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Raechel Mason

Larry Neuburger

English 102-110

18 April 2011

Research Paper

Concentration Camps

The years 1939-1942 saw a marked expansion of the concentration camps system. The

concentration camps took in Jew prisoners for economic profit. The concentration camps also

became sites for the mass murder of small targeted groups deemed dangerous for political or

racial reasons by the Nazi authorities. The concentration camps were a big role in the Holocaust,

changing the lives of every Jew, leaving a horrible memory for those who did survive the

concentration camps.

The first concentration camp was camp Chelmno. Camp Chelmno was known for being

an extermination camp which was a typical death camp. Any Jew that was brought to this camp

was authorized to die with no questions asked. There were only a small group that would be

saved, but they were chosen by German authorities. Chelmno¶s extermination camp was

concealed by a high wooden fence. Chelmno was a very secretive extermination camp. ³Those

who were brought here for destruction were convinced till the very last moment that they were to

be employed on fortification work in the Easy. They were told that, before going further, they

would have a bath, and that their clothes would be disinfected.´ Victims were tricked by the

Germans. Therefore adding, ³Immediately after their arrival at the camp they were taken to the
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large hall of the house, where they were to tell to undress, and then they were driven along a

corridor to the front door, where a large lorry, fitted up as a gas-chamber, was standing.´ This

was the point that the Jews thought they were going to be bathing and cleaning up themselves.

Instead, ³When the lorry was full, the door was locked, the engine started, and carbon monoxide

was introduced into the interior through a specially constructed exhaust pipe´ The Jews were

trapped in this lorry as long as forty-five minutes. Furthermore, ³When the cries and struggles of

the suffocating victims were heard no more, the lorry was driven to the wood, which was

enclosed with a high fence and surround with outposts. Here the corpses were unloaded and

buried, and afterwards burnt in one of the clearings´ (Zamosc, 2). At this camp, the Jews were

put to labor work. Jews were treated like dirt at this camp. Several Jews died from starvation and

extremely poor conditions. More than 300,000 Jews were murdered at the camp of Chelmno.

The Auschwitz camp was one of the worst concentration camps in Holocaust history.

Auschwitz was made of three main camps that were known to put incarcerated prisoners to work.

Auschwitz was to serve three main purposes: ³1.) To incarcerate real and perceived enemies of

the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland for an indefinite period of

time; 2.) to have available a supply of forced labourers for deployment in SS-owned,

construction-related enterprises (and, later, armaments and other war0related production); and 3.)

to serves as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the of the populations whose

death was determined by the SS and police authorities to be essential to the security of Nazi

Germany´ (U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2). ). Jews, at first, were executed by shootings.

Later through the years, Nazis started using the poisonous gas method. When Jews were forced

to work, the hours consisted from eleven to twelve hour work days. ³They worked on huge

farms, coal mines, in stone quarries, in fisheries, and especially in armaments industries´ (U.S
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HMM, 2). To identify a Jew prisoner, they were registered and tattooed so Germans could keep

track of each of them. A total of 1.2 million Jews were killed during the captive time of

Auschwitz.

Another concentration camp was Belzec, which was also an extermination camp. This

camp was carefully hidden from the outside world. ³The outer fence was camouflaged with tree

branches. During the later reorganisation of the camp, the space between the two fences was

filled with rolls of barbed wire. On the eastern side, another barrier erected on a steep slope by

fixing the tree trunks of wooden planks´ (The Belzec Death Camp, 1). Eventually, a line of trees

were planted to cover any other appearances of the existing camp. At first Jews were

exterminated in cells which were filled with diesel fumes, but in August 1942 Zyklon-B, the

quick-acting hydrogen cyanide gas, was first demonstrated at Belzec. The camp was closed in

the spring of 1943 and all traces were obliterated. After the Jews had died, the Germans searched

every single corpse. ³Each corpse was searched for valuables and any gold teeth removed before

the bodies were lowered in the pits´ (TBDC, 3). Such horrible things happened to Jews at this

camp. A total of almost 600,000 Jews were killed by the Nazi Germans.

