Term Paper on "Concentration Camps of WWII"

Term Paper 15 pages (4330 words) Sources: 15

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Concentration Camps of WWII -- Who was held, Where did they come from, What happened to them there and what to them after they were released.

Nazi Concentration Camps

The Holocaust has generated a lot of suffering, to its victims, and to society as a whole, given the magnitude of the event. Nazi concentration camps served as a living hell for those who were unlucky enough to visit them as prisoners. Experiencing such an incident was extremely humanizing, both for the detainees and for the guards themselves. In spite of the fact that the process of ethnic cleansing that Hitler initiated was not eventually successful, it nonetheless managed to produced a great deal of distress and memories that will never be forgotten because of their intensity. The concentration camps held a series of people coming from varied environments, ranging from Jews-one of Hitler's primary targets, to virtually anyone believed to be a threat for the well-being of the Third Reich.

It rarely happens for time to go by without the world to be reminded of the Holocaust, as it is frequently related to, with new information constantly emerging or with information that is already known being discussed, this most probably being an attempt society makes to understand what could have triggered such a disaster and how it was possible for good people to be unwilling to prevent it (Zettl, 2005).

At first, Hitler's intention had not been obvious, and no one could imagine someone wanting to do such horrors. However, the war evolved and Jewish people were being sent into working camps from various areas in occupied Europe. It had not been long before the first reports of Nazis treating Jews ruthlessly appeared. Even with the legends going on, it had virtually been impossible for someone to picture the reality existing in the working camps. It was only consequent to the Second World War when the camps and their functionality were discovered and it took several decades for the world to discover exactly what had happened in concentration camps. In most cases, people think about piles of corpses put on top of each other and survivors that are half-dead when they hear the word Holocaust.

Although the world slowly but surely recovered from the incident, the people who actually lived it and who were held prisoner in Nazi concentration camps were never able to completely recuperate. In spite of the fact that there are more than six decades from when the Holocaust ended, its survivors were never actually capable to properly reintegrate society, given that their memories haunted them everywhere they went. "Some of these survivors also struggle with everyday challenges, mental crises and with the woes of aging, retirement and illnesses which may seem insurmountable when viewed in perspective of the shadows of the past" (F Kellermann, 1999). What is more worrying is that while some admit that the event has left a permanent mark on them, others are reluctant to acknowledge that they are suffering as a result of having been prisoners in concentration camps and are left to suffer without being provided with professional assistance.

Some of the primary groups selected for imprisonment in concentration camps were Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled, criminals, and virtually anyone who was not considered worthy of being free. Jewish people were the main target of the Nazis, hence the reason for which most victims of the Holocaust are Jewish in origin. Any individual believed to be of Jewish faith or of Jewish descent was immediately selected to be sent to concentration camps. Most notable concentration camps were located in Poland, largely because the country had a high number of Jews.

In most cases Gypsies were the second group that Nazis targeted with the purpose of being sent in concentration camps. It is difficult to determine the exact number of Gypsies that were killed during the Holocaust, this largely being a consequence that the group had no secure place in the world, considering that it is even impossible to determine the number of Gypsies in the present. The Nazis were also accustomed to sending prisoners of war to concentration camps and presented them with no preferential treatment, as these people were in most cases treated even badly than other groups.

Hitler was known to be unwilling to accept homosexuals in the Third Reich and as a result had a list made with all the homosexuals in Germany, with the purpose of sending them in Nazi prisons and concentration camps. Groups that expressed an unsupportive character toward war in general were considered to be eligible for termination, with the Jehovah's Witnesses religious group having been among the ones Hitler did not want to roam free in Nazi territory. Jehovah's Witnesses were generally against armed warfare and thus did not want to join the military, influencing Nazis in believing that they did not want to support the Third Reich and that they could also be a bad influence on the rest of people in Germany. Because of their political preferences, communists were not favored by the Nazis and anyone who was believed to be connected to the Communist Party was selected to be sent in concentration camps. Given that they committed crimes against the German state, criminals were considered to be an unwanted segment of the German population and were sent to concentration camps. The sphere of influence related to people who were unwanted in Nazi Germany was much larger, as Hitler did not want to support individuals who were believed to be against the concept of Aryan purity. Those who were disabled or mentally ill were taken away from their families or from the institutions they belonged to and were relocated to concentration camps. In particular cases, the Nazis went as far as sending old people to concentration camps for the purpose that they could not serve the Nazi state in any way.

It is extremely difficult for Holocaust survivors to be at peace with themselves, with most of them being uncertain whether they should try to forget or if they should come forward and tell the whole world what happened in concentration camps.

The first official mass killings took place during the early 1940s, with the Nazis mass murdering people both in the east and in the west. Hitler apparently wanted to hurry things as he gave the order for the Final Solution to be implemented. Large numbers of Jewish people were being killed first by shooting and later by being gassed in special-made gassing chambers. The conditions in the working camps had been horrible, and people often died of starvation or because they had contracted a certain disease.

In spite of the fact that it had not been until the Second World War that people have become acquainted with Nazi concentration camps, the institutions went back to the early stages of Nazi Germany, as Hitler founded a series of camps meant to hold whomever posed a threat to the well-being of the state. Historians typically focus on the last years of the Second World War when trying to describe Nazi concentration camps, ignoring the fact that people have suffered as a result of being held in such complexes years before the war actually began. The incredible growth in prisoners is likely to fuel this. "Inmate numbers shot up from 110,000 in September 1942 to a staggering 715,000 in January 1945" (http://www.camps.bbk.ac.uk/history/History%20Introduction.pdf 2).

Some of the first camps were designed with the purpose of silencing and intimidating those who did not support the Nazi system. The commencing of the war made it possible for Germans to understand the financial potential work camps represented. Hitler actually increased the number of concentration camps with the purpose of supporting the war. This influenced the increasing number of deaths in concentration camps, given that most people were unable to survive such torment.

One of the largest and most significant concentration camps was located in Oswiecim, near Cracow, Poland. Although most people are unlikely to be familiar with the small town's actual name, they have most probably heard a great deal of things about the Auschwitz extermination camp. Hitler's people established the camp at this location because it was a meeting point of some of the most important roads and railways in Poland, thus meaning that people could be brought here in large numbers relatively fast. The town of Oswiecim was also significant because it held a great number of Jewish people, making it easier for the Germans to bring them into the camp. Auschwitz has presently become a hallmark of the Holocaust primarily because of its size and because people from all across Europe were sent here in large numbers with the purpose of being exterminated.

The contemporary society is virtually unable to fully understand what Auschwitz was for the people held prisoner there, just as no one could understand, regardless of everything they ever saw or heard about. The concentration camp was a complex system meant to murder or to subject Jewish individuals to terrifying… READ MORE

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