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Hitler's political opponents were the first victims of systematic Nazi persecution. They were incarcerated without trial and under conditions of great cruelty.
Arrival of political prisoners at the Oranienburg concentration camp. Oranienburg, Germany, 1933.
Humiliation of political prisoners: Social Democratic Party (SPD) inmates hold a placard which reads "I am a class-conscious person, party boss/SPD/party boss." Dachau concentration camp, Germany, between 1933 and 1936.
After Adolf Hitler became German chancellor on January 30, 1933, the SA and the SS unleashed waves of violence against political opponents and Jews. Learn more.
Two political prisoners, after US soldiers liberated the Gusen concentration camp. Austria, May 12, 1945.
Social Democratic political prisoners in the Duerrgoy concentration camp near Breslau. Seated in the center is Paul Loebe, a leading Socialist and former president of the German parliament. Duerrgoy camp, Germany, August 4, 1933.
Red triangle patch worn by Czech political prisoner Karel Bruml in Theresienstadt. The letter "T" stands for "Tscheche" (Czech in German).
Prisoners arrested during the crackdown on leftists and other targeted groups exercise in the courtyard of the Alexanderplatz prison. Munich, Germany, April 10, 1933.
Wilek was the son of Jewish parents living in the southeastern Polish town of Lvov. His family owned and operated a winery that had been in family hands since 1870. Wilek's father died of a heart attack in 1929. Wilek entered secondary school in 1939. Soon after he began school, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. Lvov was in the part of eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union. Although the Soviets took over Wilek's home and the family business, Wilek was able to continue his…
Jews were the main targets of Nazi genocide. Learn about other individuals from a broad range of backgrounds who were imprisoned in the Nazi camp system.
Ernst Thaelmann, leader of the German Communist Party, was detained during a mass arrest of Communists following the fire that virtually destroyed the Reichstag (German parliament) building. Germany, date uncertain.
Nenad was the youngest of nine children born to Serbian Orthodox landowners in the eastern Croatian part of Yugoslavia. During World War I the Popovic family was evacuated to Vukovar by the Austro-Hungarian army, which was then at war with Serbia. In 1928 Nenad moved to Belgrade, where he attended Belgrade University, graduating with a law degree in 1932. 1933-39: Nenad's specialty was law related to economics and he found a job in the economic research department of the Yugoslav central bank in Belgrade.…
Safe conduct pass issued to Hans Landesberg in the Djelfa internment camp, releasing him to leave for Algiers. Djelfa, Algeria, January 26, 1943. Hans was born in Vienna, Austria, and went to medical school. After graduating, he left for Paris and joined a battalion of the International Brigade to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He returned to France in February 1939, only to be interned first in Argeles and then in Gurs. Some time after the French surrender to Nazi Germany in June 1940, Hans and other…
Most Allied prisoners of war (POWs) were treated well compared to inmates of concentration camps. But, as former Dutch POW Captain Boullard explains here at Dachau concentration camp, some were subject to severe beatings and forced to work in harsh labor assignments.
Identification picture of Erich Mühsam taken in the Oranienburg concentration camp. Mühsam, an anarchist and a pacifist, worked as an editor and writer; he was imprisoned during World War I for opposing the war. Arrested during the massive roundup of Nazi political opponents following the Reichstag fire (February 27, 1933), Mühsam was tortured to death in Oranienburg on July 11, 1934. Oranienburg, Germany, February 3, 1934.
Xaver Franz Stuetzinger, a member of the Communist Party of Germany, was tortured by the SS at the Dachau concentration camp. He died in May 1935 without divulging his connections. Germany, before May 1935.
Clandestine photograph of a Polish political prisoner and medical experiment victim in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Prisoners in the Ravensbrück concentration camp took several clandestine photographs as evidence of the medical experiments conducted on them. The camp was the site of bone-grafting experiments and experiments to test newly developed sulfa drugs.Pictured here, Bogumila Jasuik was chosen as one of the 74 "rabbits" for medical experimentation. German doctors experimented…
Many of the early concentration camps were improvised. Here, roll call is held for political prisoners aboard a ship used as a floating concentration camp. Ochstumsand camp, near Bremen, Germany, 1933 or 1934.
Under SA guard, a group of leading Socialists arrives at the Kislau camp, one of the early concentration camps. Local Social Democratic party leader Ludwig Marum is fourth from the left in the line of arrivals. Kislau, Germany, May 16, 1933.
The Nazi regime established the Buchenwald camp in 1937. Learn about the camp’s prisoners, conditions there, forced labor, subcamps, medical experiments, and liberation.
The Commissar Order was issued by the German Armed Forces High Command on June 6, 1941. It ordered soldiers to shoot Soviet Communist Party officials taken prisoner.
The Nazis used color-coded badges sewn onto uniforms to classify prisoners in the camp system and to easily identify the alleged reason for an individual’s incarceration.
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