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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.
The Nazi regime's extensive camp system included concentration camps, forced-labor camps, prisoner-of-war camps, transit camps, and killing centers.
Explore a timeline of the history of the Flossenbürg camp in the Nazi camp system from its establishment in 1938 until liberation in 1945.
Antisemitism: hostility toward or hatred of Jews as a religious or ethnic group, often accompanied by social, economic, or political discrimination. Appellplatz: German word for roll call square where prisoners were forced to assemble. Aryan: Term used in Nazi Germany to refer to non-Jewish and non-Roma (Gypsy) Caucasians. Northern Europeans with especially "Nordic" features such as blonde hair and blue eyes were considered by so-called race scientists to be the most superior of Aryans, members of a…
In 1939, the French government established the Gurs camp. Learn more about the history of the camp before and after the German invasion of France.
Learn about the network of camps that the French collaborationist Vichy authorities established in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and French West Africa.
After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, the German system of justice underwent "coordination" (alignment with Nazi goals). Learn more about law and justice in the Third Reich.
Jasenovac camp complex operated between 1941-1945 in the so-called Independent State of Croatia. Learn more about conditions and prisoners at Jasenovac.
Beginning in 1933, the Nazi regime harassed and destroyed lesbian communities and networks that had developed during the Weimar Republic.
Most prisoners in the early Nazi camp system were political opponents of the regime. The system would grow to include other types of camps, including killing centers.
As Germany conquered much of Europe, the concentration camp system expanded in size, function, and number of prisoners. Learn about concentration camps from 1939–1942.
Dachau was the first and longest operating Nazi concentration camp. Learn about the camp's early years, prisoners, medical experiments, and liberation.
The Germans established the Althammer camp in September 1944. It was a subcamp of Auschwitz. Read more about the camp's history and conditions there.
In 1933-1934, the SS seized control of the Nazi camp system. Learn more about the persecution, forced labor, and murder that occurred under SS camp rule.
The Law against the Founding of New Parties proclaimed the Nazi Party as the only political party in Germany, which became a one-party dictatorship led by the Nazis.
Learn about early concentration camps the Nazi regime established in Germany, and the expansion of the camp system during the Holocaust and World War II.
Ernst Toller was one of the best-known German dramatists of the 1920s. He wrote against Nazism, and was among those whose works were burned under the Nazi regime.
Nazi Germany and its allies established over 44,000 concentration camps and incarceration sites during the Holocaust. Read about the Nazi camp system.
The trauma of WWI would profoundly shape the attitudes and actions of leaders and ordinary people during the Holocaust. Learn more about the aftermath of the conflict.
Learn about the Flossenbürg camp from its establishment until liberation in April 1945, including conditions, forced labor, subcamps, and death marches.
In 1940, the Nazis established Lublin (Majdanek) concentration camp in Lublin, Poland. Learn more about camp administration.
The Nazi regime carried out a campaign against male homosexuality and persecuted gay men between 1933 and 1945.
Jews were the primary targets for mass murder by the Nazis and their collaborators. Nazi policies also led to the brutalization and persecution of millions of others.
Learn more about the unique SS and police structure of the Theresienstadt “camp-ghetto” during World War II.
Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, aimed to eliminate Europe's Jews and other perceived enemies of Nazi Germany. Learn more.
Allowing arrests without a warrant or judicial review was a key step in the process by which the Nazi regime moved Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship
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