The Nazi Concentration Camps

All Germans knew 094 – Buchenwald survivor Eugen Kogon on popular knowledge about the camps Read document about the concentration camps. There had been much talk about the early camps 009 – German joke about Dachau concentration camp, 1930s Read document in 1933 and the German population never forgot them. True, the regime later toned down its propaganda. But the camps still sometimes featured in Nazi magazines 095 – A Nazi magazine reports on Dachau, 1936 Read document and on the radio 096 – Heinrich Himmler speaks in public about the camps, January 1939 Read document during the pre-war years.

During the Second World War, concentration camps became more visible than ever. As the number of inmates and camps grew, and the SS prioritized slave labour, encounters with ordinary Germans became common. There were labour camps in many towns and villages 097 – A German teacher on popular knowledge of the camps Read document , and locals saw prisoners march to work or worked nearby; sometimes locals 098 – Farmer Gretel Meier requests prisoners from Flossenbürg, 18 June 1942 Read document even requested prisoners to work for them. The reactions of ordinary Germans varied. Some tried to help, offering food to prisoners. Others abused them or joined in manhunts 099 – A former Nazi official testifies about Hitler Youth killers Read document for fugitives. Most common was silence: most Germans looked away 100 – A German civilian recalls wartime encounters with prisoners Read document . By contrast, foreign civilians 101 – Auschwitz survivor Kurt Goldstein on help from Polish civilians Read document in occupied Europe were more likely to help, supporting prisoners in the struggle against the common enemy.

Ordinary Germans often associated concentration camps with brutal conditions and hard labour. But they knew less about the systematic mass extermination carried out inside. The widespread rumours about mass killings of Jews, for example, mostly referred to massacres and shootings, not to camps. To be sure, many locals living near camps like Auschwitz learned more about the crimes; news also spread via SS officials, soldiers and other witnesses. Still, Auschwitz was no household name in Nazi Germany.

Abroad, by contrast, more detailed information was available. First reports about Auschwitz had appeared in the Allied press 102 – The London Times on the torture of Poles in Auschwitz, June 1941 Read document not long after it was set up. Over the coming years, Allied intelligence collected further material on Auschwitz and other camps, as did Jewish groups. By 1944, the mechanics of the Holocaust in Auschwitz 103 – The New York Times on mass gassing in Auschwitz, November 1944 Read document were well publicized abroad.