How many concentration camps did the Germans have? Concentration camps of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Joseph Mengele's experiments
The camps included labor and forced labor camps, extermination camps, transit camps, and prisoner of war camps. As war events progressed, the distinction between concentration camps and labor camps became increasingly blurred, as hard labor was also used in concentration camps.
Concentration camps in Nazi Germany were created after the Nazis came to power in order to isolate and repress opponents of the Nazi regime. The first concentration camp in Germany was established near Dachau in March 1933.
By the beginning of World War II, there were 300 thousand German, Austrian and Czech anti-fascists in prisons and concentration camps in Germany. In subsequent years, Hitler's Germany created a gigantic network of concentration camps on the territory of the European countries it occupied, turning them into places for the organized systematic murder of millions of people.
Fascist concentration camps were intended for the physical destruction of entire peoples, primarily Slavic ones; total extermination of Jews and Gypsies. For this purpose, they were equipped with gas chambers, gas chambers and other means of mass extermination of people, crematoria.
(Military encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing House. Moscow. in 8 volumes - 2004. ISBN 5 - 203 01875 - 8)
There were even special death (extermination) camps, where the liquidation of prisoners proceeded at a continuous and accelerated pace. These camps were designed and built not as places of detention, but as death factories. It was assumed that people doomed to death were supposed to spend literally several hours in these camps. In such camps, a well-functioning conveyor belt was built that turned several thousand people a day into ashes. These include Majdanek, Auschwitz, Treblinka and others.
Concentration camp prisoners were deprived of freedom and the ability to make decisions. The SS strictly controlled every aspect of their lives. Violators of the peace were severely punished, subjected to beatings, solitary confinement, food deprivation and other forms of punishment. Prisoners were classified according to their place of birth and reasons for imprisonment.
Initially, prisoners in the camps were divided into four groups: political opponents of the regime, representatives of the “inferior races,” criminals and “unreliable elements.” The second group, including Gypsies and Jews, were subject to unconditional physical extermination and were kept in separate barracks.
They were subjected to the most cruel treatment by the SS guards, they were starved, they were sent to the most grueling works. Among the political prisoners were members of anti-Nazi parties, primarily communists and social democrats, members of the Nazi party accused of serious crimes, listeners of foreign radio, and members of various religious sects. Among the “unreliable” were homosexuals, alarmists, dissatisfied people, etc.
There were also criminals in the concentration camps, whom the administration used as overseers of political prisoners.
All concentration camp prisoners were required to wear distinctive insignia on their clothing, including a serial number and a colored triangle (“Winkel”) on the left side of the chest and right knee. (In Auschwitz, the serial number was tattooed on the left forearm.) All political prisoners wore a red triangle, criminals wore a green triangle, “unreliables” wore a black triangle, homosexuals wore a pink triangle, and gypsies wore a brown triangle.
In addition to the classification triangle, Jews also wore yellow, as well as a six-pointed “Star of David”. A Jew who violated racial laws ("racial desecrator") was required to wear a black border around a green or yellow triangle.
Foreigners also had their own distinctive signs (the French wore the sewn letter “F”, the Poles - “P”, etc.). The letter "K" denoted a war criminal (Kriegsverbrecher), the letter "A" - a violator of labor discipline (from German Arbeit - "work"). The weak-minded wore the Blid badge - “fool”. Prisoners who participated or were suspected of escaping were required to wear a red and white target on their chest and back.
The total number of concentration camps, their branches, prisons, ghettos in the occupied countries of Europe and in Germany itself, where people were kept in the most difficult conditions and destroyed by various methods and means, is 14,033 points.
Of the 18 million citizens of European countries who passed through camps for various purposes, including concentration camps, more than 11 million people were killed.
The concentration camp system in Germany was liquidated along with the defeat of Hitlerism, and was condemned in the verdict of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as a crime against humanity.
Currently, the Federal Republic of Germany has adopted the division of places of forced detention of people during the Second World War into concentration camps and “other places of forced confinement, under conditions equivalent to concentration camps,” in which, as a rule, forced labor was used.
The list of concentration camps includes approximately 1,650 names of concentration camps of the international classification (main and their external commands).
