Death camps and concentration camps were at peaks at the time of Hitler. Both camps settled and started in the middle 1900s. Nazis used these camps to increase their power and raise sheer terror in people.
The death camp and concentration camp both killed millions of people, though they have many differences as they have a very distinct motive.
Key Takeaways
- Death camps served as extermination centers for mass killing.
- Concentration camps functioned primarily for forced labor and detention.
- Both types of camps were instrumental in the Holocaust, though their purposes differed significantly.
Death Camps vs Concentration Camps
The difference between the Death camp and the concentration camp is the motive behind the camp. The death camp was set to murder people systematically.
The Nazis used the death camp to murder the Jews. The concentration camp was to confine people and use them as slaves.
The death camps were established by the Nazis, who murdered millions of people in during world war II in Europe. The death camps were set to murder mainly Jews.
It was the mass murder of people through poisonous gas. People were transported via train to these camps and were murdered within hours of their reach.
The concentration camps were established pre-war for people titled as undesirable. In these camps, people of all nationalities were confined to using them as slaves.
And they were never treated right. 75% of people in the concentration camps died due to starvation, exhaustion, diseases, and brutal treatment. It’s a slow death.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Death Camp | Concentration Camp |
|---|---|---|
| What are they? | Camp to mass murder people. | Camp to imprison people without a trial. |
| Aim | The aim was mass execution. | The aim was to use people as slaves. |
| Priority | The priority was to kill the Jews. | The priority was labor, no nationality or religion was prioritized. |
| Established in | 1941 | 1933 |
| Death | 2.7 million people died in death camps. | A million people died in the concentration camps. |
What is Death Camp?
Death camps were mostly known as Extermination Camps. The camps were established in 1941 by the Nazis for mass murder. The priority of the camps was to kill the Jews.
Almost 2.7 million people were murdered in these camps. And it is said that 90% of them were Jews. These camps were the tools of mass execution.
Majdanek, Chelmno, Sobibor, Belzec, Treblinka, and Auschwitz-Birkenau were the first six camps. They used gas vanes or gas chambers to mass murder people.
These gases were always poisonous. Most of the Jews and others were deported from different cities via train to these camps and were murdered within hours of their arrival.
Although some of the members were used first to manage the camp and keep the information, i.e., the administrative work, later, they were murdered on the arrival of new members.
Also, the extermination camp of Auschwitz and Majdanek used a different method known as extermination through labor in which they were forced to work.
The inmates have to work 12 hours a day without proper food, water, clothing, and rest. Indeed, Nazis used these camps to kill the people who became disfigured or mentally unstable after experimenting on them in the concentration camps.
These death camps had no infrastructure other than the gas chambers, the accommodation of the guards operating the place, and the chamber to keep or sort the belongings of those who were murdered.
What is Concentration Camp?
Concentration camps were established in 1933 to confine people and use them as slaves. These camps were a prison for people from different nationalities who were forced to labor, to work 12 hours a day without sufficient living conditions.
The people were imprisoned without trial.
From 1933 to 1945, the Nazis, under the rule of Adolf Hitler, operated more than a thousand concentration camps in Germany. At one point in time, 1.65 million were reported to be slaves in these camps.
Over time, millions died within these camps due to starvation, exhaustion, diseases, and poor sanitary conditions.
Also, brutal treatment, humiliation, and torture were common inside these walls. Men, women, and children, everyone were a part of these camps, and no one was spared.
All in all, 35 to 45 people in the Hitler army people operated a concentration camp. Only a few people survived the times and walked out of these camps.
People were also used as subjects to experiment without their consent in the concentration camps. The Nazis experimented on large masses of people without anesthesia.
These medical experiments leave many men, women, and children with mental instability, traumas, physical disabilities, and even death. After experimenting and failing, they killed these people in the death camps.
Main Differences Between Death Camps And Concentration Camps
- The death camp was to kill people, while the concentration camp was to confine people and use them as slaves.
- The death camp was established in 1941, while the concentration camp was established pre-war in 1933.
- The death camp has the priority of killing Jews and to some extinct the Rome. While in the concentration camp, people of any nationality were taken.
- The death camp is a fast death, while the concentration camp is a slow death.
- In death camps, people were murdered by poisonous gases within hours they reached the camps. While on the other hand, in the concentration camps, people were first forced to labor, and most of them died due to starvation and diseases.
- https://muse.jhu.edu/book/26826
- https://www.rienner.com/title/Hitler_s_Death_Camps_The_Sanity_of_Madness
- https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WOqQYMbBXx4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=concentration+camp&ots=_s-T5pDrxl&sig=BMnyJZtBaeqJA3pW_L-oXl_6Thg
Last Updated : 13 July, 2023
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The difference in motive or aim of the concentration and death camps is evident. While death camps like Majdanek and Belzac were established to systematically murder people, extermination camps like Auschwitz and Majdanek used a different method known as extermination through labor in which they used forced labor. The inmates have to work without proper food, water, clothing, and rest.
The death camps were used as extermination centers for mass murdering of people, on the other hand, Concentration camps functioned primarily for forced labor and detention of people without a fair trial. It is significant to note that during World War II, these camps were instrumental in the Holocaust, though their purposes, as well as the motives, were different.
The priority of the Death camps was to kill the Jews, and most of the inmates in these camps were killed in gas chambers within hours of reaching the camp. Whereas the concentration camps aimed to use people as slaves and forced them to work 12 hours a day without proper food, water, clothing, and rest.
The concentration camps were established to confine people without a trial, and people were forced to labor and work in poor conditions. The death camp, on the other hand, was set to murder the Jews, and extermination took place using gas chambers and poisonous gas, through which mass murder of Jews and others were carried out. The priority was to kill Jews in the Death Camps, while in the concentration camp no nationality or religion was prioritized. They were forced to work 12 hours a day without proper food, water, clothing, and rest.
While death camps were meant to systematically murder people using gas chambers and gas vans, the concentration camps aimed to use people as slaves and forced laborers without proper living conditions. No nationality or religion was prioritized, and people of different nationalities were confined to these camps and worked without proper living conditions.
The people were imprisoned without trial in the concentration camps and were forced to labor in poor conditions, leading to millions of deaths due to starvation, exhaustion, diseases, and brutal treatment. These medical experiments leave many with mental instability, physical disabilities, and even death. They aimed to confine people and use them as slaves, and people of all nationalities were confined, worked as slaves, and subjected to gruesome medical experiments.
Death camps and Concentration camps have very different aims and were used for different purposes. The priority of death camps was to kill Jews through mass execution, whereas concentration camps aimed to use people as slaves forced to work 12 hours a day without proper living conditions.
The Death Camps and Concentration camps were both operated by the Nazis but for different purposes. The Death camps were established solely to mass murder people, primarily Jews and the Romani. Whereas concentration camps were already in operation in the early 1930s to confine and use people as slaves, although they imprisoned and killed millions of people, they have very distinct motives. The priority was to kill Jews in the Death Camps while in the concentration camp no nationality or religion was prioritized.