Heinrich Himmler was the creator of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem". The first concentration camps in Germany were built in 1933, initially to detain political opponents. During the war, the camp population expanded and they were used to imprison and exterminate Jews, resistance fighters, and others. The most notorious camp was Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over 1 million people were killed, most of them Jews. Prisoners faced brutal treatment, human medical experimentation, starvation, and punishments. Allies were informed of the atrocities but did not take action until late in the war. After the war, some attempted to deny or shift responsibility for the concentration camps.

1. 1933-1945

2. This feeling….

3. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ,Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ,
the creator of the idea ofthe creator of the idea of
‘Final Solution to the Jewish‘Final Solution to the Jewish
Problem’Problem’

4. GenesisGenesis
The first concentration
camps on the territory of Third
Reich were a means of protection
for the nation and the country. The
law made it possible to arrest
people seen as the enemies of
the German nation -without a court
sentence- for an unlimited period of
time.
The first camp was built in
Dachau on 20th
March 1933. Before
the war began, about 165,000-
170,000 people were camp
prisoners

5. The Development
During the war, the
camps were used to
exterminate educated
people of the occupied
countries, the
resistance movement,
and the victims of
round-ups. The
prisoners were used
as workforce in
military engineering.
More and more camps
were built on the
Polish territories
occupied by the Third
Reich.

6. In the beginning, Polish people were sent to the Third Reich by trains and were placed in
various camps such as Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Sachsen-hausen, Gross-Rosen
and women- in Ravensbruck. The first camp on the occupied Polish territories was built in
June 1940- Oswiecim-Auschwitz. And then Treblinka, Belzec, Majdanek, Stutthof, Sobibor.

7. Auschwitz – Birkenau, Gate

8. Type of CampsType of Camps
Arbeitslager – work camps in war industry , or
mines
Kriegsgefangenenlager – captives camps
Police custody- initial detention
Vernichtungslager – extermination camps, sole
purpose of mass murders.

9. The treatment of theThe treatment of the
captivescaptives
 The captives were used as a cheap labour for the Third
Reich, especially in the mines and war industry.
 Food rations were minimal. Malnutrition made the
captives fall ill.
ILL WEAK USELESS DEATH!!!
 There was no medical equipment available . Doctors
were conducting research on captives i.e testing
unknown drugs
 Overcrowding made rest and recovery impossible
 There were punishments for trading, not being productive or
for poor performance.

10. Types of punishmentsTypes of punishments
 Prohibition of talk
 Food deprivation
 Additional physical work
 Drill – Captives were ordered to complete tiring and
humiliating tasks.
 Locking up four captives in a cage of 1 square meter.
 Execution.

11. Marking ofMarking of
CaptivesCaptives Red triangle – political/ clerical prisoners
 Green triangle – criminals
 Black triangle – „antisocial ” (sex
workers/ gypsies /lesbian )
 Violet triangle – Jehovah’s Witnesses
 Pink triangle – gays
 In addition Jews had a yellow triangle
displayed over the above making that
resembled Magen David .
 Letters were used to mark Nationality:
 P-Pole, B-Belgian, F-French, I- Italian,
T-Czech, U-Hungarian, etc.
 From 1942 onward perpetrators also
tattooed serial numbers on forearms and
thighs

12. EExterminationxtermination

13. The Jews and Gypsies
The Jewish and the Gypsies
were mass murdered.
In the beginning, only men
were killed, but later they
started also to kill women
and children.
In order to reduce the time
and cost many gas
chambers were built. The
corpses were burnt in
crematorias

14. Prisoners in numbersPrisoners in numbers..
Not only Jews were taken to Auschwitz, there were
also Danes , Greeks, Spaniards, Italian and Dutch
1. Jews – 960,000
2. Poles 74,000
3. Roman Gypsies 21,000
4. Soviet captives 15,000
5. Czech 9,000
6. Germans 4,000
7. French 4,000
8. Russians 1,500

15. Allies knew about the status of concentration camps butAllies knew about the status of concentration camps but
took no actiontook no action !!!!!!
 Jan Karski (24/06/1914 -13/07/2000) – a Polish World War II resistance
movement fighter. In 1942 and 1943 Karski reported to the Polish
government in exile and the Western Allies on the situation in German-
occupied Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the
secretive German-Nazi extermination camps.
 On 28 July 1943 Karski personally met with President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in the Oval Office, telling him about the situation in Poland and
becoming the first eyewitness to tell him about the Jewish Holocaust.
During their meeting Roosevelt asked about the condition of horses in
Poland. Roosevelt did not ask one question about the Jews.
 No action was takenNo action was taken !!

16. Attempts to change history and removeAttempts to change history and remove
responsibilityresponsibility
Please remember: they were not POLISH concentration camps!
They were Concentration camps build by the German natzis
on the territories of today’s Poland!

17. And please rememberAnd please remember that at the time inthat at the time in
East Europe there was anotherEast Europe there was another-- eveneven
biggerbigger
Mass murderer: theMass murderer: the UUSRRSRR