The Battle of Britain

Concentration Camps

Electrically charged barbed wire fence around Vught concentration camp near Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, 1944; From 1941, Jews in the Netherlands were incarcerated at Vught and at Westerbork transit camp. Fewer than 25 per cent of the Netherlands’ Jewish population survived the Holocaust. This was due primarily to the ruthless efficiency of the German administration together with both the willing and unwilling collaboration of Dutch Nazis, officials and police. The geography of the Netherlands also made evasion and escape extremely difficult.

Electrically charged barbed wire fence around Vught concentration camp near Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, 1944

photographs

From 1941, Jews in the Netherlands were incarcerated at Vught and at Westerbork transit camp. Fewer than 25 per cent of the Netherlands’ Jewish population survived the Holocaust. This was due primarily to the ruthless efficiency of the German administration together with both the willing and unwilling collaboration of Dutch Nazis, officials and police. The geography of the Netherlands also made evasion and escape extremely difficult.

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The first Nazi concentration camps were established to incarcerate political opponents. The first camp, Dachau, near Munich was opened in March 1933.

During the Second World War the concentration camp system saw a massive expansion. From the...

The first Nazi concentration camps were established to incarcerate political opponents. The first camp, Dachau, near Munich was opened in March 1933.

During the Second World War the concentration camp system saw a massive expansion. From the four original camps in Germany it grew to thousands of different camps and sub-camps organised into 23 major complexes, holding about two million prisoners throughout Nazi occupied Europe.

Nearly 5 million Soviet prisoners of war were also held in makeshift camps, often nothing more than open-air enclosures where inmates were left to starve or freeze to death.

The Nazis also used concentration camps as a way of controlling and exploiting vast numbers of slave labourers, whose work was vital to the German war effort. Thousands died through disease, starvation, overwork or ill-treatment. Prisoners were frequently made to stand for hours on end on the Appelplatz or parade ground, and executions took place in front of prisoners to deter them from any kind of disobedience.

Among the most notorious camps were Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria, and Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora in Germany. In the latter, prisoners were systematically worked to death so that the work taking place there on the development and construction of the V2 rocket would remain secret. A series of transit camps throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, such as Westerbork, Mechelen, Drancy and Terezin, were established to hold those being deported to extermination camps in the East.

Despite the desperate conditions, many camp inmates found ways to resist through sabotage or practising religious rites. Today many former camps are preserved as memorial sites and museums.

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  • Inmates at Buchenwald

    photographs

    Inmates at Buchenwald; Inmates at Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1945. This photograph was taken by US troops at Buchenwald concentration camp in central Germany. Twenty thousand inmates rose in revolt on 11 April 1945 and liberated the camp themselves shortly before the arrival of the US Army. Of the estimated 238,000 inmates held in Buchenwald between 1937 and 1945, over 56,000 died.

  • New arrivals at an unidentified camp

    photographs

    New arrivals at an unidentified camp; New arrivals photographed at an unidentified concentration camp, late 1930s. At first the camps held the political opponents of the Nazis, including communists, social democrats and trade union officials.

  • Dying from Starvation and Torture by Eric Taylor

    art

    Dying from Starvation and Torture by Eric Taylor; Dying from Starvation and Torture at Belsen Concentration Camp, 1945, by Eric Wilfred Taylor. The artist and printmaker Eric Taylor served with the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. In April 1945, he was among the first British troops to arrive at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp near Hanover. This is one of a series of drawings he made at the camp that depict the shocking scenes found by the liberators.

  • Belsen Camp, by Leslie Cole

    art

    Belsen Camp, by Leslie Cole; Belsen Camp: The Compound for Women, 1945, by Leslie Cole. During the Second World War, Leslie Cole became a war artist with the honorary rank of a captain in the Royal Marines. He recorded the aftermath of war in Malta, Greece, Germany and the Far East. This is one of two oil paintings he produced showing horrific scenes at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after its liberation in April 1945. On arrival at the camp, British forces found 10,000 unburied dead and mass graves containing 40,000 bodies.

  • Concentration camp orchestra

    photographs

    Concentration camp orchestra; This photograph shows an orchestra formed from prisoners at Janowska concentration camp near Lvov being forced to play at the execution of a group of Russian prisoners. In the bottom-right-hand corner of the photograph is Hauptsturmfuhrer Warzock, the camp commandant. Janowska was a forced labour camp for Jews and also a transit camp for Polish Jews being sent to extermination camps.

  • Crematorium at Majdanek

    photographs

    Crematorium at Majdanek; The crematorium at Majdanek concentration camp, Lublin, Nazi-occupied Poland, 1944. The liberation of Lublin in Poland by the Soviet Red Army in July 1944 also revealed a huge concentration camp and extermination camp, where the Nazis carried out mass murder on a vast scale. Victims of the camp included Poles, Jews of all nationalities, French, Greeks, Dutch, Italians, Belgians, Yugoslavians, Hungarians and anti-Nazi Republican Spaniards.

  • Snuffbox

    souvenirs and ephemera

    Snuffbox; Snuffbox made for Major Ernest Gimpel by a fellow inmate of Flossenburg concentration camp, 1944-1945. French Army officer Major Ernest Gimpel was arrested in Paris in January 1944. He had been working for the Free French Intelligence Service in occupied France with the assistance of Special Operations Executive. After brutal interrogation, he was sent to the concentration camps at Buchenwald, Auschwitz and, finally, Flossenberg, where he remained until its liberation in May 1945.

  • Victims of a forced march

    photographs

    Victims of a forced march; Victims of a forced march between concentration camps of Buchenwald and Flossenburg, 1945. In this photograph taken in April 1945, German civilians are being forced to file past the bodies of victims murdered at the village of Namering by SS guards during a forced march from Buchenwald and Flossenburg concentration camps.

  • German lozenge tin with sewing equipment

    souvenirs and ephemera

    German lozenge tin with sewing equipment; German lozenge tin with sewing equipment, kept by Odette Hallowes (formerly Sansom) GC MBE L d'H while in Ravensbruck concentration camp during 1944 and 1945. This small tin and its contents were given to Special Operations Executive agent Odette Sansom by a German woman she met en route to Ravensbruck concentration camp. It was Odette's sole possession during her last year of captivity. On 3 May 1945, shortly before the German surrender, she was escorted across the Allied lines to safety. On 20 August 1946, Odette Sansom was awarded the George Cross, the highest civilian award for bravery.

  • Liberation of Dachau, 1945

    photographs

    Liberation of Dachau, 1945; Inmates of the Dachau concentration camp near Munich wave to liberating American soldiers in April 1945. Dachau was one of the first camps to be established and opened in March 1933. Of the 225,000 inmates held there, more than 31,000 are known to have died.