About Death Camps

There are many names for them, some more accurate than others. Deaths camps. Extermination camps. Work camps. Concentration camps. Relocation camps. No matter what name they go by, the true nature of a death camp is present in the very name--systematic death for the inmates.

History of

Death camps have existed in one form or another for most of recorded human history. The Romans would often put entire city populations to the sword in areas where they wanted to make a true example, and many early prison camps throughout the world were much more like death camps than what we would envision from a modern-day correctional facility. It wasn't until modernized warfare, however, that death camps really became prevalent. Their most notorious usage was, of course, as a part of the Holocaust during World War II.

Misconceptions

Many people believe that the terms "death camp" and "concentration camp" are essentially synonymous. In actuality, they refer to fairly different things. A death camp is a site where prisoners are held only a very short period of time, if they're even housed at all, and are murdered in a relatively quick, efficient, systematic fashion. Concentration camps, on the other hand, are generally intended as extremely crowded work camps. While many may perish in a concentration camp, it is generally of starvation, disease or exposure, not of direct physical violence from the captors.

Geography

During the Holocaust the most active death camps used by the Nazis were Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Treblinka, Chelmno, Sobibor, and Majdanek. These camps were located throughout the lands that Germany occupied throughout the early to mid-1940s, with most of the camps in Poland. Other death camps have existed elsewhere throughout the world, with many lesser-known instances taking place throughout the African continent, but those from the Holocaust are by far the most widely studied and known.

Function

The function of most death camps is the state-sponsored genocide of one group of people. The motivation for the genocide may vary from instance to instance, as does the exact societal situations surrounding the death camp, but the methods are usually uniform. In the Holocaust, for example, methods of execution at death camps included gassing, firing squads, drowning, starvation, physical beatings and torture. During the Holocaust these relatively simply methods were used efficiently to murder more than 6 million people.

Effects

The long-term effects of death camps are still being registered in society today. Never in human history has such wholesale slaughter been so efficiently, systematically conducted. The psychological effects on those exposed to death camps are almost unimaginable to those who haven't had such an experience. Societally, the Holocaust is something that will likely continue to affect people for many generations to come. The inhumanity required for a place like Auschwitz-Birkenau to function the way that it did, killing more than 1 million people in just a few short years, leaves many gaping philosophical questions about the nature of mankind unanswered.

Resources

• A Site of Remembrance of the Holocaust