Concentration camp

A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. The term refers to situations where the internees are persons selected for their conformance to broad criteria without judicial process, rather than having been judged as individuals. Camps for prisoners of war are usually considered separately from this category, although informally (and in some other languages) they may also be called concentration camps. The word "concentration" indicates a regional concentration, but it also implies the crowded, and often unhealthy, state of the facilities.

Germany

Main article: Nazi concentration camps. See also: List of German concentration camps

Related Topics:
Nazi concentration camps - List of German concentration camps

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Concentration camps (Konzentrationslager or KZ) rose to notoriety during their use in Germany during the Nazi era. The general populace referred to them as Kah-Tzets (the initials KZ in German). The Nazi regime nominally maintained both kinds of concentration camps, labor camps — since the beginning of their regime in 1933 — and extermination camps. In fact, it is difficult to draw a distinct line between the two categories. Prisoners in Nazi labor camps were worked to death on short rations and in bad conditions, or killed if they became unable to work -- while prisoners in extermination camps were usually killed quickly in gas chambers or in other ways. Guards were known to engage in target practice, using their prisoners as targets.

Related Topics:
Germany - Nazi - Kah-Tzets - Labor camp - 1933 - Extermination camp

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The first Nazi camps were within Germany, and were primarily work camps. The worst excesses, including the murder of Jews, Poles, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Slavs, Soviet POW's, immigrants, Freemasons, democrats, socialists and communists were to come later in the war at the area of General Government. (For more information see: Holocaust, genocide.) It is estimated that up to ten million people died in Nazi concentration camps, of them six million were killed in the 15 larger ones.

Related Topics:
Jews - Poles - Gypsies - Homosexuals - Jehovah's Witnesses - Slavs - Soviet - Immigrants - Freemasons - Democrats - Socialists - Communists - General Government - Holocaust - Genocide

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Germany under Nazi rule was the location of the most extreme and extensive use of concentration camps for forced labor and extermination of political opponents.

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