Uniqueness of Nazi concentration camps
We know that concentration camps and forced labor were not exclusive to Nazis nor were they invented by them. Suffice it to cite a single example of a previous model, that of gulags, gives USSR, which existed since the time of the tsars, when they were called katorgas. However, the Nazi camps stood out due to the process of "mechanization of death", that is, the application ofa virtually industrial method of killing by poison gas. In addition, the bodies of the dead in the gas chambers were incinerated in ovens built for this purpose.. when the SecondWar it was coming to an end, and the Nazis progressively lost ground, the corpses from the concentration camps began to be dumped in mass graves and incinerated in the graves.
Most of the Jews killed in the holocaust were from Eastern Europe
We also know that the main concentration and extermination camps of the Nazism were not in German territory, but in the east european, especially in the Poland. On German terrain, the constructed fields were small in size (compared to the Polish ones), most of which were destined for forced labor for political opponents, homosexuals, criminals, and not for extermination. The first of the fields to be built was that of
Dachau, in 1933 (the year Hitler assumed power); others were built in the cities of Breitenau and Flossenburg.From 1941 onwards, when the attack on USSR with the OperationBarbarossa, the Nazis occupied vast regions, including virtually all Polish territory and parts of the Netherlands, Ukraine, Croatia, Belarus and other countries. In these places was concentrated most of the Jewish population of Europe. Contrary to popular belief, the German Jewish population represented about less than 1% of Germany's population when Hitler came to power. Most of the Jews killed in the burnt offering was captured in the countries of the East.
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Main concentration camps:
Among the concentration camps installed in Poland, the deadliest were:
1. Auschwitz-Birkenau. Period of operation: from April 1940 to January 1945. In this camp about 1,100,000 to 1,500,000 people died, most of them of Jewish origin;
2. Treblinka. Period of operation: July 1942 to November 1943. Dead: about 800,000.
3. Warsaw, capital of Poland. Period of operation: 1942 to 1944. Dead: about 200,000;
4. Balzec. Period of operation: March 1942 to June 1943. Dead: about 600,000;
5. Chem. Period of operation: December 1941 to April 1943 and from April 1944 to January 1945. Dead: about 340,000;
6. Sobibór. Period of operation: May 1942 to October 1943. Dead: about 200,000.
7. Majdanek. Period of operation: June 1941 to July 1944. Dead: about 78,000;
In other countries, the deadliest fields were:
1. jasenovac, in Croatia. Period of operation: August 1941 to April 1945. Dead: 100,000;
2. Lwow, in Ukraine. Period of operation: September 1941 to November 1943. Dead: about 40,000;
3. Mal Trostenets, in Belarus. Period of operation: July 1941 to June 1944. Dead: about 65,000.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FERNANDES, Claudio. "Major Nazi concentration camps"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/principais-campos-concentracao-nazistas.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.