How many concentrations camps

As in most Nazi camps, conditions in forced labour camps were inadequate. Inmates were only ever seen as temporary, and, in the Nazis view, could always be replaced with others: there was a complete disregard for the health of prisoners. They were subject to insufficiencies of food, equipment, medicine and clothing, whilst working long hours. There was little or no time for rest or breaks. As a result of these conditions, death rates in labour camps were extremely high.

By , more than fourteen million people had been exploited in the network of hundreds of forced labour camps that stretched across the whole of Nazi-occupied Europe. This drawing by prisoner R. This camp was used to incarcerate British Navy personnel from until its liberation in May Typically, inmates in prisoner of war camps were allowed to send and receive letters from their families, although this process could take several weeks or months.

This is an unused prisoner of war airmail letter. The prisoner of war camps were subject to strict rules and regulations.

The prisoners of war must observe strict military discipline in the camp and outside the camp. The camp leader and the guards are the superiors of all the POWs of the camp to whom they must behave according to military honours. Allied military officers and personnel who were captured by, or surrendered to, the Nazis were also imprisoned in camps. These camps were called prisoner of war, or POW, camps.

Over one thousand prisoner of war camps existed throughout the Third Reich during the Second World War. There were many different types of camps, some held specifically Navy personnel, others held only officers, and others held a more general array of prisoners. Germany had signed and agreed to the terms of the Geneva Convention of , which set out the basic treatment of prisoners of war, but these were rarely upheld in full by the Nazis.

Conditions inside the camps were usually miserable, with scarce food and poor sanitation widespread. Many of the inmates were also forced to carry out hard labour.

The Nazis believed that Soviet citizens were subhuman and racial enemies due to Soviet communism , which they saw in direct opposition to Nazism. As such, they treated Soviet prisoners of war particularly harshly. Over the course of the war approximately 5. Over 3.

Image shows a copy of the Editorship Law. The Nazis created hundreds of concentration camps across Europe during their 12 years in power. Numbers in the circles show how many camps were in each area. There were also four main extermination camps -- Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Treblinka -- devoted solely to killing everyone who passed through their gates.

Treblinka nearly rivaled Auschwitz in the sheer number of people who were murdered there. Between , and , people were killed at Treblinka in Poland, , died at Sobibor, at least , were murdered at Chelmno, and about , Jews were killed at Belzec. Over its five-year tenure, some 8, worked at the camp , including female guards. According to the limited available information, many were Catholic or Lutheran. Of 1, Auschwitz SS men, 70 percent had only an elementary education, while 5.

While some of the charged of crimes were sentenced to death or spent years in prison, many were acquitted of their crimes. Other former SS workers known to have worked in the camps were called by the court as witnesses but did not face trial, themselves. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us!

Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. The end came in the first months of , when Allied troops conquered what was left of the Third Reich.

But liberation came too late for many concentration camp inmates. Between January and May when Germany capitulated , an estimated , prisoners died. Victims of disease, starvation and execution, they died inside the hellish compounds and on death marches away from abandoned camps. Overall, some 2. Their fate was shaped by many factors, such as age, gender and nationality. They all experienced the camps differently. Inmate relations were often tense, but there was also much comradeship and resistance.

The SS ruled the concentration camps with an iron fist. It enforced brutal rules and rigid schedules. But just as there was no typical camp and no typical prisoner, there was no typical perpetrator either.

By no means all men and women in the Camp SS were depraved murderers. But most of them quickly got used to the abuse of prisoners and upheld SS terror to the end. Liberation was no happy end. Most prisoners had died before the Allies arrived.