1. Concentration Camps
By: Austin Stolze, Dustin Johnson, and Jared Gjertson

2. How did the Labor Camps Come to Be?
• Even before Nazi
control, much of the
German professional and
regular public thought
social "order" depened on
the productivity of all
citizens. • Because they started off
• The first labor camp using labor camps for
(Zwangsarbeitslager) was "outsiders", the Nazis
built in 1933 to house and were able to create
"educate" acquiescence and even
asocials, criminals, and support by citizens
subversives in proper labor
and social disciplines

3. How did the Labor Camps Come to Be?
• In late 1930s, the German • Though the Nazis
economy began to experience desperately needed forced
labor shortages, so the Nazis workers, they still would
began to build more labor not let this hinder the
camps (often near quarries and "Final Solution"
existing factories)
• As the war continued, Germany
needed even more labor to
provide for the war
efforts, especially after the
Battle of Stalingrad
• They saw their slave laborers
as cheap and expendable

4. Was All Forced Labor the Same?
• There were other forms of • Prisoners of civilian police
forced labor besides that detention centers, troubled
for concentration camp German youth, and even
prisoners. ethnic Germans waiting for
• there were work camps for resettlement were forced
POWs and for regular to work
workers who broke work
rules.
• The Jewish ghettos also
were forced into
labor, usually more
manufacturing-type labor
• The Germans even
reclassified many ghettos
as forced labor camps

6. What Were the Conditions Like?
• In the beginning, most • As the German economy began to
of the work done in experience labor shortages, the
labor camps was Nazis started exploiting these slave
pointless and laborers for the production of goods
humiliating. like iron or coal
• skilled laborers could instead get
jobs catering to their strengths
• Nearly all of the work was manual
and labor intensive
• Hours were long, usually 12 or more
• Workers weren't adequately fed and
had little to no tools or protective
equipment/clothes
• Jobs were hazardous and
dangerous (accidents, dust
inhalation, ect.)

7. What Were the Conditions Like?
• Generally, inmates preferred
factory jobs over
building/digging jobs
• SS guards would sometimes
have sadistic "fun" with the
inmates (especially Jews)
• "A daily ration was: a piece
of black bread, about as thick
as your thumb; some
margarine about the size of
three sticks of chewing gum;
and a small cup of something
that was supposed to be
soup" (Ellis and Silinsky).

8. What is a Kapo?
• The word Kapo has an • Kapos wore a yellow
unclear origin. Refered to armbands that said Kapo
as Funktionshäftling in over it.
German, meaning prisoner
functionary.
• A Kapo was a prisoner
who was chosen by
officials to lead a work
block and had authority
over other prisoners.
• All Kapos were equipped
with a club or a whip

9. Where were kapos first introduced?
• This system worked
efficiently because it
allowed less energy by the
SS to be spent on each
prisoner
• This system also allowed
It was said that Kapos first
one guard to supervise
originated in the Dachau
two to three work blocks
Concentration Camp.It was
• They saw it successful
then eventually adopted by all
because in many cases
other concentration camps
the Kapos were more
brutal than the SS guards

10. What was life like for Kapos?
• Kapos received some • Kapos were not punished
benefits their position of after they lost their job but
power. They were able to in most cases the other
steal cloths and food from prisoners killed them
the prisoners they watched because of their brutality
over.
• In some cases Kapos
forced their inmates to
steal from other blocks.
• Kapos did not receive
punishment for abusing
there powers, it was
encouraged.

11. Who were chosen as Kapos?
• Most of the first Kapos • In many cases a
chosen to lead blocks Homophobic Kapo
were Criminals or would be placed in a
Communists. . work block of gay
• In nearly all cases Jews men.
and homosexuals were
never allowed to become
Kapos
• Authorities would also
placed Kapos in work
blocks were they were
most brutal.
Kapo workers at the Belzec Extermination
Camp

12. What happened to the Kapos after the
War?
• Even though Kapos were
still prisoners of the
concentration camps they
were still tried in court after
the war because of their
brutality.
• In many cases though the
prisoners had little chose
on becoming a Kapo
because it was a matter of
life or death.
On September 17, 1945 12 Kapos
were tried in Britain along with other
camp staff.

13. What happened to the people living in
Concentration camps after they were
liberated?
• Many displaced people
lived in camps in
Germany, Austria, and
Italy
• Many people would try to
move to Palestine
• Britain tried to limit the
immigration because of
conflict
• Jews would go to Italy and
be smuggled to Palestine
• British shipped DP's to
Cyprus in 1946

14. Where were some of the Displaced Person's
camps?

15. What did DP camps look like?
• They were made out of
former military
barracks, summer camps
for
children, airports, hotels,
castles, hospitals, private
homes, and even partly
destroyed structures

16. What was life like in a
Displaced Person's Camp?
• Administered by United
Nation's Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration
• UNRRA made a Central
Burea for names of the
displace people
• Awaited Visas
• Schools were made for the
camps
• When available, nearby SS
quarters were used as
hospitals

17. What happened when they returned
home?
• Children separated from
parents
• Some too sick to leave
• When trying to reclaim
their land, they faced
new owner
• People would still have
pogroms against DP
Jews

19. Austin Stolze's Bibliography
“Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Complex.” Holocaust Survivors and Remembrence
Project: “Forget You Not.” NatureQuest Publications, Inc, 2011. Web. 20 May 2011.
<http://isurvived.org/AUSCHWITZ_TheCamp.html>.
Ellis, Eliahu, and Shmuel Silinsky. “The Labor Camps.” Aish.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 May 2011.
<http://www.aish.com/ho/o/48961881.html>.
“Forced Labor.” Jewish Virtual Library. American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, 2011. Web. 21
May 2011. <http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/labor.html>.
“Forced Labor: In Depth.” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum, 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 May 2011.
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007326>.
“Labor Camps, Nazi.” eNotes. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://enotes.com/genocide-
encyclopedia/labor-camps-nazi/print>.

20. Jared Gjertson's Bibliography
Bergen, Doris L. War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust. N.p.: Rowman
and Littlefield, 2009. Print.
Jacobs, Krysia, and Alan Jacobs, comps. “We Remember Brotherhood in Suffering!”
zchor.org. N.p., 30 Jan. 2007. Web. 2 June 2011.
<http://www.zchor.org/auschwitz/komski.htm>.
“Jewish Working Kommando’s in the Aktion Reinhard Death Camps.”
holocaustresearchproject. N.p., 2007. Web. 26 May 2011.
<http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ar/Jewish%20Kommando/jewishkommando.ht
ml>.
Rees, Laurence. Auschwitz. 1 vols. Britain: BBC Books, 2005. Print.
“Work.” lycees.ac-rouen.fr. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 June 2011. <http://lycees.ac-
rouen.fr/malraux/resistance/etravail.html>.

21. Dustin Johnson's Bibliography
The Aftermath of the Holocaust. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., n.d.
Web. 26 May 2011.
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_nm.php?ModuleId=10005129&MediaId=3426>.
Bergen, Doris L. War & Genocide. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009. Print.
“Concentration and Death Camps Map.” About. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2011.
<http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/ss/Camps-Map.htm?r=et>.
Kaczgmar, Olga. Displaced Persons’ Camps. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2011.
<http://www.dpcamps.org/>.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. N.p., 6 Jan. 2011. Web. 26 May 2011.
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005462>.