Das System der nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager: Eine politische Organisationsgeschichte

Traces the development and organization of the Nazi concentration camp system through its several phases. From 1942, with the arrival of mass transports of Jews, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek became mainly extermination camps for Jews, whereas other camps became reservoirs of forced labor mostly for non-Jews. In April 1944, because of the exigencies of war production, Hitler ordered that concentration camp inmates, including Jews, be sent into the Reich to work in war industries. Details some of the projects carried out by concentration camp labor; around these hundreds of satellite labor camps (more than 600 by 1945) sprang up. The Jewish laborers were selected from existing camps, including Auschwitz. Toward the end of the war, forced laborers were sent to build bunkers so that production could continue safe from air strikes. The death rate from exhaustion and subhuman living conditions was high. Prisoners of war swelled the main German camps, which could not cope with them; many had to stay in the open or in tents, with minimal provisions. Many prisoners died or were killed on forced marches from camp to camp and finally toward the "Alpine" or the "Northern Fortresses" where the Nazis planned to make their final stand: Himmler still hoped to use them as labor or as hostages in peace negotiations. For this purpose he gave orders that the prisoners, especially the Jews, were to be kept alive; but these orders were contradicted by others, and the SS guards simply ignored them.