On the territory of Belarus, 21 camps were approved as “other places”, on the territory of Ukraine - 27 camps, on the territory of Lithuania - 9, in Latvia - 2 (Salaspils and Valmiera).
On the territory of the Russian Federation, places of forced detention in the city of Roslavl (camp 130), the village of Uritsky (camp 142) and Gatchina are recognized as “other places”.
List of camps recognized by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany as concentration camps (1939-1945)
1.Arbeitsdorf (Germany)
2. Auschwitz/Auschwitz-Birkenau (Poland)
3. Bergen-Belsen (Germany)
4. Buchenwald (Germany)
5. Warsaw (Poland)
6. Herzogenbusch (Netherlands)
7. Gross-Rosen (Germany)
8. Dachau (Germany)
9. Kauen/Kaunas (Lithuania)
10. Krakow-Plaszczow (Poland)
11. Sachsenhausen (GDR-FRG)
12. Lublin/Majdanek (Poland)
13. Mauthausen (Austria)
14. Mittelbau-Dora (Germany)
15. Natzweiler (France)
16. Neuengamme (Germany)
17. Niederhagen-Wewelsburg (Germany)
18. Ravensbrück (Germany)
19. Riga-Kaiserwald (Latvia)
20. Faifara/Vaivara (Estonia)
21. Flossenburg (Germany)
22. Stutthof (Poland).
Largest Nazi concentration camps
Buchenwald is one of the largest Nazi concentration camps. It was created in 1937 in the vicinity of Weimar (Germany). Originally called Ettersberg. Had 66 branches and external work teams. The largest: "Dora" (near the city of Nordhausen), "Laura" (near the city of Saalfeld) and "Ordruf" (in Thuringia), where the FAU projectiles were mounted. From 1937 to 1945 About 239 thousand people were prisoners of the camp. In total, 56 thousand prisoners of 18 nationalities were tortured in Buchenwald.
The camp was liberated on April 10, 1945 by units of the US 80th Division. In 1958, a memorial complex dedicated to Buchenwald was opened. to the heroes and victims of the concentration camp.
Auschwitz-Birkenau, also known by the German names Auschwitz or Auschwitz-Birkenau, is a complex of German concentration camps located in 1940-1945. in southern Poland 60 km west of Krakow. The complex consisted of three main camps: Auschwitz 1 (served as the administrative center of the entire complex), Auschwitz 2 (also known as Birkenau, "death camp"), Auschwitz 3 (a group of approximately 45 small camps set up in factories and mines around general complex).
More than 4 million people died in Auschwitz, among whom were more than 1.2 million Jews, 140 thousand Poles, 20 thousand Gypsies, 10 thousand Soviet prisoners of war and tens of thousands of prisoners of other nationalities.
On January 27, 1945, Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz. In 1947, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (Auschwitz-Brzezinka) was opened in Auschwitz.
Dachau (Dachau) - the first concentration camp in Nazi Germany, created in 1933 on the outskirts of Dachau (near Munich). Had approximately 130 branches and external work teams located in Southern Germany. More than 250 thousand people from 24 countries were prisoners of Dachau; About 70 thousand people were tortured or killed (including about 12 thousand Soviet citizens).
In 1960, a monument to the victims was unveiled in Dachau.
Majdanek - a Nazi concentration camp, was created in the suburbs of the Polish city of Lublin in 1941. It had branches in southeastern Poland: Budzyn (near Krasnik), Plaszow (near Krakow), Trawniki (near Wiepsze), two camps in Lublin. According to the Nuremberg trials, in 1941-1944. In the camp, the Nazis killed about 1.5 million people of various nationalities. The camp was liberated by Soviet troops on July 23, 1944. In 1947, a museum and research institute was opened in Majdanek.
Treblinka - Nazi concentration camps near the station. Treblinka in the Warsaw Voivodeship of Poland. In Treblinka I (1941-1944, so-called labor camp), about 10 thousand people died, in Treblinka II (1942-1943, extermination camp) - about 800 thousand people (mostly Jews). In August 1943, in Treblinka II, the fascists suppressed a prisoner uprising, after which the camp was liquidated. Camp Treblinka I was liquidated in July 1944 as Soviet troops approached.
