WWII Concentration Camps: A Global Scourge - Research Paper

Introduction

For years, concentration camps had been used to isolate specific groups of people from society. The first documented concentration camps were in Cuban cities (Lake 18). The Spanish masters used the camps to hold rebels without trial. The concept had also taken root in South Africa during the Boer War. However, it is during World War II (WII) that concentration camps grew in popularity and the horrors associated with them caught the full attention of the world. The Jewish concentration camps are arguably the most known due to the atrocities that were committed on the Jewish people within them. The camps were a tool used by the Nazi to control, persecute, and eventually kill the Jews. This paper seeks to discuss the Jewish concentration camps, how they came to be, how life was in the camps, how it ended, as well as famous people who lived through it all.

Significance of the Camps

Generally, a concentration camp refers to a place where certain groups of people are imprisoned or concentrated without trial. They are usually kept under harsh conditions and exploited for labor. Such camps sprung up in Nazi Germany from 1933 and in other regions controlled by Nazi in Europe from 1938 to 1945 (Lake 18). The Nazis used the camps as a way of imposing control. Though the atrocities mentioned in this paper occurred during WWII, events that had happened decades and even centuries before set the stage for the mass annihilation of the Jews.

The rise of anti-Semitism in Europe can be traced to as the Middle Ages. Fuelled by religious antagonism, various anti-Jewish legislation was adopted in different European regions. Though most of the restrictions were lifted at the beginning of the 19th century, the anti-Semitism sentiments that had been piling up for centuries were used by the Nazis to profile the Jews as a dangerous race that had to be annihilated (Crowe). Concentration camps must be differentiated from extermination camps. The latter was meant to destroy any race that the Nazis thought inferior or dangerous. When the first concentration camps were set up, they served as detention centers for people viewed as enemies of the state such as communists, homosexuals, and Jehovah's Witnesses. However, a shift that would entirely transform the history of the world occurred in 1938 when thousands of Austrian and German Jews were arrested and detained in various concentration camps such as Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen. This marked the start of the Nazi's racial ideology that continued until the end of WWII. In the beginning, some of the Jews were released within a few days. However, others had to endure weeks, months, and even years of detention. The sanitation in the camps was deplorable, and the people were brutally treated, tortured, and humiliated. Moreover, they were subjected to forced labor, which led to the death of many of them. It is approximated that more than one million Jews died during this period (Nansen and Boyce).

Overall Outcomes

The popularity of extermination camps rose, particularly between 1941 and 1945 (Lake 18). The primary aim of the camps was to murder Jews and Roma on a smaller scale. In what the Nazis called the implementation of the 'Final Solution', six extermination camps were built in Poland. They include Auschwitz-Birkenau, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, and Majdanek. Chelmno was the first to be built in December 1941 and targeted the Jews from the surrounding areas. The additional extermination camps were constructed following the Wannsee Conference in 1942 (Lake 18). The Auschwitz-Birkenau was the most complex of the facilities consisting of a forced labor camp, a concentration camp, as well as an extermination camp (Lake 18). Thousands of Jews were deported from different regions across Europe and transported to these camps (Botz 330). It is estimated that 1.1 million Jews were annihilated in the gas chambers of this camp (Crowe). By the time the practice came to an end in 1945, an estimated three million Jews were murdered in the extermination camps (Crowe).

The concentration camps fell towards the end of WWII when the Allied Forces overcame the resistance by the Soviet Army. As the Allies advanced, the Germans tried to hide evidence of the atrocities that had been committed and transported the inmates deeper into Germany, away from the front (Vance 10). Majdanek was the first camp to be liberated in July of 1944 and Auschwitz was overrun in January of 1945. Only a few thousand prisoners were alive at the time of liberation. There were survivors from other camps also (Rose). Elie Wiesel is among the most famous survivors. He was a writer, political activist, professor, and a Nobel Laureate. Tom Lantos, a member of the House of Representatives, also survived life in the camps. Others include Abraham Foxman, Daniel Kahneman, and Tibor Rubin (Mazel 100).

Conclusion

This discussion has shown that atrocities and horrors of unprecedented magnitude were meted on the Jewish people in the concentration camps. While the initial idea of concentration camps was to isolate and persecute the prisoners, it gradually turned into an annihilation mission with the establishment of the extermination camps. Fuelled by the anti-Semitism ideologies that had been subtly entertained throughout history as well as Hitler's pursuit of racial purity, the camps led to the deaths of millions of Jews by the time the Allied Forces liberated them in 1945. Thousands of survivors were saved and lived to tell the story of a period that changed history.

Works Cited

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Crowe, David M. The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath. Routledge, 2018. <https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429496431>.

Lake, Mackenzie. "Book Review: Concentration Camps: A Short History." Genocide Studies and prevention: An International Journal 13.1 (2019): 18. <https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1635&context=gsp>.

Mazel, Nichelle. "Young Holocaust Survivors Rebuilt Their Lives: France, the United States, and Israel." Jewish Political Studies Review 29.1/2 (2018): 99-101. <https://www.jstor.org/stable/26500678>.

Nansen, Odd and Timothy J. Boyce. From Day to Day: One Man's Diary of Survival in Nazi Concentration Camps. Vanderbilt University Press, 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/book/45359>.

Rose, Elizabeth. "Children of holocaust survivors on middle-age: A phenomenological inquiry." Walden University, 2016. <http://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3480&context=dissertations>.

Vance, Cali. "The Selected Destruction of Concentration Camps: Why the Nazi Regime left Some Intact." The Forum: Journal of History 10.1 (2018): 10. <http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1152&context=forum>.