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EDITORIAL NOTE
In the 12 years that the National Socialist Party was in power in Germany from January 1933 to May 1945 upwards of 15,000 concentration and satellite work camps were in existance in the Greater Reich and the occupied countries to incarcerate all who were deemed enemies of the state.
As there were only six complexes specifically set up for the sole purpose of killing people, the title of this book might seem somewhat inaccurate as it also encompasses other camps, but in all of them there was a total disregard for the inmates as to whether they lived or died.
A complete history of all the camps, including all those in the Soviet Union, Serbia and other points east, would take several volumes so this book cannot hope to do justice to the subject and, perhaps at this distance in time, it could never be completed to the satisfaction of those who suffered the horrors within them. But it is offered in the hope that in revisiting those camps that were once household names (and some of those which were not), these pages will show them as they were then and through the passage of time what remains to be seen now.
Today monuments and memorials stand scattered across the continent of Europe, set up so that future generations can be reminded of the millions of lives snuffed out by the Nazi dictatorship. Let us pray those lives will not be forgotten.
WINSTON RAMSEY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, 2016
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to extend my thanks for their help to my colleagues Karel Margry, Editor of After the Battle in Holland, Sergio Andreanelli in Italy, Andrew Mollo and Jean Paul Pallud in France, and Ed Storey in Canada, not forgetting the additional research carried out by my wife Gail.
The following texts are reprinted with permission of Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, edited by Geoffrey P. Megargee.
From Volume I Part A published 2009: Oranienburg by Bernward Drner; Buchenwald Main Camp by Evelyn Zegenhagen; Ohrdruf by Christine Schmitt van der Zanden; Arbeitsdorf Main Camp by Therkel Straede; Herzogenbusch (aka Vught) by Hans de Vries; Kauen Main Camp by Evelyn Zegenhagen and Christoph Dieckmann; Gross-Rosen Main Camp by Leslaw Braiter; Auschwitz I Main Camp by Charles Sydnor; Auschwitz II-Birkenau Main Camp by Fran-ciszek Piper.
From Volume I Part B published 2009: Sachsenhausen Main Camp by Todd Heubner; Neuengamme Main Camp by Hermann Kaienburg; Ravensbrck Main Camp by Bernhard Strebel; Wewelsburg Main Camp (aka Niederhagen) by Kirsten John-Stucke; Mittelbau Main Camp by Michael J. Neufeld; Mauthausen Main Camp by Robert G. Waite; Vaivara Main Camp by Ruth Bettina Birn; Natzweiler-Struthof Main Camp by Jean-Marc Dreyfus; Natzweiler Subcamp System by Evelyn Zegenhagen; Riga-Kaiserwald Main Camp by Joseph Robert White; Alderney (Kanalinsel) by Karola Fings; Lublin Main Camp by Elizabeth White; Stutthof Main Camp by Michael MacQueen; Krakau-Plaszow Main Camp by Dieter Pohl.
From Volume II Part A published 2012: Terezin by Voitech Blodig and Joseph Robert White; Warsaw by Miri Freilich and Martin Dean.
Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka, The Operation Reinhard Death Camps by Yitzhak Arad, published 1987, reprinted by permission of Indiana University Press.
Mechelen: Caserne Dossin by Laurence Schram from the Museum of Deportations and Resistance, 2006.
Westerbork by Martin van Liempt, Carmello Lisciotto and Chris Webb from the Holocaust Research Project of the Jewish Virtual Library, 2016.
Amersfoort by Sion Soeters of Holocaust Lest We Forget.
War Crimes Trials by Harry Reicher, Jewish Virtual Library, copyright Cengage Learning/Gale.
