Everyone identifies the killings centers with the Holocaust or Shoah.
Death trains deported millions, thinking they were bound for relocation,
only to be killed at what became the gates of hell. Those that were spared
were spared only for a"death-in-life" existence: upon departing the nightmare of the train ride, they were robbed of their last possessions, their dignity,
their children, their names, and many their lives. We will examine through links and information, the encompassing and deathly experience of life in the camps. No one but the survivors alone can really know the unfathomable experience and memories from that time.
Background and history of the Killing Centers
Each of the concentration camps were different in numerous ways. In many, the legacy of killing and torture is all that characterized the camps. Some
were slave labor camps such as Brinlitz and Westerbork. Others were combinations such as Bergen-Belsen, in which some died cruel deaths, some were forced
into slavery, and others were processed out of the country through organizations such as the Red Cross. Terezin, or Thereisenstadt, was held by the
Nazis to be a model "relocation" center, which translated, meant ghetto/camp. More will be discussed regarding the individual camps.
All camps were deliberately planned and thought out with the precise cunning of the Third Reich. Each had an architecture of its own. Each
was designed for specific purposes, and each was influenced by its staff which was usually a combination of Nazi officers and enlisted men,
Nazi Women auxilliaries, local residents employed in the camp and capos, taken from among the prisoners, who often became as cruel toward
thier own as the nazis themselves, coping by identifying with the agressor, a common defense mechanism.
Polish camps and many German camps as well , though carefully designed for the imminent final solution, endlosung began and were
promoted as "re-education centers" for political dissenters, hostile to Hitler's government. The emphasis of these "centers"
early on was the "germanization" of the polish populace and other nationalities. The
intent was two-fold:
