When anyone thinks of concentration camps or the Holocaust, Auschwitz is the first example that seems to come to mind in many conversations. Why is this?
Auschwitz is the most well known of all the camps due to the number of people exterminated there. Additionally, it was a huge work camp as well as an extermination camp. Hence, a great number of survivors had been in Auschwitz. However, lets look more at what Auschwitz was to see that it is archetypal camp in the minds of many, but was actually unique in the lager system.
First, this is an important topic because confusion about the nature of the Nazi lager system is the primary, in my mind, way that Holocaust deniers manipulate information to their own ends.
Concentration Camps Throughout the rule of the Nazis, concentration camps existed in some form or another. The first was Dachau and by 1939 there were six concentration camps (this does not include locally run work camps or local detention camps). All six were placed under the authority of the Heinrich Himmler and the SS.
The people sent to these camps were deviants and political prisoners. Political prisoners could be defined as anyone who was a "threat" to the German "race." This broad authority led to people of many groups being placed into concentration camps. Jehovah's Witnesses, clergy, Jews, Roma & Sinti, Communists, homosexuals, etc.
Following the outbreak of war, these camps became even more important for the SS as work camps. The incarcerated were still "political prisoners," but this included any from the occupied territories that might have gotten on the wrong side of the SS. New camps were opened and each main camp could have hundreds of sub-camps. These were more and more often based on economic realities.
Extermination Camps In late 1941, a series of camps began being built in the Polish Generalgouvernement with the purpose of exterminating the Jews of Poland. The first of these extermination camps were Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec. They used carbon monoxide early on. These camps were ONLY for the extermination of the people sent their. Most of these victims were the Jews of Poland. These camps were closed by October of 1943 and roughly 1.5 million Jews were killed as well as other victims.
Auschwitz Auschwitz was, at first, a concentration/work camp. All three of its main camps were work camps at some point. A number of German industrial companies used labor from these camps. Work on it started in April 1940 and it was liberated by the Soviets on January 27, 1945. Auschwitz I & Auschwitz III (Auschwitz-Buna or Auschwitz-Monowitz) remained concentration work camps throughout the war. However, Auschwitz-Birkenau, between 1941 and 1945, this largest of the three main Auschwitz camps also contained a killing center. Using Zyklon B, this camp is where hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed using the following process:1)Victims arrived by train from across Europe. 2) Selections of capable workers for the work portion of the camp occurred. During times of large scale deportations to the camps there might be no selections. 3) Those not selected for work were sent to gas chambers which looked like showers. 4) Sonderkommando, Jewish workers at the extermination area, cremated the bodies.
The work camp areas of Auschwitz were extremely brutal with many of the detained dying through hunger, disease, and other cruelties. They were tattooed with numbers to designate them and were put through many useless ordeals. For instance, poor bed making could result in beatings or loss of rations. Also, standing for roll call for hours was common.
It is the extermination portion of the camp and the cruelty of the rest of the camp that stands out in popular imagination. The shear numbers of those who went through Auschwitz meant it was the most well known among survivors. Additionally, the Nazis evacuated Auschwitz prior to its liberation by the Soviets. Those evacuated were marched into the interior of Germany and into a number of the concentration camps. Hence survivors spoke of gas chambers & crematorium. The Americans who liberated the survivors naturally assumed the survivors were referring to the camps in which the survivors found themselves at liberation (such as Buchenwald). This has led to confusion about the nature of the various camps.
If you have further questions, please ask me.