Concentration camp (KL/KZ)

Concentration camps were created starting in 1933 for the detention and segregation of political opponents or people undesirable for other reasons. In addition to political prisoners, the prisoners included Jews, Sinti and Romani, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and people whom the National Socialists persecuted as “asocials” and “criminals”. During World War II, numerous foreign intellectuals, clergy, and resistance figures were deported to concentration camps. The camps were run by the SS and were not under the jurisdiction of the judiciary. The prisoners were completely at the mercy of the terror of the guards without legal protection, their period of detention remained indefinite. Numerous prisoners died of the catastrophic prison conditions or were deliberately murdered. Especially during the war, concentration camp prisoners also had to perform forced labor. The 24 main camps were gradually joined by 1000 concentration camp satellite camps as work sites. The internees worked, for example, in armaments production, for private companies and in underground construction sites.