Different types of camps that the Nazi used and their purposes - Essay Example

Thus, the Nazi’s established concentration camps in 1933 for terrorizing the Jewish communities1. During the period of 1933 and 1945, nearly 20,000 camps were built for the purpose of serving various functions. In order to effectively identify them, different names were given, such as labor camps or Arbeitslager, prison-of-war camps or Kriegsgefangenlager, transit camps or Durchgangslager, concentration camps or Konzentrationslager along with killing and death camps often referred as extermination or Vernichutungslager2.

Initially the camps were built to hold political prisoners but following the World War II, the concentration camps were expanded and transformed with the intention to capture nonpolitical prisoners who were exploited by the Nazi’s through forced labor. The prisoners were literally ill treated and left to die because of the terrible living conditions. The use of concentration camps can be distinctly divided into three different periods, namely, 1933-1936, 1936-1942 and 1942-1945. The first period saw the emergence of Adolf Hitler when the camps were primarily used for detaining political adversaries who opposed the Nazi government.

Within a span of few months approximately 27,000 people were detained citing the reason of ‘protective custody’. The second period marked the emergence of World War II and the Nazi’s used these camps for forced labor. Throughout the entire period the inmates were treated as labors and were forcefully made to work for the Nazi’s. The last period i.e. during the late period of 1941 these camps were transformed into death camps where innumerable people belonging to the Soviet Union were tortured and murdered brutally3.

Different Types and Purposes of the Camps Forced Labor Camps In September 1939, German’s invaded Poland following which numerous prisoners of war were confined and detained in these camps. The extreme living conditions forced these prisoners to die out of exhaustion, starvation and torturous treatment. The prisoners were provided with improper facilities and during the winters they were compelled to stay without any clothes, proper nourishment and food. In these tough conditions the prisoners were forcefully required to perform various labor related works for the government agencies.

The sophisticated males of Jewish were forced to live in ‘Ghetos’ and work in the plants that manufactured weapons used in wars. The Jews had no other choice than to work as it was the only possible way to survive in the shackles of the Nazi’s. The physically unfit Jews who were unable to work were shot and killed. In addition, the Nazis introduced a policy named ‘annihilation’ in which few types of prisoners were made to work, till death. They were purposely assigned works, the circumstances of which were bound to make them sick and die due to illness.

For instance, at the Mauthausen concentration camp, the prisoners were asked to carry boulders and run 186 steps which were made up of stone extracts every day until they fell sick and died4. In the year 1941, the Germans invaded Soviet Union and captured millions of people generally termed as Prisoners of War (POWs). These POWs were intentionally left to die by denying them the basic