviv), about 70 miles southeast of Lublin. During the German occupation of Poland in World War II, this area was part of the Lublin District of the General Government. The camp was situated about 1.5 miles south of the village Belzec. Located along the Lublin-Lvov railway line, the killing center was only 1,620 feet (less than a half mile) from the Belzec railway station. A small rail siding connected the camp with the station.