In 1964, on the site of Treblinka II, a memorial symbolic cemetery for victims of fascist terror was opened: 17 thousand gravestones made of stones irregular shape, monument-mausoleum.
Ravensbruck - a concentration camp was founded near the city of Fürstenberg in 1938 as an exclusively women's camp, but later a small camp for men and another for girls were created nearby. In 1939-1945. 132 thousand women and several hundred children from 23 European countries passed through the death camp. 93 thousand people were killed. On April 30, 1945, the prisoners of Ravensbrück were liberated by soldiers of the Soviet army.
Mauthausen - the concentration camp was created in July 1938, 4 km from Mauthausen (Austria) as a branch of the Dachau concentration camp. Since March 1939 - an independent camp. In 1940 it was merged with the Gusen concentration camp and became known as Mauthausen-Gusen. It had about 50 branches scattered throughout the former Austria (Ostmark). During the existence of the camp (until May 1945), there were about 335 thousand people from 15 countries. According to surviving records alone, more than 122 thousand people were killed in the camp, including more than 32 thousand Soviet citizens. The camp was liberated on May 5, 1945 by American troops.
After the war, in place of Mauthausen, 12 states, incl. Soviet Union, a memorial museum was created, and monuments were erected to those who died in the camp.
We can all agree that the Nazis did terrible things during World War II. The Holocaust was perhaps their most famous crime. But terrible and inhuman things happened in the concentration camps that most people did not know about. Prisoners of the camps were used as test subjects in a variety of experiments, which were very painful and usually resulted in death.
Experiments with blood clotting
Dr. Sigmund Rascher conducted blood clotting experiments on prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp. He created a drug, Polygal, which included beets and apple pectin. He believed that these tablets could help stop bleeding from battle wounds or during surgery.
Each test subject was given a tablet of this drug and shot in the neck or chest to test its effectiveness. Then the prisoners' limbs were amputated without anesthesia. Dr. Rusher created a company to produce these pills, which also employed prisoners.
Experiments with sulfa drugs 
In the Ravensbrück concentration camp, the effectiveness of sulfonamides (or sulfonamide drugs) was tested on prisoners. Subjects were given incisions on the outside of their calves. Doctors then rubbed a mixture of bacteria into the open wounds and stitched them up. To simulate combat situations, glass shards were also inserted into the wounds.
However, this method turned out to be too soft compared to the conditions at the fronts. To simulate gunshot wounds, blood vessels were ligated on both sides to stop blood circulation. The prisoners were then given sulfa drugs. Despite the advances made in the scientific and pharmaceutical fields due to these experiments, prisoners suffered terrible pain, which led to severe injury or even death.
Freezing and hypothermia experiments 
The German armies were ill-prepared for the cold they faced on Eastern Front and from which thousands of soldiers died. As a result, Dr. Sigmund Rascher conducted experiments in Birkenau, Auschwitz and Dachau to find out two things: the time required for body temperature to drop and death, and methods for reviving frozen people.
Naked prisoners were either placed in a barrel of ice water or forced outside in sub-zero temperatures. Most of the victims died. Those who had just lost consciousness were subjected to painful revival procedures. To revive the subjects, they were placed under sunlight lamps that burned their skin, forced to copulate with women, injected with boiling water, or placed in baths of warm water (which turned out to be the most effective method).
Experiments with incendiary bombs 
During three months In 1943 and 1944, the effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs against phosphorus burns caused by incendiary bombs was tested on Buchenwald prisoners. The test subjects were specially burned with the phosphorus composition from these bombs, which was a very painful procedure. Prisoners suffered serious injuries during these experiments.
Experiments with sea water 
Experiments were carried out on prisoners at Dachau to find ways to turn sea water into drinking water. The subjects were divided into four groups, the members of which went without water, drank sea water, drank sea water treated according to the Burke method, and drank sea water without salt.
Subjects were given food and drink assigned to their group. Prisoners who received seawater of one kind or another eventually began to suffer from severe diarrhea, convulsions, hallucinations, went crazy and eventually died.
