Concentration Camps

By: Austin Stolze, Dustin Johnson, and Jared Gjertson

How did the Labor Camps Come to Be?

• Even before Nazi control, much of the German professional and regular public thought social "order" depened on the productivity of all citizens. 

•  The first labor camp (Zwangsarbeitslager) was built in 1933 to house and "educate" asocials, criminals, and subversives in proper labor and social disciplines

• Because they started off using labor camps for "outsiders", the Nazis were able to create acquiescence and even support by citizens

How did the Labor Camps Come to Be?• In late 1930s, the German

economy began to experience labor shortages, so the Nazis began to build more labor camps (often near quarries and existing factories)

• As the war continued, Germany needed even more labor to provide for the war efforts, especially after the Battle of Stalingrad

• They saw their slave laborers as cheap and expendable 

• Though the Nazis desperately needed forced workers, they still would not let this hinder the "Final Solution"

Was All Forced Labor the Same?• There were other forms of

forced labor besides that for concentration camp prisoners.

• there were work camps for POWs and for regular workers who broke work rules.

•  The Jewish ghettos also were forced into labor, usually more manufacturing-type labor

• The Germans even reclassified many ghettos as forced labor camps

• Prisoners of civilian police detention centers, troubled German youth, and even ethnic Germans waiting for resettlement were forced to work

 

What Were the Conditions Like?• As the German economy began to

experience labor shortages, the Nazis started exploiting these slave laborers for the production of goods like iron or coal

• skilled laborers could instead get jobs catering to their strengths

• Nearly all of the work was manual and labor intensive

• Hours were long, usually 12 or more• Workers weren't adequately fed and

had little to no tools or protective equipment/clothes

• Jobs were hazardous and dangerous (accidents, dust inhalation, ect.)

• In the beginning, most of the work done in labor camps was pointless and humiliating.

What Were the Conditions Like?• Generally, inmates preferred

factory jobs over building/digging jobs

•  SS guards would sometimes have sadistic "fun" with the inmates (especially Jews)

•  "A daily ration was: a piece of black bread, about as thick as your thumb; some margarine about the size of three sticks of chewing gum; and a small cup of something that was supposed to be soup" (Ellis and Silinsky).

What is a Kapo?

• The word Kapo has an unclear origin. Refered to as Funktionshäftling in German, meaning prisoner functionary.

• A Kapo was a prisoner who was chosen by officials to lead a work block and had authority over other prisoners. 

• All Kapos were equipped with a club or a whip 

  

• Kapos wore a yellow armbands that said Kapo over it.

Where were kapos first introduced?

It was said that Kapos first originated in the Dachau Concentration Camp.It was then eventually adopted by all other concentration camps

• This system worked efficiently because it allowed less energy by the SS to be spent on each prisoner

• This system also allowed one guard to supervise two to three work blocks

• They saw it successful because in many cases the Kapos were more brutal than the SS guards

 

What was life like for Kapos?

• Kapos received some benefits  their position of power. They were able to steal cloths and food from the prisoners they watched over.

•  In some cases Kapos forced their inmates to steal from other blocks.

• Kapos did not receive punishment for abusing there powers, it was encouraged.

• Kapos were not punished after they lost their job but in most cases the other prisoners killed them because of their brutality

Who were chosen as Kapos?

• Most of the  first Kapos chosen to lead blocks were Criminals or Communists. .

• In nearly all cases Jews and homosexuals were never allowed to become Kapos

• Authorities would also placed Kapos in work blocks were they were most brutal. 

• In many cases a Homophobic Kapo would be placed in a work block of gay men.

Kapo workers at the Belzec Extermination Camp

What happened to the Kapos after the War?• Even though Kapos were

still prisoners of the concentration camps they were still tried in court after the war because of their brutality.

• In many cases though the prisoners had little chose on becoming a Kapo because it was a matter of life or death.

On September 17, 1945 12 Kapos were tried in Britain along with other camp staff.

What happened to the people living in Concentration camps after they were liberated?• Many displaced people

lived in camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy

• Many people would try to move to Palestine

• Britain tried to limit the immigration because of conflict

• Jews would go to Italy and be smuggled to Palestine

• British shipped DP's to Cyprus in 1946

Where were some of the Displaced Person's camps?

What did DP camps look like?

• They were made out of former military barracks, summer camps for children, airports, hotels, castles, hospitals, private homes, and even partly destroyed structures

What was life like in a Displaced Person's Camp?

• Administered by United Nation's Relief and Rehabilitation Administration

• UNRRA made a Central Burea for names of the displace people

• Awaited Visas• Schools were made for the

camps• When available, nearby SS

quarters were used as hospitals

What happened when they returned home?• Children separated from

parents• Some too sick to leave• When trying to reclaim

their land, they faced new owner

• People would still have pogroms against DP Jews

 

Austin Stolze's Bibliography“Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Complex.” Holocaust Survivors and Remembrence Project: “Forget You Not.” NatureQuest Publications, Inc, 2011. Web. 20 May 2011. <http://isurvived.org/ AUSCHWITZ_TheCamp.html>.Ellis, Eliahu, and Shmuel Silinsky. “The Labor Camps.” Aish.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://www.aish.com/ ho/ o/ 48961881.html>.“Forced Labor.” Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2011. Web. 21 May 2011. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ jsource/ Holocaust/ labor.html>.“Forced Labor: In Depth.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 May 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/ wlc/ en/ article.php?ModuleId=10007326>.“Labor Camps, Nazi.” eNotes. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://enotes.com/ genocide-encyclopedia/ labor-camps-nazi/ print>.

Jared Gjertson's BibliographyBergen, Doris L. War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. N.p.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009. Print.Jacobs, Krysia, and Alan Jacobs, comps. “We Remember Brotherhood in Suffering!” zchor.org. N.p., 30 Jan. 2007. Web. 2 June 2011. <http://www.zchor.org/ auschwitz/ komski.htm>.“Jewish Working Kommando’s in the  Aktion Reinhard Death Camps.” holocaustresearchproject. N.p., 2007. Web. 26 May 2011. <http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ ar/ Jewish%20Kommando/ jewishkommando.html>.Rees, Laurence. Auschwitz. 1 vols. Britain: BBC Books, 2005. Print.“Work.” lycees.ac-rouen.fr. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2011. <http://lycees.ac-rouen.fr/ malraux/ resistance/ etravail.html>.

Dustin Johnson's BibliographyThe Aftermath of the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/ wlc/ en/ media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005129&MediaId=3426>.Bergen, Doris L. War & Genocide. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Print.“Concentration and Death Camps Map.” About. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2011. <http://history1900s.about.com/ od/ holocaust/ ss/ Camps-Map.htm?r=et>.Kaczgmar, Olga. Displaced Persons’ Camps. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2011. <http://www.dpcamps.org/>.United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 26 May 2011. <http://www.ushmm.org/ wlc/ en/ article.php?ModuleId=10005462>.