Were concentration camps mainly for death or for slave labour?

1. Were concentration camps mainly for death or for slave labour?

2. Slave Labour • Auschwitz had three concentration camps. Camp 1 was for political prisoners and scientific experiments. Camp 2 was where they sorted out the old and sick prisoners from the fit to work prisoners. Camp 3 was the industrial plant. This was where they had to do work in mines and factories. The jobs they had to do included… • -Laying sod • -Dig drainage ditches • -Unload gravel and coal • -sorting of dead bodies • This is evidence to show that the Nazis set up concentration camps to use the Jews as slaves and force them to work instead of simply killing them. • Also in Jan 1945 more than 58,000 prisoners were forced to leave the Auschwitz camp and march to another concentration camp, this also tells us that if the camps were set up to kill the prisoners then they wouldn’t have bothered to send them to a different camp.

4. Death • However, in Auschwitz Camp 2 they built 4 crematoria which disposed large numbers of bodies. Many were killed in Gas chambers with carbon monoxide and zyclon B and many were shot. • There were mass pits where bodies were burnt and also many graves. • A lot died because of many reasons that included; • Starvation • Overcrowding • Disease • Exposure to cold • Brutality of Germans • This shows that even though they were kept alive to work the Nazis didn’t care if they died or not because in the end they were probably going to get killed anyway. • Overall 6 million Jews died in death camps.

6. Conclusion In conclusion we believe that the purpose of the concentration camps were partly both reasons because it depended on what camp you were put in and the physical fitness of the Jew. And if the Jew was fit enough to carry out work for the Nazis they were eventually worked to death! So overall we believe it shows us that you cannot say what the main purpose was of all camps you have to be specific to one camp.