In addition, subjects underwent liver needle biopsies or lumbar punctures to collect data. These procedures were painful and in most cases resulted in death.
Experiments with poisons 
At Buchenwald, experiments were conducted on the effects of poisons on people. In 1943, prisoners were secretly injected with poisons.
Some died themselves from poisoned food. Others were killed for the sake of dissection. A year later, prisoners were shot with bullets filled with poison to speed up the collection of data. These test subjects experienced terrible torture.
Experiments with sterilization 
As part of the extermination of all non-Aryans, Nazi doctors conducted mass sterilization experiments on prisoners of various concentration camps in search of the least labor-intensive and cheapest method of sterilization.
In one series of experiments to block the fallopian tubes in reproductive organs women were injected with a chemical irritant. Some women have died after this procedure. Other women were killed for autopsies.
In a number of other experiments, prisoners were exposed to strong X-rays, which resulted in severe burns to the abdomen, groin and buttocks. They were also left with incurable ulcers. Some test subjects died.
Experiments on bone, muscle and nerve regeneration and bone transplantation 
For about a year, experiments were carried out on prisoners in Ravensbrück to regenerate bones, muscles and nerves. Nerve surgeries included removing segments of nerves from lower parts limbs.
Experiments with bones included breaking and setting bones in several places on lower limbs. The fractures were not allowed to heal properly because doctors needed to study the healing process and also test various methods healing.
Doctors also removed many fragments of the tibia from test subjects to study bone tissue regeneration. Bone transplants included transplanting fragments of the left tibia onto the right and vice versa. These experiments caused unbearable pain and severe injuries to the prisoners.
Experiments with typhus 
From the end of 1941 to the beginning of 1945, doctors carried out experiments on prisoners of Buchenwald and Natzweiler in the interests of German armed forces. They tested vaccines against typhus and other diseases.
Approximately 75% of test subjects received trial vaccines against typhus or other chemical substances. They were injected with the virus. As a result, more than 90% of them died.
The remaining 25% of experimental subjects were injected with the virus without any prior protection. Most of them did not survive. Doctors also conducted experiments related to yellow fever, smallpox, typhoid, and other diseases. Hundreds of prisoners died, and many more suffered unbearable pain as a result.
Twin experiments and genetic experiments 
The goal of the Holocaust was the elimination of all people of non-Aryan origin. Jews, blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals and other people who did not meet certain requirements were to be exterminated so that only the "superior" Aryan race remained. Genetic experiments were carried out to provide the Nazi Party with scientific evidence of Aryan superiority.
Dr. Josef Mengele (also known as the "Angel of Death") was greatly interested in twins. He separated them from the rest of the prisoners upon their arrival at Auschwitz. Every day the twins had to donate blood. The actual purpose of this procedure is unknown.
Experiments with twins were extensive. They had to be carefully examined and every inch of their body measured. Comparisons were then made to determine hereditary traits. Sometimes doctors performed massive blood transfusions from one twin to the other.
Since people of Aryan origin mostly had blue eyes, experiments were done with chemical drops or injections into the iris to create them. These procedures were very painful and led to infections and even blindness.
Injections and lumbar punctures were done without anesthesia. One twin was specifically infected with the disease, and the other was not. If one twin died, the other twin was killed and studied for comparison.
Amputations and organ removals were also performed without anesthesia. Most twins who ended up in concentration camps died in one way or another, and their autopsies were the last experiments.
Experiments with high altitudes 
From March to August 1942, prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp were used as test subjects in experiments to test human endurance at high altitudes. The results of these experiments were supposed to help the German air force.
The test subjects were placed in a low-pressure chamber in which atmospheric conditions were created at altitudes of up to 21,000 meters. Most of the test subjects died, and the survivors suffered from various injuries from being at high altitudes.
Experiments with malaria 
For more than three years, more than 1,000 Dachau prisoners were used in a series of experiments related to the search for a cure for malaria. Healthy prisoners became infected with mosquitoes or extracts from these mosquitoes.
Prisoners who fell ill with malaria were then treated various drugs to test their effectiveness. Many prisoners died. The surviving prisoners suffered greatly and basically became disabled for the rest of their lives.
Millions of people became victims of World War II. Not all of them died from hostilities. Many lost their lives in custody. From our article you can learn about special military prisons - concentration camps.
Concept
Initially, concentration camps were specially created places for the isolated detention of the civilian population of an enemy country during hostilities (internment). For the first time this type of restriction of freedom was used by the Spaniards against the Cubans (1895).
The concept of “concentration camp” spread massively and acquired a negative connotation after the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War (South Africa, 1899-1902).
The British created dozens of such detention centers with intolerable conditions that led to the death of at least 17 thousand people.
In the modern understanding, concentration camps are special places for holding prisoners of war, political criminals and all people disliked by the ruling regime (including national and sexual minorities).
In Russia, the largest system of forced labor camps was the Main Directorate of Camps (GULag), created in 1930.
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The Nazi concentration camps organized before and during the Second World War stand out for their extreme degree of cruelty towards prisoners.
Rice. 1. Prisoners of concentration camps.
Nazi concentration camps
Germany recognized the existence of 1,634 camps of various types (labor, transit, death). Researchers believe that in fact there were at least 14 thousand of them. The list of large official German concentration camps of the Second World War (created directly in the country and in the occupied territories) is completely limited to 22 names. They are distinguished by the high mortality rate of prisoners not only from hunger, disease, hard work, but also as a result of medical experiments, torture, violence, blood transfusions, and massacres.
The most famous of them:
- Dachau : first Nazi concentration camp (1933). Before the war there was labor camp for political prisoners and the “lower” strata of society who threaten the purity of the Aryan race; known for performing gruesome medical experiments on prisoners;
- Sachsenhausen : at least 100 thousand prisoners died; used in training guards;
- Buchenwald : one of the largest; execution of prisoners of war, medical experiments;
- Auschwitz (Poland) : mass murders of Soviet prisoners of war, Jews; a toxic substance for future gas chambers was tested for the first time; about 1.5 million killed;
- Majdanek (Poland) : mass murders in gas chambers; large-scale execution of Jews (about 18 thousand);
- Ravensbrück : women's concentration camp;
- Jasenovac (Croatia) : mass murders of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies;
- Maly Trostenets (Belarus) : executions and burning of Soviet prisoners of war and Jews.
In Nazi-occupied Poland, there were 4 special death camps (Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka), specially created to kill certain groups of people (mainly Jews, Gypsies).
Rice. 2. First death camp Chelmno.
On April 11, 1945, the US Army reached Buchenwald. By this time, the prisoners, who managed to receive a radiogram about the approaching liberation troops, rebelled and gained control of the camp. This date is officially declared the Day of Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camp Prisoners.
Rice. 3. Liberation of Buchenwald.
What have we learned?
In the article we expanded on the concept and examined important information about the largest concentration camps of the Second World War, located in Germany and in the territories under its control.
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Interest in the topic of the number of deaths in German concentration camps is maintained first of all, by the Jews themselves, for whom the amazing number of their victims, amazing the imagination of any normal person, became one of the main justifications for both the creation of the state of Israel and its policies, and is also used to this day to present a wide variety of financial and political claims against states, so or otherwise implicated in the "final solution" of the Jewish question. Germany still pays compensation to Holocaust victims; that Switzerland was forced to pay billions of dollars for the accounts of European Jews kept in its banks; that many companies become victims of blackmail, boycotts and economic sanctions just on the slightest suspicion that they in any way collaborated with the Nazis. How exactly this happens, as well as the colossal material and moral capital Jewish organizations extracted and continue to extract from the death of their fellow tribesmen during the Second World War, is described in great detail in the excellent book by the Israeli, note, researcher Norman G. Finkelstein. The Holocaust Industry . Scientists such as David Irving, Kevin Macdonald, Jean-Claude Pressac, Roger Garaudy, Robert Faurisson, Michael Hoffman, Ernst Zündel and others have done a lot to restore the truth. Many of them paid for their activities with freedom. Zündel, for example, having served several years in the USA, is now sitting in a Canadian prison, and in Europe there are generally laws