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What We Learn From History

The Nazi Concentration Camps

By Ruth Elizabeth StiffPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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There were over a thousand of these camps listed in the history books for each generation to learn from. Here are just two: The Gross-Rosen and The Flossenburg.

The main camp of the Gross-Rosen was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen (today it is known as Rogoznica, Poland). In 1944, this camp had 100 sub camps which were located in eastern Germany, Czechoslovakia, and on the territory of occupied Poland. The inmates at this time, at these camps, accounted for 11% of the total ‘recorded’ number of prisoners incarcerated in the entire Nazi Concentration Camp System.

All of the camps were horrific to be in, but Gross-Raven stands out in its extreme treatment of the prisoners. It became an independent camp in 1941, and in the October, 3,000 soviet POWs were moved here for execution by shooting. Gross-Rosen was known to be the camp where prisoners would ‘vanish without a trace.’ Most died in the granite quarry. These prisoners were starved and denied medical help. In 1942, prisoners lived less than two months at this camp!

The largest number of inmates in Gross-Rosen came from the Jewish population (mainly from Poland, Hungary, Belgium, France, Greece and Italy). A total of 125,000 inmates (‘recorded’) passed through this camp, of whom an estimated 40,000 (‘recorded’) died. The Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp was designated an “autonomous” camp (which means that this camp worked under Nazi Rule instead of German Law = the commandants where there ‘out of a sense of moral duty’).

This concentration camp had one of the largest numbers of female prisoners, nearly 26,000, mostly Jewish.

The Gr0ss-Rosen camp was liberated in 1945 by soviet forces.

During its time, this was another camp which was also used as a laboratory for human medical experiments. These included unwarranted surgical operations and ‘attempts’ to treat typhoid fever. An unidentified spray was applied to prisoners ‘suspected’ of having this fever. Needless to say, thousands died!

The Flossenburg Concentration Camp was built in 1938 by the SS Main Economic and Administrate Office. This camp was located in a remote area, in the Fichtel Mountains of Bavaria. Its original purpose was to exploit forced labour for the production of granite for Nazi architecture, but in 1943, this was changed to the production of fighter planes and other armaments for the Nazi.

An estimated number of 100,000 prisoners passed through this camp, and around 30,000 died from malnutrition, overwork, executions, and during the ‘death marches.’

Many prisoners came to this camp from Dachau. These prisoners were actual criminals but some also were ‘asocial’ and homosexuals. The criminals soon took over the prisoner functionary positions.

The new prisoners were made to construct the camp, beginning with the barbed wire fence. The camp now expanded to 1,500 inmates. The prisoners were ordered to build an internal jail, guard towers, a washing facility and a sewer system. The additional ‘barracks’ had to be cut from the hillsides, a very dangerous job that led to many deaths.

This was another camp which was used to train “Waffen-SS”. Many of the prisoners were incarcerated due to their opposition to the Nazi regime. Most of the Jewish ‘political’ prisoners were executed or died shortly after arriving from the mistreatment they received. This camp had Jews, soviets, Polish, as well as other prisoners. In 1944, this camp ‘housed’ 40,437 inmates. The number of guards increased to 450, and by the time the camp was evacuated, this number increased to 4,500 (in 1944). Many of these guards were women.

The prisoners in this camp died from: the dangerous work, the shortage of fresh water, the cold and wet weather (especially as their ‘uniforms’ were not adequate enough for the appalling conditions these prisoners lived in). The ‘barracks’ were originally constructed to hold 1,500 inmates, but by 1945, this had increased to 11,000. The prisoners had to work and sleep in shifts.

Again the treatment of these prisoners was extremely brutal, from sexual abuse to beatings to being doused with cold water to straight forward execution. A separate barracks was made to isolate teenage boys --- we can guess why! Being chronically undernourished, disease soon spread through the camp. The work was physically hard and most prisoners were given very little food. It is ‘recorded’ that three-quarters of the deaths of this camp occurred in the nine months before it was liberated.

Again, a crematorium was constructed on-site, and the shootings --- ‘executions’ --- were changed to lethal injection. So called doctors took the very ill prisoners from this camp to the euthanasia centres.

Towards the end, this camp fell into disarray. The work had stopped and prisoners became idle, some even mistreating non-German prisoners. On 15th April, 1945, the camp peaked at 45,800 prisoners, including 16,000 women.

The Flossenburg Concentration Camp was liberated on 23rd April, 1945, by the United States Army. The first memorial on this site was set up in 1946, and a permanent museum was opened in 2007.

These horrendous camps will never be forgotten, as they remind us of how wicked a ‘man in power’ can be, but we also see the sheer strength and courage of those prisoners who knew that they would never come out alive. These people never gave up hope that one day life would change. We can only learn from them!

This time in history showed us what one ‘race’ can try to do to those who they thought were inferior. Prejudice and persecution crept up unchallenged until it “almost” became too late to overthrow. We learn that the decisions we make today will affect tomorrow. This experience in human history has taught us not to judge others because of the colour of their skin, their way of life or even their faith.

Generations to come will learn about the Nazi Concentration Camps and the lesson of “tolerance” that history teaches us.

(Most of my research comes from Wikipedia and Britannica)

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About the Creator

Ruth Elizabeth Stiff

I love all things Earthy and Self-Help

History is one of my favourite subjects and I love to write short fiction

Research is so interesting for me too

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