History of Camps
The term "concentration camp" is used to refer to an installation where persons are incarcerated without regard to due process and the accepted norms of arrest and imprisonment. Although it is common to refer to all camps created by the Nazis as concentration camps (Ger., Konzentrationslager; KZ), there are numerous camps with other designations such as: labor camps (Arbeitslager); transit camps (Durchgangslager); prisoner-of -war camps (Kriegsgefangenlager); and extermination camps (Vernichtungslager).
For purposes of this site, concentration camp includes those camps which were under the jurisdiction of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Chief Reich Security Office, referred to herein as the "RSHA"). Included in this category are certain ghettos, such as Theresienstadt, which were controlled by the RSHA.
Immediately following the Reichstag fire on February 27, 1933, laws were enacted allowing the unlimited detention of persons suspected of hostility to the regime. By July 1933, the number of such detainees had reached in excess of 26,000. The SA, SS and police established quickly over 50 mass-detention camps throughout Germany. For example, camps were located in Oranienberg, north of Berlin; Esterwegen, near Hamburg; Dachau, north of Munich; and Lichtenburg, in Saxony. By early 1934, many of these camps had been disbanded, and in April 1934, the remaining camps were put under the control of Heinrich Himmler. In July 1934, Himmler appointed Theodor Eicke, the then Commandant of Dachau, as the head of all concentration camps and SS Guards. His system of organization, officer/guard training, and punishment became the model for all the camps.
After the Himmler takeover, smaller camps were disbanded and prisoners transferred to larger camps such as Dachau and newly established camps such as Sachsenhausen (1936), Buchenwald (1937), Neuengamme (1938), Flossenbuerg (1938), Mauthhausen (1938), and Ravensbrueck (1939). By late 1937, the number of prisoners had been reduced to about 8,000. As a result, criminals and other "asocial" types were transferred to the camps, and about this time, Jews, solely as a result of being Jewish were sent to camps. After Kristallnacht, about 35,000 Jews were arrested and sent to camps. Most of these Jews were ultimately released particularly if they were able to emigrate. By the start of the war, the were about 25,000 detainees in the camps.
Significant changes in the concentration camp system resulted from the outbreak of the war. First, there was a substantial increase in the number of prisoners and the expansion of the camps to areas outside of Germany. Furthermore, the main function of the camps was shifted from security (i.e. protective custody) to the exploitation of prisoners as laborers and mass murder, particularly of Jews. From the outbreak of the war to March 1942, the number of prisoners rose from 25,000 to 100,000 and by 1944, the number had reached 1,000,000.
With the adoption of an official policy regarding the extermination of European Jewry in late 1941 and early 1942, extermination camps were established at Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor, and Treblinka. In addition, Auschwitz and Majdanek, which had been established as concentration camps were expanded to serve as extermination centers. These sites became the main locations at which Jews were killed.
Although the SS had used prisoners for military and civilian construction projects prior to the war, beginning in early 1942, prisoners were officially forced to work in industries associated with the war effort. In this connection, the SS created a special office (Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt, WVHA) to control the use of prisoners as manpower for both government and private companies. This SS organization established numerous satellite camps next to industrial plants to house these prisoner-laborers. These satellite camps were put under the jurisdiction of the existing main camps.
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD Rom Edition, Keter Publishing
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Historical Atlas of the Holocaust, P. 21-22
Gutman, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Macmillan Publishing Company (1990), P. 308-317
Sam Simon, Handbook of the Mail in the Concentration Camps 1933-1945 and Related Material, (1973). Referred to as "Simon".
Erik Lordahl, German Concentration Camps 1933-1945, History and Inmate Mail (2000). Referred to as Lordahl.
Copyright © 2001 Edward Victor