according to which even a simple doubt about official history"Holocaust" is a criminal offense. WITH Ionists are doing everything possible to prevent a revision of the official statistics of victims of Nazism. According to materials Wannsee Conference , at which the decision on the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” was made, the total number of Jews located in the territories controlled by the Nazis at the end of 1941 was 4.5 million people. At that time, the Germans, known for their pedantry, had no reason to deceive themselves. But this figure is of great interest not only in comparison with the magical six million Jews who died in Europe, but also in light of the fact that, according to the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 1988 there weresatisfied about 4.3 million claims for compensation to Holocaust survivors, which means that all these people were able to document that during the Second World War they were in German-occupied territory and were persecuted for their Jewish origin, but nevertheless survived. It would seem that, with these figures, one could easily determine the number of Jews killed by the Germans, but not everything, it turns out, is so simple. Thus, where big politics is involved, the laws of arithmetic, it turns out, lose their force. N Some idea of how the number of Jews killed during the war today is manipulated for their own purposes by unscrupulous historians and politicians can be obtained by following how the number of those “burned in the ovens” of perhaps the most famous German concentration camp, Auschwitz (Auschwitz), has changed over the years ). A detailed table of this data, indicating sources, was published in 2001 in the prestigious Barnes Review magazine. For example, f French documentary"Night and Fog", which was widely shown around the world, puts the figure at 9 million Jews alone. The French Ministry for the Investigation of War Crimes, December 1945, gives a figure of 8 million, and a year later it is already 7 million. 4,000,000 - Number of deaths at Auschwitz, officially established at Nuremberg trials. From 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 - Leading Israeli expert on this issue, Yehuda Bauer, in his 1982 book “The History of the Holocaust.” However, in the 1989 edition, Bauer already names a different figure: 1,600,000. At the same time, in an article published in the Jerusalem Post, Bauer admitted that “higher numbers of victims have been refuted for many years, but these data have not yet been brought to the attention of the public ". 1,433,000 - Le Monde September 1, 1989 1,250,000 - Historian Raoul Hilberg in his 1985 book “The Destruction of European Jewry.” According to Hilberg, of this total of all those killed in Auschwitz, about a million were Jews. 900,000 - Figure given on August 3, 1990 in the Jewish newspaper "Aufbau". From 775,000 to 800,000 - Revised data by Pressak, which was included in his 1993 book "Auschwitz Crematoria: Mechanisms of Mass Murder." According to Pressac, of this death toll, 630,000 were Jews. From 135,000 to 140,000 - Data from the International Search Service of the Red Cross, based on twice-daily roll calls of Auschwitz prisoners. 73,137 (of which 38,031 were Jewish) This figure was first reported by The New York Times on March 3, 1991, based on archives known as " Books of the Dead Auschwitz." These 46 volumes of the "book" were captured by soldiers of the Red Army at the end of the war and were stored in the Soviet archives until 1989, when they were transferred to the Red Cross. These "books" contain all the death certificates of all prisoners of the camp, indicating the full the name, profession and religious affiliation of the deceased, as well as the date and place of birth, previous place of residence, names of parents, time and cause of death, which was established by the camp doctor. In general, according to German archives, the number of deaths in all German concentration camps in the period from 1935 to 1945 is 403,713 people, and this number includes representatives of all races and peoples, as well as those who died from typhus and other infectious diseases or who died of natural causes from old age.It would seem that we should be glad that the Jews died at least 20 times less than is commonly believed to be 6 million. All of humanity should rejoice, but only the Zionists, who are materially interested in as many of their fellow tribesmen as possible, are not happy about such numbers. Almost all Jewish organizations - from public to governmental ones in Israel - are vitally interested in preserving and maintaining this myth of “6 million.” Banks are also interested in this, pumping out billions of dollars in compensation for millions of victims. No one is going to justify the atrocities of the Nazis or discount the suffering and horrors endured by those who fell into their hands. But falsifying the history of the Second World War and manipulating for one’s own selfish interests the number of people who died in fascist concentration camps is, in fact, an outrage against the memory of those who actually fell victim to the “brown plague.” Including, naturally, the memory of the Jews killed by the Germans. (Based on materials
