Histories of the Killing Centers

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Named after the town of Plaszow, the Lager of Plaszow operated around a quarry and a factory called Brinlitz, run by Oskar Schindler. Mining had gone on near Krakow before, but in December of 1942, the labor camp opened up in line with other camps such as Mauthausen and Flossenberg for the purpose of using Jewish detainees and political prisoners as slave labor to mine the materials necessary to build HItler's "New Germany" and stoke the war effort. Plaszow initially had political and religious prisoners. After the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, more Jews and Polish resistance movement members were interred there. By 1943 24,000 inmates were interred there, but over the course the years 1942 to 1945, there were a total of 150,000. It is estimated as many as 80,000 of those died. Considered part of the Auschwitz sub-camp system, many inmates of Plaszow were sent to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Camp population also included those from the destruction of the Tarnow Ghetto, Bochnia, Nowy Sacz, Shevnia, and in 1944, the Jews of Hungary. Prisoners were moved to and from Gross-Rosen as well. While Goeth, the commandant at Plaszow was known for his sadism and random shootings, Schindler although similar in background and behavior treated his 'purchased slaves' with dignity and far better care than at most camps at his munitions factory. The main camp formally entered into the Lager system in 1944, as the Ukranian staff of guards prominent in the area were replaced by the even more brutal SS Death-Headers. The prominence of this sub-camp became more apparent as towards the end of the war, there were visits from the Governor-General Frank and other high-level officials. Disease, Starvation, slavery, shootings and hangings were the preiminent reasons for death in the camp: many were transferred for gassings. The quarry and camp overlook the site where Prince Krak was buried for whom krakow was named, and was built in an historic area near ancient city walls, and the tombs of German Teutonic Knights (an irony because of Nazi beliefs). Near the end of 1944 many prisoners were moved to Gross-Rosen. ON September 5th, 1945, liberation came, months after the liberation of Auschwitz.

Buchenwald

Originally named for the mountain Ettersberg, Buchenwald, outside of Weimar in Thuringen, was changed to Konzentrationslager Buchenwald in 1937, and became part of the first four German Concentration camps in 1937-8. Buchenwald means 'beechwood' and was staffed by SS and Commandants Koch and .

Chelmno

Dachau

One of the first four German Camps, Dachau was initially founded as a prison camp and "re-education" center for political prisoners, and 'prisoners of conscience' although after Krystallnacht 10s of thousands of 'November Jews' took their place as inmates. Known for the cruelty of the SS Death-Headers, one of the Pastors of the German Evangelical Church-the Confessing Church, Niemoller was interred there, although he appeared to have received better treatment than most of the Jewish inmates, indicated by his controversial post-war statement in 1946.

Dalstoy

Flossenberg was founded as a concentration camp in 1938 along with Buchenwald, Dachau and Sachsenhausen in Germany. Over the years in addition to thousands of Jewish prisoners it housed political prisoners, including von Stauffenberg and Staff, part of Hitler's High Command who

Gross-Rosen was founded as a prison camp, existing in 1940 with a few hundred prisoners, mostly political prisoners and criminals. In 1940, it was a subcamp of Sachsenhausen, but became independent , entering the Lager System in 1941. As the camp grew, it not only included the Slave labor which mined the quarries for Marble and Stone, but by 1943 included armaments manufacturing, and the Camp grew with the increase in production. The first Jews interred were the Jews of Poland, but after the occupation of Hungary in 1944, the population included Hungarian Jews, Silesian Jews and Jews from other parts of Europe. At least a third of the the inmates from 1941-1945 died. By 1943, in January, one third of the inmates were women. Liberation came on February 13, 1945, but not before prisoners were forced on a gruesome death march; all but a few of the 40,000 evacuees died from exhaustion, hunger and hypothermia. who

Karaganda

Mauthausen

In 1938 as Hitler sought to rebuild Germany under Speer, the ;gave the directive to open slave labor camps near stone quarries to acquire materials. Mauthausen, which was already in existence, was transformed by the SS into a killing center/slave camp with the Anschluss in 1938. Original prisoners were political and criminal, but grew to include& #13; Jews and others deemed unrehabilitive. Several thousand killings here are documented (1). An 8 foot high wall surrounded the camp guarded by armed sentries. At dawn laborers were sent to the quarries: at evening the living workers would return through the gates carrying those who had died during the day. Several subcamps were affiliated also: most notably: Melk, and Gusen, and the krema at Ebensee. The Castle Hartheim, known for it's brutality and killing of the mentally ill and infirm was also part of the Mauthausen system, and killings took place there also."

Sachsenhausen