Camp Sobibor was established March 1942. Like previous camps, Sobibor was also an

extermination camp. Sobibor was also secretly guarded by barbed fence. ³The site measured

roughly 1,300 by 2,000 feet, surrounded by a triple line of barbed wire fencing and guarded by

watchtowers. It was sub-divided into a reception area and three camps´ (Sobibor Poland, 1).

Jews were forced to leave all belongings such as luggage and clothing. Jews were naked when

they reached the gas chambers, and were taken to an isolated part of the camp that was covered

by tree branches intertwined with the barbed wire. The chambers at camp Sobibor, could hold up

to 160-180 people. ³Carbon monozide generated by a diesel engine mounted outside was piped
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into the gas chambers. The corpses were removed from a second door and buried in huge,

specially excavated pits. Carts, and later trolleys on a small rail track, were used to carry

deportees who were infirm to walk to burial pits where they were shot so not to delay the killing

process´ (SP, 2). Nazi Germans were not playing around at this camp. They wanted to get the

killing over and done with. All traces of this camp were demolished and disguised as a farm. A

total of 250,000 Jews were exterminated.

In November 1941, camp Treblinka was established. Both Jews and Polish inmates were

imprisoned here. They were deployed at forced labor, which majority took place in a gravel pit.

Like previous camps before, this camp was hidden from outsiders with barbed-wire fence and

trees. The camp consisted of three areas: the reception area, the living area, and the killing area.

The living area was to house the German staff and the guards. ³It also contained barracks that

housed those Jewish prisoners selected from incoming transports to provide forced labor to

support the camp¶s function: mass murder´ (HMM, 1). In the killing area, Jews were forced to

run naked along the path leading to the gas chambers, which were labeled as showers. ³Once the

chamber doors were sealed, an engine installed outside the building pumped carbon monoxide

into the gas chambers, killing those inside´ (HMM, 2). Mass graves were used to bury the bodies

of the Jews from the gas chambers. Later, Jews were forced to dig up the already buried bodies

and dispose of the bodies by burning them in huge trenches in ³ovens´ that were made of rail

track. The Jews that were put to work got extremely sick, and were told they would see a doctor.

The Nazis disguised themselves as the Red Cross, and shot the poor Jews. The Germans killed

between 870,000 to 925,000 Jews.

 The last and final camp was Stutthof. Stutthof was covered with electrified barbed-wire

fence. Conditions of the camp were brutal; Jews were beaten and had to give up all their
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possessions as they entered the gates. This camp was like a boot camp, each Jew had their own

barrack to sleep in and they had to perform labour in the mornings. Jews were also killed by

medical reasons. Jews were also forced to march to the Baltic Sea coast where they were

machine gunned down. The surviving Jews were forced to march back to Stutthof. ³Marching in

severe winter conditions and treated brutally by SS guards, t



     
  


cc . Jews had to experience long work days, with a little or no break. Some Jews had the

privilege to work inside from the brutal weather conditions. However, Jews were not fed that

much, under 1000 calories a day. Thousands of Jews died from this. Jews experienced horrible

conditions, leaving only three thousand of the Jews to survive amongst the millions that were

killed.

There are few survivors from these concentration camps. It is a shame that human beings

had to go through such torture. There are so many unanswered questions still to this day. How

can the Nazi armies live with themselves for killing so many innocent people? Due from these

concentration camps, survivors today will tell their tragedies that had happened to them so other

people can relive the story too.

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Work Cited

Holocaust Education and Archive Research Team. ˜



 

 Victor Smart and

Carmelo Lisciotto. 2010. 18 April 2011. <http://

www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/belzec.html>.

Sobibor Extermination Camp (Poland).  18 April 2011. <http://

www.jewishgen.org/forgottencamps/camps/sobiboreng.html>.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 6 January 2011. 18 April 2011. <http://

www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article/php>.

Zamosc, Leon. Jewish Gombin (Gabin, Poland, Jewish Genealogy): Chelmno.




 
 18 April2011. <http://weber.used.edu/-lzamosc/gchelmno.html>.