PHOTOGRAPHS
All comparison photographs are copyright After the Battle unless stated otherwise. Alamy: 39 bottom. Andrew Mollo: 14 centre, 16 all, 17 all, 72 top. Bundesarchiv: 215 top (183-H25719), 219 top (183-569237) bottom left (183-569238), 258 bottom (567-1503), 270-271 (146-1970-043-42), 274 top (101III-Duerr-053-34), 286-287 (101-760-157N-23), 312 top (101I-270-0298-14), 315 top (101I-270-0298-10), 316 top (101I-134-0791-29A), Charles E. Brown: 298 both, 301 both. Colin Partridge: 300 top right, 302 top and middle and bottom. ECPAD: 61 top, 218 bottom left and right, 220 top, 225 top left and right, 228 centre, 229 top, 230 top and bottom left, 233 top, 234 all, 235 top left and right and centre. Falsted Centre: 288 bottom, 290 both, 291 top. Gedenksttte Buchenwald: 55 top. Gedenksttte Mittelbau-Dora: 136 top, 137 top, 140 bottom, 142 top left and right, 145 bottom left, 147 top left and right. Google Earth: Images reproduced under licence. Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team: 439 top right. Ian Sayer: 299 Imperial War Museum: 118 top (BU3768), 120 top (BU3754), 121 top left (BU3796), top right (BU4025), bottom (BU4030), 122 top (BU4711), 124 bottom (BU3748), 126 top left (BU3929), centre (BU3725), 127 top (BU4245), 128 top (BU3822), bottom left (BU3726), 129 centre (BU4033), 131 bottom (BU4249), 132 top left (BU6672), bottom (BU6676), 180 top left (B10063), bottom left (B10068), 181 top (B10069), 182 top left (B10079), 183 top left (B10091), 438 top (BU9745), bottom left (BU4281), bottom right (BU4262). Instytut Pamieci Narodowej: 407 left. KZ-Gedenksttte Dachau: 14 top right, 19 top right, 21 top, 24 top. Library and Archives Canada: 118 bottom, 119 top left and bottom, 174-175 , 253 bottom. Mauthausen Memorial Archive: 162 top, 163 top left and bottom left, 164 top left. Nederlands Institutuut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie/Beeld-bank WO2: 20 top left and bottom, 27 bottom, 43 top, 45 bottom left, 46 top, 49 top left, 73 bottom, 74 top, 75 top left and bottom left, 85 top, 93 bottom right, 95 top, 96 top, 97 top, 99 top, 124 top, 154 top, 244 top, 245 top, 247 top and centre, 248 top and centre, 250 top left, 253 top and centre. Nederlands Fotomuseum (Charles Breijer): 238 top. Neuengamme Archive: 91 top left and centre, 92 top and centre left, 93 top 94 top, 97 bottom left, 98 top. Ravensbrck Archive: 103 top right, bottom left, 104 topand bottom left, 106 top and bottom. Royal Court, Guernsey: 294-295 . S. Kukula: 296 bottom. Sir Martin Gilbert: 322 top, 334 bottom, 350 top, 354 top, 408 all. Society for the Study of the ETO: 8-9 , 160-161 , 178 bottom, 183 centre, 184 both, 204-205 , 226 top left, 227 top left, 228 top left, 431 top, 433 top, 445 bottom. Solo Syndication: 108 bottom right. State Museum Auschwitz: 405 top left, 416 centre. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: 25 top, 52 centre, top, bottom, 163 top right, 164 centre, bottom, 165 top left, bottom left and right, 167 top right, 173 centre right, 197 centre, 201 top, 240 top, 273 all, 278-279 , 282 top, bottom, 283 top, bottom, 284 top, 310-311 , 317 top, 324 bottom, 365 top, bottom, 366 centre, 370 top, 372 bottom, 373 top, bottom left, 376 top left, bottom left, 377 top, 378 top, 379 top left, 381 top, bottom, 382 top left, 383 top, 384 top, 386 top, 389 top left, 392 top, 393 bottom left, 394 top, 395 top, 424 bottom, 436 all, 431 bottom left. US National Archives: 23 top, 24 centre, 26 top and bottom left, 27 top left, 28 top left and right, 30 centre, 31 top and centre, 32 bottom left, 33, 34 top and centre, 35 all, 36 top, 37 both, 56 top and bottom, 57 top, 58 top left and centre, 59 top right, 60 both, 62 top, 63 top left and bottom left, 64 bottom, 65 top left and right and centre, 66 top, 67 both, 68 all, 69 top and bottom left, 70 all, 71 all, 77 top, 78 top, 81 top right, 82 bottom left, 83 top, 84 top, 85 bottom left and right, 86 top left and bottom left, 87 top left and bottom left, 125 top, 144 both, 146 all, 147 centre, 148 top, 149 top and centre and bottom left, 150 centre, 151 top and centre, 152 top, 153 top, 168 both, 169 both, 170 top, 171 top, 173 top left and centre, 222 top left, 224 top, 225 bottom left, 226 centre left and bottom left, 227 centre and bottom left, 228 bottom left and right, 231 top, 432 all, 435 top and bottom left. USAF: 158 top, 159 bottom left. Volkswagen AG: 155 bottom, 156, 157 top, 159 bottom right. Yad Vashem: 42 bottom, 236-237 , 320 bottom, 324 top right, 325 top left, top right, 326 top left, 327 top left, top right, 328 top, 330 bottom, 331 top, 334 top, 335 top left, top right, bottom, 336 top, 340 top, 363 bottom, 380 bottom left, bottom right, 388 top, bottom, 389 bottom, 398 top, 409 bottom, 412 top, 413 top, 415 top, 416 top, 417 top left and centre, 418 top, 419 top, 420 all, 421 top and bottom left, 422 both, 423 top and right.