Camps in which persons are imprisoned without regard to the accepted norms of arrest and detention. Although the term "concentration camp" is sometimes used as a generic term for Nazi camps, not all the camps eventually established by the Nazis were designated as concentration camps proper. The extensive Nazi camp system also included labor camps (arbeitslager), transit camps (durchgangslager), prisoner-of-war (POW) camps (kriegsgefangenenlager), and extermination camps (vernichtungslager). This entry focuses on the network of concentration camps.
A Tool of Oppression.
Concentration camps were an essential part of the Nazi regime of oppression. The regime imprisoned in such camps political adversaries and persons considered socially or racially undesirable. Forced labor performed by the prisoners became a central element of the imprisonment. During World War II, the concentration camps also played a part in the Nazi fight against the resistance movements, and some camps (such as Auschwitz and Majdanek) were centers for the systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) and other groups in the Reich and occupied territories. The history of the concentration camps can be divided into three periods: (1) 1933-1936; (2) 1936-to 1942; and (3) 1942-1945.
