What Happened in Nazi Concentration Camps?

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What happened in Nazi concentration camps? - by NB Although nowadays the term “concentration” camp is regarded as synonymous to the Nazi-operated extermination camps during the Second World War, the term originated from British camps in South Africa during the Second Boer War. However, some historians, particularly Władysław Konopczyński, believe that the first concentration camps were established by the Russian Empire during the late 18th century Bar Confederation rebellion for Polish rebels awaiting deportation to Siberia. But despite popular misconception, even Nazi concentration camps were not necessarily death camps, although even in the relatively safer work camps, many prisoners were worked to death or killed if they refused to do so. The first Nazi concentration camp, Dachau, was opened on 22nd March 1933, and initially intended to hold only political prisoners and opponents of the Nazi regime, even then mainly without trial or any judicial process. Almost every community in Germany had members taken away to Dachau or other concentration camps, then still based in Germany. These were intended to reduce and effectively silence opposition to the National Socialistic German Workers “Nazi” Party, which had come into power that very same year. It says a lot about the paranoia of prominent Party officials and general support of the starting regime that it was regarded as necessary at all, and is a complete contrast to the belief that the majority of Germans actively supported the Party. Indeed, before the incarceration of known communists following the Reichstag fire, the Nazi party had merely a plurality in the government. For several reasons, most extermination camps were built in occupied Poland, which had the greatest European Jewish populace. This allowed the Nazis to, at least initially, keep the camps relatively secret from the majority of the German
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