The+Major+Concentration+Camps

__**The Major**__ __**Concentration Camps**__ From the beginning, Hitler's goal of   ridding Germany of undesirables led to    building concentration camps where they could be isolated. The first, Dachau, became the model for the others, and other camp commanders were often taught their jobs by Dachau's master, Theodor Eicke. Between 1934 and 1939, approximately 200,000 prisoners were sent to the camps; after the war began, their numbers increased rapidly. DACHAU: Located near Munich, it   was built to hold 8,000 prisoners, but it    soon became overcrowded. Eicke its commandant from 1933 to 1940, set the tone of the camp. Hanging offenses in- cluded inciting speeches, supplying atrocity stories to the opposition, and collecting true or untrue information and concealing it, talking about it or smuggling it outside the camp. Anyone physically attacking a guard, refusing to obey an order, or giving speeches while marching or at work was shot on the spot or hanged later. Any remark critical of Nazi leaders or glorifying Communists or any liberal pre-Nazi leader was punished with 25 lashes and two weeks of solitary confinement. \   Eicke's phrase, "Arbeit macht frei” (Work makes you free), hung over the entrance at Dachau and many other camps. The phrase became a mockery of camp realities, but when it was first used Eicke thought prisoners would be released after they learned the error of their ways. In the early days, wealthy prisoners were released after a bribe had been paid, and some with visas allowing them to enter other countries left after signing papers saying they had net been, mistreated. The policy soon changed, however. Himmler and other SS officials decided those who entered the camps as prisoners would never leave alive.    The guards, mostly Bavarian peasants, wore their Death’s Head emblem proudly. They hated anyone who appeared intellectual (by wearing classes, for instance), and all Jewish prisoners. The camp had all classes of prisoners mixed in together; anti-Nazi ministers like Dr. Niemoller, Communists, gypsies, alcoholics, criminals, and Jews. Every group there had some other group who did not like them and would turn them in to the guards. A prisoner could not even avoid cruelty at night because the SS put long-time criminals in charge of the baracks. Other concentration camps were similar in purpose and methods, but a few examples will give some insight into life in the camps. VUGHT: in comparison with other camps. women had it easy at Vught, a camp in Holland. Prisoners wore blue overalls with a red stripe down the leg. The day began with prisoners standing at parade attention at 4 a.m. At 5:30, They had a breakfast of black bread and a drink resembling coffee. At 6 a.m. skilled workers were at work in a factory on the prison grounds making radio parts for German aircraft. There was a one-hour break for a lunch of gruel made from wheat and peas. At 6 p.m. there was a roll call. Male prisoners had a much harder time than women.

THERESIENSTADT: was an unusual camp built 35 miles north of Prague. The 7,000 Czechs who lived there were ordered out in 1941, and the Nazis turned it into a ghetto for the elderly, World War I veterans, and Jewish government officials who had been fired. They were soon joined by Czechs, Poles, and Dutch prisoners. It had a lending library, orchestra, lectures, schools, and an artist studio. In preparation for a visit by the Swedish Red Cross, buildings were painted, a restaurant was opened, and a soccer match was played. After the Swedes left, conditions dropped to normal. Inmates of the art studio drew art that pleased the German masters by day; at night, they secretly drew pictures showing the hunger and bad treatment in the camp. These pictures were hidden and survived the Holocaust. In 1944, the camp became a shipping point for prisoners on their way to Auschwitz and death. BERGEN-BELSEN: was on the road to Hamburg. Opening in 1943, it quickly earned a reputation as one of the worst camps. Its commander, Josef Kramer (the "beast of Belsen."), totally ignored health and sanitation conditions. Cruelty was ordinary there; men with hands tied behind their backs were hung suspended for hours at a time. Prisoners were picked at random to be burned alive at the crematorium. Inmates did not have to be killed to die, however. Starvation and disease were widespread. A typhus epidemic in 1944 killed thousands. BUCHENWALD: a camp located near Weimar, was opened in 1933. Those who liberated the camp described the conditions that had killed thousands there. Neatly stacked piles of corpses lay unburied around the camp. Inmates starved on a daily diet of a piece of brown bread with a little margarine on top and a little stew. Death came by starvation, beatings, torture, and sickness. In a stable built for 80 horses, 1,200 men were housed. Inmates worked 12-hour shifts at a factory making guns and ammunition. MAUTHAUSEN: was one of the worst camps. Jews sent there worked in the stone quarry carrying heavy rocks up a steep slope. Many were crushed to death as they slipped while pushing heavy carts up the path. Some gave up hope and jumped off the ledge. Guards sometimes pushed inmates off the ledge, but that was stopped because non-prisoners who worked there complained about the mess. The commandant, Franz Ziereis, was called "Babyface” by the prisoners, but there was nothing soft about him. Shootings, gassings, hangings, lethal injections, and torture by blasts of cold water were common. About 36,000 executions were reported at the prison.   No prisoner in the camp was treated like a human; surviving in the camp required both luck and learning quickly the methods of staying alive. 