Everyone identifies the killings centers with the Holocaust or Shoah.
Death trains deported millions, thinking they were bound for relocation,
only to be killed at what became the gates of hell. Those that were spared
were spared only for a"death-in-life" existence: upon departing the nightmare
of the train ride, they were robbed of their last possessions, their dignity,
their children, their names, and many their lives. We will examine through links
and information, the encompassing and deathly experience of life in the camps.
No one but the survivors alone can really know the unfathomable experience and
memories from that time.
Background and history of the Killing Centers
Each of the concentration camps were different in numerous ways. In many, the legacy of killing and torture is all that characterized the camps. Some were slave labor camps such as Brinlitz and Westerbork. Others were combinations such as Bergen-Belsen, in which some died cruel deaths, some were forced into slavery, and others were processed out of the country through organizations such as the Red Cross. Terezin, or Thereisenstadt, was held by the Nazis to be a model "relocation" center, which translated, meant ghetto/camp. More will be discussed regarding the individual camps.
All camps were deliberately planned and thought out with the precise cunning of the Third Reich. Each had an architecture of its own. Each was designed for specific purposes, and each was influenced by its staff which was usually a combination of Nazi officers and enlisted men, Nazi Women auxilliaries, local residents employed in the camp and capos, taken from among the prisoners, who often became as cruel toward thier own as the nazis themselves, coping by identifying with the agressor, a common defense mechanism.
Polish camps and many German camps as well , though carefully designed for the imminent final solution, endlosung began and were promoted as "re-education centers" for political dissenters, hostile to Hitler's government. The emphasis of these "centers" early on was the "Germanization" of the polish populace and other nationalities. The intent was two-fold:
e.g. Hitler's remarks "....So I have assembed my Death's Head Formations, for the time being only in the East, with the command to send man, woman and child of Polish origin and language to death, ruthlessly and mercilessly... This is the only way we can win the living space we need" ( address at Wehrmacht at the Berchtesgaden retreat 8/22/39) and
The plan took the following form:
"1. Men and material goods of the so-called General Government should be intensively exploited to reinforce the German war machine, to reduce Poland to poverty and hence, to change it to the condition of a vassal state. scattered German settlements are to be interspersed in the most fertile areas of Poland with the goal of surrounding the Polish population and accelerating the process of Germanization.2. The territories incorporated into the Reich, including the so-called Reichsgau ( Administrative Region) Wartheland, are to be relentlessly Germanized. The Polish population in these territories that is unfit for Germanization is to be expelled to the General Government or deported to Germany as forced labor. Deportation plans target the entire Polish intelligentsia and "other unreliable elements," as well as all Jews. 3. "Especially active Polish elements" are to be deported to concentration camps." (from Auschwitz Chronicle, 1939-1945)
The Purpose of the Camps
The Purpose of the Camps changed over time, although there can be little doubt the ultimate intention was Endlosung, or the "Final Solution" of the Jewish Problem. A number of the camps has previously been prisons or prison work camps: Auschwitz in its earliest days, detained mostly Soviet Prisoners of War. Mauthausen, interred the 'incorrigible' who were 'not to be returned to society' and thus brutality was given free reign. The Castle Hartheim, near Mauthausen was used to kill the mentally ill and later the Jews. Majdanek saw the killing of gypsies (Roma and Sinti) and members of the Resistance Movement. All of the "Lagers"(camps) though, ended in brutal slave labor usually to the death, and barbaric treatment and killings. The total figures of those killed in the death camps is approximately 11.5 million including men, women, 1.5 million children, mostly Jews, but also Soviets, POWs, Resistance movement members, Prisoners of Conscience, Roma and Sinti , Poles and mentally ill and retarded individuals. While revisionists argue how large or small the actual numbers were, the truth is the numbers were far larger than the tallies of the lagers and the mass killings of the Einsatzgruppen: thousands died in the year following the war of disease, brutal treatment and the after effects of starvation. The death toll of suicides and subsequent related deaths has never been actually tallied.Everyone has heard of the "gas chambers" in which Zyklon B (often produced in lager factories) was used to bring about the death of millions. Deaths also came in the form of carbon monoxide poisoning, lethal injection, torture, disease, medical experimentation, hypothermia, starvation, shootings, hangings and even electrocutions. Every way a person could be killed was tried by the Nazis. Staffed by the barbaric DeathHeaders, the guards were usually limitless in their ability to perform cruelty: until after the war, they were seldom held responsible for their actions.
The Slave labor in the camps was for one purpose: to mine materials in the quarries which would be used in the building of the "New Germany" or to support and aid the "War Effort" by producing and supplying armaments and products necessary for Germany to fight the war. This ranged from the production of bombs and explosives all the way down to the production of clothing for soldiers and support services for camp personnel. Slaves were fed little and often died of overexposure, starvation and brutal treatment or being shot or hung for "lessened" work. Much slave labor during the war was 'rented' out to local factories and endeavors: some of the more famous recipients include: I.G. Farben, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, and other companies such as bedding and furniture manufacturers in the Mauthausen area.
The darkest legacy of the Lagers however is not even the deaths, but the indescrible depths of human depravity which was performed in Medical Experiments (See Mengele, ) or the processing of human body products for use in Nazi wealth or household products. Stutthof gained infamy for the mass production of soap from human fat and the use of tattooed skin in leather-related uses. Auschwitz staff harvested hair, gold teeth, prosthetics, glasses, skin, and such for similar uses. Nazweiler processed medical human skeletons from men and women killed for this purpose to be used in German Anatomy labs. Much of it went on for so long because 1) it was somewhat clandestine and 2) even when reports leaked out, the press and public could not believe that a 'civilized' society was capable of such barbarism.
The Lagers stand partly museum-ized and partly in ruins. Restoration of the camps always runs into controversy: some feel the need to build museums on the site to remind future generations of the consequence of counting others less than ourselves and the depths we as human beings are capable of in raw hubris. Others see them as sacred burial grounds of dearly loved persons who suffered an outrageous end, and choose to see no remnant of the brutality memorialized. The Lesson of the Lagers though, is that without God, and without normal conscience, we are all capable of falling prey to becoming either the victims or the persecutors.