Why did nazi germany build concentration camps in poland?
to turn other governments against jews
to show how powerful nazi germany was
to separate jews from the rest of the public
to kill larger numbers of people

Nazi Germany built concentration camps in Poland to kill larger numbers of people. The Nazi ideology was based on the main idea that there was a superior race called the Arians which are race composed of tall, blue-eyed men. For the rest of the world and especially of the Jews included an inferior race.

For Adolf Hitler, the concentration camps were labor camps that allowed the German army to strengthen. But, they were mostly extermination camps to carry out the terrible genocide that this dictator had imagined.

The populations sent to these camps were mostly Jews, but there were also prisoners of war of all nationalities, communist political opponents, homosexuals, gypsies and other minorities. Most of the people who were sent to the camps did not come back. They died because of illnesses, worked too much, or directly murdered in gas chambers.

→ The main concentration camps were located in Poland. They were called:

The massive extermination of these populations took place during World War II between 1940 and 1944.

Subject: History

Chapter: World War II

Keywords: extermination camps during World War II, The Holocaust, Nazi ideology, concentration camps in Poland

Nazi Germany built concentration camps in many places, both within and outside Germany, including Poland, with the intention to separate the Jews and other kinds of people deemed ‘undesirable’ – gypsies, communists, Russians, etc. It also remains a matter of fact that some of the highest concentration of Jews were found around the areas of eastern Europe and Poland.

Further Explanation:

As is well-known, the Nazi regime, under Adolf Hitler, was anti-Semitic, but especially anti-Jewish from the very beginning. After capturing power in Germany, Hitler and his government wished to purge Germany and the rest of the Europe from the races that were deemed ‘undesirable’ in their eyes. According to Nazi viewpoint, the Jews were at ranked lowest in their order of racial ranking. Jews were also held responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War I, as well as for racial defilement of the German people. They were also seen as conspiring with communists to destroy Germany and the rest of Europe.

But this idea and its implementation were not confined within the borders of Germany itself, nor was extermination confined only to that of the Jewish race. Rather, it was expanded to all the regions conquered by the Nazis in World War II, which broke out in 1939, with the Nazi conquest of Poland. The latter itself became the lab for the Nazi experiment of wiping out what it saw as the ‘undesirable’ races – Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Communists, Socialists, Russians, etc. For the fulfillment of this goal, the Nazis established concentration camps in many parts of Poland, with the major ones at places like Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, etc. From this, it can be inferred that the Jews were not the only people, whose racial extermination was deemed by the Nazis as absolutely necessary. Rather, the latter viewed their extermination as indispensable for the sake the providing lebensraum (living space) to the people of the German race.

Learn more:

1. Question on courts of general jurisdiction.

2. How did roman authorities treat conquered peoples?

Answer Details:

Grade: High School

Subject: History

Chapter: NA

Keywords:

Adolf Hitler, Jews, World War I, World War II, Poland, Gypsies, Auschwitz, lebensraum.

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