Recently I read the "Flotsam" (original title: Liebe Deinen Naechsten) by Erich Maria Remarque. The plot follows, in short, the story of several political refugees from Nazi Germany trying to set their foot and survive in the neighboring countries. It is set in 1936-1937 and based on the experiences of the author, who himself was forced to leave Germany in 1938. The characters and the plot are also inspired by many stories he heard from other emigrants at that time.
In the book there are two instances of characters who were in a concentration camp. One of them escaped, another was released. The released one is clearly traumatized, he screams in his sleep. The names of the camps are not mentioned. In addition, in several conversations the concentration camps are mentioned, and they are a symbol of the inhumane times that the characters have to live in.
My question is: did the concentration camps exist in the 1930s, several years before the WWII? Were they already "death camps" at that point or just some sort of primitive rehabilitation institutions? If they already were places of torture (as the trauma of that one character suggests), why would anyone be released? And how is it that the concentration camps were already at that point common knowledge and people knew what was happening inside of there? The characters move across Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland and France and stumble across many people, which implies that the truth about the concentration camps would be already "delivered" to several strong political players in the pre-war Europe. This last thing seems odd to me.
Thanks in advance for taking your time to reply.
P.S. For anyone that googled the title of the book and saw the mention that the book is based in 1939: I think this is a mistake of the distributor. In the version of the book that I have the cover description does not say this. And in the epilogue it says that it is based in 1936-37. At some point of the book there is winter, so if it was 1939 there would be a reference to the start of the WWII. Yet there is no mention of war in the entire book - the only instances where the word "war" is used is during philosophical conversations. There are also no dates stated in the book, except the months, seasons, and the obvious historical placement (objects, politics, names, countries, etc.).
From an earlier answer of mine:
It's important to distinguish between the different types of camps.
I. During the war only - mainly for Jews
1. Jewish Ghettos
These were established mainly in Poland, which had the largest population of Jews of any of the occupied countries, as well as being occupied before the establishment of the death camps. There were also quite a number in the occupied parts of the Soviet Union, as well as a few ghettos in the Baltic states, Rumania, Hungary, Croatia, and lastly the famous Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia, which was a special case that I have written about here. The purpose of the ghettos was two-fold: imprison all Jewish citizens of a particular area, and extract as much labour from them as possible. As the war went on, all ghettos were gradually “liquidated”, which meant that the inhabitants were all killed off, either by shootings as in the Soviet Union and Baltic states, or by transportation to a death camp.
2. Transit camps
These were holding camps in the occupied countries, mainly in Western Europe, where Jews were gathered and imprisoned pending deportation to the East. Famous examples include Darcy (France), Westerbork (Netherlands), Mechelen/Malines (Belgium).
3. Extermination camps
The extermination camps' only purpose was to kill the people brought there (mainly Jews). Extermination camps were: Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, Chelmno and Birkenau (part of Auschwitz).The best known camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was actually both a concentration camp and an extermination camp, as was Majdanek. Here's a map.
Almost nobody survived those camps and consequently they are not as well known, again with the exception of Auschwitz, as the traditional concentration camps such as Dachau, Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen. Auschwitz and Majdanek were liberated by the Russians and hence some inmates survived. Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno and Belzec were dismantled during the war and all the remaining inmates were killed. One person survived being shot in the head at Chelmno at the camp's disbanding. The only other survivors from these four camps were escapees.
II. Both before and during the war - mainly for political prisoners: Concentration camps
Yes, you could be released from a concentration camp! That's perhaps the surprising part for most people. Let's have a closer look at what these camps were meant to be, how they evolved over time and what the different categories of inmates were. An excellent resource for this is The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933-1945.
The early years 1933-1936
The early concentration camps were established to punish and terrorise the regime's political opponents. Who was sent there and if and when they were released was mainly decided by the Gestapo, the Secret State Police. If you were a model prisoner, renouncing your former views, or if you promised to go into exile, and did not happen to be killed by overwork or guard brutality, you had a good chance of getting out. Presumably, you would then have learned your lesson as well as tell your fellow dissidents about the horrors of the camps thus cowering them into submission. Other prisoners in these early years were released because of international pressure, or as in the mass Christmas release of 1933. It is fair to say that in the early years, the majority of prisoners were released fairly quickly.
The SS takes over
From 1936 onwards all concentration camps came under the control of the SS. This was bad news for everyone involved. They started out by closing a bunch of smaller camps and establishing a universal camp system, hierarchy, classification of prisoners. They expanded the inmate population to include not only political prisoners but also criminals and other “asocial” elements (including homosexuals). They also started using the camps as a source of productive forced labour. At this time, the prisoner population was relatively low: 21,000 just before the war broke out in August 1939. A notable episode of short-term imprisonment in this period was the fact that 30,000 Jews were dragged off to these camps after Reichskristallnacht and subsequently released over the next few months, if they hadn't died in the camps (2,000 did). This was part of a concerted effort to terrorise the Jewish citizens into emigrating (leaving their possessions behind as they were only allowed to take a bare minimum of funds with them).
The war years
The number of inmates increased dramatically after the onset of war as opponents of the Germans from the occupied countries began flooding in. Release was still possible, but not frequent, for criminals who had served their terms.
The collapse
Himmler (head of the SS and therefore ultimately in charge of all concentration camps) tried to use the release of certain groups of inmates as a means of ingratiating himself with the international community towards the end of the war. In March 1945 he ordered that no more Jewish prisoners were to be killed (this had little effect on the ground as by this time most prisoners were dying of starvation and disease due to the atrocious conditions in the overcrowded camps in Germany they had all been herded into). He also released 20,000 mainly Scandinavian non-Jewish prisoners to the Swedish Red Cross.
First let's set one thing straight. There is a distinct difference between the nazi concentration camps in the period of 1933-1942, and the extermination camps after the wannsee-conference on the 20th of januari 1942. The first camp that was built was Dachau in 1933. It was primarily used for political opponents during the pre-war period but gradually took more of a role in the 'endlösung politik' later during the war like many other camps. Other pre-war camps with a lot of recorded casualties are Buchenwald, Neuengamme, and Mauthausen-Gusen. All these camps could be called concentration camps by the very defintion of the word. Yet the 'death camps' you're talking about only started appearing after the wannsee-conference. At this meeting, the idea of the 'endlosüng', the eradication of the jewish race, was introduced in nazi state policy by Himmler and his right-hand man Heidrich. Although there was a lot of hate against the jews prior to this conference (kristalnacht is a good example) and they were rounded up in camps well before, this meeting of high Nazi-officials marked a turning point in german policy against the jewish population within their conquered territories. After this conference the likes of Auschwitz-birkenau and others would be seen, wherein 6 million jews and 11 million people including roma, handicapped, and other minorities found their deaths, according to historical estimates.
