![Major Nazi camps in Europe, January 1944 [LCID: eur72160]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/db2e26ad-3a0a-4946-9ce2-70e513ed39d5.gif "Major Nazi camps in Europe, January 1944 [LCID: eur72160]")
This map shows some of the Nazi camps that existed in German-occupied Europe in 1943–1944. These include killing centers, concentration camps, labor camps, and transit camps.
Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established tens of thousands of camps. The regime imprisoned millions of people in these camps. The Nazis used these sites for many purposes, including the imprisonment of real and perceived enemies and the mass murder of Jewish people. Nazi camps were sites of cruelty, torture, deprivation, unchecked disease, grueling forced labor, and extreme violence.
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![Major Nazi camps in Greater Germany, 1944 [LCID: gge72050]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/e2090857-ff94-4d49-babf-1c7c82f2a849.gif "Major Nazi camps in Greater Germany, 1944 [LCID: gge72050]")
The Nazi camp system expanded rapidly after the beginning of World War II in September 1939, as forced labor became important in war production. Labor shortages in the German war economy became critical after German defeat in the battle of Stalingrad in 1942–1943. This led to the increased use of concentration camp prisoners as forced laborers in German armaments industries. Especially in 1943 and 1944, hundreds of subcamps were established in or near industrial plants. Subcamps were generally smaller camps administered by the main camps, which supplied them with the required number of prisoners. Camps such as Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, Buchenwald in central Germany, Gross-Rosen in eastern Germany, Natzweiler-Struthof in eastern France, Ravensbrück near Berlin, and Stutthof near Danzig on the Baltic coast became administrative centers of huge networks of subsidiary forced-labor camps.
Item View![Major death marches and evacuations, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72100]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/8f63a32e-543e-40fe-b690-44b030bfc971.gif "Major death marches and evacuations, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72100]")
In January 1945, the Third Reich stood on the verge of military defeat. As Allied forces approached Nazi camps, the SS organized death marches of concentration camp inmates, in part to keep large numbers of concentration camp prisoners from falling into Allied hands. The term "death march" was probably coined by concentration camp prisoners. It referred to forced marches of concentration camp prisoners over long distances under heavy guard and extremely harsh conditions. During death marches, SS guards brutally mistreated the prisoners and killed many. The largest death marches were launched from Auschwitz and Stutthof.
Item View![Liberation of major Nazi camps, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72080]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/94577c5a-b5f6-4cd7-bc1b-d4fcd2476241.gif "Liberation of major Nazi camps, 1944-1945 [LCID: gge72080]")
As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives on Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, many of whom had survived death marches into the interior of Germany. Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, reaching the Majdanek camp near Lublin, Poland, in July 1944. Surprised by the rapid Soviet advance, the Germans attempted to demolish the camp in an effort to hide the evidence of mass murder. The Soviets also liberated major Nazi camps at Auschwitz, Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrück. US forces liberated the Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenbürg, Dachau, and Mauthausen camps. British forces liberated camps in northern Germany, including Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen.
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