We explain what the Nazi concentration and extermination fields were. In addition, its history, its methods and their victims.
What were the Nazi fields?
The Nazi fields They were facilities for detention, forced labor or extermination of people . They were located in areas under the control of the German government, such as Germany, Poland or Austria.
The first concentration fields of Nazism were created in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler's rise to power, and His initial objective was to confine political opponents (mainly communists). Soon, Jehovah and homosexual witnesses were also included. As of 1938, after the German annexation of Austria and the anti -Semitic violence of the Night of Broken Crystals, The concentration camps began to grow European Jews increasingly .
After the beginning of World War II (1939-1945) and the German attack on the Soviet Union (1941), the Nazis increased concentration and concentration camps They installed extermination fields (or “fields of death”), specifically destined to the mass murder of people.
The victims were mainly Jewish but also Slavs (such as Russians or Poles) and gypsies. The first of these fields was that of Chelmno, created in December 1941 in the Poland area annexed by Germany. Other extermination fields were those of Auschwitz-Birkenau (also called Auschwitz II), Treblinka II, Belzec, Sobibor and Majdanek.
The extermination fields were part of the application of the “final solution of the Jewish problem”, as the Nazi authorities called the European Jewish population annihilation and that caused what is now known as holocaust or shoá . Many prisoners also died in the “marches of death”, that is, the transfers of inmates of the fields that took place when the German defeat was approaching in the war between the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945.
It is estimated that within three million people died in the extermination fields. The totality of civil victims of the Nazi regime is estimated in eleven million people, of which six million would have been European Jews . At present, monuments are raised on the remains of these fields or work museums.
Frequent questions
What were the Nazi concentration camps?
The concentration camps were created by the Nazis since their rise to power in Germany in 1933. The initial objective of these fields was to confine the political opponents of Nazism, although other social groups were also included. They functioned as detention and forced labor centers.
What were the main Nazi concentration camps?
The first official concentration camp was that of Dachau, built in Germany in March 1933. Other important concentration camps were those of Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Neuengamme, Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen in Germany, Mauthausen in Austria, and Auschwitz I and Treblinka I in Poland.
What were the Nazi extermination fields?
The extermination fields were facilities created by the Nazis for the massive annihilation of people (mainly of Jewish origin) under the strategy known as “final solution”.
What were the Nazi extermination fields?
The extermination fields in the occupied Poland were: Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenou, Sobibor, Belzec, Treblinka II and Majdanek. The Maly Trostenets concentration camp also worked as an extermination center in Belarus.
What happened in Auschwitz?
Auschwitz was a complex of concentration fields, forced labor and extermination installed in the Poland occupied by the Nazis. It began operating in 1940 as a concentration camp (Auschwitz I) and in 1942 it included an extermination field (Auschwitz-Birkenou or Auschwitz II) with four gas and crematorium chambers. In Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Zyklon B gas was tested for the first time for the mass murder of prisoners. It is estimated that in Auschwitz one million one hundred thousand people died, the vast majority of Jewish origin. This field was released by the Red Army in January 1945.
How many people died in the Nazi extermination fields?
It is estimated that around three million people died in the extermination fields built by the Nazis. These deaths joined those that took place in the concentration camps and other civil victims, which gives a figure of around eleven million people murdered, including six million Jews.
Dachau's concentration camp
Created in March 1933 In the vicinity of Munich (Germany), Dachau's field was the first official concentration camp created by the Nazis . Heinrich Himmler, in his function as Chief of the Munich Police, described him as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.”
Dachau's field It was initially used to enclose German left militants And he also concentrated gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals and Jews. The number of Jews increased significantly after broken crystals in November 1938, when more than 10,000 European Jews were taken to the countryside.
It was used as a forced labor field and as a center of medical experiments with prisoners (for example, about malaria, tuberculosis and hypothermia).
It is estimated that between 1933 and 1945 more than 200,000 prisoners were admitted to Dachau. It is known that At least 32,000 died although possibly the exact number of victims are never known.
On April 29, 1945, US troops released the field . Dachau's images were among the first ones that circulated in the world's media and demonstrated the magnitude of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination field
The Nazi extermination fields were created with the aim of perpetrating mass murders. Unlike concentration camps, conceived as detention and forced labor centers, the extermination fields were true “death factories.”
It is estimated that Almost three million Jews died in these extermination fields, either by gas or shooting. Other victims were gypsies, Slavs (mainly Russian and Poles) and political dissidents.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau field (also known as Auschwitz II, as it was part of a complex that included a concentration camp known as Auschwitz I), located in southern Poland, He was the greatest and had a key role in the Nazi Extermination Plan for European Jews (called by the Nazis “the final solution”).
Auschwitz-Birkenau had four gas cameras and here The SS (SchutzstaffelNazi paramilitary and penitentiary forces) experienced for the first time with Zyklon B gas as a means for mass murder. The prisoners were also used for the realization of medical experiments, whose direction was highlighted by the War Official and Criminal Josef Mengele, who after the German defeat managed to escape South America.
It is calculated that One million one hundred thousand people were killed in Auschwitz . Most were Jews from Hungary, Poland and other European countries. Other victims were more than 70,000 non -Jewish Poles, more than 20,000 gypsies and around 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war.
On January 27, 1945, the Soviet army released Auschwitz . He only found just over 7000 prisoners, mostly agonizing or sick.
The Treblinka II extermination field
The Treblinka II extermination field in Poland, It was created in July 1942 Near the forced labor field known as Treblinka I. The Jews deported to Treblinka II were received in a reception area where they were indicated that they were in a transit field. They were divided into two groups, men and women with the children, and they were ordered to leave all their belongings.
After undressing they were forced to march along a path to what were made to believe that they were the field showers but that they were gas cameras . Once the doors of the cameras were closed, an engine that expelled carbon monoxide inside the rooms was operated. The bodies were collected by the SONDERKOMMMANDO (Jewish prisoners forced to carry out this work) and burned in huge common graves.
In August 1943 a general insurrection took place that allowed some 300 prisoners to escape, although most were subsequently recaptured and killed.
In October 1943 the Nazis ordered the dismantling of the field . For his part, Treblinka I continued in use until July 1944, when the imminent arrival of Soviet troops motivated his abandonment.
It is calculated that Between 700,000 and 850,000 prisoners were exterminated in Treblinka II in just over a year .
References
- Berenbaum, M. (2023). Auschwitz. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://britannica.com/
- Berenbaum, M. (2023). Dachau Britannica Encyclopedia. https://britannica.com/
- Berenbaum, M. (2023). Treblinka. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://britannica.com/
- Rees, L. (2023). Auschwitz. The Nazis and the “final solution”. Criticism.
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (SF). The Nazi fields. Holocaust encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/
